Apple Music taps into mainstream music audience to grow podcast videos

Apple Music taps into mainstream music audience to grow podcast videos 

Podcast videos are becoming an essential way for creators to both market their podcasts and reach new audiences. Several streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, now support video podcasts for creators. However, platforms can also benefit from publishing videos for their original shows. 

Apple Music’s The Zane Lowe Interview Series podcast – where Lowe interviews stars, like Harry Styles, Jennifer Lopez, and Stormzy – is an example of an exclusive podcast that utilises podcast videos to widen its audience. While the audio podcast is only available on Apple Podcasts, the video is published on YouTube for global consumption. This combines a mainstream medium (video) with celebrity talents, to bring awareness to the more niche format of podcasting. For example, Styles’ interview promoting his album Harry’s House earned 4.2 million views on YouTube. 

Moreover, these videos reflect that format is not clearly defined. For instance, while most podcast videos simply show the hosts recording audio in the studio, not every Lowe interview takes place in a typical studio. Instead, Lowe takes viewers to unique locations, interviewing Styles poolside in California and chatting with Rosalía over churros. This further differentiates this podcast from other popular podcast videos by other creators, like Alex Cooper of Call Her Daddy. A consumer could see this video as either a podcast video, or just a plain video, further emphasising the increasingly blurred lines between formats. Apple’s combined star power and production quality is setting a standard for this emerging medium.

Roles

This report is relevant to the following roles:

Business Strategy