There’s a new take on podcasts on the way, as one of the country’s biggest radio suppliers finds a way to get podcasts, news, and music in the one place.
You only need to look at the growing podcast numbers to see our love for the spoken word is going nowhere, even if we’re not quite consuming radio the way we once did. Radio still plays a big part on the airwaves, but the way people listen to all of their favourite things is different than it used to be.
For instance, if you listen to music, you may not listen to radio anymore, turning instead to the sheer number of music streaming services, be it Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, or maybe even Tidal’s HiFi service. And if you listen to music through streaming, you’re probably missing out on the news updates, something radio offers, but not so much streaming.
It’s one of the very things this journalist misses out when he chooses to listen to music, with no news announcements like you might find on radio.
You also don’t quite get special programmes, either, the likes of which have largely become podcasts these days. Whether it’s a morning show, a large talk show, a serial, or something short and quaint like what we produce in “The Wrap”, there are a lot of different things to listen to, and very little way of joining them together.
In Australia, that might be on the verge of changing. One of country’s largest sources of radio is launching its own app that kind of does that, bringing together the feeds from its FM-band radio stations together with the music-focused DAB stations, and throwing them into an app alongside news and podcasts a.
It’s part what Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) calls “Listnr”, which has a similar name to our own publication, but it’s not something we’re a part of, beyond having our podcast on the platform. Previously, “The Wrap” joined Podcast One Australia, which is now turning into Listnr.
Available for both iOS and Android, Listnr aims to make podcasts, news, and music available under the one place, and essentially all for free, supporting a variety of ways to listen, whether it’s through the Listnr app, or through other services, such as Google’s Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and even Android TV. We’ve not seen if it’s on Sonos yet, but imagine that’s possibly in the works.
“The number of Australians accessing digital audio has doubled since 2016 and is projected to reach 80% of Australians by 2024,” said Grant Blackley, CEO of SCA.
“Listnr will provide a personalised listening experience that easily enables consumers to discover a new world of premium, relevant audio that is live and on demand,” he said.
The service does aim to be customised and tailored by a listener’s experience with the Listnr app, offering music streams and podcasts based on their likes and dislike, with more arriving in the coming months.
Pickr’s podcast “The Wrap” is included as part of what’s on the Listnr service, syndicated through the platform.
