Sources: Audible is in talks to acquire celebrity podcasts and considers selling original shows individually; Amazon Music is also preparing to add podcasts
Under growing pressure from Spotify, the e-commerce giant is looking to spend big in podcast land Tweets: @ragnarxiv , @christianhern , @brij , @alexcartaz , @mikegary_ , @ajumplakdibampa , @michaeltoole , @shinguardian , @lucas_shaw , @richlightshed , @sohear , and @csymrl See also Mediagazer Tweets: Ragnar / @ragnarxiv : Great, further content barriers are exactly what we need! https://twitter.com/... Christian Hernandez / @christianhern : Several years ago @matclayton explained to me how big, fragmented but profitable the podcasting space was. A roll-up play would have been brilliant. Did a few PE intros, never went anywhere... and now here we are $100M for a single podcast's exclusivity🤦♂ ️ https://twitter.com/... Brij Singh / @brij : binge listening podcasts is same as listening to a audio book - https://twitter.com/... @alexcartaz : The exclusive podcast arms race is so bad for listeners (and for most if not all podcasters in the long run) https://twitter.com/... @mikegary_ : As I expected, @Spotify has started a legitimate podcast war. Let the games begin. https://twitter.com/... @ajumplakdibampa : First Spotify and now Audible. 2020 is the year of podcast. https://twitter.com/... Mike Toole / @michaeltoole : CONTENT WARS!!! https://twitter.com/... Matthew Tomaszewicz / @shinguardian : The Netflix Wars. https://twitter.com/... Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw : Amazon Music is adding podcasts to its app this year. Audible already has podcasts. Audible is owned by amazon. Big tech gonna big tech. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Rich Greenfield / @richlightshed : To a consumer the line between podcasts and audiobooks has blurred, esp when you look at the narrative immersive storytelling of @ThisAmerLife @WonderyMedia @Qcodemedia etc.... What eill @audible_com do? Good read from @Lucas_Shaw 👇 https://twitter.com/... Steve O'Hear / @sohear : Podcasts will never take off :D https://twitter.com/... Casey Morell / @csymrl : ... so amazon wants to get back into podcasts after having had a podcast unit and effectively shuttering it? https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This is Amazon playing catch-up out loud. Audible had already been building radio-style shows since its 2016 ramp-up of podcast investment, but Spotify's transformation into a podcast platform — by early 2021 carrying roughly two million podcasts with a fifth of its users listening — turned exclusive audio content from an experiment into a defensive necessity for every major streamer.
The timing matters: on the very same day, Bloomberg reported that Apple is hiring a leader for its own original podcasts effort and buying shows tied to TV+. Amazon acquiring celebrity podcasts and testing individual show sales is its answer to both rivals, and the eventual destination shows up two years later when Amazon has spent $350M+ on podcast rights and plans to monetize them through ads.
First-order effects
- Celebrity podcasters suddenly have three deep-pocketed bidders — Spotify, Apple, and now Amazon/Audible — competing for exclusive rights instead of relying on open distribution.
- Selling Audible originals individually would unbundle them from the Audible subscription, letting Amazon price hit shows à la carte rather than only as bundle value.
Second-order effects
- Adding podcasts to Amazon Music puts it head-to-head with Spotify's scale play, forcing Spotify to keep spending on exclusives to defend the differentiation it built.
- Unbundled original-show sales create a template other platforms must respond to — either opening their catalogs to à la carte purchases or risking their bundles being seen as overpriced relative to single shows.
Third-order effects
- An exclusivity bidding war among Amazon, Spotify, and Apple inflates content costs across podcasting, pushing toward the crowded, risk-averse market described in later coverage where almost everything got harder for independent producers.
- The pattern points to podcasting structurally replicating the streaming-video model: open feeds hollowing out as platforms wall off marquee talent behind subscriptions and ad-supported exclusives.
The trend: Streaming audio platforms are converting podcasting from an open, fragmented medium into an exclusive-content arms race, with Amazon, Spotify, and Apple each spending to lock up talent.