When you think about Spotify, music is likely the first thing that comes to mind. Although there are millions of songs on the app, music is not the only thing it is used for. According to Wendy Lee of Los Angeles Times, “Spotify says podcast listeners spend twice as much time on the platform and that the medium has helped bring gin new users.” In addition, Spotify’s CEO added that he believed that in the future, “more than 20 percent of all time spent on Spotify would be on non-music content.
He added that even though podcasting is not a huge business yet, there is extreme potential in it. His beliefs on this explain the company’s decision to acquire two different podcasting companies — Gimlet Media and Anchor FM. According to Lee, the financial terms have not been disclosed, but Spotify did say that it “planned to spend $400 million to $500 million on podcast-related acquisitions this year.”
