Spotify announced on Wednesday several new features designed to provide a more prominent place in the app as it fights Apple and YouTube to become a user's favorite podcast streaming destination.
The company says it will start podcast recommendations on its homepage and provide the next feed to keep you up to date with the latest episodes of your favorite shows. Soon, Spotify will roll out new tools for podcast creators to encourage content and better engage with fans in comments.
This change is a relatively minor one, but is part of Spotify's efforts to compete with Apple's podcast app and YouTube. The latter has invested more in podcasts in recent years. For example, YouTube launched its own weekly top podcast list this month to challenge Spotify and Apple. The chart highlights some major differences between platforms in that it is something YouTube video viewers prefer to watch.
Meanwhile, Spotify also invests in video podcasts, allowing all creators to upload videos and incentivize them with payments for successful shows through their partner program.
Despite these efforts, YouTube remains a beating service in the US, where at least a third of weekly podcast listeners prefer Google-owned services over Spotify or Apple.
Spotify said the new podcast recommendations on the Home tab are already beginning to roll out to global users, and early feedback suggests that more users will be involved, saved and preferring their preferences.
Additionally, instead of searching across the app, Spotify introduces the following feed, which serves as a dedicated location where you can see all the latest episodes released by the podcasts you follow. (To access this feature, tap the podcast button at the top of the app, then tap the button that appears on the right.)
Image credit: Spotify
Podcast creators will have immediate access to new features that can point to other content mentioned in podcast episodes. This can also be found on Spotify, including other podcasts, songs, audiobooks, playlists, and more. This will be available in the coming weeks and will be available on the episode page.
A smaller tweak allows creators who participate in comments on podcast pages in the app to respond to their fans using emoji reactions.
The company notes that creators can still control when comments are displayed or opt out of displaying them on shows and episode pages via Spotify in their creator account.