Making sense of Spotify's new creator programs

Read this before you consider taking advantage of its new partnership features.

Author

Jessica Smalley
February 03, 2025

In partnership with

Hey Creator,

Sometimes, the internet makes it feel impossible to stay on top of everything.

New updates, features, insights…every creator-led platform (nudge Meta nudge) keeps throwing more our way.

It’s a lot.

But I reflect on the advice from Daniel Priestley I recently heard that simplifies things for you:

It’s called the 7-11-4 Rule.

People need 7 hours of content, 11 touchpoints, and interaction across four platforms before they trust or buy from you.

So instead of trying to do everything all at once, shift your focus to 7-11-4.

Play the long game, and let the trust build.

Here’s what you can expect in today’s newsletter:

  • Keep up to date with what’s happening in Quick Fire!

  • Making sense of Spotify's new creator programs

  • Social media Updates for this week

  • Check out my READ, LISTEN + WATCH recommendations for this week

    🫒by Jess Smalley

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"Don’t create for the market. Create for the people who are going to follow you." – Daniel Priestley, Entrepreneur

CREATOR NEWS

🧨QUICK FIRE

Making sense of Spotify's new creator programs

Credit: Spotify

Spotify reveals its new platform incentive to spotlight creators with the Creator Milestone Awards.

The rundown

  • Like YouTube’s Subscriber Plaque, Spotify will recognise top podcasters/creators with Milestone Awards and receive a physical Spotify plaque with an Evaluation done every quarter.

  • Streaming Milestones

100 million = Bronze

50 million = Silver

500 million - Gold

  • Bronze, Silver and Gold holders will also be spotlighted across Spotify’s social channels.

  • This is the first time Spotify will publicly reveal podcast download numbers.

credit: Spotify

Monetisation Plan

At the beginning of 2025, Spotify rolled out its Monetisation Plan, also known as its Partnership Program. This program is Spotify’s answer to giving podcasters a cut of the ad revenue generated by their shows. 

  • Podcasters from Australia, US, UK and Canada will receive access to the Spotify Partner Program.

  • To qualify for payouts, creators need to have released a minimum of 12 episodes, accumulated 2,000 streams, and achieved 10,000 streamed hours on Spotify in the last 30 days.

    Once in the Partner Program, podcasters can earn payouts:

  • based on listens from Spotify Premium users

  • a portion of the revenue generated from advertisements that run on Spotify’s free tier and other listening platforms.

  • Just like YouTube’s Partnership Program, creators receive a 50% share of the revenue.

  • To apply for the Spotify Partner Program, creators should visit the Monetize page in Spotify for Creators to check their eligibility and submit an application.

The catch… 

  • You need to host your show on Spotify for Creators.

  • Note: This isn’t part of the Spotify For Creators dashboard. For example, I currently produce a podcast hosted on Omny, not Spotify’s hosting platform, but I still have access to the Spotify dashboard.

My take on Creator Milestone Awards and Partnership Program

  • Spotify has a lot of catching up to do if they want to compete against YouTube’s longstanding Partnership Program. The Creator Milestone Awards and Monetisation Plan do not even come close (yet)

  • Regarding sharing revenue, I think it’s shortsighted to give access only to podcasters who use the hosting platform, which makes this program feel less like a “partnership.”

  • The Creator Milestone Awards listener streaming thresholds feel almost unreachable for most podcasters. I wonder if this will attract more podcasters to the platform.

SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES

Instagram

  • announces new metrics for creators including "view rates," which show what percentage of viewers watched more than three seconds of a creator’s Reel.

  • Mosseri explained how Stories get ranked for users. 

  • Mosseri was stopped by the DailyMail in NYC and responded to a question about whether hashtags work. His answer: No. 

TikTok 

  • releases 2025 marketing calendar, which you can download here 

  • now gives you the option to re-edit a post when you go to delete it.

  • TikTok Studio app has introduced new ‘Inspiration’ and ‘Tending’ tabs to its homepage

LinkedIn

THE DIG

READ: Private social networks are the future of social media, predicts Alex Hofmann, CEO of 9count and former president of Musical.ly. He believes users increasingly seek platforms prioritising interactions with friends rather than public broadcasting.

LISTEN: How Mecca outfoxed Sephora in Australia from the girls at Stylish is a great case study on why communicating your brand story with your audience is so important.

WATCH: How does YouTube’s 2025 algorithm work? Senior Director of Growth & Discovery Todd Beaupré and Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie unpack it.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please consider sharing it with someone else who might also enjoy it.

Have a great week 🙂 

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