Image Credit: Spotify

Aiming to match Spotify users to podcasts they’re guaranteed to love, Spotify has bought podcast discovery startup Podz.

Spotify continues to push podcasts on the platform with the acquisition of Podz, a company specialising in podcast discovery.

What is Podz? The podcast discovery startup makes preview clips from podcast episodes using machine learning. Instead of browsing through the entire episode users can view specific short clips from podcasts. Spotify hopes that Podz will make finding new podcasts to listen to as easy as finding new music.

Podz uses hi-tech machine learning on 100,000 hours of audio to identify key moments within podcast episodes. Spotify has used machine learning to improve audio discovery for many years, but Podz will help to push forward its podcast strategy with renewed focus on personalised podcast recommendations – just like their innovative music discovery tools.

Spotify said that the addition of Podz will save users time and grab their interest, therefore growing creators’ fan bases and increasing their discoverability. In April, Spotify announced its premium Paid Subscription podcast platform, letting creators monetise their shows by setting their own subscription fee with two years of no cost for the creator.

Spotify users will notice the arrival of Podz within 2021, as the technology gradually integrated onto the platform.