XAPPmedia has debuted a new self-service offering called Voice Cast for Podcasts for creating custom skills for Amazon Alexa. The service is now available to all podcasters and supports all English language markets. XAPPmedia shared the pertinent details directly with RAIN News:
- Podcasters can fill out an online form (takes about 5 minutes) and then we get their show published on Alexa (testing and certification usually takes a couple of days). This is similar to our Voice Radio product, but has specific features for podcasts.
- Features are significantly different from Alexa podcasts today. There is session persistence and the ability to go to the most recent show.
- We built the new feature set based on working with 50 podcasters we have already launched on Alexa.
- Launch promotion is 67% discount for this week only… only $9.99/mo service. Promo code LAUNCH at checkout.
“Podcast listening on Alexa is a subpar user experience today and we set out to fix it with Voice Cast for Podcasts,” said Michael Myers, XAPPmedia chief product officer and co-founder. The first feature we implemented was session persistence. A listener can leave the podcast and when they return it will pick up where they left off. And, we implemented different user scenarios based on content type. For podcasters with content that is replaced frequently, they can opt to have listeners only hear the latest episode. Others can offer the listener the option to continue where they left off or start the latest episode. The podcaster can define the user experience based on their content and audience.”
XAPPmedia introduced a self-service option for Amazon Alexa skills for radio stations in September 2017.