A Spotify regulatory filing has confirmed how much it’s paying for media and podcasts group The Ringer: “Cash consideration totaling approximately €130 to €180 million, a portion of which is deferred, subject to closing adjustments”. That’s between $141m and $196m.
The filing, which is a more detailed version of the shareholders letter in which Spotify announced its latest financial results, also has some interesting details on Spotify’s podcast revenues and spending. In the full year 2019 “there was an increase in revenue from podcasts of €19 million” according to the filing. That’s revenues from advertising, to be clear.
A little later on in the document, it details “an increase in podcasts costs of €16 million” that year. Obviously, ads are just one element of Spotify’s business around podcasts: it sees this content as making its service stickier, and thus driving / retaining subscriptions too.
In related news, The Ringer has announced its second exclusive-to-Spotify podcast, and it’s focused on music. The show is called ‘Music Exists with Chuck Klosterman and Chris Ryan’, and will see author Klosterman and The Ringer’s Ryan answering “big questions about how music shapes us and the world around us”.
One non-podcast titbit from the SEC filing too: Spotify recently settled its Indian licensing dispute with Warner Chappell, but another lawsuit from Indian music company Saregama rumbles on. Spotify said it “intends to vigorously defend this action”.
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