Australian podcast platform Whooshkaa trials playing content through Facebook
Australian podcasting platform Whooshkaa has partnered with Facebook to play its podcast content through the social media site in what it is claiming is a world first.
From this week users will be able to listen to podcasts hosted on the Whooshkaa platform in a standalone player on the site, with a highlights feature also set to be rolled out enabling podcasters to create snippets of their shows for easier sharing and sampling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=57&v=cTFmXzr3fgg
The Australian company joins the likes of Spotify and US National Public Radio in getting developer access to experiment with the technology on the site.
Whooshkaa, founded by former Macquarie Radio boss Rob Lowenthal in January of this year, provides a platform for podcasters to broadcast their shows and monetise them by connecting them with advertisers, as well as audience analytics features.
While podcasts have become increasingly popular with listeners, and advertisers, since the explosion of the Serial podcast in 2014, Lowenthal hopes this innovation will help to counter the issues around discovery which have stopped some from creating larger audiences.
“This new feature will nurture the growth of podcasting and on-demand audio worldwide. Listeners love podcasts because they are absorbing, intimate and compatible with driving, exercise or working,” Loewenthal said.
“Word of mouth is the most highly-valued source of great audio recommendation and the Whooshkaa/Facebook combination now allows listeners to sample shows without interrupting their Facebook experience.
“Facebook, the world’s largest social network, is already the major promotional platform for many podcasters and I really believe this type of innovation, around improved social media discovery, will drive podcasting to new heights and provide the clearest path to new listeners.”
How the Whooshkaa player will look
The new development will initially be available to people using Facebook on iOS enabled devices this week.
Whooshkaa’s chief technology officer Jonathan Smith added: “Previously, podcasts have not translated into easily shareable short form content.
“Later this week Whooshkaa will introduce a new Highlights feature enabling podcasters to select and share short clips of their audio.
“The combination of Highlights and our partnership with Facebook will help push the boundaries of how podcasts are discovered and consumed.”
Whooshkaa has a number of News Corp-related assets on its platform including podcasts from The Australian, Fox Sports and The Daily Telegraph, while the NRL is set to launch its own podcast on the platform later this month.
Auto-play video works on Facebook because people can engage with the content without audio in most cases. If the content catches their interest then they can then unmute it or continue to watch without audio.
Audio requires an additional variable for users to engage, either a private and quite environment to use the speakers on their device or have headphones on their person.
I love podcasts and I would love for this to be successful, but I suspect there would need to be a way of hooking people visually for this to work as a podcast discovery tool on Facebook.
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