Spotify – ‘Esho Podcast Sikhi’

‘Esho Podcast Sikhi’ is the first creator-based program for Bengali language creators, initiated by Spotify in partnership with Patra Bharati. It was a maiden initiation for the expansion of Spotify’s reach in West Bengal by targeting aspiring podcasters and educating them. Aimed at identifying potent audio content creators and providing a global platform for them to showcase their talent, a competition was run wherein over 300 participants from across the state were trained by notable content creators and podcasters, at the end of which 3 winners were selected. All the participants created and distributed their podcasts via the Spotify tool ‘Anchor’ to display the talent they hone.

The podcast topics of this initiative ranged from storytelling and interviews to knowledge and learning, self-help and motivation. This program is to encourage creators to create podcasts and share it with the world for meaningful conversations and hope to see more podcasters emerge from the region.

As the popularity of audio streaming platforms grows in West Bengal, regional language content on Spotify is appealing more listeners from the region. Spotify original and exclusive podcasts in the Bengali language, namely, ‘Pretkotha’, ‘Sunday Suspense Bangla’, ‘Gaurav Bolchhi’, and ‘Mon Khule with Gourab’ feature consistently on the Indian podcasts chart.

The felicitation of the winners of ‘Esho Podcast Sikhi’, the first Anchor program in West Bengal, was conducted by RJ and presenter Mir Afsar Ali, multidisciplinary artist Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee, digital content creators Poulami Nag and Gourab Tapadar, actor Gaurav Chakrabarty, and Head of Marketing, Patra Bharati, Esha Chatterjee. The winners also received cash prizes of INR 1,00,000, INR 50,000 and INR 25,000 for the first, second and third positions, respectively.