Spotify announced key updates for creators at its Stream On virtual news event. The most important one is the launch of a high-end subscription called Spotify HiFi later in 2021. The company also announced it is expanding to more than 1 billion people in over 80 new markets across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America, with 36 languages added to its platform. These moves represent Spotify’s broadest market expansion to date.
The company also announced growing monetisation opportunities, including the introduction of the Spotify Audience Network, an audio advertising marketplace, and shared several new and upcoming functionalities to enable the creation of future formats of audio.
Through paid podcast subscription beta, the company will enable diversified options for podcasters to choose the ways they want to monetise their network. The company also announced improvements in podcast topic search and real-time interactivity features as well as the addition of new podcasts.
The other announced key updates for creators besides Spotify HiFi include Spotify Clips, Radar expansion, Canvas, Marquee, Discover Mode Beta, and Spotify for Artists expansion to 25 new languages by the end of 2021.
Music at HiFi standards
Spotify HiFi will deliver music in CD-quality, lossless audio format to end-users' devices and Spotify Connect-enabled speakers. The company said it's working with some of the world’s biggest speaker manufacturers to make Spotify HiFi accessible to as many fans as possible through Spotify Connect. Spotify HiFi will begin rolling out in selected markets in 2021.
Podcast advertising
The introduced Spotify Audience Network allows advertisers of all sizes to connect with listeners consuming a broad range of content, including Spotify’s Originals & Exclusives, podcasts via Megaphone and its podcast creation app Anchor, and ad-supported music. The company said it will leverage its medium-defining technology to give advertisers the ability to reach Spotify's audience of hundreds of millions of listeners—at scale—both on and off Spotify. Spotify is in the early stages of developing this offering.
In addition, Spotify announced it's unlocking more product features on Streaming Ad Insertion podcasting advertising service introduced in 2020. These include audience-based buying, native ad placements, and reporting on creative performance, all of which play a key part in powering the Spotify Audience Network. Later in 2021, the company will start to make this technology available to Megaphone podcast publishers and leading Anchor creators.
What's more, the Sweden-based company will start beta testing podcast ad buying on its self-serve platform for advertisers Spotify Ad Studio in the US.
On the R&D side, the company mentioned it's also using machine learning to help listeners search for and find podcasts by theme and topic. In addition, Spotify is enabling diversified options for podcasters to choose the ways in which they want to monetise their network.
Future formats of audio
The company also shared several new and upcoming functionalities to enable the creation of future formats of audio. It announced a new partnership between Anchor and WordPress to allow bloggers to publish their written content as a podcast with just a few clicks—and podcasters can create a website for their podcast as well. This offers a new group of creators to access a new audience via audio and share their voices on Spotify.
WordPress creators may also access Polls and Q&A's to better connect with listeners.
In the coming months, Spotify will begin testing the ability for creators to add video to their podcasts when they publish via Anchor—meaning these creators will have the power to complement their audio with visual. Spotify first began testing video podcasts in July 2020 and have since been iterating on the offering. Later in 2021, more creators can expect to access this feature as it expand the test via tooling that will live in Anchor.
Going forward, the company will also begin testing a functionality for podcasters to explore new revenue streams through paid subscriptions supported by their listeners.
On the podcast side, Spotify announced the addition of new podcasts in cooperation with filmmaker Ava DuVernay, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and the AGBO, Anthony and Joe Russo’s entertainment company. In addition, it said it will add narrative-scripted podcasts with Warner Bros. and DC after signing a multi-year agreement with them in 2020.
The new markets where Spotify is available are Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Curaçao, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
