

"The question I always ask myself is, are your eyes really worth 10 times as much as your ears? And I don't think that's the case," he told the Journal. In a separate interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ek said he is more interested in growing what he estimates is the $100 billion music and radio market, rather than competing in the $1 trillion video market. "And now we're adding the best content to that as well, and that's now Spotify.

"I believe in this day in age that you need to be very very clear with your brand what you are for consumers in order for them to take it up and the best experience wins," Ek said. Spotify had announced a partnership in video in 2015, but reportedly struggled to gain traction. When asked in the CNBC interview about big tech competitors like Apple and Amazon that have made investments in the streaming space, Ek said while they "are formidable companies," Spotify is committed to remaining focused on audio, rather than dabbling in several areas like both those companies do, referencing Apple's work in self-driving cars. Anchor had 15 billion hours of content on its platform in Q4, Ek said in the blog post. Anchor serves as a platform for podcast creators to make and distribute their shows. Gimlet has recently expanded its focus into pitching adaptations of its podcasts to Hollywood.Īnchor brings a different part of the equation to Spotify with its easy-to-use podcast creation technology. Gimlet already hosted its second season of the popular true crime podcast "Crimetown" exclusively on Spotify beginning in October 2018 and paid actress Amy Schumer more than $1 million for rights to her podcast, according to Bloomberg. Gimlet's vast array of fiction and non-fiction shows, including "Reply All," "Startup" and "Homecoming," which was recently adapted into a Netflix series, will help add to Spotify's growing library of podcasts. In a blog post published on Spotify's blog, Ek wrote he anticipates more than 20 percent of listening on Spotify will eventually be "non-music content." Ek said in the interview that Spotify's podcast listeners use the platform "almost twice as much" compared to other users. Spotify hopes the acquisitions will broaden the appeal of its platform. According to Quah, those terms would make it the largest podcast industry acquisition to date. Terms of the deals with Gimlet and Anchor were not disclosed, but late last week, Recode and Vulture podcast critic Nicholas Quah reported Gimlet would sell for north of $200 million. "It's really about expanding our mission from just being about music to being about all of audio and being the world's leading audio platform," Ek said on Squawk On the Street. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower

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