Spotify brings together music and spoken-word in Australia

Spotify is testing a new listener experience that brings together music and spoken-word content wrapped up in one Show – yes, just like you hear on the radio.

Starting today, the company is allowing users of its podcast creation platform Anchor in Australia – as well as the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland – to include music in Shows.

Spotify Premium listeners will hear full tracks, those with the free tier get 30-second previews.

“Everyone loves both a great playlist and a highly engaging conversation,” Spotify outlined in a blog post on what it says is one of its most-requested features.

“Listeners have even more ways to discover and connect with music from their favourite (and future favourite) artists.

“Think of your favourite drive-time radio show, that music journalist whose insights help you appreciate a band’s leap forward, a DJ whose perspective makes that next track hit perfectly.”

Shows using this format are exclusive to Spotify because they rely on its music catalogue licenses and compensate musicians and songwriters.

Adding the music could take up to 24 hours as the Shows will be reviewed “to ensure that they follow Anchor and Spotify’s community guidelines, terms of service, and monetization rules.”

The latter includes ads not being placed within 60-seconds of a song and having at least 10-minutes of non-music content between them.

The podcaster can use as many songs as they want but they cannot be edited.

The DSP has also introduced seven new Spotify Original Shows within its Shows With Music hub.