As part of the VAMP project we explore key areas of the digital audio and especially podcast ecosystem. The first milestone of the project is a comprehensive analysis that looks at the interests and perspectives of publishers as well as relevant service providers in the audio and podcast space.

The following report is based on several months of research conducted through desk research, surveys with service providers as well as interviews and workshops with national and international media companies. It gives an overview of the existing software solutions, compares features and technical standards and reveals in which areas we could only find inadequate technical solutions for publishers. Based on this information publishers can select suitable service providers for their needs.

Our analysis revealed that (1) podcast hosting solutions, (2) dynamic ad insertion and (3) analytical standards are most important for publishers. Thus, we will focus on these areas.

Part 1: Podcast hosting solutions

According to our research, one of the most pressing issues for publishers is to have a stable and flexible audio web player with comprehensive hosting and distribution functions. To date, many publishers have integrated either relatively expensive or inadequate services into their websites and only few executives are satisfied with current solutions.

The market offers a wide range of hosting solutions for podcasts. The spectrum ranges from small, low-cost services for hobby and semi-professional podcasters to all-in-one solutions that primarily have radio stations or podcast networks as customers. We at SPIEGEL, like many other publishers, have a clear focus on text content and a manageable podcast offering compared to public broadcasters, for example. That’s why we see a broader need in our industry between the two extremes mentioned above. It is therefore essential to accurately capture the range of offerings and differences between podcast services.

In our comparison, we surveyed nearly two dozen podcast hosting companies; ten providers responded in detail. Focus of our survey was on a) web players, b) costs, c) monetization and d) analysis.

Links in tables only work in the PDF version: Download complete Podcast-Hosting PDF here