@vytasbu you can still publish on Soundcloud, iTunes, etc. It's not mutually exclusive. A separate native app gives podcasters a lot more flexbility to engage with their audience through push notifications, in-app messaging, additional content, and other creative ideas.
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@rrhoover I know that adam carolla has an app. but his benefit is giving you access to his network of shows (there are about a dozen that he is partnered with). aside from discovery, I have no idea why podcasters need their own app, especially when, on iOS, the podcast app has better features for downloading, deleting automatically, etc.
@thejeremycarson@rrhoover same reason any artist or writer needs their own website. If you rely on someone else's platform, you'll likely have to pay to reach your own audience at some point down the line. Your own distribution means more long term strategic flexibility/leverage.
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A company called Wizzard Media created a skinnable app for podcasters in maybe 2010 or 2011. WTF was one of the more prominent early adopters. I recall Greg Proops also used it for this Smartest Man in the World podcast. About a year ago, Fast Company interviewed WTF producer Brendan McDonald and asked him about the app. Here's what he said: " The popularity of the app and the way we utilize the app has grown along with the audience of the show. I would see a pretty constant rate of about 10 percent of our overall audience paying for the premium subscription to the app with very few lags in growth on that.
"We focused on it more when the audience was smaller. We focused on how to utilize the app in kind of different creative ways in terms of engaging and getting people to sign up for it. The audience is much larger than it was. We let our content do the talking for us, specifically the fact that we’re such a large archivable library. We only provide the most 50 in our free podcast feed. You can get over 500 hours of stuff you cant hear elsewhere.
"This is before iTunes had a podcast app that came baked into to their iOS devices. Up until then a lot of people were listening on itunes on their phone or syncing their phone still or some people still using iPods. We were kind of early to the game with the app development. it was easy to say this is the best way to get the show, just get the app. That’s a little less likely nowadays, so many people have smartphones and tablets and are prepackaged with podcast aggregators. The real selling point is all the archived content available."
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A dedicated app enables the podcaster to deliver enriched content and unlock detailed analytics. Imagine seeing behind the scenes photos, videos, links etc while listening. That being said, these features should rather be built into applications like Overcast, Apple Podcast, PlayerFM etc. A app for every podcast I listen to makes little sense.
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