Spotify announced that there are more than 100 million regular podcast listeners, a tenfold increase since 2019; there are currently more than 5 million programs, and podcasts are available in more than 10 languages, covering 170 markets. To celebrate International Podcasts Day (September 30), Spotify is rolling out several new features to free and premium users around the world.
New features:
Blog text transcription
Spotify is launching automatically generated and time-synced transcripts of podcasts so users can read them while listening, or simply read the podcast if they can’t listen to it. While listening to an episode, scroll down in the Now Playing view to find the transcript, then tap the card to follow along full screen while listening to the episode.
Podcast Directory Extension
Spotify earlier announced a podcast catalog feature on Stream On that will allow users to dive into episodes on a specific topic or section, and users can now find the full list of chapters by scrolling down the Now Playing page.
Podcast show page updates
Podcast show pages will start showing more information about the creator, and the About page will include images, descriptions, and episodes of podcast recommendations. The “More Like This” option next to it will provide further suggestions for similar content.
In addition to these new additions, Spotify recently seems to have decided to launch a new service called Supremium at a price of $20 per month, providing 24-bit lossless audio, mixing tools, and 30 hours/month of audiobooks, up from the 10 hours offered by Spotify Premium.
