This is an archived page from 2018. Find out more
They are the hosting company podcasting insiders love to hate. And the latest blog post written by co-founders Michael Mignano and Nir Zicherman will, most likely, add to their villain status.
Mignano and Zicherman posted their thoughts about 2018 in a pre-holiday blog. They state, despite industry criticism that you get what you pay for with a free service, “people all over the world are getting their voices heard by podcasting through Anchor.”
Mignano and Zicherman say that they’ve built a platform that for the first time includes everything needed to create, publish and make money from a great podcast. “We’ve grown our user base of creators to the extent that we’re now powering nearly half of all new podcasts.” And they say, 2018 has been everything they had hoped for.
What they have written is sure to receive even more criticism from long-time podcasters. For example it appears the Anchor co-founders believe they’ve solved many of the problems podcasters were having that prevented podcasting from reaching its potential as a global medium. “Most of these had to do with the barrier of entry to podcasting — outdated, inefficient tools for creation weren’t attracting new and more diverse types of podcasters. Instead, they were keeping newcomers away from the medium and discouraging new voices from being heard. Anchor has been hard at work reversing that narrative, and alongside contributions from many other amazing companies pushing this industry forward, we think podcasting has come a long way.”
The blog by Mignano and Zicherman claims that it was only a year ago that getting a podcast recorded, edited, and distributed was challenging, to say the least. “Between expensive hardware, confusing software, RSS distribution, and a lack of mobile-first solutions, creating a new podcast required more effort than most were willing to put up with. Things got much simpler in 2018. Anchor’s end-to-end podcasting platform makes it super simple for anyone to capture, edit, and distribute their podcast from virtually anywhere, whether they’re using a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. Plus, tools like Descript enable seamless, no-experience-needed audio editing through text transcription. Making podcasting enjoyable and simple is allowing it to attract new types of creators rather than intimidating them.”
It will be hard to disagree with Mignano and Zicherman stating that it’s still a challenge for podcasters to make a living from their shows. Here’s how they plan to resolve that. “At Anchor, we’re currently focused on fixing the advertising market for podcasts. Previously, lack of a streamlined process for podcast advertising meant brands had a hard time accessing the 99% of podcasters out there not yet monetizing, and most podcasters needed to gain significant traction before they were even noticed by potential advertisers. With the recent launch of Anchor Sponsorships, we’re putting a ton of time and energy into fixing this problem and making podcast advertising an open market anyone can participate in.”
The two men conclude that 2018 was a landmark year for Anchor. And, in 2019 they are setting their sights on growing the entire podcasting market, helping more podcasters make more money, and pushing the format further to create new opportunities for new types of content. “There’s a ton we have in store to achieve those goals, from baseline quality of the platform and product tweaks that improve the podcasting and monetization experience, to major initiatives to scale the market opportunity for podcasting.”
Read the entire Anchor blog post HERE.
Comments:
Keith -
SO what part of their ambitious plans are being villafied by existing podcasters?