In a bold move in acquiring Gimlet Media and Anchor, Spotify is putting its best foot forward to become the home of podcasts.
Gimlet Media is a giant podcasting start-up, producing series like Homecoming (Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, Katherine Keener) which has now been adapted for Amazon Prime led by Julia Roberts. Spotify has also obtained exclusive streaming rights for the current season of Gimlet’s Crimetown. Anchor on the other hand provides creators with tools to build, publish and monetize podcasts.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek believes podcasts are the way forward, as they not only bring a new dimension to the platform, but podcasts listeners are some of Spotify’s most valuable users. Ek says that “our podcast users spend almost twice as much time on the platform, and spend even more time listening to music.”
Spotify has become the second-biggest podcasting platform in just shy of two years, and with the goal of 20% of Spotify content being non-music, Ek hopes this new shift will solidify Spotify as the world’s largest and foremost audio platform.
Spotify are planning on spending a cool $500 million on podcasts in the coming year, expanding their portfolio of original content and their overall growth.
#Peace.Love.Pod
