Weekly survey: Which platform do you use for podcasts?
The podcasting industry is getting big and getting bigger, especially in Canada. In fact, Canadian podcast consumption is ahead of even the United States, the world’s number one producer of podcasts.
When I listen, it’s most convenient for me to fire up the podcast app on the iPhone, although I’ve had to flip over to Spotify on occasion. When I’m working on my computer at home, I’ll often listen to podcasts direct from their home web page. YouTube for podcasts? Never really crossed my mind. Yet according to a massive study on Canadian podcast listening, up to 40% of us access our favourite programs through YouTube.
Really? Let’s put that to the test. What’s your primary platform for listening to podcasts?
What's your primary platform for listening to podcasts?
— Alan Cross (@alancross) June 15, 2020
Pocket Casts for me …
I started 15+ years ago with iTunes/iPod, and back then I really appreciated the 2x speed feature. With smartphones I kept looking for the elusive best app. Loved Doggcatcher for a long time on Android, eventually settled on Pocket Casts which has only gotten better. I subscribe to nearly 60 podcasts all available on it. If a podcast went exclusive to another platform, I’d probably just quit it.
I love that it’s multi-platform and syncs between them all. You can even upload your audiobooks or podcast archives to its cloud and sync those. I regularly switch between my phone, home desktop, and work laptop. Then finally it has good features for finishing podcasts quicker: variable speeds (pitch-normalised of course), can start specific podcasts from a point when say you know there’s always a minute of ads at the beginning, and it will delete silences.