Tag Archives: podcast

Is a New Podcasting Industry Association Needed Again?

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By Rob Greenlee, Former VP of Content and Partnerships, Libsyn.com

You might be asking a simple question: Why? Again, we have been here before, and it was called the Association of Downloadable Media (ADM).  It was a grassroots organization formed by some of the larger podcasting players in 2008.

Ten years later, much maturity in the market has occurred, but most new people to podcasting will not have known this history.  It is also true that it does not matter how much what happened in the past, but what we do now going forward.  I agree with that thought, but some lessons can be learned from that experience to make an organization work this time.

The ADM was mostly a failure by most measures, with the group in fighting and backroom closed-door communications in efforts to control the group’s efforts. Still, some good came out of it, and we did set some very basic measurement standards that have carried the overall podcasting industry till the more recent efforts by the IAB Podcast Metrics Working Group to establish v.1 and, more recently IAB v.2 Podcast Metrics Standards.

The thought is to create an industry group that can collaborate to create more standards in the industry around advertising formats, best practices around dynamic ad insertion, and programmatic ad buying.   Large brands and agencies need some whitepapers with examples of successful advertising campaigns.

As host/talent read ad spots converge more with programmatic buying platforms, we will see revenue grow in the podcasting medium.

We must also keep working on audio-playing client-side metrics to realize the complete listening picture from downloaded podcast audio files.

This new unnamed podcast industry association would enable everyone to come together around growing the listening side of the podcasting industry with the potential of co-op online and offline marketing and promotion.

I have a proposed name for the new association, and that might be “Professional Podcast Association” (PPA) or “Global Podcast Association” (GPA).  Please let me know if you have any other ideas about this proposal – rob.greenlee at gmail dot com.

Why Podcasters and Listeners Should Care About Dynamic Ad Insertion or Also Called Audio Stitching?

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Rob Greenlee(Article Updated July 7, 2019) Simply put “Dynamically Inserted Advertising” puts audio ads or audio promos in podcast episode downloads and it stays there for a certain amount of time and then it stops being inserted when it’s reached a certain number of purchased impressions via downloads and plays.

“But one must be hyper-cautious of annoying audiences with bad ads and too many ads with this technology. The tech is not so much the issue, but how it is used.”

Ideally, all ads in podcasts should be read by the podcast host or another experienced podcast host doing the read for other podcasts as as I call talent reads. This approach can work with dynamic ad insertion as well as the traditional baked in versions that are in the media file forever. Keep in mind the use of baked in ads leaves advertising cash on the table as archives can be fully monetized with dynamic ad insertion.

One needs to be careful to make sure the listener experience isn’t degraded at all from this ad delivery method. One must be mindful of where the ad break is placed inside or at the beginning of the content. One also needs to be mindful that using music fades around dynamic ads must be thought through and most of the time doing soft transition breaks is best as ads may not always in the show at playback.

Some may run dynamic ad insertion with more traditional radio ad type spots with the big brand advertisers and those may not be as well received by listeners.

But, if talent/host read ads are done correctly they would not disrupt the long-standing host read type of authentic experience listeners to podcasts have become accustomed too.

Ideally the listener would never know you are using ad insertion to deliver a host read because it sounds the same as baked in host read ads they are used to hearing.

“Given all the warnings, dynamic ad insertion is rapidly becoming the de facto way of doing ad business in the Podcasting space, but some media buyers are resisting the shift from baked in live host read ads. The ad buyers have gotten used to getting free archival impressions for the life of episodes with baked in ads”

Reality is that with dynamic ad insertion there will be a flood of inventory in the space and the CPM rates will likely go down until the IAB v.2 podcast metrics certification of podcast hosting platforms process gets wider adoption to see CPM (Ad Cost Per Thousand) in podcasting go up and I am confident they will as we are seeing signs of it already.

Forward-looking podcasters will figure out what their premium content offering will see CPM or ad revenue climb to impressive levels as advertisers see acceleration of ROI as the counting of audience numbers begins to more broadly reflect the real truth.

Podcasters will still need to diversify by combining audio with video and click-through sponsored social post ads, inspire listening audiences to word of mouth share podcast listen recommendations is a big part of the solution. Many will be able to sell subscriptions, live performance tickets and other products that add value to their listeners and generate additional revenue.

This growing form of advertising in podcasts will impact listeners and content creators in a positive or negative way depending on how it is implemented.

Keep an ear out for it and time will tell if it turns out positive or negative.

Listen to “SLS105: Podcast Discovery and Ad Insertion” on Spreaker.

My Digital Life Show #1: Not So Digital Backyard Aquaponics Project

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:48 — 6.0MB) | Embed

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This introduction episode is about my backyard Aquaponics project that I have been working on for almost a year now. This episode just spends a few minutes explaining the project and its challenges.

Aquaponics is very much like Hyroponics, except for the fact that it uses fish as a source of food to grow your produce in water.

See the image below of the current system under construction.

Please feel free to give me feedback on this show to rob at robgreenlee dotcom or twitter @robgreenlee . This is my first personal podcast since I stopped recording the Zune Insider podcast and the nationally syndicated WebTalk World Radio Show back in 2006.

 

On-Demand and Time-Shifted Talk Radio is the Future of Audio Podcasting

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The talk of the death of podcasting is an annual right of passage these days,  but I am starting to think that nothing is really wrong in the podcasting medium. We are just seeing the natural maturation of this form of media.  Saying that is not to discount the need for the medium to improve its distribution platforms and offer greater quality content. It seems like the future should be centered on developing more synergy with the broadcast radio side.  I know this is a little counter to what we might all think, but really radio has wide adoption and podcasting fills a need that radio is weak at and that is around on-demand and time-shifted consumption of serialized audio programming.  It seems like many of the folks on the radio side don’t really get podcasting and the podcasting side does not get how radio works.  Both could really learn from the other and help each other.

I also see the video side of podcasting beginning to fade away as video shifts to being more cloud based-streaming that can be more easily monitized.  It seems that within a few short years podcasting will be 90% audio and radio stations will be much larger podcasters then they are today.  The other major concern area for me is around distribution platforms viability long-term as it is very difficult for any of these platforms to make any or enough money to keep investing in these platforms.

Here is an excerpt from a recent Wired Gadget Lab article:

“Stitcher Stitcher is a free talk radio app that lets you listen to your favorite programs on demand. You can choose from more than 7,000 shows, and the app is available on all major phone platforms — including Windows Phone for the first time.

“We decided that the time was right to create a Windows Phone Mango app now that Windows Phone is definitely becoming the third member of the space,” said Collin Billings, Stitcher’s director of user experience.

Stitcher aggregates popular content by source (for example, NPR, BBC and CNN) and by topic (for example, food and motorcycles). Content is wirelessly synced, so if you start listening to a program on your Windows Phone, you can pick up where you left off on an Internet-connected radio or on your PC.

The app’s name is derived from the practice of “stitching” together multiple stations and podcasts to create a personalized talk radio playlist. If you’re not quite sure what to listen to, or are looking to branch out to new sources, you can see what other listeners of the same show also liked.”

I need to say that the lack of podcast aggregator platform revenue is number 1# limiting issue around podcast distribution platform innovation and improvement.  The answer to this question looks a lot like Stitcher with more integration with internet radio in the car and on mobile/wifi devices.