Spotify invests in podcasting; Acquire Megaphone for $235 million

Podcasting has become the favorite past-time of learners worldwide. As of October 2020, there are 1,500,000 podcasts and over 34 million available episodes. It’s safe to say that this industry is growing fast, stemming from commentary content in both text and video format, and now transforming into audio. As a global leader in streaming services, Spotify believes that audio streaming, which encapsulates both music and podcasts, is the next great frontier for listeners.

Spotify just announced their latest expansion, relevant to the world of podcasting: they have officially acquired Megaphone for an amount of $235 million, according to sources. Megaphone is one of the leading podcast advertising platforms. This specific partnership means that advertisers have become very aware of podcasts’ potential and are ready to enter this world as well. Similarly to YouTube creators, the podcast publishers will have more ways and new tools to earn more from their hours of hard work. This usually means the monetization of content, leading to more specific loyalty matches of listeners and shows.

The deal will not influence podcasts that have already been published on Spotify, but it does mean that more shows will now have access to SAI or Streaming Ad Insertion – Spotify’s ad insertion technology. The specificity of SAI lies in the fact that the ads are inserted in real-time based on rapid decision-making processes made with analysis of the listener’s data. Spotify remains dominant and ahead of its competitors with yet another critical business decision, which will hopefully bring more value to both listeners and creators on the service.

Image Credit: Thibault Penin on Unsplash