Spotify debuts new tools for creators to make interactive podcasts

Spotify on Monday announced a slew of new tools to help podcast creators on its platform develop more interactive shows.

Why it matters: Spotify believes podcasts will help drive long-term user attention and growth for the company, which today is still primarily used to stream music.

Details: Spotify's new podcast partnerships and tools are designed to make it easier for people to produce more engaging podcasts.

1. The company is partnering with WordPress to turn written content directly into podcasts via its podcast creator platform Anchor.
2. In the coming months, Anchor will enable more creators to add videos to their podcasts. This functionality is currently available to music artists.
3. Spotify is also launching interactivity tools like polls and Q&A features for podcasters using Anchor.

The company also announced that it will be launching a new "hi-fi" (high fidelity) subscription option later this year for users who want to experience the highest-quality audio available, especially for music.

What's next: Moving forward, Spotify says it's building and scaling a new podcast discovery experience that can craft podcast recommendation lists based on a listener's taste in music.

Go deeper: Spotify has tripled number of podcasts in past year to 2.2 million