Amazon gets into the podcast business

NEW YORK (AP):

Amazon is jumping into the podcast business.

The online shopping giant is buying Wondery, a 4-year-old producer of popular true crime podcasts such as Dr Death and Dirty John, which was later turned into a television series.

An explosion of new podcasts has led to a number of acquisitions as competing platforms try to grow their audiences and their advertising revenue. The music-streaming platform Spotify bought two podcast companies in 2019 and it has added high-profile hosts to its roster, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Wondery podcasts will be part of Amazon’s music-streaming service, but it will still be available on other platforms as well.

“This is a pivotal moment to expand the Amazon Music offering beyond music as listener habits evolve,” Amazon said in a blog post Wednesday.

Terms of the acquisition were not released.