Spotify is expanding its Open Access API, allowing you to listen to more of your favorite creators’ subscriber-only podcast episodes directly on the app.
Should a creator choose to participate, they can now display their free and subscriber-only content on Spotify. Called Synched Feeds, the feature is integrated with publications like The New York Times and The Economist, as well as destinations for subscriber-only content like Substack and Patreon.
Previously, a creator might have posted a teaser of a premium episode with a link to their content elsewhere. Now, a subscriber-only episode will appear within the creator’s feed on Spotify with the option to subscribe to listen to it.
To participate, creators must use Spotify’s Open Access API to enable distribution on Spotify from another platform. Then, listeners link their premium account from the other platform to their Spotify account, unlocking the subscriber-only content. Spotify does not take a cut of creator revenue from subscribers.
Spotify launched Open Access last year as a response to its ban on manually uploading RSS content. According to TechCrunch, it’s the only major podcasting platform that doesn’t allow manual uploads, which is how users listen to subscriber-only episodes on other platforms. For the first year, Open Access was only integrated with Patreon, Memberful, Supercast, and Supporting Cast.
According to a press release, since launching Spotify Open Access with Patreon last year, nearly half of podcasters earning money on Patreon take advantage of it. Those same creators saw 15 percent of their Spotify listeners who visited their Patreon sign up for a paid membership.
