This week saw the release of 2024 Spotify Wrapped, and we’ve been celebrating our biggest Wrapped to date with global influencers, fans, artists, media, and more.
Go Inside the Global Celebrations for Spotify’s Biggest Wrapped Yet
Tag: LA event
Spotify Celebrates Creators and New Creator Offerings in L.A.
Some of the world’s top creators descended on Spotify’s Los Angeles campus earlier today for Now Playing, where we unveiled a series of new offerings aimed at helping them better monetize their video podcasts on Spotify and deepen their relationships with audiences.
Among the guests who heard from Spotify leaders and mingled with our partnerships and product team members were Drew Afualo, Emma Chamberlain, Bailey Sarian, Haliey Welch, Jay Shetty, Chris Williamson, Josh Richards, Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry, Zach Justice and Jared Bailey, Don Lemon, Anna Sitar, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, and Andrew Huberman.
Following a keynote from Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek and Co-President Gustav Söderström, creators were invited to attend panels that dove deeper into their business opportunities on Spotify.
Biggest. Change. Ever. Go Inside Spotify for Creators, the New Home of Podcasting on Spotify
Big news for creators! Today marks the biggest update to podcasts on Spotify ever—including a new monetization program for video podcasts, improved analytics and audience growth tools, new ways to get your podcast discovered on Spotify, and an exciting evolution of the name and brand of our creator platform.
We’ve been in the podcast game since 2019, and while the podcast ecosystem is as vibrant as it’s ever been, the definition of a podcast is now more fluid. Creators are experimenting and engaging audiences in new ways through video, and podcast fans want the flexibility to seamlessly watch or listen to content depending on what they are doing. And it’s clear that video is growing: According to our most recent Fan Study, we’ve seen an 88% surge in users consuming video podcasts in the past year alone.
That’s why we’re announcing an exciting leap forward in our creator ecosystem: Spotify for Podcasters is evolving into Spotify for Creators. It’s a whole new chapter in our ongoing mission to give creators the tools to grow, monetize, and manage a show, whether it features audio, video, or both formats. And to mark this journey, we’ve launched a set of new features that make it easy to be successful on Spotify, no matter what type of show a creator has.
We sat down with Maya Prohovnik, Spotify’s Vice President of Podcast Product, to discuss what this means for creators.
Congratulations on this evolution, Maya! What’s driving these changes?
Thank you! It’s a big day for podcast creators on Spotify. We’ve seen some pretty major shifts across the industry in recent years. Creators are experimenting with different formats to draw in more fans, and audiences are changing their behaviors, too, by watching more of their favorite content instead of just listening. More than 250 million users have watched a podcast on Spotify, and nearly two-thirds of podcast listeners say they prefer podcasts with a video option! As podcasts and their creators evolve, so does Spotify.
We’ve updated the branding of our podcast creator platform from Spotify for Podcasters to Spotify for Creators because it better captures the expansiveness of whom we support today: It’s a platform for both audio and video creators to grow, monetize, and manage content on Spotify. We want to be clear that we’re supporting this evolution and this new generation of podcasters. We’ve massively upgraded our analytics and insights because we know how important understanding is for growth, and giving creators more data continues to be a big area of focus for us.
You mention video. Can you expand on that?
In general, we have been steadily investing in video because of its growing popularity on our platform, and we’ll always focus on things that we believe will make Spotify an even more powerful destination for creators and listeners. For creators, this has meant more tools to engage and connect with fans, better monetization opportunities, and more ways to be discovered and grow. For listeners, we’ve made some great enhancements to the viewing experience. They can still easily switch between watching or listening—whether they’re on Spotify Premium or Free—and now Premium subscribers can watch their favorite video shows uninterrupted by ads. We’re also giving them more ways to discover content because we know podcast fans are always looking for their next favorite show.
So, what does this all mean for the creator community?
We’ve launched some great things for creators today. As mentioned above, the biggest change is that eligible video podcasters now get to offer the best possible version of their content to Spotify Premium subscribers, who can watch it uninterrupted by ads. And they’ll get paid out by Spotify based on actual engagement, which is better for everyone. We’re really excited about this and think this will immediately translate to more audience growth and retention, as well as more revenue, for most video podcasters.
I think podcasters will love the updated Spotify for Creators. This is where any audio or video podcaster can upload their audio and video content, understand their performance with powerful new analytics, interact with their fans, and monetize their show. We’ve also launched new ways for creators to customize their content on Spotify to help them stand out and grow their audience.
And why should they choose Spotify?
In terms of Why Spotify, creators today should have their content wherever audiences are online. Spotify is one of the largest platforms in the world—we have more than 640 million users and more than 250 million subscribers. So I think the opportunity to reach new, highly engaged audiences is high. We also find that, generally, audiences on Spotify are more likely to stay loyal and return to a show they love, compared to other platforms that are more focused on driving users to viral content. But I don’t think it’s about choosing Spotify instead of other platforms; we understand that creators are multiplatform and multiformat, so our goal is just to make sure that access to Spotify and our audience is as easy as possible. We want every creator to have a path to success on our platform, and with today’s updates, we think that’s more true than ever before.
What changes are you most excited about?
I’m excited by the opportunities that the Spotify Partner Program—our powerful new monetization program for creators starting in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia—will unlock. We built it to open more ways for them to earn for their work since we know that’s top of mind for many creators today. With this program, creators can earn a revenue share on ads played on or off Spotify, or they can earn based on how much Premium subscribers stream their video content. The video content will be uninterrupted by ads for Premium viewers.
I also really love our new promotional and discovery features, like custom video thumbnails and podcast clips that we believe will help drive new audiences to shows. We know that both video and audio podcasters are already making promotional clips for their social channels and now, for the first time, they can upload this short-form content directly to Spotify. We’ll surface these clips across Spotify with the goal of converting new potential audiences to stream the full-length episode. And there’s now a Following Feed so audiences can more easily find the content they already know and love, and creators can continue building their loyal fandoms.
We know this is just the start of great things ahead. How should prospective creators get started with Spotify?
I’d say head to creators.spotify.com to learn more and get started. We can’t wait to hear what you think of all these new features!
Check out more coverage from Spotify’s Now Playing event.
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.
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