Spotify recently completed its acquisition of Whooshkaa, a popular podcast firm based in Australia. The tech company will help the music streaming giant to convert radio broadcast shows into ad-supported podcast segments.
Spotify Buys Podcast Firm Whoshkaa
According to a report by Engadget, the Swedish audio media service provider is planning to bring a special feature for podcasters that would benefit them from gaining profit through podcast episodes.
At the time of writing, no information about the terms of the deal was revealed. Spotify will focus on integrating the $235 million Megaphone, an ad platform that it purchased in 2020.
The music service titan added that it is expecting to incorporate more third-party content into the Spotify Audience Network marketplace in the upcoming months.
Related Article: Spotify 2021 Wrapped is Here, Check Out Your Most Streamed Artist and Song
Spotify Thinks Digital Audio Has a Great Potential
In another report from Variety, Spotify's chief content and advertising business officer Dawn Ostroff said that the future for digital audio has a "growth potential" that remains "largely untapped."
In a statement, he stated that the arrival of the new tools from Whooshkaa will spark a lot of innovative ideas. Ostroff added that this technology will help creators, advertisers, and publishers.
"With Whooshkaa, we will strengthen our efforts to help audio publishers of all kinds grow their podcast business and scale our ability to help advertisers reach their audiences," Ostroff ended.
Regarding the Spotify Audience Network, the company noted that nearly 20% of the platform advertisers are depending on it. Moreover, the firm said that there are double-digit increases in cost per thousand impressions (CPMs) and fill rates for the Megaphone podcast publishers.
What Could Whooshkaa Offer
According to company founder Rob Loewenthal, Whooshkaa will bring "enterprise-grade" podcasting technology on top of speech-to-text (vice versa) and smart home improvement.
He added that he is looking forward to contributing to the "bullish vision" of the streaming giant to the audio industry.
With regards to the ability to auto-transcribe podcasts, neither of the two companies has unveiled some information about it.
If the collaboration goes well for the two firms, Spotify would most benefit from it through catalog expansion so it could hook up more music fans to listen to the platform.
Tech Times reported last October that the Stockholm-headquartered company said that it has already beaten Apple for the best podcast platform in the United States.
In support to this claim, Edison Research wrote that 24% of worldwide listeners are Spotify visitors while only 21% came from Apple Podcasts. CEO Daniel EK said that the company saw a growth rate of more than 1,500% for 3.2 million podcasts.
Meanwhile, we wrote an ultimate guide for you to view your 2021 Music year-in-review with Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer so check this out for more details.
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Written by Joseph Henry
