Anchor
This company is no longer trading under this name
Anchor is now branded as 'Spotify for Creators'
Owned by: Spotify
Latest news
- May 23: If you're going to panic, says Anchor Change with Katie Harbath, panic responsibly in a chaotic world. The show returns next week with a fresh season of conversations designed to help you navigate life's complexities—and panic responsibly. Thought leaders include Christina Wallace, author of The Portfolio Life, Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, Rumman Chowdhury of Humane Intelligence, and Hamish McKenzie from Substack.
- Apr 28: Chinese podcasting company Ximalaya is reportedly to be acquired by Tencent Music for $2.4bn, reports Bloomberg. (Spotify bought Anchor for just $140mn). Ximalaya, which claimed more than 303mn monthly active users in 2023, spent $100mn on a US expansion in 2019 (though it may not have done); the company tried to float on the NYSE, but didn’t, and was going to float in Hong Kong, but hasn’t.
- Jan 3: Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano has explained how Anchor managed to add shows to Apple Podcasts without forcing users to do it themselves - always a bone of contention with other podcast hosts. No, it wasn’t a secret API (which Apple always denied): it was... hiring college students to do it all manually.
- Apr 22, 2024: EXCLUSIVE: Spotify is no longer a member of the IAB, having quietly ceased its membership in the last three months. After a press enquiry from Podnews, Spotify’s Megaphone, Chartable and the Spotify for Podcasters host formerly known as Anchor were removed from the published list of compliant companies for podcast measurement. They last underwent certification in 2020.
- Apr 18, 2024: AdsWizz has successfully recertified for v2.1 of the IAB Podcast Measurement program. Podtrac and Simplecast also recertified in March. On the IAB TechLab website, there are still a number of companies only certified to v2.0, who haven’t recertified in more than three years: Anchor (now Spotify), Buzzsprout, Captivate, Chartable, Libsyn, Megaphone and Podbean.
Data credits: Podnews newsletter