All The Same

Let's get this out of the way. The new Google Podcasts app is a step in the right direction, but it's deficient. It's disappointing that it's not pre-installed with Android. It's awkward. It doesn't automatically download episodes -- I understand why, but it's still inconvenient. It isn't particularly good-looking. It's utilitarian but doesn't do anything that other podcast players do as well or better. All of that is true.

None of that matters.

It's nice that Google has finally deigned to create its own podcast app, and way, way, way overdue. It can't hurt the growth of podcasting to have Google release its own player, an Android equivalent, more or less, of Apple's app, and the integration with Google Assistant is welcome. But for those hoping that this is the game changer, the app that finally brings the Android world -- the world's dominant smartphone OS -- to podcast parity with iOS, well, that would be nice, but it's really beside the point at this stage. This would have been the game changer a few years ago. But the game changed without it.

The real game changer for podcasting, and streaming, and radio, really, is already here and growing at warp speed. It's voice command -- Alexa and Google -- and it's all about eliminating the friction of playing podcasts. An app is good to have, but it's less about the app itself than it's about making podcasts exactly as easy to access and consume as it is to hear a radio station. And the technology to allow that is here and is being incorporated into more devices and, ultimately, cars, so pardon my limited enthusiasm about the Android app. I'm glad it's here, but I'd have been more excited about it about seven or eight years ago.

What's really happening here is the democratization of all media, not just podcasts. It's the end of the tyranny of the transmitter, the dictate of the programmer. Television experienced it first with the onset of streaming on-demand services like Netflix and the entrenchment of YouTube among younger viewers; now, it's audio's turn. The lines have been blurred. Whatever media you want -- radio, television, podcasts, streaming, games -- you can get just by asking. The field hasn't been leveled so much as it's being obliterated and reconstituted and the friction of accessing what you want is being reduced or eliminated.

That means that content creators and producers -- that would be most of you -- need to think about what you do and who you are in an age when consumers will increasingly think of all media as equal, one big mass of stuff to watch and listen to and read on demand. You'll still be able to limit yourself to "just radio" or "just podcast" or "just YouTube videos of nut shots," but you won't HAVE to specialize by medium. (Although specializing in nut shots might be quite lucrative, knowing consumer preferences.) There will be -- there already is -- an incredible range of opportunities and no reason you can't produce for all of them.

Except for the part about monetization. That's still a work in progress. But that's something for another column. Maybe you can do a Patreon to tide you over.

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Why, yes, it IS a short column today. Last week's was a long one. They average out. And it's the beauty of the Internet; you can write as much or little as you have to say, and no word count limits apply. You know what else is a beauty of the Internet? Okay, so, you have to do a show and you don't know what to talk about, but thanks to the Internet (and me!), you can just go to Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, and find plenty of material for free. Free! Find it by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And there's the Podcasting section at AllAccess.com/podcasts, too.

Make sure you're subscribed to Today's Talk, the daily email newsletter with the top news stories in News, Talk, and Sports radio and podcasting. You can check off the appropriate boxes in your All Access account profile's Format Preferences and Email Preferences sections if you're not already getting it.

My podcast is "The Evening Bulletin with Perry Michael Simon," a quick (two minutes or less) daily thing, and you can get it at Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Stitcher, and RadioPublic. Spotify, too. And if you're using that new Google Podcasts app and you're on your Android phone right now, click here. You can also use the RSS feed and the website where you can listen in your browser, or my own website where they're all embedded, too. And if you have an Amazon Alexa-enabled device, just say "Alexa, play the Evening Bulletin podcast."

You can follow my personal Twitter account at @pmsimon, and my Instagram account (same handle, @pmsimon) as well. And you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pmsimon, and at pmsimon.com.

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They're promoting the podcasting panel I'm on at The Conclave, July 18-20 in Minnesota (register here), so it must really be happening. You have less than a month to book it, so get a move on. In the meantime, I'm going to go off to think deep thoughts about the most important issues of the day, namely the NBA Draft. It's going to take me at least the weekend to decide how happy I am about the Sixers' trades and picks. It's... well, it's a Process.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
www.facebook.com/pmsimon
Twitter @pmsimon
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