Spotify has confirmed the acquisition of podcast hosting company Megaphone for their growing podcasting business. The reported $235 million Megaphone acquisition won’t impact Spotify’s existing podcasts, as they were already hosting the shows on Megaphone.
The goal of this deal is to make Spotify’s ad insertion tools available to third-party podcast publishers. The announcement reads in part,
“we will soon make Streaming Ad Insertion available to podcast publishers on Megaphone, the first time this technology will be made available to third-parties. That means that podcast publishers will be able to offer more-valuable podcast audiences to advertisers based on confirmed ad impressions”
The Megaphone deal is likely to help small publishers, who are not in a good position to monetize podcasts. It all sounds a lot like the ad revenue splits that YouTube offers creators. The dynamics we’ve already seen between YouTubers, and YouTube are likely a glimpse into what will come to pass for pod casters and Spotify.
Much like for creators on YouTube, ad buying coming from a central place will make for an easy monetization option, it also handcuff small creators. And controversy between Spotify and advertisers could create an “adpocalypse”
I see Spotify as an inevitable force in podcasting as the company has already made a number of podcast related acquisitions, including podcast networks Gimlet & Anchor, the studio Parcast which produces a number of true-crime podcasts, and the sports + culture media property The Ringer.
If you want to know more the most complete article I’ve seen about this acquisition comes from Hot Pod News.
Photo by Arnold Francisca on Unsplash
Mason Pelt, is a guest author for Internet News Flash. He’s been a staff writer for SiliconANGLE and has written for TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Social Media Today and more.
He’s a Managing Director of Push ROI, and he acted as an informal adviser when building the first Internet News Flash website. Ask him why you shouldn’t work with Spring Free EV.