Amazon is reacting to the growing interest in podcasts and is taking over one of the largest independent networks for such content with the US company Wondery. The Internet group, which has only been offering podcasts via its streaming service Amazon Music since September 2020, is now much closer to its most important competitor, Spotify. The Swedes recently secured numerous rights to well-known podcasts.

Amazon does not comment on the purchase price in a statement. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is said to be more than 300 million US dollars – by the summer 2019 the value will have 100 Millions located. Since then, Wondery has been able to expand its sales. For the year 2020, the company that was founded only 2016, whose shareholders include Disney, expects sales of 40 million US dollars. Three quarters of this comes from the advertising and licensing business, the rest from partnerships with other podcast providers such as Audible and our own premium subscription. Its users can play like podcasts without advertisements.

This is likely to remain the case in the future. Because as Amazon reports, nothing should change for previous Wondery users. They also want to keep working with their current partners – so well-known podcasts such as “Dr. Death” or “Dirty John” can still be accessed via Apple Music and Spotify. It is not yet known when the content will also be available via Amazon Music. The reason for this is probably the fact that negotiations have not yet been fully concluded, according to the company.

(pbe)