While most big tech platforms are increasingly getting in on the podcast craze, Spotify remains one of the biggest names associated with audio-shows. The audio streaming platform has been committed to continuously improving its podcast experience for some time, and it’s now acquired a fresh startup in pursuit of that aim: Podz.
Match made: Spotify and Podz
“At Spotify, we are investing to build and scale the world’s best (and most personalized) podcast discovery experience—and we’ve acquired Podz, a small, talented team of entrepreneurs, engineers, and designers, to help make that experience even better.” the platform said in an announcement.
Seems like a match made in heaven if you ask us. See, Spotify has used machine learning and algorithms to cater to its users’ tastes and preferences for a while now, and Podz is in the exact same business.
Podz uses machine learning tech to generate high-quality clips of key moments of podcasts. These clips are perfect preview’s for podcast episodes, making it even easier for listeners to decide on whether or not they have an hour to give to a particular show. It’s also a lot more engaging and gives a more organic feel to a show than a written preview.
Combined with the streaming platform’s already top-tier recommendations system and vast library of shows and Podz should (according to Spotify), “…take podcast discovery to the next level.”
Baking this into the platform’s systems should take some time, but Spotify says it plans to integrate Podz’ tech soon, and that listeners should start seeing some of Podz’ offering later this year.