Australian podcast company Whooshkaa starts the week with a new tech development that enables its hosted podcasts to become Alexa skills. That means that the podcast can be played through an Alexa device by invoking the show name rather than accessing TuneIn, which is Alexa’s standard podcast platform. This way, not only do podcast creators get no-effort positioning on the Alexa platform, but listeners can call up particular episodes (frequently a trouble spot on smart speakers).

It is generally acknowledged in the industry that podcast access and play in smart speakers is an underdeveloped and sometimes frustrating use case. Whooshkaa is not saying that about its partner Alexa, but the new skill does streamline things for listeners, while serving podcasters by easily distributing their shows on an increasingly important voice-controlled platform.

“Our software engineers worked closely with the Alexa team at Amazon to be able to achieve this functionality for podcasters and listeners,” said Whooshkaa Founder and CEO Rob Loewenthal. “We’re the first global podcast hosting platform to enable podcasters to deploy their own Alexa skill for their podcast.”

Whooshkaa podcasts include Australian True Crime, Chat 10 Looks 3, SEN, The Betoota Advocate, The Health Code and official AFL and NRL podcasts.

“We’re delighted to work with Whooshkaa to make podcasts easier for listeners to enjoy, and easier for podcasters to publish,” said Kate Burleigh, Country Manager,
Alexa Skills, Amazon. “This is great news for independent podcasters, who now have a way for customers in Australia and across the world to get their content just by asking for it.”