What Spotify for Creators may be telling Audio Podcasters (Podcasting)

You have video right? Did you add video? Your podcast should be video! Did you add video yet? How about now? Hey where's the video?

I decided to take a few minutes to look over this week’s “Spotify for Creators” announcement.

Ok, that’s not crazy. I agree with James Cridland who says (paraphrasing) a podcast is whatever the person consuming it thinks it is.

Here on Old Man Mountain, Consumer-Me has no interest in Video Podcasts. Maybe it’s because I’ve already logged thousands of hours in radio studios and podcast studios watching someone speak into a microphone. But, sure, some people like staring at people talking into microphones, so I don’t think Spotify is crazy saying podcast fans (and nice use avoiding the word “consumers”) want flexibility.

I also don’t care if you dress up a hotel room (or not) to do the Two Chairs setup that passes for “high quality” production. Reportedly the above setup cost “6 figures.” Man, I can’t believe podcasts don’t make money. Well that podcast seems to, so for $25 million a year, whats a hundred grand on two chairs, a plant (real?), some photo frames and a backdrop?

And before I get accused of all sorts of things, let me be clear I also have no interest in the You Talk, I Talk two camera version of video podcasts.

I listened to both Harris and Trump, at 2.3x speed. Didn’t watch either.

I’m even less interested in the 9 People Talking At Once Livestream we see on Youtube, of which the audio sometimes gets posted. I imagine shows like this (this is Nerdrotic, quietly very big) will be the type of show Spotify will want to add.

I enjoy LISTENING TO Nerdrotic’s solo content, or sometimes Gary (aka Nerdrotic) and a guest slash cohost, but not the 9 people talking over each other version.

But that’s me. I am old. There are new generations and they consume this way. all good.

By the way, did I mention that watching a video podcast is really hard to do when driving?

I digress - and if you take my college courses I will tell you Week 1 that I am aware that I tend to go off on tangents, or as we call tangents these days “the weave.” Back to Spotify…

Ok, I’ll play….lets take a look at the announcement.

Starting today, qualified creators can sign up to participate in our new monetization program, the Spotify Partner Program

If you’re reading this, that’s not you. YOU don’t have enough followers. If you did, you’d be in Malibu right now and not reading a substack about podcasting, and your agent would be on the phone with Spotify.

Spotify’s language is “ meet our monetization criteria.” That’s not you.

Next up - “we’re thrilled to share that creators can now upload clips directly to Spotify, where audiences already are. To start, clips can be up to 90 seconds long, and creators can upload one clip per episode.”

Headliner, which I use, has this feature integrated and it’s on my agenda to play with this weekend. My spidey sense and history has been that short podcast clips don’t actually convert all that much and it’s more that it checks the box of the idea of marketing than actual marketing, but I will be happy to be wrong here.

#3 is more analytics. Yay I guess. But what happens if I accidentally click on my own show. Oh no! Now I have to listen to it. Or even worse, Watch It!!!

#4 is “Elevating the video discovery and viewing experiences on Spotify” and this is the part I was worried about. What is this telling us they think of Audio Podcasts?

And finally in section 5, in the second to last sentence: If video isn’t for you, that’s okay too—we offer free podcast hosting, distribution to all major podcast listening platforms, and ad monetization in select markets.

Gee thanks for remembering audio before you wrapped up.

My takeaway? Not an original thought here (I think I am stealing from Cridland), they probably feel they can monetize video more easily than audio. So your Dune Rewatch Podcast that gets 800 downloads, that’s nice….would you mind buying two captain chairs, some cameras, a fake plant, some picture frames, a lighting rig, and then editing a video? Oh wait, never mind, you probably don’t “meet our monetization criteria.”

Keep hustling out there. Do video if you wish. Do audio if you wish. But I don’t think this announcement wasn’t meant for you.

And before I go - I THOUGHT PODCASTING WAS DEAD. YOU SAID PODCASTING WAS DEAD