“The Unplanned Podcast with Matt and Abby"'s success story looks like:
- A 35% increase in revenue and new users in their first month on the program (March to April)
- Driving discovery through short-form clips
- Stronger community connection with the “very heartwarming and kind” Spotify audience
Ingredients:
- A signature co-host dynamic
- Spotify Partner Program enrollment
- Spotify clips feature to enhance discovery
- A uniquely engaged audience
- Re-investing earnings into the show
How they did it:
Step 1: Added clips to their discovery engine. According to the duo, the reason they’ve seen “so much growth in one month alone is probably because we're now putting out clips on Spotify.” These 15-90 second videos surface across the platform and let potential fans sample your chemistry and content before committing to a full episode. As Matt explains, "If I'm going to spend an hour or two of my time listening to a podcast, I want to see a little tidbit of what's going on for a few minutes before committing to that." You can pull your best moments (the perfect jokes, vulnerable revelations, or chemistry that makes your content special) and package them into bite-sized previews.
Step 2: Shared their content across different platforms. One of the biggest fears for creators when publishing to a new platform is that it will chip away at their existing audience. But Matt and Abby's experience proves the opposite. “I don't think it hurts to put out the same content on multiple platforms,” they explain. “It was a no-brainer to put out our video on Spotify because there's a whole audience there that wants that, and is coming back for that each and every week."
Step 3: Nurtured their biggest fans. Matt and Abby found that the Spotify audience proved different from other platforms: more engaged, kinder, and more invested in longer-form content. "I feel like our Spotify fan base is very heartwarming and kind," Abby observes. "People who are tuning in every week on Spotify, they're a lot more invested in this show. I think we have a much more connected community there." When you find an audience this engaged, don't let them slip away. Try features like polls and comments to keep the conversation going between episodes and perhaps turn casual consumers into your biggest advocates.
Step 4: Invested growth back into the show. Matt and Abby are already thinking about investing their Spotify Partner Program earnings back into improving their show. As you scale, things like hiring a producer and upgrading your setup can free up your time to focus on the storytelling and help you deliver on the expectations of your growing audience.
Meet the creators
Matt and Abby, couple extraordinaire, co-host "The Unplanned Podcast." The show is their little corner of the internet, where they freely share the beautifully messy reality of marriage, parenting, and everything life throws at you when you least expect it. In this case, the name really says it all. “The Unplanned Podcast” thrives on authentic, unscripted moments that strike a chord with couples braving similar waters. We sat down with them in June to discuss their rapid growth and their connection to their audience.
After building their audience over a two-year period, the duo thought they knew what steady growth looked like. Then they joined the Spotify Partner Program. Within just one month of enrolling, Matt and Abby experienced a 35% MoM increase in revenue and new users.
For a show that's been around for a while, seeing such explosive MoM growth was, as Abby puts it, "really shocking and encouraging." We sat down with the pair to hear all about their experience with the Spotify Partner Program. Here’s what we learned.
How Matty and Abby use clips on Spotify as their discovery engine
Even for established creators like Matt and Abby, breaking through the noise to reach new audiences can feel impossible. So what changed everything? “The reason we've seen so much growth in one month alone is probably because we're now putting out clips on Spotify,” shares Matt. “That feature has been game-changing for us.”
I think the reason we've seen so much growth is because we're now putting out clips on Spotify. That feature has been game-changing for us.
Clips, as the name suggests, are 15 to 90-second videos you can upload to your episodes directly on Spotify (available in over 100 markets). These short snippets can then be surfaced in your show page, the Home and Podcast feed, the Browse tab, and more. For creators, they're a way to showcase your personality and chemistry to potential fans who have no idea what your show is about.
Matt puts himself in the audience’s shoes to explain what’s so effective about this feature: "If I'm going to spend an hour or two of my time listening to a podcast, I want to see a little tidbit of what's going on for a few minutes before committing to that."
Learn more about how creators are using clips to drive discovery on Spotify.
Well, that’s precisely what clips are meant for. You can slice, dice, and collate the best moments from your show (the perfect jokes, the vulnerable revelations, the chemistry that makes your content special) and package them into bite-sized previews that give Spotify browsers a taste of what they're missing.
For Matt and Abby, those glimpses were more than enough to help Spotify users discover their new favorite show.
More than an audience, a community
Growth might sometimes come with unpleasant side effects. More exposure typically means more trolls, more misunderstandings, and more of the internet's least charming tendencies. But the Spotify audience is different.
"I feel like if every platform were to have their own personalities, I think we all know which ones would be the bullies and which ones would be the cool kids," Abby observes. "And I feel like our Spotify fan base is very heartwarming and kind."
People who are tuning in every week on Spotify, they're a lot more invested in this show. People on other platforms sometimes will just hop in for a few minutes and then hop out, but I know that at least the listeners we have on Spotify are tuning in for longer. So I think we have a much more connected community there.
A kind audience is already something to be envious of, but Spotify users bring even more to the table. They bring commitment. “People who are tuning in every week on Spotify, they're a lot more invested in this show,” says Matt. “People on other platforms sometimes will just hop in for a few minutes and then hop out, but I know that at least the listeners we have on Spotify are tuning in for longer. So I think we have a much more connected community there."
This creates what Abby perceives as "a really safe place.” When your audience is so connected, so loyal to you, “there's less room for misunderstanding. We're all friends, we know what's going on. They kind of get our inside jokes, and that’s a comfortable place for us creators."
There's less room for misunderstanding. We're all friends, we know what's going on. They kind of get our inside jokes, and that’s a comfortable place for us creators.
Cross-platform growth, not cannibalization
One of the biggest fears for creators considering a new platform is that it might chip away at their existing audience. Will growing video on Spotify mean losing fans elsewhere? Like Emily Fan and the Goalhanger network before them, Matt and Abby's experience proved the opposite: their Spotify growth has been purely additive.
"I don't think it hurts to put out the same content on multiple different platforms," Matt explains. "I think at the end of the day, people are going to tune in wherever they feel most comfortable.” Abby agrees, pointing out that people stick to their preferred platforms: "I'm the same way as a consumer," she notes. "I'm going to take it how I want it, and if you're not there, then I'm probably not going to partake because you just get so comfortable with your routine and how you go about consuming your content."
It was a no-brainer to put out our video on Spotify because there's a whole audience there that wants that, and is coming back for that each and every week.
It's a simple truth that cuts through all the strategic hand-wringing: audiences have habits and preferences they've built their media consumption around. Rather than trying to pull people away from their preferred platforms, why not bring your content to them? The “Unplanned” duo knew this, which is why Matt explains it was a “no-brainer” for them to put their video content on Spotify “because there's a whole audience there that wants that, and is coming back for that each and every week."
And come back they did. According to Abby, “putting our video podcast on Spotify has nothing but grown our audience and the scope for our podcast.”
Invest in your future with Spotify
Matt and Abby weren't trying to fix anything. After two years of steady growth, they were the proud creators of a show people genuinely loved, and a community that felt real. But joining the Spotify Partner Program reminded them of something easy to forget: even when you think you've found your people, there are probably more of them out there than you realize (along with monetization opportunities you haven’t tapped into yet).
The revenue bump is already changing how Matt and Abby think about their show's future. They're hiring a producer, upgrading their setup, and generally investing back into the thing that got them here. Still, for them, "it's honestly less about equipment and more about story. I hope that as we go forward with our podcast, we can continue to tell real stories, authentic stories that genuinely connect to our audience," Matt concludes.
If this is what happened in month one, who knows what's next for them? And even if your results aren’t guaranteed to be the same, who knows what you might achieve through the Partner Program?
Curious what your first month with the Spotify Partner Program might look like?