Paris (AFP)
Podcasts are popular and many major platforms now offer subscription packages for exclusive content, at the risk of some producers ticking, who fear the appearance of too compartmentalized and paid offers.
The former CEO of Radio France, Mathieu Gallet, has just put on the rails Majelan, a platform for partially paid podcasts that aspires to become the "international leader of the French-speaking world" in this sector. At the end of April, the US Luminary platform embarked on the same model, with $ 100 million in investments.
These two major platforms offer 99% of free broadcasts, retrieved on the web, as already proposed aggregators Tootak or Podcast Addict. Another French platform launched in April, Sybel, offers on subscription a finer selection, leaving aside news programs.
With their licked interface, in the fashion of Netflix or Airbnb, and their personalized recommendations, these platforms will "convert" more and more Internet users to podcasts.
But they also offer subscription (from 4.99 euros to 7.99 dollars per month) exclusive content produced by stars (the actress Lena Dunham for Luminary) or partners (stories for children and old surveys Sherlock Holmes for Majelan).
The sector sharpens the appetites, the major actors of audio streaming (Spotify, Deezer) also sensing a concentration similar to that of Netflix and YouTube in the online video.
From their studios, audio producers are shared.
"We did not ask them, we do not need them!" Says Yann Rieder, Swiss podcast producer for Blue Print. He advocates for an open landscape, for podcasts to be widely accessible, and regrets that actors "use free content to attract attention on the pay".
- Keep control -
Most audio producers live for the moment in an unstable economy, between subscriptions, advertisements, sponsored content, animation of events or training. Some promising sites, like Boxsons, have already closed shop in this "far west".
"The more actors there are to grow this market, to put it in the habits of Internet users, and the better it will be," says Olivier Lendresse, the digital director of the Europe 1 group, saying " the online audio market is growing at a brisk pace but remains emerging ".
In February, 22.8% of French Internet users listened to podcasts at least once a month, but only 6.6% of native podcasts (designed for the web), which are known mostly by the youngest, according to Médiamétrie.
One of the first podcast sites in France, Binge Audio, takes advantage of its broadcast on these platforms to make itself known. Its revenues are not impacted: it is not financed by advertising but by producing content for brands.
Other producers unearthed the hatchet to enforce their brand: the giant Radio France has asked Majelan, Google or Tootak to no longer reference its podcasts, which are however freely accessible via links on the web. Meanwhile, the United States, the New York Times and other producers have asked Luminary not to display their productions.
Radio France wants to establish partnerships with platforms, to keep control of its productions, to share revenues, and especially so that podcasts fans have the reflex to go on its own platform. "The idea is to reverse the movement launched in podcasts in recent years, that of free and uncontrolled access," said Laurent Frisch, director of digital in the public group.
Majelan and Tootak are currently negotiating with Radio France for the resumption of these essential podcasts for their programming. Europe 1 is on its side "in full reflection" on the control of its distribution, ensures Olivier Lendresse, in this universe which risks closing up little by little.
? 2019 AFP