Spotify launches its own podcast subscription system, US-only for now

Remember last week when it was rumoured that Spotify would be launching its own podcast subscription system? Guess what? Spotify has confirmed that it is launching its own podcast subscription system, and they’ve detailed what it’ll entail.

Sadly, one of the main things you need to know is that the service is only available in the States for now. Other countries will be added later, but there’s no timeline for that just yet.

Speaking of Spotify

The service will be available though Anchor, the company’s platform. Users will be able to make podcasts as subscriber-only on Anchor, and they’ll be able to charge either $2.99, $4.99, or $7.99 per month for access to those closed-off episodes. They will be fully searchable on the app, but they’ll be locked unless you’ve paid for access.

The service will unfortunately not be making its podcast subscription service to creators for free, but it will be significantly cheaper than Apple’s version. But, in order to get buy-in from creators, the service will be free to access until 2023. After than, Spotify will start taking a cut of proceedings — a paltry 5%, compared to Apple’s 15% to 30% slice.

The podcast features are live, with twelve creators currently releasing subscriber-only content on Spotify. The service is currently accepting submissions from other creators but, as we said, it’s limited to the US for now.

Source: The Next Web