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Spotify acquires tech firm Whooshkaa to expand podcast portfolio

Date: December 18, 2021 Sunil Jha Sunil Jha
Spotify acquires tech firm Whooshkaa to expand podcast portfolio 
Spotify has reportedly acquired Whooshkaa, an Australia-based podcast technology company for managing, hosting, distributing, promoting, measuring, and monetizing podcasts.



With Whooshkaa, Spotify is gaining a specialized technology that enables radio broadcasters to easily convert their current audio content into on-demand podcast programming. The streaming platform expressed that it will integrate this technology directly into Megaphone, which also offers a tool suite for distribution, hosting, monetization, and reporting for podcasters.



According to Dawn Ostroff, the Chief Content & Advertising Business Officer of Spotify, the digital audio sector has immense untapped potential. Ostroff noted that the addition of these new tools and the team using them has helped the company in reinforcing its commitment to help publishers, creators, and advertisers realize the importance of this opportunity.



Whooshkaa will strengthen Spotify’s efforts in helping various audio publishers in growing their podcast business and upscaling their ability to help advertisers reach their audience.



Spotify trusts that the porting capability of Whooshkaa will add third-party content to its Spotify Audience Network. This would increase the impact and reach for its advertising partners.



Currently, one in every five Spotify advertisers are leveraging the Spotify Audience Network and Megaphone podcast publishers have witnessed a significant rise in fill rates.



The acquisition follows the streaming giant’s earlier deals in the podcast technology market which includes Podz, the podcast discovery platform, and ad company Megaphone. Spotify has also acquired creator-facing tools like Anchor and Betty Labs’ live talk show platform, which is now Spotify Greenroom.



Launched in 2016, Whooshkaa has innovated in areas like speech-to-text, text-to-speech, enterprise-grade private podcasting tools, ad technology with dynamic insertion, connected home integration among others.



Nevertheless, Spotify, with its monthly listener count of nearly 381 million, enables Whooshkaa to introduce its technology to a wider audience. As part of this deal, a total of 12 people will join the streaming giant and they will be based in Australia.



Source credit:



https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/16/spotify-acquires-podcast-tech-company-whooshkaa-which-turns-radio-broadcasts-into-on-demand-audio/

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Sunil Jha

Sunil Jha has been a part of the content industry for close to two years. Having previously worked as a voice over artist and sportswriter, he now focuses on writing articles for newsorigins.com, across a slew of topics, ranging from technology to trade and finance. With a business-oriented educational background, Sunil brings forth the expertise of deep-dive research and a strategic approach in his write ups.