Stripe signs up Spotify in new deal for podcast payments
Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison. The company's deal with Spotify follows a partnership with Ford announced this month.
Stripe has partnered with Spotify to help podcasters use the platform to accept payments in dozens of currencies in more than 30 countries.
The partnership with the payment processing company, founded by Limerick brothers John and Patrick Collison, will facilitate Spotify’s new separate subscription model for podcasts called Podcast Subscriptions.
It is the second high profile deal the US-Irish firm, valued at more than $95bn, has made in recent weeks. This month, it also announced a partnership with Ford to help the car company grow its e-commerce services in January 2022.
“Platforms like Spotify are making it easier for creators to quickly generate recurring revenue from the thing they love doing the most: sharing their stories,” said chief revenue officer at Stripe Mike Clayville.
“We’re thrilled to help Spotify accelerate the growth of the creator economy. And personally, I’m excited to subscribe to some new podcasts.” Spotify is able to streamline both payment acceptance and identity verification for its podcasters by using Stripe Connect. When new podcasters sign up with Spotify, Stripe handles the onboarding requirements for them to get paid.
In partnering with Stripe to launch Podcast Subscriptions, Spotify has also used a number of other Stripe products including Stripe Billing, Stripe Invoicing, and Stripe Radar.
“Stripe shared our passion for this feature. Their technology and ability to collaborate at speed helped enable the launch of Podcast Subscriptions in 2021, connecting creators and listeners across the world,” said Spotify’s global head of talk verticals Michael Mignano.
Recent Stripe data shows that the number of creators on a sample of Stripe-powered platforms grew 41% year-on-year in 2021, indicating that better digital infrastructure is assisting many more entrepreneurs develop careers in the gig economy.
Stripe Connect is now used by other popular content creation and publishing sites including Patreon, Substack, TikTok, and Twitter. Stripe’s own analysis shows that creators on 50 Stripe-powered platforms have earned nearly $10bn (€8.8bn) in revenue.
TechCrunch, an online publication in America, recently named Spotify as the number one podcast platform by listenership, reaching an estimated 28.2 million monthly US listeners in 2021, forecast to grow to 43.6 million listeners by 2025. The goal of the new Podcast Subscriptions feature is to make it easier for podcasters to tap into that market.
Podcast Subscriptions is currently available to creators across 34 markets and in eight languages.
