Photo Credit: Thibault Penin
Spotify is making a bold play for the attention of YouTube’s top video creators, aiming to transform the platform into more than just a music and podcast hub.
Amid the subscription slowdown for Spotify, the company has reportedly offered select YouTube creators lucrative, non-exclusive deals to bring their shows and videos to the platform. These offers are designed to attract high-profile talent, not notably, they do not require exclusive rights to the content, allowing creators to continue distributing the content on other platforms including YouTube.
The strategy marks a significant shift for Spotify. After years of heavy investment in exclusive podcast deals—most notably with Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper—the company has pivoted toward a more flexible approach for video content. According to Bloomberg, Spotify is now focused on building a robust video catalog rather than locking creators into restrictive contracts.
The company is offering both financial incentives and marketing support, with some creators receiving direct payments and others benefiting from enhanced visibility for their shows. The size of the deal often depends on the creator’s influence and audience size, but the common thread is that all of these video partnerships are non-exclusive.
Spotify’s courting of YouTube creators is part of a broader effort to compete with established video platforms including YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The company is rolling out new features that make it easier for video creators to monetize their content and track performance, including allowing Premium subscribers to watch videos ad-free and sharing ad revenue with creators from ad-supported free users. These changes aim to address creator concerns about intrusive ads infiltrating their content, making Spotify an attractive alternative for creators with a substantial video audience.
This push into video is also a strategic move on Spotify’s part, the aim is to increase user engagement with the platform and reduce subscription churn. By offering more content formats, Spotify hopes to keep its users on its platform longer and attract new audiences. Executives have acknowledged the challenges of competing with YouTube’s massive scale and established creator ecosystem.
“People make it out to be the winner-takes-all dynamic in that there’s only one player that can solve all of it, but what creators want is to be on multiple platforms,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said during a recent earnings call.
Despite the aggressive courting of YouTube content creators, Spotify’s approach is not without challenges. Independent creators must manage distribution across multiple platforms without dedicated tools for simultaneous uploads, potentially increasing their workload. Additionally, Spotify’s video ad infrastructure is still maturing compared to YouTube’s, which could limit the effectiveness of monetization for some creators.
A leaked Spotify pitch deck shares that 300 million users have watched at least one video podcast, with 70% watching the video in the foreground. Spotify estimates it has 675 million monthly active users now, with 260 million paid subscribers. YouTube still remains the king of podcasting platforms, despite Spotify’s huge push into creating deals with content creators. That’s primarily because of the video component, with TV watching time a huge component for YouTube.
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