Obamas Partner With Spotify For Upcoming Podcast Series

Former US President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama's production company Higher Ground is partnering with Spotify, which is seeking to diversify its content to create an exclusive podcast.

The statement did not detail specific topics the podcasts would cover or when they would become available but they said that it will cover “wide-ranging topics."

Barack Obama, 57, said that podcasts “offer an extraordinary opportunity to foster productive dialogue, make people smile and make people think, and, hopefully, bring us all a little closer together.” The idea of podcasts comes after the April announcement of the Obamas’ lengthy slate of projects with Netflix that are set to be released in the coming years. The productions include TV series, films and documentaries.

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to amplify voices that are too often ignored or silenced altogether, and through Spotify, we can share those stories with the world,” Mrs Obama, 55, said in a statement to the press on Thursday. Spotify is the world's largest music streaming service and has more than 217 million monthly active users. Spoitfy has been moving into the business of podcasting. In February, it paid USD 230 million for the respected US podcast production house Gimlet Media.

The Obamas, after leaving the Whitehouse in 2017, have been out of political spotlight. However, the deal with Spotify has been only one of the many endeavours this power couple has picked up. The chief of those have been through The Obama Foundation, which had also gathered 200 young African leaders in Johannesburg during the former president's address to "study and debate Mandela’s legacy and leadership attributes."

The duo also makes surprise visits to places such as the Dog Tag Bakery, a non-profit organization focused on teaching veterans, military spouses, and caregivers about business. Michelle LaVaughn Obama’s Becoming is an intimate and powerful memoir, in which she tells her full story in her own words – from a childhood in the South Side of Chicago to family life at The White House.

“President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are two of the world’s most important voices and it is a privilege to be working with them to identify and share stories that will inspire our global audience, which looks to Spotify for unique, breakthrough content,” Spotify Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff told the press.