Introducing a brand new way to create in Anchor, with all the music you love

Now, create audio shows in Anchor using full-length songs from Spotify’s entire music catalog. Combine songs with your own talk segments and share episodes directly to Spotify.

Today, Spotify and Anchor are helping all creators unlock the full potential of audio — and unleash their full creativity — by bringing the worlds of music and talk together. Now you can create a new kind of audio show by combining your own talk segments and full-length songs from Spotify.

The use of music has been a long-time challenge for audio creators. Starting today you can express yourself freely with Anchor’s all-inclusive platform and the entire Spotify music catalog at your fingertips. Adding songs to your show is quick, easy, and free. Episodes containing music can be heard on Spotify, where your audience will enjoy an immersive listening experience built just for this new show format, with the ability to directly favorite tracks or add songs from your show to their playlists.

Spotify Premium listeners will hear full tracks as part of these shows, and those with the Free tier will hear 30-second track previews.

This latest evolution of audio unlocks a new world of possibilities and episode formats for all kinds of creation — whether it’s your own radio show, a hosted playlist, DJ mixes, album reviews, guided meditation, commentary on your favorite tracks, or perhaps something that the world has never heard before. With your voice and over 65 million songs to choose from, you can say it all with Anchor and Spotify.

Here’s how it works:

Adding Spotify songs to your show only takes a few taps. When creating a new episode in Anchor on your phone, iPad, or computer, select the new ‘Music’ tool to access the entire Spotify music catalog. Search for songs or artists, and if you’re on desktop, you can connect your Spotify account to browse and select songs right from your playlists.

1. Tap (+) to add a song to your episode. You can build and arrange your episode by dragging and dropping songs just like any other episode segment.
2. To mix in some conversation, record your own segment in Anchor or upload an existing file. You can also split your uploaded audio at the exact right moments and seamlessly add songs in between.

Whether you’re an aspiring curator, a tastemaker, a music critic, or a first-time creator, you can play and experiment with these tools however you like. Add conversation to your music, or add music to your conversation. By adding your unique perspective through talk segments, you can add as many songs as you want. Just keep in mind that songs cannot be edited and must be used in their entirety.

With Spotify songs in your palette, you can create richer episodes that reach more people, more deeply. Music lovers can add context and connection to playlists by curating not just tunes, but ideas and opinions. Best of all, your audience will enjoy a reimagined listening experience on Spotify where they can immerse themselves in entire tracks, taking your show and ability to connect with listeners to the next level. And to make sure everyone wins, musicians will get paid as they would for any other stream on Spotify

This new way to create includes monetization options so that hosts can make money from their work. If you’d like to upload your own ad segment into a show with music, just be sure to mark it as an ad in the episode builder. If you’re in the U.S., you can insert ads into your show via Anchor Sponsorships. For any ads, just make sure to follow our monetization guidelines for shows with music.

The ability to add Spotify songs to your episodes is currently in beta and available to Anchor creators in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland — and will be expanding to more countries soon. During the beta period, episodes containing music will undergo a review process before being published to Spotify to ensure that they follow Anchor and Spotify’s community guidelines, terms of service, and monetization rules. Please note that this review process can take up to 24 hours.

Want to create with all the music you love? Open up Anchor and make something new today.

Have questions? Check out our FAQ here. Looking for inspiration? See what other people are creating here.