Start with what your goals are, then build a plan. Some people do it because they want to express themselves, others for a business and others see it as a hobby. However just because you write doesn’t mean that you’ll have an audience. Owen Grover: I want to encourage everybody because there are a relatively low barriers to entry. None of us should be thinking about share shift in this business. The attempts by Google to relaunch their app and get more users are welcome because there is still so much room to grow the pie. Pandora has a substantial user base somewhere around 70 million monthly active uniques last time I checked. Owen Grover: What I think about Pandora, Spotify, Google, and anyone else is they can only help grow the medium through their concerted efforts. PBJ: What do you think about Pandora getting into podcasting? We were able to get on the air, crack the mic, and talk about the value of bringing the content with you wherever you go because this is a mobile medium. Owen Grover: It’s the same way we were able to grow iHeartRadio when I was there. People love it but we need to teach people how to get to it. It has that storytelling quality regardless of the format. We feel strongly that the medium is powerful, intimate, and it delivers real emotional benefits. The key challenge facing the industry is awareness, usage, and habituation. In Pocket Casts we see our listeners listen nearly seven hours a week. Edison Research says podcast listeners, on average, are listening to over five hours of podcasts a week. This is with Apple having an app pre-installed in every phone they ship. A lot of people in the country are aware of the term but don’t know how to dive in. Most people have heard the word podcast and have a general sense that it’s like talk radio. When people start to listen to podcasts they fall in love. Owen Grover: There’s no question in my mind it’s habituation. PBJ: What’s the biggest challenge facing the podcasting industry right now? We built in a whole bunch of publishing tools which allow us to use algorithmic and human curation to bring the best possible content forward in the app. We’ve added a bunch of what we call quality of life improvements to the app, updated filters and playlisting. That’s a huge and important update for us. What we found was so many of the phones are bigger so we wanted to put the navigation closer to where your thumb sits. We’ve also implemented episode search allowing users to find a specific episode within a podcast they listen to. In that sense we’re taking some of the friction out. We want to make it easy for listeners to get right into the podcast they’re interested in and sample it immediately without that additional barrier of having to subscribe first. What we’re trying to do is take that step away. There’s been a typical set-up where you search and discover then subscribe to get access to a feed. The key enhancements are focused on reducing friction to get users into podcasting. Owen Grover: Pocket Casts V7 launched last week. PBJ: Tell us about the enhancements you recently made to the app. We differentiate around accessibility, usability, quality of design, discovery, and curation. It has a really high-quality feel in terms of design. We feel that is a core value proposition of what we do. Some users have Android phones some have Apple phones and some want to listen on their desktop. We’ve taken a cross-platform approach because we believe, as the industry grows, it’s important to be where listeners are. It’s focused on curation and recommendations. It’s designed for folks who want to get to podcasts quickly and easily. Owen Grover: It’s the world’s most powerful podcasting app. PBJ: For those who don’t know what Pocket Casts is, tell us what it is and why users should download it? He’s a founding member of the iHeartRadio team and helped establish iHeartMedia’s Entertainment Enterprises division where he developed events and programs, including the iHeartRadio Music Festival and the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Owen Grover spent the last 20 years at the crossroads of media, technology, and content. WIRED magazine called Pocket Casts “The podcast app every iPhone user needs” and The Verge said it was “The best podcast app for Android.” Pocket Casts is designed to help users find, sort, and listen to podcasts and podcast episodes easily.
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