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“How can Apple and Spotify both be ‘Number One’ (when we all know Apple is)?” That question is at the center of the “kerfuffle” over Spotify’s recent claim, writes Edison Research SVP Tom Webster. Data from Edison’s Podcast Consumer Tracker, like all measurements in podcasting, shows part of the truth.
“The short answer — they both sit atop very different ladders,” Webster explains. “If you want to measure downloads, Apple has been and continues to be the leader. But the Spotify platform is preferred by more people.” He kindly breaks down the three most common objections expressed on Twitter and elsewhere.
In other news from the Podcast Consumer Tracker, 49% of weekly listeners listen to at least one “truly independent” show every week. (Define as those that “write their own paychecks and are not part of a large network.”) For “weird and wonderful” niche shows, the audience is big and encouragingly steady.
It’s become far too difficult for indie podcasters to finance their work without sacrificing quality, says producer and consultant Nick Hilton. Especially for polished documentary work, there’s no structural support: “The actual craft of making a small, perfectly formed documentary podcast is being beaten by the business of it.”
Documentary podcasting is wildly expensive. “We can safely assume that all of Spotify, Audible, BBC, NPR, NYT etc are dealing in six or seven figure budgets,” Hilton writes. Self-funded projects have to rely on subscriptions or advertising, neither of which work well for a limited series format — no matter how brilliant the quality.
As a documentary maker and co-founder of a podcast company, Hilton observes that upfront marketability has become a prerequisite for existing. “When you have a system whose biases pressure independent podcasters into diluting their idea, chopping it up, refrying it with other content, then you have an issue.”
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