Today, Spotify announced our fourth quarter 2021 financial performance. Click here to review the full earnings release, and take a look at the highlights below:
Interested in hearing more? You can listen to the webcast Q&A on the IR site here.
Click below to check out a sizzle reel of audio trailers from a few of our recent original and exclusive podcasts.
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.
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!
Many podcast fans love watching their favorite podcasts as much as they enjoy listening to them. Through these visuals, fans can get to know their favorite podcast hosts even better, and creators can more deeply connect with their audiences. That’s why today, Spotify is unveiling the first version of our new video podcast feature with select podcasts. Now listeners in all markets where podcasts are supported will be able to listen to or watch those podcasts as the feature rolls out.
Video podcasts build upon and enhance our existing audio experience, allowing Free and Premium users to connect more deeply with their favorite podcasts with video content. Listeners can tune into podcasts like Book of Basketball 2.0, Fantasy Footballers, The Misfits Podcast, H3 Podcast, The Morning Toast, Higher Learning with Van Lathan & Rachel Lindsay, and The Rooster Teeth Podcast for a visual and audio feast.
To start watching, just press play on your desktop or mobile app. The creator-made videos will start automatically and sync immediately with your audio feed. If you’re multitasking between apps or want to lock your device during the episode, no worries: your audio will continue to play in the background with no interruption (and minimal data usage). All listeners will still be able to download the audio to their mobile devices to listen to shows on the go.
The new feature allows select creators to bring both audio and video content to Spotify, enabling them to connect more meaningfully with their listeners, expand viewership, and deepen audience engagement. It’s a way to enrich the audio experience—for fans and creators alike.
Fans in all markets where podcasts are supported can tune into the latest video episode of Higher Learning for their first Spotify video podcast experience.
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