Amazon integrates podcasts into Music service

Amazon integrates podcast playback into its Music service. The service has about 70,000 podcasts in the range at the release this week, much less than competitors such as Spotify and Apple.

The podcast feature is currently only available for customers in the US, UK, Japan and Germany, the company says. In addition to already well-known titles, the company wants to attract customers with podcasts that can only be heard on Amazon Music. That is the same strategy that Spotify already uses, among others. Anyone can submit their podcast to Apple and the company does not make exclusivity deals.

Amazon wants to monetize podcasts through ads on exclusive podcats, The Wall Street Journal writes. It is not yet known whether these are separately injected advertisements or whether it concerns advertisements that are in the podcast itself.

The business newspaper notes through Amazon Music CEO Steve Boom that a music service in 2020 can no longer do without podcasts. “What you see is the evolution of what it means to be a streaming service. Everyone is becoming more than a music service.” Amazon has previously integrated podcasts into Twitch. Amazon’s audio service Audible has its own subscription service for exclusive podcasts, which are not yet included in Amazon Music.