Spotify Gives Podcasters 2-Year Free Start on Paid Subscriber Platform

Spotify officially rolled out its podcasting platform Tuesday, allowing creators to offer subscriptions through a separate platform, beginning in the U.S. A week earlier, Apple introduced a podcast subscription platform (see 2104200070). The Spotify version -- which promises revenue, reach and discoverability among the service's 345 million customers -- will be available through its Anchor service, letting podcasters mark episodes as subscriber-only. For the first two years, creators will receive all subscription revenue; in 2023, Spotify will begin charging 5% of revenue for the service. Anchor pitched it as a way for podcasters to save time with setup and management, saying they can be up and running with a subscription service “in minutes.” The platform allows them to choose one of three tiers: $2.99, $4.99 or $7.99 monthly. Content will be searchable and discoverable within Spotify, which is also testing the Spotify Open Access Platform for creators to deliver paid content to existing paid audiences elsewhere while retaining direct control over the relationship, it said. Another revenue opportunity for podcasters is through the Spotify Audience Network (SPAN), an audio advertising marketplace to connect with listeners. Beginning Saturday, Spotify will open SPAN to select independent creators using Anchor, billing it as a “better value” to advertisers than solutions using Really Simple Syndication. A Q&A feature will allow podcasters to invite “their most loyal supporters” to interact directly with the show, Anchor said. It expects to add functionality soon allowing them to contact subscribers directly to offer additional perks like merchandise and promo codes. It's also collaborating with NPR to make some of its shows available sponsor-free to paid subscribers. How I Built This With Guy Raz, Short Wave, It’s Been a Minute With Sam Sanders, Code Switch and Planet Money will be available May 4, marked by “Plus” in the title. Podcast listening got a boost from stay-at-home trends during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Futuresource: The share of survey respondents listening to podcasts grew from 36% in 2019 to 41% at year-end 2020.