Looking again, it’s clear the early days of podcasting had been uncharted territory. Avid listeners would end an episode and have interaction with one another elsewhere—on, say, a Reddit discussion board or Discord channel—however hardly ever with the podcast host. There was a want for deeper conversations, however there wasn’t a channel. For podcasters, this disconnect saved them from the neighborhood interplay they wanted to maintain momentum for his or her present.
In 2019, when Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek introduced that podcasts and podcasting could be the subsequent part of development for the corporate, it was a chance to reimagine the way forward for podcasting by making a traditionally one-sided medium extra partaking and dynamic for each listeners and hosts. So, as we grew our podcast choices, Spotify was additionally capable of increase capabilities for creators with the acquisition of Anchor—the world’s greatest podcast internet hosting platform—which has since turn into Spotify for Podcasters. In fall 2021, we launched Q&A and polls.
“Podcasting can be two-way; it can be interactive. It can be a format that helps people connect with each other, instead of just one-way broadcasting,” says Maya Prohovnik, VP and Head of Podcast Product at Spotify. “As Spotify has become the number one audio listening platform in the world, as we’ve gotten a critical mass of listeners and creators in one place, it’s allowed us to really innovate and add these new ways to interact over audio.”
Q&A and polls allow creators to include a degree of engagement by asking questions or soliciting voted responses. The instruments permit podcasters to immediately talk with followers in a manner that’s extra private. And since we enabled these options for all creators on our new Spotify for Podcasters platform, we’ve seen the variety of podcasters who use them greater than double.
“The creator response has been really strong, and it’s growing fast,” says Alex Yamamoto, a Product Marketing Manager in Spotify’s Podcast Mission who is concentrated on Creator Growth instruments. “For the creators who are using it, it’s a way for them to get closer with their audiences. A lot of the creators we’ve seen have taken it in different directions. Some want to hear personal stories from their fans, others look for debate-like conversations. In general, it’s about getting people talking.”
Jump-starting conversations
In December of 2021, a couple of months after the options rolled out, Sapphire Sandolo, host of Stories with Sapphire, began experimenting and noticed followers partaking nearly instantly. “Before, you had to go off the thing that you were listening to the podcast to. You couldn’t interact right then and there,” she shares with For the Record. “I think that’s why people are really drawn to it. It keeps you there. You don’t have to go find where the discussions are happening.”
Sapphire Sandolo
Sapphire was fast to undertake the options and has been utilizing them in inventive methods ever since. Since Stories with Sapphire focuses on encounters with the supernatural in cultures world wide, her engagement with these instruments focuses on normalizing the subjects she covers. “With the type of content that I do, people usually listen to paranormal stories because they have also experienced things, or they like to talk about paranormal stuff. Because of that, when I ask people, ‘Have you experienced something similar?’ people start chiming in because they most likely have,” she explains.
Crafting the proper query may be daunting, so our product crew added a default query, “What did you think about this episode?” to all reveals. With this addition, listeners and creators alike can expertise and see the advantages from the Q&A capabilities—and get the dialog began.
“The default Q&A helps people and it starts getting listeners engaged and using the tool,” says Chris Larson, a Product Manager for our podcast fan engagement options. “But where we really see benefits is when the creators put it in their own voice and customize it, either to their podcast category or to a specific show, or they ask about future shows and shape the direction of where they want to go. So, we’re trying to encourage more of that. We’ve learned from creators that that’s been really valuable. We look at the data and we see that it gets a lot more listener responses and there’s more engagement there when it’s been customized in their own voice.”
For instance, Teenager Therapy, a present hosted by a handful of Gen Z mates who attempt to normalize conversations across the tougher subjects inside their lives, asks listeners to share their very own private tales. Gimlet’s Science Vs podcast, which takes on sizzling subjects in science and well being, asks listeners questions on their prior data on a topic. And head to Stories with Sapphire for a deep lower: “What is your relationship with death?”
In their very own arms
Prior to the event of those instruments, podcasters discovered different inventive methods to generate two-way conversations. Smaller reveals, particularly, had been capable of make the most of voice memos and different alternate options to imitate call-in radio reveals. “Some found workarounds maybe five or 10 years ago—it started being really popular to use a Google Voice number,” remembers Maya. “So people could call in, which is awesome, but it was not easy to set up. It was a lot of work for the fans and a lot of work for the creators—you had to listen to voicemails, export them, edit them. It was really cool to start to see that happening, but still really high friction.”
Beyond those that selected to name in, podcasters weren’t capable of solicit suggestions from followers. Now, Maya, who hosts a handful of podcasts herself, makes use of the Spotify for Podcasters fan engagement instruments to crowdsource concepts for visitors and subjects and content material.
For Alex, maintaining these options conveniently obtainable on the Spotify setting—the place listeners already are—additionally implies that management and decision-making stay within the arms of the creators. “The power is really with the creators. They can initiate, engage with fans in what they see as the most positive and creative way,” he says. “The most creative Q&A and polls come from hosts who inherently understand the connection they have with their fans—and they’re the ones who see more listeners engage on Spotify. The beauty of the product is that it accentuates the connection a host already has with their fan base.”
The instruments additionally allow hosts to construct neighborhood amongst their listeners.
“One of my main goals with my podcast is to normalize the paranormal,” says Sapphire.” Numerous the time, individuals don’t wish to share their experiences as a result of they suppose individuals will suppose they’re loopy. I wish to create an area the place individuals know they’re secure. I feel that’s why individuals are extra snug opening up relating to my present. They know different individuals who pay attention are going to be simply as open.”
A query for the long run
As extra creators begin to use the instruments and see the advantages of interactivity, the Spotify crew is ready to incorporate creator wants to assist push conversations even additional. “The things we’re committed to for the current functionality are just making sure we improve all the existing ways that creators are interacting with their audiences, and improve discoverability,” says Chris. “We want to close the feedback loop so that when creators do get feedback on their episodes, they’re notified in a timely manner and can actually engage. Because we know that for listeners, if they’re not getting feedback from the creators, it feels like fans are shouting into a black box. We want to encourage creators to start giving listeners that reinforcement.”
Alex’s tip to creators? Mention these new options within the episode intros and the present notes. “The best source of discovery of the feature for listeners is when the creator calls it out,” he says.
And there’s all the time extra to study and experiment with. Sapphire, an early adopter of Q&A and polls, just lately began utilizing Spotify for Podcasters for analytics. After publishing two video podcasts, she seen the variety of individuals responding to her questions doubled.
For Sapphire and Maya, podcasting incorporates a component of magic. “The world is a lot more magical than we give it credit sometimes,” Sapphire says. “We lose a lot of our sense of that as we grow older, but there’s always room for paranormal and room for magic.”
“I really find it magical to be able to express myself and tell stories, and I really want everyone to be able to do that,” Maya explains. “So, I hope that’s what we keep seeing. It’s so easy to make a podcast on your phone and with all the developments we’re seeing in creator tools. I can’t even imagine where we’re gonna be in a couple years. As the barriers for creation become even lower, we’re going to see more experimenting and finding new, novel things to do with the medium. I’m really excited for Spotify to become the place that fans and creators think of when they think about connecting with each other.”