Spotify has started rolling out new monetisation, discoverability and tracking tools for creators globally across its all-in-one podcast platform, the audio giant has announced.
Spotify announced several of these new tools and features for its creator platform, Spotify for Podcasters, during the Podcast Movement conference in August this year. While some have started to roll out to users worldwide, others will be available at a future date.
Creators will now have more control over their show pages, with access to customisation tools like the ability to select a specific episode to highlight as the ‘best place to start’ for new listeners. Podcasters can also choose to pin two host recommendations to the ‘More Like This’ tab, which promote different types of content including other podcasts, music albums, playlists, or audiobooks.
For podcasters that want to increase their paid subscriber base, exclusive subscriber-only content can now be promoted through a banner on the show page which can guide free listeners to the paid content. This is only available for creators who use Spotify Open Access, which allows them to distribute their bonus content on Spotify and third-party platforms like Patreon or Supporting Cast.
Besides using Spotify Open Access, the company is also investing more in monetisation tools for podcasters with things like its Automated Ads Programme. The program was previously only available in the US on an invite-only basis, but has since expanded to the UK and Australia, with Spotify opening up the eligibility requirements and aiming to triple the number of creators involved.
Creators who use Automated Ads, subscriptions, and Ambassador Ads on Spotify for Podcasters now have access to analytics on the platform, which help them improve the efficiency of their campaigns by tracking earnings and measuring performance of ad campaigns and subscriptions.
Spotify is also making it easier for creators to understand how their podcasts are being discovered by providing them with Impression analytics for the full show and individual episodes across a 30-day period. Creators can now track data from Spotify Home, including impressions from recommendation shelves, recently played shows and podcast previews, Spotify Search, including impressions from searches, charts and editorial shelves, and Spotify Search, including impressions from saved shows and user-created playlists.
To access the show page customisation tools, creators need to log in to Spotify for Podcasters and click on Only on Spotify through the Settings tab. For tracking insights and impressions, creators can click on the Analytics tab and click on the Monetization subtab.
Spotify will continue rolling out new features for creators in the coming months, including more personalisation and accessibility tools such as the ability to tailor a podcast’s bio and link out to social media channels, the ability to select which part of a podcast episode they’d like to preview on users’ home feed rather than having an automatically generated clip, and the ability for listeners to access an auto-generated transcript to read along when listening to a podcast.
Spotify for Podcasters was significantly revamped in March this year, following the integration of elements from its creator hosting platform Anchor with tools and systems from its enterprise podcast hosting platform Megaphone.
“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 in a previous statement. "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.”
