Spotify Adopts Apple's HLS for Video Podcasts, Expanding Reach

Spotify has announced that its podcasting platforms — Spotify for Creators and Megaphone — are adopting Apple's technology for video streaming, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS).

Apple shared in February that it was adding support for HLS to its own Apple Podcasts app with the release of iOS 26.4, so Spotify hopping aboard means that formerly Spotify-exclusive video podcasts can be distributed to Apple's app.

Apple created the HTTP Live Streaming protocol years ago to make video streaming easier on devices like the iPhone. Switching to the standard also offers key benefits to video podcasts, as Apple already outlined in its own announcement. Podcasts distributed with HLS can switch back and forth between video and audio-only streams and offer offline downloads. Critical for anyone trying to make money from their show, HLS also supports dynamic ad insertion.

HLS is proprietary tech that's developed by Apple, which means it's naturally not open in the same way RSS is, and it could concentrate power in the podcast industry in a way it wasn't before. That possible negative comes with a positive: it's generally convenient for users when big companies all agree to use the same standard. Microsoft, Google, Twitch and more use HLS. Adding Spotify to that list is not necessarily a bad thing.

Spotify doesn't have an official timeline for when Spotify for Creators and Megaphone will implement HLS, but did confirm that audio-only RSS podcast feeds will be available for anyone listening through an app that doesn't support it. Spotify is also opening up who can distribute to Spotify via its Distribution API, which is now officially supported by podcast hosting platforms Audioboom, Audiomeans, Podigee, Podspace and Libsyn. Supporting the API allows platforms to distribute video content to Spotify, use the company's video monetization programs and view its video analytics. Whether they'll offer all of Spotify's features is up to them. The company says "API partners can choose which of these features they'd like to support in their platforms."