What Does The New Google Podcast App Mean For Podcasters? - The Podcast Report Episode #148

So Google done went off and released themselves a podcast app. Nobody's quite sure what to do about it. Let's get some perspective here today on the podcast report. Hey, this is Paul Culligan. This is the podcast report. This is an in between episode. This is not season five, this is not season six. Might even put this thing in itunes as a bonus episode and see what that does. But yeah, and that would be kind of funny putting a episode in itunes that's a bonus episode about the Google podcast app release. But it is here. It is interesting. I've missed you. And since it's going to be a while to get the new season, the podcast out, don't worry, not to that, not that long. I wanted to get out there. Ten years ago I did a Google tech talk called New Media Mavericks. Will the revolution be what I call it? Will the revolution be indexed? It was a spider, I actually think was what I said. It was a call to Google at Google headquarters after having signed a bunch of Google NDAs that they really could take on the future of podcasting and everything else if they really thought it through and did it. I by no means want to claim that that tech talk was the presentation that spurred them to do things, but the fact of the matter is it's kind of interesting that almost exactly 10 years later we've got this first thing out the door, I've got a link to that episode and all of its to that video in all of its glorious 43 out of the podcastreport.com 1. This podcast app is not new or the it's not new news. We've been hearing that for a while. There's an organization called Pacific Content. I don't entirely understand how they play into the whole thing, but I've got a link out to their blogs as well. At the podcast report148 they began a series of articles about Google's big plans for podcasting. Some of it was exciting. Some of it felt a little bit like hype, some of it felt like, I don't know if it was a five day article really as much as it was one big article, but they did it and I appreciate what they did and that's there. So we knew it was coming. There's a lot of promise, but we need to keep some things in perspective and that's what I wanted to do on this special in between episode, I guess, if you will of the podcast report, things you've got to remember about the Google podcast app number one, this is really important. Android users who want to listen to podcasts have already found a way. I got a good chunk of Android podcast users right now listening to this. There are great apps like Pocket Casts and there is Stitcher and there is Spotify and there are options. Any Android user. There's not a single Android user on the planet who has been saying, I really want to do podcast. It just wasn't easy easy. So any comparison of this to when Apple integrated podcasting with itunes just isn't valid just on that thing alone. But a couple other things. Number two, it's not pre installed. This is huge. This app is not pre installed. And the way Android works is even if some phones pre install it, not all phones are going to pre install it. So it's not like if your mom gets a Android app, she's suddenly going to wonder what podcasts is and look it up and find you. So you got to remember they got a lot of battles to fight now. I think they can. I think Google's in a really interesting place, but it's not pre installed. And also you need to remember this, this is not their first app. Google had a podcast app before this one. A lot of people forget that. If you want a little history of that. Outthepodcastreport.com 148 Also important, there is no Google store experience. There's no place for people to go to, hey, show me how to do podcasts, you know. So first of all, they need to know that the app exists. They need to figure it. There's no store to go to it. There's a lot of things against the Google Android world. And who knows, maybe in 10 years Google will have stores, but there's no store experience. And I don't mean the app store, I mean the physical store like Apple has. Now this one is going to upset a couple of people. But outside of nerds who make podcasts, the biggest chance, the biggest reason people buy Android is because they wanted a cheap phone, because they didn't necessarily expect their phones to do great things. I mean, think about it. It's a joke on all the sitcoms and it's a joke everywhere. I don't need a smartphone. That's why people buy the Android, because many times it's free. Yes, I know there are higher end Androids and yes, I know that that's a significant number, but man, run the numbers on the high end stuff versus where iPhones are. What people want, what people expect. Don't play with this. Android is so much bigger than Apple now that this has happened. Suddenly people are going to be pouring into this world. And again, I got some good stuff here, but I just want us to have perspective. Now it's Android only, which is really weird. If you go to, at least at the time of this recording, the podcastreport.com Google if you go to this on a Apple device, it'll redirect you to an error. Whereas if you go to this on an Android device, it will take you to the podcast at Google Play, which is a whole other point that we'll chat about. But it's Android only, so the things where just search and find it in the results. As of today, it's not going to happen on a Apple phone, it's not going to happen on the desktop, it's going to happen on Android. So that is weird. I'm sure there's a plan, but it's not as far scoping as we'd like to think it is. Whereas let's face it, if you search the podcast report on Google, my entry in itunes is going to come up. Regardless of what platform they're on now, it is still a mess. And this is really important. It is still a mess. The Google Home is integrated with Google Play and some podcasts work on some, but not both. There's this whole idea that they're going to be indexing it all things that Google can maybe get right in the future. But it's not clean, it's not obvious. I mean, you put up a website, you get a link somewhere, Google's going to index you and you're going to be good. It's not that clean with the podcast yet. I for this podcast went through Libsyn and did the whole Google Channel, Google Destinations thing, which I still recommend you do. But there. Yeah, so remember, Android users who want to listen to podcasts already have. It's not pre installed, it's not their first app. There's no Google Store experience. Outside of nerds who make podcasts, most Android users are people who don't expect great things from their phones. It's Android only. It's still a mess. Okay, but now the good news, and there is some good news to this. Number one, Google owns search. Still, let's face it, we Google. I was actually at an event about eight years ago. One of the VPs of Yahoo. It seems that the VPs of Yahoo come in and out all the time, but someone said, how do we find you? And the VP of Yahoo actually said on stage, go ahead and Google me. Now she realized what she had done wrong. And there was laughs from the audience and that type of thing. But the fact of the matter is Google owned search. And if they're integrating search into podcasting, that gets interesting. Google has transcripts. Google has the whole AI behind the whole, okay, Google on the phone, they have it behind voice transcripts inside of YouTube, they have it inside all the Google Office apps. You can go into Google Docs, you can do transcript. They have a lot. They have a huge head start. They have a long run on making transcripts. And there have been rumors and, and they're probably true, they're probably real. But there have been rumors that podcast transcripts are going to be part of this play. That is interesting. That's exciting. So number one, they have search. If I show up in search everywhere, that gets interesting. They have transcripts. If my transcripts start to show up, that becomes interesting. Google's integrating this into their infrastructure. So I have a test phone, a test Android phone. Any good podcaster does. And as I downloaded the app, excited to play with it. What was interesting is I needed to upload the Google app first. I'm sorry, to update the Google app first. And this is important because it isn't just an app. It's integrated into their infrastructure. This is interesting. This is really, really interesting. Now another exciting thing. Google has been at this for a while. Again, my tech talk, 10 years ago, they were interested in this. We took notes, I signed NDAs, we had some interesting conversations. It's not they're late to the game. It's more like they're kind of slow to the game. And then finally, this is the last thing, at least on the good, exciting things, then we'll chat about what to do with it. Google has always had something to benefit from indexing podcasts that Apple doesn't. You know, Apple is supporting podcasts because Apple supports. Because podcasts support the acquisition of Apple products. You know, they make podcasts good so that somebody gets an iPhone to listen to it, or somebody gets an Apple TV to listen to it, or recently announced, somebody gets the Apple watch to listen to it, or somebody gets the Apple HomePod to listen to it. That's why they've supported podcasting. But Google, remember, has always been about search. And if they can remain the place that we go to search, there's money in that. I mean, there's pay per click ads. All my clients want to know, where can I buy pay per clicks to get a podcast? I mean, if Google does it right, it's really, really interesting. So they have something tremendous to benefit from podcasting that Apple doesn't. And always look at the benefit angle, you know, always look at where the money comes from. Always look at what the future is. Always look at what they gain from doing well here. If you do that, Apple's at a good place. So what do you do now? Number one, hold tight. You're not going to see massive numbers come to your show because you know, you know, suddenly the app is there. Nothing's going to change in that world. But the fact of the matter is, and this is really important, hold tight. Okay. Might be time to buy a cheap Android to get into that whole world or maybe even a Google home to play with the whole voice activated thing. Keep the right perspective. This is not their first time in the play again. And you can see the old history, the podcast report 148. But they're at an interesting place. And I'll link to all those articles from Pacific, what were they called again? Look at my notes here as well. The Pacific content guys. And it was good reporting. I appreciated it. I will link out to all that as well. Always look at the benefit angle. Hold tight. Maybe buy cheap Android, keep the right perspective and then let us as an audience, let us as both users and producers of podcasts, encourage Google to do the right thing. This is huge. Podcasts are powerful. That's why I make them. That's why podcasting is now my business. That's why you're listening to them. That's why you've gone this far into the podcast, is because podcasts are powerful. And they are powerful because of what they are, not because they're on the iPhone or the Apple Watch or the HomePod. If we encourage Google to do the right thing, if we as an industry support what they're doing and encourage them what they're doing, this might grow. And then what's really cool is competition could kick in and maybe Apple would get better. If Google gets better and then the whole industry rises and then at that point we might see some numbers. So just because next week your audience doesn't double doesn't mean that Google isn't doing this correctly. However, realize they got some serious chasms to cross, if you will, but they've been around for a while. A bunch of very, very smart people work at Google. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. There we go. Thanks so much for listening to this special episode of the podcast report. Links to everything@the podcastreport.com 148 Again, this is an in between a Sode. For lack of a better description, the new season of the Podcast Report is coming. We've got some really, really cool plans, but I wanted to take the time to chat and gosh darn it, I missed you guys. So there we go. If this is your first time at the Podcast Report, definitely subscribe. When the new season comes out, you'll get it automatically. There's obviously 147 some odd back episodes for you to listen to. The stats are always fun. There's a ton of people who go to the back episodes and listen to them. If you want to reach out to me on any of the social media, you can go to the podcastreport.com Facebook thepodcastreport.com Twitter. You get the idea. You're smart enough to do that, so definitely subscribe. ThePodcastReport.com iTunes. I guess this is more important now. ThePodcastReport.com Google ThePodcastReport.com Spotify. You get the idea. Let's interact. Let's chat. Yay, Google. Good job. About time. Expect to see more chat with you soon. Bye.