Podcast listening on smart speakers is less than 1%, but things are looking up

One would think smart speakers in kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms, would be a fantastic growth opportunity for podcast listening in the home, yet for the most part, that hasn’t happened. Right now, according to listening data from thousands of podcasts on the Libsyn podcast platform, less than 1% of podcast listening occurs on smart speakers. That’s 200 million speakers worldwide that podcasts are not being listened to on.

While voice commands simplify so many things — “Alexa, play Lil Nas” — the lack of a user interface such as a screen on a mobile device makes discoverability and navigation on smart speakers a challenge for podcast listening.

Recent announcements from Amazon, Apple and Spotify will hopefully mark big steps in the right direction for improving the experience of podcast listening on smart speakers and turbo-charge growth.

Apple Podcasts is now fully integrated on Amazon Echo devices in the U.S. By linking an Apple ID to Amazon, users can listen to and seamlessly sync their listening from device-to-device. You can say things like “Alexa resume “The Daily” on Apple Podcasts” or “play Dave Ramsey from yesterday” or “skip ahead 30 seconds.” That’s something Amazon’s Audible subscribers have been able to do for some time which makes…