Everyone and their mother seems to have their own podcast, and they range from informative to silly. They can cover news information, music/movie/comic/book reviews, narrative stories, and historical information. They are relatively cheap to produce but in order to be successful you need to know who’s listening, and Google has just finally provided that information.
Google Podcasts will provide podcasters with more data analytics. While not known for trail-blazing in the podcasting realm, the company has largely worked with third-party developers on Play, Google has introduced its own podcasts app.
Podcasters rely on listener data to understand what their listeners want to hear along with selling ads (a huge chunk of revenue). Google Podcasts intends to help via its Google Podcasts Manager tool. Once show owners complete a RSS feed ownership verification process (similar to iTunes and Spotify), they’ll have access to engagement metrics showing how their shows do on the platform, retention data, and the total time people listened. The types of devices used by listeners can inform podcasters where their show is most widely accessed and can possibly refer to how/when listeners are tuning in.
The Google Podcasts Manager tool doesn’t include listener demographic data while competitor, Spotify does. Apple also doesn’t display demographic data likely due to privacy concerns. A report by The Verge explains how podcasters are typically putting together their own analytics across multiple platforms to create a better picture of their show performance.
Google certainly does have access to this information. While podcasters could do a lot with that data, their listeners will need to accept that their data will be shared. It’s a dilemma that may be up for debate for quite some time as data breaches and exposures have blown up news headlines over the past few years.
Google Podcasts is available as an iOS and Android app, as well as on Google search, Google Assistant, Android Auto, and through podcasts.google.com on the web.
Staff Writer, Allison Yano is an artist and writer based in LA. She holds a BFA in Applied Visual Arts and Minor in Writing from Oregon State University, and an MFA in Fine Art from Pratt Institute. Her waking hours are filled with an insatiable love of storytelling, science, and soy lattes.
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