- There is an official poll that outlines a Spotify podcast schedule.
- The poll strongly suggests that Spotify is considering a way to make money from podcasts.
- Spotify has invested heavily in podcasts lately, so the money needs to be gotten back somehow.
Over on Twitter Andrew Wallenstein – the president of diversity Intelligence Service – tweeted an interesting series of screenshots (above The edge). The screenshots show an official poll that Spotify distributed to some of its subscribers. The survey focuses on whether users would subscribe to a hypothetical subscription service that focuses only on podcasts.
In theory, this additional subscription service would not include access to Spotify’s music collection. It’s unclear if this would be an additional subscription independent of the music service, an add-on for current subscribers, or something entirely different.
Granted, this is just a poll. There is no evidence that a Spotify-only podcast service is in the works. In fact the company said The Verge:
At Spotify, we regularly conduct a series of surveys to improve the user experience. Some of these pave the way for a wider user experience, others just serve as key insights. There is currently no further news about future plans.
Spotify Podcasts: Gotta Make Money Somehow
Whether or not Spotify is actually working on a subscription service for podcasts, it is inevitable that a money making system will be on the way. In the past few years, the company has invested millions in exclusive podcasts – especially The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the world’s most popular shows. It has to get all the money back somehow.
Connected: The best podcasts you can listen to right now
The question then arises as to whether or not users pay to access podcasts. The survey suggests that there can be multiple tiers of benefits such as access to exclusive episodes / content, ad-free listening, and some other premium features. These are tempting, but people are pretty used to podcasts being free and ad-supported. Other platforms that have attempted to charge for access to podcasts have either failed immediately or have problems attracting paying users.
Of course, none of these other platforms are Spotify, the world’s largest and most successful audio-only streaming platform. We’ll have to wait, but we wouldn’t be surprised if just one Spotify podcast service is going to end anytime soon.