Industry | Radio |
---|---|
Genre | Podcasts |
Founded | February 2015 [1] |
Founders | Andy Bowers |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Key people | |
Owner | Spotify |
Number of employees | 25 [5] (2016) |
Website | megaphone |
Megaphone (formerly Panoply Media) [6] is a podcast technology company owned by Spotify, focusing on ad-insertion and hosting. [7] It was formerly an audio content producer started by The Slate Group as Panoply Media, [8] [9] and later shifted to focusing solely on helping companies with production, advertising, and audience metrics. [10] [11]
Slate began podcasting in 2005 with the Slate Political Gabfest . [12] Panoply Media launched in Feb 2015. [1] Slate acquired dynamic ad-insertion company Audiometric in August 2015, [11] and made the functionality available to other companies in January 2016 under the moniker "Megaphone". [13] [10]
As of February 2017 [update] , Panoply had published more than 100 podcasts through partnerships with Sports Illustrated , The Huffington Post , New York magazine, [14] Time , Inc. , Vox, Real Simple , The Wall Street Journal , and Politico . [15] It has produced branded content for Purina, Umpqua Bank, Prudential and Starbucks. [16]
In January 2018, the Slate Group separated its Slate-branded podcasts, such as The Gist , from the rest of the Panoply lineup, [17] for purposes of revenue control as it sought to increase membership in Slate Plus, its premium content service. Accordingly, Slate podcasts no longer carry the Panoply logo and branding.
In September 2018, it was announced that Panoply would cease production of all podcasts and shut down its editorial division in order to focus on podcast hosting, analytics, and monetization technology. [18]
In November 2020, Spotify announced its intent to acquire Megaphone from The Slate Group for US$235 million. [19] The acquisition was completed in December 2020. [20] After the acquisitions of podcast technology companies Whooshkaa in December 2021 and Chartable in February 2022, Spotify announced that these products will be integrated into Megaphone. [21] [22]
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