Spotify video podcasts go live worldwide: Here's what's new

Spotify has been going hard on podcasts in recent years, and today we're seeing the company take a big step toward making its app a prime destination for podcasters. Today, Spotify announced that it's rolling out video podcasts around the world – or at least in all markets where podcasts are currently supported. Video podcasts will be relatively small scale at first, as only several select shows will support them.

Those shows are Book of Basketball 2.0, Fantasy Footballers, The Misfits Podcast, H3 Podcast, The Morning Toast, Higher Learning with Van Lathan & Rachel Lindsay, and The Rooster Teeth Podcast. Video podcasts for those shows are available in both the desktop and mobile apps.

To watch a video podcast, all you need to do is navigate to the podcast you want to watch or listen to and hit the play button. The video will begin automatically, though Spotify says that you can lock your screen and continue listening to the audio version of the podcast without any interruption. As always, you can download the audio version as well, but at the moment, it seems that video podcast downloads may not be available.

It isn't surprising to see Spotify launch baked-in support for video podcasts. For years, podcasters have been recording their podcasts on video and uploading them to YouTube, so with Spotify's major push to become a podcast destination, launching support for video podcasts definitely feels like a logical step.

It probably won't be long before we see video support go live for additional podcasts, as Spotify probably wants to ramp up that support quickly. For now, fans of any of the podcasts listed above can watch their video versions using the Spotify app in all regions where Spotify podcasts are available.