Audible Intros Podcasting Advertising Platform

AudibleWordcast Features

According to Audible, AudibleWordcast will be the first "audit-ready" podcasting platform capable of measuring actual subscribers, not just file downloads. Audible's TrueListener audience measurement system metrics are determined audit-ready through third-party media auditor, ImServices Group.

The system is designed to let podcasters outsource many of the services needed to handle and track podcast advertising.

"What we are doing with AudibleWordcast is packaging some of the best technologies, techniques, and customer support systems that have enabled us to build audible.com and its delivery platform and making them available to audio creators of all sizes," said Donald Katz, chairman and CEO of Audible, Inc. "Producers can now use these tools to create multiple revenue streams and control their costs and risk at the same time."

AudibleWordcast-formatted podcasts will play on the Apple iPod and 160 other devices.

Podcasters React

The introduction has created some controversy within the podcasting world, because the services rely on proprietary formats and tracking mechanisms.

BuzzMachines' Jeff Jarvis raises questions about the technology and finances of Audibles new system:

What we need is an open system that allows any content creator to get audience data pinged back and allows them to attach measurable ads. Today on the text web, these things are free unless I choose to use a premium service for stats or ad serving. We need similar functionality for the multimedia web using MP3s and not just Audible-formatted media.

Look at the Audible economics: They’re charging 3 cents just for measuring listenership. That, in ad math (if I have enough fingers and toes) is a $30 CPM just for measurement — $35 for inserting ad ad. That’s a high rate for advertising online these days — very high. So there’s no profit. That won’t work.

Podfather Dave Winer wonders how Audible can work it's magic:

I can't imagine how it works unless: 1. They modify the software that runs on everyone's playing devices and also magically give them all the ability to phone back to their servers, or 2. They've decided to change the term podcasting to mean "the shitty DRM-based service that Audible provided before podcasting wrecked their business."

The users aren't that stupid, imho, and Audible's approach has so many problems for users.

Internet strategist Mitch Ratcliffe, who helped design the Audible system, argues that Audible is filling a need that existing technology can't:

The Audible format has always known where a user stopped listening and so forth—it preserved state across multiple devices. Doing the same thing in MP3 would require rewriting the standard, which would, essentially, break the standard.

Because Audible's format is built into virtually every player on the desktop and portable devices (with the notable exception of Sony) there is no significant barrier to entry for choosing to podcast in Audible's format. Moreover, Audible's format is far more compact, allowing even more mixing and matching of content by the listener.

Meanwhile, it is expensive today—I know it will cost less sooner rather than later—but a $30 CPM is not off the historical mean for early-stage audited advertising by any stretch. Ten and even five years ago, the CPMs for many Web sites were north of $80. Those came down, so will audio costs, and Audible will lead the way. Making a comparison to current text CPMs is misleading and missing the point. The idea is to let podcasters support a CPM that matches the very high CPMs of mass media, then let the market work out the new CPMs that will exist across podcasting and broadcasting when they are on a level playing field.

The Challenge of Podcast Advertising

As podcasting develops a mainstream audience, both podcasters and advertisers have an interest in finding ways to advertise effectively within podcasts. Audible has made a bold move to transform itself from an audio content provider to a service provider for the infrastructure of commercial podcasting. Whether its service will be success or not will depend on how open podcasters and advertisers are to proprietary formats and user tracking.

More information is available at the Wordcast site.