Spotify tease new revenue stream for video creators

After a long day of Zoom meetings, do you ever want to open your laptop and watch some people talk at you for an hour or so? If so, video podcasts might be your jam -- and you're about to make your favourite content creator a bit richer.

In January, Spotify will start paying its podcast hosts per video engagement — a clear frontal attack on YouTube's biz.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

So, Spotify is taking on YouTube. Or did YouTube take on Spotify? Let's recap the timeline.

In the red corner, YouTube:

• In 2022, YouTube released a page dedicated to podcasts.

• In 2023, YouTube Music started supporting podcasts.

Of course, YouTube had been 'supporting' podcasts for years, as Joe Rogan's static image videos can attest.

In the green corner, Spotify:

• In 2018, Spotify launched podcasts.

• In 2022, Spotify launched video podcasts.

So, what's next?

To take on YouTube, Spotify will have to swing, and swing big. Spotify are making several product moves:

• Creators can apply to their new Spotify Partner Program. Partners will get access to two products:

  • Ads, where creators earn revenue from running ads.

  • Premium video revenue, where creators earn (presumably) a CPM from Premium Spotify users watching their videos ad-free.

• More engaging features in their Spotify for Creators product, including advanced analytics, vertical shorts, and more.

Ultimately, we can expect creators to continue to submit their content to both platforms. For Spotify to stand a chance to irk out a lead, they'll need to match their competitor's revenue share at least; something Chief Product Officer Gustav Söderström is willing to do:

"[Revenue share] is consumption based and it is competitive with what they're doing today. Otherwise, it makes no sense for them.”