Acast launches podcast paywall option ‘Acast Access’

Former Assistant Editor

The world’s largest global podcast company Acast has launched a new product for paywalled content distribution.

Acast Access includes the technical infrastructure allowing publishers to lock exclusive content behind their own paywall.

The announcement could be a game changer for podcasts who until now have largely monetized their content through ad revenue.

Acast Access allows publishers to manage and distribute their exclusive content in a secure way, via RSS Feeds. Listeners can still access the content in the podcast app of their choice.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Australian podcast creators, listeners and advertisers,” Managing Director at Acast Australia and New Zealand Henrik Isaksson told Radio Today.

“We’ve already seen demand for a product like Acast Access Access globally, and look forward to rolling this out at a local level.”

Acast Access means that publishers will have two RSS feeds for each show, one public and one ‘accessed’ feed.

“The publisher then decides what parts of the content are exclusive and only available through the accessed-RSS, and what parts are in both feeds,” sais Acast co-founder & chief product officer Johan Billgren.

“Acast Access then checks the anonymised user data against the publisher’s API to determine which users are approved as either logged in or paying subscribers of the publisher.

“From the listener’s perspective, Acast Access is easy to use. It takes just two clicks to replace the public feed with the accessed version in their podcast app of choice.”

Acast Access not only allows publishers to paywall entire episodes but also the ability to combine private and public content in the same episode with the goal of driving conversions.

“At Acast, we believe the most important thing about the podcast medium is that it continues to be public and accessible and independent of any one platform,” said CEO of Acast Ross Adams.

“We built Acast to be independent and to bring value to podcasters by allowing their content to be shared on any device, app, or player.

“Acast Access takes this commitment to the next level by working with publishers to do this not just for their ad-supported podcasts but their exclusive subscription content as well.”

The move comes just a week after Acast announced it had bought out competitor technology and podcasting platform  Pippa.

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Rob
3 May 2019 - 4:40 pm

Whoooah! That’s huge, well done Acast!

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