Moving Past Joe Rogan Controversy, Spotify Boosts Podcast Business With 2 Key Acquisitions

Spotify Technologies S.A. SPOT said Wednesday it was acquiring two podcast tech platforms — Chartable and Podsights.

What Happened: Chartable is a podcast analytics platform, while Podsights is a podcast advertising measurement service.

Spotify said it plans to solve the pain point of measurement and attribution through the acquisition of Podsights.

The company said it would be able to "help advertisers understand how podcast ads drive actions that matter to their businesses.”

See Also: How To Buy Spotify (SPOT) Shares

Why It Matters: Podsights and Chartable allow podcasters to include tags in their shows, which can be utilized to track who listened and to gauge the effectiveness of advertising, according to a report from The Verge.

The acquisition of Chartable is reportedly more focused on podcasters than advertisers due to its SmartLinks technology. 

Spotify said that it had been reinforcing its podcast tool arsenal by strengthening Megaphone, a podcast tool company it acquired in November 2020,  through the recent purchase of Whooshkaa and its broadcast-to-podcast technology. 

Earlier in the month, Spotify reported fourth-quarter revenue of $2.69 billion, a rise of 24% year-over-year. Monthly Active Users (MAU) rose 18% year-over-year to 406 million, while premium subscribers were at 180 MAU in the period. Ad-supported MAU stood at 236 million.

Last year, Spotify said it was ahead of rival Apple Inc AAPL in the United States in terms of listeners.

The company has been in the eye of controversy lately over some Joe Rogan's podcast episodes on its platform featuring racial slurs and alleged COVID-19 misinformation.

Price Action: On Wednesday, Spotify shares closed 2.45% lower at $163.94 in the regular session. The shares fell 1.4% in the after-hours trading to $161.60.

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