Spotify Starts a Podcast Feed. Blame It on TikTok

What can happen if Spotify gets inspired by TikTok? The outcome is as unexpected as the premise: it’s the new interface for podcasts. On a podcast tab, you can just swipe through them and start listening immediately. This sort of experience is new to fans but has a lot to offer if you are into podcasts as a media genre.

It all started last year when Spotify acquired a podcast discovery project simply named Podz. Now it’s fully integrated with Spotify, and if you want to start exporing podcasts, you’ll just need to open the podcast tab from the menu. And then it goes full TikTok. In a tweet by Chris Messina, you can take a look at its possible realization,

What does it mean? If the music usually comes as a continuous playlist on Spotify, podcasts are separate. So it makes more sense to create a one-at-a-time interface, TikTok-ish in its nature, with vertical scrolling, and showing one item a swipe. As you swipe up to the next podcast, its cover appears on the screen, and its starts playing immediately. You will also see that the background is automatically changing matching the dominating color of the cover.

The home screen for a podcast will be very informative. It will contain the name, the author, the cover, and a short description. And even more: there will be a transcript generated in real time. It’s not clear yet, though, whether it will be available in languages other from English, as the demo only shows it work in one language. Here you will also be able to see the length of the podcast and to add it to your list.

So far, there is just a demo, but soon it can become the reality for al Spotify users. No matter if you are a free or a premium user, podcasts are available to anyone. Do you like what you see in the new interface? Would it motivate you to listen to more podcasts? Tell us your opinion in the comments if you please!