Spotify is now letting non-hosted podcasters add movies to the platform. The corporate quietly rolled out the new function final week, a Spotify spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch.
Beforehand, creators who needed to add video podcasts to Spotify have been required to enroll to be hosted on Spotify for Podcasters, a free platform for podcast creators, or with a companion internet hosting firm. Creators may additionally separate their video feeds from audio, however this isn’t ultimate because it uploads as two episodes. Now, any creator can add on to Spotify utilizing their most popular podcast internet hosting service.
To make use of the brand new function, creators ought to navigate to the Spotify for Podcasters portal, find the audio-only model of a podcast episode and click on the three dots on the fitting so as to add a video model. The rollout was first reported by Podnews.
Spotify has been focusing extra on video podcasts lately, which appears to be paying off. The platform now has greater than 250,000 video podcasts, up from 100,000 in 2023.
The corporate shared this new quantity with TechCrunch forward of Vidcon subsequent week, together with different stats round video utilization on its platform. As an example, there are greater than 170 million international customers watching video podcasts on Spotify, and the variety of month-to-month lively customers watching video podcasts has grown by 40% year-over-year. Moreover, the platform recorded an even bigger improve in video consumption hours in comparison with audio-only consumption hours in the identical interval.
“Video is changing into core to the worldwide Spotify expertise,” Maya Prohovnik, Spotify’s vp of podcast product, mentioned in a ready assertion. “With the variety of podcasters publishing movies on our platform rising 70% over the previous 12 months, it’s clear that video podcasts are resonating with customers, and the urge for food for video content material has elevated immensely throughout all of our main content material classes on Spotify.”
Spotify has launched different options to boost the video podcast expertise for creators and listeners, corresponding to “Miniplayer,” which permits Premium subscribers to look at movies in a smaller desktop window on high of different home windows.
General, the corporate is rising its funding in video content material. In March, Spotify mentioned that it was including music movies to pick out nations, together with Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Poland, the Philippines, Sweden, and the U.Okay. The corporate can be testing a video schooling providing within the U.Okay. that options programs surrounding topics like music manufacturing.
