Following Apple’s announcement of podcast creator tools for subscriptions on Monday, Spotify today also introduced its own latest developments in terms of features aimed at podcasters. Included among the changes are customization tools for podcast show pages, new impression analytics, tools to edit podcast previews, an expansion of automated ads and a new Spotify Audience Network Performance Dashboard for Megaphone enterprise publishers.
Plus, Spotify is making some small changes to its app to improve podcast discovery by consumers using its streaming app. This includes the addition of auto-generated tags that let listeners jump to the search results for any given creator. By clicking these tags, it will be easier for a listener to find all the content from a creator or a show guest across all of Spotify.
The updates were presented by Spotify’s director of Podcast Product, Austin Lamon, at the Podcast Movement conference on Wednesday.Starting with show page customization, podcasters will now be able to personalize parts of their podcast show page for the first time, the company says. Here, they can add a bio and the ability to link out to their existing social media handles, similar to other personalized landing pages, like those from Linktree and others.Plus, creators can use this page to help introduce new listeners to their show by pinning a “best place to start” episode and by curating up to two other items as “host recommendations.” These can be other podcast shows, a music album, a playlist or even an audiobook.Both hosted and non-hosted creators will be able to use this feature through the Spotify for Podcasters dashboard later this fall.
Meanwhile, the newly added impression analytics will help creators better understand how their shows are being discovered on Spotify. Through the Spotify for Podcasters dashboard, they’ll be able to see the total number of impressions for their show and their individual episodes over the past 30 days, how they’ve trended over that period and where on Spotify those impressions came from.New monetization analytics will also help creators track their earnings and measure their ad campaigns’ performance and subscriptions — features Apple also introduced for its own creators earlier this week.
These tools will also roll out in the fall to hosted and non-hosted creators through Spotify for Podcasters.
In addition, new creator controls for podcast previews will let podcasters select the part of their show they want included in the preview that appears in Spotify’s TikTok-like home feed where listeners discover new content. Previously, these previews were automatically generated — and will continue to be if creators don’t customize their previews. This, too, rolls out in the fall.
In terms of monetization, the Spotify for Podcasters program that connects creators with global advertising brands — or Automated Ads — will roll out to more markets. Currently an invite-only program in the U.S., it will expand to the U.K. and Australia, tripling the number of participating creators.Finally, Megaphone — Spotify’s enterprise podcast hosting platform — will gain a Spotify Audience Network Performance Dashboard that will display each podcast’s average CPM and a breakdown of impressions delivered by podcast, episode, ad location and listener region. This dashboard aims to help publishers better tailor their engagement with Spotify’s audio advertising marketplace, and will become available today.
