Spotify have launched a new feature on their streaming service which gives their users the option of listening to both music and spoken-word content in a single combined “listening experience”.

The feature, which will be available to access under the newly created genre ‘Shows with music’, will see full songs and talk commentary, such as podcasts, come together in a format which the streaming giant says has been one of its most-requested features to date.

“We’ve heard for years that listeners want an easy way to discover and save the music that’s incorporated into their favourite podcasts,” Spotify explained in a press release. “This new show format provides a listening experience that answers these requests, breaking the confines of the traditional podcast structure: this is an entirely new way to stream audio.”

‘Shows with music’ will play as a combination of music tracks and talk segments, with the use of each music track compensating the artist behind the song in the same way that any other stream would on Spotify.

“With shows that use this new format, listeners can interact with the music within the episodes in the same way they interact with all other song tracks on Spotify (for example liking, saving, and reading more information about a track) without having to leave the episode page or search for it manually,” Spotify explained about the new format, which is still in the “testing” stage.

“For any episode of a show with music, hit ‘Explore Episode’ on the episode page, or tap the play bar at the bottom of the screen to pull up the episode track list. From there, you can skip around to different segments and songs and save songs for future listening.”

Spotify Premium listeners will hear full tracks when listening to ‘Shows with music’, while those who access Spotify for free will only hear 30-second music previews.

Seven ‘Spotify Original’ shows have been launched today (October 14) to kick off the service’s new “listening experience”, which each “exploring a different aspect of music, from the stories and inspiration behind a song to the listening trends of a decade or genre”. One such show is Rock This with Allison Hagendorf, whose pilot episode includes an interview with Yungblud.

A new tool called Anchor, meanwhile, will permit content creators in select countries to get involved with the new format, “solving a variety of limitations previously inherent to audio creation and distribution, which have never before been able to leverage the power of music streaming”.

“For creators, it will now be possible to leverage licensed music in an easy, fair way,” Spotify added.

Earlier this month, it was reported that streams of mental health playlists on Spotify have doubled this year.