Spotify wants to become a podcast company. Correction: Spotify wants to become the podcast company.
This past weekend, news broke that Spotify was in talks to buy podcasting network Gimlet Media for over $200M. Today, it was confirmed that Spotify not only acquired Gimlet but also bought DIY podcasting platform Anchor. AND Spotify isn't done with its shopping spree — the company reportedly intends to spend up to $500M on acquisitions this year.
Your move, Apple.
Apple is the current market leader in podcasts and the second-most-popular paid streaming music service — after Spotify. But Spotify's latest acquisitions point to a marked attempt to level up against its competition.
Why Gimlet: First and foremost, Gimlet is a content producer, and it helps Spotify to have high-quality, proprietary shows on its platform. They launched their first podcast StartUp – a brutally honest behind-the-scenes look into starting a startup – over four years ago. On Product Hunt, co-founder Matt Lieber shared:
“We really are building this company in real-time, and documenting it as we go.”
Why Anchor: Anchor's set of tools make it super easy for anyone to create their own podcast (for free). The technology will help Spotify produce more high-end content in-house — as well as give podcasters better tools to create externally. The company launched ~3 years ago on Product Hunt with a different direction — bite-sized podcast production.
“So, we built Anchor to solve these problems and enable anyone with a smartphone to easily record and publish 2-minute audio clips, sort of like bite-sized podcasts. Best of all, audio in Anchor is interactive -- so anyone can respond with their actual voice, like a real conversation.” - Anchor co-founder Mike Mignano
In any case, would love a new season of StartUp on this. 😉
What will Spotify acquire next? Here are a few popular podcast products from the rabbit hole:
Breaker lets you follow what your friends are listening to 🎙
Lyrebird is a voice imitation platform 🎙
Koo! is a social network for short-form audio 🎙
Medium, from Odeo co-founder Ev, has been experimenting with audio 🎙
Product Hunt Radio 😉
)
In this week's episode of Product Hunt Radio, Benchmark Capital's Sarah Tavel and Eric Vishria join us to chat about:
⚖️ What it's like to go from operating to investing
👀 Why the consumer is very much alive
🙃 Playing Fortnite for 'research purposes.'
Listen now and big thanks to our sponsor AngelList and FreshBooks for their support. 😸
AI builders: There's a new security standard in town and you'll need to find out what it is, if you need it, and how it works.
ISO 42001 was introduced by the International Standards Organization so that companies can demonstrate their security practices around AI in a verifiable way.Join Vanta and A-LIGN in a live webinar to learn about...
