A Look At Podcasting Down The Road

I nearly skipped over this article on the Media Briefing blog about podcasting’s renaissance and I’m glad I didn’t. Because unlike the typical “boy, we’re doing great” angle, this post suggested a connection between the upsurge in podcast listening and what is going to be a game changer in a year or two—the connected dashboard.

Aside from the usual podcasting milestones listed in the article—a third of Americans have downloaded a podcast at some point; Serial has been downloaded at least 80 million times; Marc Maron played host on his WTF podcast to special guest President Barack Obama; cream-of-the-crop podcasts are commanding CPMs that would be the envy of any digital media outlet; CBS launched its own podcast network, Play.it, and in less than a year, the network boasts 46 million listeners a month—the author made this observation:

The author went on to talk about his experiences with a Mazda tech package and lavished praise on both the mobile and stationary interfaces along with the voice command system. I’ve long believed that  the auto industry would solve the mobile interface problem for podcasters before podcasters did. From this article, it appears car designers are still ahead of us. Undoubtedly, some of Detroit’s (and Tokyo’s) interface elements will find their way into various podcast platforms and apps, but for the moment here are my fearless prognostications about what the latest connected dashboard advances mean for podcasting.

Longer Podcasts

Driving provides listeners with longer stretches of uninterrupted listening time. It also invites drivers to select their audio entertainment and forget it rather than diverting their attention from the road because they’re jumping from one source to another. (Note that this does not apply if you have teenagers in the car, but they are probably listening on their smartphones, anyway.)

Better Quality a Must

The opportunity for longer listening means podcasts must be listenable. Poor production and self-indulgent content are shortcuts to oblivion. As it gets easier to select audio entertainment on the road it also gets easier to deselect entertainment that can’t stand up to the longer listening times.

Podcasts are Forever

Your podcast library exists forever. Understanding the need to improve the quality of your podcast is great. But new listeners often dip into your archives after listening to one or two current episodes. if your archives contain content that isn’t road-ready, you’re only encouraging new listeners to move on.

Radio Will Fight Back

Don’t expect radio to cede its position as king of in-car entertainment all that easily. At the NAB conference in April, the Radio conference in September and the upcoming DASH 3.0 conference in Detroit, the topic of keeping radio in the car has been (and will be) front and center. Car listening accounts for the bulk of the radio audience and, therefore, the bulk of radio’s advertising dollars. Some people, both in and out of the radio industry, see this battle for dashboard space as the fight for radio’s life. One thing is for certain. Radio will make increasing use of podcasts, streaming  and localized content. Say what you will about the state of radio today, it’s stocked with practitioners who know how to create entertainment for the ear. Don’t expect all this talent to go quietly into the night. They’re coming after us.

Now is the time to think about your marketing strategy for capturing drivers both before and while they’re behind the wheel.  The future is coming. And pretty much at 65 miles per hour.

Faster if you live in Nevada.