- Video podcasts have taken off in recent years, and Spotify has taken note.
- The audio titan has been investing in video creators, including launching new tools and incentives.
- Here’s how Spotify is taking on rival YouTube in video podcasting.
Spotify is betting on video to take its podcasting business to the next level.
The Swedish audio giant has been investing in video creators over the last year with new tools and incentives. Earlier this month, Spotify launched a program to pay creators a cut of the subscription and ad revenue from their video podcasts if they meet certain requirements. Earlier, the company rebranded its podcast platform as Spotify for Creators, nodding at the approach to blend in with the creator space.
Spotify’s listeners are embracing video, too. About 250 million of its 640 million users had viewed a video podcast, the company said in November. One-third of its active US-based users watch videos on the app each month.
The podcasting platform is second to video giant YouTube in the US. In an April survey conducted by Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, 31% of weekly podcast consumers said they used YouTube the most for podcast listening, while 21% said Spotify and 12% selected Apple Podcasts.
Still, Spotify is embracing its rival to help its podcasts expand their reach and find the right audiences, Jordan Newman, Spotify’s head of content partnerships, told Business Insider.
“This is not a zero-sum game,” Newman said. “There are incremental audiences on all platforms, and even some of the same audiences are consuming in different ways. And so I think if all you’re doing is focused on one platform as a creator, you are not doing it right.”
Here’s how Spotify’s podcasting platform compares to YouTube’s, from the user experience to content to the content to discovery.
The podcast service
For podcast listeners, Spotify and YouTube’s streaming services are looking more similar by the day, though they still have some key differences.
Both have free and paid tiers: Spotify Premium costs $12 per month versus $14 for YouTube Premium. Each gives users access to ad-free music and downloads for offline playback. Spotify’s paid service also includes 15 hours of audiobooks a month, while YouTube’s counterpart lets customers play videos with their phone screen off.
From a podcaster’s standpoint, Spotify and YouTube also have much in common. Both platforms give creators access to dashboards with data on who’s consuming their content and for how long. Both leave ads out of video podcasts for premium subscribers, although creators can insert their own host-read ads to generate extra revenue.
One key difference is how ad revenue is distributed: YouTube dishes out 55% of revenue generated from their videos to creators, while Spotify gives podcasters a slightly smaller cut in a 50-50 split.
The content
Spotify is best known for music and podcasts, much of which are also on YouTube. The video giant, of course, also has clips for everything from gaming streams to sports highlights to tutorials on tying ties.
But when it comes to podcasts, there’s increasing overlap between the two platforms.
Spotify, which in 2019 said it would pour $500 million into the podcast marketplace, has been shifting away from exclusivity to reach.
For example, the chart-topping podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience,” once a Spotify exclusive, is now available across all major platforms. Many podcasters at Spotify-owned studios, including The Ringer, are also creating bonus content exclusively for YouTube or going live on the platform following the demise of Spotify’s live-audio features, Spotify Greenroom and Spotify Live.
“Most sophisticated creators are multi-platform, and they’re optimizing their content for the platform in which it appears,” Spotify’s Newman said. “You’ll find our shows are not just found on Spotify; they can be found on a number of platforms.”
By putting podcasts across platforms, Spotify can also maximize advertising revenue, which was roughly 472 million euros, or about $491 million, last quarter — up a modest 5.6% from the year before, according to the company’s earnings report.
Content discovery and listener loyalty
YouTube and other video platforms like TikTok and Instagram may have Spotify beat when it comes to content discovery. Those platforms’ algorithms are adept at showing users what they didn’t even know they wanted to see.
With skill and a lot of luck, anyone could theoretically go viral on platforms like TikTok or even YouTube. It’s harder for a budding podcaster who’s only on Spotify to break onto the top charts since the platform’s users primarily find content by searching for it directly or through playlists that feature creators who are already trending.
That’s why Spotify is focusing on listener loyalty to set itself apart. The platform is positioning itself as the place to be for creators to build a sustainable following.
The company said time spent on the app has risen from 30 hours a month in 2020 to 40 hours as of late 2024.
“We are so great at retention and loyalty,” Newman said.
On other platforms, Newman said, users “may really engage for a minute with their content,” but after that, there’s a risk for the creator that “they’ll never see them again.”
He said that when users watch a creator on Spotify, “it’s a strong bet that they’ll come back week after week after week.”
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