Amazon is trying to snap up the last independent podcasting The Wall Street Journal reported last week:
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.02% is in exclusive talks to purchase podcast startup Wondery, according to people familiar with the matter, as the tech giant pushes further into the growing audio sector.
The talks value Wondery at over $300 million, the people said. Wondery’s last funding round, in June 2019, valued the company at $100 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The company is on track to increase revenue to more than $40 million this year, according one person familiar with the matter, with about 75% of that coming from advertising and the rest from licensing to TV, to subscription services like Audible and Stitcher Premium and to Wondery’s own premium subscription service, which launched this summer.
The deal talks are continuing and negotiations could still fall apart, the people said.
Closely held Wondery is the last large, independent podcaster on the market—and could present the final opportunity for a major tech or media giant to buy its way into the exploding field. Wondery’s investors include venture-capital firms such as Waverley Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Greycroft Partners and Advancit Capital....
Wondery, which is known for true-crime podcasts like “Doctor Death,” “Dirty John” and “Over My Dead Body,” was the sixth most-popular podcast publisher in the U.S. in September, according to audio analytics firm Podtrac, with more than 60 million downloads and streams of its shows. Publishers ahead of Wondery included NPR, iHeartMedia Inc. and the New York Times.... Rest of article.
However, Amazon plans to use the platform to clamp down on any criticism of the company. Geekwire reported in August:
Amazon Music and the tech giant’s Audible subsidiary plan to offer podcasts from third-party content providers directly on their platforms, significantly expanding their audio offerings and going head-to-head with Apple, Google, Spotify and others major podcast distribution platforms....
Then came the real mess. Podcasters who clicked through to submit their shows discovered this clause in the content license agreement that’s a requirement to participate in the program: “Your Content may not (a) include advertising or messages that disparage or are directed against Amazon or any Service; …”
That’s a non-starter for many podcast hosts, particularly those that comment regularly on the tech giant... Article
Does "directed against Amazon" include advertising goods or services sold by Amazon competitors such as Best Buy or Target?
6 comments:
They're going to buy it and then a bunch of crybaby snowflake employees will demand they shut down any podcast that doesn't spout progressive nonsense.
They did it at Spotify to Joe Rogan.
my save jxn podcast is on amazon music & audible, not really relevant to this post but its obvious that the tech giants are going to eventually scrub the internet of right leaning voices
Bezos goes Chinese.
@2:07
Nobody has ever allowed any podcasts that actually tell the truth. You have to go to their own websites directly because nobody will host them or process their payments. An example is American Renaissance.
@3:10 this is the introduction for "American Renaissance" on wikipedia.
American Renaissance (AR or AmRen) is a white supremacist website and former monthly magazine publication founded and edited by Jared Taylor.[1][2][3][4] It is published by the New Century Foundation, which describes itself as a "race-realist, white advocacy organization".
So advocating for white supremacy is "telling the truth" as you say? Asking for a friend.
Wikipedia, WOW, there's balance. Tell your friend he/she needs some new friends.
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