The battle of the podcast market

Believe it or not, podcasts date back to the ’80s. What started as an alternative to radio shows is now a business with unimaginable growth. What I used to refer to as a podcast trend is now an everyday routine of my generation. The strength of the podcast market was recently confirmed by the latest Spotify investments.

Spotify goes all in

It was at the beginning of February that Spotify announced the purchase of Gimlet and Anchor, two podcast companies. Daniel Ek, the CEO, and founder of Spotify told the press that they are aiming to become the leading platform for podcasts. iTunes music added podcasts in 2005, since then Apple is generally considered the main actor of the podcast market. However, there is no question in my mind that the latest Spotify investment will contest that position. Really Bad Apps is excited about this purchase. It proves that there is a demand for a great podcast experience. Together with our listeners, we can build on something great.

The podcast market requires good apps

As a devoted podcast fan, I welcome the battle of the podcast. I have struggled enough with podcast apps to know that there are few fully functioning podcasts app out on the market. Since we launched Podcast Guru, I haven’t had any problems, but my dear iPhone friends are still struggling. Spotify does not even have a sleep timer, making listeners oversleep with an empty battery. The Apple Podcast app, on the other hand, takes forever to load both new episodes and cover art. Improvements have been made since the failed 2017 update, but problems still exist. Has Apple been sitting on the podcast throne for too long? Might be time to switch to Android!

Podcasts should be free

To get the full podcast experience with Spotify, you have to pay. I think it makes sense to charge for music, the artists deserve compensation for their work. When it comes to podcasts, however, charging for the service results in the listener paying twice. Once with cash for the service, and second by listening to ads. One of the strengths of the podcast era is the possibility to target the audience with ads and allow the podcast creator to speak more freely. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay extra for listening to podcasts. Did I mention that Podcast Guru is for free? Download it on Google Play!