Transcript
>> Good afternoon.
Welcome to our -- thank you,
thank you.
[ Applause ]
Good afternoon, and welcome to
our session on Apple Podcasts.
We are thrilled to be with you
here today.
I'm James Boggs.
I'm the manager of the Podcasts
Business Team.
We're going to start with an
update on Podcasts worldwide,
and I'll welcome DJ Davis, Lead
Engineering Manager for Podcasts
Apple.
He's going to cover Changes and
Enhancements to the App with iOS
11.
After that, Garth Jantzen will
give you a brief update on
Upgrades and Additions to the
Podcasts Spec. Then, because
you'll be so excited about our
updates and upgrades, we're
going to give you some best
practices and walk you through
Creating and Launching Your Own
Show.
But first, we want to talk for a
moment about how we think about
modern podcasts, long form and
audio.
We get excited about episodic
content that entertains,
informs, and inspires.
We get excited in that many of
our users have gotten excited
too.
In 2016 alone, we served up over
10 billion episode downloads and
streaming plays across iOS,
macOS and tvOS.
That's up from 8 billion in 2015
and just under 7 billion in 2014
when Podcasts app became
preinstalled for the first time
on iOS 8.
2017 is shaping up to be another
banner year as new listeners
discover podcasts and the great
content inside the catalog.
We're on track for more than 20
percent growth.
With more than 400,000 podcasts
available, our catalog is more
robust than it's ever been.
We have more than a thousand new
shows submitted each and every
week, so there's always
something new and great to
discover.
We have more than 14 million
episodes in the catalog.
That's mostly audio content, but
we have shows and episodes in
more than 100 languages.
Apple Podcast is available in
155 countries, not only for
distribution of existing shows
but for submission of new shows.
We're particularly proud to have
such a diverse content catalog,
and we're also proud to be one
of the easiest ways to each a
global audience for audio
content.
We want you to join the
incredible collection of media
and broadcast organizations
producing high quality podcasts,
CNN, Disney, Entertainment
Weekly, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg,
Presa from Spain.
These are just a few of the
global lineup.
We love working with our
partners in public media around
the world as well, whether it's
China National Radio, or CRI,
ARD Germany, Radio France, the
BBC and, of course, NPR and all
the fantastic NPR affiliates
here in the US.
Our international cohort of
independent podcast networks is
producing some of the most
exciting content, such as
scripted comedy from Wondery in
Los Angeles; shows like Reply
All and Crimetown from Gimlet in
Brooklyn; comedy and cultural
series from Binge Audio in
Paris, and the Great Audiomatic
programs from their headquarters
in Mumbai, India.
These, and other Indie
productions, such as Up and
Vanished from Tenderfoot in
Atlanta, have found a home in
Apple podcasts.
This show, Up and Vanished, is
an investigative story looking
at the tragic and mysterious
disappearance of a Georgia
beauty queen and high school
teacher.
It's an 11-year-old cold case
that has captured an audience
around the world, and it's
delivered through the dynamic
storytelling of amateur
investigator, Payne Lindsey.
On the other end of the Indie
spectrum is Reid Hoffman and the
founder stories of Masters of
Scale, which are truly epic.
Hoffman is teaching key business
strategies, skills, and
techniques through the anecdotes
of some of the world's best
entrepreneurs and business
leaders, including Brian Chesky
of Airbnb, and Facebook's Mark
Zuckerberg.
The audio production of
Hoffman's partners, Wait, What?
is really fun and entertaining.
Also fun and entertaining, Anna
Faris.
Her podcast features
relationship advice from
completely unqualified Hollywood
types, and it's seriously funny.
This is an independent
production, often recorded at
her dining room table, and it
features her beloved sidekick
Sim and great conversation.
We recommend you check it out.
So our engineering teams have
done a tremendous amount of work
improving Podcasts app to enable
discovery and enjoyment of these
and other great shows.
Up next to tell you about
Podcasts app in iOS 11 is DJ
Davis, our Engineering Manager.
[ Applause ]
>> Thanks, James.
We have some great updates to
Podcasts app in iOS 11, and I'd
love to show them to you now.
First, you'll notice, we've
simplified the app.
There are four tabs across the
bottom.
We'll take a quick look at each
one.
First up, Listen Now.
This is an upgrade to the
unplayed tab from the previous
versions of the Podcasts app.
Here, it's easy to resume any
episode you've already started
listening to, or you could pick
the Next episode from any of the
other podcasts that you're
subscribed to.
This will be very familiar if
you used Watch Now in the TV app
before.
Next up is Library.
This is your personal podcasts
library, all the podcasts you're
subscribed to, all the episodes
you've saved.
You can view downloaded
episodes.
It's also really easy to get to
your recently added podcasts.
Let's dive into one of those
podcasts.
Here, I can view all the
episodes from the show that I
need to listen to.
It's really easy to pick up
where I left off with Continue
Listening, and from this page, I
can also view the top episodes
or scroll down and view all
available episodes.
Here's one of those individual
episodes.
Here, I see the expanded show
notes, and I can see exactly how
much of this episode I have left
to listen to.
Next up, we have Browse.
This will be very familiar if
you've used the Music app.
We'll dive into Featured first.
Each week our editors to scour
all the latest shows and
episodes to bring you the best
of what's new.
We can also look at Top Charts.
Here, we have all the top
episodes and shows that are
trending right now, and I can
also browse featured providers
or dive deeper into my favorite
categories.
And finally, we have Search.
Here, you can quickly find any
new show or episode in the Apple
Podcasts catalog or just scope
that search to your own library.
That's a quick overview of the
Podcasts updates in iOS 11.
This is our biggest updates to
the Podcasts apps since we first
launched in iOS.
We hope you get a chance to
check it out in the iOS
developer preview and give us
your feedback.
Next up, I'd like to bring Garth
Jantzen up to the stage.
He's going to give you an
overview of the updates we're
making to the Apple Podcasts
Spec to support some of these
great new features in iOS 11.
[ Applause ]
>> Thanks, DJ.
Great to see you all here today.
So, today, we are excited to
talk about some updates we're
bringing to the Apple Podcasts
Feed Spec. These updates will
help podcast creators to take
full advantage of the redesigned
Apple Podcasts app in iOS 11
that you just saw, while also
making it easier for listeners
to discover and engage that
content.
So, to provide some context, I'd
like to start with an example of
what you might see today in iOS
10 when you subscribe to a new
podcast.
So, when you subscribe to a
podcast, we automatically put
the latest episode into your
unplayed episode list, which is
great for most podcasts.
But in the case of this example,
there's a couple of problems.
First, as you can see, this is
Episode 4 of what looks to be
Season 2.
So, in the case of this podcast,
it's actually intended to start
from the beginning with Episode
1 of Season 2.
Also, it required that the
podcast author put both the
season number and the episode
number in front of the title,
which isn't the best user
experience.
So, going over to the feed tab
when I look for Episode 1, 2,
and 3, I find that they're in
the wrong order, and it's
difficult to add those episodes
over to my unplayed list so I
can start from the beginning and
listen through in the correct
order.
So, all I can say is that we
think we can do better here.
So, to start, we're happy to
announce support for podcast
seasons in iOS 11.
So, seasons will allow
podcasters to group together
episodes where it makes sense
for their podcast content, and
within a season they'll also be
able to choose the order in
which those episodes are
presented, whether it's newest
to oldest, or oldest to newest.
And utilizing the other tags
we're about to talk about that
we're adding, we'll be able to
present nice season headers and
concise titles to best present
the content.
New subscribers will also get
full, the full current season
automatically moved into their
Library in a new section called
My Episodes, which is going to
be great.
We have a Quick Play action that
will allow listeners to start
from the beginning, as intended,
or pick up right where they left
off.
So, now, let's look at the Spec
and see how all this ties
together.
So, first, we have a new tag for
a podcast called Podcast type,
and iOS 11, we're starting off
with two podcast types, episodic
and serial.
So, first, episodic.
This is the default podcast
type, and the one you're used to
seeing in Apple Podcasts today.
This is best for standalone
episodes where listening order
isn't super important.
New subscribers as of today will
receive the latest episode or
the entire season, starting with
the latest episode, if you're
using seasons.
So, serialize, this is new in
iOS 11.
We're really excited about this.
This is great where episodes are
recommended from beginning, from
oldest to newest, and it's great
for narrative, storytelling-type
podcasts, where it's important
to start from the beginning of a
season or show.
New subscribers will receive the
first episode in their Library,
or the entire season, starting
with the latest episode, with
the first episode if they're
using seasons.
So, next is title, which is a
new tag, and it's intended for
just the title of the episode.
We're asking that you leave off
the podcast title, the episode
number, season number, and the
dates.
We're going to use this
differently, depending on the
context of your podcast type.
So, in this screen, you can see
that we're combining it with
some other metadata; in this
case, episode number, to best
represent an episode from a
serial podcast where episode
number is important.
And then, here, to best
represent an episode from an
episodic podcast, where episode
number isn't as important.
So, next, episode number.
So, this is a new tag, and
starting with your first episode
in your podcast, every episode
should have an incremental
number.
If you're using seasons, the
episode number should be
specific to that season.
Then, we have season number.
Every episode that's associated
with a particular season should
use the same season number.
We'll collect all the episodes
together and present them as
seasons to listen to with a nice
header.
We'll also give precedent to
your latest season first on your
podcast page.
So, using a combination of
episode title, episode number,
and season number, we can choose
how to best represent that
content in different parts of
the app, as you can see here.
So, next is summary tag.
This is an existing tag, and
this is the tag that we're
recommending you use to store a
descriptive sentence that best
represents that episode.
We'll use this in multiple
places in the app, so we're
asking that you leave out HTML,
CDATA, rich text formatting.
In fact, we'll strip that out
because that will let us handle
the truncation, and it'll let us
handle that description in
different parts of the app.
So, if you're using a content
management system that might
truncate that beforehand, we're
asking that you leave that, that
you don't do that so that we can
handle that and best present it.
So, content encoded, this is
specific for your episode notes,
and this is where you're going
to want to put that rich text,
HTML, links.
We support paragraphs, lists,
bold and italics, and we're
going to use this on the Listen
Now view, as well within the
Episode Detail view, so
listeners can easily access any
links and notes while they
listen to your episode.
Another exciting update, we have
podcast type.
We also have episode type.
So, in iOS 11, we're coming out
with three episode types, a
full, trailer and bonus.
So, full is the default episode
type, and it represents a
standard episode that you'd
expect today.
Trailer is a great new episode
type that can be either a
podcast level trailer or a
season level trailer, depending
on if there's a season number
present.
And this is great for teaser
trailers before you've launched
your show, or if you want to
highlight a trailer for a new
season.
Bonus is for an episode that
contains bonus content, which is
great for supplemental content
associated with an existing
episode.
After-show, or review, we'll tie
them together in the UI, and
with the main episode, we'll
make it look really great.
So, we're really excited to see
how podcasters utilize these new
episode types to make their
content even more engaging.
So, lastly, I want to call out
an existing, another existing
tag on the episode, the GUID.
So, GUID is a permanent global
unique identifier that specifies
that episode amongst your
podcast.
We've seen some cases where
people end up changing their
GUID, perhaps if you change
hosting companies, or your RSS
URL changes, but it's really
important that you not change
the GUID on an episode.
This can result in duplicate
episodes showing up in your
subscribers' Libraries, and it
can even hurt your chart
placement in the catalog.
So, those are the highlights of
some of the updates coming to
the Apple Podcast Feed Spec.
These and all feed specs can be
found online in our Resources
and Help section, and we're
really excited to see how
podcast creators will use these
updates to create even more
content and better engaging
content for our listeners.
So, now that you've heard our
great updates, I'd like to bring
James back up to talk about how
to make the best podcast
possible.
James.
[ Applause ]
>> All right.
Thanks, Garth.
So, now that you've seen all the
new features of Podcasts app for
iOS 11, and the tags that we're
going to use, that we've just
announced, to power those new
features, let's walk through
creating and launching your own
show.
Well, first, you need something
to say.
You need an idea at the center
of your podcast as a concept
that will play out over the
course of your seasons and your
episodes.
Podcasts are unique in that
they're not constrained by the
formats of traditional media,
such as talk radio.
This is a place where great
stories will play out in long
form in audio.
So, our friends, Maria and John,
they needed a great idea for
their podcast project.
Maria has her Ph.D. in history,
and because she's passionate
about food, she knows a lot
about the history of different
cuisines around the world.
And her sidekick, John, loves to
eat.
So, what kind of a show could be
a vehicle for their love of
cuisine and maybe force them to
do some awesome travel?
The Very Hungry Tourists; Around
the world, one bite at a time.
They came up with their concept.
And now that Maria and John have
a concept for their show, they
dive into the research and
planning phase.
What podcasts out there already
cover their topic?
How could their podcast be
different?
Where is their potential
audience, and how would their
themes play out over the course
of their episodes?
How would they make their show
sustainable?
Is this a hobby or a business
project?
Well, sustainability is, of
course, a key to success at
podcasts, both creatively and
financially, and Maria and John
decide that making their
production financially
sustainable is important.
So, they looked at the biggest
and best podcasts in the
business models that they used.
They found that ads and
sponsorship are by far the most
common model.
Post-read ads, in particular are
successful and profitable.
The second model, donation.
This is the public media style,
listener and community supported
model, another great option for
podcasts.
Thirdly, they looked at upsell,
which is the idea that the
podcast audience coming to the
free podcast could be converted
to paying audience members
through the for sale products
related to the content of the
podcast.
So, for example, Maria's
ancient, Book of Ancient Roman
Recipes, available on iBooks,
was a great target destination
for the people interested in
their podcast.
When it comes to production
strategy, Maria and John
recognized that some of the most
popular podcasts in the world
used world class recording
studios.
The pristine sound and extensive
post production that results
from this kind of facility gives
you a high quality of audio
episodes.
It's fantastic.
And incidentally, I hope you got
a chance to try our podcast
studio here at WWDC, above the
main floor.
We've been around this week, and
it has been a great success.
Maria and John, of course, they
needed something a little less
expensive than a traditional
studio.
They wanted something portable
and easy to use without the need
of an audio engineer or a
dedicated producer.
They found that the built-in mic
and the variety of high quality,
third-party microphones made for
iPhone sound just great.
So, our heroes finished the
production plan for Season 1 of
The Very Hungry Tourists.
Now, it's time to think about
launch, and their go to market
distribution strategy.
But first, they've got to
consider the visual identity and
the metadata of their show.
Cover art and metadata is the
product packaging of your
podcast.
So, the importance of these
pieces is hard to overstate.
Maria and John, their first pass
at cover art design had some
challenges.
They've chosen to include both
of their personal production
company logos on top of their
central image.
And the central thematic image,
while it's thematically relevant
and appropriate, it's complex,
and it makes the overlaid text
hard to read.
Also, the font size that they've
chosen, especially on the
subtitle, is really small and
hard to read on mobile.
So, the duo then run through our
best practices for cover art,
using our checklist.
They lay out a 3000 by 3000
pixel JPEG or PNG compressed to
be under 1 megabyte in size, so
it's nice and lightweight for
download with a clearly readable
title and one thematic image or
logo central to the design.
This is a design first for
mobile where most of their
potential audience is going to
live on iPhone.
So, the second pass at their
design was much improved.
Maria and John ran through the
checklist, and this was the
result.
It' looks great on mobile, and
it becomes the basis for the
visual identity of their
podcast.
So, this runs across social
media, blogs, traditional media,
and other audience-building
destinations for their
marketing, a single design
that's reasonable and
expandable.
Similarly, Maria and John run
through our metadata checklist
where they land on their
concise, attractive title with
thorough descriptions, both at
the podcast level and the
episode level.
They also make good use of our
newly announced podcast type and
episode number tags in their
feed and, of course, thoughtful
episode titles, putting the most
important information about each
individual episode, such as the
subject matter or the guests
right in the first bit of text
of the title.
And of course, they provide a
useful link for those super fans
that want to go beyond the
podcast, connect to [inaudible]
on the greater Web and then have
more.
So, distribution; once Maria and
John have their podcast episodes
recorded, they've designed their
cover art, the metadata has been
written, they need a hosting
partner to distribute their
content.
Our podcast resources and help
site on Apple.com features a
handy list of Apple podcasts
hosting partners.
These organizations are from
different regions around the
world, and they offer us
different product packages and
features and price points.
So, Maria and John shop around
for the best package for them.
Launch planning.
Now, Maria and John can consider
their launch and go to market
plans.
They decide to launch with a
trailer as a teaser bit of
content to drive awareness.
They also look into marketing,
social media; of course, paid
and organic.
They look at podcast, app, and
search engine ads to drive
additional awareness and, of
course, appearances.
This is the idea that Maria and
John can not only appear on
other existing and popular
podcasts to make those audiences
that are maybe thematically
related to their show aware of
their new content offering, but
of course taking advantage too
of any traditional media outlets
where they can make an
appearance and talk about their
new show as well.
Maria and John also make good
use of our marketing tools for
podcasts, including our Identity
Guide, which will give you best
practices for using our Listen
on Apple Podcasts badges for
print, web, and broadcast
appearances.
The Affiliate Program offers a
unique way for people to link to
their podcasts, and it features
its own resources site.
Additionally, Maria and John
research and implement our
linking tools like Banner
Builder and Widget Builder.
Our heroes, they're ready to
submit to Apple Podcasts for
review and approval.
So, Maria logs into Podcasts
Connect, pastes the feed URL
from their hosting partner, and
after approval of their podcast,
Maria and John launch the Very
Hungry Tourists.
What was once merely a moment of
inspiration is now a written,
produced, and easily available
podcast.
The work of audience building
now begins, and we wish them
good luck.
We certainly will be listening.
We'll be listening, but how many
others are listening?
Once Maria and John launch and
begin marketing their podcast,
of course, they want to know how
it's doing.
Their hosting platform offers a
nice variety of server side
reporting, which is very useful,
but they want to know what's
actually happening on Apple
Podcasts.
How many people are listening?
How much do they listen?
Where are they listening?
So many questions about audience
and usage, what could we do to
help Maria and John?
Well, we're thrilled to announce
Podcast Analytics, and we want
to give you a sneak peek today.
Yes, all right.
Thank you.
We're thrilled to be sharing
this with you.
Our new reporting tool for
podcast providers will allow you
to see how much of your podcast
episodes are played and when on
Apple Podcasts, compare the
performance of your episodes and
podcasts over time, and see
which parts of your episodes are
more interesting than others.
Are people skipping over your
extended music intro, or maybe
your second mid roll?
We're doing this in a way that
respects user privacy,
aggregating usage data rather
than sharing individual events.
Analytics are not tied to
individual Apple IDs, and users
can reset their identifier at
any time.
We know that you'll have lots of
questions, and we're excited
about Podcast Analytics too, but
we're still in development, so
we're going to ask you to, if
you can, hold questions until
Podcast Analytics launches later
this year.
Launching this week, updates to
our Apple Podcasts Spec and the
documentation to help you
implement those changes.
New Podcasts app in iOS 11
developer preview with improved
presentation of podcasts, and
the infrastructure for Podcast
Analytics.
There's more information on our
Session page on
developer.apple.com.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]