How Headspace used video to supercharge a 15% RSS growth

Breaking the "audio-only" ceiling

Since its launch in 2020, Radio Headspace has surpassed 150 million downloads. However, by 2023, the production team identified several critical business challenges:

• Stagnant Discovery: Marketing audio-only RSS feeds was becoming prohibitively expensive and difficult to scale compared to the data-rich environment of YouTube.
• Increased Competition: The field had become crowded with "titans" of the industry who invested heavily in video-first marketing.‍
• Operational Friction: The previous strategy of shipping microphones and booking studios was too costly and slow for the pace required.

The solution: A unified production pipeline

Headspace integrated Riverside to serve as the operational engine for their transition to video. This allowed the team to experiment with new formats without rebuilding their entire infrastructure.

The impact: Faster production, broader reach

With a faster and more reliable workflow, Headspace could experiment more intentionally. The team began testing topics like ADHD and neurodivergence, which immediately resonated and “overindexed” with audiences — directly informing future guest selection and editorial direction.

With Riverside in place, Headspace dramatically improved efficiency and scale:

• Interview episodes saw a 10–15% lift in RSS downloads
• Hour-long recordings were edited in about one hour, matching audio-only workflows
• The team produced 15–20 video episodes in the first year
• The show successfully expanded into YouTube-native discovery

Together, these gains helped Headspace move beyond the limitations of audio-only distribution and confidently scale a video-first strategy. By simplifying production and removing operational friction, the team was able to grow faster, experiment more freely, and meet audiences where discovery now happens — without sacrificing quality or focus.