Spotify may be planning a premium podcast subscription plan

By Brittany Roston/

Spotify may be planning to release a special podcast subscription plan, at least based on a survey some users report seeing when they launch the app. The survey asks subscribers what they would be most interested in from a premium podcast subscription, and it includes two potential rates, one for certain kinds of content and another for different premium content.

Screenshots of the Spotify survey were recently shared on Twitter by Variety's chief media analyst Andrew Wallenstein, revealing details about a plan the company may be considering. The survey's introduction presents the idea of a podcast subscription described as standalone, not including access to the wider music streaming service.

Two different options are presented to users, one that includes things like 'access to high-quality original content,' as well as access to exclusive podcast episodes that won't be made available to everyone else.

The other option presents exclusive offers for episodes and interviews, as well as to exclusive extended episodes. Either plan would offer early access to content based on the survey, but the cheaper of the two — $2.99/month and $4.99/month, respectively — would have ads, while the pricier option would be ad-free.

The big question, of course, is whether podcast fans would be willing to pay extra per month for exclusive content — and even if they are, whether the exclusive content would ultimately prove to be worth the additional fee. Some podcast shows offer paying listeners access to entirely separate seasons of content, but others merely pad their offerings with things that many listeners may not be interested in regardless of availability.

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