Spotify is making podcasts a priority.
The company has acquired Gimlet Media and Anchor, and is now announcing its plans to invest up to $500 million in further acquisitions in 2019.
On Wednesday, CEO Daniel Elk announced the company's plans to put audio, rather than just music, at the forefront of Spotify's further projects. In a blog post, Elk said Spotify is the second-biggest podcasting platform and that he expects 20 percent of all Spotify listening to eventually come from non-music content.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Latest Videos From
Spotify hopes to have more exclusive podcasts running on the platform, but this will likely not change for some time, Recode reports. Elk says music streaming will not become any less of a priority as they invest in audio-storytelling.
"But as we expand deeper into audio, especially with original content, we will scale our entire business, creating leverage in the model through subscriptions and ads," Elk wrote. "This is why we feel it is prudent to invest now to capture the opportunity ahead. We want Spotify to continue to be at the center of the global audio economy."
The music streaming service has previously attempted to venture into video by streaming TV and clips, but its efforts have been largely expensive and unsuccessful.
