Tag: Aquisition

Spotify Continues to Ramp Up Platform Safety Efforts with Acquisition of Kinzen

October 5, 2022

Spotify and Kinzen logos

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Today, Spotify is excited to share that we have acquired Dublin, Ireland-based Kinzen, a global leader in protecting online communities from harmful content. Kinzen’s advanced technology and deep expertise will help us more effectively deliver a safe, enjoyable experience on our platform around the world. 

Spotify’s current partnership with Kinzen, which began in 2020, has been critical to enhancing our approach to platform safety. The company’s unique technology is particularly suited for podcasting and audio formats, making its value to Spotify clear and unmatched. The technology the Kinzen team brings to Spotify combines machine learning and human expertise—backed by analysis from leading local academics and journalists—to analyze potential harmful content and hate speech in multiple languages and countries. 

“We’ve long had an impactful and collaborative partnership with Kinzen and its exceptional team. Now, working together as one, we’ll be able to even further improve our ability to detect and address harmful content, and importantly, in a way that better considers local context,” said Dustee Jenkins, Spotify’s Global Head of Public Affairs. “This investment expands Spotify’s approach to platform safety, and underscores how seriously we take our commitment to creating a safe and enjoyable experience for creators and users.”

Given the complexity of analyzing audio content in hundreds of languages and dialects, and the challenges in effectively evaluating the nuance and intent of that content, the acquisition of Kinzen will help Spotify better understand the abuse landscape and identify emerging threats on the platform.

“The combination of tools and expert insights is Kinzen’s unique strength that we see as essential to identifying emerging abuse trends in markets and moderating potentially dangerous content at scale,” said Sarah Hoyle, Spotify’s Head of Trust and Safety. “This expansion of our team, combined with the launch of our Safety Advisory Council, demonstrates the proactive approach we’re taking in this important space.”

Spotify To Acquire Music Trivia Sensation Heardle

July 12, 2022

Gif where the Heardle logo changes to match the Spotify font and gains color

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If you love that you can recognize hundreds of songs within a few opening bars, you’re not alone. Passion for music runs deep—and so does showing off those skills in musical trivia. Millions do just that with Heardle, a daily music game. And at Spotify, we love all things music—and all things music trivia—which is why we’re excited to announce that the beloved interactive music trivia game will be joining Spotify. 

We see Heardle as more than a trivia game: It’s also a tool for musical discovery. Playing Heardle might just help you to rediscover old tracks you may have thought you’d forgotten, discover amazing new artists, or finally put a title to that wordless melody you’ve had caught in your head forever. 

Heardle is a simple but endlessly challenging game. Players are tasked with guessing a song based on its opening notes. They get six guesses, with each hint giving a few more seconds of music to inform their next answer. Ultimately, they get a chance to discover the song in its entirety, whether or not they guessed it correctly. 

“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” commented Jeremy Erlich, Global Head of Music, Spotify. “Heardle has proven to be a really fun way to connect millions of fans with songs they know and love and with new songs . . . and a way to compete with their friends as to who has the best musical knowledge. Since its debut, the game has quickly built a loyal following, and it aligns with our plans to deepen interactivity across the Spotify ecosystem.”

For existing Heardle players, the look and feel of the game will stay the same, and it’ll remain free to play for everyone. And effective today, players can listen to the full song on Spotify at the end of the game. 

Looking ahead, there are some exciting opportunities to come. Today, we’re starting with users in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. And soon, hundreds of millions more people around the world will have the opportunity to play and enjoy the game in their native language. Further down the road, we are also planning to integrate Heardle and other interactive experiences more fully into Spotify to allow music lovers to connect more deeply with artists and challenge friends—and have some fun in the process. 

Spotify to Acquire Sonantic, an AI Voice Platform

June 13, 2022

Spotify and Sonantic logos

As a leader in all things audio, Spotify is always searching for new ways to create unique experiences that our users will love. So today we’re excited to share our intention to acquire Sonantic, a dynamic AI voice platform that creates compelling, nuanced, and stunningly realistic voices from text. 

Listeners come to Spotify for all of the best audio content in the world—and we believe that Sonantic’s technology will allow us to create high-quality experiences for our users by building on our existing technical capabilities. 

“We’re really excited about the potential to bring Sonantic’s AI voice technology onto the Spotify platform and create new experiences for our users,” says Ziad Sultan, Spotify’s Vice President of Personalization. “This integration will enable us to engage users in a new and even more personalized way.”

“We’re looking forward to joining Spotify and continuing to build exciting voice experiences,” said Sonantic co-founders Zeena Qureshi and John Flynn in a joint statement. “We believe in the power voice has and its ability to foster a deeper connection with listeners around the world, and we know we can be better than ever on the world’s largest audio platform.”

At Spotify, we’ve identified several potential opportunities for text-to-speech capabilities across our platform, and we believe that over the long term, high-quality voice will be important to growing our share of listening. For example, this voice technology could allow us to give context to users about upcoming recommendations when they aren’t looking at their screens. Using voice in these moments can reduce barriers to creating new audio experiences—and open up the doors to even more new opportunities.

Spotify Acquires Podsights and Chartable To Advance Podcast Measurement for Advertisers and Insights for Publishers

February 16, 2022

In 2020, Spotify set out to modernize podcast advertising with the launch of Streaming Ad Insertion. Then, we built on this game-changing innovation with the introduction of our audio-first ad marketplace, the Spotify Audience Network. Just last month, we expanded even more through an interactive ad experience called call-to-action cards. With these investments, we’re delivering impact for advertisers and growth for podcast publishers like the Wall Street Journal, ViacomCBS, and AdLarge.

According to eMarketer, annual U.S. digital audio advertising revenue is poised to grow to nearly $8 billion—and of that, $2.7 billion for podcast advertising alone—by 2025. We believe the next step to unlocking this growth is demonstrating audio advertising’s impact through innovations in measurement and attribution for advertisers and audience insights for publishers.

That’s why today we’re excited to announce our acquisitions of two podcast technology companies, Podsights and Chartable. 

Podsights is a leading podcast advertising measurement service that helps advertisers better measure and scale their podcast advertising. Chartable is a podcast analytics platform that enables publishers to know and grow their podcast audiences through promotional attribution and audience insight tools.

Here’s what these acquisitions mean for advertisers and publishers.

Upleveling Measurement for Podcast Advertising

Advertisers come to Spotify to reach our engaged and immersed audience. But, according to a recent Advertiser Perceptions survey, measurement and attribution remain the two biggest unsolved challenges for podcast advertisers. Spotify plans to solve this pain point through the acquisition of Podsights. As part of Spotify, Podsights will be able to utilize Spotify’s technology and intelligence to bring more accurate measurement and actionable insights to podcast advertisers around the world.

In short, with the acquisition of Podsights, Spotify will be able to help advertisers understand how podcast ads drive actions that matter to their businesses. Over time, we plan to extend these measurement capabilities beyond podcasts to the full scope of the Spotify platform, including audio ads within music, video ads, and display ads.

Helping Publishers Grow Their Businesses With Robust Insights & Promotional Tools

Over the past year, we’ve been strengthening Megaphone’s already robust offering—most recently with the acquisition of Whooshkaa and its broadcast-to-podcast technology—to ensure it’s the best place for podcast publishers to create, monetize, and measure their podcast businesses. And now with the acquisition of Chartable, we will be further enhancing Megaphone’s suite of tools with the integration of Chartable’s audience insights and cutting-edge promotional tools, SmartLinks and SmartPromos. These tools will make it easier for publishers to turn audience insights into action and expand their listenership while ultimately growing their businesses.

The Future of Digital Audio 

We believe the opportunity for digital audio and podcast remains significant. With these acquisitions, we’re taking a big step in upleveling digital audio measurement and insights to help the entire industry scale to new heights.

Check out a Q&A with Podsights Founder Sean Creeley and Khurrum Malik, Head of Advertising Business Marketing on Ads.Spotify.com. For a deep dive on Chartable, head to Megaphone.fm. 

Spotify Is Building on Megaphone’s Capabilities With the Acquisition of Whooshkaa

December 16, 2021

Over the last two years, Spotify has been focused on modernizing digital audio advertising to drive growth for creators and publishers while delivering impact for advertisers. In November 2020, we acquired Megaphone, which enabled us to offer podcast publishers innovative tools to help them earn more from their content. Throughout 2021, we unveiled new features for Streaming Ad Insertion, unlocked podcast ad buying in Spotify Ad Studio, and introduced the Spotify Audience Network. Since the launch of the Audience Network, we’ve seen a double-digit increase in fill rates and a double-digit lift in CPMs for opted-in Megaphone publishers. 

Simply put, by modernizing ad monetization for podcasts, we’ve been able to help enterprise podcast publishers grow their businesses, with nearly one in five Spotify advertisers now participating in the marketplace.

We’re committed to continuing to help publishers worldwide grow their podcast businesses. That’s why today we’re announcing our acquisition of Whooshkaa, an Australia-based podcast technology platform that gives independent creators, publishers, broadcasters, and brands a cost effective, end-to-end platform to host, distribute, monetize, and track on-demand audio. Whooshkaa offers radio broadcasters a specialized tool that makes it simple to turn their existing audio content into on-demand podcast content. As part of the acquisition, we plan to soon integrate this technology into the Megaphone suite. 

Here’s what it means for publishers and advertisers.

Supercharging publishing

Megaphone, the podcast platform of choice for leading enterprise publishers like AdLarge Media, the Wall Street Journal, and the Australian Radio Network, offers a comprehensive suite of powerful podcasting tools that can help publishers create, monetize, and measure their podcast businesses alongside our white-glove customer service. With the integration of Whooshkaa’s broadcast-to-podcast technology into Megaphone, radio broadcasters will be able to more easily and quickly turn their existing audio content into a podcast and access Megaphone’s industry-leading, differentiated suite of tools and technology.

Growing audience for advertisers

Audiences worldwide are tuned in to digital audio at record rates, with no signs of slowing. As the world’s most popular audio platform, Spotify is the place for advertisers to reach them.

With the Spotify Audience Network, advertisers are able to target audiences listening across our network of podcasts, including Spotify Originals & Exclusives, and third-party content via Megaphone and Anchor. Integrating Whooshkaa’s innovative broadcast-to-podcast technology means we’ll be able to bring even more third-party content into the Spotify Audience Network, helping advertisers to connect with even more audiences.

Just getting started

We believe we’re on the precipice of immense growth for the entire digital audio industry. To learn more about what the acquisition means for radio broadcasters, check out Megaphone.FM.

 

Forward-Looking Statements

We would like to caution you that certain of the above statements represent “forward-looking statements” as defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The words “will,” “expect,” and similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements we make regarding the potential benefits of the acquisition and the anticipated timing of the closing of the acquisition. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and include this statement for purposes of complying with the safe harbor provisions. Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections, including but not limited to the risks as set forth in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof.

How Spotify Is Strengthening Our Investment in Podcast Advertising With Acquisition of Megaphone

November 10, 2020

Less than two years ago, we announced that audio—not just music—would be the future of Spotify. We believe that streaming audio, including music and podcasts, is poised to be the next great frontier for listeners, creators, and advertisers.

That’s why today, we’re excited to announce Spotify’s acquisition of Megaphone, one of the world’s leading podcast advertising and publishing platforms. 

The acquisition of Megaphone represents the next step in Spotify’s expanding the possibilities of this intimate and screenless medium. At the top of the year, we launched Streaming Ad Insertion, an innovative podcast ad technology that delivers the intimacy and quality of traditional podcast ads with the precision and transparency of modern-day digital marketing. The results of Streaming Ad Insertion have been encouraging to say the least and have further validated our commitment to the significant potential of podcast advertising.

So what does Spotify + Megaphone mean for the growth of the podcast industry?

Delivering Scale to Podcast Advertisers

Advertisers are ready to realize the full potential of podcasts. The combination of Spotify and Megaphone will allow them to activate across Spotify’s Original & Exclusive podcasts while scaling reach through the Megaphone Targeted Marketplace.

Creating Added Value for Podcast Publishers

Together, Spotify and Megaphone will offer podcast publishers innovative tools that will help them earn more from their work. This includes the opportunity to opt in to have their content monetized, matching their loyal listeners with even greater demand from advertisers. And we’re excited to share that, once we come together, we will soon make Streaming Ad Insertion available to podcast publishers on Megaphone, the first time this technology will be made available to third-parties. That means that podcast publishers will be able to offer more-valuable podcast audiences to advertisers based on confirmed ad impressions (i.e., that their ad was actually heard).

We’ve already seen our investment in audio pay off. In our Q3 earnings, we announced that 22% of our total monthly average users (MAUs) engaged with podcasts last quarter and that podcast advertising revenue is up nearly 100% year over year. This comes alongside innovations like our first-of-its-kind format for creators to bring together music and talk, and mixed-media playlists like Your Daily Drive. Our podcast catalog now includes over 1.9 million titles that feature storytelling, sports, education, and wellness from diverse voices across the globe, and the world’s top creators—from Michelle Obama and Brené Brown to Addison Rae and DC Comics—come to Spotify to connect with their fans and meet new ones.

From groundbreaking authentic voices to can’t-miss news and information, podcasting is one of the most exciting mediums of our time. We are excited to collaborate with Megaphone to drive this business forward.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory review, and it is business as usual until closing.


To learn more, head to the Spotify Advertising blog for a Q&A with Jay Richman, Spotify VP Global Head of Advertising Business, and Megaphone CEO Brendan Monaghan.

Spotify Announces Acquisition of Global Audio Services Marketplace SoundBetter

September 12, 2019

Today, Spotify is excited to announce that we’re acquiring SoundBetter, a leading global music and audio production and collaboration marketplace. SoundBetter offers creators—including singers, songwriters, producers, mixing/mastering engineers, and session musicians—a place to connect with each other and hire services from fellow artists to create and perfect their tracks.

Because of its strong reputation and dedicated commitment to supporting all creators worldwide, SoundBetter already has more than 180,000 registered users in 176 countries and 14,000 cities across the globe. The acquisition reinforces the deep connection between Spotify and the broader music industry, as SoundBetter makes it easy for labels and artists to source a wide array of music services.

We sat down with the founders, CEO Shachar Gilad and CTO Itamar Yunger, to learn more about the company.

Shachar Gilad and Itamar Yunger

What are some of the benefits for artists who use SoundBetter?

Shachar: Imagine being in Japan and being able to hire a songwriter from LA who worked on your favorite song, or being in Germany and getting your track mixed by a Grammy Award winner from New York, or being in LA and having a string quartet from Hungary record tracks on your record. SoundBetter helps fill the gap between recording and distribution. It’s relatively easy to record music, but difficult to get your music to sound good enough for distribution. We connect artists with the top music pros who can help them sound the best that they can, so they can focus on whatever they do best, whether that’s songwriting, singing, or producing. 

At the same time we help music pros connect with clients from across the country and across the world they would never have met otherwise and earn a living.

How did you discover there was a need for something like SoundBetter?

Shachar: I had many friends who are engineers and producers who were interested in marketing to artists outside of their local or existing client base. They knew they had something to offer artists everywhere, but didn’t know how to reach them. At the same time, the number of artists self-producing has grown dramatically.

I realized both sides were looking for each other. Online marketplaces were increasingly addressing this type of fragmentation in other industries, and I decided to tackle this one because it was close to my heart.

What were the early days of SoundBetter like?

Itamar: We started with mixing and mastering engineers and expanded from there. We worked in true lean-startup fashion 15 hours a day to build the marketplace you’re familiar with today, including the talent discovery, payment system, file transfer, workroom and project management tools. 

The work paid off. We were fortunate that we focused on some of the right things. We earned trust and the marketplace grew. As time went by we realized more and more that musicians around the world were really looking for this kind of platform, and that what we built was solving a problem.

How has Spotify changed the audio industry, from your perspective? How does SoundBetter fit into that growth?

Itamar: The way Spotify made music accessible to billions of fans, allowing them to enjoy and be inspired by music, is fantastic. SoundBetter’s mission aligns perfectly with Spotify’s mission of helping creators live off their art. That has been our mission for years.

Shachar: Twenty years ago, only a handful of artists ever got to record any of their music. Now millions of artists are recording their music on digital audio workstations, and have the platform to make that music available to the whole world with Spotify. That is a tectonic shift. 

We’ve seen many songs produced with SoundBetter pros that each now have tens of millions of streams on Spotify. This collaboration will help drive more quality content to Spotify’s hundreds of millions of listeners while helping artists earn a living.

What are your goals and expectations for this new chapter with Spotify?

Shachar: We’re really thrilled at the opportunity to take SoundBetter to the next level with Spotify. One of the things that kept us going through this startup rollercoaster over the past few years is hearing stories from artists who tell us we’ve changed their lives. Talented folks who, thanks to SoundBetter, quit their day jobs and are doing music full time and earning a respectable living. We’ve heard endless personal stories like that, and there’s nothing more rewarding. We truly believe that with Spotify, we can make the number of artists who have such stories much, much bigger.

Itamar: A significant percentage of marketplace sales on the platform is international. Just think of what we will be able to do in the audio industry as a part of the Spotify brand. We are thrilled with that potential. 

Want to learn more? Check out the press release here and blog post from Spotify for Artists here.

Spotify Acquires Loudr

April 12, 2018

Spotify is proud to announce that Loudr has joined the Spotify family. The company was founded in 2013 to build products and services that make it easy for content creators, aggregators and digital music services to identify, track and pay royalties to music publishers.

The Loudr team of publishing specialists and technologists will join Spotify’s New York offices. Loudr will continue to provide select services to its publishing and aggregator partners, while contributing to Spotify’s continued efforts towards a more transparent and efficient music publishing industry for songwriters and rights holders.

“What Loudr has built is more than just a smart and easy way for artists to obtain mechanical licenses; it’s true music industry innovation,” said Adam Parness, ‎Global Head of Publishing, Spotify. “The Loudr team perfectly complements Spotify’s music publishing operation and, together, we believe we can continue to foster a more open, streamlined, and modern music publishing landscape.”

 

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

We would like to caution you with respect to any “forward-looking statements” made in this communication as defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and include this statement for purposes of complying with the safe harbor provisions. The words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “seek,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “contemplate,” “possible,” and similar words are intended to identify estimates and forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature.

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