Spotify wants to turn your radio show into a podcast

Spotify wants radio show hosts to take their broadcasts and turn them into podcast episodes. Oh, and it’s launching a new tool to make that process easier.

In a blog post, the company announced a new tool that it calls “broadcast-to-podcast.” It’s a new publishing tool that integrates with Megaphone and makes it much easier to take a live-streamed radio show and turn it into a podcast episode when the show is over.

Spotify claims that with a simple integration with Megaphone, its new tool will “automatically create new podcast episodes from previously broadcasted content, making it easier than ever for broadcast publishers to reach new audiences with their content.” The company says this is compared to the up to 60 minutes it currently takes to do the process manually.

It typically takes publishing teams approximately 30 to 60 minutes to manually convert each individual broadcast episode to a podcast. This includes downloading the episode off the radio platform, removing the ad spots, placing ad markers, and uploading the episode to a podcast platform. 

Spotify says that, with its broadcast-to-podcast tool, the software will automatically identify spots to run ads and hook into the company’s ad solution. The company says that will make it easier for broadcasters to tap into the growing advertising opportunities for podcasts.

With podcast ad spending projected to hit nearly $2.2 billion in 2023, this represents a huge revenue opportunity for broadcast publishers. Our broadcast-to-podcast feature enables broadcast publishers to reach new audiences, unlock more monetization opportunities, and give loyal fans more access to their content from anywhere. And now it’s available to all Megaphone partners globally. 

It’s a cool idea, and according to the company, Fox News is already using the technology to transform its radio shows into podcast episodes. In addition to broadcast-to-podcast, Spotify also finally released a lock screen widget for iOS 16 earlier today.