ECNETNews reports that Spotify is enhancing its Open Access API, enabling users to access their favorite creators’ subscriber-only podcast episodes alongside free content in one unified feed.
This new feature, known as Synched Feeds, promises to streamline the user experience on the platform. With Synched Feeds, creators can now present both free and subscriber-only content seamlessly in a single feed.
Previously, creators had to share teasers of premium episodes with external links or maintain separate podcast feeds for free and subscriber content. Now, subscriber-only episodes will be conveniently displayed within the creator’s feed, giving users the option to subscribe for access.
To activate Synched Feeds, creators need to enable the feature through their Spotify for Podcasters account. This requires using Spotify’s Open Access API to distribute content from other platforms. Listeners can link their premium account from an external platform to their Spotify account, thereby unlocking subscriber-only episodes without Spotify taking a cut of the creators’ revenue.
Since its introduction in 2021, Spotify’s Open Access has provided an alternative to the manual RSS uploads common on other platforms. Spotify remains the only major podcasting platform that limits manual uploads, affecting how users access subscriber-only episodes. In the past year, Open Access integrated with various platforms, including Patreon and Supercast, and next month, audio subscriptions from The New York Times will be available through Spotify.
A recent press release highlights that since the launch of Open Access with Patreon, nearly 50% of podcasters generating revenue through Patreon have utilized this feature. Additionally, these creators have observed a 15% conversion rate of Spotify listeners who engage with their Patreon content, resulting in new paid memberships.
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