When Podcast Apps Miss the Mark
Podcast apps are a tough business. The competition for attention is stiff. The app graveyard, and my phone, are loaded with apps that didn’t make it or are not likely to. Some attempted to curate podcasts on a theme like socialization or female fiction, while others thought a prettier user interface would win the day. Here are a few on my phone that have faded or gone away: know any of these? Moonbeam, Autio, Bullhorn, Picked Cherries, Podopolo, Fictionz, Otto, Downcast, BeyondPod, Podster. There are many more. Many.
Most podcast apps stand little chance of gaining recognition or traction without gobs of money. But it turns out even gobs can’t guarantee podcast app adoption. Well-funded podcast-oriented apps like Fireside, funded by entrepreneur extraordinaire Mark Cuban, or the audio app TuneIn, which over the years raised $146 million from top investors including Sequoia Capital and Comcast Ventures, never cracked the podcast code. And who could forget the $160 million-dollar debacle of Luminary, which had HBO on its mind when it launched with a list of podcast exclusives and a marketing bang, including billboards in major cities.
Other well-funded players have struggled. NPR launched its NPR One app in 2014 and never gained the traction one might expect from a loyal and active fanbase. Public radio leaders NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago, and This American Life joined forces to acquire Pocket Casts, an app noted for its rich user interface and run for a time by my friend Owen Grover. It was put up for sale by the consortium a few years ago. With a client, we looked closely at buying Pocket Casts, but the metrics and prospects were challenging. Today it is owned by the parent of WordPress.
Even garnering an audience is not a guarantee of durable success. It was sad to see Stitcher, one of the most venerable, which launched in 2008, the stone age of podcasting, shut down a few weeks ago. SiriusXM has several audio apps, including the mothership SXM and Pandora. In 2022, Stitcher had 1.3% of podcast listening, according to Podtrac.
Once big business came to podcasting, it became even more difficult for smaller apps to compete. Podcast apps must offer a unique value proposition and attract a significant enough audience to survive. That’s not easy. Most are undifferentiated and don’t have brand recognition and reach. Even Google Podcasts and iHeart have had rocky runs garnering truly mass audiences. Facebook offered podcasts for just over a year, podcasts on Twitter seem to have disappeared (and so has Twitter …) and while it wasn’t a podcast app, Clubhouse was a social sensation during the pandemic and is now a punch line.
It isn’t easy.
Today it has become a three-way game between Apple, Spotify, and a relative newcomer, YouTube. With its immense user base, the latter has become a juggernaut and leads the pack in many research surveys.
YouTube is a challenge for podcast creators because it is a fundamentally different monster. It doesn’t yet accept the common RSS feed, which marginalizes the flexibility of easy ad insertion and monetization. It can also take time to get user traction, and of course, as a video-centric platform, the implications for audio content creators is complicated. But make no mistake, podcast consumption is happening on YouTube and it is growing by leaps and bounds.
In our experience, Money follows ears. That’s why we joined with Coleman Insights, a well-respected audio research company, for a study called “The New Rules of Podcasting on YouTube.” Jay Nachlis and I will debut the results in a Thursday morning keynote at Podcast Movement, offering actionable tips and strategies. We very much hope to see you there.
On Tuesday (8/22) at Podcast Movement, I will be moderating another in our series “View From the Top” with top level podcast executives. We have a stellar panel including Eric Nuzum (Co-founder Magnificent Noise), Jessica Cordova Kramer (CEO, Lemonada), Tamara Zubatiy (CEO, Barometer), Paul Anderson (CEO, Workhouse Media).
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