How to Upload Your Video Podcast to Spotify
The news is just in! Today, Spotify released their video podcast ability to all podcasters. Now, in addition to sending your video podcast to YouTube, your listeners can also watch the video version of your podcast directly within the Spotify app. Want to learn how? Keep on reading!
A few things to keep in mind...
As of right now, I have not found or seen any way of uploading your video podcast to Spotify other than doing it through Anchor.fm. You might already see where this is going. This means you must have your podcast hosted through Anchor.fm. I've talked about Anchor in the past, but due to this new insight it may change my perspective on it, as this is clearly Spotify's way to try and get more people onto the Anchor.fm platform.
So, if you don't have your podcast hosted on Anchor.fm (ourselves included! We personally love Transistor.fm) it seems you're out of luck (unless you're willing to switch your hosting over to Anchor.fm). I believe this is a big part in what Anchor.fm wants you to do, as they even include a batch uploading method to uploading the video versions to Anchor.fm.
Of course, if I learn of a way to upload your video to Spotify outside of Anchor.fm, I'll definitely update this article and explain that option as well.
Step 1 - Upload the Video
To upload your video episode, Anchor.fm thankfully has pretty much the same process as uploading an audio file. So, all you'll do is click on "New Episode" at the top right corner, and select Quick Upload (if you already have the episode made). You'll notice the new tag in orange that says "Supports Video" has been added now as well.
Note: Anchor.fm upload only supports .mp4 and .mov files, so make sure your video format is one of those two and you should be good.
Step 2 - Fill Out Episode Information
Fill out your episode's information like you would normally for an audio-only file.
And that's it! You're ready to publish.
As you can see, Spotify has done a fantastic job in making video podcasts extremely easy to do, without having to upload separately to YouTube.
The Big Question: Should you do this?
Well, this is actually a difficult question to answer. While Anchor is a good platform to start out on, especially if you are a hobbyist or have no budget, it's not my favorite pick. Of couple reasons for this are:
Lower Quality Files
Anchor has a noticeably worse quality than other platforms. This isn't a huge issue for voice-only, but if you include music on your episodes, music tends to sound extremely flat in comparison to higher quality hosts.
Bad Terms
Anchor.fm has some questionably terms on the rights and ownership of your podcast. Their terms basically state that while you do have full ownership over your podcast, they have an unlimited use license to use your content however they wish. So, theoretically, if you decided to switch hosts, all the content you previously uploaded they could technically continue to host your show if it's doing really well and make money from your episodes. Due note that I'm not an attorney, so I'm sure it's not quite that simple, but that is my understanding on how their agreement works. Feel free to leave a note and correct me if I'm wrong on this.
Simple Integrations
Anchor.fm doesn't have a lot of integrations with other platforms. This could be a good or a bad thing. The good thing is keeping it simple for people who simply want it extremely easy and straight forward. However, if you'd like to start integrating your podcast with other platforms (like Podcorn sponsorships) this isn't really feasible and gets a lot more challenging. Anchor wants you to use their own sponsorship platform, which takes a whopping 30% cut of your revenue. Podcorn, for instance, only takes 10%.
Final Thoughts
So, should you use Anchor.fm to host and upload your podcast videos to?
I'd say- it depends
I can't justifiably say yes completely or not completely. It may depend on your situation.
For example, if you already have the majority of your listeners coming from Spotify, adding a video version directly to your listeners could be a huge bonus and have a lot of added value to your audience.
Soon, there's likely to be other platforms enabling video as well, like what YouTube is looking to start doing.
Important Note
Keep in mind, that the video versions will only play on the Spotify app. Even if you upload the videos through Anchor.fm, your listeners will not be able to view them within the Apple Podcasts app, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anything else.
So, this is something to keep in mind, since uploading videos through Anchor.fm will only have a change for your listeners who are using Spotify to listen to your episodes.
Of course, this could change in the future, and with this addition it certainly could be a motivating factor for the other podcast applications to start supporting videos
If this helped, leave a comment! Do you agree with everything I said? Did I leave something out? I want to hear!
