Five big questions for the industry in the year ahead.
Will all those acquisitions pay off for Big Podcasting?
As you might recall, 2020 closed out with yet another flashy podcast acquisition. Right before the New Year, Amazon announced that it was buying Wondery for its Amazon Music service, where it will presumably be made to pump out original content rendered exclusively at some point to lure new users to the platform. I’m tempted to think this will be the last acquisition of its kind for a while, based on the premise that Wondery was perhaps the last shiny asset left on the market for an eager acquirer looking to buy their way into the podcast buzz. There will almost certainly be other purchases made in the months ahead, but I doubt they’ll be as large or attention-grabbing. (I’ll set a plate aside, though, just in case I need to eat my words.
Source: 2021 in Podcasts: What Changes Await the Industry This Year?