Can Buzzsprout or Captivate Shows Use Spotify Memberships?
No. Spotify Memberships, the paid fan feature that replaced Podcast Subscriptions on October 20, 2026, only works for shows hosted on Spotify for Creators or Megaphone. A show on Buzzsprout, Captivate, or Libsyn can’t turn it on, and Buzzsprout’s and Captivate’s own subscriptions don’t play inside Spotify either. If you want paying fans listening there without moving your show, you sell through one of the 29 platforms on Spotify’s Open Access list, like Patreon, Supercast, or Substack.
This post contains affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no cost to you. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
Spotify’s rules and every fee on this page were checked on the vendors’ own pages on October 25, 2026.
Who can use Spotify Memberships?
Shows hosted on Spotify for Creators, the company’s free host, or on Megaphone, its enterprise one. That’s the whole list. Spotify’s launch post says Memberships are “available to eligible shows hosted on Spotify for Creators or Megaphone,” and its help center puts “To host your show on Spotify for Creators” at the top of the requirements.
Megaphone isn’t a back door for an indie show. Spotify says enterprise organizations and publishers “may” get Memberships there, and Megaphone’s cheapest listed plan is $99 a month.
Clear the hosting rule and the rest is easy. You need three published episodes, 100 listeners or viewers, and 100 consumption hours on Spotify in the last 30 days. At exactly 100 listeners, that’s an hour each. You also need to be in one of 34 markets, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Europe. For comparison, the Partner Program wants 2,000 hours.
What do members get, and what does Spotify keep?
You build up to three tiers, each with its own price and perks: bonus episodes, early access, extended or video episodes, the back catalog, and fewer ads. Read that last one carefully. Spotify says fewer ads, never ad-free, and Megaphone’s setup guide says sponsorships stay in. You pick prices from a preset list. Members pay monthly, and you can switch on yearly plans too, except in Denmark and Norway.
Fans join from your Spotify show page on a Free or Premium account, and the membership is separate from Premium. Members also get a private RSS link in their confirmation email that works in Apple Podcasts or any other app. That’s more open than you might expect.
The fee is 10%. Spotify’s fee schedule says that one number covers payment processing, currency conversion, and payouts, so you keep 90% before taxes. Money goes out through Stripe once you’ve earned at least $10. If you ran the old Podcast Subscriptions, those subscribers stay on the old 5.5% processing fee, plus 0.8% to 1.6% for currency conversion, until they cancel.
Can a show on Buzzsprout, Captivate, or Libsyn use Memberships?
Not today, and nobody has promised it. The Memberships terms pull in the Spotify for Creators terms or Megaphone’s, and nothing for any other host. No host has announced support either. Buzzsprout’s product updates through October 23 and Captivate’s through October 15 don’t mention Memberships at all.
Of the three, Libsyn is the only one with a side door into Spotify money, and it isn’t Memberships. Libsyn is plugged into Spotify’s Distribution API for video, so a Libsyn show on the $25 Advanced plan or higher can publish video there and join the Partner Program without switching hosts. Our guide to joining the Spotify Partner Program without Spotify covers that route. It pays you for ads. It doesn’t let fans pay you.
Spotify’s own answer for everyone else came in May, when it first previewed Memberships at its Investor Day: “Creators who manage subscriptions on other platforms can continue to distribute gated content through Spotify Open Access.” In plain terms, sell the membership somewhere else and let Spotify play it.
Will your host’s own subscriptions play inside Spotify?
Mostly no. Here is every host we track, checked on each one’s own help or pricing page.
| Host | Its own paid feature | What it takes | Paid episodes inside Spotify? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify for Creators | Memberships | 10%, processing included | Yes |
| Buzzsprout | Buzzsprout Subscriptions, $3 to $10 a month, paid plans | 15% | No. Spotify can’t play its premium feed |
| Captivate | Captivate Memberships, every plan | 12% plus Stripe (2.9% + 30¢) | No. Spotify isn’t on its private-feed app list |
| Libsyn | Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, plus premium feeds it doesn’t name or price | Apple’s share | No direct route. Its old Glow platform appears to have shut down in 2025 |
| Transistor | Private podcasts on every plan, with payment through Memberful or Ghost | Memberful’s or Ghost’s fees. Transistor adds none | Yes, through Open Access |
| Podbean | Podbean Premium and Patron | Premium share not published | No. It plays in Podbean’s app or on the web |
| RSS.com | Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, Plus plan and up | Apple’s share | No |
| Acast | Subscriptions through Supercast, its chosen partner | Supercast’s fees | Yes, through Supercast |
| Castos | Paid private feeds through Stripe, every paid plan | 0% (Stripe fees still apply) | No. Spotify won’t take password-protected shows |
| Blubrry | Blubrry Premium Podcasting, $10 a month per show | 15% | No. Blubrry names Spotify as an app that won’t show it |
Two things jump out. Transistor is the only big independent host on Spotify’s partner list, and it has put private podcasts into Spotify since January 12, on every plan. Buzzsprout and Captivate, meanwhile, sell subscriptions that stop at Spotify’s door. Buzzsprout’s help center lists Spotify among the apps that can’t play its premium feed. Captivate leaves Spotify off its list of apps that support private feeds, a list it updated in July.
What is Spotify Open Access, and who is on it?
Open Access is Spotify’s plug for outside membership platforms. A fan pays the platform, links their account to Spotify once, and the paid episodes play in the app. Spotify takes nothing. Its Open Access page says so in as many words: “Spotify does not take a cut from new or existing paid memberships.” The platform handles the billing and keeps its own fee.
Only approved partners can connect, so you can’t wire in your own host. Spotify’s support page lists 29 of them. The ones a US podcaster will recognize are Patreon, Substack, Supercast, Supporting Cast, Memberful, beehiiv, Hello Audio, and Transistor. The rest are mostly European, like Podimo and Steady. If your platform isn’t listed, Spotify says, “at the moment you won’t be able to use this integration.”
One small mess: Spotify’s creator site has a shorter list of 26 that leaves out Transistor, beehiiv, and Apoia.se. Transistor and beehiiv both confirm on their own help pages that they’re partners, so go by the longer list.
Skip Glow. It’s Libsyn’s old membership platform, and it’s still on Spotify’s list, but Supercast’s help center said in July 2025 that Glow was shutting down on August 31 and that Libsyn had partnered with Supercast to move Glow’s members. Glow’s own site no longer loads.
The ones we checked each come with a catch. Supercast can’t send Spotify listeners personalized episodes, and you won’t see their listening data. Hello Audio’s private feed shows up in public Spotify search, and its drip feeds don’t work there. Memberful can’t put members-only video into Spotify.
What does each route cost on the same show?
Percentages don’t compare well when half these platforms add Stripe on top and two charge a monthly plan. So here is one show run through each route: 100 members at $5 a month, $500 in, US cards, before taxes.
| Route | What it charges | You keep from $500 | Plays inside Spotify? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify Memberships | 10%, processing included | $450 | Yes |
| Patreon | 10% plus processing (rate not on its pricing page) | Under $450 | Yes |
| Buzzsprout Subscriptions | 15% flat | $425 | No |
| beehiiv, Lite plan | 0% plus Stripe, and $49 a month billed yearly | $406.50 | Yes |
| Substack | 10% plus Stripe (2.9% + 30¢, and 0.7% for billing) | $402 | Yes |
| Captivate Memberships | 12% plus Stripe | $395.50 | No |
| Supercast | $0.59 a member plus Stripe (3.6% + 30¢) | $393 | Yes |
| Memberful | $49 a month plus 4.9%, plus Stripe | $382 | Yes |
| Apple Podcasts Subscriptions | 30% in a subscriber’s first year, 15% after, plus a yearly program fee | $350, then $425 | No |
Stripe is figured at its standard 2.9% + 30¢ a payment, plus Stripe’s 0.7% billing fee for Supercast and Substack, which both list it. Stripe also charges Captivate users 0.25% + 30¢ per withdrawal. Hosting plans aren’t counted, since you pay those either way. And Memberships uses a preset price list, so $5 itself may not be an option there. The percentages hold regardless.
Of the routes that play inside Spotify, Memberships leaves you the most, $43.50 a month ahead of the next one we could price. Buzzsprout’s flat 15% comes close at $425, and Castos, which takes nothing beyond Stripe, would keep about $455.50, but neither one’s members can listen in Spotify. Apple costs the most in a subscriber’s first year and only reaches Apple listeners. So treat Apple as a second door, not the main one. Apple lays out its split on its subscription checklist. For how memberships stack up against ads and sponsors, see our look at how podcasts make money.
Should you move your show to Spotify for Creators for Memberships?
For most shows on Buzzsprout or Captivate, no. The savings aren’t nothing: on that 100-member, $5 show, Memberships leaves you $43.50 to $68 a month more than beehiiv, Substack, Supercast, or Memberful. But the show selling memberships has to live on Spotify for Creators.
There is a halfway version. Spotify’s setup page lets you sync a free version of your show, hosted elsewhere, with a separate members show on Spotify for Creators, so in theory your free feed stays on Buzzsprout. That members show still has to reach 100 listeners and 100 hours on Spotify by itself, and the help pages don’t say whether your free show’s numbers count. In practice, most people chasing Memberships will move the whole show onto a host they don’t pay and don’t control.
The real cost shows up if you ever leave. Spotify tells creators to switch their subscriptions off in the Monetize tab before redirecting a show away, and nothing in its help pages says your members come with you. You can export member data, but the contact details only cover fans who chose to share them. A Patreon or Supercast membership never lived on your host, so it moves when you do.
Reach is the other catch. Memberships are sold on your Spotify show page, and the built-in promotion right now is one email every 30 days to fans who opted in. If most of your audience listens in Apple Podcasts, most of them may never see the offer.
Here’s where I’d switch: a show that already does most of its listening on Spotify, is happy on free hosting, and has no plans to leave. Spotify for Creators vs Buzzsprout lays out what you give up on the hosting side, and how to switch podcast hosts covers the import and redirect without losing subscribers.
What should you do instead?
It depends on where your listeners are, so pick the line that sounds like you.
Most of your audience is on Apple. Use the subscriptions your host already sells and add Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. Buzzsprout includes the Apple integration on paid plans, and Captivate supports it on every plan at no extra Captivate fee. Your Spotify listeners miss out. When they’re a small slice, that’s a fine trade.
Spotify listeners matter, and you like your host. Keep the free show where it is and run the paid feed through Supercast or Patreon, both on Spotify’s list. Supercast is built for podcasts and charges $0.59 a member a month plus Stripe. Patreon takes 10% plus processing but throws in posts and a community page. On Libsyn? Then it’s Supercast, the place Libsyn already sent its Glow members.
You already send a newsletter. beehiiv and Substack are both on Spotify’s list, so one paid tier covers the newsletter and the private podcast. beehiiv takes 0% but needs a paid plan, from $49 a month billed yearly, and an active paid tier before you can gate a podcast. Substack costs nothing to run and takes 10%. At 100 members paying $5, they finish about $4.50 apart. beehiiv pulls ahead as you grow, or right away if you already pay for its plan.
You’d switch hosts anyway. Transistor keeps everything under one host. Private podcasts come with every plan, they go into Spotify through Open Access, and Transistor says fans can listen on a free Spotify account. The payments run through Memberful or Ghost, and that’s a separate bill. With Memberful, 100 members at $5 leaves about $382 before Transistor’s own plan. Watch the subscriber caps, too. The $19 Starter plan allows 50 private subscribers, so 100 members puts you on the $49 Professional plan, which allows 500. Transistor pricing has every plan, and what private podcasting is explains how those per-listener feeds work.
If paid members are only one piece of your plan, the best podcast host for monetization compares the ad and sponsorship tools too.
FAQ
Can I use Spotify Memberships if my podcast is hosted on Buzzsprout? No. Memberships only works for shows hosted on Spotify for Creators or Megaphone. Buzzsprout’s own Subscriptions, priced at $3 to $10 a month with a 15% fee, don’t play inside Spotify either. To reach Spotify listeners, sell through a platform on Spotify’s Open Access list, like Patreon or Supercast.
Does Spotify take a cut if I use Patreon or Supercast? No. Spotify says it takes no cut of memberships connected through Open Access. You still pay the platform: Patreon takes 10% plus processing, and Supercast charges $0.59 a member a month plus Stripe.
What are the Spotify Memberships requirements? Host on Spotify for Creators (or Megaphone for larger publishers), have three published episodes, and reach 100 listeners or viewers and 100 consumption hours on Spotify in the last 30 days. You also need to be in one of 34 markets, which include the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.
Is Spotify Memberships the same as the Spotify Partner Program? No. The Partner Program pays you a share of ad and Premium video revenue, needs 2,000 consumption hours in 30 days, and is open to video shows on some outside hosts, like Libsyn, through Spotify’s Distribution API. Memberships is fans paying you directly, and it’s Spotify-hosted shows only.
Do Spotify members have to listen on Spotify? No. Members get a private RSS link in their confirmation email that works in any podcast app. They do have to sign up through Spotify, though.
What happened to Spotify Podcast Subscriptions? They became Memberships on October 20, 2026. Subscribers from the old program carried over at a 5.5% processing fee plus currency conversion, and they stay on that rate until they cancel. Everyone who joins after that is on the 10% Memberships fee.
