Tag: podcast subscriptions

All Creators in Select Markets Can Now Publish Video Podcasts on Spotify

April 21, 2022

Podcasters Ricky and Denzel in green box

*Update as of Tuesday, November 15, 2022: Video podcast publishing capabilities are now available to Anchor creators in over 180 global markets. Learn more here.

Last fall, Spotify began activating Video Podcasts for creators on a limited basis. Since then, we’ve found that podcasters love having the option to accompany their audio with visual components, and fans love having the opportunity to more deeply connect with the content. So as the audience for this format grows, we’re also opening up the Video Podcast capability to more creators, creating a growing catalog of video podcasts. Starting today, we’re expanding Video Podcasts on Spotify to all creators in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K. Creators will have the ability to upload their video content to Spotify through Anchor as easily as they already publish audio. 

Visual interactions allow fans to get to know their favorite podcast hosts even better, and allow creators to connect with their audiences in a much deeper way. But if you want to stick to the pure audio experience, that’s great too—video on Spotify is backgroundable for all listeners, so you can immerse yourself in the content when you want to, or simply lean back and just listen.

Two displays of "We Said What We Said" podcast, one is a Video Podcast

But wait—there are new features too. 

As exciting as Video Podcasts are, we know this is new territory for many podcasters. And since Video Podcasting is more than simply uploading a video, alongside our expansion to more podcasters, we’re also enabling new features to help set creators up for success. 

Here’s what’s new: 

  • Access for everyone: Starting now, creators in these five markets can find Video Podcast uploading capabilities on Anchor’s web platform. We plan to roll this out to additional markets in the future. 
  • Podcast Subscriptions: Spotify Podcast Subscriptions will be available for video podcasts, empowering creators to own their monetization models by creating exclusive content, gating video, and more. Stay tuned—we’re working on more monetization features to come soon.
  • Integration with Riverside: Today we’re also kicking off a partnership with Riverside, the go-to platform for remote recording. The integration enables creators to record and publish video content for free with Riverside with a quick distribution path to Spotify via Anchor.
  • Embeddable video: Now, when you embed a Video Podcast episode from Spotify, the video will play directly in the embed player wherever you placed it. It’s a great tool—whether you’re excited to share great content with friends or grow your audience.
  • Video Bulk-Replace: Bulk-replace allows Anchor creators to easily replace their existing audio episodes with video versions from an easy-to-use interface. Get ready for more time creating content and less time editing it.
  • Video Analytics: Video-specific analytics will give creators deep insights into their videos’ performance on Spotify, enabling them to better understand their audiences and publish content suited to them.
  • Interactive capabilities: Our interactive podcast features, like Polls and Q&A, will be available for Video Podcasts so creators can connect with and get feedback directly from their listeners.

With this latest expansion, we’re continuing to make Video Podcasting a great experience for creators—empowering them to reach new global audiences, own how they monetize their content, and interact with fans in new ways. There’s a massive opportunity for Video Podcasts on Spotify, and we can’t wait to see what creators bring to the table.

Want to make a Video Podcast of your own? Check out our guide on Anchor’s blog for the full details for creators.

2021 Wrapped for Podcasters Shows That More People Are Becoming Audio Creators

December 16, 2021

2020 was an explosive year for new podcast creation—but 2021 proved to be the year podcasting really hit its stride. New creation hasn’t slowed down one bit, and more than ever, podcasters are getting more creative with their content development and business models. With 1.2 million new podcasts published on Spotify this past year, it’s clear that an increasing number of people are listening to and creating audio. 

This year, we delivered Wrapped for Podcasters to more creators than ever, demonstrating that the creator economy is growing—and rapidly. 

We believe that a huge driver of this growth is accessibility to innovative creation tools. Of the aforementioned 1.2 million new podcasts published on Spotify in 2021, more than 1 million of them were created using Anchor, our all-in-one podcasting platform. Anchor now powers around 75% of all podcasts on Spotify—the vast majority of which are from independent creators—so its user behavior offers a great peek into what’s happening in the world of those up-and-coming podcasters.

Anchor offers more to creators than your basic record-and-upload. In 2021, we began offering a variety of features in Anchor that enable podcasters to create, grow, and monetize their content in ways that had never been possible before. This includes:

We believe innovating on the creation experience has a profound impact on the growth of the overall podcasting creator economy. And when we took a look into the data from 2021, the numbers proved that to be the case.

  • Anchor continues to drive 80% of the new podcasts being published to Spotify every year.
  • These independent shows collectively are driving incredible engagement: In recent months, more than 40% of monthly podcast listeners on Spotify have listened to at least one show created using Anchor.
  • More than 13,000 Anchor-powered shows charted in 2021, making up 35% of the shows on Spotify’s charts this year. 
  • As a result of rolling out these new formats that can’t be experienced anywhere else, the consumption of Anchor-powered shows globally leans toward Spotify, with around 65% of their consumption happening on Spotify.
  • The market for independent podcasters is truly global: The top markets, in terms of total new shows created on Anchor in 2021, were the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, and India.
  • Central and South America in particular are on the come-up for a thriving creator economy in podcasts: Anchor’s fastest-growing markets in 2021, measured by average monthly increase in new shows, were Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile.

We’re excited to see continued progress in the podcast space as creators grow and hit their strides. Stay tuned for more to come in 2022!

Podcasts Get Interactive With New Q&A and Polls Features

September 30, 2021

Historically, podcasting has been a one-way street: creators publish shows and their audiences listen. But podcasting has the power to be a community-building medium, and at Spotify, we believe there can be more to the story. 

In order to achieve this community, creators and listeners need channels through which they can engage directly with the content and with each other. Today, just in time for International Podcast Day, Spotify and Anchor are powering new capabilities to help creators and listeners interact more deeply: Q&A and Polls.

These interactive enhancements will make it easier for listeners to engage with the people behind their favorite podcasts and for creators to hear from their fans and listeners—directly on Spotify. Q&A and Polls allow listeners to respond to short questions posed by the shows’ creators on podcast episode pages in the Spotify app. Starting today, these features are available to all Anchor creators and Spotify listeners in 160 markets around the world.

When we talked about this development at Stream On in February, we were testing Q&A and Polls with a select group of creators. Since then, thousands of creators have expressed interest in getting access to these features. In testing, we’ve seen creators use Q&A and Polls in a wide variety of ways: to get suggestions for future guests, to garner feedback on topic choice and format, and to create fun gamification that keeps listeners coming back to hear the hosts’ take on their responses.

“We have sought to create an engaged community of film lovers,” said Michael Tucker, host of Beyond The Screenplay. “All of the Spotify features have been absolutely incredible for bringing us closer to our audience. The Polls feature, in particular, is really helping us to shape the show’s future episodes.”

Here’s how it works: 

If a creator has chosen to post a question or poll for a specific episode, listeners will be able to find the question at the bottom of the episode page from their Spotify mobile app (whether iOS or Android). Depending on whether the creator chose an open-ended Q&A or a Poll, listeners can follow the prompt to respond in-app.

After responding to a Poll, listeners will then get to see how the entire audience of respondents voted and how their answer stacked up. For Q&A, listener responses will be delivered privately to the creator. Creators can then choose and pin specific featured responses that will appear publicly below the question (displaying the respondent’s Spotify username). For details on how the features work for creators, check out Anchor’s blog post.

We believe the future of podcasting is interactive. For too long, podcasting has been hindered by one-directional technology and a lack of format innovation. By building interactive functionality directly into our creation platform, Anchor, we’re able to break this mold and power more unique uses for audio. 

In addition to direct podcast interactivity such as Q&A and Polls, we’ve been rolling out a suite of products that create an all-in-one experience for audio creation and listening, from the Music + Talk content format, to the recently launched Podcast Subscriptions feature. Stay tuned as we continue to create tools to evolve how listeners engage with shows—and give creators greater control over their content.

Ready to dive right in and celebrate International Podcast Day? We’re making it simple to find the perfect show for you with our “Find the One” personalized quiz. Answer a handful of questions, and let us help you find your perfect podcast match.

Quiz: This Week on ‘For the Record’

August 27, 2021

Think you're up-to-date on the latest in Spotify news, data, and trends? Take our quiz to test just how well you’ve been following along.

1. ¿Cuál de estos éxitos es el que más streams ha sumado en los primeros dos años de La Reina?
2. ¿Qué artista ostenta la corona con el mayor número de streams al día de hoy en la playlist?
3. ¿Qué canción ha permanecido durante el mayor número de días durante estos primeros dos años?
4. ¿Qué artista ha logrado colocar el mayor número de canciones en La Reina?
5. La Reina reúne los nuevos éxitos del Regional Mexicano junto a clásicos. ¿Sabes cuál es la canción con mayor tiempo de haberse lanzado se programó en la playlist?
6. Como una playlist que reúne a todos los géneros del Regional Mexicano, hay varias versiones de canciones de amor: corridos, mariachi, cumbia o sierreño. ¿Adivina cuál de estos tracks sumó más streams?