a16z Podcast Market Overview

Spotify Snapshot Audience: Spotify has 207M MAUS, 44% DAU/MAU (Feb. 2019). 96M Premium subscribers ($10/mo) Podcast content library: M&A: More than 185,000 podcast titles available In Q4, Spotify had 14 titles exclusive to Spotify including the 2nd season of Crimetown, The Rewind with Guy Raz, and the Dissect Mini Series hosted by Lauryn Hill Will experiment with exclusivity and release windows: "It'll be a mix of exclusive things that we make exclusively for Spotify, like we're doing right now with Mogul, or things that are windowed or things that are a mix of the two" (Alex Blumberg, Gimlet) Podcasts are strategically important to Spotify: "Growing podcast listening on Spotify is an important strategy for driving top of funnel growth in new users, increased user engagement, lower churn, faster revenue growth, and higher margins" (Press release) ((( Acquired Gimlet Media & Anchor in Feb 2019 for around $230M and $110M, respectively. Acquired Parcast, a network of scripted true crime podcasts, in Mar. 2019 for reportedly $100M "We want to acquire more, and have line-of-sight on total spend of $400-$500M on multiple acquisitions in 2019." Podcaster tools: Launched Spotify for Podcasters in Oct. 2018, which allows podcast creators who host their podcasts elsewhere to make their shows available to Spotify. Also gives data on episode performance, daily stats on listener demographics, location, engagement, and more. More than 10,000 podcasters are using this tool on a monthly basis. (Spotify also offers analytics tools to musicians) Advertising: Current focus of sales team is selling ads on shows that Spotify develops in-house or licenses. Ads that non-Spotify shows embed can stay on the platform Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/5/18243729/spotify-podcast-strategy-gimlet-media-anchor-purchase; Parcast acquisition price © 2019 - Andreessen Horowitz 18

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