PodMov Daily: Tuesday, December 17

Episode 107: Testing, One Two-sday

(Re)solved: Eric Nuzum on Radio's Answers to Podcasting's Problems

Facing the podcast industry’s unbridled growth, veteran audio creator and strategist Eric Nuzum looks to the hard-won wisdom of public radio.

Nuzum describes several “new emerging systemic problems that will become growing concerns over the next few years — problems that public radio has been working on with a decades-long head start.”

The need for diverse revenue is just one complexity solved by radio, now echoed by podcasting. “[Radio’s] early leaders realized that government and licensee revenues would never be enough to fuel the system’s growth,” Nuzum explains.

These common pain points and solutions aren’t purely financial. Radio’s invaluable advantage lies in its “decades-long understanding of how to nurture a relationship with listeners.”

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American Icons: Edison Identifies Most Listened-To Podcast Genres

In November Edison Research delivered its first Podcast Consumer Tracker. The study, which measured the comparative reach of the top podcast networks in the United States, now offers a new metric.

Edison has announced in a blog post “the podcast genres with the greatest reach amongst U.S. weekly podcast consumers.” How were comedy, news, and society/culture named the reigning categories?

By matching data on the “specific podcasts listened to by [its] sample of weekly consumers” with the “podcast genre data that podcasters provide in their RSS feed.”

It’s important to note that “these figures do not represent any kind of compositional or share data.” Tom Webster’s post from October, “What Downloads Can’t Tell You,” details these distinctions.

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Rolling Stone: Record Labels Face Spotify's Spoken-Word Ambition

Rolling Stone columnist Tim Ingham reports on slowing revenue growth among major record companies and, of course, podcasting’s role. Namely it’s Spotify’s spoken-word push is seen as “eating into the bread and butter of record labels.”

An NPR report, via Edison Research’s Share of Ear Study, may suggest so. From 2014 to 2019, music experienced a 5% market share decrease while spoken word gained 20%. Nielsen data and IFPI’s Music Listening 2019 report also point to tipping scales.

“Whether or not you see podcasts’ cannibalizing of music consumption on Spotify as ‘good news,’ or something rather scarier, will depend on whether you’re a Spotify investor, a record label, or a musician,” Ingham writes. Well, what if you’re a podcaster?

Podcorn’s Native Ad Platform: True Creative Freedom That Works

Podcorn’s new self-service platform is open for business, delivering the next generation of native podcast advertising. The marketplace mission is to give podcasters transparency, creative freedom, and full control of how and when they monetize.

Custom-fit sponsorships, easy tools, and super fast payment processing are just the beginning. Podcorn eliminates the middleman to let podcasters browse and choose opportunities right on the platform. There are no contracts, no exclusivities, and you set your own prices for sponsorships.

Explore expertly matched partnerships right away by pitching your podcast directly to brands who are looking for your niche expertise. Native means creative — design your own host-read spots, interview segments, and topical discussions that will resonate with your listeners.

Take it from the hosts of Morning Cup of Murder:

“This is amazing! Thank you so much for this opportunity! We’re in a workroom with a second sponsor right now waiting for them to respond to some follow up info! Very excited!”

What are you waiting for? Discover a better way to monetize with Podcorn.

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Here's what else is going on:

• Circuit race: Podnews reports that, in the United States, podcasts from Apple and Spotify are now available on Amazon Alexa-powered speakers. Apple made the announcement to podcasters via email and Spotify with an instructive blog post.

• Human/kind: In a thoughtful defense of the internet’s better nature, producer Lee Schneider identifies podcasting as “a major force for keeping the internet good.” The freedom of RSS and the “carnival” of ideas it produces are just the beginning.

• Collect call: Matthew McLean of The Podcast Host has written a complete guide to creating a montage episode. It’s “a piece of audio content, made up of clips from different contributors” that works as an audience-building milestone marker.

• Wide net: RadioPublic CEO Jake Shapiro recently introduced the company’s LRM (Listener Relationship Management) platform. The feature gives podcasters ‘top and middle’ control over audience-growth funnels on the open web and social.