By purchasing Gimlet and Anchor, Spotify gains a stable of popular, professionally-produced podcasts as well as the means for anyone with a smartphone to record and share a podcast, covering a broad spectrum of the podcasting world with just two acquisitions.Įk believes Spotify can bring the same value to podcasting that the company has brought to music: Spotify has grown quickly in the two years that it has offered podcasts and now has the second largest podcast platform behind Apple. We have also seen that by having unique programming, people who previously thought Spotify was not right for them will give it a try.Īlthough the Gimlet purchase comes as no surprise following days of speculation, it’s fair to say no one saw the Anchor deal coming. Our podcast users spend almost twice the time on the platform, and spend even more time listening to music. And, more importantly, users love having podcasts as a part of their Spotify experience. In just shy of two years, we have become the second-biggest podcasting platform. The format is really evolving and while podcasting is still a relatively small business today, I see incredible growth potential for the space and for Spotify in particular. There are endless ways to tell stories that serve to entertain, to educate, to challenge, to inspire, or to bring us together and break down cultural barriers. This opportunity starts with the next phase of growth in audio - podcasting. With the world focused on trying to reduce screen time, it opens up a massive audio opportunity. In a blog post today, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek elaborated on the company’s strategy: The two deals are part of a broader strategy by Spotify to offer audio content beyond music and use original content to entice people to sign up for its streaming service. Although Recode hasn’t reported on the value of the Anchor deal, it also says that Spotify expects to spend up to $500 million this year on podcast acquisitions. Terms of the deals were not disclosed, but Recode’s sources say the Gimlet deal is in the neighborhood of $230 million. Today, Spotify announced officially that it is not only acquiring Gimlet but also Anchor, the company that makes mobile apps for podcast creation. Rumors have been circulating for several days that Spotify was in talks to acquire podcast producer Gimlet Media.
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