2022 Predictions. How did we do? – PCI 326

0:10 Hey everyone. Welcome to Podcast Insider. This is our last edition of the year. We are headed into the new year. Happy New Year, Mike. Yeah, happy new Year and, uh, hope, uh, you had a happy Christmas. I know you got home in time for the blizzard. That's right. I, uh, escaped where I was and, uh, at much expense and, uh, got home and then, yeah, enjoyed the minus 24 degree weather, which was, it's woohoo. It was fun. That's always fun. Yes. . Yeah. But a nice Christmas with family and friends, so it, it was fantastic. But hey, we got a great show lined up for you too. We're gonna do something a little bit different. I think we're gonna have fun with this.

0:52 Yeah, that's okay. Um, we're gonna go over what people's predictions were in 21 and see if they happened in 2022. We're gonna save 2023 predictions to a later show. Yeah. Unless we get into it. We got some articles to talk about. We've got, uh, a, uh, um, some tips from the, from the Blueberry production team. From Toby. Yeah. And, uh, and then, uh oh, oh, this is going through like, oh, wow. We, we've got some stuff to go through, but let's, let's kick this off with one that was a prediction in 2021, where Carolyn Berry from the Adventures with Grammy said her show will double its listeners in 2022. Don't know, Carolyn did it double What? So do you have some insights on this, Mike?

1:44 I do not. I haven't heard from Carolyn, but, uh, hey, I wish. I hope so. And that's a really good plug for her show. That that was the, the whole thing is, you know, last year we, we reached out this year, we didn't reach out, so, but, uh. . I just thought it was a good plug. it is a good show. So check out adventures with Grammy, but some things we can answer. Uh, Maxwell Ivy Jr. Uh, folks that went to podcast conferences, you will know, uh, Maxwell, he's vision impaired and he's from the, what's Your Excuse Network in the Blind Blogger. He said that I predict even more people, companies, and organizations will launch podcasts. Why? I think that was a pretty easy one.

2:28 Right? Easy prediction. Yeah. We'll call that a, we'll call that good. . We'll call that good. So a little ding in the background. I, yeah. Might wanna turn the volume up. I barely heard it. He also said, I predict Spotify and others will continue to try. The keyword is try to win the podcasting world. Like it's a game of monopolies. I think they're trying to win. Yeah. I I think that one's a winner too. Yeah. I think so too. So we'll give that a, there there's a different vein. There we go. . And he's predicted more people will be hosting with Blueberry. Well that's, that's definitely a win as well. Yeah. For sure. . Hey, I, I'm playing with all the buttons on the roader today.

3:10 So, okay. That's, that's fun. . Moving on here. David Keesen from The Future's Not Set Podcast did predict the option. Open Payment Stream to podcast will increase so far Paton and, and buy me a coffee. Uh, sort of fits the start of tipping or lightning Crypto payments or anything that can be done from a handheld device will become more common. This will hopefully happen as a result of people's frustration when the increase of ads into their podcast experience. Hopefully this will lead to a more dynamic podcast where they can be delivered with and without ads. I think what we've seen with the Podcasting 2.0 initiative and Value for Value and being able to support a show with micropayments through apps@newpodcastapps.com, I think we're seeing this already as well as with the, it's soon to be announcement by Apple for Apple Premium, where podcasters can do very easily, can set up their show to have a premium portion of their podcast that people can describe to on Apple.

4:10 Yeah. And that could be delivered without the ads that everybody, you know, and the ad load on podcasts that do ads is increasing. And, you know, and I find myself not wanting to listen to podcasts with a ton of ads in them. But, uh, also with the podcast 2.0, like you said, you know, it's uh, it's kind of fun to listen to shows that are doing that, especially if they have an audible, uh, audible thing, you know, and a Right. A Boost comes in, you know, like yesterday on New Media show, you guys were, were getting some boosts and that just encourages more interaction and Yep. And all this other stuff on top of that. But it's a good way to monetize. So we'll call that good.

4:53 . And what was cool with that yesterday was that I had stuff coming in via Facebook cuz we were alive and I had stuff coming in on the Boost Stream and people were sending notes real time to the show, which I was able to do feedback on, which was, which was pretty cool. Dave goes on to say there were more live streaming, like events slash productions, clubhouse Fireside Wisdom are all chasing something. The thing Live Interactive audio, which can be record and release later as a podcast maybe is different as radio shows are to podcasts, which are released after the fact as podcast. Well, how bounces kind of went down. Yeah. You don't hear a lot about this stuff anymore.

5:36 I think the thing it is live is still growing, but I don't think from those platforms. So I would say that's a maybe. , sorry, uh, have. To do that. So that was a good one. Yeah. The Check Your Head podcast prediction for 2022 at at Check Head on Twitter is that it will be the biggest year for podcast growth as more people turn a podcast for Safe and enjoy and free entertainment during Pandemic Life. I'm gonna say that that was a big no. As well. Yeah. That's definitely not, uh, not what's going on here. Let's. Try this one. Growth has been, growth has growth has been.

6:22 Flat. Yeah. It's, it's been flat, but you know, a lot of people during the, the main part of the lockdowns and all that stuff Yeah. Did listen more. Sure. And a lot of them have sustained, so we really haven't lost a lot. But yeah, 2022, you know, it was pretty flat line as far as new listeners, I think. Yep. So. Josh from Tips of the Slung, he said, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the shows under the banners of bigger companies and particular shows that were independent and successful prior to signing try to break their contracts and go Indy again. Well, there's been a little of. A couple of those. Yeah, I could think of a couple. But then again, there's, there's others that have, uh, gone into, you know, contracts with, with outfits. So we'll call that a maybe.

7:06 Yeah, that's a maybe. Yeah. So Daniel Lewis from the Audacity of Podcast says, I expect we'll have another huge platform that supports podcasts. Maybe Microsoft, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Also much bigger adoption of Podcast 2.0. Well, the second part of course, uh, first part I would say not really. I mean, not really. You know, YouTube is kind of sort of dipping their toes into it. Uh, but yeah, I don't, uh, I don't believe we've, we've heard a lot of, of. That Yeah. From new platforms. No, , but he does get a ding for much bigger adoption of podcasting 2.0. Yes.

7:48 , Jim Mallard from the Mallard Report. He says, I predict Spotify will close the free version of Anchor and try to recoup shows to only be on Spotify only with free music accounts. Well. Sort of. It's kind of a part. Yeah. They are gonna close Anchor as a brand, but they're gonna roll it into Spotify studios. Yeah. And, uh, I they're not opening up music per se, so it's kinda, it hasn't happened yet. So I would say that's a no. Yeah, I would say that's a no as well. Um, but they are, like you said, gonna rebrand, I believe anchored into Spotify studio and that may become a little more exclusive than it was as Anchor, so.

8:38 Yep. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. But there are some articles out there, um, some predictions, hot Pod the Verge Predictions has, has some predictions toward the bottom of the article. Yeah. Uh, pod uh, Pacific Contents in your prediction article is out. And as well as the kids' podcast production, um, is out as well. So I think there's three articles there if you wanna look at what's, uh, some folks are thinking is gonna happen in, or. What did it happen? ? These are from back at. The beginning. These are what did happen. Yeah. Oh, so this is a review to see if people actually, if their predictions were true. Right, right. So Oh yeah. I wanted to go back and see some of that. And, uh, some of 'em are good, some of 'em aren't. Well, I'll let you guys look at that.

9:25 We'll have the links in the show notes for sure. But, uh, then we had some from our team here at Blueberry, uh, of course Toby , my favorite one. Another plug says there'll be at least one bestselling book about podcasting coming in late February. . Well, of course. Oh, he, he's writing a book. Yeah. He wrote a book. It's called, uh, Niro Podcasting. And I don't know about the bestseller part, but, uh, yes, Toby did put out a book. Yep. Then he said, uh, ultimately I say this, the industry will be split into even more subsections from revenue generating standpoint. I don't think paid subscriptions will go wildly unless podcasters are prepared to give more than just more audio.

10:12 I e more in-person events and memberships. I think that's kind of true. I I don't think that the subscription thing has really taken off a lot. Yeah, I could agree. So. Barry can from our team says, I think the blockchain will have an impact on podcasting over the next couple of years. And I think in regards to the podcasting 2.0 initiative, a lot of the stuff's being done over there is being run on the blockchain as. Yeah. And Pod King as well is all blockchain. So, so I, I think he's right there as well, but in from a, I think it's gonna be more about the features and tracking and accountability and version control and that kind of stuff. So I, I think, uh, Barry's right?

10:53 Yeah. We give give him that one. . Yeah. All right. So sadly we made our own predictions . Yes. So, uh, Todd's number one was Facebook will be number two by the end of 2022. And, and here's my dollar . Yes. We had a little bet. Going there virtually hand off to you, Mike, the dollar, so you, you'll get your, you'll get your dollar. I think it was a dollar, right? Yep. It was a dollar. So it was a dollar. So when, when I see you next, I gotta, I got a crispy here. I got a crispy, uh, George Washington for you, so Oh, right. Very good. . Very good.

11:33 Number two was more consolidation of conglomerate buying podcast companies. Eh, there was some this year. Yeah. You know, the big ones I guess were, uh, the two, uh, stats companies that got bought up by Acast, or was it Acast? I don't remember one, one of them. Yeah. But, uh, you know, there wasn't any, any huge ones like, uh, we'd seen in years past. Right. So we'll call that a maybe. Yep. So there's, uh, my other prediction was more advertising opportunities for independent podcasters. Well, that's a solid Yes. Ooh. . We, we put that in, we didn't even know we were gonna make a relationship with our partner for ad insertion at that point, so there was no pre, maybe it was in my brain already to start talking about it, but, uh, we found the great partner, the growth of the podcasting space will go back to pre pandemic levels.

12:26 I think it's, uh. It's, uh, maybe May. Maybe, but it's been pretty flat the last half of the year, so I don't think the growth of new shows, as a matter of fact, the growth of new episodes is down significantly. Yeah. So for those that are active podcasters, there's lots of opportunities. Yes, for sure. Uh, more companies will exercise private podcasts in their organizations. Well, we've picked up a few customers, so I would say some. Yeah. It's, it's not wildly, uh, adopting being adopted yet, but I think, I think it's still early in that business because a lot of businesses don't even know that that exists as an option Yep. For them. So, uh, hopefully we'll change that this year with some of the places we're gonna be going for, uh, trade shows.

13:13 Yeah. Anchor will add another million dead shows. Well, that's a firm. Yes. Yes, for sure. They have, uh, added a bunch of shows and, uh, a bunch of them are indeed dead. , Facebook, excuse me, uh, apple will open an API submission to Apple Podcast. Well, it's not, you don't submit your show still, but you can submit premium episodes to Apple through api. Yeah. So that's, guess. That's a sort of Yeah, yeah, that's a sort of. Uh, yeah. It's, but it's not for show submission. So yeah, I guess that's a, that's, you know, partially right, I guess, but. Okay. So my number one prediction, which is what, what generated the, the whole dollar there was that Facebook will not to be the number two listening platform by the end of 22. In fact, how long did they last?

14:03 Did they go to maybe. April? Maybe three months. Yeah, I think they went to April. Anyway. So Winter winner chicken dinner for you on that. Yeah, there you go. All right. Uh, SoundCloud will exist even though I've been predicting its death for years and Yep. It does still exist. See that was an easy one. Yeah. Given, yeah. Feed, feed Burner will continue to barely be active with a slight update from Google. And I didn't know anything about the update, but they did. So, yep. There we go. Uh, let's see. I'll get a wild hair and start another podcast with some sort not related to podcasting. Well, I, I, I attempted to and I never actually got it going. So we're gonna call that a .

14:48 And this one I also bungled up. Joe Rogan will announce he's leaving Spotify as an exclusive and will return to being an independent podcaster YouTuber. Not yet. Okay. And one of the social audio apps, either Clubhouse, fireside and stuff like that will announce they're shutting down. No, not that I know of. So I guess, see I'm not batting too good here either. Yeah. And Rob Greenley will grow a beard. Well, yes, he grew a beard, but uh, then he shaped it off, so That's right. You know, and I should have said he will change jobs cuz I probably, that that might have, you know, we'll have to do that again for 23, see what.

15:34 Right. . But you know, I, we've been having a little fun here with the 2021 predictions. Yeah. And you know, I just say on Get Ready on our way out here is that, you know, there's really a, I I think what's gonna happen with the economy is last time we saw when the economy was struggling, we saw a surge of new podcasts start mm-hmm. largely because people are trying to build a, you know, some side, side hustle mm-hmm. , you know, to, you know, if their job is in jeopardy and so forth. So I think we'll see a lot of that. We're already seeing more companies start to get into the space mm-hmm.

16:14 and those types of inquiries and doubling down on productions. So we'll see what happens in, uh, 2023 with, uh, the way the economy's gonna drive a lot of this. Yeah. For sure. I think we're gonna see potentially more podcasts, hosting companies, me struggle, um, prices continue to go up for virtually everything. Mm-hmm. , so those are on tight margins. We'll, we'll probably have challenges, so we'll, we'll see what happens. But yeah, um, again, the podcast I think will continue to grow, but we do have a blueberry pro tip, don't we? Yes. We do. So, uh, we're gonna go ahead and play that right now.

16:54 It's from Toby's talking about, uh, audio cues and, uh, audio branding. Hi there. It's Toby Goodman here. If you were around in the nineties, you might have heard of a TV show called Friends where everyone spoke like this. Hi, I'm Toby Goodman Now. Love It or Hate It. The first few notes of that theme Tune are known the world over and speak to fans like some sort of cool to prayer. And it's not just the opening theme music that's got its built in crowd participating claps. The incidental music between the scenes in a show like Friends is also very much there by design and is something that unconsciously and subtly sets the mood for the next scene. These are powerful audio cues that don't need visuals.

17:46 Now, just like friends, every professional podcast needs strong staple production assets. Catchy music themes are just one example, while emotive artwork is another, but today's tip is about sound. We can help you create your own unique audio signature that shows often before a word is heard, that your listeners are in the presence of someone who takes what they do in their podcast. Seriously. They're in the presence of someone who wants to create a comfortable environment for them, their listeners. So a meditation show with heavy rock music at the start is quite funny, but it's not gonna set the right mood. Now all of this is important because it, as a podcaster, setting the scene with sound, with creating feelings in mind is something that isn't considered by most great sound design will create a sense of belonging for your listeners who will, if you get it right regularly make space in their calendar to get that feeling that you create for them.

18:48 So this is essential for you if you want 'em to show up every time you publish so that you can, if you'll excuse the pun, be there for them. It's critical to understand as podcasters, we are all in the business of creating feelings. When you create the right feelings, you'll create a bond with your listeners who will feel as if they know you well. And when you get that right, they will share your podcast. And maybe if you are a podcaster in business, ultimately get in touch to invest in your products or services as you'd expect our sound design team are standing by to work closely with you to ensure the tone of music and sound is matched perfectly To the tone of your podcast for a helping hand, we've got everything you need to help you get your podcast on the right track.

19:37 Come and say hi over@blueberrypro.com. Awesome. I think he's right on center on all that information. For sure. And you know, we do a little bit of audio branding on this one. Normally this week, probably not cuz the, uh, pro team is on vacation. And, uh, and I I'm gonna be doing the editing, so to speak. Uhhuh here, Uhhuh . So, but that's good. Thanks Toby. And, uh, yeah, we don't have a question of the week because, uh, we're just gonna make this one a short one. So, but if you got a question you'd like us to answer on the show, just drop me an email, mike blueberry.com. You can, uh, send audio, text, video or whatever and, uh, we'll try to use it on the show.

20:25 Or you can even leave a question in the Blueberry Podcasting Facebook group, which there's a link in the show notes. And of course, the best place for support with Blueberry and the team is our ticket system at blueberry.com/support. Tickets give the entire team access rather than direct emails or calls. So don't email mike direct, go to blueberry.com/support. Especially during the holidays. Uh, yeah, my email box gets so full of stuff. But anyway, we're coming to you this week from the new Media Production Studio in Coldwater, Michigan, and Mike Dell's World Studio here in Traverse City, uh, let's see, produced by the pro production team over at uh, blueberry pro.com.

21:07 And we wanna know about you, who you are, where you are, what you're doing, how you're listening to shows. So fill out our listener survey surveys.blueberry.com/podcast insider. That's surveys.blueberry.com/podcast insider. Okay. You can always schedule a one-on-one with myself hosting customers only email todd blueberry.com, that's blueberry without the ease. Yep. And you can schedule, uh, a tech checkup with me. I'm, I'm not the strategy guy, but I am the tech guy. So , it's mike@blueberry.com. And you can always send us your podcast sticker and a self address stamped envelope and we will send you a Blueberry Care package.

21:49 Our mailing address is@podcastinsider.com within the show notes. Please check that out. But again, if you're with us, uh, as a customer, we wanna thank you for your business in 2022 and we want to thank you for your continued business and success of your show as we head into 2023. Remember the first 15 days, actually from December 15th to January 15th is the number one growth period in audience acquisition because people are looking for new shows to listen to and also looking for content that kind of surrounds the new year. So don't be afraid to spin your content a little bit to attract new listeners to your show, right. And keep on podcasting all the way through the, uh, the continued holiday.

22:33 But again, be safe out there, uh, on what I term as amateurs night. Yeah, for sure. And, uh, on New Year's Eve and have a good time and be safe and, uh, we'll be back with you. Any final words from you, Mike, before we bounce outta here? No. Uh, next week we'll have a, uh, mystery guest host as Todd will be covering the cce uh, CES show out in Las Vegas, I believe. Yeah, if you wanna watch our live 50 hour coverage of CES 2023, where, uh, we talk to a new vendor every 10 minutes, uh, we're basically from morning to night. Yeah, that's a grind. Get over. Yeah, you go over to tech podcast.com, we're geek to central.com and watch the livestream over there. But anyway, uh, again, we'll be Pacific time probably kicking off about 9:00 AM or 10:00 AM Pacific and going into the five or six o'clock PST hours in the afternoon. So I'll.

23:28 Have a link to that also in this, uh, post for this show. So, uh, all right. Awesome. You can, uh, go over and watch tpn. Uh, I've participated in that in years past and it's a lot of fun, but it's a grind. . It is a grind. I will be coming, matter of fact, I get back from Vegas on the ninth and I'm on federal jury duty the rest of the month minus the two or three days from Pod Fest. So who knows what's gonna happen to my, if I'm gonna get called up or what, but yeah. Anyway, we'll see. We'll see, we'll see. Hopefully not, uh, keep our fingers crossed. All right. Anyway, thanks. See you in 2023. That's right everyone. Take care. See you next time. Bye-Bye.