SiriusXM is expanding its podcast subscription offering to Spotify, YouTube Music and more.
The offering, which launched in August on Apple Podcasts, gives subscribers ad-free listening on new episodes, bonus content and early access to episodes of popular shows.
When it first launched, the offering included SmartLess, Freakonomics Radio, Last Podcast on the Left and 99% Invisible. The offering now includes the recently acquired Call Her Daddy, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Rotten Mango, The Mel Robbins Podcast and more.
The expansion starts Feb. 19 and offers subscriptions to SiriusXM Podcasts+ for $5.99 per month or $44.99 annually.
In partnering with its rivals (including Spotify, who was previously home to Call Her Daddy), SiriusXM is poised to grow the audience and monetization efforts for its top podcasts and continue to diversify its revenue stream further beyond its satellite business.
As of Feb. 1, YouTube Music had more than 1 million subscribers across both free and paid subscriptions, while Spotify recently reported 675 million monthly active users (and 263 million paid subscribers).
SiriusXM views its top podcasts as a way to bring in advertising dollars, and to feed into its larger talent ecosystem across podcasting and satellite radio. Executives have also said they are using the big titles to test out the idea of a firmer paywall.
“When you look at what’s going on with the bigger podcasts, we are testing constantly by having certain things exclusive, certain things behind the paywall. Eventually, we’re going to take a gamble, if we find the right podcast talent and a willingness on the talents’ part, to go behind the paywall knowing we’ll lose some free listeners, like you always do,” Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s president and chief content officer told The Hollywood Reporter this past fall.
“With those that’ll pay, if it’s enough, you’re now recreating the podcast model like satellite radio. So you can’t think of doing that without having your hands on a handful of the bigger ones to do it,” he said.