Spotify Inks First-Look Deal With 'Star Trek' Director J.J. Abrams' New Podcast Unit

J.J. Abrams‘ production company Bad Robot is rolling out a new podcast unit and has inked an exclusive multi-year deal with Spotify, the companies announced on Wednesday.

The new division, dubbed Bad Robot Audio, is dedicated to “developing and producing original scripted and nonscripted audio content,” according to the company. As part of the aforementioned first-look deal, Bad Robot’s podcasts and various other audio content will exclusively stream on Spotify’s platform. Moreover, Christina Choi, the previous director of content partnerships at Audible, will lead the new unit.

“Given Bad Robot’s work in TV, film, games and music, podcasts was an obvious topic of conversation within the company for a long time,” Bad Robot co-CEO J.J. Abrams said in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome Christina Choi to lead the way, and to collaborate with Dawn [Ostroff, chief content and advertising business officer at Spotify] and the incredible Spotify team to bring some incredible stories to life.”

Meanwhile, Spotify has established a multitude of exclusive deals for audio content with top-charting talent, including Barack and Michelle Obama, Price Harry and Meghan Markle, Joe Rogan, Dax Shepard and Call Her Daddy‘s Alex Cooper.

“We are committed to bringing some of the world’s most respected and dynamic creators to Spotify exclusively, and we are thrilled to add Bad Robot and J.J. Abrams’ mind-bending and world building stories, alongside their hugely loyal following of dedicated fans, to our wide-ranging catalog of world-class audio talent,” Ostroff said.

Elsewhere, Spotify’s new Charts website offers a deeper look at trending music.