Spotify has made its intentions in the podcasting world clear for quite some time now, and the term "doubling down" barely does it justice any longer. So we’ll just say that Spotify has once again increased its focus on the podcasting realm with another acquisition, this time of podcasting advertising platform Megaphone from Graham Holdings Company for $235 million.
Megaphone, according to a press release, provides advertising hosting and ad-insertion for podcasting publishers, and sells targeted ads for brands. The acquisition follows the January announcement of Spotify’s "streaming ad insertion" technology, geared towards providing more precise metrics to potential podcast advertisers, the results of which "have been encouraging to say the least," the company said today in announcing the Megaphone deal.
"Together, Spotify and Megaphone will offer podcast publishers innovative tools that will help them earn more from their work," the company said in a blog post. "This includes the opportunity to opt in to have their content monetized, matching their loyal listeners with even greater demand from advertisers. And we’re excited to share that, once we come together, we will soon make Streaming Ad Insertion available to podcast publishers on Megaphone, the first time this technology will be made available to third-parties. That means that podcast publishers will be able to offer more-valuable podcast audiences to advertisers based on confirmed ad impressions (i.e., that their ad was actually heard)."