Podcasting Endings and Beginnings – PCI 316

0:10 Hey everyone, welcome to the October 13th, 2022 edition of the podcast Insider. And of course, Mike, thanks for holding the Ford up while I've been out a few weeks. Yeah, no worries. Uh, Mackenzie did an admirable job filling in for you, so. Well, awesome. Well, here we are in PCI three 16 and, uh, without a little bit of technical difficulty as normal, but, uh, we've got some news for you. Got a best practice. We got some blueberry news. Uh, actually a little bit of sad blueberry news. We've got a blueberry pro tip. We have a question of the week.

0:52 Well, lots of things happening in the national podcasting space, Mike, all kinds of weirdness going on with companies, and I think some of it is, uh, economy related, but we'll talk a little bit about that a little deeper, but serious. Uh, they're opening a new studio in Miami. Yeah. And from the rendering I see on that article, uh, that's quite the building , so I'm sure it's for the radio network and their podcast stuff as well. So. Any word if it's gonna be Latin focused or what's the, what's any, anything that they've said that the purposes of them having the studio in Miami? No, they just, uh, right now they have one in, uh, West Hollywood. They have, uh, New York Rockefeller Center and, uh, and one in Nashville and one in dc and they're just adding yet another one for Miami.

1:44 All right. So. Just who's gonna get their network of stuff, uh, out there? Uh, you know, closer to people, I guess. Yeah, I guess. Interesting. I wonder why people just don't record in their home studios. It's, you think that would be the thing, But I guess that's the new world. We live in Spotify, though. They've canceled 10 original shows, and, uh, folks from Gimlet and pcast were just Summer really said, Okay, you're gone. And I think it was 22, I don't know, 22 employees or something like that, or 20%, or was a gave number. Gave an hour to, to get out. So, and there's been lots of people saying that it was really Spotify's fault because they made the shows go exclusive. Mm-hmm.

2:29 cut their audience by 75%, which makes big sense because, you know, most people are listening to podcasts today, the least blueberry podcasters. There's a very small percentage that listen on Spotify. So to take them to Spotify, and I'm assuming you've had to have a Spotify account to listen to those shows. Yeah. Um, it just makes sense. So it's interesting, one of their other properties that does not limit where the, the shows are listened to. In other words, they're available on all those other platforms. Uh, those were, none of those shows were canceled because the numbers were good. So, you know, Spotify, in my opinion, and this is the rumor going around the podcasting space right now, they, they're kind of falling out of favor and all these shows that think it's a great deal to go to Spotify, well, you know, cash the check and be happy because your audience, uh, may not be happy.

3:22 Yeah. And you know, like I said, they, they canceled these 10 shows, uh, but they did it, you know, because of, you know, slow growth or, uh, bad audience, whatever, you know, bad audience numbers and, you know, if they're not gonna, you know, flinging it fire and wide Right. Get on every everywhere else, it obviously isn't working. Um. No, it's not. Have you spent all this money? That's. Our shows too, you know? Yeah. So, you know, it's, uh, grass is not always greener on the other side. We, you know, we find that out all the time. We have customers that leave us to go to a platform that has said, Oh, we're going to make you rich. And in the end, uh, a month later or six weeks later, two months later, like, Hey, we're, we're, we're coming back. Yeah. So, you know, a.

4:08 Couple of them there, uh, they'll call me and say, Well, yeah, hate to do it, but I gotta move for this sad deal, blah, blah, blah. And then I always tell'em, I said, Well, you'll be back, so when you are, I'll be here. . Yeah. And, and we know the specific companies. Yeah. A matter of fact, one of the companies that we lose podcasters to once in a while, just cut a whole bunch of people because they have to be profitable. Yeah. Because they're not profitable. So if you don't have a business that's profitable, what, that just blows me away. The days of free money is gone. You have to have a business that is, you know, sustainable. So time will tell. So there's also, uh, some news and tips and advice from the Publishers' Podcasting Summit. So what's the skinny on that?

4:49 Yeah, they, they did, uh, some sort of summit. I, I don't know, Mackenzie threw this in here, but it basically gives you a bunch of, uh, tips of, uh, how to be a successful podcaster. You know, like energy, passion, authenticity, you know, finding a different angle, listen to your audience, keeping it fresh, and, uh, keeping it going, you know, as far as growth and, uh, you know, just making, Yeah. The publisher Summit. Yeah. I wonder about this. . So, so there's a big event coming up in, in New York, right. And it's, it's called the, and this is what I was, it's called the Podcast Futures. That's something that's happened next week. So if any of you listeners are in, uh, New York City area, the event is helping happening in conjunction with N A B.

5:38 And the organizer over there, email, and he said, Podcast features, brings together the business of podcasting, exploring ideas around discoverability, Gen Z and insertion networks, listener habits, and even how the car connects into the rural podcast. And now that's a different event than what we just referred to. Yeah. The event that I referred to, uh, in the story there is the Publisher Podcast Summit that was in London on the, oh, about a week ago. So I'll, I'll copy in the podcast futures event in, uh, in the show notes so that folks can, if you're in the New York area, it's a, it's $55 one day event. I think they've got about a dozen speakers. They're gonna be that. So, uh, again, on the 19th, so the 19th is six days from now, so it'll be on Wednesday, Wednesday the 19th. So if you have availability.

6:24 Got center right there, uh, in conjunction with AB New York. So, but the podcasting 2.0 group is, uh, in phase six of their name space undergoing planning right now. And, uh, the continuing to expand on tags as we are here at, at blueberry, new possible tags include the podcast Semicolon text tag. Yep. And that's actually was recommended and, uh, by the folks at Apple. Yep. That is the tag that, uh, is kind of a free form block of text. So you could use that for authenticating, you know, in place of email. Uh, you could use it for, you know, just various things.

7:06 And that's kind of a free form, uh, tag. Because the email address is going away from RSS speeds, uh, later this year, early next. And there's gonna have to be a way for podcasters to authenticate to say, Yep, this belongs to this show, belongs to me, and be able to prove it. So that's something that's coming. There's also podcast Semi Cohen has guested. What's that one about? That one, uh, James, uh, from Pod News suggested that one, and basically, uh, he wants that for is so that, uh, people pitching him guests already know he has all the guests he needs.

7:46 Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. I don't, I don't know if that one will make the cut, but, uh, , that's basically what he, he's, you know, he gets pitched all the time for guests on his show. Well, of course, he's a three minute news show. Oh. So it's, it's a yes or no that they take guests. Yeah. I'm assuming kinda thing. Yeah. Oh, has guest doesn't have guests. Because I would like to ha I get pitched to Geen Central all the time for guests, and I'm like, I don't do, you know, you obviously don't listen to the show because I don't do guest. Yeah. It's funny. We don't get pitched for being guests on this show, and we want to. Yeah, that's interesting. Podcasts, Semi Cohen events, and, and it's, this is an interesting tag. So it's, it's, it's more, more like it could be something's happened, something's changed.

8:37 It's that type of a, an approach. Mm-hmm. , it's very technical. Um, it's gonna be something that'll be implemented by Host. I don't think this is, can, you know, there might be something that will trigger an event that's around an RSS feed. It is an interesting tag. Then they were talking about it on the podcast 2.0 show last week, and we're thinking about how this could be utilized. Yeah. They don't have it quite nailed down. Again, this is all in GitHub and they're, uh, they're just now taking suggestions and, and talking about these tags and, and maybe others. Right. So what about the podcast state tag? What is that? That is, uh, a state of the, of the podcast, meaning say they're on a free trial. Oh, so the state would be free trial.

9:23 So for that would be for us as, Yeah, that'd be for the host. For a host. If we had someone come in and sign up for a free trial mm-hmm. , then we would put the state is the show's under a free trial. And then probably the state would change when, or whatever, active. Or they, maybe they published a few episodes or it'd be something, I think what they're trying to do there is so many people set up free trial accounts that are under, Well, they try to, they fill it with junk Yeah. Or. So. Or they just do one episode and never do anything else with it. So it just sits there. Yeah, it just sits there. So this is kind of a, this is a, um, gonna be designed to be used as a filtering mechanism for platforms to essentially know that this shows status is not completely established yet. I think that's probably the way it would be described, which is interesting. And of course, they're gonna do improvements to the podcast chapter tag, so I don't know what they've got planned there.

10:23 Yeah, I'm not sure either. Uh, James was the one that was proposing the improvements. So, uh, over in GitHub, there's a discussion going on. There's a link to it in our show notes here, if you're into reading all that geeky stuff at GitHub. . Right. So, well, the, uh, charges against AAN Sied from Serial have been officially dropped by prosecutors. Yep. So he's out, he's free, and he is done after 23 years in jail. Wow. Amazing. Just. Crazy that, you know, he's been in that long and he's had what, three trials already and I guess they're just choosing not to bother with another trial. Wow. Megan Kelly's the quarter three fastest growing conservative podcast.

11:06 Uh, who's reporting on that. Right here? Uh, Inside Radio. Uh, wow. An original, uh, they got the data from, from one of the apps that she used to listen to podcasts. But one of the, the little ones, uh. I don't know how they can fully determine that. Yeah. They can't really. But, you know, and with this, uh, app, I forget which one it is, it's one of the, the minor ones, and that's this chart here is just, you know, how many new subscribers they've had over the last quarter on these shows that they picked out. So. Yeah. And again, it's so selective because you never know. It's just from, you know, it, it's, it makes a big headline, but then they're like, Okay, where, where did this source of information come from? So it that's.

11:53 What it was, uh, from. Who. Cast Box. Oh. You know, and they're like less than one 10th of 1% market share, so, you know, mean they're claiming she's. That's interesting. You know, it did. And they picked out a bunch of the, uh, conservative podcasts and they're like, Glen Beck and Danon Bonino and Ben Shapiro. Right. Riley. And, you know, the normal bunch. And, uh, it. Was just, he said, Here's our fastest risers. Well, interesting. Yeah. All right. So let's move on to a best practice when in doubt higher out . Well, you know, think of it this way, you know, like with what we do here with our protein is Mackenzie and I do show Prep. You and I record the show, and then we pass it off to our production team so we don't have to do any editing. Right. You know, and all that. And you know, if there's a task that you do, you know, that you just hate doing about your podcast, there are people out there that will do it. And, you know, some of the reasonable price.

12:53 So if it's something that you just absolutely hate doing, I know, uh, on your GNC show, you have a person that helps you with a show prep. Right. You know, so you don't have to go do all of the, uh, looking around for stories. And that was, for me, wasn't something I loathe. It was something that I, going at time for. It was a time save, It saves me an hour and a half. So, and then my, but you know, I've established a pretty long term relationship with my executive producer, so he thinks the way I do as far as show prep goes. So it's a great combo that, you know, the key has gotta find somebody can really work with. And, um, his worked out for me. Again, I do pay him, so there is an expense involved.

13:37 It's probably under $250 a month for him to do show prep for me. But still eight shows a month, that's, you know, that's, uh, potentially about 12 hours worth of work. But, you know, there's people out there that just don't wanna deal with writing the show notes. Right. People that. Don't wanna deal with editing or publishing or any of that. And there are people out there that'll do it. Of course, our Blueberry Pro team does all that for us. Yep. You know, it's well worth the money, I think, uh, you know, depends on your time, you know, if you enjoy doing all that stuff, then do it yourself. You know, on my personal show, I do everything myself and it's fine. But I do on most of the work for New Media show, I don't, and none of that goes out. I do that all internal. So, and then for, even for gnc, I do the other 80% of the work for that show as well. Yeah. Do.

14:26 Your own publishing and write the notes and all that stuff. So let's go ahead and move on to Blueberry News. That was our best practice. What's going on with the blog post on the website this week? Yeah. Tara asks, uh, should you start a podcast in an oversaturated market? Uh, there's no oversaturation right now. Yeah. I was gonna say, you know, uh, the best time to start a podcast was 18 years ago. The second best time is right now. Actually, in all honesty, It is. Yeah. Because the number of people creating new episode each month has continued to drop with only 375,000 shows have created a new episode in the last 30 days. Mm-hmm. there is Absolutely, And that's down from like 600,000.

15:11 So there is never a better time. It's, it's a great time to start a show. That. Big 4 million, uh, you know, podcasts scare you because most of that's right. Are inactive. They might still exist, but they're inactive. Yep. Well, we've got sad news to announce one of our team members, Cho, who is basically a digital marketing team member, she's, uh, got about another week and a half with us. She's gonna be, uh, leaving for another job. She's gonna be working for a different agency and preparation for her master's degree, going in and doing her master's degree. So, uh, sad, she's been with us for, oh, what has it been a year and a half?

15:57 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Full time. Yeah. About six months. And she was an intern for a year, at least before that. That's right. So we are looking for something, someone new to do digital media that would include all the social, someone that is a camera friendly. In other words, you're not afraid to be in front of a camera. Uh, same thing with the, you know, voice and the whole nine yards. And really, we're, we, we are, we have payroll currently in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Colorado, and Arizona. So if you're in one of those five states, we definitely are, we'd like to hire from within those five states, because think. Florida might be coming soon too. That's where we have payroll already set up. Um, some states is very, very difficult and very expensive to set up payroll, but this can be a remote job.

16:47 So we'll have the job description, uh, probably some ready sometime next week, and an actual job posting will be out. But if you're like, Oh, this sounds like something I'd be interested in, uh, let me know. Definitely looking for a dynamic individual. Again, this is, uh, someone that's not being afraid to be on TikTok or on Facebook. Video and all that. Yep. All the, all our training videos, that type of stuff, uh, let us know. We, we are definitely, uh, on the search and sometimes I often feel we find people from within easier than looking outwards. So those of you that are listening to the show today may know someone that would be a perfect fit for us. It's looking for a position mm-hmm. , um, or looking to move up and currently what they're doing.

17:33 And this is a full 40 hour a week position, full benefits, the whole nine yards. So that's a great. Place to work. . Yeah, absolutely. Great place to work. And, uh, we have a lot of fun here and get a lot of great things accomplished. So, uh, let us know. Well, Monday, Mike, I fly out to Ignite. It's an event in Riyad Saudi Arabia. And people here in this are like Saudi Arabia podcast event in Saudi Arabia. It might be a little confused, and I don't know if I talked about it on the last show. I talked about it on, on my other podcast, but if you don't know what is happening in Saudi Arabia right now, there's a transformation going on.

18:13 50% of the population is under the age of 25, and 63% of the population is under the age of 30. There's been massive social change in Saudi Arabia. We believe the politics aside, women are driving, women no longer have to cover up when they're in public. A single woman can be with a single man in public holding hands without an escort. There is big for that. This is huge change. They are opening the country up. They've opened up for the last two to three years to tourist. There was never tourism before. Uh, the company has established a part of their ministry to be able to encourage creators in Saudi Arabia. They want YouTubers, they want bloggers, they want podcasters.

18:59 And so this first event that I'm going to is purely about audio and sound and content creation. Expecting 15,000 attendees. 15,000 attendees. Wow. And that's a big, big, big event. Oh. So I'm going there with a number of other folks. Uh, I think there's only about a dozen of us that are coming from a various countries. And, um, so yeah, fly out Monday, uh, leave Detroit, go to Frankfurt, then into, get into Rio pretty late in the evening, and then start a full week. They, they've got a schedule to do some cultural tours. Of course, these events where we're going to be networking, I'm speaking on Friday of next week, along with doing like a meet and greet type of, uh, event. Mm-hmm.

19:45 . It's kind of interesting, Mike, all of the, it's from four in the afternoon to 11 at night. That's the event time evening, which is, which is gonna be a butt kicker from a time zone situation, because Saudi is from the East coast, I think five or six hours ahead. Yeah. So it's, yeah, it's gonna have me upside down for sure. Especially, it wouldn't be so bad if it was early in the morning, but they don't do any events until the last, uh, call to prayer after the last four 30 in the afternoon. So yeah, it's gonna be a, um, it's gonna be a big week. I'm excited to talk about it when I come back. Yeah, it'll be interesting. Uh, take lots of pictures. . Yeah, I definitely will. And this week too, I crossed over 18 years.

20:27 Yeah, that's, uh, four days ago. 18 years of podcasting. It's insane. We were gonna have that as the best practice this week, but I figured, uh, we'll just give you some time here in the Blueberry news. Best practice for being 18 years. Podcasting. Yeah. , how'd you do it? You know, that kind of thing. And you know how it all started, Uh, you know, you've, you've told that story a lot. Yeah. But. Uh, yeah, that's a, you know, you're one of the few that have gone that far and still. Especially with the same show. Yeah. You know, Well. I'll be doing that in April. So, And. There's four or five, four or five shows that have made it this long and still have an active podcast. You consider all the different ones that are out there mm-hmm.

21:10 , um, which is, you know, pretty remarkable. I keep hoping some of those other ones would quit, so I could, you know, be like the oldest active podcaster. I, I don't know, you know, some of those shows put one out every couple months just to keep the flame lit. Yeah. But, but it's, it's kind of fun. Uh. That's kind of me, you know, with mine that, that's been going that long. But, you know, on, on the blueberry team, we have four of us that'll go over 18 years next, next year. Wow. That's, that's huge. All right. So let's talk about our Blueberry Pro tip. Totally. Recorded this of course, as usual, and it's about communicating with podcasting about your business.

21:53 Hi, it's Toby Goodman here today. If you are running a business that's scaling fast, why would you need a podcast as a decent business gains momentum? It's gonna grow organically, Likely it'll happen through recommendations and referrals. That means paid marketing efforts aren't needed quite as much, if at all. It's the dream. So if you are in that position, you might be wondering if you should stop the podcast you've got or bother starting one at all. The truth is, when a business scales fast, it still has challenges and position properly. A podcast can help you in many ways. Here are just two. Number one, a rapidly growing business needs a cohesive team. And as you grow, you and the leadership team will likely have less time face to face to connect.

22:41 A number of our national and international clients have discovered the value in creating a podcast to stay in touch on a human level with everyone in their organizations. While we saw this strategy during Covid, because of travel restrictions and isolation rules, podcasts have kept team members aligned with the organization's mission. The result of that is retention. And as you know, retention means a more valuable business with less churn and less time and money on recruitment. Number two, as your business scales, you will still need to recruit more team members. And there's nothing better than getting your message out into your industry by creating a podcast to show potential candidates the culture and feel you have created in your organization.

23:30 This is a strategy that will attract the best talent in your industry. So when it comes to podcasting for a growing business, you can add real value by continuing or starting a podcast. If you'd like support with that, please get in touch with my team over@blueberrypro.com. Very cool. Yeah, and it's kinda what we're doing here, . So, but, uh, yeah, so, uh, definitely, uh, it, it could also go, you know, for our private internal podcasting as far as communicating with your current team. Right? And then of course you can, uh, do a public podcast like we're doing here that kinda communicates with the rest of the world.

24:16 Thanks Toby, for that. Let's move on to our question of the week. Why is my artwork not updating in Apple Podcast or name the platform? Yeah, I've gotten this question about 10 times this week, , and every time it's because the image is the wrong size. So I figured we'd go over this again, kind of beating a dead horse, but I got the question a lot. So, uh, basically your podcast artwork needs to be exactly square in at least 1400 pixels and up to 3000 again, exactly square. Not even one pixel off, we'll throw it off. Uh, also should be less than 500 k, which is a half a megabyte, but it can be a bit more without causing too many issues.

25:03 I've seen images up to about a, a megabyte not cause an issue, but, you know, we still suggest under 500 fasters better. And it's totally doable if you, uh, set the compression just so, uh, if you need help with that, get ahold of us. And, uh, Dave and I both know how to make artwork, uh, work. So other issues I've seen is it could be that your artwork is stored on the wrong type of server. I've seen somebody that uploaded their image to Dropbox and then linked it in their feed. And Dropbox is not a place to put artwork or podcast media, you know, unless you're sending it off to your editor or whatever. But you don't publish from there. So, uh, other than that, if you're using Blueberry Power press or uh, art hosting, you know, where you put your artwork will work as long as your feed works from your site, your artwork will work. Any, any other things about artwork? Todd?

25:58 No, I, I think you, I think you got it covered. Okay. Very good. But I, yeah, I just, we get the same questions over and over again and sometimes I like to cover those kind of questions here, just, uh, to get it out there. But, you know, if you having trouble with a particular platform, it could also be that that one platform is having an issue. That's right. You know, that it's not unheard of for, uh, one of the platforms to just have an issue that week pulling in artwork. So if you've got a question you'd like us to answer, uh, on the show here, drop an email to mike@blueberry.com. That's blueberry without the east audio text or video, and we may use it. You can also post a question on the Blueberry Podcasting Facebook group, which we hope you're a member of. Yeah.

26:39 Go check that out. And of course, the best place for support is not the Facebook group, but it's, uh, at our ticket system at blueberry.com/support that gives the whole team access rather than direct emails or phone calls or social media. And of course, we've been coming to you this week for Mike Dell World Studio and Traverse City, Michigan, and the new media production studio here in Cold Water, Michigan, of course, produced by the Blueberry Pro production team. Of. Course, you can fill out our listener survey at surveys.blueberry.com/podcast Insider, and that gives us little insight on who you are. And also you can set up your own over there if you're in our statistics.

27:22 Yes, please fill out our survey. Again, surveys.blueberry.com/podcast Insider. And of course, we want you to schedule that one on one. That's what I do here. I do talk to customers every week. It is hosting customers only. Email me@toddblueberry.com. Of course, sales, if you looking to do shows over here, happy to talk to you as well. Right. And, uh, of course you can schedule a tech checkup with me, or also sales calls work , but hosting customers only for the tech checkup. You can email me mike@blueberry.com. And you can send it your podcast sticker in a self-addressed stamped envelope in, We will send you a Blueberry Care package at Link is in the show notes@blueberry.com.

28:07 Or actually podcast insider.com is an easier way to, uh, to get to it. But Mike, I think that's gonna wrap up this week's show. Yeah. And we got through it without any, uh, any road caster glitches. I think I have it figured out now. . Oh, that's good. And, uh, hopefully they, uh, they've gotten your feedback to do any patches if there is additional issues, so. Yeah, apparently there's a new firmware coming out with, uh, with a couple of, uh, USB fixes. Oh, well, we'll, we'll keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't, uh, cause insanity. Maybe we. Yeah. Get it, get it back. Working with Skype here, uh, next time. Yep. All right. Well it's been our pleasure to bring you the show. Thanks for being here and we'll see you next time on Podcast Inside Everyone. Take care and we'll see ya.