Music streaming giant Spotify acquired the podcast studio Parcast, which is known for its 18 popular true-crime podcasts on topics ranging from Serial Killers to Unsolved Murders to Conspiracy Theories.
For Parcast, a tiny bootstrapped studio run by a father-son duo, the acquisition is an opportunity to tap into Spotify’s massive 207m users and likely a big financial win (terms were not disclosed).
For Spotify, Parcast will become the newest producer in its growing parade of podcasters.
Max Cutler and his father, Ron Cutler, a lifelong radio producer, launched Parcast in 2016 to capitalize on the growing popularity of nonfiction audio programming (Serial came out in 2014 and kicked off the true-story craze in podcasting).
In just 3 years, the Cutlers expanded Parcast from 1 to 18 shows (7 of which debuted in the top 3 of Apple’s Podcast charts) and grew to 2 studios and 20 employees.
But Parcast is just getting started: The studio has plans to release 20 new shows later this year.
In February, Spotify announced plans to spend an additional $500m to extend the parade of podcasting purchases that began with the $340m acquisitions of Gimlet and Anchor.
Parcast is the next addition to Spotify’s lineup, and it will give Spotify access to cheap (albeit non-exclusive) production and a large audience.
Parcast’s prolific podcasts are all produced in-house, which keeps costs down for Spotify, and their programs are already popular among listeners (75% of whom are women) in all 50 states and across the world.