Spotify’s decision to introduce a comment section for podcasts should come as no surprise. For years, apps have been stealing each other’s most popular features. While apps used to stick to their own “things,” today they want to do everything: you can post Stories on YouTube, exploit AI search tools on Instagram, and shop for clothes on TikTok. And as of last week, you can get a thrill out of seeing what random strangers think of your favorite podcasts on Spotify.
In 2020, Spotify flirted with social media tools like History reminder function for artists and a collaborative playlist feature for users. The following year, Spotify began allowing creators to add interactive Q&As and polls to their podcasts and began offering the option to select some answers for public display.
Spotify’s modern comment section feature requires podcast publishers to review every submitted comment and choose which ones they want to make public. However, Spotify ultimately plans introduce an option to make comments public by default (and ultimately does not exclude extending this feature to music) provided they meet content guidelines. (Spotify hasn’t specified what its content guidelines are.)
This could suggest that Spotify wants to be more like YouTube, which has allowed largely unregulated comment sections beneath its videos since the early 2000s.
YouTube comments are, of course, notoriously risky. For nearly two decades, the platform has tried to tame the opinions of its users, which in many cases amounts to anonymous bullying. (Comments under Rebecca Black’s post “Friday” video is just one example uncontrolled online harassment.) Too many YouTube commenters have also exhibited malevolent, predatory behavior; for example, in 2019, YouTube temporarily disabled comments on videos featuring children in order to alleviate visible problem of pedophilia on the platform.
Given that American political commentary takes up a significant amount of space on Spotify’s global charts — Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Ezra Klein, Jon Stewart and Tucker Carlson host some of the most listened-to shows — the platform’s comments section could become another outlet for anger.
Spotify is aware of these risks. In 2020, Joe Rogan — whose podcast, Joe Rogan’s Experience, takes first place on the platform’s charts —asked Spotify to enable comments in its episodes, but the company declined, citing in part the risk of commenters abusing the feature.
Creators who enable comments will also be responsible for reviewing each one. A Spotify spokesperson emphasized the “creator-controlled” nature of the update to WIRED, saying the company “has consistently heard that creators love having control in their hands.”
However, this approach may discourage some creators from using it. A spokesman for the Daily Wire, a conservative media outlet that produces Ben Shapiro’s show (Spotify’s tenth most popular podcast) told WIRED that he has no plans to make his comments public on Spotify.
“We love lively comment debate,” a spokeswoman tells The Daily Wire. But she adds that moderating the expected number of comments could be nearly impossible. Ben Shapiro’s YouTube channel receives 3,700 comments a day, according to the spokeswoman. “Assuming each one takes about 30 seconds to review, [on Spotify]”, moderation would take 30 hours a day — more than three full-time jobs,” he says. “I can’t imagine who would take on that expensive burden.”