Right now, you don’t have tracking. Podcasters know only how many times their podcast was downloaded, and nothing else.
With Spotify, they will know how much you listened, where you stopped, whether the ad was skipped and I think the net result will just be that the ad revenue will dry up for regular podcasts, and we will see every niche podcast you like just dry up.
And gone with be Three Die Block or Thrilling Adventure Hour, but we will be able to get all the NPR Politics we want.
Yeah, you’re probably right. Though that assumes everyone WILL skip the ads, which is probably not far off… (like browser adblocking also killed lots of websites)
Doesn’t matter if listeners skip the ads or not, the advertisers will jump to whatever network or service gives them the most info on their victims customers.
I read a few years ago that advertisers know exactly how effective each podcast advertisement was, since podcasters usually advertise as part of the program and give a unique code, so the companies got a great metric via how much people used each code to access their product? For example, I listen to Marc Maron a lot, and when I use his offers, I type in WTFpod or WTF or something similar to get an offer, so the advertisers knows I was sent there from that podcast. Plus I never skip the ads in podcasts like that since it’s like a built in part of the show. I don’t pause my game, alt-tab out, go to the podcast, skip that part, and then alt-tab back into my game just to skip an ad.
Those offer codes are there for the exact reason you describe, but presumably only some fraction of people use them. Advertisers will still jump at the chance to get data that requires no action from the listener.
Or it may be that everyone’s audience doubles and they get an advertising boost. I don’t think we have a very good understanding yet of how Spotify’s moves in this space will shake out. Any doomsaying at this point is just guessing.
The really niche podcasts will be fine, anyway. Whatever money they make is from donations from listeners…advertising is a bonus, and (fortunately) podcasting is a low-overhead activity.
In any case, every podcast I listen to is throwing themselves at Spotify. I don’t think I’ve yet not gotten a hit from searching, even the ultra-niche podcasts that are probably getting a couple hundred listeners a month. They must see some value in access to the Spotify audience.
How are ads done on Spotify’s podcasts? Are they injected in the audio stream (like normal podcasts) or is it more like Youtube where it pauses the podcast and adds a new audio stream?
Podcasts have their own ads. Spotify doesn’t add any. So far, anyway.
Same here, but Tidal instead of Spotify. It makes no sense to me that a great music app can’t integrate this functionality, but they have also totally screwed up the podcast interface. A list of downloads that auto clears as listened, who knew it was so hard.
It’s getting serious.
Sounds like he’s quite popular? What are his podcasts about?
Wow, I don’t really listen but that’s bad for podcasting in general. And YouTube.
Yep, this is bad news in general. I believe some of the more mainstream podcasters are hoping for something like this and would jump at the opportunity. It’s only going to get worse.
I was trying to think of if there is any podcasts I listen to that I would get a Spotify account just to listen to. I don’t think there is, I really like some of them, but not enough to pay Spotify money. The only ones I really care about would never move (ATP is first that comes to mind.)
Didn’t that article say that you don’t have to be a paying member? You just have to log into the app.
edit: (and, sure, you can say “yet” or whatever)
It said you have to be a Spotify user. Does that not equal paying?
Edit: I guess I didn’t understand that line in the article referring to it. You can be a free member and still listen. Case for me still stands, I wouldn’t use Spotify for free to listen any podcasts either. I like my player too much, it makes listening to podcasts better.
Not sure I see how.
Spotify wants to make podcasting a central part of it’s business, and is paying big money to make it so. To Apple and Google, podcasting is a rounding error…they barely even notice they have a podcast division. Seems like a pretty easy choice.
Apple doesn’t make any money on podcasting. They just maintain an RSS feed of podcasts. It’s kind of odd how people keep saying how this hurts Apple, they don’t care. I guess some people will go with Spotify over Apple Music?
It’s bad for podcasting because it was an open platform where you could use whatever player on whatever platform you wanted and listen. If people have go to one service that removes that choice, it’s bad for the listener. We need podcasting to be as free as possible and not for corporations to take over and ruin it.
It will be interesting how COVID affects podcasts long term. Not so much the ones that just happen without sponsors, but more Relay.fm. Relay hosts a large chunk of the Apple tech shows, and their production quality is very, very good. They sweat the small stuff for audio. Same with ATP.
Neither of these are moving to Spotify. However, Myke mentioned they are basically taking a beating because ad spends are either down, or frozen. So, they are pushing a little harder on their membership stuff to get people to sign up for it.
On the one hand, I don’t share the view that podcasting needs to be some big, open web kinda thing. If Spotify wants to get someone to do a show on their network and pays them, I don’t have a problem with it being behind their paywall any more than I have a problem with a TV show behind a paywall.
Then I go slightly down that rabbit hole and think of Youtube, and how they completely dominate everything about videos and banging that bell and all the crap. And I’d rather not have podcasting fall into that. However, I do find the YouTube algorithm pretty handy and end up enjoying the videos it suggests to me. I don’t really get a lot of hate-video options; it’s either tech, workspaces, and model train stuff in my suggested videos.
My opinion exactly. To use an analogy, podcasting moving to Spotify is like if websites moved inside Google and you needed a Google account to read them. It’s valuable to keep any kind of publishing and reading free and open, and prevent it from turning into an aggregated social network or premium service.
I guess, sure. But when has that ever happened? Like it or not, podcasting is a business now, not a cottage industry.