Spotify’s Anchor acquisition brings over one million small podcasts to the platform

Spotify wants to be the undisputed king of podcasting and is going the extra mile to ensure that. To that end, they rely on two strategies: quality and quantity.

The first one is to snatch up some of the best podcasts in the world today. So far, they have exclusive deals with celebrities, public figures, and influencers like Joe Rogan, Denzel Dion, Rickey Tompson, Michele Obama, and many others.

From the look of things, they are still looking for high-profile podcasts to add to their platform. According to industry sources, Spotify is chunking out as much as seven figures to get these high-flying contracts.

Even though adding exclusive podcasts to its platform has helped Spotify increase its market share, their second strategy is paying high dividends in terms of growth and customer acquisition.

Last year, Spotify spent over $500 million on multiple acquisitions. Among the many acquisitions, it is the acquisition of Anchor, a podcast company, that has added amazing value to Spotify.

According to data released from Spotify recently, Anchor propelled around 80% of all the podcasts on the Spotify platform this year alone. Overall, Anchor is responsible for the creation of over 1.3 million shows on Spotify. That’s practically 70% of all the 1.9 million shows on the platform.

Most of these tiny podcasts have a relatively small audience There are literally over a million of them, and their number is growing. Tiny podcasts are growing into their own ecosystem within the Spotify platform and are increasingly important for the company.

It’s also common for most of these small podcasters to not make any money from their podcasts, but they make them all the same. Anchor’s monetization program is available only in the US as ads are automatically inserted into shows. On the other hand, an increasing number of podcasts come from different countries in the world. For them, monetization is a big issue, even if they have a massive following. So far, no one from Anchor has commented when and how they plan to solve this and include some form of monetization for podcasters outside the United States.

While Spotify is relentless in ensuring its dominance in the podcasting market, its competitors, Apple and SiriusXM, are also making waves in the industry. Apple recently launched News+, an Audio version of Apple News+. At the same time, SiriusXM is very active in adding new podcasts to its platform.

All in all, podcasting is growing into a very popular and lucrative industry. In 2018, podcasting generated around $479 million. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC, podcasting revenue will likely reach $1 billion.

What do you think? How do you feel about podcasts? What are some of your favorites? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Deep Ballu