Tag: Spotify Podcasts

Categories
News

Spotify’s New Tool Revolutionizes Music Podcasts (And It’s Free)

Spotify Podcasts

Spotify’s efforts to become the premier platform to listen, discover, and create podcasts just took a giant leap forward.

Spotify just reinvented music podcasts. Starting last week, users worldwide can create podcasts using Anchor that includes music from the Spotify library. The music is available to creators without licensing fees, but artists will make money from the use. It’s a first of its kind development that stands to create a boom of new content for the popular streaming platform.

Anchor, which Spotify acquired in February 2019, is a podcast creation and distribution platform that is free to use. With a few clicks, anyone can upload and share their recordings with the world. The new feature, available in numerous countries, allows creators to add full songs from anyone with music on Spotify without fear of copyright claims or expensive licensing costs.

But there is a catch. There’s always a catch.

Shows featuring music from the Spotify library will only be available to Spotify users. That may frustrate some creators, but it’s a genius decision for Spotify corporate. The company is encouraging boundless creativity while still keeping the final product of that creativity within its ecosystem. As a result, more creators will move shows or make new ones exclusive to Spotify, and Spotify will have a constant stream of new content for its massive community of users to consume. All this, plus the fact musicians will make money any time people stream podcasts with their music, makes this development a winning combination for everyone!

In this Music Biz 101 update, host James Shotwell breaks down the newest Spotify development and the many ways it can potentially help artists everywhere get ahead while earning money. Check it out:

For more music industry news and advice, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Categories
Industry News News

Spotify Launches Tool for Artists and Creator To Make Promo Cards

Spotify promo cards make it easy for creators everywhere to make eye-catching sharable content that brings more listeners to their content.

Starting today, creators — both musical artists and podcasters — can easily generate Spotify promo cards to share with their fans on social media. Available through Spotify for Artists and Spotify for Podcasters microsites, creators can customize and share graphics featuring their artist profile, track, album, podcast, or episode. Additionally, the sites will allow creators to download special promo cards to share when they’ve been added to any of 33 of Spotify’s most popular music & podcast playlists. 

The microsite for artists is HERE and the one for podcasters is HERE. The feature is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German at launch. More language options are expected in the months to come.

A post on the Spotify For Artists blog outlines how the new tool works:

Introducing Promo Cards, easily customizable graphics that you can create to share with your fans to promote yourself, your songs, your album, or when you’re featured on some of our most popular playlists*. All you have to do is go to artists.spotify.com/promocards to get started. There’s no log-in required and the site is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Once you’re there, you can create your custom Promo Cards in three simple steps:

SELECT: Search for the content you want to promote. You can share your artist profile, a track, or an album. If one of your songs has been playlisted, you’ll see the option to share a customized Promo Card in the search results for the track.

CUSTOMIZE: How do you want fans to see the image? Will it be square, horizontal, or portrait? You can choose the aspect ratio and background color from a palette of complementary options.

SHARE: Download your new creation and upload it wherever you like with the link to your content the site generates. You can also choose one of the direct share options on the site to post it to social media.

Now, without having to spend time resizing and cropping you’ve created something fans can share to help spread the word about you and your music. And if you’re a podcaster (or if you guest on a podcast you want to help promote), we have Spotify for Podcasters Promo Cards available too.


*Playlists eligible for Promo Cards: African Heat, Are & Be, Esquenta Sertanejo, Exitos Espana, Fresh Finds, Future Hits Latin, Hot Country, Hot Hits Australia, Hot Hits Canada, Hot Hits UK, Indigo, Just Good Music, Lorem, Mansion Reggaeton, Modus Mio, mint, Most Necessary, New Boots, New Music Friday, RADAR, Pegao, POLLEN, Pop Rising, Rap Caviar, Rock This, Roots Rising, The New Alt, The Newness, Today’s Top Hits, Top Hits Deutschland, Top Hits Portugal, Viva Latino

Podcasters will follow similar steps for content creation.

All you have to do is go to podcasters.spotify.com/promocards to get started. There’s no log-in required and the site is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Once you’re there, you can create your custom Promo Cards in three simple steps:

SELECT: Search for the content you want to promote. You can share your show’s profile or an episode. If one of your episodes has been playlisted, you’ll see the option to share a customized Promo Card in the search results for the show or episode.

CUSTOMIZE: How do you want listeners to see the image? Will it be square, horizontal, or portrait? You can choose the aspect ratio and background color from a palette of complementary options.

SHARE: Download your new creation and upload it wherever you like with the link to your content the site generates. You can also choose one of the direct share options on the site to post it to social media.

Now, without having to spend time resizing and cropping, you’ve created something listeners can share to help spread the word about your podcast. And if you’re an artist (or if you guest on a podcast you want to help promote), we have Spotify for Artists Promo Cards available too.

*Playlists eligible for Promo Cards: Best Podcasts of the Week, Brain Snacks, and Crime Scene

Categories
Industry News News

Spotify acquires two podcast companies as CEO lays out plans to become the Netflix of audio

Spotify is determined to be the streaming king of all audio, not just music.

The growth of Spotify continues this week as the company announces the purchase of two huge podcast companies. Gimlet Media, a leading producer of content including shows such as Homecoming (recently made into a television series by Amazon) and Reply All, as well as Anchor, a platform that helps creators with tools to build, publish, and monetize podcasts, was purchased by the streaming giant for an undisclosed amount.

In a post to Spotify’s company blog, CEO Daniel Ek used the acquisition news to detail his ambitious plan to grow the company’s stake in the podcast market throughout 2019. “In just shy of two years, we have become the second-biggest podcasting platform,” Ek wrote. “Our podcast users spend almost twice the time on the platform, and spend even more time listening to music.”

Ek also described the state of the audio market as a whole, noting how consumers spend roughly the same amount of time streaming audio as they do video, but the value of the two services differs greatly. The video industry is almost a trillion dollar market, but the music and radio industry is worth around a hundred billion dollars. “I always come back to the same question,” Ek writes, “Are our eyes really worth ten times more than our ears? I firmly believe this is not the case. For example, people still spend over two hours a day listening to radio — and we want to bring that radio listening to Spotify, where we can deepen engagement and create value in new ways. With the world focused on trying to reduce screen time, it opens up a massive audio opportunity.”

With the purchase of Gimlet Media and Anchor, not to mention Ek’s plan to invest up to $500 million into the podcast marketing throughout the year, Spotify is now in the business of content creation. How that effects current and future shows produced by Gimlet remains to be seen, but it could result in exclusivity that draws listeners away from Apple podcasts and other competing platforms.

“Based on radio industry data,” Ek notes, “we believe it is a safe assumption that, over time, more than 20% of all Spotify listening will be non-music content. This means the potential to grow much faster with more original programming — and to differentiate Spotify by playing to what makes us unique — all with the goal of becoming the world’s number one audio platform.”

Though not stated, other reasonable explanations for the acquisitions include:

  • Doubling the amount of content available on the platform
  • Grabbing a share of ad revenue as more advertisers abandon terrestrial radio for podcasts
  • Playing a role in creating the next headline-making podcast series or helping that show reach a broader audience
  • Better revenue-sharing possibilities. 80% of the music on Spotify comes from three major labels that likely won’t offer the company a larger share of streaming revenue anytime soon. Podcasts, by comparison, are spread across a vast marketplace of publishers, including The New York Times and NPR.
  • A chance to quickly become the leader in the podcast marketplace. Apple currently reigns in podcasts because of its popularity in the US, but 80% of consumers outside the country use other operating systems (Android, Google, etc.).

But make no mistake, music fans. Spotify remains committed to the audio that made them a household name. Ek believes these acquisitions, as well as the creation of original content, will give the company greater leverage in negotiations that will ultimately benefit creators as much as they do the platform.

Exit mobile version