Spotify begins testing video podcasts for mobile and desktop client


Spotify have become a very popular platform for listening to podcasts anywhere and now the company is looking to extend the feature further. They have begun testing video podcasts on their platform, where creators will be able to upload the video recording of their podcast. The feature is first starting with two YouTube stars – Zane Hijazi and Heath Hussar, who  host the show “Zane and Heath: Unfiltered”.

The test will be show for 50% of the podcast’s listeners and for the latest 3 episodes -28,29 and 30. Users won’t see any notification indicating that it contains a video recording, instead, the feature will simply show in the bottom of the podcast’s playback screen. If the user wishes to see it in full screen, they can simply tap the video playback to do so. Spotify will also users to close the app and let the video podcast run in the background.

Spotify is currently only testing the feature and will apparently roll out the feature to more creators quickly. One of its main competitors for this space is YouTube as many podcasters already post their video recording on YouTube for their listeners. It will be interesting to see how the competition fares and if Spotify will succeed against the giant.

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