Luminary announced that Rishi Malhotra – co-founder and former CEO of JioSaavn, and Vice President at HBO – joins Luminary as CEO to shape its new vision as the premiere audio platform for the world’s most thoughtful talent, including Dave Chapelle. The company also announced Pilot Boy Productions, owned by Chapelle, has invested in Luminary and joined Luminary’s Board of Directors with its seat filled by Ben Jealous. Two additional new members will also join Jealous on Luminary’s Board of Directors – Heather Hiles and Mara Buxbam.

“Luminary is a one-of-a-kind company that is becoming the home for artists with a unique point of view, from Dave Chapelle and Roxane Gay to Russel Brand, Lena Dunham, and Guy Raz. We are developing new original programming with particular focus on the luminaries of music, sports, and comedy,” said Rishi Malhotra, Luminary CEO.

“We are going beyond subscriptions to deliver products that connect that connect fans more uniquely to creators. I’m honored to work with the exceptional team and talent partners at the company,” said Malhotra. “In my view, we are at a crossroads of shaping new media that entertains, educates, and elevates us. The Midnight Miracle is an example of a new audio format in every way. It’s not just podcasts anymore. It’s Luminary.”

Malhotra, who was named in Rolling Stone’s Future 25 in 2021 and Billboard’s 2021 International Power Players, founded by India’s premiere music streaming service, in 2008. Malhotra developed projects with U2, Beyonce, Nas, Marshmello, and many others. He drove company growth that created $1.5 billion in enterprise value and resulted in a merger with telco giant Jio, creating JioSaavn in 2018. Prior to funding Saavn, Malhotra served as a Vice President at HBO, and from 2003 to 2008 he built and launched HBO On Demand, and also worked on the critically-acclaimed HBO Series The Wire.

Chapelle, who along with yasiin bey and Talib Kweli, is a creator and executive producer of the acclaimed Luminary Original show The Midnight Miracle, also executive produces additional audio content at Luminary.

“I chose Luminary because they value artists and share my vision for re-imagining audio content. The Midnight Miracle and our unique format is changing the podcast experience,” said Chapelle. “At Luminary, we are creating an authentic space for inspired artists to develop and share their original content,” he added.

“We are honored that this world-class group of leaders are joining to push Luminary into our next stage of growth,” said Matt Sacks, Luminary Executive Chairman. “Rishi has proven his ability to build a differentiated audio streaming company with unique creative sensibilities. We are equally proud to have a creator partner like Dave Chapelle demonstrating his belief in our vision by investing in Luminary’s future,” he added.

After serving as Luminary’s CEO for more than two years, Simon Sutton informed the Board at the end of 2021 that he would be leaving his position. Sutton will remain on Luminary’s Board of Directors.

“We are grateful for Simon’s leadership and are delighted he will remain on as Luminary’s team as a member of our Board,” added Sacks.

Luminary, a subscription podcast network, announced that it is expanding service to four new countries, bringing its original content to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland listeners for the first time. This move will substantially grow the number of international locations where Luminary is offered (currently CA, UK, AU, SA, IE, and NZ) and expand its reach to 27 million residents in the Nordic region.

“We are proud to offer Luminary’s original content from our talented creators to the Nordics, where podcast listenership continues to rapidly grow and ranks among the highest in the world,” said Luminary CEO Simon Sutton.

The Nordic region is among the top 15 countries of podcast consumers according to Reuters Digital News Report – 35% of Sweden residents listen to podcasts (ranked #4 and tied with the U.S.), as do 31% of residents in Norway, 26% in Finland, and 24% in Denmark. According to Forbes, Sweden actually has more podcast listeners per capita than the U.S., and The Digital News Report indicates that more than 50% of Sweden residents under the age of 35 have listened to a podcast.

Since launching in April of 2019, Luminary’s podcast content has had a strong positive reaction from critics and listeners, as Luminary creators were honored with 2019 Podcast of the Year Awards from AdWeek and named in 2019 “best podcasts” and “best podcast episodes” lists by The Atlantic, Time, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Marie Claire, IndieWire, O The Oprah Magazine, Esquire, Vulture, The AV Club and Good Housekeeping.

These moves are also part of Luminary’s continued growth and evolution in the dynamic podcast market, where in the United States, 90 million Americans have listened to a podcast in the last 30 days according to Edison Research and Triton Digital.

Luminary Media announced that it has expanded service to three new countries, bringing its original content to South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand listeners. This move will double the number of international locations where Luminary is offered (currently CA, UK, AU) and will expand its reach to Africa for the first time.

“We are proud to offer original content from our talented creators to South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand, where podcast listenership continues to rapidly grow. With Trevor Noah, Celeste Barber, and Russell Brand, the Luminary network is offering quality content that we know listeners in these countries will want to hear,” said Luminary CEO Simon Sutton.

“We are particularly proud to bring Trevor Noah’s show to his home in South Africa, where there has been high demand for access to his important and insightful conversations” said Matt Sacks, Luminary Founder and Executive Chairman.

Each of the three countries is seeing strong growth in podcast listenership, with more than 4 million monthly podcast listeners across the countries based on estimates from Reuters. Luminary offers all listeners a seven-day free trial of Luminary Premium. After the free trial, subscription price will be: Ireland (Monthly: €4.99/mo, Annual: €34.99), South Africa (Monthly: R34.99/mo, Annual: R249.99), and New Zealand (Monthly: NZ$7.99/mo. Annual: NZ$58.99). Luminary began to go live in these countries the week of February 17th.

Luminary Media has announced that Richard Plepler, founder of Eden Productions and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HBO, has joined Luminary’s Board of Directors. The company plans to make additional board announcements soon.

“Under Richard’s leadership, HBO set the gold standard for quality, bringing premium content across genres. I’ve seen firsthand Richard’s invaluable impact on a premium content business, and we welcome his strategic partnership as we endeavor to support creators, curate content for listeners, and drive Luminary’s business forward,” said Luminary CEO Simon Sutton.

“Podcasting has become such an exciting and dynamic medium for great storytelling,” said Plepler. “Luminary’s vision as a jewel box of premium podcast content where creators are enabled to do their best work and subscribers can consistently discover quality will make it easier for consumers to navigate an incredibly crowded space. I am thrilled to join the board, partner with Simon and the Luminary team, and help realize this vision.”

“Richard pioneered the concept of ‘curated excellence,’ and his deep content expertise aligns perfectly with Luminary’s approach to world-class talent like Trevor Noah, Lena Dunham, and Leon Neyfakh, as well as Luminary’s business model. We are fortunate to have him on the team,” said Matt Sacks, Luminary Founder and Executive Chairman.

Richard Plepler most recently served as Chairman and CEO of Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO), a position he held from 2013- 2019, culminating 28 years at the company. Prior, Plepler was the Co-President of HBO from 2007 – 2012. Earlier this month, Plepler announced the creation of Eden Productions, a film and television production company with a five-year exclusive deal with Apple TV+.

If you were interested in getting one of Luminary’s Plans, but didn’t quite have the money for it before – now may be your chance. They have lowered the price of their Monthly Plan and have created an Annual plan.

Luminary’s Monthly Plan is $4.99/month after the 7-day free trial ends. Those who select this plan will be auto-billed monthly. You can cancel at any time. HotPod reported that the price of the Monthly Plan used to be $7.99.

Luminary’s brand new Annual Plan is $2.99/month after the 7-day free trial is over. Those who select this plan will be auto-billed annually. The first year will cost $34.99.

Those who aren’t interested in either of those two plans can continue with the free limited account. The free plan allows you to access 500,000+ shows you already listen to and love. You also get personalized recommendations that learn your listening style. The free plan includes ads

Some have asked Luminary why they are hearing ads if they are subscribed to a Premium plan. Luminary explains that you are hearing advertising in widely available podcasts that are available to all users of the Luminary app. According to Luminary, the advertising is controlled by the creators of the podcasts.

Luminary Media announced that Simon Sutton, former President and Chief Revenue Officer of HBO, has joined Luminary as CEO. Matt Sacks, who founded Luminary in 2018, will serve as Executive Chairman of Luminary.

This comes after a series of personnel changes at Luminary. The company debuted in April of 2019. In August of 2019, co-founder Joe Purzycki stepped down as Chief Strategy Officer. Luminary replaced Joe Purzycki with Jeff Saunders, who is now Luminary’s Chief Product Officer. Previously, Jeff Saunders was the VP of Product and Technology at Jet.com.

“It is hard to imagine a more perfect, positive, and transformative development for Luminary,” Sacks said. “Simon is a seasoned media executive who at one point or another ran every functional area of one of the most successful subscription content businesses in the world, consistently growing subscribers, revenue, and profit.”

In addition to successfully recruiting Sutton, Luminary also announced that it had raised an additional $30 million in the first closing of a Series C financing from existing and new investors.

Luminary was founded by Matt Sacks in 2018 with backing from NEA. NEA is a global venture capital fund with $20 billion in assets under management, where Sacks previously was a Principle focused on consumer internet investments.

Sutton’s deep expertise aligns perfectly with Luminary’s approach to world-class talent like Trevor Noah, Conan O’Brian’s Team Coco, Lena Dunham, and Leon Neyfakh, as well as Luminary’s business model.

Earlier this month, The Verge reported that Luminary has been going through some changes. Luminary debuted in April of 2019. Two months after that launch, co-founder Joe Purzycki stepped down as chief strategy officer.

Luminary replaced Joe Purzycki with Jeff Saunders, who is now Luminary’s chief product officer. Previously, Jeff Saunders was the VP of product and technology at Jet.com.

Luminary has gotten itself into a bit of controversy in part by not making what they were doing absolutely clear. In April of this year, Podnews reported that Luminary had been running a proxy server for podcasts, breaking podcast analytics and making dynamic ad insertion difficult.

Podnews also stated that Luminary had been criticized for removing links in show notes, including the removal of donation links, and truncating show notes. According to Podnews, Luminary also removed all main website links for podcasts and was incorrectly crediting show creators. The Verge points out that both of those issues have since been fixed.

The Verge also noted that canceling a Luminary subscription is a confusing process. People who have tried to delete their accounts discovered that Luminary requires them to switch to a free account. This means that people who no longer want a Luminary account are forced to still have an account – one that does not give them access to Luminary’s exclusive shows.

Personally, I find that Luminary’s decision to prevent people from being able to entirely leave Luminary troubling. Healthy companies allow disgruntled customers to separate when they choose to. It is especially disturbing from a company that started adding podcasts to its platform without asking the podcasters for permission to do so.