Why Amazon Podcasts Spell Bad News for Spotify

In mid-September, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Music added podcasts to its content library, firmly placing the tech giant right into the middle of what is quickly becoming a crowded market.

Notable for its heavy investment in podcasts over the past year, Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) will undoubtedly feel some pressure from Amazon's economical music bundling and exclusive podcast content. So where does that leave Spotify?

Amazon's decision to join the podcast competition seems to be a wise choice, as podcast listening has increasingly occupied listening hours over the past couple of years. SiriusXM-owned podcast platform Stitcher reported that podcast creation has increased 129,000% since 2010, with more than 7 million podcasts published on its platform in 2019 alone. Spotify also reported the launch of 750,000 podcast shows in the first half of 2020, with consumption increasing at triple-digit rates year over year. Twenty-one percent of Spotify monthly active users already engage with podcasts, up three percentage points from the first quarter of 2020.

Source Fool.com