The Pod 11 - The most influential Entities in Podcasting
Jun 16, 2016
This list is in response to this other list - The Pod 22 the Most influential people in NY City Pro Podcasting
Rather than look at individuals - I wanted to look at the teams and entities that are really the most influential in ALL of podcasting - not the very small niche that is NY City Pro Podcasting.
The list in no particular order - but numbered so someone who does not read this intro can mis-report on it.
1. iTunes Podcasting team - it is more than one person at Apple - and clearly with 65% of the downloads directly to iTunes or the Podcasts App - this is the most influential team. Additionally another 15% of downloads comes from aggregator apps that pull from the iTunes directory.
2. Libsyn - The first podcasting hosting company - responsible for hosting around 35% of the top 200 shows in iTunes US. Libsyn will deliver over 25% of all the downloads iTunes and the podcasts apps play. No one else is even close.
3. Scripps - They purchased Mid-roll and now Stitcher - it is very clear they are in this space for the long term and have the financial chops to back up their plans.
4. Blubrry - That team has been part of Podcasting before iTunes was supporting podcasting. Their plugin supports a large number of podcasts and their ad sales support has been there since the beginning.
5. Podtrac - Their Ad sales also from the beginning and support many podcasts big and small.
6. Soundcloud - Sure their tools suck and they are all focused on Promoting the Soundcloud brand - and a simple search of “buy soundcloud plays” shows you for $50 you can buy 50,000 plays - BUT, they still do power a good number of shows and Twitter gave them life for at least 18 more months.
7. Podcast Movement Team - The guys behind Podcast Movement now have the largest podcast only event. This is where people through out the industry go to get influenced.
8. PodcastOne / ACE - Norm and Adam combined to build an instant and powerfully influential entity. Ok - lots of other people are involved in this tandem - Gary, Mike, Mike and more.
9. IAB Podcast Technical Working Group - This is the team that is working to standardize what the definition of a download is, so that everyone can talk in one standard language to advertisers.
10. GPM Team - Finally native Podcasting support for Android users. Right now it is about 1.7% of plays for big shows - That is actually really good for the first month.
11. Overcast - Ok Really this is just Marco Arment - but what the heck - Marco is smarter than most teams combined and Overcast is the number one 3rd Party App on iOS.
Honorable mentions: She Podcast Facebook Group, Podcast Paradise Group, Podiobooks Team, Roger Wilmut (Don’t know who Roger is - then you don’t have any right making a list on influential podcasters), NPR, WNYC, Gimlet Media, Spreaker, Podbean, Podomatic, Panoply, LA Podfest team, Blogtalk, TWiT Network, Audible, 5x5 network, Art19, Pod to Pod news letter, Auphonic te