Podfund, IAB Certification, Growing the Podcast Ecosystem and Even More Endgame - AL416

Podcast News

Podfund:  https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18531565/podfund-launch-investment-podcasts

IAB Certification: 3 new companies join Blubrry and NPR - Art19 (whom everyone talked about on Friday), Voxnest (barely heard anything) and Australia’s Wooshka. Why did everyone talk about Art19 and not the other two? http://www.insideradio.com/podcastnewsdaily/growing-momentum-for-iab-certification-art-voxnest-latest-to-join/article_d754a390-7341-11e9-ab6f-53100537b161.html

And some great questions to consider from Nick Quah re: Google and Spotify moves:Assuming Spotify and Google does indeed each accrue meaningful podcast distribution power, should we read their podcast activities as competitive with, or additive to, the podcast world Apple has fostered? In other words: is this necessarily a zero-sum game?

Is it possible to sketch a theory of the ecosystem that sees “Big Podcasting” as a separate from “Open Podcasting/Everything Else,” the latter as perhaps mediated by Apple? Is it possible for the two things to exist in parallel?

With regards to Apple, there’s an obvious question, and there’s a less obvious question. The former: how will Apple respond? The latter: should they respond? This should bring us to a more root question: what is the game that Apple plays, and what is the best version of that game specifically within the podcast context?

If Spotify and Google do end up commandeering the bulk of new podcast listenership, what’s the move for third-party podcast apps? What new opportunities are they best positioned to pursue? Should they double down on niche communities?

There are other factors in here as well (I’m curious about Liz Covart’s promotion on Apple and it’s effect…https://blog.oieahc.wm.edu/getting-itunes-feature/ ) but I’m tired of hearing “New & Noteworthy” doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter in the way how many new people think it does - but it does matter being front and center to a majority eyeballs.https://blog.pacific-content.com/apple-featured-my-indie-podcast-on-their-front-page-heres-what-happened-next-e6c22e52fc42

What are you Currently Listening to?

Joel’s Pick: Smodcast 414: Markus and McFeely Make Mine Marvel - https://soundcloud.com/smodcast/414-markus-and-mcfeely-make-mine-marvel

Jay’s Pick: Marvel Cinematic Universe. They’ve been doing it for years. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marvel-cinematic-universe-podcast/id907175322