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Business News Digital
Patreon integrates with Spotify for podcasters with premium content
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 11 August 2023
Direct-to-fan service Patreon this week activated a new integration with Spotify that aims to make it easier for podcasters to make premium content available to those listeners that support them financially.
As a result of the new integration, podcasters can push premium as well as free content into Spotify, with the former only available to those listeners supporting the podcaster on Patreon and listed on a separate page within the Spotify app.
Lots of podcasters generate income by selling a subscription to listeners that gets them access to bonus content and other benefits, many using Patreon to manage that element of what they do.
However, delivering that experience is sometimes a bit clunky. If the premium content is only available behind the paywall on Patreon itself, that’s not necessarily very useful for listeners who access podcasts via apps like Spotify.
Some podcasters provide a secret RSS feed for the premium content that subscribers can use via any podcast app, though subscribers can then share that secret feed with other people, and there’s no way to regulate that.
Both Apple and Spotify have been developing their own tools to help podcasters monetise their podcasts through subscriptions.
Though with Patreon already being used by a large number of podcasters, the tie up between it and Spotify is a useful development. Podcasters will also be able to promote the premium version of their podcast via the page on Spotify where the free version is accessed.
Patreon explained earlier this week: “This partnership creates an integrated Patreon and Spotify experience. Now, podcasters can promote their Patreon-exclusive episodes on Spotify to drive membership of their Patreon where they can directly engage with fans to build community”.
“Once a podcaster syncs their two accounts”, it went on, “all Patreon-exclusive episodes will show up on a new dedicated page on Spotify. To help promote the new members-only Spotify show page, promotional banners can be added to the top of an existing free Spotify show page”.
