Podcast Pontifications

A lot of podcasters live episode-to-episode, dreaming of getting ahead so they aren't always rushing to get an episode produced and publish. For many, that's an achievable dream. The trick is staying there. 

Broadly speaking, there are two types of podcasters. Those who are working on the next episode they need to produce, and those working on the next episode they need to publish. 

Those two groups are very much not the same. For many, the episode currently in development is the next episode the audience will hear. Sound familiar? And would you like to not be in that position? I feel you

Many of us who have chosen to mirror both our production and release schedules yearn for a change. We see ostensibly-smarter-than-us podcasters working on episodes that won't publish for weeks or months and we wish we could get ahead like they are. 

But they aren't ahead. They're on schedule.

If you work your tail off to get three or four episodes in the can, you're not ahead. But you let a production date slide. You get distracted by a fun project you think you have the bandwidth for now that you're "ahead". 

But you're not ahead. And you're sliding back to your baseline with every missed production opportunity.

That's my reality. I was a full month "ahead" in early January. Now it's early March, and I'm about a week "ahead". I'm slipping because I didn't make every day a production day as I had done previously for 3.5 years, So my lead has gradually withered.

There's no getting ahead with your podcast. There's only adjusting your calendar and developing the discipline to keep separation between your production schedule and your publishing calendar.

If you can do it.

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Links

• The Download from Sounds Profitable
• Podnews
• Techmeme Ride Home 
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. 
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Data power the business world, and podcasting is no exception. Knowing what works and what doesn't across the whole of podcasting is a major competitive advantage. And guess who now owns it?

Recently, Spotify reached into their big bag of holding and pulled out enough cash to purchase both Podsights and Chartable. A good chunk of the overall podcast advertising spend is at least partially tracked by those two companies. From indie podcasters all the way up to large podcast networks. 

Beyond advertising, both let podcasters gain a more complete view of their shows' audience and download activity. 

And now, both of those services are owned by Spotify, giving Spotify access to data about more podcasts that aren't hosted on a Spotify-owned hosting company. 

And that may not be such a great thing. 

All of that collected data or additional insight can now be accessed by Spotify. All the smart promos, attribution modeling, and other nifty optimization features can now be accessed by Spotify. Because they own the companies that collect the data. Are you sure they won't peek?

Spotify has placed massive, GDP-level bets on podcasting. If you listen to Daniel Ek, it seems like he's staking the future of his entire company on podcasting. Their investments—incredibly large investments—in podcasting have to pay off. 

Are you sure they won't mine through all of those juicy data in their quest for profit? Data collected on podcasts of every shape and size that extend well beyond those hosted on their platforms? Spotify is in the business of making money. How long can they keep their hands out of the cookie jar when the pressure from their investors to turn a profit really heats up? 

My bet is not very long at all. 

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Links

• Spotify reached into their big bag of holding and pulled out enough cash to purchase both Podsights and Chartable
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. 

Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Like any growing industry, podcasting needs to appeal to a younger audience, if only to keep replenishing supply as well, natural attrition occurs, shall we say. The good news is: the kids love podcasts! 

Edison Research dropped an early data point showing podcasts kicking the pants out of AM/FM radio. At least among 13–24 year-olds listening to spoken-word audio.

If that sounds like NBD to you, let me attempt to persuade you that this is, in fact, a BD. This is about 13–24 year-olds. A mix of not-yet and the freshest consumer generation. An entire generation that discovered podcasting and is making it a preferred method of consuming entertainment, information, and education. An entire generation that will very likely carry that listening or media consumption preference forward, likely further increasing their reliance on podcasting as they continue to age.

And that's what has me excited. And so does the fact that where consumption habits go, so flows investment dollars. Investment in content creation. More advertising dollars. More investments making podcast advertising more efficient and more effective. More investments in creation tools and services for a new generation of podcasters. More investment to listening tools and services a new generation of podcast listeners. 

So yeah, I'm excited. How do you do, fellow kids? 

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Links

• Early data point from Edison Research's Share of Ear report
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. 
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

What will the Singularity of podcasting look like? That's hard to predict. But I'm certain it won't be creator-focused advances that will bring it about. No, it'll be listener-focused advances that get us there.

Which ones? Well, don't quote me on this, but I think one (or more) of these five candidates has a shot. See if you agree:

Smart Speakers - It would make sense that a speaker, a device with a primary function to transmit audio to human ears that is semi-sentient, would bring about the podcast listening Singularity. That hasn't happened because the interface is really clunky. But it might not always be.

Voice Assistants - Today's phones are communication and control interfaces for our world. But for voice assistants really to power the podcast listening experience without visual output for and tactile input from the listener, they're going to have to get a whole lot better.

Wearables - When you wear a pair of modern wireless earbuds, you're really sticking two small computers in your ears. They have their own chipsets. They talk to one another. With some scifi-looking hand gesture tech, could they handle the complete podcast listening experience?

The Metaverse - I doubt that anyone will log into the Metaverse just to listen to a podcast. But they might goggle into the Metaverse to engage with podcast communities or attend podcast events. 

Web3 - There's far too much buzz/focus on what I see as rent-seeking/wealth-accumulation and far too little on the user-enabling benefits of Web3. However, the decentralized nature of podcasting and the decentralized nature of the blockchain ought to have some synergies. Just don't ask me how.

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
• Descript for text-based podcast production 
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Many podcasters follow the same playbook: Build a big audience, then give early, special, and private access to a select group who pay for the privilege. But what would happen if you flipped the script?

Podcast apps and big podcast networks often rely on "windowing" to give select users—paying users—exclusive access to a podcast for a week. Sometimes a month. 

Indie podcasters do something similar, but we call it "early release" and keep it exclusive for a few hours or days, using specialty services to handle the mechanics for us. 

After the windowed or early release period is up, the episode is released to the main audience. At least that's how we think about the larger release. And I wonder if we have that backward? I wonder if we're missing an opportunity to shift our thinking?

What if, instead of viewing the release as early, what if that release was the main release?

What if we created content for the benefit of the exclusive group who listen first, and treated the wider distribution as... well, reruns, I guess?

What if we cared more about the select group of people who get our windowed content? What if we only cared about those people?

if you're making a good living running podcast ads on your show, then this strange strategy may not be your best play. You don't want to jeopardize your bread and butter, so be cautious before you do something that could reduce the ad-supported downloads you're already successfully selling. 

But for shows unlikely to ever get fat stacks of cash by getting two pennies per listener... then this might be an interesting approach. Actually, a totally different approach. 

As the podcast ranks continue to swell with new shows from top-notch content producers, this could become a strategy—perhaps a survival strategy—that more and more everyday podcasters like you and me embrace.

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• SmartLess
• BBC Sounds windows some shows for a month!
• Get early access to these episodes on Apple Podcasts or Buy Me A Coffee
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

As much as I rail against the "podcasting is cheap and easy" mentality, I have to admit it: podcasting is cheap and easy for a lot of podcasters. But your content doesn't have to sound that way.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but recently, during the recording of a different podcast than this one, my audio was bad.

Not so bad that you can't clearly hear what I'm saying, but bad enough that a disclaimer will be placed at the top of the episode that basically says, yes, we know Evo's audio sucks. Sorry.

And I hate that!

Call me an audio prima donna who refuses to accept anything except perfection if you want, but in reality, I don't care all that much about perfection. But I won't settle for producing podcast content that isn't quality. 

To me, quality means doing the best you can with what you have to work with. 

Your environment. Your equipment. Your voice. Your experience. Your level of comfort. All of those things are part of your overall "working with" toolset.

It's your best your striving to achieve. Not everyone else's best. It's what you personally have to work with. Which has very little in common with what everyone else has to work with. 

Approaching quality this way means you don't obsess over the latest "best of" or "top-rated" piece of kit. It's just an object! An object that performs differently under different hands.

Making a personal commitment to quality means you're committing to quality in all the podcast-y things you do. Guesting. On your episodes. Your conference presentations. Your collaboration with other podcasters.

A personal commitment to quality simply means that you are confident that you are doing the best you can with what you have today. And if you can get to better tomorrow, then you will. 

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Like the show? Buy me a coffee.
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Keeping your audience happy is important to maintaining your podcast. But there may be other things you can give your audience to keep them better fed and even happier with your show in the future.

It's unlikely that your audience listens to your show in a vacuum. And it's not just other podcasts, but other types of media and information all vying for more attention from the person you all count as your audience member.

In an effort to keep you and your show relevant as your listeners' needs and subsequent media diet changes, today I'm expanding on five very good ideas that The Atlantic came up with recently as they were grappling with the changing needs of their readers. 

Use these to help ensure that your audience keeps a seat for you at their media consumption table.

1. Provide Depth, Clarity, & Context

It's quite possible your audience wants you to go deeper. Not longer. Not more frequently. They may want you to get to the point faster. And they may want you to provide context on ideas and topics they hear from others.

2. Help Them Discover New Ideas

Your audience may rely on you to know more about something than they do. They likely expect you to be a step or two ahead of them and rely on you to look out for your shared future.  

3. Challenge Their Assumptions

I don't recommend going after core beliefs right away. But you may be able to explore the fuzzy edges and chip away at some lighter long-held notions in a way that captures and keeps your audience's attention. 

4. Provide A Welcome, Meaningful Break

Embrace the slowness of podcasting, and never underestimate your show's ability to give your audience a chance to breathe as they listen to you. And maybe do nothing else for a while. 

5. Introduce Your Audience To Better Media Options 

Your audience may appreciate it if you help surface new and better media for them to consume. Yes, other podcasts. But also other forms of media related to the topic of your podcast. 

So there you have it, five ways to think about what you can do for your audience to keep you and your podcast as a healthy part of their media diet.

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• My spirit animal, Tom Webster
• Five very good ideas from The Atlantic that inspired this episode
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Like the show? Buy me a coffee.
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Regardless of your position on podcasting's "discoverability problem," you probably wouldn't mind it if it were easier for potential listeners to find your podcast, right? Me either. But would that come at a cost?

While not everyone agrees on the severity of the problem, few people doubt that social media platforms have been engineered in ways that really aren't the best for our mental health. 

So far, podcasting hasn't been lumped in with that. Complaints against podcasting personalities are usually a result of... well, the podcaster acting like an asshole. And while the offending comments certainly have an impact on those targeted by the assholery of the podcaster, those problems haven't rolled up to the broader podcasting industry.

But that doesn't mean podcasting is safe.

What keeps us safe, at least as an industry, from being lumped in with "bad for you" content is inherent intentionality baked into the podcast listening experience. 

It takes work to find a podcast to listen to. There isn't a stream of new podcast content pushed at people as they listen. There isn't an algorithm deciding for you what you should listen to. The financial incentive to keep you locked into an app hasn't appeared.

But what if that changed?

Do you really want an app that pushes relevant recommendations the second you stop listening to an episode?

Do you want an app that triages your listening queue for you, promoting and demoting content to you?

Do you want even more content pulled in, giving you no reason ever to leave your more-than-podcasts app?

That's what living in a post-discoverability-problem podcasting world could look like, a future world where podcasting could become another anxiety-inducing, mental-health-damaging aspect of modern living.

And how do we not do that?

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• Cambridge Analytica scandal
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Like the show? Buy me a coffee.
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Having a set of processes and procedures to keep you and your podcast moving is an obvious success factor. But when those processes and procedures start to fail, can you adjust quickly?

Successfully deployed tactics sometimes have a shelf life and you start to notice their effectiveness waning over time. Best practices are often eroded by the winds of change. Yes, there are plenty of time-tested methodologies and truisms podcasters can almost always count on. 

But at some point, you're going to find that something you thought was a staple of your process is no longer delivering for you or for your podcast.

And if you're like most podcasters—me included—you'll keep doing that thing, comfortable in your own conviction that it's the right thing to do. 

We should learn to drop things that aren't working faster. But there's an actual force working against us when we try: momentum.

Momentum is typically something you want in a time-intensive, creative pursuit, like podcasting, It's a lack of momentum—or at least the inability to quickly achieve momentum—that contributes to so many novice podcasters burning out after just a handful of episodes.

We need momentum in podcasting. We need a force pushing us or carrying us along once the machine is underway. 

But momentum doesn't recognize when the environment in which it exists changes. Momentum is resistant to suggestions or evidence that a tactic may no longer be working carrying you over the cliff when you fall asleep at the wheel. 

But momentum doesn't have total control over you as a podcaster. You have agency, so you can pump the brakes or crank the wheel or take some other action when you find that momentum is working against you. Or at least not working out the way you wanted it to. 

The trick is having enough bandwidth—and foresight—to analyze the effectiveness of the momentum you've developed. Analysis that isn't too quick to jump at the small fluctuations, but also doesn't take you two years to figure out when something just isn't working. 

To do that you have to know why you are doing as much as what you are doing. You have to know the difference between foundational tactics—processes that produce results that by their nature are difficult to quantify—and promotional tactics that can quickly show diminishing results. And are designed to be dropped quickly.

It's very easy to conflate the two. Even for seasoned podcast pros like me. 

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? You need Riverside.fm! 
• Medium's Partner Program
• Podcast Pontifications In Your Inbox
• Become A Supporting Members
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today! 

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

The decision of whether or not to run ads on your podcast isn't an easy one. Nor should it be. Smart podcasters understand the risks and rewards. And they give their most loyal listeners an escape route.  

How many ads or sponsored messages are too many ads or sponsored messages in a podcast episode? 

Last summer, I made the decision to make the current season of Podcast Pontifications sponsor-supported. There's the message from the title sponsor right after my cold open, and then another shorter sponsor block mid-way through the episode.

And it's not just the audio. Articles published on the show's website and on Medium have a text-version of those sponsor blocks as well. That article—with sponsor messages—is also emailed to a few hundred people who get the free "in your inbox" version. I'm a completist! 

I recently activated a few "escape routes" for those who don't want to suffer through the relevant sponsor messages. Supporting members of BuyMeACoffe.com/evoterra, a few who pay for a premium subscription on Apple Podcasts, and absolutely no one (yet?) paying for a premium subscription on Spotify. 

I decided to add those premium options when I started getting complaints. Thanks for your candor, Patrick and April! If the two of you aren't happy, then at least 20 others aren't either. Or more.

Because yes, 20–30% of an episode dedicated to sponsor messages and calls-to-action is a lot. Even though that's on par with broadcast TV and commercial radio. 

In the coming weeks, I'll probably lighten that load a bit. Because I agree; it's excessive. Until that time,  you can always pull the rip-cord and choose one of the sponsor-free options, either on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or via Buy Me A Coffee. 

At least that's how I'm feeling about things right now. Like everything that I do on Podcast Pontifications, this is a work in progress. Who knows when I'll decide to change my mind and do things differently? :)

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? You need Riverside.fm!
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Looking to skip the sponsor messages? Premium, sponsor free options at:
• BuyMeACoffe.com/evoterra
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.