Blockchain-based Podcasts: The Next Big Thing in the Audio Streaming Industry

While platforms like YouTube and Soundcloud have given powerful tools in the hands of independent music artists, they’ve also opened up the Pandora Box of content management issues.

The audio streaming industry is growing bigger each year, reaching nearly 255 million paid music streamers at the end of 2018. Nearly $8.9 billion worth of revenue was also generated in the same year through music streaming sales.

In case you didn’t miss it, Hassan Minhaaj’s hosted Patriot Act on Netflix also covered it recently.

But the case in point is that all of these sales are easy to make for established companies like Spotify or Apple Music.

For independent music artists, the playground is highly uneven. They are at the mercy of the streaming platforms that don’t necessarily provide them with means to earn sufficiently.

Blockchain to Rescue

Touch anything that requires a decentralized solution and you’ll easily find blockchain associated with it. Same is the case with audio streaming industry, which is witnessing an undercurrent of blockchain apps.

Blockchain allows for a propagation mechanism where the platform you’re working with will not interfere with your content ownership. This means a lot for budding artists who have to struggle with Intellectual property rights early on in their careers.

Further, it also sets the ground for earnings through blockchain tokens. Artists can earn directly monetize their content by integrating ads or offering paid streams.

BitSong is among the very first that aims to implement blockchain song sharing, in order to offer direct revenue for music artists. The platform will allow advertisers to work with artists, allowing ads to be inserted inside songs.

Choon and Musicoin have also followed suit with their own ways of doing the same thing.

But the biggest value proposition in the audio publishing industry is in Podcasts. The podcasting sub-sector is set to reach $1 billion in revenue in the next 2 years, prompting voice artists to get on the podcasting bandwagon.

Blockchain-Powered Podcasts — Podminers

Podminers is one of the industry-firsts adopting blockchain for resolving podcast content-related problems. The platform is made keeping the growing population of podcasters who can benefit from effective content monetization features and reach a wider audience using the same.

The platform is backed by blockchain and implements it in interesting ways. It is being designed to fight fake reviews, ad-fraud and a workable payment system that can generate value for podcasters.

Their ad-fraud fighting mechanism can verify every ad-click or ad engagement generated by the audience on a blockchain ledger, helping the advertisers evade investment on worthless ads.

When advertisers get a real audience, their return on investment increases.

This helps advertisers obtain a legitimate distribution of their ads, which comes back to the creators as increased revenue.

As of now, YouTube is plagued with fake views that hurt the advertiser’s investment and dirty the economics of the platform altogether.

Podminers wishes to become a controlled environment where the advertiser and the content creator, both can generate value out of audio publishing.

The available monetization options for podcasters are:

• Episode downloads
• Ads inside podcasts
• Monthly subscriptions

Availability of different modes of monetization offer room for experimentation for podcasters. A solid business model is still to be figured out for profitable podcasting and PodMiners are working in that direction.

Their ICO will be live soon and the recent addition of Brian Condenanza, blockchain advisor, to the team is a bonus for the fans.

Podcasts are Ready for Disruption

When it comes to audio publishing in specific, podcasts are starting to enjoy wider popularity than before. Google recently launched its Podcasts App that has got over 5 million installs. Same is the case with podcasters. More and more people are routing towards podcasts over video content creation.

After analysing, I found the following reasons that are governing this shift.

Simple Production Needs

Podcasts don’t require an elaborate setup to hit the ground running.

You can start recording yourself using a simple mic in a quiet room in contrast to video production that requires both a camera and editing software.

There are simple sound enhancement apps also available that you can pretty much use on your phone to remove distortions in your podcasts. On a whole, the effort required to produce a podcast episode will be way less than a video episode.

Refer: 10 Best Audio Equalizer Apps from Android Authority

Easier Participation

Soundcloud is meant for singers and artists who can create music but podcasters don’t even need to fit into those categories.

You just need good content that you wish to share with people. It could be stories, knowledge, poetry or anything that doesn’t require special expertise in music.

Serial, a popular podcast on investigative journalism has been downloaded for more than 340 million times. It was released back in 2014 and regardless of the amateur markets, it was able to attract 500,000 listeners in a short span of time.

Lower Focus Higher Engagement

The producers of the Serial podcast have mentioned that;

“We want to give you the same experience you get from a great HBO or Netflix series, where you get caught up with the characters and the thing unfolds week after week, but with a true story, and no pictures. Like House of Cards, but you can enjoy it while you’re driving.”

This is quite true if we compare to video entertainment. You have to be fully focused to enjoy a video episode of your favourite series which handicaps you from doing nothing but that.

Whereas, listening to a podcast is less focus-intensive and can be done while travelling or before going to sleep, offering a respite to professionals who glue their eyes to screens all day.

Conclusion

If you’re thinking of becoming a podcaster, this is the right time to dive into the industry. Both listeners and podcasters are rising in numbers with actual revenue flowing in. As the demand for rich content grows, the technology surrounding it also advances.

Podminers, Bitsong and Choon are all contributing positively towards the audio publishing industry as of now. The integration of blockchain for content protection on podcasting platforms is another critical update that will boost creator confidence into the sector.