In 2019, the company acquired podcast studios Gimlet Media, Anchor and Parcast, paying nearly $400 million for them, with additional potential payouts over four years, according to regulatory filings.

Earlier this year, Spotify bought Bill Simmons’ The Ringer podcast and media startup in a deal worth up to nearly $200 million. Last month, it acquired podcast publishing and advertising company Megaphone for $235 million in cash. Spotify has shelled out more than $800 million over the last two years on podcast content and technology deals. Podcast creators also will get daily notifications and share cards in Spotify for Podcasters when their show hits the charts. The company has revamped its podcast charts so that listeners can see the top 200 shows overall, the top 50 in over a dozen categories, and the top 50 trending podcasts daily.

In addition, Spotify introduced new metrics showing how users listened to podcasts, including how many minutes were spent listening and the most binge-worthy podcasts of the year.

Of Spotify’s total catalog of 1.9 million podcasts, Anchor powers 70% of those, indicating that Anchor picked up momentum during 2020. The company also rolled out its Wrapped creator experience for podcasters and artists, giving them their own individualized Wrapped microsite experience to explore the ways in which their fans listened to their content this year.Īnd Spotify said self-publishing podcast platform Anchor, which the company acquired last year, was used to create 80% of the new podcasts added to Spotify in 2020 - meaning Anchor contributed more than 1 million new titles for the year. New this year, Spotify opened up Wrapped to non-Spotify users, who have access to the company’s global listening trends via /wrapped.

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