Spotify Technology is trying to win the video podcast era without becoming YouTube
Date Published
TL;DR
Quick Summary
- Apple is bringing integrated video podcasts to Apple Podcasts in spring 2026, raising the competitive stakes for Spotify’s podcast and video strategy.
- Spotify’s Q4 2025 scale is massive (751M MAUs; 290M Premium subs) and the business is throwing off meaningful cash (€2.9B free cash flow in 2025).
- The next phase isn’t just about content—it’s about who can keep attention and pay creators well as “podcasts” turn into a watch-and-listen format.
#RealTalk
Spotify looks less like a scrappy disruptor and more like a scaled media platform that has to defend user habits across music, podcasts, and now video. Apple’s move makes “audio-first” feel like a choice, not a default.
Bottom Line
For investors, the story is shifting from “can Spotify grow?” to “can Spotify stay the most-used daily audio app as formats converge?” 2026 will test whether Spotify’s cash generation and creator monetization tools translate into stickier engagement, not just bigger user counts.
The audio app that keeps getting more visual
Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT) has spent years quietly expanding beyond “hit play, skip ads.” Now it’s staring at a very 2026 problem: the internet’s favorite “podcasts” are increasingly… not that audio.
On February 16, 2026, Apple announced a new integrated video podcast experience coming to Apple Podcasts in spring 2026, built on HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and designed to let people switch between listening and watching, including offline video downloads. Apple also said creators will keep control of content and monetization via participating hosting providers, and that Apple will charge some ad networks an impression-based fee later in 2026.
That matters because Spotify’s whole pitch has been: one app, all your listening. If the “listening” part keeps turning into “watching,” the competitive line isn’t just Spotify vs. Apple anymore—it’s Spotify vs. every screen people casually default to.
Spotify’s big flex right now: scale, and it’s finally paying off
Spotify’s recent numbers make it harder to doomscroll the bear case.
On February 10, 2026, Spotify reported Q4 2025 results with 751 million monthly active users and 290 million Premium subscribers (both figures for Q4 2025). Spotify also guided to 759 million monthly active users and 293 million subscribers for Q1 2026.
The more interesting part isn’t just user growth—it’s that Spotify is talking like a company that believes its model can throw off real cash. For full-year 2025, Spotify reported €2.9 billion in free cash flow (full-year 2025). That kind of number changes the vibe from “great product, messy business” to “great product, now let’s choose where to invest.”
Leadership-wise, the founder isn’t disappearing, but the org chart is evolving. Spotify announced on September 30, 2025 that Daniel Ek would transition from CEO to Executive Chairman effective January 1, 2026, with Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström stepping in as co-CEOs.
The video podcast arms race is really an attention economy war
The average person doesn’t open an app thinking, “I’d like an RSS-adjacent audio experience.” They’re trying to fill the dead air while commuting, cleaning, lifting, or doomscrolling. Video podcasts work because they’re modular: you can listen like it’s radio, or glance when something gets spicy.
Spotify’s approach has been to make video a first-class citizen without forcing every creator into a studio set. Spotify’s own creator playbook leans on monetization as the hook: its Spotify Partner Program includes ad revenue sharing, and a Premium video revenue stream that went into effect on January 2, 2025 in select markets for eligible video episodes.
Apple entering video podcasts doesn’t mean Spotify loses tomorrow. But it does raise the bar on “default app” behavior—especially for iPhone-heavy markets where Apple can make the experience feel native, frictionless, and pre-installed.
There’s a second competition: who pays creators in a way that feels fair
Spotify has historically been the app artists love to hate and users love to use. Podcasts and video are partly an attempt to diversify the “who gets paid what” conversation—because a platform can’t be culturally central if its creators feel like they’re renting, not building.
The big strategic question for 2026 is whether Spotify can keep turning itself into the place where creators build durable businesses—without turning the product into a messy bundle of tabs, upsells, and half-finished formats.
Because in a world where Apple is upgrading podcasts, YouTube is already huge, and everyone is sniffing around video, Spotify’s edge can’t just be “we have podcasts too.” It has to be: we’re the best place to be a fan—and the best place to be a creator.