The bigger play is to give Spotify’s user base a new way to highlight songs on the platform to boost engagement and listening hours. “We have talked with the labels about this, and we are excited about they are going to do with it,” she said. She also expects music companies will use the tool in the same way. Gateley anticipates that the feature will be used by artists themselves to promote their latest work or their catalog. The company is calling the feature a “test,” and Gateley says Spotify will continue to iterate the feature before launching it broadly. The creation tool is available now for Anchor users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland the shows with music will be available to Spotify users worldwide. The feature is free to use, available through Anchor, the roll-your-own-podcast company Spotify acquired last year. Listeners can interact with the music in each episode much as they would in a playlist (e.g., with the ability to directly like, save, and see more information about a track without having to leave the episode page or search for it manually). Shows in this new format will play as a combination of music tracks and talk segments, with music tracks playing as a stream that compensates artists as any other stream does on Spotify. One way to think about Spotify’s new feature: It’s like an enhanced music playlist that lets the creator add interstitial commentary between the songs. “We really feel like this is going to be another tool for creators to unlock their passion for storytelling,” said Liz Gateley, Spotify’s head of network programming. Today, the company is launching what it says has been among Spotify users’ most-requested features: a way to add any of the service’s 60 million-plus tracks to a spoken-word audio show (i.e., a podcast). Ready to spin some virtual records? Spotify wants to turn its listeners into their own DIY radio-style DJs.

Anchor and spotify