Weirdly enough, Spotify's goal is to scoop up all the money that's currently going directly to podcasters by making the advertising market more efficient.

They want to enjoy the type of monopoly that Facebook/Google/Amazon currently have online, except in the podcast space.

Oh well, podcasts had a good run.

Switch to Napster. I did, for this reason, and I'm very happy I did.

How does that help prevent podcasts going Spotify-exclusive and ceasing to be podcasts?

By ceasing to give Spotify the money they're using to buy them out, and declining to allow them to be a central platform monopolist.

It never gets old, seeing people assume I must necessarily use the same monopolistic platforms I despise for their constant encroachment upon and enclosure of what were once cultural commons, or that uncoordinated individual action can possibly suffice to counterbalance such concentrations of power.

As long as it remains useful to preserve the appearance of competition in the streaming audio market, Napster will continue to exist. Enjoy it while it lasts.