Spotify has announced a new feature today for their ecosystem that reminds you of a century old innovation.
“Today, we’re beginning to test a new listening experience that brings together music and spoken-word content in an easy and elegant package, allowing full songs and talk commentary to live together wrapped up in one show,” the company says in the release.
So how does it work? “With shows that use this new format, listeners can interact with the music within the episodes, in the same way they interact with all other song tracks on Spotify (for example liking, saving, and reading more information about a track) without having to leave the episode page or search for it manually,” the company explains.
So basically, Spotify has invented radio. Alright.
Anyway, the company says that shows that use this format are exclusive because they rely on Spotify’s music catalog licences. Spotify Premium listeners will hear full tracks but those on the free tier will only get to hear 30 second music previews.
To jumpstart this new format, they launched seven Spotify Original Shows that use this feature. They will be found in the Shows with Music feature hub or in a programmed shelf on your Home tab.
You can use Anchor to make your own shows
Spotify owns Anchor and they can now allow you to create your own shows using Anchor in this format.
They have rolled out the tooling in Anchor so that creators than highlight the music they love on their shows.
Anchor creators will leverage on the 65 million strong Spotify archive to choose the songs they need to add on their own shows.
The company also says that musicians will get paid like any other stream on Spotify when their songs are paid and it includes monetization options so that hosts can make money from their work.
