The Top Five Just-Debuted Spotify Enhancements That Creators Can’t Miss

Today, during our Now Playing event, we unveiled a series of new offerings to help creators grow their audiences and better monetize their video podcasts on Spotify. Let’s explore each of these enhancements to the Spotify platform and better understand what they mean for creators.

1. Introducing new ways to monetize with the Spotify Partner Program

Starting today, qualified creators can sign up to participate in our new monetization program, the Spotify Partner Program, available to creators in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. This new program gives creators who host with us and meet our monetization criteria access to multiple revenue streams to help them transform their shows into sustainable businesses, all backed by the power of our teams and technology at Spotify.

Creators in the Spotify Partner Program earn a share of revenue every time an ad (monetized by Spotify) plays in an episode on and off the platform. All a creator has to do is tell us where they want the ads to play, and we’ll take care of the rest.

If you’re a creator who publishes videos on Spotify, you can also earn Premium video revenue through the Spotify Partner Program. With this new revenue stream, when Spotify Premium subscribers in select markets stream video episodes, we’ll serve content to them without dynamic ads to ensure they have an uninterrupted viewing experience. And instead of earning ad revenue for those streams, creators can earn based on how much their fans stream their content. The greater the number of fans who watch or listen to your podcast, the more creators can earn. 

The new Spotify Partner Program can support creators who want to start earning more consistently for their audio or video work.

2. Reach new audiences on Spotify with video clips and thumbnails 

We’re continuing to invest in new ways to manage a show’s presence on Spotify so creators can capture the attention of potential fans or followers. These features will help creators stand out with videos, show up in more places on Spotify, and look their best once they are there.

Get discovered by uploading short-form video clips

Whether a creator is making an audio or video podcast, they’re probably already creating short-form video content to promote their show across social media platforms like TikTok, Shorts, Reels, or all of the above. We know that these clips are great at driving engagement, but they don’t necessarily translate to more streams of a show. 

That’s why we’re thrilled to share that creators can now upload clips directly to Spotify, where audiences already are. To start, clips can be up to 90 seconds long, and creators can upload one clip per episode. Episode clips can then be recommended across Spotify app surfaces like the Home feed, Podcasts feed, Browse, the Now Playing view, and more. Clips will also always be visible on show pages, allowing potential audiences to preview your latest episodes. 

Our goal is not to make our platform yet another place to watch short-form content. We want to help people find their next favorite shows where they are ready to immediately listen or watch, ultimately driving more streams of full-length episodes. 

Clips are now in beta on Spotify for Creators in select markets, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia (see full list here). 

Customize video thumbnails for every episode 

Creators have always been able to set episode-level podcast art for audio episodes on Spotify, but now they can upload video thumbnails too. Creators can choose a Spotify-generated 16:9 thumbnail or replace our suggestion by uploading their own. Video thumbnails are displayed and optimized across our mobile, desktop, and TV app experiences to help grab the attention of potential viewers. 

All creators can now upload thumbnails for new episodes and their entire back catalogs. 

3. New analytics to help you learn and grow

We know how critical it is for creators to understand their performance and have as much data as possible to help make decisions about their shows. For creators hosted on Spotify, we’ve redesigned our dashboard on the web to bring these key metrics to the forefront. Creators can always get a quick pulse check of how a show is performing and navigate directly to the right parts of our app to take action. 

At a glance, creators will be able to: 

• See how many Spotify followers they have and how that growth rate changes over time. 
• Track the performance of their latest episodes, including how many streams, consumption hours, and comments they have.
• Visualize their audiences’ journeys to discovering content, including the number of people they are reaching, the number showing interest, and the number converted to streams on Spotify. 
• View the latest comments so they can like and reply to favorites to build fan community on Spotify.

4. Elevating the video discovery and viewing experiences on Spotify

We’re excited to highlight several improvements to the video experience itself on Spotify, including:

• Personalized video recommendations throughout the app
• Playback improvements like thumbnail scrubbing, pinch-to-zoom, video chapters, and a toggle to make it easy to switch between the video and audio experiences
• Comments that make it easy for audiences to share feedback and for creators to build fan community on Spotify
• A following filter on the Podcasts feed so audiences can quickly find content they already know and love 

5. The future is bright (and multiformat)

Regardless of where a podcast is hosted (or if a show isn’t yet on Spotify), it’s easy for creators to get up and running with these great new features. Suppose you’re a creator who is already making videos. In that case, we encourage you to start uploading your video episodes through our newly refreshed hub for creators, Spotify for Creators, and check your eligibility for the Spotify Partner Program. If video isn’t for you, that’s okay too—we offer free podcast hosting, distribution to all major podcast listening platforms, and ad monetization in select markets.

We’re excited to see how Spotify can be a launchpad for your creativity and how it can provide creators with the right tools to tap into over 600 million listeners around the world.

Check out more coverage from Spotify’s Now Playing event.