Simplecast has created a Movable Audio Engine. It is a new platform that offers a unique answer to dynamic audio and ad insertion.

Simplecast’s Moveable Audio Engine, (MAE, pronounced just like May) allows publishers to dynamically deliver advertisements and host-read content, a personalized show opening for a geographic region, or back catalog promotions to first-time listeners. We don’t call it DAI because, well, it is becoming so much more.

CEO of Simplecast Brad Smith wrote that in the coming months, MAE will integrate with Simplecast’s previously mentioned patent-pending listener measurement, allowing publishers to deliver dynamic content based on cross-podcast listening behavior and content preferences, while also providing the foundation for Simplecast’s attribution measurement tools.

Brad Smith continues with: Where standard ad delivery requires standard ad practices, MAE arrives fully-featured – ready to deliver advertisements to pre, mid or post-rolls. Set multiple markers, stack ads to compete based on priority, run in order or randomized, even deliver your impressions evenly paced or as fast as possible. If there’s a buzzword you desire, MAE will have you covered.

MAE 1.0 began rolling out to Simplecast for Enterprise plans in late February, and will continue throughout the spring. If you’re a Pro or Enterprise client, and MAE is not yet available in your dashboard, you can expect Simplecast to be in touch shortly.

This summer, MAE will arrive in Simplecast’s Essential and Growth plans, unlocking a wide swath of dynamic audio (not just ads) for independent creators everywhere.

Simplecast announced a stickiness metric. The company wants podcasters to answer deeper questions than they can get from Facebook page likes or website views. Those questions include: Does your show keep listeners coming back for more? Do marketing efforts help attract new listeners? Do marketing efforts create new “sticky” listeners?

While I only selected a few shows for this article, I’ve chosen them to illustrate a few different scenarios of a show’s launch. Show # 1 is a weekly show with a big initial launch day (eg. featured in apps like Stitcher and Apple Podcasts), Show # 2 is a weekly show with an organic growth trajectory (eg. word of mouth or current available audience), and Show # 3 is a daily show and also has an organic growth trajectory.

You can find more information about how Simplecast came up with their data and metrics on the Medium post that was written by Chief Technology Office of Simplecast, Stephen Hallgren.

By “stickiness”, he means listeners who keep coming back to a podcast for more. He expected and hoped to see listeners transitioning from 1 to 2 to 3+ episodes for each episode release. He also hoped to see the percentages for single episode listeners to be low.

Things didn’t quite work out that way with the three shows he gathered data on. Show # 1 pulled in significant numbers of listeners on launch day, but then the number went down. Only 20% of initial listeners returned to listen to at least one additional episode. Show # 2 and Show # 3 had much smaller launch days, but their listeners were more engaged and were likely to keep listening to more episodes.

Simplecast is working on other analytics (beyond stickiness) such as podcast onramps and episode entry points and user behavior across episodes. The concept of stickiness of listeners is interesting.

That said, I doubt advertisers will switch from using IAB information about number of downloads in favor of listener stickiness. Podcasters, however, might find stickiness to be useful for figuring out how dedicated an audience they actually have.

Simplecast announced that they are now IAB certified. They had been working with a third-party auditing firm to achieve IAB Podcast Measurement Certification. All Simplecast Audience metrics have been audited, approved, and certified by IAB.

Certification allows for analytics, regardless of the podcast host, to be reported in a standardized way and verified by a third party. Standardized analytics opens doors for creators, advertisers, brands, non-profits, and institutions to use consistent numbers that they can all trust.

Simplecast has rolled out the first of multiple data points to podcasters’ Simplecast Dashboard – the robust Unique Listeners measurement and comparison report.

Simplecast pointed out that as more podcast management platforms have become IAB certified, each provider made core changes to the analytics they report. This typically caused reported download numbers to decrease. Podcasters on Simplecast can expect to see that decrease as well.

According to Simplecast, they need to further refine their repeat download period to a rolling 24-hour window in order to achieve final certification. That change went into effect on October 24, 2019, and it sets Simplecast’s window-length as the same as all other IAB-certified hosts.

Simplecast has launched Recast beta. It is a listener-driven podcast discovery tool. It allows you and your listeners to share clips from your episodes on social media.

Simplecast offers one-click publishing to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your audience listens. For $12 a month, Simplecast offers unlimited listener plays, no upload caps, listener analytics, a customizable website, and embeddable audio players with Recast. Simplecast is currently offering a free trial.

Discoverability of podcasts – podcast’s reach – is miles away from perfect, and while we have big plans here too, we began simple: What if podcasts and retweets had a baby? They did! We named it Recast.

The idea for Recast spawned from WNYC’s Audiogram Generator – an open-source social meant to provide podcasters, radio professionals, producers, and audio makers a super easy way to share their work across social platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

Simplecast has an embed player that plays beautifully when embedded in a tweet. However, Simplecast thinks it is unlikely that someone would choose to listen to an entire episode of a podcast via social media. The audiogram is a short video that is designed with a striking visual component. It is intended to attract attention on social media.

Simplecast mapped out the flavor of the audiogram for the purpose of making Recast a personal, intimate experience for the listener. With Recast, listeners can be in control of what’s contained in an audiogram. Recast is the industry’s first, fully listener-accessible audiogram sharing tool.