Amazon is making a move into the world of podcasts by adding them to its Amazon Music service.
It follows the likes of Apple and Spotify, who have both made large investments to draw in podcast creators.
If you live in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, podcasts are now available on Amazon Music across all price tiers for no additional cost.
Whatever you use to listen to Amazon Music, be it web, mobile, or on the Amazon Echo, you will be able to hear podcasts.
Also, podcasts will sync across all of these platforms, so you can listen to one on your morning commute via your smartphone, then get home in the evening and ask Alexa to continue playing.
Amazon Music will offer you curated recommendations for new podcasts across a variety of categories, along with listing the most popular podcasts.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music, said:
Despite all the hype and growth, podcasting is still at the early stages of mainstream adoption. Our entry will grow the pie for everybody and introduce new groups of listeners just like we do with music streaming. We think the timing is perfect.
The service has launched with over 70,000 podcasts, including existing popular shows like Crime Junkie, Radiolab, and Stuff You Should Know.
Though both Apple Music and Spotify host over 1 million podcasts, Amazon will keep adding to that catalog.
The service will also expand with original content, with podcasts hosted by big names like Will Smith, DJ Khaled, and Becky G.
Amazon will run its own adverts on this original content, while non-exclusive podcasts will retain ownership of how they advertise.
Fans of true crime podcast Disgraceland will need to use Amazon Music if they want to keep hearing more episodes, since the show will be exclusive to the platform from February 2021.
It's logical that Amazon is taking the step to host podcasts on Amazon Music. The company already owns Audible, a platform for audiobooks, and podcasts are the next part of Amazon's intended domination of the audio space.
