Amazon and Spotify are currently in the midst of a bidding war. The two streaming giants have reportedly both bid on London based podcast startup Audioboom. Both are currently exploring bids, and may lock in offers as soon as the end of this month, according to Sky News.
Audioboom has seen a significant surge in market value over the course of the pandemic, currently sitting at approximately over £275m. Audioboom is host to popular podcasts such as What Makes A Killer and the UK Cycling Podcast.
For Amazon, acquisition of Audioboom would mark a strategic choice to place more emphasis on the podcast market, following their acquisition of another podcast platform, Wondery. Amazon is exploring their bid by way of investment bankers JP Morgan.
Spotify meanwhile has been actively placing a greater focus on their podcast content as opposed to music, notoriously offering creators contracts of up to $100 million to produce exclusive podcast content for the platform. Spotify has recently been in the middle of a controversy surrounding one of these creators, Joe Rogan. Rogan has shared podcast episodes that include misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic and racial slurs which were not immediately removed by Spotify, prompting artists such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to remove their content in boycott of the platform.
