Spotify adopts – Spotify is updating Spotify for Creators and Megaphone to use Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) standard for video podcasts, enabling Spotify-exclusive video shows to play in Apple Podcasts. The change is meant to unlock HLS features like switching between vid
By the time many listeners are halfway through a video podcast, it already feels like a niche product. But Spotify is now moving to make that niche far easier to share across apps—by adopting Apple’s video streaming standard.
Spotify says its podcasting platforms. Spotify for Creators and Megaphone. are adopting Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) for video streaming. Apple previously announced in February that it was adding support for HLS to its own Apple Podcasts app with the release of iOS 26.4. With Spotify switching to HLS, video podcasts that were formerly exclusive to Spotify can be distributed into Apple’s app.
The reason Spotify is betting on HLS is simple: it’s built to make video delivery workable across common mobile devices like the iPhone. Apple created the HTTP Live Streaming protocol years ago to make video streaming easier on devices like the iPhone. Spotify’s move also aligns with benefits Apple listed in its own announcement. With HLS, podcasts can switch back and forth between video and audio-only streams, and they can support offline downloads. For creators trying to earn money from their shows, HLS also supports dynamic ad insertion.
There’s a trade-off baked into the decision. HLS is proprietary technology developed by Apple, so it isn’t open in the same way RSS is. That closed nature could concentrate control in the podcast industry in a way it hasn’t before. Still, the shift also brings the kind of convenience users get when major companies agree on the same standard. Microsoft. Google. Twitch. and more use HLS. and Spotify joining that list means video podcasts may become less dependent on which platform the listener picked first.
Spotify isn’t publishing a timeline for when Spotify for Creators and Megaphone will implement HLS. But it did confirm that audio-only RSS podcast feeds will remain available for anyone listening through an app that doesn’t support it.
The HLS change also comes alongside a broader push for distribution. Spotify is opening up who can distribute to Spotify via its Distribution API. That API is now officially supported by podcast hosting platforms Audioboom, Audiomeans, Podigee, Podspace, and Libsyn. Through that support. hosting platforms can distribute video content to Spotify. use Spotify’s video monetization programs. and view Spotify’s video analytics. Whether those partners offer every one of Spotify’s features is left to them; Spotify says. “API partners can choose which of these features they’d like to support in their platforms.”.
Spotify Apple Podcasts HLS HTTP Live Streaming Spotify for Creators Megaphone video podcasts podcast distribution Distribution API Audioboom Audiomeans Podigee Podspace Libsyn dynamic ad insertion offline downloads
So Spotify is copying Apple now? Shocking.
I don’t even get why video podcasts are a thing. Like by the time I’m halfway through I’m already on my phone doing something else. But if it plays in Apple Podcasts now, cool I guess?
Wait HLS is Apple’s thing right? So basically Spotify is letting Apple control the video/podcast stuff? That seems sketchy, not gonna lie. Also offline downloads for video podcasts… isn’t that just DRM with extra steps?
I saw this and thought it meant your audio podcasts will be in video format automatically lol. Like “switching between vid by the time many listeners” made it sound like it changes mid-play? Anyway if it supports dynamic ads that’s all I care about… creators get paid, but users get more interruptions.