Spreaker announced that their 50,000+ show catalog is now on Amazon Alexa devices. Spreaker is now an Amazon Alexa skill. If your podcast is on Spreaker, then it is being syndicated on all Amazon Alexa devices.

Spreaker explains that Amazon Alexa devices are wireless, voice-activated “smart speakers” that feature a personal assistant voice service called “Alexa”. These devices include Amazon Echo and Amazon Echo Dot. Alexa is similar to Apple’s Siri, in that both will respond to commands that you say out loud to it.

We’ve added Spreaker’s catalog of podcasts to all Amazon Alexa devices (only English-language podcasts for now, due to some Amazon Echo limitations, but we hope to get everyone else in on it soon!), as well as Spreaker-specific commands your listeners can use to play, search, and take control of their listening experience.

With Amazon Alexa, together with automatic sharing to social media networks and syndication with Apple Podcasts, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and SONOS, podcasters who have their shows on Spreaker are getting open use of every distribution channel out there.

You don’t have to do anything to make that happen, Spreaker has already done that for you. Spreaker recommends that you let your listeners know that they can find your podcast on Amazon Alexa devices. Listeners will need to add the Spreaker Amazon Alexa skill to their device from the Amazon Store.

https://youtu.be/43q96VT66KE

Spreaker has made changes that allow you to manage every detail of your podcast. You can now add iOS 11’s New Season and Episode tags to your podcast episodes.

Now, thanks to updates introduced with iOS 11, the presentation and production choices you make will be clearly displayed in Apple Podcasts. And to facilitate the matter, we at Spreaker have added new settings that, when applied from the CMS, will come through as tags in your RSS feed’s metadata. Your seasons, episode order, and episode labels will all appear to listeners tuning in through Apple Podcasts.

Spreaker points out that if your podcast is serialized, it is important for listeners to start with the oldest episode (meaning the episode in the series that was produced and released first). The series tag alerts listeners that they shouldn’t listen to the newest episode in the series before getting the full story from the previously released episodes. The tag helps them know where to begin.

Go into the Spreaker CMS and choose how you want your episodes to be sorted. Pick Episodic if you want your episodes to be sorted from newest to oldest. Or, select Serial if you want your episodes to be sorted oldest to newest. With this feature, you have the added bonus of applying these changes to your podcast on Spreaker as well as Apple Podcasts.

In addition, the Spreaker CMS allows you to label your episodes by type. Use “Full” to let your listeners know that an episode is a full, regular, episode. You can use “Trailer” for the short, explanatory episode you release first. Choose “Bonus” to alert your listeners to episodes that are extra content.

Earlier this year, Spreaker launched their Revenue Sharing program that allowed podcasters to earn money for every listen or impressions. The program is now out of beta, and has become a fully fledged sophisticated ad revenue system.

Ad injection is when you earn money from audio and visual ads getting automatically placed throughout an episode at different intervals. These ads are provided by Spreaker’s trusted partners. Spreaker’s Revenue Sharing program allows ads to be automatically inserted into both downloaded episodes and stitched onto on-demand streaming.

Every time an ad gets an impression, meaning that it was listened to by your audience, you’ll earn a specific amount of money. In Spreaker’s case, you’ll get 65% per Cost per impression or CPM (1,000 impressions), depending on a variety of factors, like who is providing the ad.

You remain in control of the exact conditions of the ad insertion (which you can edit at any time). Spreaker’s new Revenue Sharing System allows you to chose the position of the ad (pre-rolls and/or post-rolls), how many ads to include and how often, and the maximum duration of the ad to be injected.

Spreaker has more details on their blog. A portion of the blog walks podcasters through how to set up Spreaker’s Revenue Sharing Program on one or more of their shows.

Shows must meet the following criteria in order to be accepted into the Revenue Sharing Program:

• Meeting the necessary legal and quality requirements
• Be signed up to one of Spreaker’s Pro Plans
• Recognizing that your hard work is worth it

Spreaker has made changes to their home page in order to make it easier for people to find podcasts. The Spreaker home page now has a grouping of podcasts that fit a specific category.

This includes “Featured This Week”, which I think could influence podcasters to make a goal of getting their podcast into that category on Spreaker’s home page.

Spreaker describes their new home page as “your map to navigating that immense sea of audio content.” Not only will podcast listeners benefit from the new layout, but so will podcast producers. Spreaker points out “With featured podcasts, curated lists you’ll love, and content based on where you’re located, the new home page offers an effortless podcast-searching experience.”

We’ve narrowed things down to a few key selections that can help kick off your search for more podcasts, namely featured shows, curated lists, and more clearly defined categories. Podcasters, these are all ideal places to get your show prominently spotlighted on spreaker.com, so keep that in mind when working on your show’s general presentation. Artwork that’s well-made and appealing titles and descriptions, as well as solid content, is what will get you considered for a spot at the top.

Scrolling through the Spreaker home page feels a bit like scrolling through Netflix, in search of new content to check out. Each has a bunch of different categories that may (or may not) match your personal interests. Some of the categories are recommended by websites outside of Spreaker. It is clearly noted, and you can take that into consideration as you browse.

Although Spreaker made it clear that all the categories are “ideal places to get your show prominently spotlighted at Spreaker.com”, I think the one that will get the most attention is the “Featured This Week” category. I predict it will be treated the way Apple’s “New and Noteworthy” is – with marketers promising podcasters that they can get their podcast into that category.

Spreaker has launched follower tracking. It is a new data point that is intended to give you another statistic to help you attract and keep followers. The blog post about follower tracking says: “If you podcast, they will follow.”

One thing that Spreaker’s new follower tracking feature can do is enable you to trace spikes in followers back to actual episodes and marketing decisions. If you see a spike in followers, you can backtrack to potentially determine what caused it. It might be related to your killer social media campaign, or an episode where you interviewed someone famous.

Another thing that Spreaker’s new follower tracking can do is give you more information about your follower count. A random person might play one episode and never return. Your followers, on the other hand, are committed and want to return to hear more. Spreaker’s follower tracking can show you if you’ve kept up with the high-quality content, consistent schedule, and engaging materials your listeners want.

Spreaker’s new follower tracking can also help you get to know your audience really well.

A Spreaker follower is an actual person with a profile you can look at. So, whenever you see a sudden upshot in numbers, find out who else that follower follows and who follows them back, and discover a whole network of communities to tap into.

If your podcast is on Spreaker, and you have a Broadcaster plan or higher, then you can make use of Spreaker’s new follower tracking and the information it provides. The Broadcaster Plan cost $19.99 a month (or $199 billed annually).

Spreaker posted an update on its statistics. Spreaker will now be using IAB guidelines to determine what constitutes as a “download.”

Spreaker points out some of the complications that arise when someone tries to figure out what to count as a “download”. Spreaker is in a unique position to check on this because they are able to control their platform from end to end. This means that Spreaker can see that most incoming media file requests to their platform come from human-operated apps, and that others come from pieces of software that work automatically.

That’s part of what makes figuring out what counts as a download difficult. Spreaker provides further explanation:

And there’s yet another complication; even legit apps that “stream” podcasts make multiple requests for the same file. The Apple Podcast app, for example, makes lots of requests, even for small episode bits, in order to prevent users from using too much bandwidth. However, that results in tens, sometimes hundreds of requests for a single episode file by the same user.

To solve this problem, Spreaker looked at a detailed guideline produced by the IAB and has published their own up-to-date document that describes the type of filtering Spreaker is applying in order to remove duplicates. Spreaker wants you to know that you have the exactly the same number of listeners as you had before these changes were made.

Spreaker’s Listener Analytics document provides more details about how downloads and plays are counted. It’s worth reading over if your podcast is on Spreaker.

Spreaker has introduced its new Revenue Sharing Program.  It gives podcasters who are on Spreaker a way to earn money for ads that are placed throughout their content. Essentially, it is an Ad Revenue Sharing Program. The program is currently in the beta stage. Spreaker explains the program this way:

Audio and visual ads provided by our partners will get automatically placed throughout your episodes at different intervals (at this beta stage we only support ads as pre-rolls). These ads will be determined by location, so that your listeners will only ever hear ads that pertain to them. (New Yorkers will only ever hear ads by companies accessible to them, for example.)

Every time an ad gets an impression, meaning that it was listened to or viewed by your audience, you’ll earn a specific amount of money. In Spreaker’s case, you’ll get 60-65% per CPM (1000 impressions), depending on a variety of factors, like who is providing the ad.

Ads will be either audio or visual, and will appear across embedded player and Spreaker Podcast Radio for Android and iOS. Each ad will run for at most 30 seconds, and disappear as soon as its over.

Spreaker’s Revenue Sharing Program is currently in beta. They plan to evolve it over time as more podcasters join. Some improvements that are on the way include ad flexibility (meaning you can insert ads at specific points through your episode), extended ad plays to third-party platforms, and an increase in CPM throughout 2017.

There is a simple opt-in program for podcasters who want to join Spreaker’s Revenue Sharing Program. If you have shows on your account that you want to keep ad-free, you can disable them from the program at any time. Be sure to read the Spreaker blog for more details.