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Samsung just announced the launch of podcasts into their Samsung Free app bringing native podcast support to Samsung phones. Blubrry, the podcast hosting company, was one of the launch partners. We spoke to Todd Cochrane, Blubrry CEO, about what this means for podcasting.
PBJ: How difficult was it to listen to podcasts on an Android device before?
Todd Cochrane: If you think about it, before Google Podcasts the only way to get a podcast on an Android device was an app. We had implemented a number of years ago something called “Subscribe on Android” that made it easier to subscribe or follow a podcast. That got our customers a good leg into the Android market because I think 13 or 14 apps implemented that one-click code and made it real easy to subscribe via Android, but what we’ve really missed is an OEM.
PBJ: What’s an OEM?
Todd Cochrane: OEM stands for “original equipment manufacturer”, and An OEM would be like a Samsung or Apple. Apple’s an OEM and they control the ecosystem. They’ve got a podcast app, and it’s delivered when you buy the phone and turn it on; you don’t have to go searching for it. But in the Android market that is really still not the case and the closest thing you have is Google Podcasts but they’re not truly loaded on the phone. They have Gmail and Google search and calendar, but there’s really no OEM version of podcast support on Android devices.
So this is the first time where podcasts are natively available on an Android device. When you buy a Samsung phone, the Samsung free app is loaded, so podcasts, technically, now are natively available via these select Samsung devices. This is a big deal because hypothetically they continue to do more work and they put a podcast app on their phones worldwide (Samsung Free is available in the U.S. only).
That’s huge market penetration globally by having default access to podcasts via Samsung phones. So what this potentially means is they have an opportunity to grow the listener base like Spotify for instance.
Spotify may come pre-loaded on some Android phones, but it really depends on the carrier. There’s a lot of negotiation on what gets loaded into Android phones and they pick and choose what they want.
The analogy I use is, when you buy a brand new car and turn on the radio it’s probably set to FM, but now we have the option to set it to USB or Bluetooth and so on because there’s easier accessibility of content.
This is going to make podcasting easier for Samsung customers and new listeners are going to grow the space. Their rollout is going to be steady, and they will be adding to their library very quickly. Podcasters are going to be very impatient because they want to be at the platform now; any place, there’s a new distribution point, it’s like the shiny new object.
We’re telling our podcasters to please be patient and we’ll be getting back with onboarding instructions. Now it’s just a matter of Samsung truly ramping up to handle the influx of thousands of brand new podcasters who immediately want to be on their platform.
I think the main takeaway here is that this is the first involvement by an OEM besides Apple. We tried to give Samsung as much advice as we could on what to expect and this is very exciting.
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Also included in the launch were American Public Media, CNN Audio, Conde Nast, iHeartMedia, Kast Media, Libsyn, Motley Fool, NPR, PodcastOne, PRX, This American Life, Vox Media Podcast Network, and Barstool Sports.