New! Spreaker’s 50,000+ Show Catalog Is Now on Amazon Alexa Devices

Oct 17,2017 / By Anna / 5 Comments

Listening just got even more hands-off. Spreaker is proud to introduce yet another way of engaging with its catalog of podcasts: a new Amazon Alexa skill!

Amazon Alexa devices are wireless, voice-activated “smart speakers” that feature a personal assistant voice service named “Alexa”. These devices include Amazon Echo and Amazon Echo Dot. Similarly to Siri, Alexa will carry out the commands you say out loud to it.

Smart speakers have become a pretty big deal in the podcasting world as of late, and were the main topic of interest at this year’s RAIN Podcast Business Summit presented by NPR. Since Amazon Echo’s debut in 2014, they can now be found in over 20 million homes across the US. In fact, 42% of smart speaker owners claim they’re already essential to their everyday lives. Their ease of use alone is a persuasive selling point; there’s no searching for a remote control, not even the need to use access pins or swipe across the screen. With voice activation, smart speaker owners can ask for the weather report, access their favorite music, and, most importantly, tune in to podcasts.

News Podcasting Tips

Keep Your Embedded Player Cleaner with the Custom New Feature

Oct 5,2017 / By Charlotte Micklewright / 5 Comments

Attention to detail. We know you’re into it. Especially when it comes to how your podcast is portrayed and played. After the recording itself, your website look is probably what you fuss over the most. And rightly so – brand consistency is key to appearing professional, and your embedded player is no exception.

So here’s the good news: Spreaker’s updated embedded player now slips in even better with your own branding – discrete, minimal, and powerful.

General Podcasting Tips

Pick your Sounds with Ease with Spreaker Studio iOS 11

Sep 27,2017 / By Tonia / 2 Comments

Spreaker Studio iOS 11 Make it Even Easier to Pick your Sounds for your Podcast

Music libraries are increasingly becoming more like dispersed pockets of musical treasure: some albums tucked away in folders on your device, some songs just stored on iCloud, some tracks shared with you through Dropbox. So when you’re uploading music to your podcast, you want to easily be able to tap into your library, however spread out it may be!

That’s what our podcasting community has shared with us and we want podcasting reflect the way that you work best. Recording and editing your content with Spreaker Studio on your iPhone or iPad gives you the mobility to podcast on the go, and now with the new iOS update you can directly insert media files that you have on your device, both locally and in the cloud, without needing to shuffle them around into a single folder first.

News Podcasting Tips

Manage Every Detail: Add iOS 11’s New Season and Episode Tags to Your Podcast

Sep 14,2017 / By Anna / 5 Comments

Enthralling your listeners means nailing the details. Your word choice, split-second editing decisions, and the inclusion of chapters in each episode of your podcast can help pull together an expertly crafted story.

But it’s also in how you present your story. How you divvy up and mete out each episode is a way of leading listeners through the narrative thread. Listeners should always know exactly where they need to be when tuning in, and in particular where to begin. For example, if your content is serialized, it’s essential they start from the oldest episode (or rather, the first-ever made episode).

Dividing up your podcast in a smart way also makes your content more digestible. Working through seasons and clearly labeling your episodes helps listeners ease into your podcast without feeling overwhelmed.

Now, thanks to updates introduced with iOS 11, the presentation and production choices you make will be clearly displayed in Apple Podcasts. And to facilitate the matter, we at Spreaker have added new settings that, when applied from the CMS, will come through as tags in your RSS feed’s metadata. Your seasons, episode order, and episode labels will all appear to listeners tuning in through Apple Podcasts.

Listening News Podcasting Tips

Find New Podcasts with Ease with Spreaker’s New Home Page

Aug 30,2017 / By Tonia / 1 Comment

Approaching new podcasts to listen to is an exciting, though totally overwhelming endeavor. There are just so. Many. Podcasts. Thousands of them at your fingertips, to rummage through like an overflowing vintage sale that just received its last haul.

How about this one? Or that? Are you in the mood for a true crime podcast now? Maybe a personal coach later? Any tip or recommendation to guide that search is welcome, as is rethinking the way we look for new content (and old, too!) in the first place.

At Spreaker we’ve decided to give the entire process our own spin, and we’re thrilled to present Spreaker’s new home page. It’s your map to navigating that immense sea of audio content.
And podcast producers, you’ll be benefiting, too. Of course, you want your work to appear front and center to listeners likely to love it, but it’s easy to get drowned out when you’re competing with so many voices. You want to trust that your podcast will get the reach it deserves.

With featured podcasts, curated lists you’ll love, and content based on where you’re located, the new home page offers an effortless podcast-searching experience.

Podcasting Tips

Spreaker’s All New Revenue Sharing Program

Aug 14,2017 / By Tonia / 2 Comments

How Full Control of Ad Injection is Revolutionizing Podcast Monetization

Great content has real value: your engagement with your audience is precious. The more you feel empowered and in control of the true value of your podcast, the more you will be able to really give to it and make it thrive. That’s why feeling fully in control of the way your podcast monetizes is important.

Savvy advertisers are already on to the phenomenal potential of audio content and are investing, big time. But there may remain a lingering concern that by accepting ads, you might be ‘handing over reins’ of your episode structure to advertisers. And what kind of money is there to be made, given the potential compromise?

Here at Spreaker, we resolutely believe that you CAN make your podcast steadily and seriously fruitful money-wise, while also keeping full control over your episodes. Earlier this year, we launched our Revenue Sharing program, allowing podcasters to earn money for every listen or impression. We are now delighted to announce that the program has graduated from its beta version, into a fully fledged sophisticated ad revenue system.

Listening Mobile App News

Reverse Any Podcast’s Episode Order, Plus 3 Other Ways to Control Your Listening Experience

Aug 11,2017 / By Chiara Sagramola / No Comment

Easy, intuitive, and totally up to you. That’s exactly how you want your podcast listening experience to be: to find what you want easily, to not stumble through podcasts you’re uninterested in during your search, and to ultimately make the choices you want to make, even while you’re listening.

With Spreaker Podcast Radio, we’ve kept what you want in mind, every step of the way from the moment you open the app. A handy search bar and curated lists and channels pieced together with care get you to the podcasts you’re looking for quickly and painlessly—and things don’t stop when you press play. Even as you’re listening in you get to take charge of what flows through your ears.

Playback features allow you to listen to whatever you want, however way you want it. We’re happy to announce that you now have the ability to reverse any podcast’s episode order, as well as use the other great features already available on the app, like a playback speed toggle, a sleep timer, and notifications for your favorite episodes.

Podcasting Tips

Podcast, and They Will Follow: Spreaker Introduces Follower Tracking!

Jun 27,2017 / By Chiara Sagramola / 1 Comment

Statistics are vital to podcasting. They help you track your growth and (indirectly) guide your podcasting process and content. The more specific the stats, the better, and whenever new kinds of statistical data become available to podcasters, it’s like striking gold.

Which is where Spreaker has set its focus. We’re thrilled to launch a new data point that’s sure to make your mouth water: follower tracking!

Podcasting Tips

The Perfect Marriage: Podcasting and Storytelling

Jun 15,2017 / By Anna / 1 Comment

We have an innate need to tell stories. Stories provide a way to express our thoughts and ideas and to hopefully arrive at common ground with our audience while doing so, despite physical or metaphorical barriers.

Good storytelling can be particularly powerful in getting our message across. If anything, it renders information more memorable: we’re way more likely to take in and remember a story than a list of bullet points. Once we’ve been caught in a web of personalities and emotions, that message lodges itself more easily into our brains.

Even more importantly, we’re more likely to get behind and promote the message of a story that compels us. We become more understanding and sympathetic to its particular point of view.

Podcasting Tips

Podcast Suicide: 5 Errors to Avoid

May 10,2017 / By Charlotte Micklewright / No Comment

Here’s what NOT to do for your podcast’s success

Do you ever look back to when you were starting out podcasting and kick yourself over things you wish you had done differently? Stuff that you later figured out were making it hard for your podcast take off? Setting up a podcast is a learning process, but there are some slip-ups that you REALLY do not want to make!

Working at Spreaker, I’ve observed 5 mistakes in particular that inevitably damage a podcast’s potential to thrive. But once you’ve identified them, they’re actually pretty simple to avoid!

So if you are about to schedule your next episode, make sure you stay savvy and keep well away from these errors. Let your podcast soar, not sink!