Some of the world’s leading creators descended on Spotify’s Los Angeles campus this week for the company’s Now Playing event. The company used the gathering to unveil a series of new offerings aimed at helping creators better monetise their video podcasts on Spotify and deepen their relationships with audiences.
The new enhancements are as follows:
New ways to monetise with the Spotify Partner Program: From now, qualified creators can sign up to participate in the Spotify Partner Program, available to creators in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. This new programme gives creators who host with Spotify and meet key criteria access to multiple revenue streams to help them transform their shows into sustainable businesses. Creators in the Spotify Partner Program earn a share of revenue every time an ad (monetised by Spotify) plays in an episode on and off the platform. Creators who publish videos on Spotify can also earn Premium video revenue through the Program. With this new revenue stream, when Spotify Premium subscribers in select markets stream video episodes, Spotify will serve content to them without dynamic ads. Instead of earning ad revenue, creators can earn based on how much their fans stream their content.
Reaching new audiences with video clips and thumbnails: Spotify is continuing to invest in new ways to manage a show’s presence on Spotify so creators can capture the attention of potential fans or followers. These features will help creators stand out with videos, show up in more places on Spotify, and look their best once they are there. Whether a creator is making an audio or video podcast, they’re probably already creating short-form video content to promote their show across social media platforms like TikTok, Shorts, Reels, or all of the above. Creators can now upload clips directly to Spotify, where audiences already are. To start, clips can be up to 90 seconds long, and creators can upload one clip per episode. The goal is not to make the platform yet another place to watch short-form content. Spotify wants to help people find their next favourite shows where they are ready to immediately listen or watch.
New analytics to help creators learn and grow: For creators hosted on Spotify, the platform has redesigned its dashboard on the web to bring key metrics to the forefront. Creators can always get a quick pulse check of how a show is performing and navigate directly to the right parts of our app to take action. At a glance, creators will be able to: see how many Spotify followers they have and how that growth rate changes over time, track the performance of their latest episodes, visulaise their audiences’ journeys and view the latest comments so they can build fan community on Spotify.
New video discovery and viewing experiences. Spotify says improvements to the video experience include personalised video recommendations throughout the app, playback improvements like thumbnail scrubbing, pinch-to-zoom, video chapters, and a toggle to make it easy to switch between the video and audio experiences. A following filter means audiences can quickly find content they already know and love.
Multiform creator model: For creators already making videos, Spotify advises them to start uploading video episodes through the newly refreshed hub for creators, Spotify for Creators, and check eligibility for the Spotify Partner Program. If video isn’t of interest, the platform says it offers free podcast hosting, distribution to all major podcast listening platforms, and ad monetization in select markets.
Among the guests who attended were Drew Afualo, Emma Chamberlain, Bailey Sarian, Haliey Welch, Jay Shetty, Chris Williamson, Josh Richards, Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry, Zach Justice and Jared Bailey, Don Lemon, Anna Sitar, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, and Andrew Huberman. Following a keynote from Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek and co-president Gustav Söderström, they were invited to attend panels that explored business opportunities on Spotify.
Panel highlights included a strategy-focused session where Rosenblum and Chaudry shared the blueprint behind their show and discussed their approach to growing an audience and building their brand and business. The Good Children creators, Chris Williamson and Haley Muse, explained how they found their formats, what drives them to innovate, and how to cut through the noise. “We launched right before video podcasts had not only become the norm but the necessity,” they recalled. “We noticed that a lot of podcasts were cutting down video for TikTok clips in order to get more followers and information out about the podcast.”
Creators from Higher Learning and NewlyWeds explained how cultural moments and fandoms can be built into successful video podcasts. “Video is more immersive,” stressed Higher Learning’s Van Lathan. “When you can see it, you get a better sense of somebody’s emotions and personality. It forms a stronger bond with your audience.”
Spotify monetisation experts Geoff Chow and Matt Huang walked through tips on how to build a business as a creator. They said the Spotify Partner Program is a great place to start, as it supports video & audio monetisation. “We see some shows that are primarily an audio show dipping their toes into video with special episodes,” said Huang. “This program is going to help them monetise all of those different types of content as they’re experimenting and figuring out what works for them.”
