James Cridland On How Podcast Directories Can Change The Industry

There are a lot of experts within the podcasting industry. But James Cridland is in a unique position to see the industry’s trends, successes, and failures differently than most. As the curator of Podnews, a daily podcasting briefing, his perspective is a combination of news from podcast hosts, advertisers, content creators, and listening platforms.

Given his holistic view, we invited James to chat on our latest Audience episode. We took the opportunity to hear his thoughts on the future of Apple Podcasts and Spotify, monetization opportunities, and what’s the biggest distribution mistake many podcasters make.

Read on for James’ biggest takeaways and listen to the full episode for even insightful comments.

How Can Apple Podcasts & Spotify Change The Industry?

Along with many other experts, James agrees there’s a big opportunity to increase podcast consumption. He argues if the industry focuses on increasing overall listenership, all ships will rise. From creating more monetization opportunities for podcasters, increasing user bases for listening apps, and driving more financial investment into the industry as a whole.

But the driver of this growth isn’t squarely on the shoulders of podcasters. Instead, James offers opportunities podcast directories can take advantage of to jumpstart the effort.

Apple Podcasts

The biggest player in the industry is without a doubt Apple Podcasts. Apple helped grow and standardize things like podcast categorizations and artwork sizes. But in recent years, Apple hasn’t made many monumental advancements to increase consumption.

But given their strong foothold, there’s one opportunity available that would change the industry forever.

According to Scientia Mobile, over 60% of worldwide mobile users have an Android device. But to date, Apple hasn’t created an Android version of the Apple Podcasts app. While there are popular Android-only listening platforms, the majority of podcasters primarily promote their Apple Podcast listing.

Think of the instant consumption growth if Apple released an Android version of their app. Podcasters could more comfortably promote their Apple Podcast link knowing it would be a seamless subscription process across all devices.

You likely submitted your podcast to Apple Podcasts from the start. But in case it slipped off your radar, submit your podcast today.

Spotify

In the aftermath of the Spotify and Joe Rogan deal, there’s been article after article about the possible implications.

To date, Spotify’s podcasting footprint is relatively small. According to Libsyn, Spotify accounts for 9.5% of total plays for their hosted podcasts. A far cry from Apple Podcast’s 60-70% share of the market.

But by acquiring exclusive rights to one of the most popular podcasts in the world, Spotify is betting on Joe Rogan’s listener base converting to their platform. But whether Rogan fans will switch to Spotify