It looks like things are about to get more competitive as Spotify partners with Anchor on a paid podcasting subscription platform.
Spotify podcasts will be hosted on Anchor with the paid subscription platform for podcasters being rolled out from today in the U.S. and expanding internationally in the coming months.
The feature is available to creators through Anchor, allowing podcasters to mark episodes as subscriber-only and publish them to Spotify and other podcast-listening platforms.
Spotify says: “For the next two years, this program will come at no cost to the creator, meaning that participating creators receive 100% of their subscriber revenues (excluding payment transaction fees). Starting in 2023, we plan to introduce a competitive 5% fee for access to this tool.
“By enabling wide distribution of subscriber-only content, our aim is to help podcasters maximize their subscription audiences and grow them from their existing listener bases. Within Spotify, this content will be searchable and discoverable like any other podcast episode.”
The first group of participating creators, which includes 12 independent podcasters, will publish subscriber-only bonus content in their existing podcast feeds. Spotify is also going to begin accepting submissions from its waitlist to expand the programme to more creators and the rest of the world over the coming months.
The company is also unveiling a collaboration with NPR in which they will publish a selection of their shows sponsor-free for paid subscribers. Five shows will be available starting 4 May – How I Built This with Guy Raz, Short Wave, It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, Code Switch, and Planet Money – with more to come in the following weeks.
