Amazon broke up its podcast subsidiary Wondery earlier this month. Less than two weeks later, Taylor Swift appeared.
“I think we all know that if there is one thing that male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens,” Swift said with a wry smile on a clip of the Amazon-owned New Heights podcast released Wednesday, “it’s more of me.”
Swift has re-emerged across sports media since the announcement of her newest album, The Life of a Showgirl. She’s popped up on the NFL’s Instagram page and been a topic of discussion on ESPN’s Get Up morning show. Her fans have also boosted New Heights, hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce (the latter of whom is Swift’s boyfriend), to the top of Apple’s podcast charts.
An earlier New Heights clip announcing the album—which was also shared on Swift’s Instagram page—reportedly broke Instagram’s 24-hour view record with more than 134 million plays.
The surge comes after the podcast’s distributor, Amazon, announced a new strategy this month in which Wondery’s existing output was split between Amazon Audible and a video-first “creative services” team, where New Heights will reside. The change came with roughly 110 layoffs, according to Bloomberg.
Wondery signed the Kelces to a three-year, $100 million distribution and ad sale deal last summer, with eyes on growing its international audience and exploring live event possibilities.
“The podcast landscape has evolved significantly in the past few years, particularly with the rise of video-forward, creator-led content,” Amazon said in a statement at the time. “By making these changes, we can better support creators in monetizing their content across multiple channels, help them expand their brand IP, and simplify the process for advertisers.”
In March, Amazon added LeBron James to its podcast roster. The company still puts episodes on YouTube—in fact the New Heights site encourages fans to watch there—but Amazon is also planning to host James’ Mind the Game series on its own Prime Video service. YouTube’s ascendency has blurred the divides between television programming, social content and podcasts.
While Swift is expected to share more details about the album, including a potential release date, on the podcast first, debuting at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday, any information will quickly make its way onto social media, whether via New Heights’ channels or fan feeds. As of midday Wednesday, New Heights had 4.7 million TikTok followers and 3.2 million Instagram followers. More than 268,000 Instagram users followed the page on Tuesday alone, according to Social Blade data.
