Spotify is introducing several new tools and features for podcasters, the company has announced today, including new capabilities for monetisation, customisation, promotion, and data measurement. Speaking at the Podcast Movements conference in Denver, Colorado, the audio giant unveiled a range of updates to its all-in-one creator platform, Spotify for Podcasters.
The news follows on from previous announcements made at the company’s Stream On event in March, in which it first launched the Spotify for Podcasters platform, combining its creator hosting platform Anchor with tools and systems from its enterprise podcast hosting platform Megaphone.
As part of the new updates, the company announced that its Automated Ads programme, which is currently available on an invite-only basis for creators in the US, UK and Australia, will soon be available to podcasters in more markets. Spotify aims to triple the number of creators involved in its monetisation programme by expanding to other regions as well as opening up the eligibility requirements.
Other new updates that will be coming soon to the Spotify for Podcasters platform include tools to customise elements of their show’s page. This includes tailoring the podcast’s bio and linking out to other social media platforms, as well as highlighting one episode as the “best place to start” for new listeners.
Starting this autumn, creators will also be able to specifically select which part of a podcast episode they’d like to preview on users’ home feed, rather than having an automatically generated clip. They can also pin two host recommendations that promote different pieces of content on Spotify, including other podcasts, music albums, playlists, or audiobooks.
Creators can additionally use banners to promote their subscriber-only podcast content, distributed through Patreon or Supporting Cast with Spotify Open Access. Spotify’s integration with Patreon went live to users worldwide at the start of August, five months after the partnership was first announced in March. Users can access this content by linking their accounts on both platforms after signing up for the creator’s Patreon membership.
“Spotify is focused on being the primary platform for podcast creators where they can be discovered, grow their audience, and make a living off of their craft, said Austin Lamon, Spotify's director of product for podcasts. "Today’s announcements are a few ways we’re improving the experience for creators, listeners, and advertisers, so every part of the podcast ecosystem can make more out of their presence on our platform.”
To help creators understand how their shows appear and are being discovered on the platform, Spotify for Podcasters will soon show impression analytics for shows and individual episodes on the platform, with data covering the past 30 days. Data that creators will be able to access includes impressions from Spotify’s home screen, including recommendation shelves, recently played shows and podcast previews, impressions from Spotify search including search queries, podcast charts, and editorial shelves, and impressions from the Spotify library including saved shows and user-created playlists.
Starting 23 August, Megaphone users also will be able to track podcasts’ CPM, and breakdowns on impressions delivered by a podcast, episode, ad location, and listeners region through the Spotify Audience Network Performance Dashboard.
As part of its continued efforts to provide more first and third-party measurement solutions, the audio giant launched Spotify Ad Analytics in June this year, which is a rebrand of marketing attribution platform Podsights which the company acquired in February 2022. The solution is free for advertisers and provides campaign performance data across music and podcast streaming. Acast recently said that it will be no longer accepting new campaigns using Spotify Ad Analytics starting 1 September, in a stated effort to remain focused on fostering an open and transparent environment.
