Spotify Courses: Payouts and Refunds

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Connect with Stripe Express to receive payouts for courses you sell on Spotify!

About Stripe Express

Thinkific uses Stripe Express to offer an easy and secure way to receive payouts for your courses offered through Spotify. Stripe Express account is separate from your existing Stripe or Thinkific Payments accounts. You must create a Stripe Express account to receive payouts for your Spotify course offerings.

Stripe Express Supported Countries

Only businesses located in the following countries are supported in the program and can connect to Stripe Express for payout:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

If your business is not located in one of the supported countries, you cannot receive the payouts and cannot participate in the Spotify program.

How to Connect with Stripe Express

Ensure you have the following pieces of information before setting up Stripe Express:

Business address
Home address
Government-issued ID

Once your information is ready, you can set up your account through your Thinkific Dashboard.

Click on Spotify from your Thinkific Admin Dashboard
Select Payouts
Under Terms of Service, check off the box and click Agree
Under Stripe Connection, select the country where your business is based
Select Connect Stripe
A Stripe Express onboarding will open in a new tab. Follow the steps to input your personal and business information.

It will take approximately 3 business days for your account to be verified once your information has been submitted.

Account Verification Status

Verification Status	What it Means
Verification in progress	We’re currently reviewing your account details. This takes place after the initial sign-up with Stripe Express. It can take up to 3 days to complete verification. No action is required by you.
Connected	Your account has been verified, and Stripe Express is connected to your Thinkific site. You are now ready to receive payouts for your Spotify courses.
Details required	More account details are required. Click Access Stripe to add the requested details.
Verification failed	Your Stripe account was not successfully verified. Click Access Stripe or contact our Support team for further assistance

Spotify Revenue Share Model

Courses on Spotify (UK) are compensated based on Spotify’s proprietary consumption based
formula:

The compensation will be determined by (% of course consumed) * (retail price) * (50% discount on retail price) and excluding a gratis period (15% or 30 minutes of a Course).

This gratis portion is excluded to support discoverability and broader access.

Examples

1-hour course priced at $30, 20 mins watched → (20 - 9 mins gratis) / 60 mins × $30 × 50% = $2.80
1-hour course at $30, 45 mins watched → (45 - 9 mins gratis) / 60 × $30 × 50% = $9.00
5-hour course at $99, 45 mins watched → (45 - 30 mins gratis) / 300 × $99 × 50% = $2.50
8-hour course at $99, 5 hours watched → (300 - 30 mins gratis) / 480 × $99 × 50% = $28.00

Spotify calculates this on their side and sends us the total payout. We then pass this on to you via Stripe Express, minus Thinkific’s revenue share and processing fees.

How to Receive Payouts

Once your account is verified and your course is published on Spotify, you’ll begin to receive payouts for successful purchases. Spotify will forward payment to Thinkific, and in turn, Thinkific will pay you using your connected Stripe Express account. [Learn more about the Revenue Share here.]

To view your available payout balance:

Select Spotify from your Thinkific Admin Dashboard
Select the Payouts tabs
Under Spotify Payouts, you’ll see a table with monthly sales reports and the associated status of each payment

Understanding the Spotify Payouts Report

The report displays a table with three columns: Period, Sales Report, and Status.

Period: The monthly period for which your Spotify sales are being reported.
Sales Report: Displays your earnings for that period.
Status: Displays the status of your earnings.
- Available means your earnings are available to be paid out immediately.
- Processing means your earnings are being reconciled and will be available for payout within 90 days.

Payout Schedule

Your first payout from Spotify to the connected Stripe Express account will be processed within 3 months of the month in which the sale occurred (e.x. Courses sold in March will receive an associated payout in June). After the initial payout, subsequent payouts will occur in regular monthly payments.

Additionally, your first payout from your connected Stripe Express account to your specified bank account may take up to 5 business days to arrive. Subsequent payments will be deposited within 2 business days.

It is not currently possible to adjust the payout schedule.

Transaction Fees

Depending on the country where your business is located, you may be subject to currency conversion and transaction fees. These fees can range from 1-3% of the value of the Course sold.

How to Process Refunds

Spotify handles refunds and refund requests for courses sold through Spotify and will be processed according to Spotify’s terms and conditions. Students should contact Spotify directly to request a refund, if necessary.

It is not possible to process refunds for Spotify purchases through Thinkific.

The time from refund initiation to deposit into a student’s bank account can vary depending on the country and bank used by the student. Students can expect refunded payments to be deposited within 2 weeks of the refund being approved.

Refunds processed by Spotify will appear as negative value transactions and affect the payout amount.

Transaction Fees for Refunds

There are no transaction fees associated with refunds. However, there may be a currency conversion fee depending on the student’s country of residence. See the Stripe Express-supported countries where currency conversion fees apply.