Spotify To Acquire Podcast Tech Platform

Spotify Technology has announced the acquisition of Whooshkaa, an Australia-based podcast technology platform that gives independent creators, publishers, broadcasters and brands a cost-effective, end-to-end platform to host, distribute, monetize and track on-demand audio. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

At the heart of the acquisition is Whooshkaa’s innovative technology that enables radio broadcasters to more easily and quickly turn their existing audio content into on-demand podcast content. This technology will soon be integrated into Spotify’s enterprise podcast and advertising platform Megaphone, empowering radio publishers to realize the full potential of podcasts with Megaphone’s best-in-class suite of hosting, distribution, reporting and monetization tools. At the same time, this porting capability should ultimately bring more global third-party content into the Spotify Audience Network, improving the scale, reach, and impact, for our advertising partners.

“We believe the worldwide growth potential for digital audio is still largely untapped. Through the addition of these new tools as well as the innovative team behind them, we are reinforcing our commitment to helping creators, publishers and advertisers realize the value of this opportunity,” said Dawn Ostroff, Chief Content & Advertising Business Officer, Spotify. “With Whooshkaa, we will strengthen our efforts to help audio publishers of all kinds grow their podcast business and scale our ability to help advertisers reach their audiences.”

“We are proud to support both podcast-first and broadcast businesses, offering publishers a best-in-breed audio platform across their podcast and radio content,” Whooshkaa Founder & CEO Robert Loewenthal. “We are looking forward to being part of Spotify’s bullish vision of the future of audio.”

The announcement follows a year of growth for Spotify’s advertising business:

• Q3’21 was Spotify’s highest ad revenue in a quarter ever, growing 75% Y/Y
• Spotify recently passed €1 billion in advertising revenue in 2021
• Nearly 1 in 5 Spotify advertisers are now using the Spotify Audience Network

Since the launch of the Spotify Audience Network, opted-in Megaphone podcast publishers have seen a double digit increase in fill rates, a meaningful increase in unique advertisers, and a double digit lift in CPMs