Will Pandora’s Ad supported podcast directory help monetize podcasts?

There are a lot of ways to monetize a podcast. One of the common methods is podcast sponsorship through the CPM Advertising model.

Now Pandora has decided to get serious about podcasting. Having podcast subscriptions within its service will help ensure users keep coming back every week and will give them an additional revenue source.

Pandora’s free music service is supported by advertising. The new “podcast genome project” will also be ad-supported.

Roger Lynch joined Pandora as their new CEO last September and he says that they are working on a deep integration with podcasts.

Pandora Wants to Create Podcast Genome Project in 2018 – Variety

Pandora is also looking to offer podcasters monetization options that will be superior to the current state of podcast advertising. Currently, many podcasters still rely on ads that they read themselves on air, Lynch said. “It is not the most effective advertising model.”

Host Read Ads vs Pre-Recorded Commercials

One the most attractive benefits of podcast sponsorship is getting access to a niche audience through a trusted influencer. The podcaster builds up a community that is likely to trust and respect his or her opinion. The host read ad almost sounds like an endorsement and quite often it is. The host read ad is more effective than a radio-style inserted ad spot.

It will be interesting to see how the Pandora podcast advertising platform works out. Will they use pre-roll and post-roll ads? Dynamic Injection?

The benefit to dynamically inserted podcast ads is the monetization of the back catalog. You can change out ads and resell access to your back catalog to advertisers. However, these ads may not resonate with listeners as much if they are not read by the podcast host.

Pandora wants to build the ‘podcast genome project’ and help shows monetize | 9to5Mac

Branching out from strictly streaming music to also streaming shows should help make Pandora further evolve into a more modern entertainment platform… Pandora’s primary product remains ad-supported streaming music and not on-demand subscription music like its competitors, however, and it hopes to apply that to podcasts too.

The Growth of Podcasting

With more distribution platforms waking up to podcasting the growth of podcasting will continue.

It is great to see another popular platform embracing podcasting but will their monetization strategy be good for podcasters? Will the discovery engine in their podcast genome project offer a new way of discovering relevant content?

Only time will tell.