Spotify Purchases Gimlet and Anchor as it Bets Big on Podcasts
Spotify announced that it has bought podcast firms Gimlet and Anchor for an undisclosed amount. CEO Daniel Ek said Wednesday that he sees podcasting as an area of potential growth for his firm.
Buying Content and Creation Tools
Gimlet is a narrative podcast company, producing a wide range of popular shows such as Homecoming, which became an Amazon Prime Original TV Series. Anchor provides podcast creation technology. 15 billion hours of content where created on the platform during the final quarter of 2018, said Mr. Ek.
The amount Spotify spent on the two firms is not known at the time of this writing. It is expected the deals will be completed in the first quarter of 2019 (via Associated Press.)
Spotify Moving to ‘the Next Phase’
In a blog post that revealed the acquisitions, Mr. Ek described podcasting as “the next phase of growth in audio.” He added: “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.”
Mr. Ek also promised that Spotify’s work in podcasting will focus intensively on the curation and customization.” Spotify believes that non-music listening on its service will hit 20% in the future. Mr. Ek said his company “will offer better discovery, data, and monetization to creators.”
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