Spotify was first made popular by being a subscription-based music streaming service, but it has since expanded to other features such as podcasts and even music videos. As a way for listeners to connect with their favorite hosts, the platform is also releasing comments for podcasts.
(Photo : Spotify)
Spotify Podcast Comments Rolling Out
There are tons of podcasts on Spotidy that tackle various topics, all of which inspire conversations and other exchanges. Prior to the feature, listeners are limited to absorbing information and not being able to share their thoughts on the platform.
With Comments, podcast creators can now build a stronger relationship with their audience and listeners can communicate their questions or reactions to hosts. The new feature expands Spotify's existing Q&A and polls functionality which was released in 2021.
The interactive feature makes sense, considering that Spotify has millions of podcast listeners. With just the Q&A or poll this year, the platform saw engagements from nine million unique Spotify users, signifying an 80% year-over-year growth in total Q&A responses and votes.
It would be beneficial for hosts to hear feedback from their audience as well. "How to Take Over the World" creator Ben Wilson said that as a podcast "focused on the lessons we can learn from history's greatest leaders," he has always been curious about which takeaway resonates most with his audience.
"Comments on Spotify provide me that invaluable feedback, which makes creating my podcast that much more rewarding and allows me to build a stronger connection with my listeners," the podcast host continued.
Hosts can do many things that you normally could in streaming services such as approve, like, and reply to comments that can be reviewed. Hosts can delete or report harmful comments and block the users who posted them as well.
Published comments can be sorted based on the most recent uploaded episode, and creators can enable or disable comments, which could be useful especially if the podcast topic is a bit controversial and may bring up negative comments from users.
The feature has been requested by both listeners and podcast hosts for a while now, which provides a way for both parties to have a two-way conversation, and hosts to get near-immediate feedback from audiences.
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Spotify Podcast App
Podcast hosts are also provided with a new system to manage their shows, which is the new podcast app from Spotify. They'll be able to receive notifications from comments and other interactions within their shows like polls.
Through the app, they can respond to comments at any time and monitor overall engagement status. The statistics show the number of streams, which countries their content is listened to the most, and even which platform has the most engagements.
They can manage how the show appears on Spotify, which can be based on detailed analytics showing where listeners found their content including Spotify Home, Spotify Search, Spotify Library, or other Spotify features.
The app is already available on both Google Play for Android and the App Store for iOS.
