Spotify has set up a velvet-roped VIP section for its most listened to podcasters — with Joe Rogan and Audiochuck’s “Crime Junkie” getting the top honors in the streamer’s inaugural Creator Milestone Awards.
Evaluated quarterly, Spotify’s Creator Milestone Award are being bestowed on podcasters who reach certain streaming thresholds on the platform. The first group of honorees is getting plaques in three tiers based on total lifetime-to-date streams globally: bronze (100 million streams), silver (250 millions streams) and gold (500 million streams).
The new awards mark the first time Spotify has publicly revealed streaming numbers for podcasters across the platform, albeit only at the designated threshold levels. In terms of number of listens, music is still the bigger play: Taylor Swift, Spotify’s most-streamed artist in 2024, generated more than 26.6 billion streams last year alone. That said, podcast episodes are much longer than the average song track.
The company says the launch of the Creator Milestone Awards is timed to its video product and monetization initiatives that rolled out at the beginning of 2025. Starting this month, the Spotify Partner Program (in addition to paying a share of ad revenue) will pay video-podcast creators based on the amount of time Premium users watch their shows.
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For now, the only two gold club members with more than 500 million all-time podcast streams are “The Joe Rogan Experience,” consistently the top-charting podcast on Spotify despite it no longer being exclusive to the platform, and true-crime fan favorite “Crime Junkie,” hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat.
Silver podcasts (with 250 million-plus cumulative streams to date) are “Dateline NBC”; “My Favorite Murder,” with hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark; Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take,” featuring Big Cat and PFT Commenter; and iHeartPodcasts’ “Stuff You Should Know,” hosted by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant. The bronze members (100 million-plus streams) are “The Diary of a CEO With Steven Bartlett”; SiriusXM’s “Rotten Mango”; Wondery’s “Small Town Murder”; and “Views with David Dobrik & Jason Nash.”
Spotify’s podcast awards are akin to the long-running YouTube Creator Awards, which it hands out to channels when they pass specific subscriber milestones.
Recipients of Spotify’s Creator Milestone Awards will be spotlighted in an on-platform hub (available at this link). In addition, they will receive custom commemorative plaques marking their achievements as well as “storytelling and promotion opportunities to further highlight their influence and success,” according to the company.
Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat of “Crime Junkie” said in a statement: “Being part of Spotify’s first rollout of Creator Milestone Awards is such an honor and an exciting moment for us! Reaching millions of listeners and sharing stories — especially those that still need answers — has always been at the heart of what we do.” They said they’ll put their plaque from Spotify in the Crime Junkie Clubhouse, which is what they call the area where they now shoot all their episodes for video. “So keep an eye on the episodes coming out in the near future… you might see something shiny in the background!” the duo said.
Dateline NBC senior executive producer Liz Cole commented, “We’re thrilled that so many Spotify listeners have made Dateline a part of their podcast routine. It’s an honor to have our storytellers recognized by the inaugural Creator Milestone Awards.”
Since Spotify entered the podcast biz in 2019, more than 1 billion people have listened to a podcast on the platform, the company says. Jordan Newman, Spotify’s head of content partnerships, said the Creator Milestone Awards are “all about celebrating the incredible journey of a podcast creator.”
“These awards go above and beyond the numbers — they’re about recognizing the hustle, creativity and dedication that make each creator’s story unique,” Newman said. “For the first time, we’re publicly spotlighting these achievements, recognizing creators for their impact and sharing their success with the world. This program is an important step in celebrating the amazing work podcasters do, and we’re thrilled to continue supporting them as they shape the future of this medium.”
(Pictured above, l. to r.: Joe Rogan; “Crime Junkie” hosts Brit Prawat and Ashley Flowers)