Howdy, whats up, whats up. I hope you’re all prepared for a busy, Amazon-packed challenge. As a result of there’s loads of Amazon information to go round as we speak. First: Amazon and the Apple App Retailer. Second: Amazon Prime and Amazon Music. Third: Amazon Amp. And fourth: …some stats about speak radio from NPR, as a little bit breather.
A fast notice for Insiders: we aren’t planning points for Thursday and Friday this week whereas we’re out in LA for Sizzling Pod Summit. We’re actually trying ahead to the occasion and bringing again some takeaways for all of you.
Now, to the information.
What are Apple’s audiobook guidelines, anyway?
Say you wish to supply audiobooks by an iPhone app. You’ve obtained just a few choices:
- You need to use Apple’s in-app buy system, giving Apple a 30 p.c lower on each audiobook bought. Which means letting Apple eat into your margins or marking your costs up and making them much less aggressive with, say, Apple Books.
- You’ll be able to supply a subscription inside your app utilizing Apple’s in-app buy system. It will scale back the price to fifteen p.c after one yr. Audible, for instance, raises the month-to-month price for its premium tier by $1 per thirty days on iOS to compensate for this.
- You’ll be able to supply a subscription outdoors your app. This yr, Apple began granting some exceptions to permit apps to share info with customers on how one can go about signing up for a brand new account. So an app can theoretically hyperlink out to a signup web page on the internet. (Netflix does this; Spotify doesn’t.)
- You’ll be able to supply nothing in your app. Customers should purchase audiobooks on the internet; then, they’ll seem within the app as soon as they’re bought. You’ll be able to’t inform customers about how one can purchase them, although. That is what Libro.fm does, for example.
However critically, you can not simply promote the audiobook immediately utilizing the fee processor of your selection. Nor, as Spotify realized final week, are you able to embody a button in your app that emails your buyer a hyperlink to purchase the e-book on the internet. I don’t personally suppose these are good guidelines, however they’re Apple’s guidelines, and builders are caught with them.
Or, not less than, they normally are. Researchers from Mysk reached out to me this week after recognizing that Amazon appears to have the ability to pull off the identical “e mail the client” tactic that Apple simply prohibited Spotify from utilizing. Open up Amazon’s app, signal into your Amazon account, after which pull up an audiobook. A giant yellow “I Need This E-book” button seems. Faucet it, and also you’ll obtain an e mail explaining that you simply want to join an Audible membership to accumulate the e-book and pay attention.
I’m not penning this to name out Amazon for skirting Apple’s guidelines — I’m penning this as a result of… properly, what even are Apple’s guidelines? Apple authorized Spotify’s e mail method, then later retracted the approval and stated the app wanted to alter. Has the corporate additionally missed a rule-breaking conduct from one of many greatest e-commerce corporations on the planet? Or is there some type of wiggle-room exception right here as a result of Audible is a subscription service? I reached out to Apple for readability on its guidelines however didn’t obtain a response. Amazon didn’t reply by press time, both.
Spotify doesn’t know why Amazon’s system will get a move, both. “Apple has given us no such steerage,” Adam Grossberg, a Spotify spokesperson, informed Sizzling Pod. “It’s an excellent query and one that means Apple is just not pretty making use of its guidelines.”
If I needed to take a guess, I’d guess that Apple’s guidelines will ultimately nudge Spotify to launch a subscription choice for its audiobooks. Spotify very particularly tried the a la carte method as a solution to differentiate itself from Audible. However Apple’s system actually preferences subscriptions: in-app subscriptions have a decrease transaction price, and subscription content material apps get the choice to hyperlink out to their web site for signup and keep away from the charges altogether. I don’t know that subscriptions are the most effective mannequin for audiobooks, however they certain look like the one Apple desires.
mazon goes huge on ad-free podcasts
This looks like the last word tackle “what’s extra necessary: subscriptions or advertisements?”
Amazon has determined to amp up the audio choices of its Prime subscription in a giant means. Prime subscribers now get entry to Amazon Music’s full catalog of songs, with the one — admittedly main — caveat being that they must take heed to every little thing on shuffle.
Prime members are additionally getting a bunch of podcasting perks. Wondery exhibits and Amazon exclusives are going ad-free for Prime subscribers who pay attention by Amazon Music. Amazon additionally partnered with a bunch of prime podcast producers, together with CNN, NPR, ESPN, and The New York Instances, to deliver a few of their exhibits to the service ad-free as properly.
I discover this notably fascinating as a result of up till as we speak, kind of, Amazon’s podcast technique has been to concentrate on advert gross sales. Simply have a look at its SmartLess deal: the corporate didn’t lock the present down as an Amazon unique and pressure folks to pay for Prime to tune in; it saved distribution as extensive as it could actually in order that Amazon can promote advertisements in opposition to its massive and profitable viewers. Amazon has made a bunch of offers like this! However now…
Amazon’s content material divisions now appear to be making an attempt to carry their very own within the Prime bundle
“The largest factor [consumers] don’t like about podcasts is all of the advertisements,” Amazon Music head Steve Increase stated on Decoder this morning. So Amazon has determined to cast off them.
It’s an enchanting guess. Amazon’s audio providing is pretty compelling in case you examine it to Spotify’s free tier — as my colleague David Pierce writes, “As free companies go, although, Amazon Music is now basically Spotify minus the advertisements for anybody already paying for Prime.” However critically… Amazon Music is just not free, precisely. It’s $139 per yr and simply occurs to come back with a bunch of different advantages. And in contrast to the ad-forward method, this tactic requires listeners to actively select Amazon’s platform.
I believe Amazon Music’s greatest hurdle proper now could be merely consciousness. Prime remains to be finest referred to as the “free transport” subscription with a bunch of different perks inbuilt. Amazon’s content material divisions now appear to be making an attempt to carry their very own in that partnership: Prime Video is pulling its weight with main titles like Rings of Energy, and as we speak’s announcement exhibits Amazon Music making an attempt to observe swimsuit, too.
There’s one different huge podcast replace right here: a characteristic known as “podcast previews” in Amazon Music that presents brief, curated clips from exhibits that listeners can swipe between. The clips are all editorially curated by Amazon Music editors, Rebecca Silverstein, an Amazon spokesperson, informed Sizzling Pod. “We’re beginning with a small set of choose companions whom expressed curiosity in taking part, and want to develop the variety of podcasts included as a part of this characteristic over time.” It’s a neat tackle discovery and one thing different audio streamers ought to be occupied with, too.
Layoffs at Amazon’s stay audio staff
Amazon has lower round half of its stay audio staff — “roughly 150 folks” — in accordance with Insider. It’s an inauspicious signal for the way forward for Amp, which solely launched again in March.
It was simply two months in the past that Amazon launched a creator fund to encourage folks to make use of the stay audio service. On the time, I used to be additionally seeing advertisements for Amp showing all around the New York Metropolis subway, in what learn to me as a reasonably shocking push provided that stay audio has been flagging all yr.
Amazon says Amp isn’t going wherever, although. The corporate informed Insider that it’s consolidating groups to “concentrate on the expansion and scaling of Amp.” That stated, dropping half of your staff typically limits your skill to do such issues!
Insider factors out that the layoffs come after a weak earnings report from Amazon, after which the corporate’s CFO stated headcount can be a goal for price chopping. With how a lot hassle Clubhouse appears to be having, I’m not satisfied Amp has every little thing it must succeed.
Spoken phrase audio is booming
Okay, no shock right here in case you’re studying this text, however: NPR and Edison Analysis’s Spoken Phrase Audio Report got here out final week, and so they discovered that spoken phrase audio has been rising in a giant means. 131 million folks aged 13-plus within the US now take heed to spoken phrase audio every day, up from 105 million in 2014, in accordance with the report.
There are promising indicators this isn’t only a fad, both. Youthful listeners — Gen Z — are spending a couple of fifth of their audio time on spoken phrase, up from lower than a tenth near a decade in the past.
Listeners are more and more tuning in on cell, in accordance with the report, now hitting a 3rd of all listeners. However critically, radio nonetheless reigns supreme as a format, with almost half of all listening occurring on AM/FM, in comparison with one-fifth on podcasts.
Sizzling Pod Summit is occurring this week
We’re very excited to see a bunch of you out in Los Angeles in simply two days. Sizzling Pod Summit LA is occurring on Thursday, and we’ve obtained a full day of thrilling conversations lined up. My colleague Ariel Shapiro, Sizzling Pod’s lead author, and our buddy Nick Quah, Sizzling Pod’s founder and the creator of 1.5x Pace at Vulture, will probably be on the town to sit down down with prime leaders within the podcasting house to speak about comedy, politics, IP possession, Hollywood diversifications, subscriptions, and a complete bunch extra.
Sizzling Pod Summit LA is sponsored by Amazon Music, Wondery, and AdsWizz, and it’s being held in partnership with work x work and KCRW. The occasion is occurring as a part of On Air LA Annex, being held November third–fifth. Tickets are nonetheless accessible, and you’ll examine their full lineup over right here.
Phew, that was an extended one. We’ll see y’all subsequent week!
