YouTube continues to dominate the podcasting space, but Spotify is actively working to close the gap. The latest development: a new feature that lets users see how many times an audio-only or video podcast episode has been actively listened to or watched.
The streaming giant revealed its new podcast metric called “plays” on Tuesday, making it possible for users to see which podcast episodes are most popular. This is the first time a podcast metric like this will be viewable for creators and users.
The plays will appear next to a podcast episode throughout the app, including the home page, episode page, and show page. It’s also available for creators on Spotify for Creators and Megaphone.
With this new metric for podcasts, Spotify aims to encourage users to explore podcasts they may not be familiar with, especially if they see that other listeners highly favor these episodes.
For creators, this information sheds light on which episodes resonate most with audiences and, more importantly, allows them to benchmark their performance against competitors.
Spotify’s announcement follows its first-quarter earnings, revealing a gain of 5 million premium subscribers, totaling 268 million. This marks the second-highest total ever and the largest first-quarter increase since 2020.
Topics
Apps, music streaming, podcasts, Spotify
Lauren Forristal
Lauren covers media, streaming, apps and platforms at TechCrunch.
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May 13, 2025
London, England
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