Patreon’s paywalls can now be integrated with Spotify

A partnership between Patreon and Spotify will enhance discovery for listeners while driving more patronage for podcast creators. By integrating their Patreon accounts with Spotify, those creators will be able to offer free and paid content in one location.

Podcast creators currently rank among the most successful groups on Patreon. Some of them have amassed five-digit patron counts, reeling in thousands of dollars per month from those backers.

Patreon is now pairing that financial flexibility with improvements to distribution. Backers will no longer need to navigate to a second platform in order to access exclusive episodes. Podcasters who employ the Patreon integration will be able to list those paid installments on their Spotify pages. Listeners who link their own Patreon accounts to Spotify will be able to support their favorite shows without navigating to a different app.

The pact between Patreon and Spotify was announced at the latter company’s most recent Stream On event in March. The fan funding platform led by Founder and CEO Jack Conte is one of several companies connecting to Spotify through the service known as Open Access. Other firms employing that tool include Cast

Several creators — including Forever35, Escuela De Nada, Girls Next Level, and Have a Word Pod have already received access to a beta version of Patreon’s Spotify integration. “Patreon’s new integration with Spotify is only a positive for us and every other creator on Patreon,” said the Have a Word Pod team in a statement. “Our audience has wanted to access Patreon Exclusive content on Spotify for a while and the new partnership between both Patreon and Spotify makes this possible. It’s just another way we can continue to engage with our audience who we love to interact with and continue to grow as a podcast because this opens up yet another way for us to be discovered.”

Spotify launched its own paid subscriptions in 2021. That product has found some users in the two years since its arrival, but the response to the Patreon integration shows that the fan funding innovator is still a popular option for creators.