Spotify Expands Podcast Partner Program to 35+ Countries as Video Surges

Spotify is making its biggest geographic expansion yet of the Spotify Partner Program for podcasts, adding more than 35 markets later this fall as video consumption and creator payouts keep rising, TechCrunch and Podcast News Daily reported.

Eligible podcasters in the new countries will be able to earn from both video and audio shows — including Premium video impressions that count toward revenue and ad revenue share from free listeners — while still distributing on other platforms and keeping sponsorship dollars they sell themselves, TechCrunch reported. Spotify had previously run the partner program in the United States, Europe and Australia; this fall’s wave is the company’s largest geographic expansion for the offering.

Named markets include Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, among others, TechCrunch said. Podcast News Daily added that the Latin American rollout also spans Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Uruguay, El Salvador, Paraguay, Honduras, Panama, Bolivia and Nicaragua, plus Caribbean markets including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, alongside additional European countries and territories.

The expansion arrives with Spotify’s growth claims attached. Video podcast consumption on Spotify has increased 140% since the feature launched in 2022, and total monthly payouts to enrolled shows have risen by more than one-third since January, both outlets reported. Podcast News Daily quoted the company saying the program “continues to gain momentum” and framed video Premium engagement payments alongside traditional advertising as the economic engine pushing more video onto the platform.

Eligibility changes earlier this year lowered the bar for participation. Creators can apply with a minimum of three episodes online, 2,000 consumption hours and 1,000 engaged audience members over the last 30 days, TechCrunch reported. Spotify said that change has increased consumption in participating shows by an average of 45%. Podcast News Daily noted that video shows in the program have seen more than 45% average growth in consumption hours since launch, and pointed to “Solved” host Mark Manson as an example Spotify says now earns three times more on Spotify than on other platforms after joining earlier this year.

For Premium subscribers in the new markets, the video experience also changes. Dynamic advertising is removed from participating video podcasts viewed by Premium users, though creator-embedded sponsorships remain, Podcast News Daily reported. That split lets Spotify pitch fewer interruptions to paying listeners while still routing engagement-based revenue to enrolled creators.

Readers tracking monetization shifts on Podcast News should read the fall expansion as a scale play: the same Partner Program mix of Premium video payments, dynamic ad share and kept sponsorships, extended into dozens of markets where Spotify wants more video supply. The company is not inventing a new payout type for this wave; it is exporting an existing U.S./Europe/Australia model into Latin America, more of Europe and the Caribbean.

That matters for mid-tier and emerging creators who previously sat outside the program’s geography. Lower eligibility thresholds plus new-country access widen who can earn from video impressions and Spotify-sold ads without giving up off-platform distribution or direct sponsor deals. TechCrunch emphasized that creators keep sponsorship revenue and can still distribute elsewhere — a competitive posture against exclusive deals that lock shows to a single app.

Spotify’s own metrics put pressure on the narrative. A 140% jump in video consumption since 2022 and a one-third rise in monthly payouts since January are the figures the company is using to justify the biggest Partner Program map expansion yet. Whether those gains hold as new markets come online later this fall will depend on how quickly local creators hit the three-episode / 2,000-hour / 1,000-engaged thresholds and whether Premium video viewing follows the supply.

For now, the headline is straightforward: more than 35 additional countries, video and audio eligibility, Premium engagement economics plus ad share, and a fall rollout that Podcast News Daily and TechCrunch both describe as Spotify’s largest Partner Program geographic push to date — timed to a video podcast category the company says is still accelerating.

Spotify described the fall wave as giving “creators more choice in how they earn and fans more choice in how they watch and listen,” Podcast News Daily reported. That dual framing — creator payout geography plus Premium video experience — is what separates this expansion from a simple ad-sales push: enrolled shows can earn from Premium video impressions and Spotify-sold dynamic ads while keeping sponsor cash, and Premium viewers in new markets get dynamic ads stripped from participating video podcasts.