What you need to know
- Spotify has acquired podcast discovery service Podz.
- The company plans to integrate its technology to boost its own discovery features.
Spotify has announced that it has acquired Podz in an effort to boost its own podcast discovery capabilities.
In a press release, the company says that the technology pioneered by Podz, in addition to its own discovery technologies, will "take podcast discovery to the next level."
The company highlighted Podz's ability to use machine learning to pull out highlights from podcast episodes, hinting that they may bring the features to its own app in the future.
Powered by state-of-the-art machine learning technology, Podz generates high-quality clips that give users the opportunity to preview key moments from podcast episodes, encouraging them to discover and listen to new podcasts. This capability, combined with Spotify's 2.6 million podcasts on the platform, learnings from our work in music discovery, and current investments in podcast recommendation, will take podcast discovery to the next level—making it easier for listeners to find the content they want to listen to, and for creators to be discovered and build a fan base.
The company says that acquiring Podz is an important step in order to bring its podcast discovery technology to the level of its music discovery features.
Spotify has had machine learning experts focused on improving audio discovery for almost a decade, but there is more work to be done. We believe that Podz' technology will complement and accelerate Spotify's focused efforts to drive discovery, deliver listeners the right content at the right time, and accelerate growth of the category worldwide.
Spotify says that users will start to experience the fruits of this acquisition towards the end of the year. If you want to enjoy some podcasts while you're getting things done, check out our list of the Best true wireless earbuds 2021.
