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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 8 February 2019

Spotify takes a big jump into the podcasting game

By MAE ANDERSON “The format is really evolv-
AP Technology Writer ing and while podcasting
NEW YORK (AP) — Spotify is still a relatively small busi-
is making a bigger bet on ness today, I see incredible
podcasts as it looks to bring growth potential for the
a Netflix-like model of origi- space and for Spotify in
nal programs to the audio particular,” he wrote.
world. The music-streaming There are many ways to
pioneer gobbled up two listen to most podcasts —
podcasting companies, among them, streaming
Gimlet and Anchor, on services, downloads and
Wednesday. podcast-specific apps like
Although streaming is be- Castbox and Stitcher for
coming an increasingly Podcasts. It wasn’t clear if
popular way to listen to Spotify will distribute its new
music, Spotify and other podcasts exclusively, make
services such as Pandora them widely available, or
have struggled to make choose some intermedi-
ate step such as allowing
other services to distribute
them following a window
of Spotify exclusivity. Spotify
did not return a request for
In this Oct. 3, 2018, file photo a Garmin International employee shows the new Spotify app on comment.
his smartphone integrated with his Garmin fenix 5 Plus watch during a presentation in New York. Spotify is seeking ways to
Associated Press become sustainably prof-
money because of the roy- ued at more than $150 mil- nancially, Spotify has been itable. The company re-
alties and other fees that lion and Gimlet at more able to stay a step ahead ported a surprise fourth-
they have to pay recording than $200 million. Gimlet of Apple in terms of sub- quarter profit on Wednes-
labels, songwriters and per- produces high-end pod- scribers. It counted 96 mil- day, boosted by a strong
formers. casts and was co-founded lion subscribers in the fourth holiday season and a pro-
The acquisitions are about by Alex Blumberg, a vet- quarter, up 36 percent from motion with Google Home.
“expanding our mission eran of the NPR radio show a year ago. But it forecast a loss for 2019
from just being about music “This American Life.” Meanwhile, Apple’s music- even as it continues to in-
to being about all of audio Spotify, which is based in streaming service has more vest in original content.
and being the world’s lead- Stockholm and went public than 50 million subscrib- Spotify has already pro-
ing audio platform,” CEO in April 2018 , charges $10 a ers, according to CEO Tim duced some original pod-
Daniel Ek said in an inter- month for its “premium” ad- Cook. Pandora, YouTube, casts, including one se-
view on CNBC on Wednes- free music service. It also IHeartRadio, Google, Am- ries with comedian Amy
day. offers a free ad-supported azon and others also offer Schumer and another with
The company didn’t dis- service. music streaming and pod- rapper and broadcaster
close terms, but The Wall Apple has become Spo- casts. Joe Budden.
Street Journal cited people tify’s primary rival since the In a blog post Wednesday, Ek said people who listen
familiar with the transac- tech giant launched its Ek said that Spotify has be- to podcasts through Spotify
tions as saying Anchor, a own music streaming ser- come the second-biggest spend twice as much time
podcast production and vice in 2015. But although podcasting platform in less on the service than other
hosting platform, was val- it has been outgunned fi- than two years. users.q

Apple releases update to prevent FaceTime eavesdropping

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple has released an iPhone
update to fix a FaceTime flaw that allowed people to
eavesdrop on others while using its group video chat fea-
ture.
The repair is included in the latest version of Apple’s iOS 12
system, which became available to install Thursday.
The bug enabled interlopers to turn an iPhone into a live
microphone while using Group FaceTime.
Apple turned off the group chat feature last week, after
a 14-year-old boy in Tucson, Arizona, discovered the flaw.
The teenager, Grant Thompson, and his mother said they
unsuccessfully tried to contact the company about the
problem for more than a week.
The delay in responding to the flaw raised questions about
Apple’s handling of it. The company has since promised
to be more responsive.
Although the FaceTime bug has now been addressed,
its emergence is particularly embarrassing for Apple. The In this Jan. 31, 2019, file photo Grant Thompson and his mother,
bug exposed Apple customers to potential surveillance at Michele, look at an iPhone in the family’s kitchen in Tucson,
a time that CEO Tim Cook has been repeatedly declaring Ariz., on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019.
that personal privacy is a “fundamental human right.”q Associated Press