Audioboom PLC’s share price continued its slide today as Spotify identified podcasts and audiobooks as one of the new areas it is targeting.
At an investor day, the streaming giant said it generated €200mln from podcasts last year, but predicted the overall value of ad spending in this area would hit US$2.1bn this year and by 2030 the value of the podcast market overall would rise to US$30bn.
In its update, Spotify said it would expand its audiobooks and “other verticals” to capture some of this growth and establish a second wing of the business alongside music.
Jefferies noted that audiobooks might be worth US$70bn by 2030 and the total addressable market Spotify has identified to be worth north of US$350bn.
Where that leaves rivals such as Audioboom is not clear. Today, its shares dropped 3.4% to 1,275p, valuing the business at around £215mln compared to Spotify’s US$22.4bn.
Audioboom is the fourth largest podcast publisher in the US and the trends that Spotify identified at its investor day are also coming through strongly in the UK firm’s numbers.
Last month, in response to a sliding share price, it reported sales in April were up 86% with downloads up by 44%.
In April, it posted quarterly revenues up by 107% from a year ago at US$19.7mln and added that advance advertising bookings meant that its contracted revenue for 2022 had already exceeded the entirety of 2021.
And Spotify and Audioboom have been linked before.
Reports in February suggested that Spotify was lining up a bid with Amazon also said to be interested.
These bids never materialised.
Audioboom’s share price has since retreated 42% from its 2,200p high in April and is now back to the level before the takeover talk
But with the numbers Spotify was bandying around yesterday it might only be a matter of time before the rumours start again.