Spotify has been making big waves in its podcasts business by launching a handful of new features over the past couple of years. The streaming platform is now announcing a five star rating system for podcasts, allowing listeners to rate their favorite creators.
The platform said in a blog post that it wants to “give listeners an opportunity to support their favorite podcast shows,” while also establishing two-way communication between the listeners and the creators.
“The average rating will be publicly displayed on the podcast’s show page on Spotify, along with the total number of ratings the show has received,” Spotify added.
Creators can see their ratings only when they have received at least ten or more ratings from listeners
Spotify clarified that the feature would roll out over the next few days in regions where it offers podcasts. Creators can check their ratings from the Spotify show page as long as they’ve received at least 10 ratings.
While the rating system sounds fairly similar to the reviews on Apple Podcasts, Spotify claims otherwise. The company said it would only offer a rating system at the moment. Meanwhile, Apple’s implementation allows listeners to write a review.
There’s an industry myth going around that ratings and reviews impact the reach of a particular podcast on Apple’s platform. However, the company clarifies in its support documentation that reviews or ratings don’t impact charting. Similarly, Spotify said the new rating system won’t factor into discovery or the charting of a particular podcast.
“Ratings are a great way for prospective listeners to quickly gauge a show’s quality, but at this point (as we’re in early days for this feature), a show’s rating is not factored into podcast charts or personalized recommendations,” a Spotify spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Spotify is also branching out to the audiobooks segment, as we learned recently. The company acquired audiobook distribution company Findaway as part of this plan. The deal is all but confirmed to go through pending regulatory approval. Spotify said it wants to “remove current limitations and unlock better economic tools for creators” with this new venture.
The popular music streaming platform is also looking to implement new UI features. Last month, the company started testing a vertical video feed identical to TikTok’s. However, Spotify didn’t say whether the feature would make its way to the app in the future.
2021-12-17 15:05:24