Podcasters Are Making It Too Hard For New Listeners Wide [Episode 179] - a podcast by Evo Terra

This content was created just before the big WWDC -- World Wide Developers Conference -- from Apple kicked off. All around the world, podcasters just like you (and me) will be watching live to see how the company that controls something like 85% of all podcast episodes downloaded around the world will change podcasting. Again.

Over the weekend, The most talked-about assumed change was that iTunes is going away and what sorts of changes podcasters would need to implement on their website -- quickly! -- to preserve their listeners after this dreaded change.

Two things on that:

1. Yes, you should change your website, podcaster, especially if you reference iTunes in any way. Get rid of any reference to iTunes everywhere on your website. You know, like Apple and anyone worth their salt in the podcast world has been telling you for the better part of the last two years?  
2. Calm down. Apple is not a stupid company. When they do kill off iTunes, they aren’t going to start throwing 404 errors when people click on your legacy links to iTunes. They’ll all redirect to Apple Podcasts. At least for a while. But even if they do work, you should change them. See #1.

So yes, make the changes. But before get in there to make the changes, let’s talk about a way to improve the experience for the brand new listener. Because maybe those big company-provided “listen with [app]” aren’t as helpful as you might think?

Apple & Google Branding vs A Better Listener Experience

Both Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts have given podcasters branding guidelines of how they would like us to represent their apps on our pages. You've probably seen a consistently branded “Listen with Apple Podcasts” button and a “Listen with Google Podcast” button podcast websites. Those all look the same because Apple and Google (and a bunch of other apps) provide the button for easy integration.

I think it's time to reconsider our reliance on those auto-generated buttons. Specific to our consideration: Are those auto-generated buttons helping our listeners, or just helping big tech companies with their branding efforts?

When Apple finally kills iTunes, they’ll put a lot (at least I hope so) of marketing effort into the brand change. If Apple starts “advertising” Apple Podcasts, more people will be aware of Apple Podcasts. And in turn, the logic is that they’ll start looking for the Apple Podcasts branding. Because that’s how branded advertising works.

But I don’t think that’s a likely scenario. I just don’t see your average person having any recall around “Apple Podcasts” or “Google Podcasts” as an app. Not anytime soon.

Also, I don’t think it's incumbent upon podcasters to do the work of running branding campaigns for big tech companies. Our primary focus should be on our listeners, making it easy for them to consume our content. And for the ~70% who don’t listen on a regular basis, talking up “Apple Podcasts” and “Google Podcasts” isn’t leading them to giving your podcast a shot.

So let’s

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