Last week, while I was riding in an Uber, I actually saw switchable CarPlay and Android Auto working in a car radio for the very first time. It was a Honda Civic 2017, one of many new cars offering it. I had been reading about these two content delivery facilitators for at least two years, and was ecstatic to see it in the wild as a factory option, not just as an aftermarket workaround for geeks who upgrade their car radio. In fact, it coincided with the upgrade I had recently made to my online audio player for CapicúaFM, where I featured the Android Auto & CarPlay capabilities of two of the compatible subscribable apps: the multi-platform Stitcher, and Apple’s Podcasts (currently iOS-only) in onscreen buttons.
My strategy to promote in car listening, together with general discoverability
For general discoverability by those potential listeners who are not yet already familiar with my CapicúaFM show, I currently have it available via very many content aggregators or other facilitators, including Apple’s iTunes, Google’s Play Music (currently US and Canada only), iVoox (RSS only—not hosted), Spreaker (RSS only—not hosted), Pocket Casts, Stitcher, TuneIn and even YouTube (over a graphic). However, I purposefully don’t promote all of those places on the website or in the show itself.
To minimize the number of buttons or chiclets below the new online player, I mainly promote those that I know funnel into my main stats system (which is currently Podtrac), are free, and work with Android Auto and/or CarPlay. Of those, they are iTunes (together with the Apple Podcasts app) and Stitcher. In the next episode, I’ll mention more of them aloud (i.e. TuneIn), but I want to keep the number of buttons under the new online player to a minimum.
The new online player I chose and implemented, and why
First, I’ll explain why I believe it’s important to have an attractive online audio player, i.e. embedded on the website, together with the other features I got:
- About half of my currently 168,372 worldwide listeners (according to Podtrac as of November 12, 2016) have listened directly on the web, as opposed to from one of the subscribable aggregators. Many have arrived there from a Google search on a particular topic I have covered, and may not yet know how to listen, or via which aggregators they may already use my CapicúaFM show is available.
- I want it to be obviously easy to click to play.
- I want it to be be obviously easy to click to subscribe via e-mail or via one of the main aggregators I mentioned before, while explaining in each button on which platforms they exist, and that they work with Android Auto and/or CarPlay.
- I want it to be obviously easy how to share the show via social media.
There were also specific details I verified before purchasing the Simple Podcast Press plugin for WordPress, which the developer clarified for me:
- Proper compatibility with HTTPS sites. See my recent article: iTunes, SSL & HTTPS for SEO, and Let’s Encrypt
- Capability of translating/localizing the text inside the buttons that can appear below the player, which also meant that I could add the extra info regarding platform and Android Auto and/or CarPlay compatibility.
- Proper compatibility with Podtrac’s URLs, which use a prefix before the actual URL and then a redirect to it.
Conclusions
Fortunately, I got positive answers to all of the questions from Simple Podcast Press, purchased it, installed it, and was able to translate/localize and add extra text to the buttons as desired. If you would like to see the results I achieved, you may visit the CapicúaFM’s website. The only detail that I hope will be improved in the future is to show the total duration before the potential listener clicks on the play triangle.
I am glad that as time goes on, more potential listeners will be able to listen and discover my shows on the dashboard of their motor vehicles, which English singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer Gary Numan (Gary Anthony James Webb) called Cars, as many English speakers do worldwide.
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FTC disclosure
No manufacturer is specifically paying Allan Tépper or TecnoTur LLC to write this article or the mentioned books. Some of the other manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. Many of the manufacturers listed above have sent Allan Tépper review units. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs.
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