Why Spotify's New Monetization Features Probably Aren't for You

At the end of last year, Spotify announced their new monetization options for podcasters, Spotify Partner Program and Subscriptions. Now, while at first this might appear great news - after all, it might seem tempting to be making money on arguably the largest podcast platform in the world - chances are, for the average podcaster, that's not going to happen because of their eligibility limitations for the partner program.

For example, you need to be hosted with Spotify for Creators, have ten thousand streamed hours on Spotify in the last thirty days, have been streamed by two thousand unique Spotify users in the last thirty days, and have at least twelve episodes published.

Now, the first and last bullet points aren't deal breakers as such, but the main two - the ten thousand hours and to thousand unique Spotify users in the last thirty days - definitely could be, and probably are, for several reasons.

According to The Podcast Marketing Academy's Podcast Marketing Trends report, the average podcast has four hundred and twenty five downloads per episode and one thousand one hundred and thirty two downloads per month. So if your figures are similar to that of the average podcast, then the Spotify partner program is out of reach.

Unfortunately, that, and the fact a lot of listeners won't use Spotify for personal reasons, is a great example of why having multiple monetization options without restrictions is key. So things like Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, direct sponsors, premium exclusive episodes, merchandise, affiliate marketing, and more.

Many podcast hosting companies also offer great options like memberships, private podcasts, etc.

By keeping multiple options open and not restricted to a single platform, you'll also be better positioned to manage if one of these options are no longer available to you, which can make a huge difference to your revenue goals.

I talk about this a bit more in depth over at my Be a Better Podcaster newsletter and I'll leave a link to that in the show notes so you can check it out. Until the next time, happy podcasting.