What if I told you Podcast Chapters are a mistake?
I understand why you think they are a good idea..but are they?
Consumers don’t know what they want.
The famous quote is from Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
And that’s how I feel about podcast Chapters.
Look fellow podcaster, I get that you think you’re helping the listener. You’re not.
Allow me to illustrate. Let me know how you feel about these chapters:
1. The Wager: A Battle of Wills
2. Temptation Across the Hall
3. Master of My Domain
4. Kramer’s Quick Exit
5. Elaine’s Kennedy Obsession
6. Sleepless in Queens
7. The Temptress in the Night
8. Breaking Point
9. And Then There Was One
10. The Secret That Stays in the Vault
Wow, Kramer’s Quick Exit. Compelling right? Well, those are the “Chapters” of the classic Seinfeld episode “The Contest.” I’m not sure the chapter titles do it justice.
I was listening to a podcast the other day - it’s one of those Podcasts About Podcasting. I listen to it every week.
They got into a section that I wasn’t interested in. I went to hit 30 second skip. Instead, my app offered me a chapter skip. I took it.
And I didn’t like the title of the next chapter, so I skipped it.
And then again….skip.
And again….skip.
And this chapter title sucks too. Skip. Episode over.
Let’s look at the below… The podcasting market is not worth $25 billion. Arguably interesting. Oh, it’s only one minute? Skip.
Promo? Don't care. Skip.
Stats, sure. I will listen.
Where are you going? Don’t care. Skip. Bail.
Had you NOT added chapters I may have hit 30 second skip again maybe 5 more times, maybe 15 more times, but I would have been at least needle dropping the podcast. And sometimes when I needle drop something hits my ears and I go - wait whats this?
Maybe the promo was good. I will never know. If you hadn’t made me think about skipping I wouldn’t have. Maybe I would have enjoyed the promo. Maybe I would have found it interesting where you’re going. But you encouraged me NOT to listen with the chapters.
For example, I would have guessed that I had no interest in Adam Curry taking down NPR until I listened to this. Adam took me on a journey that I didn’t know I wanted.
It turns out that was one of my favorite episodes of ANYTHING in 2024.
Had I seen a chapter title like: Adam & Dave deconstruct the NPR advertising woes and de-democratizing podcast apps I don’t know if I would have found that interesting. But the AUDIO? THAT WAS INTERESTING!!!
Now I can hear you screaming from here. I know, I know: WRITE BETTER CHAPTER TITLES. Sure. That’s the stock answer. What should we title the chapters in that Seinfeld episode? “George gets really horny because there’s a silhouette of a nurse?” Sometimes the show has to do the work.
Maybe listen to a podcast, you might like it.
A chapter title is never going to do justice to the audio. If you want people to skip half your show, go nuts. Have 32 chapters. And let me know how the Apple algorithm treats your show. I’d rather listeners play something all the way through.
“Kramer’s Quick Exit” was pretty funny. I’m glad I didn’t skip through.
I'd suggest the issue isn't the Chapters, but how the podcaster implements them. It's like ads - when listeners say there are too many ads, it's because the podcaster has made it that way. We have control over the listener experience - if a tool/feature is badly implements (and having 1 minute breaks between chapters is poorly implemented, from my own preference at least), then we're at fault, not the platform. :)