Spotify's new tool Anchor allows podcasters to add music to their shows

 

By Emmanuel Legrand

 

Spotify has unveiled a new tool that will allow the use of music in podcasts, in order to provide, as the music streaming service puts it, "a new listening experience that brings together music and spoken-word content in an easy and elegant package, allowing full songs and talk commentary to live together wrapped up in one show."

 

  Podcasters who want to produce an episode of a show with music will be able to tap into a catalogue of fully licensed songs using Anchor, a tool that is available at the moment in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Spotify explained to podcast producers that "adding songs to your show is quick, easy, and free."

 

Compensate musicians and songwriters

 

  "Creators have long wanted a way to highlight the music they love and spread the word about their favorite artists," wrote the company in a blogpost. "To empower an ecosystem of these new shows, Spotify is also making it possible for anyone to create their own — by today rolling out tooling in Anchor. The new format solves a variety of limitations previously inherent to audio creation and distribution, which have never before been able to leverage the power of music streaming. For creators, it will now be possible to leverage licensed music in an easy, fair way."

 

  Spotify added: "Shows using this format are exclusive to Spotify because they rely on Spotify’s music catalog licenses and compensate musicians and songwriters just like any regular stream of a music track on Spotify. Spotify Premium listeners will hear full tracks as part of these shows, and those with the Free tier will hear 30-second music previews."