1. Spotify is trying to become podcasting's gatekeeper. We musn't let them.
2. Podcast Recommendation: Exponent #181 — Competing with Spotify and Regulating Acquisitions
3. Podcast Analytics: How to Measure and Use Podcast Metrics to Make Your Show Successful
4. The Mentality Change Marketers Must Make to Measure Their Shows (and the Metrics to Do It)
5. The Podcast Academy launches: the speech, the Q and A, the reaction
6. Podcasting’s Biggest Mistake
7. Want podcasts to remain independent? Support independent podcasts
8. 3 Ways To Find Sponsors Within One Degree Of Separation
9. finds-podcast-advertising-campaigns-153040799.html">New Study Finds That Podcast Advertising Campaigns Resulted In An Average 10 Times Lift Relative To Print, Digital and TV
10. Why Metrics Matter
11. content.com/the-art-and-science-of-podcast-show-descriptions-44d5ed81df24">The Art and Science of Podcast Show Descriptions

1

Spotify is trying to become podcasting's gatekeeper. We musn't let them.

From Adam Tinworth on his onemanandhisblog.com blog:

While Spotify's acqusition of The Ringer is good news for the journalists involved, it's part of a worrying trend in podcasting

The point here is that there is no gatekeeper in podcasting. At a time when we’re beset by the gatekeeper duopoly of Google and Facebook, that’s something we should fight to preserve.

Apple has been the closest we’ve had, with its iTunes Podcast directory (now spun off separately) long the default place you needed to be. Apple, though, has been a good steward of this power, not attempting to lock up podcasting to its own specifications. There are — at the moment, at least — no Apple exclusives, only available in their own app. And, despite rumours to the contrary, none have emerged. (It seems likely now that the rumours were about podcasts supporting Apple TV+ shows.)

Podcasting has no gatekeepers, in the way that search and social have had. Many people in the tech world are looking at that and seeing an opportunity in becoming that gatekeeper. And we should be very careful before we let that happen.

Actually, no, that’s wrong. We should do everything in our combined power as journalists and publishers to stop that happening, lest we find ourselves saddled with another Facebook.

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2

Podcast Recommendation: Exponent #181 — Competing with Spotify and Regulating Acquisitions

Ben and James discuss Ben’s new Daily Update Podcast, and why Exponent is not on Spotify. Then, should regulators roll back acquisitions or prioritize the avoidance of unintended consequences?

A great compliment to the previous article about Spotify. Take a listen to the first half at least.

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3

Podcast Analytics: How to Measure and Use Podcast Metrics to Make Your Show Successful

From Jeff Large on comealivecreative.com:

Why do you care about podcast analytics and data? You care because you want your podcast to be successful. You want evidence that your show is reaching and being enjoyed by an audience. You want confirmation that it is worth your time and investment. But how do you know those things are true? 

Identifying and using the right podcast analytics will help you determine the success of your podcast. 

So what does a good podcast look like? How many downloads do successful podcasts have? How do you track podcast analytics and use them to your advantage? In order to measure success, we need to have a clear definition of success. 

This is one of the best and most helpful articles about podcasting I’ve seen in awhile. I mean, look at this list of sections:

• Why You Should Care About Podcast Analytics
• How to Measure Podcast Success
• Which Podcast Analytics and Tracking Metrics Matter
• How to Track Podcast Analytics
• Choosing a Podcast Media Host: Which Media Host Is Right for You?
• How to Track Podcast Analytics on Apple Podcasts (iTunes), Spotify, and Stitcher
• Additional Tools to Support Your Podcast
• How to Use the Podcast Stats and Findings

And this recap:

Podcast analytics are important and can and should be used to improve your future and existing shows. However, they require an understanding of your goals, the KPIs that can help determine if you’re reaching those goals, and then knowing how to apply those findings to improve your show. 

Finally, many platforms, services, and tools exist to help you achieve these goals, but none of it matters if you aren’t focused on your listeners.

Analytics matter, but your listeners matter more.

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4

The Mentality Change Marketers Must Make to Measure Their Shows (and the Metrics to Do It)

From Jay Acunzo on marketingshowrunners.com:

Rather than obsess over totals, we should focus on value.

It’s not about how big the audience becomes, it’s about how productive, how much value they bring to the brand (which, of course, is directly related to how much value we bring to our audience). Then, once we know that an audience is productive (i.e. valuable to our brands), we can focus on making that valuable asset bigger. But we focus on the bigger without a defensible explanation as to how it’s a valuable thing to grow.

When you think about it, why do we value bigger audiences at all? Because of what we assume will happen as a result of all that reach. We just assume that, if we reach a lot of people, more people will also be productive and subscribe, buy, and/or refer business our way. We assume the productive part will just kinda … happen. It’s why we hear more marketers say the word “awareness” instead of “affinity.” We chase the former, but we need the latter. So it’s wasteful and kinda strange to obsess over a proxy (a broad audience) unless we first understand that we’re meeting our actual needs (a productive audience). Put the cart behind the horse: ensure something is valuable first, then invest in growing it.


So, this is our new mandate to measure a show — and really all of our marketing. Let’s measure value, not totals. Find what’s valuable, then make it bigger, ensuring the value doesn’t decline while you do so.

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5

The Podcast Academy launches: the speech, the Q and A, the reaction

From podnews.net:

The launch of The Podcast Academy was announced at Podcast Movement on Friday morning. Like similar organisations for TV, music and film, this is a membership-driven, not-for-profit organisation designed to be inclusive to the entire podcast industry, it will run annual peer-based awards - The Golden Mics - as well as “advancing knowledge and relationships in and around the business”. A website is live at thepodcastacademy·com.

You can watch Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez’s speech in full, and the Q&A afterwards with our Editor James Cridland, thanks to Podcast Movement. There is also a full transcript of Hernan’s speech on that page.

I’m interested to see how this turns out. Also worth reading: academy-golden-mics-oscars.html">Podcasting Is Getting Its Own Oscars. Will It Work?.

My favorite take on this was the one from Tom Webster in the next article.

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6

Podcasting’s Biggest Mistake

From Tom Webster on his Medium blog:

I spent some time chatting with podcasters at Podcast Movement Evolutions this week. I came back not energized, but a little disturbed.

Podcasting is increasingly being segmented broadly into two camps: “Big Podcasting” — centered around monetization and advertising attribution — and the independents, who are centered around something else. I’ll get to that.

Some of this came to a head on Friday, when a consortium of podcasting interests led by Wondery, Stitcher, NPR, and several others announced the foundation of The Podcast Academy, an entity designed to promote “awareness and excitement” for the medium. It’s called The Podcast Academy not because it is an educational institution, but rather to signal an intent to be for podcasting what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is to the movies.

I’ve been involved with podcasting since 2005, both as a participant and as one of the chroniclers of the space. The original podcasters were a scrappy band of pirates, frustrated by their inability to hear independent voices and niche content on AM/FM radio, and so they rebelled. It was a very common sentiment amongst early podcasters to stick it to The Man. And now The Man is back, and he bought your building and raised your rent. Or at least, that’s how it feels.

Independents, I feel you. You are frustrated because you feel powerless. And you feel powerless because you are powerless. And you are powerless because you are not united. There, I said it.

Podcasters: Unite.

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7

Want podcasts to remain independent? Support independent podcasts

From Brian Heater on techcrunch.com:

As corporations take an increasing interest in the medium, it's listeners' duty to support independent voices

There’s not much more to it. If you love a show and want it to continue, support the creator.

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8

3 Ways To Find Sponsors Within One Degree Of Separation

From Scott Carson on podcastbusinessjournal.com:

So, the truth is that very few podcasters are monetizing or making money with their podcast. “If you record it, they will come” doesn’t hold true for most unless you are servicing a specific niche or audience, or you’ve done the work to regularly record some serious content and have grown a loyal tribe of listeners.

You must serve your audience and make your platform a valuable sounding board or opportunity for sponsors to take note.

And while podcasting is starting to catch on as a valuable marketing tool and way to reach new clients, not every company out there understands the opportunity.

The most important thing to keep in mind when looking for sponsors is that you need to bring value and serve your sponsors. It’s always easier to keep a sponsor happy by going above and beyond and looking for multiple ways to work them into your podcast, social media, marketing, and other ways that not only brings value to the relationship but truly becomes a win-win-win for you, your audience, and ultimately your sponsors.


There are two problems I’ve decided to dig into and work on this year:

1. How to help podcasters better understand and describe the value of their show and audience
2. How to help brands and companies better understand the value that podcasters create and why they are worth investing in

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9

finds-podcast-advertising-campaigns-153040799.html">New Study Finds That Podcast Advertising Campaigns Resulted In An Average 10 Times Lift Relative To Print, Digital and TV

From yahoofinance.com:

With the growing popularity of podcasting, many savvy marketers are looking to expand the role of podcast advertising in their media mix. But until a few years ago, marketers found it difficult to determine the effectiveness of the podcast channel – in large part due to limited podcast attribution methodologies. Until recently, vanity URLs, promo codes, and surveys after a purchase were the only tools available to measure podcast advertising effectiveness.

Today, new marketing tools are allowing advertisers and marketers to gain deeper insights into the effectiveness of podcast channels. In November 2018, Claritas acquired the omni-channel attribution platform Barometric and has since collected and reported on campaign results across more than 100 advertisers, which drove a deeper analysis in the channels effectiveness as compared to non-podcast channels.

This analysis, across industries such as consumer packaged goods, automotive, direct brands, finance and insurance, shows that while non-podcast channels historically result in a 2.6% lift in conversions – with common channels such as such as digital display at 1.1% lift, print at 2.4% and linear TV at 3.1% – podcast channels are driving 34% lift on average.

“In the current media landscape where more agencies and marketers are in need of data to provide insights on their buying decisions, it’s important to understand what is available and how to best use the information to inform decisions on both the buy and sell side,” says Harry Clark, EVP, Chief Revenue Officer of Market Enginuity. “Our work with Claritas has revealed exciting data that supports what we’ve always known intuitively, that podcast advertising has profound impact for our sponsors.”

That last bit is worth repeating and emphasizing: “what we’ve always known intuitively, that podcast advertising has profound impact for our sponsors.”

The podcast report they link to in the article is worth checking out too.

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10

Why Metrics Matter

From Joe Stone on podcastbusinessjournal.com:

If you’re interested in having someone invest in your podcast, metrics matter. That’s according to Erica Mandy, host of “The Newsworthy” podcast. Mandy was a presenter at Podcast Movement’s Evolutions last week.

Mandy says there are 4 things she uses to track what does and doesn’t work:
Clear goals – Have clearly defined goals, a plan, and spend time where it matters.
Charting Progress – Track downloads, listens per episodes within 24 hours, listens per episode within 30 days, and unique listeners month over month. Also, track sponsorships and ads.
Consistency – Keep up with charting progress and activity so you can make projections.
Change – Make adjustments as needed.

Mandy said to track other metrics as well to include giveaways, promo swaps, and paid marketing campaigns (which you should use trackable links for).

Also on the panel was Podfund’s Nicola Krozenko who said tracking metrics gives her organization clear idea of what sort of return on investment they can expect.

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11

content.com/the-art-and-science-of-podcast-show-descriptions-44d5ed81df24">The Art and Science of Podcast Show Descriptions

From Dan Misener on Pacific Content’s blog:

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about podcast show descriptions — the bits of text that often appear in podcast apps to help listeners understand why they might want to hit play.

Show descriptions have been on my mind because we’re currently developing a new podcast series with a new client, and we’re close to launch.

We’re finalizing some of the show’s product packaging, and recently a colleague asked me, “How long should our show description be?”

I wrote a podcast episode about show descriptions back in October 2016, here’s what I had to say about it:

Your podcast description is one of the first things people see when they come across your podcast online or in a podcast app. This is your chance to catch their attention and sell them on your show. It’s your opportunity to convince them to listen.

The ideal podcast description answers two questions for your potential listener: 1. Is this show for me? 2. What am I going to get out of listening to this?

When a potential audience member comes across your podcast and starts reading your description, they’re wondering, “What’s in it for me?” This is your chance to tell them why they should care about your show. Otherwise, they won’t.

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Closing Thoughts

Well I just got back from Los Angeles, and I’ll be in Texas for 3 more weeks before I relocate to California for the foreseeable future. For years, I always dreamed about moving to California, and it’s funny how quickly it can happen. A couple months ago, it wasn’t even on my radar, and now I’ve got roughly 20 days left in Texas.

I made the announcement on Twitter a couple days ago, but I’ll share it again here: I’ve joined the Podcorn team (my title is Head of Community and User Experience) to help them build the best open marketplace for brands and companies looking to sponsor and support podcasters.

I’m working on a blog post and podcast episode to tell you more about it, but in the meantime, head over to Podcorn.com and sign up to take a look for yourself (it’s free to use), and let me know what you think.

Till next week, happy podcasting.

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave a rating and review in Apple Podcasts, or share the episode with a friend. Thank you! 💙

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This show was produced by me, Aaron Dowd.Music and SM7B illustration by Sean McCabe.Hosting and technology by Simplecast.