Podcast Insider

iTunes may be dead, but Apple Podcasts is doing just fine. Changes are afoot at Apple, announced at WWDC last week and we’ve got all the information you need. Stick around to hear why you want to use WordPress and PowerPress to power your podcast. Mike and Todd were even both in the same time zone this time around to record. Don’t miss them reviewing push vs. pull technology too!

Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.

We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review 

News:  APPLE APPLE APPLE

It’s official: Apple is killing iTunes as a whole on Mac desktops (iTunes software for Windows, etc.)

Categories: They’re updating categories later this year. No need to stress.

New Images: Adding new images for podcast posts. We’ll have more details later on.

Transcription Search: They’ll be adding this feature to the Podcasts app.

iTunes Tags: Changes for the above updates.

Topics:

Advantages of Being on WordPress and PowerPress with Blubrry Hosting.

( PowerPress *can* be used without Blubrry hosting if you HAVE to)

Own your RSS feed by using PowerPress on YOUR domain.

Stable platform that is updated regularly for new things in podcasting (like Apple Categories and tags).

Not going out of business next week (or without notice).

IAB v2.0 Certified Compliant stats.

All kinds of support; we offer screen sharing to troubleshoot your issue.

Ease of use: Post – Upload – Publish.

Using your own domain means you cannot be “deplatformed” easily.

Disadvantages of going with a less established platform.

Support may be hard to get or nonexistent.

You don’t own your RSS feed address.

Company stability; no worries on if they’re going out of business in the future.

They may submit your feed to the directories (easy) but you don’t own those listings (bad).

May not keep up with the changes at Apple or other directories (cough Soundcloud cough) Beware of shiny object syndrome. Things may appear better than they actually are.

Support:

Directory issues: If an episode isn’t available in only one specific directory, AND you’ve given that directory ample time to update, it is most likely a problem with that app or directory. Please contact that team first.

Spotify listings: Lately they’ve been slow updating shows with new episodes. Relax, nothing is wrong, as long as your episode is in your feed and is available in all the other directories. Spotify is just lagging at the time of this recording. By the time you hear this it’s possible the problem has been fixed.

All podcast directories and apps utilize your RSS feed. When you update your RSS feed with a new episode, directories, apps and subscriber software, all check YOUR RSS feed to see if something is new. It’s not an instant technology like we’re used to with Twitter, Instagram, posting blog posts. etc.

It’s common for people to have the wrong impression of how RSS feeds work, thinking they PUSHES out to everyone. It does not. ALL these places and your subscribers PULL your feed. It asks for your feed when it gets around to it and PULLS your feed to update your listing. Your subscribers are subscribed to your feed and after that never really touch Apple Podcasts or the other services again – they use it simply for the listening capability. They are just subscribed to your feed directly in their app of choice. Subscribe to your own show and take care to notice if you receive your new episodes right away. If so, everything is working correctly. It works the same as every other directory or app. There is nothing we or you can do to make that faster. It takes whatever time it takes.

To check your RSS feed to make sure it’s working and which episodes are in it, go to CastFeedValidator.

After a long hiatus, the PowerPress Podcast is back. For the most part school is out for the summer, but we’re here to talk about a podcast that works at Penn State University. Before they get to that, MacKenzie and this episodes co-host discuss subscribers. There is quite a bit of misunderstanding of how subscribers are calculated for podcasting, and this will give a better explanation and insight into these numbers – or lack there of.

Jenna Spinelle, co-host of Democracy Works for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University, shared her experience getting a show off the ground rather quickly and expectations she has for podcasting in 2019. She has written two articles for Medium on the subject, they’re linked below. She will also be on a panel at Podcast Movement this summer, don’t miss it.

Lastly, they talk about a new partner for Blubrry, Audioburst. Free transcriptions and audio bursts of your podcast. They help you take your content to the next level with easy ways to share sound bites of your show and add a transcription to your website. Learn more with the link in the show notes.

Thanks for listening and please subscribe via your favorite podcast app. If you’d like to be a guest on the show reach out to MacKenzie. She’s always looking for fun, new podcasters that use Blubrry services, specifically PowerPress.

Fan of PowerPress? Leave us a review here!

Show notes:

Beyond the Download – Subscriber Numbers

Democracy Works

Five Questions to Ask Before Starting A Podcast At Your Organization

Why 2019 will be the year of the podcast in higher education — and what it means for the industry

Audioburst – Blubrry’s new partner

On this, the last “Your Podcast” where Todd is in Hawaii (at least for now), Todd and Mike talk about a new feature in Blubrry stats for hosting customers, iHeart Radio adding shows, Podtrac becoming IAB compliant and a bit of history of the IAB podcast measurement standards.  Also, played a great promo from a Blubrry customer. (Send yours in today!)

 

Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.

We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review 

News:

Blubrry releases Partial Download Data in Stats (for a limited time to hosting customers)

iHeart Radio adds a bunch of Podcasts (This one included) and is now up to 250,000 shows. (although some are still 404)

Podtrac redoes it’s stats algorithm for IAB v2.0

Topics:

IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2 and the story behind how they came to be.

Fret Buzz The Podcast promo

Name this podcast.  We haven’t got any suggestions lately.   So I guess it’s Your Podcast for the time being. Send in suggestions if you have them.

Support:

Partial Download Stats –  The Partial download stats do not have any effect on the total downloads you will see.  They are just additional information. The Totals are what counts as a download according to the IAB v2.0 standard.  The partials are just added info so you have some more insight of how your show is listened to (mostly by people hitting play on the web).

Spotify Stats –  The stats that Spotify shows you in either the spotify section of Blubrry stats or the stats at Spotify itself, are NOT included in the main blubrry stats.  This is because spotify uses a different method to count “plays”. We can not add them to your main stats. In the future, we will go to Pass-through on Spotify which then will put Spotify numbers in the same stats with the rest of your stats.

Blubrry accounts, Show Listings, Hosting subscriptions and Pro stats subscriptions.  Please ask if you only want to get rid of one thing or the other. Delete account (with LOTS AND LOTS OF WARNING) will remove the entire account including your ability to login to blubrry.com.

To ask questions or to comment on the show, you can contact Todd or Mike here: [email protected].

Todd and Mike are both a little under the weather, but that didn’t stop them covering a lot about Google indexing and searching of podcasts. There is also lots of conversations on what directories will display your show notes, we clear that up. We’re still looking to collect podcast promos that we can use on the show, so get recording. They wrap up the episode discussing podcast titles – some dos and dont’s.

Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.

We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review 

 

Topics:

Google indexing podcasts on desktop search? It appears it’s indexing from Apple’s new preview pages and not natively as reported in some news outlets. See: Google Search For “Your Podcast” Interesting that the episode links go to Google Podcasts!

A variety of apps and directories will display your show notes. How they do this is up to their discretion. This link from Podnews goes into the details of who does what. Thanks Podnews! What you put in the feed is all your control, again it’s totally up to them on what they do with it.

Podcast promos: Last episode we put out a call for listeners to send us their podcast promo. We’ve received a few so far, send yours! Send em to: [email protected] and we might play it here.

Today’s promo you’ve heard in the show is, Blubrry customer Brian Kilby, from Radio Free Cybertron – TFRadio.net.

What’s in a name? What should your podcast title be? Here are some suggestions from Inside Radio.

Unrelated… send in your suggestions for a new name for this show.  We have had a few responses but would like to hear from YOU! [email protected]

Support:

Change the password or email at blubrry.com? Then you need to relink your account in PowerPress (even if you are on a PowerPress site at Blubrry.net) Just log out and log back in with new password. Not linked, no PowerPress usage with your Blubrry account.

Give it a little time, changing titles, author tags, artwork or any other metadata in your feed, typically takes 24-72 hours before it updates in directories. Podcasting is PULL (directories pull your feed)…. NOT PUSH (you don’t push automatic updates)…

*** 2nd to the last with Todd in the Hawaii Studios. More in-person shows to come this summer from Michigan or Ohio.

To ask questions or to comment on the show, you can contact Todd or Mike here: [email protected].

Each podcast goes through changes, sometimes that includes a name change. We’re looking to change the name of Your Podcast and want your suggestions. You know what this show is about, and the team is certainly open to your thoughts. Luminary recently launched and caused quite a controversy, on day one. We have some pretty strong opinions about their directory and access to content. On a rare occasion Todd and Mike were together to record this episode, this time in the Columbus studio.

From the Blubrry Convo by Design Studio in Columbus Ohio, YP episode 56.

Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.

We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review 

News:

At long last, Luminary launched a listening app. Discussions on “The Netflix of Podcasting.”

There are already lots of networks pulling shows from Luminary. Check out Luminary’s response to Joe Rogan.

Acast buys Pippa Acast, purchases Pippa, another podcasting company.

Each year the Blubrry board gets together for a retreat of sorts.

Help us rename “Your Podcast”. Send in your suggestions to [email protected].

Topics:

Almost the entire Blubrry team has descended on Columbus.

Promoting and cross-promotion for podcasts: A lost art?

Send in a promo for your show. We might play it here. (Blubrry customers only)

Support:

Our new ticket system is LIVE! (You won’t notice much, but it should get you faster and more efficient help and service from the support team.)

Support on social media, again not the fastest way to get help. And in fact our least favorite way to assist.

It seems people are on the move. If you’re moving AWAY or TO Blubrry, contact us. We are the #1 experts in moving people TO Blubrry and we would be happy to give you advice if you are moving away (expect a bit of “why” questions though.) It’s a lot better if you plan the move rather than just do it and try to fix something later.

To ask questions or to comment on the show, you can contact Todd or Mike here: [email protected].

You can easily podcast on the go, Mike and Todd did just that ‘live’ from Las Vegas at the NAB Show 2019.

Todd and Mike sit down in the booth and talk about some of the happenings at NABShow and in the podcasting world in this abbreviated version of Your Podcast.  MacKenzie from PowerPress Podcast joins us for a bit as well.

Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.

We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review 

Some of the topics covered:

NABShow recap, recorded on the last day.

Apple’s new show pages – with audio players! Take a look at ours here: Your Podcast on Apple Podcasts

Apple may be dumping “iTunes” in favor of individual apps for Podcasts, Music, Movies, etc on the desktop.

Will there ever be an Apple Podcasts for Android devices?

CHECK YOUR SPAM (We’re unfortunately still having some issues with Gmail.)

The Blubrry team has begun utilizing a new ticket system for support.

New update to PowerPress: 7.4.1. Mainly bug fixes, but still useful to update.

Partner: AudioBurst transcriptions and more for Blubrry customers.

Rubber Ducks and shipping containers.

To ask questions or to comment on the show, you can contact Todd or Mike here: [email protected].

Podcast shows aren’t necessarily meant to last forever with new episodes. That’s where archiving an inactive podcast comes in. We explain how to do just that for your show, among other things. Such as, BBC recently removed podcasts from Google. On our side, Blubrry now offers AudioBurst to hosting customers. Mike got his first experience at the Proclaim event last week and is headed to NAB next week. Enjoy this somewhat abbreviated episode of Your Podcast.

Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.

We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review 

News:

In a somewhat disappointing move, BBC removes podcasts from Google.

Always expanding, we’ve got a new partner, Audioburst. We could not be more excited to help podcasters get transcriptions and ‘bursts’ of their episodes to post on social media and elsewhere. Plus, it’s free!

Topic:

Mike attended Proclaim19! last week for the first time.

NABshow is happening next week in Vegas. Blubrry team will be there and Todd will be on a panel, learn more about it here. You can find us at the Podcast Pavilion in Central Hall. (booth C3033)

 

 

 

(click to zoom in)

 

Archiving an inactive show and keeping it online.

To keep it on Blubrry, downgrade to the lowest plan ($12).

Otherwise, and this is ONLY for a show that is not ongoing, use Archive.org (which is what it’s for).

OR, a folder on your website.

*****Again, not for an ongoing show. Just for inactive shows.*****

Support:

CHECK YOUR SPAM Our email is still being marked as spam to a lot of Google email accounts (Gmail and G Suite). If you expected a reply, check your spam.

New ticket system coming soon!

To ask questions or to comment on the show, you can contact Todd or Mike here: [email protected].

The Blubrry team traveled to Orlando for the 5th annual Podfest Expo. We enjoyed meeting new podcasters and catching up with others, we’ll be back next year. In the extended podcasting world, Spotify and Apple seem to be in a tiff, not because of podcasts but the freedom to act as a fully fledged music and media company, without Apple acting as big brother. This is a quicker episode, but still packed with great insight.

Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.

We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review 

 

News:

Spotify vs. Apple: Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple in Europe.

Podcasts on the radio? iHeart has a station for that.

Topics:

How was Podfest? Todd and Mike give their impressions of the show this year.

Mike will be atNRB Proclaim19! March 26-29th in Anaheim, CA

Blubrry at NAB show April 7-11th in Las Vegas

Support:

Email issues at Blubrry/RawVoice: Check your spam if you are on Gmail!

301 redirects are important if you change platforms. It preserves your connection to your current subscribers.

To ask questions or to comment on the show, you can contact Todd or Mike here: [email protected].

We celebrate 2 years of Your Podcast. Todd is back! Thank you to Jeff, John and Grant for Co-hosting with Mike over the last few episodes. Today Todd and Mike talk about Apple’s emails about meta data and what it all means, Blubrry will be at the RAIN Summit in NYC and Podfest in Orlando this week.  We also did a fair amount of Geeking out on file formats and sample rates.

 

Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.

We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review 

News:

Apple’s email

 

Dear Podcast Provider,

To improve your experience with Apple Podcasts, we want to share the following information and updates.

Optimize Your Show’s Metadata

The metadata of your show is your product packaging. It includes all of the details about your show — such as title, author name, description — that potential listeners will see on Apple Podcasts. High-quality metadata can help your show be discovered and grow your audience, as it ultimately determines whether it appears in relevant user searches.

Conversely, poor-quality podcast metadata may affect new submissions as well as active shows to ensure our platform meets Apple’s quality standards.

Here are some things to avoid:

Including placeholder text from your hosting provider. For example, descriptions such as “Podcast by [author name],” “New podcast weblog,” “Cover art photo provided by [name],” or “Description goes here.”

Verbatim repetition of the title or author name in the description. For example, “The Very Hungry Tourists by Dr. María Sánchez and John Appleseed.”

Incorporating irrelevant content or spam. For example, show titles like “The Very Hungry Tourists | Travel | Explore | Learn” or author names like “Dr. María Sánchez, coach and travel enthusiast.”

Adding episode numbers in titles. For example, show titles like “The Very Hungry Tourists Episode 01” or episode titles like “01 Broken Heirloom.”

These practices could result in your show being rejected or removed from Apple Podcasts.

Apple Clarifies the previous email

Dear Podcast Provider,

We’ve received a lot of questions about metadata best practices on Apple Podcasts. We want to provide more details and clarification as you think about improving your show’s metadata.

Your Show Won’t Be Removed for Having Episode Numbers in Episode Titles

Starting with iOS 11 in September 2017, we introduced modern RSS tags to improve podcast metadata. These tags include support for seasons, trailers, and episode numbers. The new tags help us present your show to your listeners on Apple Podcasts and present listening data to you in Podcast Analytics.

We encourage you to use the tag to send us your episode numbers. If you decide to include episode numbers in your episode titles.

RAIN Summit in NYC

Todd, Mike and MacKenzie in Orlando this week for Podfest

Topic:

Apple’s tags and why they are important now more than ever.

The Geeks are at it: 44.1k vs 48k sample rate?  Does it matter anymore?

While we are at it, AAC vs. MP3.

Support:

Enabling Apples tags at Blubrry Generator and in PowerPress

. In the Episodes tab of PowerPress settings, enable “iTunes Episode Title Field” and “iTunes Episode Number, Season” fields.  (pull down to “show field” on both)

Edit each post and click “modify” in the podcast episode area

Type in the new title for Apple Podcasts in the ‘iTunes title’ box and put the episode number in the number box.  You can ignore the season and type fields if you want.

Update the post.

Repeat for any posts that are in your feed

Go to “Manage Episodes” and click the “edit” icon next to the episode you want to edit.

In the editor you will see advanced iTunes settings.

Not everyone is fit to host a podcast, not at the beginning at least. There is a lot of learning that goes into hosting a podcast, writing show notes, finding guests, learning how to interview, the list goes on and on. But the guest this week, Lara, was aware of what she was getting into with a strong background in marketing. They discuss attending events, with the perspective as an attendee and exhibitor, and how they’ve been the fish out of water before. It’s easy to get overwhelmed or lost in the work involved with a podcast, and she has a great outlook on how to tackle everything involved. Speaking of being overwhelmed, they end their chat by talking about streaming services – is there too much content available?

A little about Lara

Lara Zuehlke is on a mission to help women ages 40+ age with grit and grace. Through her podcast, Fit Over 40, and her programs at ZulaFit, Lara offers a mind-body-soul approach to help women let go of the weight (wait) for the last time. An award-winning writer and speaker, Lara is also a certified food psychology coach (Spencer Institute) and certified energy practitioner (ISEE Global). You can meet Lara and learn more at: www.zulafit.com.

Thanks for listening and please subscribe via your favorite podcast app. If you’d like to be a guest on the show reach out to MacKenzie. She’s always looking for fun, new podcasters that use Blubrry services, specifically PowerPress.

We’ve been loving our new desk by the team over at Convo by Design. Josh Cooperman is also a podcaster and knew we wanted something specific to fit our needs. If you’re looking to upgrade your podcasting set up, give him a shot.

Fan of PowerPress? Leave us a review here.

Show notes:

Events we’ll be attending: PodFest, Proclaim19, Podcast Movement.

Fit Over 40: Hosted by Lara Zuehlke, she works to help women overcome issues associated to mind, body and spirit.

The Streaming Crash of 2019: What services are you paying for and how much are you actually able to watch?