Substack announced Thursday that it is rolling out some new features for podcasters on its platform. Most notably, the company is launching a Spotify integration that will allow podcasters on Substack to sync and distribute all of their free and paid episodes on Spotify. Substack is also introducing new custom audio transcripts and closed captioning, as well as improvements to clip and mobile video sharing.
The launch of the new features comes as Substack announced that podcasters on Substack collectively generate more than $100 million in annual revenue, and that number has more than doubled in the past year. The number of active podcasters on the platform has also more than doubled in the same period.
The new integration with Spotify makes Substack podcasts discoverable on the streaming service, making it easier for podcasters to reach more listeners. Additionally, the integration allows existing Substack podcasters subscribers to listen to paid episodes on Spotify. Substack says the integration with Spotify has the potential to help podcasters earn more by encouraging free listeners to upgrade to a subscription.
Podcasters on Substack can set up a Spotify integration by opening the Spotify dropdown menu in their podcast settings and then clicking the “Sync with Spotify” option to create a new feed with all current and future episodes. Paid episodes are marked with a padlock and listeners must link their Substack account to Spotify to listen to paid episodes directly on the streaming service. Users who listen
Photo credit: Substack
Creators can go to their Spotify for Podcasters account to view data on streams, unique listeners, playtime, demographics, and more. Substack plans to make this data accessible through a creator’s Substack podcast stats page in the future.
As for the new custom audio transcripts and closed captions, podcasters can now upload their own transcript instead of using Substack’s auto-generated transcript if they want. Additionally, video podcasters can upload a separate audio track and a free preview to distribute to podcast RSS feeds instead of using the default audio track extracted from the uploaded video.
Additionally, podcasters and their listeners can now share a link to a podcast video at a specific time or download a clip to post on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X.
Substack is also making it easier to watch video podcasts on mobile devices as video posts on iOS and Android now have an inline player. This new feature allows users to read and watch at the same time while maintaining their place in a video they just watched to watch again at a later time.