Amazon’s move into podcasts started with content and the acquisition of the podcast studio Wondery earlier this year. Now, it is focused on monetization. Amazon has struck a deal to buy the podcast advertising and hosting company Art19. Terms of the deal were not released, and both companies said very little about the deal.
Launched in 2015, the independently owned Art19 had been seen as a likely target for acquisition as the big podcast platforms have spent the past year bulking up their advertising technology suites.
Amazon General Manager of Podcasts Kintan Brahmbhatt said in a LinkedIn post that he was excited to add Art19 and its team.
Amazon launched podcasts on its services last year. Amazon Music began featuring podcasts last September with a mix of established and new, original shows produced exclusively for its streaming music service. It also has an array of podcasts from other publishers. Audible began offering podcasts last October.
Now it appears to be dipping into a playbook other podcast publishers are using. Companies including Spotify (Megaphone), iHeartMedia (Triton Digital) and SiriusXM (Midroll/Stitcher/Simplecast) have each spent the past several years building up their content only to turn their focus to ad tech during the past year, spending hundreds of millions of dollars.