AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 12: Oren Rosenbaum speaks onstage at"Beyond Podcasting: How Ashley Flowers Redefined True Crime Storytelling: during the 2023 SXSW Conference and Festivals at Austin Convention Center on March 12, 2023 in Austin, Texas. , Photographer: Nicola Gell/Getty Images for SXSW
“His reaction was kind of like, ‘Podcasting? Who’s going to f---ing listen to a podcast?’” Rosenbaum recalled recently. “‘Why do that instead of watching Netflix?’” Despite some initial doubts, Zimmer soon gave Rosenbaum his blessing.A decade later, podcasting has ballooned into a sprawling industry that generates nearly $2 billion a year in annual revenue — and Rosenbaum, 34, now the head of audio at UTA, sits in the middle of it.
“When we go to market with something, when we know it’s a big thing and successful from an audience standpoint, we are very aggressive,” Rosenbaum said. “In tough times, some of those deals that we were very aggressive with don’t end up being successful for the company that we’re making that deal with. My group and my aspect of the industry are not immune to that.”
Before long, everyone in podcastland knew of Oren — no last name necessary. Bald headed and reliably dressed in black, he was low-key and ubiquitous, stolid yet playful. To this day, he likes to text using the invisible ink feature on iMessage to blur words until the receiver swipes on them. At parties, he slurped down carrot juice as he schmoozed.
Paydays escalated from there. Spotify Technology SA was just beginning to invest heavily in original podcasts as a way of differentiating its slate of programming from other music streaming services. In 2018, Rosenbaum signed his client, comedian Amy Schumer, to one of Spotify’s first exclusive deals. In the years that followed, the platform would go on to spend over $1 billion on acquisitions and licenses.
Recently, a number of disputes over failed ventures have broken out and spilled into public, attracting sharper media scrutiny. Other prominent companies, like Audacy, prematurely exited contracts.