Jag: Can I find your podcast?

First off happy Mardi Gras to everybody in Louisiana, I may be a native of Massachusetts and an adopted Michigander. But I really do miss y'all around this time of year. Laissez le bon temps rouler! 

Okay. Back to my main point of today's podcast. Can your podcast be found? Now what the word podcast is, can be different things to different people. For the OG crowd that's been in a podcasting for 10, 15 years they may feel that it has to technically be a podcast, meaning it has to have an enclosed RSS feed, fed by a URL, to make it a podcast. And that might technically be true. But what those folks think doesn't matter! What matters is what the consumers think is a podcast. 

The two big podcast apps are still Apple and Spotify. So if you tell me you've got a podcast, those are the two places that I'm going to go to first. However, YouTube is becoming a major third player in this realm. So while it might not technically be a podcast, if it's on YouTube, people are finding podcasts and consuming podcasts on YouTube. 

Keep in mind, Google owns YouTube. How many times have you Googled how to do something and you get YouTube in the results? Your podcast should also be on YouTube. The bottom line is this. If you tell someone you have a podcast, they're going to look for you wherever THEY consume their podcast content. So if you want to be found, don't be where you want to be. And what you just think is a podcast. Be where your audience can find you. 

Other podcasting news this week, Spotify has acquired third-party measuring services Chartable and Podsights. That did raise a few eyebrows around the podcast and community. It would be kind of like if IHeartMedia bought Nielsen ratings, which hasn't happened at least yet. As Brian Barletta of Sounds Profitable says, "Grading your own homework is not third-party measurement." So keep an eye out for that. 

Maybe Spotify is still just continuing to generate headlines as opposed to content to keep the stockholders happy. As James Cridland of PodNews points out: they've announced shows with everybody from Megan and Harry to Kim Kardashian and more, but none of them have actually launched yet. He has a full list of all these shows that have been promised, but not yet delivered in PodNews. https://podnews.net/article/missing-spotify-shows

And of course the situation in Ukraine has affected the podcast world. Podcast live streaming service Restream had to relocate its staff out of Ukraine. They did make a donation to the Ukrainian red cross though.

And if you want a deep dive of the conflict, of course, there is a podcast for that. The BBC has launched the Ukrainecast.https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bqztzm

Funny, when you think about it, how Vladimir Putin has spent the last six years trying to divide us as a nation. What he's done over the last week has brought us together and agreeing on something in a way, which we haven't agreed on something in a long time. Of course, thinking of everybody involved in that situation.

Until next time, stay healthy and stay safe. Lata!

For any questions at all you have about podcasts, find me at https://www.jagindetroit.com/

Find jag on social media @JAGinDetroit or online at JAGinDetroit.com