Wondery Launches Its Own Podcast App

Wondery, an independent podcast producer and network, launched its own, dedicated app that features its lineup of original programming. Wondery hopes that its new app will drive listeners to its ad-free Wondery Plus option.

In many ways, Wondery's move reflects a burgeoning trend in podcasting with Spotify, the Swedish streaming music company, making waves in the podcasting industry by buying Gimlet and expanding its podcast network and utilizing its music ecosystem to make podcasts easier to find and organize on its company-specific platform.

Wondery is a large independent podcast publisher that launched in 2016, and is best known for hit shows such as Dr Death, Dirty John, American History Tellers, Business Wars, The Shrink Next Door and Gladiator.

Dirty John is one of Wondery's most popular podcasts.

At launch, the Wondery App includes more than 50 shows, with full seasons of originals like “Joe Exotic: Tiger King,” “Dr. Death,” “Bad Batch,” “The Shrink Next Door,” “Business Wars,” “American History Tellers,” “Tides of History,” “The Daily Smile” and “Imagined Life.”

Wondery's latest podcast, Guru -- investigates the case of James Arthur Ray, a motivational speaker found guilty of homicide in connection with the deaths of three people who attended one of his self-help retreats -- will be available for Wondery Plus customers a week before the podcast premieres on all platforms on July 1.

While the Wondery App is free — and users can listen to thousands of episodes for free with ads  — Wondery believes that the app can generate more paid subscribers for its  Wondery Plus subscription service. Launched in early 2019, Wondery Plus costs $4.99 per month or $34.99 for an annual subscription. Until now, subscribers have been forced to add podcasts using RSS feeds or listen on the company’s website.

L.A.-based Wondery currently has 65 employees although recently it has hired more people to help with the design, development and marketing of Wondery Plus.

In addition to being ad-free, Wondery Plus offers early access to select shows and exclusive bonus content. With the Wondery App, subscribers can access exclusive ad-free content such as “Blood Ties,” “The Sneak,” and “Hollywood and Crime: Billionaire Boys Club” before it launches on free-to-listen podcast platforms.

“Very early on, when I started the company, we knew at some point we wanted to have our own place where listeners could listen to the Wondery shows,” said Hernan Lopez, founder and CEO of Wondery, in a recent Variety article on the app launch announcement.

Lopez went on: “But we also knew we had to wait until we had enough shows, and the Wondery brand had enough breadth for people to go through the trouble of downloading an app and use it on a daily basis.”

Wondery has about 20 million monthly unique listeners and the company acknowledges that only a portion of that audience will convert into paying customers. Wondery will not make its new app into a general podcast player like Stitcher or Apple Podcasts.

The Wondery App makes recommendations based on listening habits and preferences, and it includes an auto-play feature to let users binge on their favorite podcasts. It’s also designed to help users easily find specific episodes. In addition, the app has dedicated video trailers integrated into the UI, like video-streaming apps.

“Our content is really made for bingeing, much like television shows,” said SVP of product management Neel Ketkar, a former Fox Networks and Fox Broadcasting exec who joined Wondery last September.

Wondery is also adapting its most popular original podcasts for TV. Universal Content Productions, for instance, is developing a “Joe Exotic” show based on the Wondery podcast with Kate McKinnon set to star and executive produce and also is producing a series adaptation of Wondery’s “Dr. Death” for NBCU’s Peacock, with Jamie Dornan, Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin planned to star.