Spotify’s logo and branding.
Streaming-audio platform Spotify has announced its acquisition of two podcasting companies, each of which sheds some light on Spotify’s long-term plan to dominate the podcasting business.
The online audio giant is acquiring both Podsights and Chartable. The companies make two of the leading tools related to marketing, advertising, metrics, and analytics for audio content.
Podsights is an advertising measurement tool that allows advertisers to see how many people were exposed to their ads, as well as how effective the ads were at driving purchases. Chartable is somewhat similar, but it’s aimed at podcast creators, not advertisers. It helps podcasters track audience growth and see what factors are driving that growth.
Spotify says the acquisitions aren’t just about podcasting, though; Podsights’ tech will also be used for other kinds of audio content on Spotify, like music.
These two companies follow several others that Spotify has gobbled up in recent months, including Whooshkaa and Megaphone. Altogether, these acquisitions paint a picture of the company’s future strategy. Moving forward, Spotify hopes to not just monetize listeners but to expand the ways it draws fees and cuts from both advertisers and content creators.
In other words, Spotify is more or less angling to become the Facebook of music and podcasts. It will provide content creators with the tools to distribute and monetize their content, and it will help advertisers place ads within podcasts and between songs and give them data on how users are experiencing those ads.
Spotify already does these things, of course, but its offerings appear poised to go even deeper. And it makes sense—the company’s original core business of streaming music licensed from various labels was always a risky one, given that labels charge huge amounts of money to allow Spotify to continue to stream their content.
With these new developments in podcasting, advertising, and marketing, Spotify can diversify its revenue and make itself less dependent on established players in the music business.
The company recently came under fire over its exclusive $200 million deal with podcaster Joe Rogan, who has stirred several controversies around both racism and misinformation about vaccines.
But these acquisitions show that while Spotify is heavily investing in those types of content, the deals are ultimately only one part of the company’s quest to dominate streaming audio.
The deal prices for these acquisitions have not been made public.