During its live streaming event today, Spotify officially opened Approved its plans to launch paid podcast subscriptions on its platform. As a first step, the company will begin beta testing a new feature in its Anchor podcast creation tool this spring, which will allow US developers to publish paid podcast content for their “most dedicated fans”. It also opened registrations for this and other new features starting today.
Spotify had pointed out its plans for paid podcast content during its fourth quarter earnings call earlier this month when it was exploring ideas like paid podcast subscriptions and a la carte payments. However, it didn’t go into detail about when these new options would go live or how they would work.
At its online event today, Spotify more formally announced its plans to enter the paid podcast market, initially with a new service that would allow anchor developers to offer paid podcast subscriptions that are supported by their listeners.
This type of idea isn’t new, to be clear. Some podcasters already offer paid access to bonus material – for example via a service like Stitcher Premium, which promises both an ad-free experience and bonus episodes. Some developers may even independently offer paid feeds through their own platforms.
However, until now, a similar option has not been available to Spotify creators.
Michael Mignano, co-founder of Anchor, said the company believes that paid bonus material can work well as a means of podcast monetization alongside ads.
Credit: Spotify
“We found that our research made it work particularly well for developers who have a really engaged and engaged audience – regardless of audience size,” he told ProWellTech in an interview following Spotify’s event. “We also found that podcast listeners are open to funding the shows they love,” he added.
The company was reluctant to detail some details of how paid subscriptions would work at launch, but said the model would include a revenue sharing between the creators and Anchor, with the creators keeping most of the revenue. Anchor also allows developers to determine what price they’ll charge their listeners for the paid experience and what that experience would include – like bonus episodes or interviews, or even ad-free content if they prefer.
It then uses the understanding of what developers are actually doing with paid subscriptions to provide guidance on the product launch and recommendations for “best practices” for the future.
We also know that offering will be limited to those who use Anchor to record and post to podcast platforms. However, it will immediately benefit developers with a strong Spotify presence and loyal audience.
However, Mignano points out that the Spotify podcast detection tools may allow developers to expand their paid subscriber base.
“The problem is, the system used to be really incoherent for this type of paid subscription in podcasts,” he said. “It wasn’t a really seamless experience for the listener, and it wasn’t a really great experience for the Creator. We feel that this has really held that model back and has hurt the developers’ reach and ability to attract paid subscribers, ”he said.
Credit: Spotify / anchor
In other words, users may be open to the idea of paid bonus material, but they don’t necessarily want to switch between apps to get access, nor do they want to find out how to insert paid RSS feeds into third-party podcasts on the Listen app .
In the meantime, Spotify will try to make discovery easier. For example, it will highlight the paid content alongside the free material on the main page of the podcast. Just as Spotify is helping users today discover new podcasts that they may want to try, it will also be pointing out paid subscription-based podcasts in the future as the new model continues to roll out.
Anchor says it will first Open the beta Testing in the US for a small number of developers, but aims to expand access to more developers as soon as possible. The test will only focus on paid subscriptions for now, but Mignano told us the company may look into the a la carte model in the future.
Paid podcasts were just one of several new features Anchor announced at the Spotify event today.
The company also announced the start of a WordPress partnership that will make it easier for bloggers to convert their posts into posts by either reading the blog posts themselves or using third-party text-to-speech technology provided by Anchor.
Anchor will also expand beta testing of video podcasts that have only been tested by a handful of developers, including Higher Learning from The Ringer.
And it will Start beta test New interactive features like polls and Q&A with a small number of developers in the coming months.
These features may overlap with paid subscriptions. For example, some podcast creators choose to make their videos a paid feature or other interactive features. It remains to be seen how they will be used.
In a broader sense, features like polls and questions and answers could help Spotify better differentiate an interactive podcast from a live audio program, as is known in the new Clubhouse app. The latter has the advantage that the audience can take part in the “show” instead of being a one-way street where the hosts control the experience. Clubhouse rooms, on the other hand, can also have people who keep booming, or they can get boring if not carefully managed.
Anchor does not intend to bill creators for access to its tools other than rev-approve subscriptions.
“I think our vision at Anchor and Spotify has always been to really empower the creators. In the Anchor Tool Suite, we never charged creators for features, as we believe that charging creators can often present friction that gets in their way while trying to actually make something and bring it into the world standing, ”said Mignano. “We want to allow developers to do whatever they want and express themselves through these new tools,” he added.