Jeff Bezos has a diverse set of interests. Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the world. It made its name as an online retailer but has expanded in technology spaces. Amazon competes with other dedicated technology companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google very easily. In recent years, as content consumption increasingly leaned towards streaming services, most of these companies - Amazon being one of them - developed music streaming services. Spotify is the industry standard for music streaming services and unaffiliated with any of the Silicon Valley tech giants.
Eventually, it became in Spotify's best interest to diversify their portfolio as they didn't want to be a business which relied on a single income. They invested heavily in podcasts publishing tools. They signed exclusive deals with Joe Rogan and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. They integrated the music streaming service and the podcast service into one app. The industry boomed, with revenue from advertising and crowdfunding expected to surpass $1 billion annually. Spotify competes with Apple Podcasts as the app most used to listen to podcasts.
Amazon's Expansions
Amazon wants in on podcasting. It is not surprising. They have developed branches to tap into markets which shoe significant promise or have acquired businesses who have footholds in these markets. Bookselling was the foundation of the online retail model and they honoured their tradition by developing a leading audiobook service, Audible. Also, they invested in Twitch, a live-streaming platform which creators can play games on, write music, paint, design cosplay, and just simply talk. Podcasting is an established industry and only looks set to grow. Getting in now, while only Spotify are really dedicated to it is sensible, even if there is some catching up to do.
Audible flirted with podcasts and produced and hosted short-form content. What's available on Twitch is not a giant leap from what a podcast offers except it has video: a structure in which people can talk to each about specific topics or whatever takes them in that minute. Podcasts' lack of video, though, does offer greater flexibility for where and when they can be consumed.
Why It Might Work for Amazon
This flexibility is an essential consumer demand which applies to many industries. For instance, online gamers want to be able to play their favourite games on a desktop and a mobile. Therefore, there needs to be little to no difference between www.slotsheaven.com/ca and its app. There must be cohesion between the experience on both.
This bodes well for Amazon. With their smart home device Amazon Echo, users will be able to seamlessly transition from headphones to Echo. The counterargument to this: not everyone uses Amazon smart home devices. This is true. The other Silicon Valley tech giants even make their competitors' apps incompatible with their smart home devices so consumers use theirs. This will limit a customer base. However, this might not be too disastrous. A small number of podcast listeners contribute to a high proportion of listening hours. Therefore, while having a large customer base is ideal, a dedicated customer base of an even "smaller" size is desirable.
Spotify's and Amazon's Model
Amazon is looking to limit the differences between what Spotify offer and what they offer by copying their model. The podcasts will be available with the music subscription fee. Amazon's is multi-tiered which means that podcasts will come with any tier. It will, for the lower-priced tiers, be cheaper than Spotify. They will likely look to integrate Amazon Music and Amazon Podcasts into a single app, as this is something consumers enjoy.
The essential difference will then be original content. Exclusive deals tend to be what separates video streaming services too, which Amazon is experienced in. This has, also, affected music streaming with Taylor Swift not allowing her music on Spotify for many years. Amazon has signed Will Smith to a deal already to host original shows on their podcast platform. They are beginning to make moves and set a course to compete with Spotify. If Amazon can close the gap, does it have more infrastructural benefits to push its ceiling higher than Spotify? We'll have to see.