Spotify has been leading the list of the music media platforms for years now. A perfect platform for artistic expression does not apply only to musical artists. Podcasting and playlist creation can be done by any Spotify user and nobody knows what kind of services the team behind the platform will offer its users in the future.
Being an audio focused media Spotify is essentially about being heard. Yes we all started using the platform to listen to our favorite artists and to be clear Spotify did not even have such a feature back then but now, podcasts are a hot topic. According to the Wall Street Journal the consumption of podcasts on Spotify have more than doubled ever since the pandemic started last year. Add to this the fact that so did the number of paid subscribers.
More than 299 million active monthly listeners and 138 million subscribers Spotify is the place for you to start your podcasting journey. The biggest names in the music and entertainment industry, Hollywood stars, politicians, influencers and activists, names like Michelle Obama, Oprah, Kim Kardashian and RuPaul are signing deals with Spotify to have their own podcasts on the platform.
What’s the Secret?
Why have podcasts become so popular? The thing is, they are easy to digest and do not consume any of your time. You can literally play the show in the background while you do your house chores, drive or relax. For many people it may be hard to focus on the visuals and do all those things at the same time, this is why random YouTube video sessions have been replaced by podcast playlists for many of us. Think back to the early 2010s. Nobody would drive around watching a video on their phone but everyone had music or their favorite radio show playing in the car. Podcasts are the new age radio shows.
Starting out is not as hard as it may seem. One thing about Spotify is that it truly cares about its content creators. The team behind the platform constantly works on developing more flexible and accepting space for everybody. Frequent updates, improved layouts, new service launches, all of these makes Spotify the leader on the market among similar media platforms.
So how do you start your podcast channel on Spotify?
First of all, if you have anything to say, anything you consider worthy of sharing, anything you think is an interesting topic to discuss or share the information about, you are good to go.
Keeping structure is also important. You can talk about virtually anything but you need to find a solid topic that you are going to discuss during one episode or keep the talk going for several episodes. The change of the topic can happen after that or each new episode. That is completely up to you. The key point is to not confuse the listener by jumping from one thing to another unrelated to the previous discussion. Let’s say if you have a true crime podcast you cannot talk about your favorite girl group songs.
Each new episode is automatically saved in your library and available for a replay unless you choose to take it down. It will be featured in the personalized sections on Spotify.
When you have that figured out and planned you need to also measure the time of your episodes. Do you want it to be longer than 40 minute? Or do you prefer shorter episodes. Your preferences are one thing but you also need to get to know what your audience likes. Keep your eye on Spotify analytics every time you put a new episode on your channel. Thankfully, Spotify analytics are a reliable source to get real statistics and navigate accordingly.
Incorporating music into your podcasts is another thing your listeners may enjoy. Try not to play it louder than your own voice, unless you choose to host a musical radio program type of show. In that case feel your inner DJ as much as you want. For the good sound quality Spotify recommends Soundtrap. This is a virtual studio with online tools you need to record and edit your voice. Very convenient for those who do not own any special equipment.
Ways to Earn from Podcasts on Spotify
No matter what kind of podcast show you host, Spotify lets you monetize it. There are few things you can do to earn. For the starters, advertising is the most obvious way to get paid for your podcasts. Spotify recommends a platform called Anchor, to start recording your podcasts for free. The great thing about it is that you can record the advertisement in your own voice and get paid every time you or someone else plays it.
For advertising to happen you need to be somewhat of an important person on the platform. Obviously, your target audience cannot be all 299 million Spotify users but there is a place for everybody. You just need to find them. Playlisting is how Spotify helps their content creators get to their listeners. Spotify playlists are exclusive and made anew every day, week or month. There is also Spotify wrapped at the end of every year where your podcast can appear as someone’s most listened piece on the platform.
There is a difference between advertising in your podcast and advertising your podcast. Spotify offers an ad studio where you just need to pick a track that will run in the background and a script of the advertisement, which you can provide without adding the track and Spotify Ad Studio will create an audio ad campaign in the span of a few minutes. If this is what you want to do in order to get the attention of the desired audience, go ahead and do it, but there are other ways to promote your podcasts without spending a lot of money.
There is not a specific way you can get Spotify to put your podcast into their playlists. Playlistsing which is done by Spotify themselves is based on different tastes, data, research and whatever is trending on that day or a week, depending on the type of playlist. So instead, what you need to do is to ask your listeners to put your podcasts into playlists they create. Communicating with them can be hard if you rely only on Spotify only. But you can connect with them using a cross-media communication strategy.
Connecting With Your Spotify Audience Outside of Spotify
Yes, another great way to reach out to your listeners is to make a use of other social media. Share your podcasts on other social media platforms. Simple as that. Encourage your followers everywhere to listen to your podcasts and add them to their own playlists. Sharing boosts the number of engagements. Another great way to boost the number is by using special platforms. This is a cost effective investment, especially for the episodes with audio ads in it.
You can create playlists of your own podcasts by yourself and share them. Here’s another tip. Make sure to look at the analytics before you do this. Thematically grouping the episodes is great but you may group them according to popularity to attract more listeners. Another great tip is to feature your podcast on the artist profile if you have your own music on Spotify. This can be done with the help of Artist Pick.
We can all recognize the Spotify logo everywhere. Green and black in combination are associated with the platform as well and this is done because the team behind Spotify know a lot about establishing the brand. This is why you may want to look into their branding guidelines in order to get the most out of using the Spotify logo, icon, fonts, messaging, colors and more.
Great thing for content creators is that they can customize the design themselves and choose the appropriate layout for their podcast channel as well as each episode. Despite not being a visual focused social media platform like YouTube or Tik-Tok, visuals still play a significant role in distributing the content on Spotify.
Some Other Tips
Lastly, stay active, stay updated and collaborate. If you want to make podcasting a regular thing you need to update your episodes on a regular basis. As well as this, make sure you are updated on the topic of your podcasts. Because your listeners will be. This should be a part of your pre-show preparation routine.
Alongside writing down what you are going to talk about in that episode. Despite what different guidelines for podcast newbies may say you don’t need to write down the entire script and read it out. As long as it is not all over the place the listener will always prefer a genuine chit chat. However, there are only few people who can pull a perfect spontaneous speech without preparing for it in any way. Just a little bullet note will help you stay focused and organize your speech better. If you have a guest on the show that’s when you need to have a script.
If you do not invite someone else every other episode, that is totally fine. If all of your episodes are a solo, that’s fine too but once in a while it is interesting to hear someone else’s view on a particular topic. Since podcasts can be recorded beforehand any kind of collaboration is extremely easy as it can be done long distance too you just need to connect to the right person and ask them to be featured in your show.
