Spotify takes aim at YouTube with a new revenue-sharing program for creators

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.

Spotify seems to be tired of playing second fiddle to YouTube when it comes to video podcasting.

It’s launching a new program in January to pay creators a cut of subscription earnings and ad revenue for video podcasts, starting in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.

The company also announced it would no longer insert ads into video podcasts for Spotify premium subscribers. That could drive up video consumption on the platform as fans look for an uninterrupted streaming experience. Not all ads will disappear from video podcasts, however. Creators can still record their own host-read ads inside podcasts.

“By giving you guys, the creators, another path to monetization beyond ads, we’re freeing you up to do what you like doing, which is creating,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told a crowd of creators and industry professionals during the company’s Now Playing event on Wednesday, hosted at Spotify’s Los Angeles campus.

Spotify said payments for non-ad-supported video podcasts would be calculated based on how much a creator’s content is viewed. The company did not specify the rates it would use for creator payments. To qualify for the revenue-share program, a creator must upload and host content through Spotify, have 10,000 streamed hours from 2,000 unique users in the previous 30 days, and have at least 12 episodes published.

The company’s push into video podcasting and its attempts to woo creators make sense given the competitive landscape it faces. YouTube is the top platform for podcast streaming in the US, according to an April survey conducted by Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights. Thirty-one percent of weekly podcast consumers who responded to the firms’ survey said they used YouTube the most for podcast listening, followed by Spotify (21%), and Apple Podcasts (12%).

Outside its creator monetization program, Spotify also announced on Wednesday that it rebranded its “Spotify for podcasters” program to “Spotify for creators,” signaling a desire to draw in a wider set of video and audio talent to its platform. The company is rolling out a new mobile app experience that highlights creator analytics and monetization and is offering features like podcast clips, where creators can promote episodes by uploading vertical short-form video clips.

Spotify’s stock has been riding high this week after it reported Q3 earnings. The company showed increased profitability (as measured by gross margin) and added 6 million net paying subscribers, bringing its total to 252 million paying subscribers.