At its Stream On event in Los Angeles this morning, Spotify announced podcast-focused news in addition to updates regarding the redesign of its mobile app and the introduction of music and podcast discovery feeds in the style of TikTok. The company demonstrated a redesigned version of its Spotify for Podcasters dashboard, which will now work to improve the organization of its tools for creating, managing, expanding, and monetizing their content in a single location.
This modification involves consolidating its Anchor podcast creation service once more, which it purchased in 2019 for $154 million. In a survey it sent to creators, the company was seen considering whether to eliminate the Anchor brand at the end of last year. It was considering changing the service’s name to “Spotify Creator Studio” at the time.
Anchor will now be a part of Spotify for Podcasters, according to Spotify.
The Spotify for Podcasters dashboard will gain more power as a result of this integration.
When creators log in to the new dashboard, they will be able to see data about how well their show is doing and instantly upload or create new episodes or add more features to ones they already have. They can now also add videos, polls, and questions and answers, and look into analytics to find out how well their show is doing and more about listener habits. Additionally, this section will indicate when their podcasts are included in playlists.
Presenter Alex Cooper of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast remarked, “Before now, most of these features were only available to creators hosted on Anchor.”
Spotify explained today at the event how the new Spotify for Podcasters would become more of a one-stop shop for creators by integrating Megaphone, its hosting solution for enterprise publishers, directly into the Spotify for Podcasters product and centralized access to all of Spotify’s tools. Schwartz Media in Australia and Netflix were named as two of the most recent publishers.
The exec restructuring that has included the departures of key executives includes the departures of Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s former chief content and advertising business officer who led the company’s podcast expansion, and Max Cutler, founder of Parcast, a company Spotify bought in 2019 for $55 million. The changes come as Spotify’s podcast strategy has been revamped. Alex Blumberg, a co-founder of Gimlet, also left last year, as did Michael Mignano, a co-founder of Anchor.
Spotify said it would make its video podcasting features and interactive tools for podcasters more widely available in addition to the dashboard updates. In 2021, the Anchor creation app made Spotify’s interactive podcast polls and Q&As available to the public in 160 markets.
The company said that a new partnership with Patreon will allow creators to expand their creative businesses through direct payments from fans and allow fans to listen to their Patreon content on Spotify. This was another interesting piece of news.
Alex Norstrom, Spotify’s co-president and chief business officer, stated, “This partnership benefits everyone.” Spotify users can listen to all of their favorite content in one place, and Patreon podcasters can make more money and reach more people at the same time. These apparatuses empower you to pick how you adapt. We will keep looking into additional options for you to expand your business.
Alex Cooper, Emma Chamberlain, Mark Fischbach, Hasan Minhaj, Bill Simmons, and other creators of podcasts talk about their new series at the event. Spotify and DC likewise said they’d send off a new digital broadcast series zeroed in on The Riddler.
The Spotify Audience Network, the audio-first marketplace that also connects podcast publishers and independent creators with advertisers, received an update from the company. It stated that advertiser participation had increased by 500% and that monthly payouts to publishers who had opted in had increased by nearly 50 percent. In addition, over 700% more independent and business podcasters have made use of the service in the past two years. NPR is an innovation.
As part of a larger update to the Spotify app, podcasters now have access to yet another new feature. Autoplay for podcasts will, as with music, the company stated now. As a result, when a podcast is finished, a new episode that is relevant to the user’s tastes will automatically start playing.
The new Spotify for Podcasters is now available for use.
