James Cridland on Tech and Dynamic Content Driving Podcasting's Future
why the time is now for podcasters and platforms alike to benefit
Welcome to the early access edition of Pod Chat, where you get first listen to the latest episode as well as a deeper look at some of the tools and tech mentioned in it.
In this issue:
Episode 2 of Pod Chat, with guest James Cridland
Spooler, a real-time audio app for publishers
A Million Ads, changing the way we use dynamic insertion
A special 50% off promo offer promo for Boomcaster
Coming up next on Pod Chat
Pod Chat Episode 2, with James Cridland
In Episode 2 of Pod Chat, my guest is James Cridland, founder and editor of Podnews, the leading industry publication and newsletter. James has over 28 years in the radio and online business, and helped launch the first daily podcast from a UK radio station and the world’s first radio station streaming app.
With that background, it’s no surprise that James brought an amazing collection of insights to our chat, including:
where next for the humble RSS feed
how namespaces are making a difference to podcast apps and hosts
why big platforms need to respect what creators want
how cultural differences are impacting the acceptance of ads in podcasting
the problem with the term indie podcaster
why advertisers need to think smarter when it comes to AdTech
Settle back and enjoy these insights and more from the immensely knowledgeable James.
Spooler: Creating Truly Evergreen Podcasts
One of the tools James talked about in the episode was Spooler.fm, which is looking to completely change the way we look at keeping podcast content fresh.
Using dynamic insertion technology, Spooler lets creators edit and re-edit content on the fly, and then update a podcast/episode with that new content.
But this isn’t your usual use of dynamic content - because Spooler is a CMS, it creates “story modules” that are updated and published seamlessly. Think about a news podcast that could update the events in Ukraine in almost real-time, essentially turning that podcast into a live news podcast as it happens.
These can be embedded on a website or listened to on podcast apps, making it super easy for listeners to stay up-to-date with your changes.
The possibilities with this are super exciting - check Spooler out for yourself.
How A Million Ads is Changing the Way We Think About Dynamic Ads
Thanks to Dynamic Ad Insertion, Streaming Ad Insertion, Dynamic Audio Insertion, and more, advertising on podcasts is a big business, both for podcasters and publishers/advertisers.
As James shared in the episode, by using data to create truly personalized advertising, A Million Ads becomes more than an advertising platform - it’s a personally tailored lifestyle partner for the target audience.
Got podcast listeners who live in London? Drop an ad for a local shop you’re partnering with.
Got listeners who always plays your episodes at lunch time? Offer a saving with your Skip The Dishes partnership, just for these listeners.
These are just a couple of examples where ads are presented based on a wide dataset, and are targeted to listeners that fall within that campaign parameter.
This is most definitely the future direction of contextual, targeted ads for your podcast sponsors and partners - check A Million Ads out here.
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Coming Up Next on Pod Chat
I think you can agree that the first two guests on the show have been awesome, and really set the bar for what you can expect with every episode. But things are just getting started. :)
Here are the upcoming guests for the next four episodes:
April 1 - Arielle Nissenblatt, EarBuds Collective
April 15 - AJ Churchill, Lunar.fm and Apollo
April 29 - Hari Gopalakrishna, Boomcaster
May 13 - Bryan Barletta, Sounds Profitable
I’m looking forward to bringing these guests and more to you over the spring and summer - it’s going to be a great few months ahead!
Until the next time, stay safe, stay well, and happy podcasting!
Danny.
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