Spotify may be looking to launch, down the line, a new subscription tier — or tiers — dedicated exclusively to podcasts.
The conceit was first spotted by Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein in the form of a survey sent through the Spotify mobile app, which inquired about offering access to: exclusive podcasts not available on other services, bonus content, and other perks for a monthly subscription fee.
The survey describes a range of different offers — none of which include access to music — with prices beginning at $3 and topping off at $8 (see below). In addition to the above perks, the plans include some combination of early access to shows that aren’t available elsewhere, and the removal of platform-inserted ads. (That said, the cheapest $3 tier does include both platform-inserted and host-read ads). Wallenstein notes that none of the purported plans makes mention of video podcasts, which Spotify has pushed to a greater extent in recent months.
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And while none of the plans include music, it’s conceivable that, if Spotify were to introduce podcast subscriptions in the future, the company could very well bundle music and podcast subscriptions together.
“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of surveys in an effort to improve our user experience,” Spotify told The Verge in a statement. “Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time.”
Spotify operates podcast deals with Joe Rogan, Scooter Braun, Michelle Obama, and other top personalities. Last year, the company acquired top podcast studios Parcast, Gimlet, and Anchor, and earlier this year purchased Bill Simmons‘ The Ringer.
Looks like the premium podcast plan would be ad-free and some mix of exclusive extra content at price points somewhere between $3-$8. pic.twitter.com/ArK8xYg0CM
— Andrew Wallenstein (@awallenstein) November 6, 2020
