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How to turn your podcast into an Alexa Flash Briefing Skill

Amazon Echo and Echo Dot

Podcast producers often refer to the podcast industry as divided into two distinct eras – pre-Serial and post-Serial.

Published in 2014, Serial is a podcast produced by some This American Life alumni that is the most-listened-to podcast in history. It was the fastest to 5 million downloads or streams on Apple iTunes and has accumulated many times more plays since then. It’s often referred to as heralding in a golden age for podcasts, credited with introducing many new users to the platform and opening up potential for the channel to develop to new heights.

There’s no doubt that Serial and other excellent podcasting content has helped attract attention to the medium in the last couple of years, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Technology is also playing its part in making podcasts more accessible.

Namely, the Amazon Echo smart speaker was launched the same year as Serial. Later, a feature called “Flash Briefing” was added to allow Echo owners to receive a daily digest of news content just by saying “Alexa, play my flash briefing.” Users are able to select their content of choice from a catalog using the Alexa mobile app. Or they can ask for a specific podcast to play back. Before Alexa, using a smartphone app or iTunes on a laptop were the best options for listening to podcast content.

In Canada, Amazon hasn’t officially released the Echo yet. Google Home launched in Canada this past summer. It offers a similar “Daily Briefing” feature that plays news, but the “News” section in the Google Home app is currently limited to a curated selection and does not allow the user to search for other content. It’s unclear how podcast producers can collaborate with Google to be featured in this area.

An official launch for Amazon’s Alexa service is anticipated for Canada before the holiday season. (Though Amazon won’t comment on that matter). But regardless, for podcast producers that are just as keen to reach a U.S. audience, a Flash Briefing Skill opens you up to an audience of more than 10 million users and growing. Amazon is clearly interested in further developing the Alexa / Echo ecosystem too.

The appealing thing about Alexa’s Skills market is that it is still a fairly new greenfield space. There are not a million other Skills that are already doing something similar to your idea, or content providers clamoring for attention just yet. But you can bet there will be. That’s why the time is now to develop your Flash Briefing Skill and capitalize on the opportunity. And I promise you won’t even have to write a single string of code.

Here’s what will make your podcast a good Flash Briefing Skill:

How to create your Flash Briefing Skill (no coding required):

 

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