Offering exclusive episodes for paying members is a great way to thank them for their support. Steady has joined forces with Spotify to enable podcasters to release members-only episodes directly on Spotify.
This means members can enjoy a seamless listening experience, staying inside their favourite streaming app to listen to all the podcasts and music they love in one place.
(If you prefer, you can additionally release exclusive episodes via Steady's personalised audio RSS feed).
A couple of things to note before you integrate your podcast feed with Spotify:
Sending your podcast feed from Steady to Spotify means your entire members-only podcast feed will appear there. It’s not possible to select specific episodes to appear on Spotify.
Some podcasters offer exclusive podcast feeds only to members of specific membership plans. This is the same on Spotify: members will only be able to access your feed on Spotify if they are a member of a plan that offers this access.
How to release your exclusive podcasts on Spotify:
1. In the Steady backend, go to the menu on the left-hand side of the page and select Publication > Podcast.
If you haven’t already done so, fill out the podcast name and description and select a cover image for your podcast. Then save your changes. These will be visible on Steady as well as to listeners on Spotify.
Note that if your podcast is already on Spotify, your members-only episodes will appear in a separate feed. You might like to use the podcast name and cover image to differentiate between your free and members-only podcast feeds.
2. In order to release members-only episodes on Spotify, you’ll need to make sure you have activated the audio RSS feed for your Steady project. To do that, simply tick the box “Activate the audio RSS feed”.
3. Then click “Publish on Spotify” to send members-only episodes of your podcast to Spotify.
Once you do that, you will have the chance to select which membership plans this podcast feed is relevant for i.e. which of your members should have access to your podcast, depending on which membership plan they have purchased.
Each time you publish an episode on Steady, you can choose whether to make it visible for everyone, or members-only (here’s how to do that). When you enable Spotify, all previously published members-only episodes on Steady will also be published on Spotify.
Members-only episodes will only be visible to the members who have paid to access them through a Steady membership. It’s not possible to pay for individual episodes.
Please note that due to this integration being in the beta phase, it will not be possible to delete your podcast feed from Spotify once you have published it there.
What does the member experience look like?
Your members will no longer have to navigate away from Spotify in order to pick up your members-only episodes.
To access your exclusive episodes in Spotify for the first time, listeners will be directed to a browser page to provide their Steady login or create an account. Once they have logged in, your podcast will be accessible to them, alongside any other podcasts they follow there.
If you host a free podcast that appears in Spotify, your member-only podcast will appear as a separate feed.
Got a question we haven’t answered in our Help Centre? You can contact us at support@steadyhq.com.