Spotify is rolling out Memberships, a new feature that allows podcast creators to sell exclusive content and perks to fans in exchange for recurring payments.
Fans can subscribe to a show’s Membership from its Spotify page and gain immediate access to exclusive content in a few taps. Creators can offer bonus episodes, exclusive audio and video, fewer ads, and early access across multiple tiers and price points. The platform is also adding discovery and retention tools, including targeted promotions, free trials, and analytics on how listeners convert into paying members, with member badges and welcome clips planned for later.
Creators keep 90% of Membership revenue, Spotify said. That is higher than Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, which pays creators 70% of subscription revenue (rising to 85% after a subscriber’s first year). It is roughly in line with Patreon’s standard 10% platform fee, though Patreon charges additional payment-processing and payout fees.
Spotify said Memberships provides another revenue stream alongside advertising and the Spotify Partner Program. Creators retain control of the relationship, with direct subscriber access and the ability to import and export their audience data. Through Spotify Open Access, creators already running subscriptions elsewhere can bring existing paid content onto the platform without migrating their membership business.
The feature was first previewed at Spotify’s Investor Day in May. It follows comments on the company’s Q2 earnings call, where executives described podcasting and audio as shifting from single-player to multiplayer and from recommendation to generation, citing features such as Messages, Jam, and Personal Podcasts. Memberships extends that push into direct monetization, offering a tool that has existed on YouTube, Patreon, and Twitch but has largely been unavailable natively within Spotify itself.