Audio streaming service Spotify is now letting all U.S.-based podcasters create a subscription feed for their show through the company’s podcast distribution platform, Anchor. Apple and Spotify have each been trying to corner the podcast market, with both companies announcing their own podcast subscription options in April. Spotify itself has tried to create an exclusive lineup of shows to push its podcast service past competitors, the biggest name among them being the Joe Rogan Experience.
Along with its subscription service, Apple has creators paying $19.99 to set up a premium subscription and collects 30 percent of revenue for the first year and 15 percent afterward. Spotify has said the company will not collect any revenue from podcasts through subscriptions until 2023 when the company will take 5 percent. Apple’s podcast subscription service is not operated through an outside platform like Anchor. Podcast creators need to upload any content they want to mark as a premium through Apple’s own backend, not through a multi-platform RSS feed. Spotify representatives have said the company was working to make sure creators can spread their premium content across multiple platforms through Anchor, and it seems the company stuck with that idea.
Leveraging Anchor as a distribution platform, a blog post highlights that U.S. based creators can now choose to offer subscriptions at 20 different price points instead of three, ranging from $0.49 to $150, by going onto their show’s “Money” page and choosing to set up the subscription. After selecting the price, creators can select which published podcast episodes they want to mark as subscriber-only, and then select the update option to make the subscription active on all platforms the show is hosted on. When publishing a new episode, creators can simply toggle a subscription-only option on before publishing to put it behind the paywall.
But Wait, That's Not All
If listeners choose to opt-in, creators can also assemble a list of listener emails and use that list to communicate with them. Anchor says this feature is meant to let creators send out “exclusive news, expressions of gratitude, extra content, or updates” while “nurturing their listener community.” Because the subscription service is tied to Anchor, the best way for creators to point listeners toward their subscription page is to copy the link to the show’s subscription page into a podcast’s show notes.
Even if having to manage a podcast’s subscription through a separate distribution platform does create some friction with listeners, being able to start a subscription model without having to worry about platform revenue share or a starting fee is a great reason for smaller podcast creators to experiment with monetizing on Anchor. The only worrying part of this update is allowing listeners to share their email with podcasts they subscribe to since creators can just copy the list and then keep that contact information. Of course, listeners can opt-out, and be mindful of who they give their information to.
Source: Anchor