Twitter’s Moved Into Podcasting – Here’s What You Need to Know
Back in August, Twitter announced it’s officially moved into podcasting. The news wasn’t really all that surprising if we’re being honest. It feels like every platform is moving into podcasting right now.
In the last few weeks alone, we’ve seen YouTube launch a podcast feature, and all the signs are pointing towards TikTok becoming the next big podcast-listening platform.
We dove in to take a look around at what podcasts on Twitter look like in practice. Here are a few things we found out.
Twitter Hasn’t Actually Launched a Podcasts Feature
If you’ve seen some of the headlines floating around about twitter moving into podcasting, you’d be forgiven for thinking that, like Youtube, they’d launched a podcasting feature. But that’s not actually the case.
Right now, they’re just testing out integrating podcasts into their Spaces tab. If you don’t know what Spaces in Twitter is, it’s essentially like stories but for audio-only content. It’s like Twitter’s answer to Clubhouse. You access Spaces by clicking the audio button. Look for a microphone icon at the bottom menu of the Twitter app:
And now, they’ve added a new element to Spaces called “Stations.” This pulls together a selection of live and recorded Spaces, as well as some of the most popular podcasts related to your interests (based on the accounts you follow).
So the podcasting content is mixed in with other general Spaces content. And as Adam Bowie points out, it’s hard to distinguish between what’s a podcast and what isn’t.
Podcasts in Spaces Might Not Be Available to You (Yet)
As Twitter is still in the testing phase of adding podcasts to the platform, it won’t be visible to everyone just yet.
They announced they’d be rolling it out to “a group of global English-speaking audiences on iOS and Android.” Right now, Twitter makes podcasts available to Blue subscribers.
Twitter Podcasts Could Become Really Popular
According to Twitter, 45% of its users are also monthly podcast listeners. That’s a pretty meaty figure. This does make sense given how news-oriented Twitter is, and how popular news content is with podcast lovers. For example, daily news podcasts make up 10% of downloads in the US.
In a recent podcast episode, John Calcanus points out that by importing podcast RSS feeds into Spaces, Twitter is kind of going back to its roots a bit. Back when the platform first emerged, you could integrate an RSS feed onto your page, but they removed the feature.
If Twitter recognises this gap in the market, they could capitalise on this part of the offering, and it would stand out to podcast creators.
Podcasts on Twitter Are All About Discoverability
Speaking of gaps in the market, we all know discoverability continues to be an issue with many listening apps. This is why a lot of newcomers entering the market are focusing on discoverability, and Twitter is no different.
Twitter groups podcast content together under “Stations” that are based on different topics or themes, like news, music, sports, etc. The content it recommends is based on the accounts you follow, and also the stuff they listen to.
“What we’re really trying to capture here is as if it’s like another user recommending you something,” said Twitter senior product manager, Evan Jones.
And if our Podcast Discovery Survey results are anything to go by, this is a smart route for Twitter to go down. Respondents told us their second go-to channel for finding new podcasts was to ask someone they know who likes the same stuff.
Additionally, you can help the Twitter algorithm get to know you better by giving a podcast a thumbs up or thumbs down. This will tell Twitter what you like and don’t like, and your feed will become more personalized based on this.
Looking for ways to expand your podcast’s listener reach? If so, you’ll find a whole load of useful guides on our podcasts promotion page.
