From CNET: Spotify boosted its podcast efforts Wednesday, announcing, as it released quarterly financial results, that it has bought podcast companies Gimlet and Anchor.
"Our podcast users spend almost twice the time on the platform, and spend even more time listening to music," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement. "We have also seen that by having unique programming, people who previously thought Spotify was not right for them will give it a try."
Amid a cultural shift to streaming as the most common way people listen to music, Spotify and Apple Music have emerged as the leaders in a race to dominate subscription tunes. Though Spotify remains the biggest streaming service by both subscribers and those who listen for free, Apple Music has been growing quickly, and its iTunes service remains the world's de facto place to find and download podcasts.
On Wednesday, Spotify said that Gimlet and Anchor would serve two different podcasting roles, as a platform for podcast creators and as the leading producer of podcasts itself.
"Gimlet is one of the best content creators in the world, with unique, celebrated podcast shows like Homecoming ... and the internet culture hit Reply All," Ek said in his statement. "And Anchor has completely reimagined the path to audio creation, enabling creation for the next generation of podcasters worldwide — 15 billion hours of content on the platform during [the fourth quarter]."
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