Spotify's Unique Ability to Create Value in Podcasting

Spotify's (NYSE: SPOT) investments in podcast content have made a lot of headlines this year. It's made several big acquisitions and signed contracts for future content partnerships as well.

But less attention has been paid to Spotify's ability to uniquely create value from podcast listening on its platform. Podcasting is mostly an ad-supported business, one that the music streaming and media services provider is extremely well situated to support considering its ad-supported music business.

Spotify has taken a few steps this year to introduce new ad products for podcasters, differentiating its platform from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and other competitors. Most recently, it started testing in-app offers, which provide listeners a special link to an advertiser's website that automatically adds a podcast's promo code. Spotify should be able to make further innovations for podcasters to monetize their listenership due to its biggest competitive advantage: user data.

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Source Fool.com