Spotify Buys Podz to Help Make Finding Podcasts You Like Easier

Finding a brand new podcast you truly like is less complicated stated than performed. It’s a job that requires time, effort, and an excellent chunk of your consideration. Spotify desires to make this tedious course of simpler and is betting that podcast discovery expertise developed by a startup will assist its customers discover and get hooked on new reveals.

The firm announced on Thursday that it had acquired the podcast discovery platform Podz, a startup that developed a so-called “audio newsfeed” that options 60-second clips from completely different podcasts. Here’s the place the expertise is available in: Instead of merely reproducing the clips chosen by podcast creators, Podz makes use of a machine studying mannequin to pick clips of reveals’ finest moments. This permits customers to preview a wide range of podcasts in minutes relatively than listening to total 30- or 60-minute reveals.

Spotify stated that combining Podz with its 2.6 million podcast repertoire, learnings from its earlier work in music discovery, and present investments in podcast advice will enable it to take podcast discovery to the subsequent degree. Altogether, the corporate maintains that it will likely be simpler for customers to seek out reveals they like and for podcast creators to construct a fan base.

“Spotify has had machine learning experts focused on improving audio discovery for almost a decade, but there is more work to be done,” the corporate stated in a news announcement. “We believe that Podz’ technology will complement and accelerate Spotify’s focused efforts to drive discovery, deliver listeners the right content at the right time, and accelerate growth of the category worldwide.”

According to TechCrunch, Podz’s machine studying mannequin was skilled on greater than 100,000 hours of audio and regarded enter from journalists and audio editors. Back in February, the outlet reported that Podz had raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding. Besides receiving investments from enterprise capital corporations like M13 and Canaan Partners, it additionally had backers like Katie Couric and Paris Hilton. (For reference, each Couric and Hilton have podcasts).

Spotify didn’t specify how a lot it had paid to accumulate Podz.

The acquisition is the most recent transfer within the battle to monetize podcasting. In April, Spotify introduced its paid subscriptions platform, which permits creators to supply subscriptions to their reveals. Interestingly, Spotify stated that it will not cost podcasters to make use of the platform for the primary two years and would solely count on them to imagine the cost transaction charges. In 2023, although, Spotify will start to cost a 5% payment to make use of the platform.

This stands in distinction to Apple, which can take 30% of subscription charges for podcasts through the first 12 months and 15% within the following years. Apple launched in-app podcast subscriptions this month.

Spotify is integrating Podz’s expertise into its platform and stated customers can count on to see components of it earlier than the tip of the 12 months.