Spotify to Allow Podcast Creators Access to a List of Their Subscriber’s Email Addresses

Spotify recently confirmed that podcast creators in the US would be able to download lists of email addresses from their subscribers straight from the platform.

In addition to this US, creators can charge 20 different monthly pricing options anywhere from $0.49 to $150 per month, using the Spotify Anchor distribution platform. Currently, Spotify will not take a single penny of the subscription price (apart from payment processing fees) until 2023. The company then plans to take a 5% commission on subscriptions.

The features can be introduced because Spotify owns the distribution tool between the listeners and the creators directly. The distribution tool is Anchor, which Spotify bought back in 2019.

Spotify said on their blog:

“We have long believed that creators should have a variety of options at their fingertips when it comes to deciding how to monetize their work.

That’s why, as more creators than ever are now publishing their content on Spotify, we’ve begun rolling out tools that power those choices: from better advertising models to direct monetization from listeners.”

This launch follows on from a beta test Spotify undertook earlier in the year, whereby they tested the features across 100 podcasts. The test confirmed:

 “Across genres and content styles have a massive opportunity to build paying subscriber bases.”

When using the Anchor platform, US creators can mark podcast episodes to be subscriber-only before they are published to Spotify and other podcast platforms. 

Spotify also confirmed the ability for podcast creators in America to:

“Download a list of contact addresses for their subscribers so they can further engage with their subscriber bases and offer even more benefits. 

That’s also why we’re providing creators with contact information for their subscribers: We understand that creators want to own their relationships with listeners, and we intend to empower that.”

Spotify aims to extend the feature to countries other than the US very soon. In the meantime, from September 15th international listeners can pay to access subscriber-only content.