December 11, 2024 • 15 mins
I love episodes where I can just share the brilliance of writers who have met the change makers and thought leaders and can share their stories with us.
This episode is an article published by Fortune Magazine and linked here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alex-cooper-lands-100-million-143000863.html
The author of this article is Alexandra Sternlicht and I do not own the rights to it. I am simply reading the shared story with you.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello and welcome to the Vicki Kotris podcast.
I am your host, none other thanVicki Kotris.
I'm a retired corporate girly,two-time six-figure founder
who's obsessed with brandbuilding, sales generating and
digital marketing.
My mission with this podcast isto share the lessons I've
learned to help you make moremagic and money with your own
marketing efforts, and to feelinspired to continue on your own
(00:28):
journey as a creator andentrepreneur.
Here I'll share real lifestrategies, marketing tips and
mindset shifts that have helpedme go from cubicle to creator.
This podcast is for businessowners, creatives or those just
looking for a little moresparkle in their day.
So let's kick off this week'sepisode.
Something that I love to dofrom time to time is find a
(00:53):
great article about someone thatI admire.
That, I think is fantastic,that I think we can all learn
from because, again, we are allconnected, we all have stories
to share and there isinspiration in every single
person's story.
So someone who I admire as apodcaster, as a storyteller, who
has taken risks, who hastransformed and evolved with her
(01:18):
show and who is the number onefemale podcaster, is Alex Cooper
from Call Her Daddy.
So something that I have donebefore is read an article.
That is not something that Ihave written and I will give all
of the citations in the episodenotes and linked in the episode
(01:40):
so that you can find it andreference it yourself.
But today I will be reading anarticle that was originally
published in Fortune magazinecalled how Call Her Daddy.
Host Alex Cooper Became One ofthe World's Highest Paid
Podcasters at 30 Years Old.
(02:00):
It's Friday night in New YorkCity's meatpacking district and
Spotify's most popular femalepodcaster is cold and looking
for a place to drink.
Alexandra Cooper started herpodcast Call Her Daddy not far
from here.
She and then co-host SophiaFranklin, taped the show from
their Lower East Side apartment,chronicling their sexcapades
(02:21):
through the city.
Sophia and I walk to the subwayevery day because we're
peasants and we don't havefucking sugar daddies, cooper
said in an early episode.
Now a limo driver is trailingher around the city, proof of
just how much the 28-year-old'slife and career have changed
since she launched the podcastin 2018.
Since then, cooper hastransformed her podcaster
(02:42):
profile from sex girl her wordsto role model fans words.
She moved to LA.
She's gone solo.
Franklin left the show in Mayof 2020, and, instead of
rehashing her drunken antics,cooper's weekly episodes now
feature self-care advice andinterviews with stars like Miley
Cyrus, hailey Bieber and JuliaFox.
(03:03):
Sex still peppers her podcast,and in November she recounted
her effort to get a semen stainout of a suede headboard, but
she also tackles topics withinthe Safer for Work zeitgeist.
An October episode followedCooper as she visited a North
Carolina abortion clinic and atone point she asked a male
pro-life protester if thegovernment should mandate
(03:24):
vasectomies for men.
We're regulating the uteruses.
We could also regulate thepenises, right, cooper asks.
Listeners were riveted early onand they remain hooked.
The show's popularity earnedCooper an exclusive three-year
licensing deal with Spotify in2021, worth $60 million, a sum
that landed Cooper in the samerealm as podcast king Joe Rogan,
(03:47):
whose three and a half yearSpotify exclusive deal is
reportedly worth $200 million.
Cooper out out earns actualroyals, meghan Markle and Prince
Harry, who reportedly gotbetween $15 million and $18
million for their three yearSpotify exclusive deals in 2022.
Cooper's net worth is estimatedto be in the tens of millions.
(04:08):
The Daddy Gang is a bunch ofpredominantly women that are
excited to engage in a rollercoaster where we don't know what
happens next, but we're on theride with Alex.
Cooper tells me, referring toher fan base.
Let's talk about mental health.
Let's talk about sex.
Let's talk about dating.
Let's talk about other issues.
And let's talk about mentalhealth.
Let's talk about sex.
Let's talk about dating.
Let's talk about other issuesand let's talk about our
successes.
Since Cooper joined Spotify,exclusively, the streamer says
(04:30):
it's gotten its money's worth.
Call Her Daddy was Spotify'ssecond most popular podcast
globally in 2021, behind the JoeRogan experience, and it was
the number one podcast amongfemale listeners one podcast
among female listeners.
She's the equivalent of Oprahor an Ellen, because she's able
to touch people.
In a certain way, says Spotifychief content officer, don
Ostroff.
There's a certain ownership oftheir femininity in a different
(04:53):
way, where women feel entitledto be who they are, to be
unapologetic about their sexuallives, to be unapologetic about
their ambition and talk aboutthings that are important to
them.
Alex is truly a leader of thatmovement.
Cooper, known as Father amongfans, has remade her show and
rewritten some of the creatoreconomy rules.
(05:14):
Yes, she established a newceiling for top earning female
podcasters, but she also battledfor the licensing rights to her
content.
Call her daddy's intellectualproperty, the podcast and
related merchandise belongs toCooper alone.
According to Cooper, with theamount that I put in to call her
daddy.
There was no doubt about itthat I was going to fight quite
literally till the end for thatIP.
(05:35):
I understood what it would doto my career if I lost that.
She also understood what couldhappen if she owned it.
With the IP rights and afiercely loyal audience, cooper,
who's on the latest Fortune 40under 40 list, belongs to an
elite club of top creators whoare not limited by the platforms
that distribute their content.
She's already switched herallegiance once and, despite the
(05:57):
mammoth Spotify deal, she's notruling out doing it again.
As Cooper and I roamManhattan's West Side, she is
stopped by three adoring fanswithin 10 minutes.
I'm like freaking out, saysElla Sunshine 21.
The New York Universityundergrad tells Cooper, the
podcast helped her transitionfrom childhood to living and
dating in New York City, asCooper once did.
(06:17):
Oh my God, I love you, cooper.
Coo squeezing sunshine for aselfie.
Many creators will tell youthey didn't intend to become
celebrities.
Cooper did.
She grew up in Newtown,pennsylvania, a town of 2,000
people, and attended a $46,000 ayear prep school.
The bleach blonde soccer starstarred at Boston University's
varsity team and was amidfielder from 2013 to 2015.
(06:41):
But she wanted stardom on theinternet and majored in film and
television.
Honing video and audio editingskills she taught herself as a
teen After graduation.
Her boyfriend at the time, thenMets pitcher Noah Syndergaard,
helped her score a sales job ata magazine.
Cooper hated it and cried tearsof joy when she got laid off.
I got a job through my famousboyfriend and I was living with
(07:02):
him.
I didn't have anything of myown.
I was completely losing myself,she says.
To find herself and grow herfame, cooper started Call Her
Daddy with Franklin.
The two wanted to recreate thelocker room talk Cooper had
exchanged with her collegeteammates.
In early episodes, franklin andCooper encourage a man to stalk
a love interest, suggest uglypeople work harder during sex to
(07:22):
appease their partners andglorify abuse as affection.
At best their advice wasquestionable, at worst it was
toxic, as a fan on GansevoortStreet put it.
It was two white women talkingabout sex and sexuality who have
the analysis as deep as apuddle, says Raquel Savage,
therapist, sex worker andfounder of mental health
nonprofit Zep Wellness, whoargues that Cooper's fame is
(07:46):
largely possible because she'san attractive white woman.
The conversations they engagedin did not shift feminism in any
capacity, at least not in aproductive direction.
Cooper cringes at some of thecontent, but she has no regrets.
There was no woman out therebeing so raw, honest and calling
it what it was, cooper says thewhole time my goal was for
people's jaws to just drop andit took off.
(08:08):
Just one episode in the podcast,raunchy sex appeal, caught the
attention of dave portnoy,founder of barstool sports, the
sports media empire known for amacho tone that veers into
misogyny.
Insider published two storiesin 21 that accused portnoy of
sexual misconduct.
He denied the claims and suedinsider for defamation.
A judge dismissed the caseearlier this year.
(08:29):
In 2018, portnoy bought therights to call her daddy,
initially paying Cooper andFranklin each $75,000 a year,
plus bonuses based on downloadsand merch and branded alcohol
sales.
The show was so popular thatCooper and Franklin each earned
around $500,000 in the firstyear, according to Barstool
Portnoy and Barstool CEO EricaNardini did not respond multiple
(08:51):
requests for a comment.
The duo's relationship withBarstool Portnoy and Barstool
CEO Erica Nardini did notrespond multiple requests for a
comment.
The duo's relationship withBarstool soured as they sought
more money in the show's IPrights.
The host stopped recording forover a month as talk stalled.
Portnoy blinked first and inMay of 2020, he offered the two
ownership of the IP, $500,000starting wages and an increased
cut of merchandise sales inexchange for staying at Barstool
(09:12):
.
As Cooper recounts, she was in,but Franklin balked.
The duo parted ways as co-hosts, as roommates, as friends.
The moment Dave Portnoy waslike I will give you your IP, I
was like great, I'll do anything.
Cooper says.
Franklin tells a differentstory.
Alex decided that, instead oftrying to figure this out, I'm
just going to take this formyself and run with it, and
that's what she did, franklinsaid on a July 2022 episode of
(09:37):
her podcast, barely Famous.
She declined to comment.
Cooper stayed with Barstool foranother year and proved to be an
even bigger draw on her own,with Call Her Daddy becoming the
most popular female createdpodcast on Spotify and climbing
into the streamer's top fiveglobally.
In 2021, spotify itself camecalling, offering Cooper a $60
(09:58):
million three-year deal tolicense Call Her Daddy
exclusively.
Cooper says Amazon offered hermore, but she chose Spotify for
its promise of creative freedom.
Amazon did not return a requestfor comment.
I knew Spotify was going totreat me the same as Barstool,
if not better, because the waythey talked about their
relationships with creators wasexactly what I wanted, which is
(10:19):
do what you want.
We're here to help, says Cooper.
What Cooper wanted was to shifther podcast away from explicit
sexual content and towardstopics like mental health.
She started to pivot aftersigning with Spotify.
I got pigeonholed completely tobeing the girl that gives a
good blowjob and has great sexadvice, says Cooper, and no
doubt about it.
That's why I was so successful,but it also hurt my image.
(10:39):
Cooper's embrace of things likethemes like mental health and
long-term relationships hasn'thurt.
Call her daddy's listenership,and in 2021, it ranked number
two on Spotify.
According to Nielsen, itgarners over five million
listeners per episode on average.
The demographic of Cooper'slistener base has changed.
It was split 40-60 between menand women early on, but it's now
(11:01):
90% female, according toreports.
The loss of male listenersdidn't surprise Cooper.
The content got a little tooheavy for the men.
Cooper decides we should drinkat a club restaurant, catch,
where she once threw backseveral cucumber, matcha and
tequila detox retoxes on a firstdate.
We order around.
Be careful you get fucked up,she warns.
(11:22):
As Cooper sips her drink, agroup of 20-something white
women approaches us.
Alex Cooper, I'm going fuckingnuts right now.
I love you.
These fans are one reasonSpotify shelled out for Call Her
Daddy.
The podcast's mostly femaleaudience primarily consists of
18 to 29-year-olds.
Cooper says Listeners can onlyhear Call Her Daddy on Spotify,
(11:43):
meaning the show draws thecoveted demographic to the
platform.
Those top-end exclusives aremost important, says Mark
Zuchwitz, senior analyst atBenchmark, who lists Call Her
Daddy and the Joe Roganexperience as examples.
If these podcasts get you intoSpotify, then you get wowed by
the curation and how strongtheir playlists are,
particularly relative to AppleMusic.
(12:04):
You're unlikely to ever leave.
Today, over 4.7 millionpodcasts live on Spotify alone.
According to Nielsen, anestimated 66 million American
adults tune into podcasts on amonthly basis, up 38 percent in
the past two years.
Spotify charges brands fivetimes more to advertise via
exclusives like Call Her Daddy,since audiences of such content
(12:26):
are sales goldmines, enormouslyloyal with well-defined
interests, zugowitz says Spotifystock cratered to a record low
in November and it laid offstaff at in-house podcast
production houses Gimlet andParcast.
The turmoil, however, isunlikely to hurt high-profile
hosts like Cooper.
In fact, she and her peers maybenefit as the streamer
(12:49):
concentrates resources on buzzyexclusives, says Ariel Shapiro,
lead reporter at Hot Pod, anindustry publication.
Shows like Call Her Daddy thatdraw large and loyal
listenerships are helpingSpotify wean itself off the
music business, where it spendsenormous sums of licensed
content from record labels Inpublic.
Cooper is affable and graciouswith her fans Back in her dad
pad her name for her airy WestHollywood home where she books,
(13:12):
records and edits her podcast.
Her competitive nature pokesthrough in the stories she
shares In baggy, mismatchedsweats and no makeup.
Cooper recalls one of hershow's most viral moments when
actress Julia Fox called herselfJosh Safdie's muse in Uncut
Gems, pronouncing the film titlewith a valley girl lilt.
The audio clip has been used inover 51,000 TikToks,
(13:34):
accumulating millions of viewsand likes.
In edits, one of Cooper's teammembers suggested that she cut
the line.
She cites her decision to keepit as the reason she's so
hands-on.
I know Call Her Daddy betterthan anyone.
She says answering fuck no tothe question of whether she'll
ever have another co-host.
Her sole control of the podcastmeans she can decide its future.
She's in talks with Spotify topioneer tools for listeners to
(13:57):
interact with her content viathe platform.
That said, she's not ruling outbuilding her own podcast
platform or taking Call HerDaddy elsewhere when her Spotify
deal expires in 2024.
Owning the podcast IP gives hermore options than other
creators have.
She's already won the war thatsome artists have lost but most
never fight.
Taylor Swift famously recordedthree studio albums after
(14:19):
failing to retrieve her catalogfrom her former label, big
Machine Records, and music mogulScooter Braun.
Cooper understands the value ofwhat she's putting into the
world, says Philippa Longard,executive director of Columbia
Law School's Curation Center forLaw, media and Arts.
I think that's a wonderfulexample for young artists.
Cooper's medium and deeplypersonal approach position her
(14:40):
for longevity.
Listeners engage in more activelistening with podcasts than
with music, deepening theirconnection to the content, says
Jonah Berger, marketingprofessor at Wharton School and
author of Contagious why ThingsCatch On.
For now Cooper is focused onmaking her podcast number one in
the world.
I'm never going to putsomething over.
Call Her Daddy, I'm never goingto just do something for a
(15:01):
paycheck, she says.
If I don't get another deal atthe end of this deal, I'm going
to keep creating.
Don't get another deal at theend of this deal, I'm going to
keep creating.
I'm here for the long game.
This article appears in theDecember 22 January 23 issue of
fortune magazine with theheadline the conversation
Alexandra Cooper.
This article was written byAlexandra Sternlicht for fortune
(15:23):
magazine, and an update of fromAugustst 2024 says this article
was originally published inNovember of 22, a year after
Cooper inked a $60 millionexclusive deal with Spotify.
In August of 24, cooper signeda new three-year deal,
reportedly worth $100 million,to take Call Her Daddy show and
podcast collective to Sirius XM,starting in 2025.
Hello and welcome to the Vicki Kotris podcast.
I am your host, none other thanVicki Kotris.
I'm a retired corporate girly,two-time six-figure founder
who's obsessed with brandbuilding, sales generating and
digital marketing.
My mission with this podcast isto share the lessons I've
learned to help you make moremagic and money with your own
marketing efforts, and to feelinspired to continue on your own
(00:28):
journey as a creator andentrepreneur.
Here I'll share real lifestrategies, marketing tips and
mindset shifts that have helpedme go from cubicle to creator.
This podcast is for businessowners, creatives or those just
looking for a little moresparkle in their day.
So let's kick off this week'sepisode.
Something that I love to dofrom time to time is find a
(00:53):
great article about someone thatI admire.
That, I think is fantastic,that I think we can all learn
from because, again, we are allconnected, we all have stories
to share and there isinspiration in every single
person's story.
So someone who I admire as apodcaster, as a storyteller, who
has taken risks, who hastransformed and evolved with her
(01:18):
show and who is the number onefemale podcaster, is Alex Cooper
from Call Her Daddy.
So something that I have donebefore is read an article.
That is not something that Ihave written and I will give all
of the citations in the episodenotes and linked in the episode
(01:40):
so that you can find it andreference it yourself.
But today I will be reading anarticle that was originally
published in Fortune magazinecalled how Call Her Daddy.
Host Alex Cooper Became One ofthe World's Highest Paid
Podcasters at 30 Years Old.
(02:00):
It's Friday night in New YorkCity's meatpacking district and
Spotify's most popular femalepodcaster is cold and looking
for a place to drink.
Alexandra Cooper started herpodcast Call Her Daddy not far
from here.
She and then co-host SophiaFranklin, taped the show from
their Lower East Side apartment,chronicling their sexcapades
(02:21):
through the city.
Sophia and I walk to the subwayevery day because we're
peasants and we don't havefucking sugar daddies, cooper
said in an early episode.
Now a limo driver is trailingher around the city, proof of
just how much the 28-year-old'slife and career have changed
since she launched the podcastin 2018.
Since then, cooper hastransformed her podcaster
(02:42):
profile from sex girl her wordsto role model fans words.
She moved to LA.
She's gone solo.
Franklin left the show in Mayof 2020, and, instead of
rehashing her drunken antics,cooper's weekly episodes now
feature self-care advice andinterviews with stars like Miley
Cyrus, hailey Bieber and JuliaFox.
(03:03):
Sex still peppers her podcast,and in November she recounted
her effort to get a semen stainout of a suede headboard, but
she also tackles topics withinthe Safer for Work zeitgeist.
An October episode followedCooper as she visited a North
Carolina abortion clinic and atone point she asked a male
pro-life protester if thegovernment should mandate
(03:24):
vasectomies for men.
We're regulating the uteruses.
We could also regulate thepenises, right, cooper asks.
Listeners were riveted early onand they remain hooked.
The show's popularity earnedCooper an exclusive three-year
licensing deal with Spotify in2021, worth $60 million, a sum
that landed Cooper in the samerealm as podcast king Joe Rogan,
(03:47):
whose three and a half yearSpotify exclusive deal is
reportedly worth $200 million.
Cooper out out earns actualroyals, meghan Markle and Prince
Harry, who reportedly gotbetween $15 million and $18
million for their three yearSpotify exclusive deals in 2022.
Cooper's net worth is estimatedto be in the tens of millions.
(04:08):
The Daddy Gang is a bunch ofpredominantly women that are
excited to engage in a rollercoaster where we don't know what
happens next, but we're on theride with Alex.
Cooper tells me, referring toher fan base.
Let's talk about mental health.
Let's talk about sex.
Let's talk about dating.
Let's talk about other issues.
And let's talk about mentalhealth.
Let's talk about sex.
Let's talk about dating.
Let's talk about other issuesand let's talk about our
successes.
Since Cooper joined Spotify,exclusively, the streamer says
(04:30):
it's gotten its money's worth.
Call Her Daddy was Spotify'ssecond most popular podcast
globally in 2021, behind the JoeRogan experience, and it was
the number one podcast amongfemale listeners one podcast
among female listeners.
She's the equivalent of Oprahor an Ellen, because she's able
to touch people.
In a certain way, says Spotifychief content officer, don
Ostroff.
There's a certain ownership oftheir femininity in a different
(04:53):
way, where women feel entitledto be who they are, to be
unapologetic about their sexuallives, to be unapologetic about
their ambition and talk aboutthings that are important to
them.
Alex is truly a leader of thatmovement.
Cooper, known as Father amongfans, has remade her show and
rewritten some of the creatoreconomy rules.
(05:14):
Yes, she established a newceiling for top earning female
podcasters, but she also battledfor the licensing rights to her
content.
Call her daddy's intellectualproperty, the podcast and
related merchandise belongs toCooper alone.
According to Cooper, with theamount that I put in to call her
daddy.
There was no doubt about itthat I was going to fight quite
literally till the end for thatIP.
(05:35):
I understood what it would doto my career if I lost that.
She also understood what couldhappen if she owned it.
With the IP rights and afiercely loyal audience, cooper,
who's on the latest Fortune 40under 40 list, belongs to an
elite club of top creators whoare not limited by the platforms
that distribute their content.
She's already switched herallegiance once and, despite the
(05:57):
mammoth Spotify deal, she's notruling out doing it again.
As Cooper and I roamManhattan's West Side, she is
stopped by three adoring fanswithin 10 minutes.
I'm like freaking out, saysElla Sunshine 21.
The New York Universityundergrad tells Cooper, the
podcast helped her transitionfrom childhood to living and
dating in New York City, asCooper once did.
(06:17):
Oh my God, I love you, cooper.
Coo squeezing sunshine for aselfie.
Many creators will tell youthey didn't intend to become
celebrities.
Cooper did.
She grew up in Newtown,pennsylvania, a town of 2,000
people, and attended a $46,000 ayear prep school.
The bleach blonde soccer starstarred at Boston University's
varsity team and was amidfielder from 2013 to 2015.
(06:41):
But she wanted stardom on theinternet and majored in film and
television.
Honing video and audio editingskills she taught herself as a
teen After graduation.
Her boyfriend at the time, thenMets pitcher Noah Syndergaard,
helped her score a sales job ata magazine.
Cooper hated it and cried tearsof joy when she got laid off.
I got a job through my famousboyfriend and I was living with
(07:02):
him.
I didn't have anything of myown.
I was completely losing myself,she says.
To find herself and grow herfame, cooper started Call Her
Daddy with Franklin.
The two wanted to recreate thelocker room talk Cooper had
exchanged with her collegeteammates.
In early episodes, franklin andCooper encourage a man to stalk
a love interest, suggest uglypeople work harder during sex to
(07:22):
appease their partners andglorify abuse as affection.
At best their advice wasquestionable, at worst it was
toxic, as a fan on GansevoortStreet put it.
It was two white women talkingabout sex and sexuality who have
the analysis as deep as apuddle, says Raquel Savage,
therapist, sex worker andfounder of mental health
nonprofit Zep Wellness, whoargues that Cooper's fame is
(07:46):
largely possible because she'san attractive white woman.
The conversations they engagedin did not shift feminism in any
capacity, at least not in aproductive direction.
Cooper cringes at some of thecontent, but she has no regrets.
There was no woman out therebeing so raw, honest and calling
it what it was, cooper says thewhole time my goal was for
people's jaws to just drop andit took off.
(08:08):
Just one episode in the podcast,raunchy sex appeal, caught the
attention of dave portnoy,founder of barstool sports, the
sports media empire known for amacho tone that veers into
misogyny.
Insider published two storiesin 21 that accused portnoy of
sexual misconduct.
He denied the claims and suedinsider for defamation.
A judge dismissed the caseearlier this year.
(08:29):
In 2018, portnoy bought therights to call her daddy,
initially paying Cooper andFranklin each $75,000 a year,
plus bonuses based on downloadsand merch and branded alcohol
sales.
The show was so popular thatCooper and Franklin each earned
around $500,000 in the firstyear, according to Barstool
Portnoy and Barstool CEO EricaNardini did not respond multiple
(08:51):
requests for a comment.
The duo's relationship withBarstool Portnoy and Barstool
CEO Erica Nardini did notrespond multiple requests for a
comment.
The duo's relationship withBarstool soured as they sought
more money in the show's IPrights.
The host stopped recording forover a month as talk stalled.
Portnoy blinked first and inMay of 2020, he offered the two
ownership of the IP, $500,000starting wages and an increased
cut of merchandise sales inexchange for staying at Barstool
(09:12):
.
As Cooper recounts, she was in,but Franklin balked.
The duo parted ways as co-hosts, as roommates, as friends.
The moment Dave Portnoy waslike I will give you your IP, I
was like great, I'll do anything.
Cooper says.
Franklin tells a differentstory.
Alex decided that, instead oftrying to figure this out, I'm
just going to take this formyself and run with it, and
that's what she did, franklinsaid on a July 2022 episode of
(09:37):
her podcast, barely Famous.
She declined to comment.
Cooper stayed with Barstool foranother year and proved to be an
even bigger draw on her own,with Call Her Daddy becoming the
most popular female createdpodcast on Spotify and climbing
into the streamer's top fiveglobally.
In 2021, spotify itself camecalling, offering Cooper a $60
(09:58):
million three-year deal tolicense Call Her Daddy
exclusively.
Cooper says Amazon offered hermore, but she chose Spotify for
its promise of creative freedom.
Amazon did not return a requestfor comment.
I knew Spotify was going totreat me the same as Barstool,
if not better, because the waythey talked about their
relationships with creators wasexactly what I wanted, which is
(10:19):
do what you want.
We're here to help, says Cooper.
What Cooper wanted was to shifther podcast away from explicit
sexual content and towardstopics like mental health.
She started to pivot aftersigning with Spotify.
I got pigeonholed completely tobeing the girl that gives a
good blowjob and has great sexadvice, says Cooper, and no
doubt about it.
That's why I was so successful,but it also hurt my image.
(10:39):
Cooper's embrace of things likethemes like mental health and
long-term relationships hasn'thurt.
Call her daddy's listenership,and in 2021, it ranked number
two on Spotify.
According to Nielsen, itgarners over five million
listeners per episode on average.
The demographic of Cooper'slistener base has changed.
It was split 40-60 between menand women early on, but it's now
(11:01):
90% female, according toreports.
The loss of male listenersdidn't surprise Cooper.
The content got a little tooheavy for the men.
Cooper decides we should drinkat a club restaurant, catch,
where she once threw backseveral cucumber, matcha and
tequila detox retoxes on a firstdate.
We order around.
Be careful you get fucked up,she warns.
(11:22):
As Cooper sips her drink, agroup of 20-something white
women approaches us.
Alex Cooper, I'm going fuckingnuts right now.
I love you.
These fans are one reasonSpotify shelled out for Call Her
Daddy.
The podcast's mostly femaleaudience primarily consists of
18 to 29-year-olds.
Cooper says Listeners can onlyhear Call Her Daddy on Spotify,
(11:43):
meaning the show draws thecoveted demographic to the
platform.
Those top-end exclusives aremost important, says Mark
Zuchwitz, senior analyst atBenchmark, who lists Call Her
Daddy and the Joe Roganexperience as examples.
If these podcasts get you intoSpotify, then you get wowed by
the curation and how strongtheir playlists are,
particularly relative to AppleMusic.
(12:04):
You're unlikely to ever leave.
Today, over 4.7 millionpodcasts live on Spotify alone.
According to Nielsen, anestimated 66 million American
adults tune into podcasts on amonthly basis, up 38 percent in
the past two years.
Spotify charges brands fivetimes more to advertise via
exclusives like Call Her Daddy,since audiences of such content
(12:26):
are sales goldmines, enormouslyloyal with well-defined
interests, zugowitz says Spotifystock cratered to a record low
in November and it laid offstaff at in-house podcast
production houses Gimlet andParcast.
The turmoil, however, isunlikely to hurt high-profile
hosts like Cooper.
In fact, she and her peers maybenefit as the streamer
(12:49):
concentrates resources on buzzyexclusives, says Ariel Shapiro,
lead reporter at Hot Pod, anindustry publication.
Shows like Call Her Daddy thatdraw large and loyal
listenerships are helpingSpotify wean itself off the
music business, where it spendsenormous sums of licensed
content from record labels Inpublic.
Cooper is affable and graciouswith her fans Back in her dad
pad her name for her airy WestHollywood home where she books,
(13:12):
records and edits her podcast.
Her competitive nature pokesthrough in the stories she
shares In baggy, mismatchedsweats and no makeup.
Cooper recalls one of hershow's most viral moments when
actress Julia Fox called herselfJosh Safdie's muse in Uncut
Gems, pronouncing the film titlewith a valley girl lilt.
The audio clip has been used inover 51,000 TikToks,
(13:34):
accumulating millions of viewsand likes.
In edits, one of Cooper's teammembers suggested that she cut
the line.
She cites her decision to keepit as the reason she's so
hands-on.
I know Call Her Daddy betterthan anyone.
She says answering fuck no tothe question of whether she'll
ever have another co-host.
Her sole control of the podcastmeans she can decide its future.
She's in talks with Spotify topioneer tools for listeners to
(13:57):
interact with her content viathe platform.
That said, she's not ruling outbuilding her own podcast
platform or taking Call HerDaddy elsewhere when her Spotify
deal expires in 2024.
Owning the podcast IP gives hermore options than other
creators have.
She's already won the war thatsome artists have lost but most
never fight.
Taylor Swift famously recordedthree studio albums after
(14:19):
failing to retrieve her catalogfrom her former label, big
Machine Records, and music mogulScooter Braun.
Cooper understands the value ofwhat she's putting into the
world, says Philippa Longard,executive director of Columbia
Law School's Curation Center forLaw, media and Arts.
I think that's a wonderfulexample for young artists.
Cooper's medium and deeplypersonal approach position her
(14:40):
for longevity.
Listeners engage in more activelistening with podcasts than
with music, deepening theirconnection to the content, says
Jonah Berger, marketingprofessor at Wharton School and
author of Contagious why ThingsCatch On.
For now Cooper is focused onmaking her podcast number one in
the world.
I'm never going to putsomething over.
Call Her Daddy, I'm never goingto just do something for a
(15:01):
paycheck, she says.
If I don't get another deal atthe end of this deal, I'm going
to keep creating.
Don't get another deal at theend of this deal, I'm going to
keep creating.
I'm here for the long game.
This article appears in theDecember 22 January 23 issue of
fortune magazine with theheadline the conversation
Alexandra Cooper.
This article was written byAlexandra Sternlicht for fortune
(15:23):
magazine, and an update of fromAugustst 2024 says this article
was originally published inNovember of 22, a year after
Cooper inked a $60 millionexclusive deal with Spotify.
In August of 24, cooper signeda new three-year deal,
reportedly worth $100 million,to take Call Her Daddy show and
podcast collective to Sirius XM,starting in 2025.
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