Spotify announced on Thursday that it is releasing new technology to turn broadcasts into podcasts for any publisher with a Megaphone account, Spotify’s podcasting platform.
The new technology, coined as “broadcast-to-podcast” (B2P), will automatically create podcast episodes from broadcast content once set up in Megaphone, according to Emma Vaughn, Spotify’s global head of advertising business development and partnerships. The automated process will eliminate, on average, the 30 to 60 minutes it otherwise takes to manually convert broadcasts into podcasts.
The move comes as more listeners turn to streaming content rather than on-the-air content. Research shows that the time people spent listening to broadcast radio online in the United States increased 50% between 2019 and 2022.
Vaughn also noted that the new technology will help reach the Gen Z audience, citing Pew Research data that younger audiences prefer to consume news through digital channels like podcasts. “With this new broadcast–to-podcast feature, we’re empowering radio publishers to reach existing audiences throughout their day, but to connect with new, younger audiences,” Vaughn said.
The new feature will also help broadcasters gain more revenue through advertisements, with podcast ad spending forecasted to near $2.2 billion in 2023.
B2P is already being used by publishers like Fox News Audio, Vaughn added. The new technology builds on the foundation of Spotify acquiring Whooshkaa at the end of 2021, an Australia-based podcast technology platform that originated the broadcast-to-podcast feature.
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