If your Spotify account isn’t at risk of being kicked off the Family Plan, the music streamer hopes you’ll be willing to spend a few extra bucks per month on your favourite podcasts. Spotify today introduced ‘Memberships’ for podcasts, which paywall exclusive content, fewer ads, and other perks — all at the behest of individual podcasts.
A day to ‘member
For the time being, Memberships are limited to 34 countries, including the US, UK, and Canada. South Africa is not one of them, though additions like this tend to make their way here eventually. Memberships are available to any podcasts hosted on Spotify for Creators or Megaphone with three published episodes, 100 listeners, and 100 consumption hours over the past thirty days. So, pretty much any of the big names you already listen to.
“They can offer exclusive audio or video, bonus episodes, fewer ads, early access, access to a show’s archive—or all of the above,” Spotify said. All or some of these features can be offered in a single tier, or across multiple, with pricing set by the podcast itself. Or if they’d rather not mess with a good thing, hosts aren’t forced to opt in.
Read More: Spotify’s Family plan crackdown could leave you singing solo
Spotify, it seems, will keep 10% of any revenue generated by Memberships, matching Patreon’s flat fee for creators who joined after August 2025. For older Patreon creators, Spotify present itself as a worse or better option, depending on their legacy tier. Eligible listeners can follow these steps to sign up for a Membership.
Again, that doesn’t include Saffas. Not yet, anyway. When Spotify inevitably expands Memberships to more countries, you can count on at least a few shows to offer exclusive perks. Those would be The Adam Friedland Show, Making Sense with Sam Harris, The Shawn Ryan Show, Two Hot Takes, The Sculpt Society, and at least twelve shows under the YMH Studios umbrella.
