Skip to main content

Spotify’s video podcasts bring hosts — and advertisers — closer to fans

 

Spotify announced today that it would start offering its podcast listeners something new: The ability to watch their favorite podcasters while they listen to them. According to the company, this allows fans to “get to know their favorite podcast hosts even better, and creators can more deeply connect with their audiences.”

Recommended Videos

While hardly the first streaming music service to offer video (Apple Music and Tidal both have extensive video collections), you can bet that Spotify’s video strategy is less about creating a multimedia experience, and more about creating a monetized experience.

See, Spotify has already made it crystal clear that podcasts are a huge, untapped resource when it comes to advertising. “There’s been no unified business here, everyone is out selling their podcasts individually,” Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s chief content officer, told a reporter recently, “we don’t even have a unified metric system.”

Spotify is already in the midst of bringing an audio-centric ad platform to market, designed expressly to overcome that lack of sales unification in podcasts. But why stop there?

If audio ads are a good thing — and judging from both Spotify’s and Pandora’s attempts to build interactive voice ads, we assume they’re a very good thing — then surely video ads are even better.

Combined with in-app offers, which Ostroff said would be the next step, brands will have ample opportunity to get the exposure they so desperately crave.

This leads us to the Spotify video podcast experience. You can’t have video ads without, well, video, and selling video ads within podcast content has got to be a much easier lift business-wise than trying to monetize music videos.

Curiously, the initial batch of podcasts that Spotify is targeting for video are all already available on YouTube. These include The Morning Toast, The Misfits Podcast, Fantasy Footballers, Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay, and others. Does this mean that these successful podcasters will soon see revenue stream from both YouTube and Spotify? For the immediate future, yes.

But looking farther ahead, we can already see what’s coming down the pike. Earlier this year, Spotify announced its blockbuster acquisition of the Joe Rogan Experience, one of the top podcasts in terms of audience. Rogan’s podcast — which will effectively cease being a true podcast when it becomes a Spotify exclusive later this year — is also available in video form, and those videos will become “in-app vodcasts,” according to the company.

Though Spotify didn’t specify the terms of its deal with Rogan, it would be surprising if Rogan’s videos remained on YouTube after this year. If all goes well, Rogan won’t be the last podcaster to be offered a new deal, which will likely sweeten the pot considerably over the income these hosts currently generate from YouTube and their own sponsorships.

It’s bizarre to watch Spotify podcasts creep ever closer to YouTube’s bread and butter, but in a tech-driven world that thrives on so-called disruption, it’s hardly a surprise.

Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen is a contributing editor to Digital Trends' Audio/Video section, where he obsesses over the latest wireless…
The Amazon 55-inch Omni Series is 35% off for President’s Day
The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED TV displaying its home screen on a wooden home theater credenza.

With President’s Day only a week away, we’re going to start seeing some major discounts on TVs, soundbars, streaming devices, and plenty of other home theater tech. In fact, some of these sales have already started. Take this Amazon 4K LED, for example: Right now, when you purchase the Amazon 65-inch Omni Series 4K LED, you’ll only wind up paying $360. The full MSRP on this model is $550.

There’s nothing like a handful of great TV deals to start the work week, so take advantage of this offer (and ones like it) while you still can!

Read more
This 75-inch Samsung QLED is on sale for under $1,000 today
The Samsung QE1D Series 4K LED TV.

We’re only a week away from President’s Day, and the TV deals have already started rolling in! Top brands like Samsung, Sony, and LG are offering markdowns on some of their best models, but one of the best offers we’ve seen today is also one of the best 75-inch TV deals we’ve come across in a minute:

For a limited time, when you order the Samsung 75-inch QE1D 4K QLED through the manufacturer, you’ll only wind up paying $980. The full MSRP on this model is $1,800.

Read more
Hisense’s version of the Samsung The Frame has a major discount today
Hisense CanvasTV.

TVs continue to get thinner and lighter, and just when you think a chassis can’t get more impressive, brands like Hisense introduce a model like the S7 Series CanvasTV. Designed to look like a piece of fine art hanging from your living room wall or sitting atop a TV stand, this signature Hisense QLED is a major competitor to Samsung’s The Frame lineup of QLED TVs and TCL’s NXTFrame QLED TVs.

And right now, when you purchase the Hisense 65-inch Class S7 Series CanvasTV through Amazon or Best Buy, you’ll only pay $900. At full price, the 65-inch CanvasTV sells for $1,300. It's one of the best TV deals of the week, so don't miss out!

Read more