According to Andrew Wallenstein, president of Variety’s Intelligence Platform, Spotify is showing interest in launching a subscription podcast service that would offer access to original shows or exclusive episodes for a monthly fee. The potential service was described in a survey sent out through Spotify’s app.
In the last two years, Spotify continues its expansion into the podcasting space. In the last few months, Spotify has collaborated with social media and lifestyle influencers on podcasts, released a spotlight on the global rise of K-Pop music with its For The Record podcast, and announced a a multi-year partnership with Chernin Entertainment to adapt podcast content for television, film and digital video. The deal — which will provide Chernin with access to more than 250 Spotify original series from Spotify Studios, Gimlet, Parcast, and The Ringer — accelerates growth in Spotify’s audio business with new content being introduced to the platform on a daily basis.
In addition, Spotify partnered with C-SPAN to bring listeners the 2020 Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates as podcast during the summer and fall campaign season.
The survey describes at least four possible subscription podcast plans, ranging from $3 to $8 per month. The cheapest plan would include “access to exclusive interviews and episodes,” but would still include ads. The most expensive plan would include access to “high quality original content,” early access to some episodes, and no platform-inserted ads. None of these plans would include access to Spotify’s premium music subscription.
A spokesperson for Spotify indicated that the survey should not be taken as concrete product plans.
“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of surveys in an effort to improve our user experience. Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings,” the spokesperson said. “We have no further news to share on future plans at this time.”
A subscription service could enable Spotify to set up a template for profitability in the podcasting space. Learning from the series of miscues by Luminary, which signed a splashy roster of talent to make podcasts for its subscription service, Spotify’s recent podcasting chess moves from building out vibrant podcasting content to collaborating with key business partners could make it better positioned to launch a successful podcast subscription service.
With Luminary, popular podcasters balked at a company with millions of dollars listing their shows without compensation, and its method for listing publicly available podcasts was called out for negatively impacting podcast creators at all levels.
Spotify is moving aggressively but carefully in the podcasting space and has the advantage of bundling a podcast subscription service with its streaming music subscription.
Stay tuned.
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