Spotify launches revenue-sharing Partner Program

Spotify has launched the Spotify Partner Program, a way to monetise your shows on the platform. “More than 65% of eligible shows and networks have already enrolled,” says the press release. You have to be hosted with Spotify (or Spotify’s Megaphone) in order to get access, and be based in the US, UK, Canada or Australia.

Creators get a 50% revenue share for ads sold. For any video episodes that “Spotify Premium subscribers in select markets stream uninterrupted”, creators earn “based on how much your content is streamed”, but there is no further detail. If you have baked-in host reads, you retain all revenue from those.
The hard-to-hit eligibility figures (30 day targets of 10,000 streamed hours on Spotify, and 2,000 unique Spotify users) are Spotify-exclusive numbers - which suggests that some podcasters might withdraw their shows from open RSS altogether if it helps them hit the eligibility figure.
How does YouTube compare? YouTube pays out more - giving creators 55% of ad revenues (though overall revenues might be lower), and shares a portion of YouTube Premium revenue with creators, based on watch time. YouTube’s also significantly easier to become eligible, needing 4,000 streamed hours in the last year, and 1,000 subscribers).

Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano has explained how Anchor managed to add shows to Apple Podcasts without forcing users to do it themselves - always a bone of contention with other podcast hosts. No, it wasn’t a secret API (which Apple always denied): it was... hiring college students to do it all manually.

How do you turn a true crime podcast into a video show suitable for YouTube? True Crime Reports from Al Jazeera, which launches this Sunday, combines AI-generated visuals to re-enact aspects of the cases, motion graphics, and interviews with individuals at the heart of these stories. It's a first for a large broadcaster; the show is a co-production between Al Jazeera and Message Heard.