Photo Credit: Spotify
Spotify has inked an exclusive multimillion-dollar deal with the Australian podcast comedy duo Ryan Jon Dunn and Toni Lodge.
In what is believed to be a multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract, the deal positions Melbourne’s Toni & Ryan in the Spotify “originals and exclusives” category alongside top-rated podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience. Other notable podcasts in the same stable are Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archwell Audio, and former US first lady Michelle Obama’s podcast.
Toni & Ryan only launched last August, but the Australian duo has already amassed a sizeable audience. The podcast saw 1.3 million downloads in February alone, and it reached 5 million total downloads in March. In early 2022 it was in the top 10 podcasts on Spotify, while on Apple Podcasts, it reached the top 20.
Dunn and Lodge self-produce the podcast and write all the material themselves. The show is “decidedly Australian,” but only a third of its listeners are from Australia. The majority are from the US and Britain, primarily due to the show’s origins on the crowdfunding platform Patreon.
“People have supported us, people have listened to us, people send us the loveliest messages, it’s unbelievable,” Dunn tells Western Australia Today. “We wouldn’t be in a position to live our best lives without them.”
Hosting the podcast was previously a side hustle for both presenters. Lodge has a background in sound engineering and worked in the corporate sector, while Dunn was a radio host for Melbourne’s KIIS FM. With the Spotify deal, both will now work on the podcast full-time.
Toni & Ryan will move exclusively to Spotify on August 8, where it will be available for free. At that time, the show will no longer be available through other podcasting platforms. The duo will also produce video episodes of the show that fans can watch on the Spotify app.