April 28, 2021: -On Tuesday, Spotify launched its podcast subscription service in the U.S., giving creators a range in what choices to make money. The move comes after a week of streaming rival Apple announced its subscription podcast offering.

Podcast monetization has been tricky for streaming companies to realize since it’s been challenging to measure the return on investment in podcast advertising.

However, players have been putting weight behind the effort. Spotify, for instance, has heavily invested in its technology with its “Streaming Ad Insertion” tool and $235 million acquisition of ad tech company Megaphone.

Spotify’s new subscription feature is powered through Anchor, its creator platform. That will allow podcasters to mark episodes as subscriber-only and put them on Spotify and other media, the company said.

Spotify is not taking subscription revenue cut for the next two years to draw more creators to the platform. The company said participating creators will receive 100% of their subscriber revenues, excluding payment transaction fees.

Starting in 2023, the company will charge a 5% fee for the tool. On the other hand, Apple takes a 30% cut the first year and will then drop the price to 15% in the second year.

The company will launch the feature with 12 different podcasters, including NPR, and open up to more creators in the coming months.