2021 seems to be the year of in-app podcast subscriptions. And it’s very confusing right now where and how a podcaster should make use of it all. Should you grow your show as wide as possible? Or narrow in and focus on one platform? This analysis of the situation from Ben Thompson really helps us see that Spotify of all platforms might offer the cleanest way forward, in particular this bit about making it possible to use existing membership systems inside of Spotify using OAuth:
For full disclosure, I have been briefed on the Open Access Platform, and Spotify has addressed all of my concerns; no, they won’t support arbitrary RSS feeds, but instead another open technology — OAuth. Some time soon Stratechery and Dithering subscribers will be able to link their subscriptions to their Spotify accounts, and Spotify isn’t going to charge a dime — they will be my customers from email address to credit card. Spotify Chief R&D Officer Gustav Söderström told me, “Having all of audio on Spotify means meeting independent creators on their terms, not ours.”
I wouldn’t rush into anything just yet as the dust will need a few weeks / months to settle. But the future looks promising for the Independent podcast publisher.
Of course, that could all change next week. 🙂
