Spotify now allows non-hosted podcasters to upload videos to the platform. The company quietly released the new feature Last week, a Spotify spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch.
Previously, creators who wanted to upload video podcasts to Spotify had to sign up to be hosted on Spotify for Podcasters, a free platform for podcast creators, or with a partner hosting company. Creators could also separate their video streams from the audio, but this isn’t ideal as it uploads as two episodes. Now, any creator can upload directly to Spotify using their preferred podcast hosting service.
To use the new feature, creators will need to navigate to the Spotify for Podcasters portal, locate the audio-only version of a podcast episode, and click the three dots on the right to add a video version. The disposition was first reported by Podnews.
Spotify has been focusing more on video podcasts in recent years, which seems to be paying off. The platform now has more than 250,000 podcast videos, over 100,000 in 2023.
The company shared this new number with TechCrunch ahead of VidCon next week, along with other statistics about video usage on its platform. For example, there are more than 170 million global users who watch video podcasts on Spotify, and the number of monthly active users who watch video podcasts has grown by 40% year over year. In addition, the platform saw a greater increase in video hours compared to audio-only hours during the same period.
“Video is becoming the core of the global Spotify experience,” Maya Prohovnik, Spotify’s vice president of podcast products, said in a prepared statement. “With the number of podcasters publishing videos on our platform growing by nearly 70% over the past year, it’s clear that video podcasts are resonating with users and the appetite for video content has grown tremendously across all of our main content categories in Spotify”.
Spotify has introduced other features to improve the video podcast experience for creators and listeners, such as “Mini playerwhich allows Premium subscribers to watch videos in a smaller desktop window on top of other windows.
Overall, the company is increasing its investment in video content. In March, Spotify said it was adding music videos in select countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Poland, the Philippines, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The company is also trialling a video training offering in the UK that includes courses around topics such as music production.
