Spotify Podcasters Can Now Include Full Songs In Episodes

Spotify has announced a new offering for the creators who publish their shows on its platform: the ability to include full songs in their shows. The new feature is built upon Spotify's existing music library and licensing deals with record labels, enabling podcast creators to include songs in their shows that listeners can readily access using the Spotify app.

Podcasting is more popular than ever, with a number of amateur and hobbyist creators launching their own shows using the technology they already have available. The only problem? Many small creators can't afford the listening fees that come with professionally produced audio content, driving them to typically lackluster royalty-free and CC0 audio options.

Spotify says that it has changed that for its creators by opening up its song library to combined music and spoken content. Using this newly launched format, shows will be able to include songs in their content and users will be able to directly interact with that musical content without having to leave the podcast's episode page within the app.

There's one big limitation, however, and it's that shows must be exclusive to Spotify for the obvious reason that this feature uses the company's existing catalog and music licenses. Spotify says that creators and songwriters will be compensated when their songs are used by podcasters in the same way as any regularly-streaming track.

For users: Spotify says to hit the 'Explore Episode' option on the podcast episode page to explore the included music, assuming it includes any. For creators, Spotify notes that creators can mix their own shows and leverage its platform, including the music, by using Anchor's creation tool recently updated to include Spotify's licensed music.