Submit a paid podcast to Spotify

Memberful can be linked to Spotify, allowing your members to subscribe to your secure, paid podcast via Spotify. In this article, we’ll guide you through the complete process of creating and managing a paid podcast on Spotify with Memberful, from initial setup to submission, accessing analytics, managing subscriptions, and optimizing your redirect settings.

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Create a podcast

To create a paid podcast in Memberful, navigate to Content → Podcasts and click Add a new podcast. The first step is to enter the podcast’s RSS feed URL. Learn more about hosting your podcast. At this point, Memberful will validate the feed and check for any issues. If there are any problems, we’ll let you know so you can fix them with your podcast host before continuing. Next, give this podcast a name for your own reference. This will not be visible to your members. Go to the Which plans should include this podcast? section, and click Select from your list of plans. You can also add a podcast in the plan’s settings via Revenue → All plans → Select a plan → Plan Settings. We’ll create secure RSS feeds for each user with an active subscription to a plan that has podcasts included.

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Submit podcast to Spotify

Enable Submit this podcast to Spotify. The feed will then be submitted to Spotify, which will begin processing it. This process can take up to an hour. Once it’s processed, you’ll see a link to open the podcast in Spotify. At this point, your members will see the option to subscribe to the podcast via Spotify.

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Set up Synced Feeds

Spotify has a feature called “Synced Feeds” that allows both your public feed and your members-only feed to appear together in one place. Non-members will see all publicly available episodes, along with locked member-only episodes, and members will see the full range of your content: all exclusive episodes, bonus content, and any free episodes not duplicated in the members-only feed. If a free episode appears in both feeds, Spotify will automatically pair them to prevent duplicates and show the correct version to listeners. For lower-confidence pairs, your review and approval are required before they’re paired. Here’s how to set it up:

1. Submit a paid podcast to Spotify from your Memberful dashboard, then allow some time for Spotify to approve and process your submission.
2. Next, claim both your public and private podcasts in your Spotify account. Use the podcast RSS feed Memberful generates to claim your private show in Spotify.
   
3. Then, go to Episodes > Synced feeds > Learn more, and follow the steps on screen to set up the synced feed.
4. Finally, add a banner on your Spotify free show page to promote the paid version to your listeners.

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Consider your redirect settings

To make it as easy as possible for your members to subscribe to your private podcasts, we recommend showing the podcast subscription page within the checkout. However, this means that if you have any automatic redirects setup for your plans, members will need to click Continue to site to get there. This might cause issues with affiliate tracking you have on your site, or you might want to create your own subscription page on your website, bypassing the subscription page in Memberful. When you’re creating or editing a plan, you’ll see the following section to establish where to redirect after checkout. You can choose to redirect to the member benefits and content page, following your site-wide automatic redirect URL, or a custom redirect just for this plan. If your plan includes a podcast, we recommend selecting Yes, show benefits and content after checkout to make it as easy as possible for your members to subscribe to your private podcasts.

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Subscribe to a paid podcast on Spotify

After you purchase a plan with a podcast included, you’ll see the podcast subscription page. One of the options on this page will be Spotify. After selecting Spotify, you will be redirected to Spotify to log in and the paid podcast will still be locked. You can either log in with your existing Spotify account or create a new one. Spotify will take you through a few confirmation pages and ask you to agree with their permissions. After agreeing, you’ll see your members-only podcast with a lock symbol, and will click it. A pop-up will appear and you will click Get access. You’ll be redirected to a page that will sync your Memberful and Spotify account. Click Link Account. You’ll be redirected to a Memberful sign-in form if needed. After sign-in, you’ll be redirected to a Spotify page confirming access. You can click the link to get redirected to your Spotify account. The Spotify paid podcast is now unlocked and you have access to the content. If a subscription includes multiple podcasts that have been submitted to Spotify, this account linking process will grant you access to all of them.

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Can members link multiple accounts?

To prevent sharing, a Spotify account can’t be linked to two Memberful member accounts (for the same site). Likewise, a Memberful account can’t be linked to two Spotify accounts. When a member has already linked a Spotify account and tries to connect a different account, they’ll see an option to unlink the existing account and reconnect in Memberful.

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Do members have to repeat the process for every podcast?

Unlike with other podcast clients, members do not need to subscribe individually to each of your podcasts on Spotify. The account linking process will give them access to all the shows that have been submitted to Spotify and are included in their plan. If you later submit another podcast to Spotify and include it in the same plan, the member will get access to it automatically.

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Testing the member’s experience

To test the member’s experience when subscribing to a paid podcast via Spotify, you can use a test member account with access to a plan that includes the podcast. After you click the Spotify logo on the podcast subscription page, link your Spotify account to this test member account.

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Check member’s connected Spotify account

Once a member has subscribed to a podcast via Spotify, you’ll be able to see their Spotify username in your dashboard. Newer Spotify accounts aren’t allowed to pick a username, so their username might show up as a random string of letters and numbers, which is okay.

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Trial Spotify in test mode

You can trial Spotify while your site’s in test mode. Podcasts from a test site won’t show up in Spotify search, but they’ll go live automatically once your site does. Want to give Spotify a try before launching? Contact us for help! Related help docs:

• Create a paid podcast.
• Create a plan to sell subscriptions.
• Add a plan purchase link to your site.