Spotify has launched paid memberships for podcasts, allowing creators to charge their most engaged listeners for perks such as fewer adverts and early access. The move puts the company in more direct competition with Patreon and YouTube.
The feature, first previewed at Spotify’s investor day in May, is rolling out in 34 markets, including the US. Creators keep 90% of membership revenue. They can offer bonus audio or video, fewer adverts, early access to episodes, or a combination, across several tiers and price points. Spotify has not disclosed prices.
Fans subscribe through a show’s page on Spotify, and payments are processed on the web rather than through in-app purchases. This keeps the transactions outside the Apple and Google app stores.
To qualify, shows must be hosted on Spotify
To qualify, shows must be hosted on Spotify for Creators or Megaphone. They also need at least 100 consumption hours, 100 listeners or viewers and three published episodes. That threshold is far lower than for the Spotify Partner Program, which pays video podcasters and requires at least 1,000 audience members and 2,000 consumption hours over 30 days.
Launch partners include The Adam Friedland Show, Making Sense with Sam Harris, the Shawn Ryan Show, The Sculpt Society and Two Hot Takes. YMH Studios is introducing memberships across 12 shows in its network. Spotify said membership badges and welcome clips will follow. It presented the product as a way for fans to engage more deeply with shows they already follow.
The product enters a growing market. Patreon said podcasters earned $629 million (about R10.3 billion) on its platform in 2025, up 33% year on year. More than 47,000 podcasters earn income there, and the category has 7.6 million paid memberships. Patreon typically takes about 10% of podcast earnings, the same share Spotify will keep. Patreon’s chief operating officer, Paige Fitzgerald, has said that 15% of Spotify users who visit a creator’s Patreon page go on to become paying members.
Spotify has been building out video to compete
Spotify has been building out video to compete with YouTube. By late 2025, it hosted nearly half a million video podcast shows, and more than 390 million users had streamed a video podcast. In September, the company said that Partner Program payouts to enrolled shows had risen by more than a third after it lowered eligibility requirements earlier in the year. It also said the programme would expand to more than 35 additional markets.
Spotify reported 777 million monthly active users and 300 million premium subscribers in the second quarter of 2026. Revenue rose 14% to €4.8 billion (about R88.5 billion), and operating income increased 61% to €655 million (about R12.1 billion).
Spotify has not said whether South Africa is among the 34 launch markets. South Africa is not on the list of new Partner Program markets.
