What’s In Pandora’s Podcast Box?

There’s a further development to note in the ongoing saga of Pandora’s podcast distribution efforts.

According to Variety earlier this month, new Pandora CEO Roger Lynch said he wants the company to create a “podcast genome project” that will operate the same way its music service does – allowing listeners to custom build stations based on related traits of the music. In this case, however, Pandora would stream podcasts with similar genes (or subjects, one assumes) in their content.

As mentioned in this November 2017 entry, Pandora had done little to expand upon its first podcast distribution effort begun in 2016. But Lynch had begun saying he would revisit Pandora’s non-music programming. Lynch’s latest statement provides some idea what direction that effort may take, but raises more questions.

The first question is what the value might be in streaming related podcasts, when the format is typically an hour long, not a three- to five-minute song. Listeners who would stream multiple podcasts for hours on end are probably a rare breed.

The second question, or idea about how a “podcast genome project” that Lynch proposes would make more sense is if the streaming of related pieces was done with clips rather than entire episodes. This would operate using the short clips that are the basis of Spoke, the social media sharing app developed by SiriusXM, which has become a big backer of Pandora.

From this logical progression, a third question would be whether the Spoke method or the “genome project” method is more likely to catch on with listeners. It seems likely that the listeners either method is likely to attract are ones who are not habitual podcast listeners, but rather those who are new to that kind of spoken word content. It could be a gateway for many more streaming audio listeners to get hooked on full-length podcasts.

Podcasts of the Moment:

Reed Birney on “Little Known Facts,” June 28, 2016. Actress Ilana Levine hosts this podcast, which focuses on interviewing experienced theater actors (including some who are also well known, or somewhat known for TV and film work) for their life and career insights – capturing both industry and general interest observations. It’s a different spin on what Catie Lazarus does in her “Employee Of The Month” podcast and live show. In this episode, guest Reed Birney, who may be best known for playing the vice president in “House Of Cards,” described how he dealt with a fallow period in his career some years ago, by taking forced time out to go tour Europe and have a different kind of life experience.

“Trials of Dan & Dave,” June 27, 2017. This episode of ESPN’s “30 For 30” audio documentary series (a spinoff of the channel’s video documentaries) chronicles two sprinters who were the subject of a big Reebok marketing campaign in 1992, and what happened when the narrative of their Olympic quest took an unexpected turn. It’s well produced (as is this series as a whole) and it included firsthand interview accounts from its subjects.