Spotify has announced a podcast subscription solution for creators hoping to attract listeners willing to pay a little extra for bonus content.
Starting soon, creators using Spotify’s podcast creation tool Anchor (which Spotify acquired in 2019) will be able to designate episodes as subscriber-only before publishing to Spotify and other platforms. Like Patreon, a subscriber platform for podcasts and other content, podcasters will be able to offer various tiers of subscriptions that can be tailored based on material. At present, Spotify has three price tiers: $2.99, $4.99 or $7.99 per month.
For the next two years, creators will keep 100% of their subscriber revenues (excluding transaction fees) before a 5% fee kicks in starting in 2023.
Spotify launched the program today to a test group of 12 creators — including NPR — who will begin releasing subscriber-only content to their existing feeds. The company is accepting submissions to be added to the early adopter list, and will expand globally "over the coming months," it said.
"By enabling wide distribution of subscriber-only content, our aim is to help podcasters maximize their subscription audiences and grow them from their existing listener bases," the company said. "Within Spotify, this content will be searchable and discoverable like any other podcast episode."
Podcast listeners will start seeing small lock icons next to premium episodes in their podcast feeds. Clicking on the button will prompt a pitch to "support this podcast by becoming a subscriber."
Spotify’s top competitor in the podcasting space, Apple, announced last week that it will launch a similar podcast subscription to creators and fans starting next month. Apple subscriptions will provide support for ad-free listening, exclusive content, and early access to new shows, however, there will be more fees involved. In line with other App Store purchases, Apple will keep 30% of sub fees for the first year and 15% annually after that.
Apple’s podcast division helped popularize the format, but in recent years has given up its lead to Spotify, which has grown rapidly. Spotify's acquisition of Anchor in February 2019 marked its third podcasting company acquisition that year -- after Gimlet Media and Parcast -- spending upwards of $400 million total on the trio. In November, Spotify added podcast advertising and publishing company Megaphone to its arsenal, too. According to market research firm eMarketer, Spotify is expected to pass Apple Podcasts in U.S.-based monthly podcast listeners this year, with 28.2 million listeners every month, compared to Apple’s 28 million.
For the most part, Spotify's podcasting push has so far focused on big-name talent, inking content deals with the likes of Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian and Barack and Michelle Obama. But today's announcement of a new podcast subscription is part of a three-pronged effort from the company to help independent podcasters monetize, which also includes the newly-announced Spotify Open Access Platform (OAP) and audio advertising marketplace Spotify Audience Network (SPAN).
The OAP, which is currently in testing mode, will allow podcasters who have paid subscriber bases on other platforms to deliver paid Spotify content directly to those bases, using their existing login systems. SPAN, which Spotify first announced at its Stream On event in February, will begin rolling out to select independent creators using anchor starting May 1.
It's only Tuesday, and this news already joins a string of announcements from Spotify this week. Yesterday, on the music streaming end, Spotify began hiking prices for Family Plan subscribers in the U.S. and U.K. and launched a Facebook miniplayer allowing users to stream music directly within the social media platform.
Just days after landing her fourth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Drop Dead,” Olivia Rodrigo is now getting major recognition from Niall Horan.
In a recent conversation with Rolling Stone published April 30, the former One Direction member shared insight into how he approaches songwriting, highlighting the comeback of bridges in pop and pointing to Rodrigo as a key influence behind it.
“It’s great to hear [bridges]. I feel like Olivia Rodrigo has been a big influence on that for pop writers,” the Irish artist said, before singing part of the “Drivers License” bridge. “What I like about Olivia’s music is [that] you feel like you’re getting one song and then you get a completely different song. It completely flips on its head musically, goes somewhere different, brings you to a bridge, brings you to some weird musical breakdown thing. Whatever [she] and Dan Nigro are up to is a good little team they’ve got going there. It’s definitely influencing people, including myself.”
Horan also spoke at length about his upcoming project Dinner Party, set to arrive June 5 through Capitol Records. He has already released two tracks from the record, including the title cut and “Little More Time,” both produced alongside Afterhrs, John Ryan and Julian Bunetta. The album rollout will be paired with an extensive 22-date tour across Europe, Ireland and the U.K. The Irish singer’s new release follows 2023’s The Show, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. During the interview, Horan also mentioned that his next era leans more into rock elements, something he connects back to his long-standing love for bands like Blink-182.
“That drum sound is something that we were trying to chase, and that comes from that late-’90s, early-2000s punk-rock era,” he said. “Rock’s been a big influence in my life since I was a child. I write pop songs, but dressing them up in a different way sometimes is quite cool. And now, the way my career is going, I’m completely thinking about live shows all the time. I learned so much from being on the road and being out there every night. There’s only so much sitting on Spotify you can do and reading comments before you actually get an idea of what people actually think. You can see it in the room. The rockier stuff really goes off at the shows.”
The “Slow Hands” hitmaker also has two U.S. stadium dates lined up for this year. Joining longtime friend and Grammy-nominated country artist Thomas Rhett, Horan is set to perform at GEODIS Park in Nashville on July 9 and Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania on July 19, with Live Nation handling promotion for both shows. Kashus Culpepper and Emily Ann Roberts will open the concerts. With such a packed touring schedule, all four remaining members of One Direction are expected to be on the road with new music this year. When asked about attending his former bandmates’ shows, Horan gave praise to Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.
“I went to Harry’s show a couple of years ago, and that was just wild. Madness going on there,” he said. “It reminded me of the 1D stadium shows where it was just seas of people jumping up and down. Watching the things going on on the floor, all the fans dancing around, I love that. You feel a sense of pride watching the boys doing what they love to do, and the communities that they’re able to create. I’m going to try and get to a Louis show of some capacity in the next few weeks.”
Horan is now the fourth One Direction member to drop a new album this year. Tomlinson released How Did I Get Here? in January, Styles hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally in March, and ZAYN followed with Konnakol earlier this month on April 17.
