Amazon buys Wondery podcasts to play them on Spotify
Wondery is now part of Amazon Music. Now Bezos' group is preparing to compete with Spotify for podcast dominance
Jeff Bezos closes 2020 to the sound of Wondery.
After rumors about purchase negotiations earlier this month , Amazon yesterday announced an acquisition deal for Wondery, one of the last major independent podcast networks. Thus ending speculation about who could possibly buy the network, which is best known for real crime podcasts like Dirty John.
His podcasts will be part of the Amazon Music offering. In this way, the music streaming service of the Amazon giant will compete better with the industry leader Spotify.
All the details.
DETAILS OF THE OPERATION
Wondery would technically be part of Amazon Music, which launched podcast support in September of this year.
The CEO of Wondery, Hernan Lopez, will resign and leave the company when the agreement will end, and coo Jen Sargent will take over the role of CEO, according to notes of Amazon.
HOW MUCH JEFF BEZOS PAID FOR WONDERY PODCASTS
Amazon did not disclose the purchase price, although previous reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal suggested that Wondery's value was at least $ 300 million.
EVERYONE WANTS WONDERY
In September, Wondery began probing for a sale, Bloomberg reported. Last month, Bloomberg also reported that both Apple and Sony Music Entertainment discussed a potential Wondery purchase.
Wondery has raised a total of $ 15 million in funding from Advancit Capital, BDMI, Greycroft, Lerer Hippeau and others, according to Crunchbase.
AMAZON WILL COMPETE BETTER WITH SPOTIFY
The acquisition is notable, if only because it puts Amazon to better compete with Spotify, which has been acquiring exclusive networks and talent for over a year. Amazon says this Wondery deal does not change existing programs, but they will still be available through "a variety of vendors".
Amazon called the Wondery deal a "pivotal time to expand Amazon Music's offering beyond music as listeners' habits evolve."
AMAZON CONSOLIDATES ITS POSITION IN THE PODCAST MARKET
As the WSJ points out, after a wave of consolidation, Wondery is the latest large independent podcast startup in the current market. In other words, Wondery could be the last chance for a large company like Amazon to strengthen its position in the growing podcasting market through an acquisition.
PODCASTS ARE POPULAR IN THE UNITED STATES
Podcasts are exploding in popularity according to the New York Times . Almost a third of Americans who at the beginning of 2019 said they listened to at least one a month.
Podtrac's numbers rank Wondery as the fourth largest podcast publisher in November, with a U.S. audience of over 9 million unique listeners.
AFTER THE SUCCESS IN THE AUDIO BOOKS MARKET
It should also not be forgotten that Amazon already has a dominant position in audiobooks, thanks to its Audible division. The Verge pointed out that Audible isn't mentioned in the press release, even though the Amazon-owned company creates its own exclusive podcasts, in addition to those publicly available, and recently launched a cheaper price range specifically for people who may want listen to Audible exclusives.
WITH WONDERY AMAZON BETS ON ITS STREAMING MUSIC UNLIMITED SERVICE
With the music streaming service Amazon Music Unlimited, the tech giant Bezos founded competes against Spotify and other music streaming platforms. And it is now well known that much of Spotify's recent success is tied to its decision to invest heavily in podcasts. Not to mention that a podcast service could also work as an added value for the company's Echo speakers, Engadget pointed out.
With Wondery podcasts like "Dirty John", "Dr. Death ”and“ The Shrink Next Door, ”Amazon's race to conquer parts of the audio market continues.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/amazon-compra-i-podcast-di-wondery-per-suonarle-a-spotify/ on Thu, 31 Dec 2020 10:38:07 +0000.