Spotify Expands Podcast Partner Program to 35 New Countries

What Spotify announced

Spotify is extending its podcast partner program — the scheme through which podcasters earn a share of advertising and Premium subscription revenue — to 35 additional markets this autumn. According to TechCrunch, the rollout covers countries including Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. The program has until now run in the United States, Europe and Australia, which makes this the streaming service's largest geographic expansion of the scheme to date.

How the payouts work

Eligible podcasters can monetise both audio and video shows under the program. Two revenue streams feed the payouts: video impressions watched by Premium subscribers count toward a creator's earnings, and advertising revenue generated by free-tier listeners is shared with the show. The terms are not exclusive, either. TechCrunch reports that participating podcasters can continue distributing their shows on other platforms and keep all of the sponsorship revenue they negotiate themselves.

The growth behind the move

The expansion arrives as Spotify's podcast business scales. According to company figures cited by TechCrunch, video podcast consumption on the platform has grown 140% since the format launched in 2022, and total monthly payouts to participating shows have risen by about a third since January. Broadening the program to dozens of new countries widens the base of creators who can feed that growth — and the pool of shows generating advertising revenue that Spotify shares in.

Lower barriers to entry

Spotify has also made it easier to qualify. Earlier this year the company changed the eligibility criteria for earning revenue from video podcasts: creators can now apply with a minimum of three published episodes, 2,000 consumption hours and 1,000 engaged audience members over the preceding 30 days. Spotify says that loosening the requirements has lifted consumption on participating shows by an average of 45%, a sign that a wider funnel of smaller creators benefits engagement as well as creator income.

Why it matters

The expansion turns what has been a largely Western creator program into a global one, giving podcasters in markets such as Brazil, Mexico and Poland a direct route to Spotify monetisation for the first time. For creators, the appeal is twofold: Premium video viewing offers a revenue line that does not depend solely on ad sales, and the non-exclusive terms mean joining does not lock a show to a single platform — off-Spotify distribution and direct sponsorship deals both stay intact.

For Spotify, the move signals continued investment in podcasts as a creator-driven business, and a bet that low entry thresholds combined with broad geographic reach will bring in enough volume to justify the larger payout obligations the company is taking on. How quickly creators in the new markets clear the consumption-hour and audience requirements will determine whether this becomes a genuine creator-economy shift or a slower-building expansion.