For Hot Pod, I wrote a recap of the year in music and podcasts. tl;dr music streaming platforms are relying on podcasts as a piece in the wider chess game of subscriber retention, & setting the content agenda for the wider podcast industry in the process.
https://hotpodnews.com/year-in-review-platforms-and-the-shape-of-programming/

there's a lot of coverage about Spotify's exclusive podcast deals with celebs. but more immediately pertinent for the music biz is how Spotify is layering podcasts on top of music to create new personalized listening experiences, with the aim of cannibalizing terrestrial radio

how Apple and Amazon Music respond to Spotify in their respective music/podcast integrations will be a major trend to watch in 2021 — again, not just about content, but also about tech (e.g. for Amazon, I think their "podcast strategy" is just a subset of their voice strategy)

also it just canNOT be understated that music seems to be an afterthought in Spotify's wider business-development and UX priorities as a company now

I personally do not think podcasts will stifle the growth of the music industry, but the power dynamics will certainly shift

and to close off this thread, a major point of contention is the skepticism around Spotify's mission of "giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art," if the majority of the company's podcast investments are going to a select few in a closed ecosystem