Does Spotify pay you for podcasts?

With all this talk about making money from podcasts, I wanted to clear something about the question “does Spotify pay you for podcasts?”

Spotify does not pay you for podcasts. For now, all podcast revenue is generated through the podcast itself by placing ads, sponsorships, merchandise, and selling other products directly to listeners.

Yet we have all heard those ads on there though. What’s up with that?

Well those work for their platform but are not pre-rolls or midrolls automatically inserted into the podcast. I have had my podcast on there for about a year and I have not gotten paid a single cent by them and do not expect to get paid by them.

Unfortunately for listeners, ads cannot be removed even with Spotify Premium because advertisements are baked into the podcast itself or attached right to the download file that Spotify reads and streams to you. It could maybe be removed with some super ad-blocker, but it sounds like a challenge.

Then How Do Podcasters Get Paid?

Podcasters get paid by promoting products and services and selling their own things. Every ad that you hear on a podcast episode was either placed programatically or actually read out loud by the podcaster. For every thousand downloads, the podcaster gets a certain rate. Usually around $18-25 dollars per thousand downloads but the cost depends on the niche, the advertiser, and the podcast itself.

Other ways to earn money as a podcaster are to sell merchandise, premium episodes, memberships, or special access to products and services.

Does iTunes Pay Podcasters?

No, iTunes does not pay podcasters. iTunes and Apple Podcasts only serves as a platform to get podcasts to you. Honestly, I have no idea how they make money on it. Unless they are selling editorial placements or ads somehow directly on their app, I don’t know how they could possibly be making money.

I know that their podcaster’s platform to see your stats and stuff is not the greatest. I don’t understand why they don’t show the amount of downloads like a normal service and instead go for hours listened, number of devices, and all of this other confusing lingo. But they are still the top app that gets you downloads, so I guess they can keep doing what they are doing.