Spotify Buying Parcast, Continuing Inroads in Podcast Market
Spotify continued its push into the podcast market, announcing Tuesday it agreed to buy podcast studio Parcast. Parcast introduced 18 podcast series since starting in 2016, focusing on mystery, crime, science fiction and history, and plans to launch 20 this…
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year. Crime and mystery podcasts are a top genre for Spotify users, said Dawn Ostroff, Spotify chief content officer. The acquisition is expected to close in Q2. Spotify bought two podcast-related companies last month (see 1902060010). Podcasts are the next frontier for streaming music services. On a February earnings call, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said early takeaways from the 14-podcast lineup in the company’s portfolio indicate listeners engage at twice the rate of non-podcast listeners, and users “who wouldn’t have considered Spotify otherwise are now signing up to the platform.”