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Apple Meets With Podcasters to Hear Wide-Ranging Community Grievances
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Dude,mare you high?
Which long term damage, and which short term revenue?
Normally people don't cancel subscriptions or stop using ApplePay!
It's recurring revenue,mite not a thing that you buy and that's it...
I just thought of something...
60% of the US are using Android phones... and 85% of the entire world are using Android phones.
Are we still sure podcasts are an "Apple thing" ?
EDIT... I just read Marco's post... Apple/iTunes has 70% of the podcast market. I stand corrected!
Interesting, in that case I wonder why the Podcasters did not also go for a visit to Google (well, maybe they did) to see how they manage Podcasts and see how to improve the market share there?
It seems to me that it is easier to increase podcasting market share on Android phones than it is on iOS. A 1% uptick in podcasting market share on Android will have much larger effects than a 5% increase on iOS, assuming revenue is the same on both platforms (it probably isn't though).
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Customers dropping their subscriptions because their podcasts get interrupted by nonsensical ads from a place that they don't live in (e.g. US pharma ads in Europe...).
But you could have a model where for a small fee the ads are removed. That pushed me into getting a spotify subscription. I don't mind paying for quality, so a good podcast is worth the money imo if it doesn't have ads.
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From a producer's perspective, I believe the influence of iTunes is close to completely disappearing.
Here's a short but well-received post I left on the UK Podcasters' Facebook group just this week:
"I'd be genuinely interested to know how podcast listenership figures through iTunes have changed over the last few years. Personally, I can't remember the last time I used Apple to listen to a podcast.
As a podcast consumer, there are simply much better ways to listen now - Acast, Pocket Casts, Podbean, Stitcher (and even soundcloud, though I'm not really a fan) are all superior from an episode management point of view.
And as a podcast producer I have absolutely no time for iTunes and their culture of secrecy. Why won't they share listener figures with content providers? Why is something as straightforward as what constitutes New & Noteworthy kept hidden? Would it kill them to notify me if we have a new review in an obscure market?
Wikishuffle.co.uk featured in New and Noteworthy for about our first 3 months, and I have no doubt that did get us some additional listens, but since then I'd be surprised if iTunes accounts for even 10% of our audience.
While Apple may have been instrumental in the creation of the Podcast (I mean, every time anyone even uses the word it's effectively an advertisement for one of their products), but they seem to have been left well behind by the development of the medium."
Here's a short but well-received post I left on the UK Podcasters' Facebook group just this week:
"I'd be genuinely interested to know how podcast listenership figures through iTunes have changed over the last few years. Personally, I can't remember the last time I used Apple to listen to a podcast.
As a podcast consumer, there are simply much better ways to listen now - Acast, Pocket Casts, Podbean, Stitcher (and even soundcloud, though I'm not really a fan) are all superior from an episode management point of view.
And as a podcast producer I have absolutely no time for iTunes and their culture of secrecy. Why won't they share listener figures with content providers? Why is something as straightforward as what constitutes New & Noteworthy kept hidden? Would it kill them to notify me if we have a new review in an obscure market?
Wikishuffle.co.uk featured in New and Noteworthy for about our first 3 months, and I have no doubt that did get us some additional listens, but since then I'd be surprised if iTunes accounts for even 10% of our audience.
While Apple may have been instrumental in the creation of the Podcast (I mean, every time anyone even uses the word it's effectively an advertisement for one of their products), but they seem to have been left well behind by the development of the medium."
It's probably the same reason why Google earns more in iOS than Android, despite the latter's larger market share. Not all listeners are created equal, and the iOS user base could simply be still considered more lucrative.
The ultimate aim of ads is to get you to buy something, and serving ads to more people on Android may not be meaningful if it doesn't actually translate into more sales proportionately.
Podcast subscriptions is tied to the Apple ID so it would not matter which payment solution is attached to that Apple ID.
I do think that aggregate information based on Apple IDs would be useful for podcasters:
* Gender
* Age group
* Country / preferred language
* How many podcasts do they subscribe to
* How many devices are they listening on
* How many hours do they listen do podcasts (through Apple apps)
Apple do not collect all that information today, but I can see that podcasters would be interested in such data, even in just aggregate form. Gender and age is pretty important for advertisers.
Since its launched in 2005, to a meeting in 2016, is it really a good example of reacting to customer concerns?
Im not pro monetising podcasts , so happy if Apple just turned up to listen, but will take another 11 years to hold the follow up meeting
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Agree. Cue should really retire to a managerial position in a corner of the HQ, though in this case, I'm happy if Apple does not cave to assist in moneytising podcasts .
Too much flair too little mojo. (Cue is morphing into a cross between Schiller and Iovine.)
I'm kinda confused here. Apple doesn't charge podcasters for streaming costs. Apple doesn't make a dime off podcasters the way, say, YouTube does off of people who post videos. Apple doesn't require any kind of exclusivity on podcasts; i.e., if they are posted on iTunes they can't be posted on a competing service.
So why are they b*ing at all? Certainly good podcasts have market ability to incorporate ads. Some of the biggest podcasts are put out by major broadcasters and are written off as promotion for the main broadcast show. There is a lot of junk out there too, and of course, these are finding it difficult to raise revenue, because, well, even monied broadcasters have to pull shows that don't have ears or eyeballs.
There are lots of things to bark at Apple about these days, not sure this is one of them. As I see it Jobs added these as a curiosity and public service. With all the problems Apple needs to solve dedicating staff for this seems a waste. Apple could shutter podcasts all together and maybe a few % would be outraged because that is there thing. The rest would never even notice or find an alternative source.
So why are they b*ing at all? Certainly good podcasts have market ability to incorporate ads. Some of the biggest podcasts are put out by major broadcasters and are written off as promotion for the main broadcast show. There is a lot of junk out there too, and of course, these are finding it difficult to raise revenue, because, well, even monied broadcasters have to pull shows that don't have ears or eyeballs.
There are lots of things to bark at Apple about these days, not sure this is one of them. As I see it Jobs added these as a curiosity and public service. With all the problems Apple needs to solve dedicating staff for this seems a waste. Apple could shutter podcasts all together and maybe a few % would be outraged because that is there thing. The rest would never even notice or find an alternative source.
Apple has nothing to do with hosting the streams. Podcasters pay for that on their own
Valid points, but improving the quality of service (even in a free and non-revenu generating service) will increase overall customer satisfaction and indirect sales. In that light I see it as a good step that Apple aims to connect with prolific podcasters.
Right. And I havent listened for a while but I used to find it super annoying that I couldnt control the order of episodes. The podcasts load to phone, then I want to order them......oldest to newest or vice versa but it didnt allow me to do that. The order it gave them to me was what I had to deal with.
It's amazing how some people here seem to know the personality, goals, aspirations and job effectiveness of Apple executives intimately, and that just from watching them present for 2 minutes on a keynote and reading a few biased articles on rumor sites.
I think the monetization they are referring to is selling ads in their shows. They want to have solid listener data to help them sell advertising.
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I wonder why Apple only met with 7 podcasters... when there are over 300,000 ?
They'd have to mount a Podstock event.
And I don't see what obligation Apple has to oblige them in this area.I think the monetization they are referring to is selling ads in their shows. They want to have solid listener data to help them sell advertising.
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They'd have to mount a Podstock event.
Can we please, for the love of all that is holy, move Podcasts back into Music. Then perhaps when I pick up my iPhone an push play it would always play the podcast I was listening to, instead of music (same when I connect it to my car). Or at the very least, a setting where we can set a default audio program, so when we press the button on the headset or connect it to our vehicles, the devices will use that app by default?
To everyone disputing wether or not apple created podcasts. Let me give you a hint. POD..... CAST.... POD... IPOD... POD CAST.. Get it yet?
Oh just shut the up with the winey bull that you and nearly every other Mac rumours forum user posts on here.
Smart decision. If you are attempting at making a service more forward, why not meet with top users and hear complaints/concerns.
Except it isn't going to be viable... the supply side economy overlooks so much that it's beyond belief.
At least they're not longer pitching buzzphrases like "It just works!"
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What they DO might be different, however. Remember, a for-profit company doesn't give a damn about anything, unless profit ("value") is the primary result. Now Apple might be more likely to DO whatever the ones with the most stocks* say. Customers have been given lip service far more often, or else complaints we hear all over the place about lots of things would have been addressed and that's not just an Apple-specific issue.
* the paper with variable value in them that people like to retire on, as long as one has enough of the paper if it is devalued
Not acting. Just listening.
Future actions will define whether or not they actually do anything other than listen.
Prediction: They are replacing "Connect" to bring back the "Podcast" tab and discontinuing the Podcast app altogether. Where the listening data will come from is from the live streams in iTunes Radio, which are going to get expanded, and the new Podcasts section which will be a combination of streaming and downloading. You are going to be able to opt out of the analytics like you can with other stuff though.
Personally, I think there's a lot of time being wasted on the idea that podcasts are going to become a huge trend. The second season of Serial tanked (so I read), so the "biggest thing" that's happened in podcasting so far is already out of the picture. People are buying these expensive 4K/5K TVs and you're telling them to go listen to audio dramas, comedies, interviews, whatever on their phones with their $25 EarPods?
Personally, I think there's a lot of time being wasted on the idea that podcasts are going to become a huge trend. The second season of Serial tanked (so I read), so the "biggest thing" that's happened in podcasting so far is already out of the picture. People are buying these expensive 4K/5K TVs and you're telling them to go listen to audio dramas, comedies, interviews, whatever on their phones with their $25 EarPods?
Really? Can you link to any report about podcasts prior to iTunes 4.9? Any application that played podcasts prior to that? Any tool that put podcast onto mobile devices (MP3 players, phones) prior to that?
Sure, people could post MP3s on their website and people could download them and copy them manually to their mobile device, but even before that people could record radio (terrestrial, cable or internet-based) as MP3s and put them onto their mobile devices. But without any automation (at the very least publishers offering MP3s for download), I don't think anything can qualify to be a 'cast' (as in Podcast) and the term 'pod' essentially requires distribution to a mobile device. Otherwise it is just the consumption of recorded audio on a computing device (unless you want to even include a self-burned audio CD on a mobile CD player).
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You are using Overcast, that means you are using an Apple device.
But the only thing Apple knows is that you have the downloaded the Overcast app, nothing more. I don't know if the Overcast app uses the Apple podcast directory when you search for a podcast from within Overcast (it probably does at least as a last resort). But Apple would only know about the search, not whether you then actually subscribed to the podcast.[doublepost=1462731002][/doublepost]
Apple only knows if you use their podcast app to subscribe and listen to podcasts.
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