ACAST launches ACAST ACCESS for paywalled content distribution

Acast, the world’s largest podcast company, has launched Acast Access, the technical infrastructure for publishers to manage and distribute their exclusive paywalled content in a secure way.
 
Until recently, the vast majority of podcasters have monetised their content through ad revenue but Acast recognised a need to evolve support for both ad revenue and subscriber revenue while creating consumption flexibility for listeners.
 
It is in this context that Acast Access was developed, a product for publishers to distribute paywalled audio content via RSS feeds.
 
CEO Of Acast, Ross Adams, says “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. 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.”
 
Acast Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Johan Billgren, explains “Acast Access is built on the concept of having two RSS feeds for one show. One is the standard, public-RSS feed. The other is the private version of that show, the accessed-RSS. 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. 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.”
 
In addition to the ability for publishers to paywall entire episodes, they may also choose to combine private and public content in the same episode with the goal of driving conversions.
 
Associate Director for The Economist Media Lab, which is beta testing Acast Access, Frank Andrejasich, says “We are always working to maximise the value of a subscription payment for our subscribers. We see Acast Access as helping us to take a more innovative approach to audio subscription and helping to grow the opportunities for our podcasts, including the recently launched Intelligence daily podcast. We want to give our listeners as many reasons as possible to stay connected to The Economist.”

 
 
 

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