Spotify is known for their music catalog and they are the largest player in this space, with Apple a close second. In recent years, podcasts have been a growing part of everyone’s digital strategy. Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Audible and Spotify are all giants in this space and they lock up big name celebrities’ for exclusive contracts. What about everyone else? It is hard to get into podcasting without a good microphone, mixer and software. If you are going to do with guests, it gets even more complicated. Spotify is going to be targeting the everyman with a new system, that will let you record podcasts right in the Spotify app.

Spotify bought Anchor, a podcast creation platform, for an estimated $140 million in 2019. But since then, Spotify has struggled to attract both advertisers and interest in grassroots podcast creation. Bringing the main features of Anchor into the Spotify app will reduce friction. The company introduced this feature in New Zealand last month to rave reviews.

The video posted by Spotify New Zealand gives us a lot of ideas about what kind of features we can expect with in-app podcast recording on Spotify. It shows that if you have the feature, you’ll see a + button next to “Your Library” in the bottom bar on the home screen. If you tap on it, you have options to “Record podcast” or “Create playlist”.

Ever had an idea that was too good not to be shared? Now you can share it and have your voice on Spotify, in minutes. pic.twitter.com/KKr6L6InH6

— Spotify New Zealand (@SpotifyNZ) June 16, 2022

Spotify said that once you record the podcast, you’ll be able to access the number of streams through a section of published episodes under your profile. “At Spotify, we are always looking for ways to enhance our users’ experience on our platform, and we regularly test features that we believe will bring value to listeners and creators. We are currently running a limited test of in-app audio creation, but have no further details to share at this time,” the company said in a statement.

Spotify moved into podcasting to free itself from the unprofitable and competitive business of music streaming. The company’s deals with record labels require it to pay them more than 70% of every dollar that comes in. Podcasting offers Spotify exclusive material that forces other tech giants to carry its service—and creates a revenue stream the music labels can’t touch. Yet despite all of Spotify’s spending on podcasting, it accounted for only 7% of total listening hours in the first quarter of 2022 and 2% of revenue last year, the company announced in June. Rogan’s show, the service’s most popular and controversial, has caused Spotify one public-relations headache after another.

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