Interview with Sean Carr, CEO of Podcast Hosting Company ART19.

Sean Carr is the Co-founder and CEO of ART19, an enterprise podcast hosting company. I asked him a few questions about the podcasting space…

1. What does ART19 do?

ART19 is an enterprise software company that provides hosting, distribution, ad trafficking, and measurement tools to podcast publishers. We are a pure SaaS company and do not create content or sell ads.

2. Give us a brief history of the company.

We formed the company in 2011 to address needs that our Co-Founder, Matt Belknap, and his friends in the LA comedy scene were having monetizing podcasts. They had huge listenership, but due to limited infrastructure, not much revenue. After several years in the “trough of sorrow,” we finally launched our beta product in the Fall of 2015, and officially launched in August of 2016. In the interim, the landscape of podcasting had changed dramatically. Major media companies, broadcasters, journalists, and a whole new crop of successful grassroots podcasters emerged, all of them needing tools. We count members of each group as our customers.

3. What are some of the features that come with "enterprise" podcast hosting that don't usually come with "hobbyist" podcast hosting?

First and foremost, features for monetization, and more specifically, “ad trafficking.”  Most high-end shows generate revenue through advertising, and many of them want to traffic ads into their content dynamically.  They want to flight and target campaigns so that different people listening to the same podcast can hear different ads.  They also want to refresh ads over time.  To be clear, most podcasters are doing native, host-read spots. This is not highly produced, pre-recorded agency creative.  But these voiced reads can still be trafficked in the same way.

Measurement is also an increasingly important part of the equation, and some enterprise platforms are breaking new ground.  Tools that enable publishers to understand how much of their shows have been consumed, not just downloaded, are beginning to appear.  More information about unique listeners is appearing, and around the edges, so too is user data.

Finally, enterprise platforms tend to offer more custom integration options for publishers that have their own websites, apps, or complex internal infrastructure.

4. ART19 does not sell ads for the podcasts it hosts. What are the different ways in which your customers are monetizing or selling ads for their podcasts?

Most of our customers work with an ad rep. Unless a show is massive, buyers don’t have the bandwidth to deal directly with an individual podcast. They work through companies that have aggregated volume. As you point out, we don’t do sales, so we’ll let the experts comment on those nuances. But certainly, when you achieve a certain threshold of listening, an increasing number of ad reps will want to be in business with you.

5. ART19 recently announced a big deal with iHeartRadio. Explain what that's all about.

Currently in podcasting, very little data is passed back from the apps used by consumers to the hosting platforms used by publishers. As a result, producers know when a show has been downloaded but not whether it has been consumed. We believe that offering better data about actual listening will greatly increase monetization of the medium. We’re working with many consumer platforms to achieve this, but iHeart recognized the potential immediately, and took the lead. They’re pouring a lot of resources into podcasting now and are rapidly becoming a key destination.

6. One of the big challenges for podcasters has been producing metrics -- especially the elusive podcasting equivalent of radio's "Time Spent Listening" metric. What is the state of podcasting metrics? What does Art19 offer in that arena? Where do you expect metrics to be in the coming years?

We’re bullish on this. We believe that in the near future, the industry as a whole will have much better data about listening, including from the major consumer platforms. We’re working on custom integrations now because there is no standard, but we’ll support and participate in any initiatives to achieve general adoption. It is a critical step for the overall growth of the medium.

7. Apple devices have historically produced the most podcast listening, but in the last year, Google embraced podcasting by including podcasts in Google Play Music. What has the impact of this been so far? What do you expect to see moving forward?

More consumer platforms means more companies competing to deliver a better listening experience, and that is great for the medium. Content is the product, but it needs to be accessible, and there is most certainly room for improvement on that front. Apple is still dominant, but Google is going to be an increasingly important destination.

8. What advice would you give to radio broadcasters looking to dive into the podcasting space?

Most people don’t turn to technology companies for creative advice, but if I can be so bold, it’s important to remember that podcasting is a different medium than radio. Some shows will transition well, but there are also amazing opportunities to create original podcast content that leverages the freedom and intimacy of the medium. Broadcasters have a unique skillset. There is no deeper bullpen of spoken word audio talent anywhere. It’s going to be a great boon for podcasting as more and more of that talent gets applied to the medium.