Spotify Rolls Out Paid Podcast Subscriptions To All U.S. Podcasters

Yesterday, Spotify rolled out the public availability for all U.S. podcasters to start selling paid subscriptions to their podcasts through its Anchor.fm platform. They have been testing this platform since April, where over 100 creators have launched paid podcast subscriptions.

This opens up a new world of revenue models for podcasters. Prior to having a paid subscription opportunity, podcasts relied on sponsorships and advertisements as their main revenue stream. This is a huge win for creators that are working on paid content subscription businesses. It’s in line with the likes of Substack, Patreon, and Ghost, allowing creators to build recurring revenue models around their content.

“Today, we’re also rolling out some updates to the product based on learnings during the testing period:

We will be expanding the number of pricing points to 20 options that can be chosen by the creator, offering increased flexibility.

We now offer the ability for creators to download a list of contact addresses for their subscribers so they can further engage with their subscriber bases and offer even more benefits.”