Spotify is extending access to its partner monetization program for audio and video content creators to nine more markets starting April 29.
Announced in November 2024, the Spotify Partner Program initially launched in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia in January. It will now be available to eligible creators in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Data from the streaming giant showed that the program boosted creator payouts by over 300% in January of this year, compared to January 2024. The company said “hundreds” of podcast creators surpassed $10,000 in monthly revenue, with top performers earning “well into six figures” during the first month alone.
“Spotify is committed to providing creators with more options to grow their audience and engage with fans on the format that best suits their style and show—either audio, video or both,” said Roman Wasenmüller, Head of Podcast Business at Spotify.
“As we continue to evolve and expand the Spotify Partner Program, we are focusing on increased revenue and consumption for creators.”
The program offers video and audio creators multiple revenue streams to monetize their content. Creators can earn every time an ad monetized by Spotify plays in an episode, both on and off the platform.
“As we continue to evolve and expand the Spotify Partner Program, we are focusing on increased revenue and consumption for creators.”
Roman Wasenmüller, Spotify
Creators can also earn revenue from Premium subscribers. Those subscribers who stream video won’t be served dynamic ads, but the content creator will be paid “based on how much their fans stream their content,” Spotify said during its launch at the Now Playing event in Los Angeles in November.
Spotify said the expansion comes amid growing adoption of video podcasts on the platform. Spotify launched video versions of podcasts globally in 2020. The company said the number of creators actively publishing videos monthly on Spotify has now increased by more than 50% year on year, with over 250 million users having watched podcasts on the service.
The platform added that the Spotify Partner Program enables Spotify Premium subscribers to watch videos with fewer ads. While creators’ built-in sponsorships remain intact, traditional dynamic ads will no longer interrupt video content for Premium subscribers, Spotify explained.
Spotify has been accelerating its push into video. It forayed into short-form videos in 2023, enabling video creators to upload the short videos they created for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and other short video platforms.
The following year, Spotify launched full-length music videos in beta for Spotify Premium users across 11 markets (the US excluded). The move was seen as a direct challenge to YouTube, the dominant player globally in the music video streaming space. This feature expanded to 85 markets in October 2024, still excluding the US.
In a blog post at the time, Spotify said music videos increase engagement on the platform, citing data showing that users who discover a song and then watch the video are 34% more likely to stream the song again the following week, compared to users who only streamed the audio. Songs discovered through music videos are 24% more likely to be streamed or shared the following week, Spotify said.
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