Spotify is turning its focus to video content for 2025.
The platform will begin paying creators based on the engagement their videos received from paid subscribers. To encourage more watch time, the platform will also be turning off automated ad breaks for paid Spotify subscribers. Both of these changes will not go into effect until January 2nd, 2025, and will be available in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
By prioritising video on the platform, Spotify is positioning itself as a YouTube competitor, which is already paying creators billions a year as a result of shared ad revenue.
“By delivering a best-in-class video offering, uninterrupted by ad breaks combined with Spotify’s flexibility and ubiquity, we can provide an experience for your audience that is superior to any platform,” CEO Daniel Ek said on Wednesday at a Spotify creator event in Los Angeles. “And by giving you guys the creators another path to monetization beyond ads, we’re freeing you up to do what you like doing, which is great.”
Video podcasts were made widely available on Spotify in 2022, and since then consumption of the format has rapidly increased, with the number of video creators on the platform more than doubling each year. Since June this year, the number of video podcasts on Spotify has increased by 50,000, and according to company spokesperson Grey Munford, “video consumption hours have grown faster than audio-only consumption hours year-over-year.”
There will be a hub known as Spotify for Creators, an evolution from Spotify for Podcasters, where video creators can access their payout details and determine whether they’re eligible for video payments. Creators can also see advanced analytics and upload short, vertical video clips.
It’s unknown how much Spotify is planning to pay video creators. Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström told The Verge that payout will be “consumption based and it is competitive with what they’re doing today.”
“Otherwise it makes no sense to them,” he added.
