Do we need to kill off the word Podcast?

Maybe SHOWS will simplify this whole audio vs video thing.

Listen wherever you get your shows.

Have you ever heard that phrase? Many of us in “the industry” (sorry Adam) have been using this phrase for years as the sequel to the now-dead “Subscribe on Apple Podcasts” which we used to say when podcast creators lived in caves and made podcasts out of rocks.

Put the thought of killing off “podcasts” in the back of your mind while I talk about some other things.

1. In class on Thursday I referenced someone I thought was famous. A college student asked me, “Who’s Jay Leno?”

2. I mentioned to this class that in my other class (Mondays) I do two full weeks on Opie and Anthony and Sex for Sam. They were quite bemused by the whole thing. One of these days when I have a minute I will do a version of that lecture on here.

I’ve commented a lot about video this week, and the following anecdote is not at all me stacking the deck.

You know what I did Wednesday night? Something I often do….

I grabbed some video from YouTubers (Critical Drinker and Robert Meyer Burnett) and ran them through the Listenbox App. Neither has an Audio Podcast these days nor even a We Ripped The Audio From The Video And Stuck It In Apple Podcasts Because-Why-Not-Cast.

Listenbox will take a Youtube URL, rip the audio, and send it to your favorite app player. Thus, I enjoyed Drinker and RMB on Pocketcasts with no video.

I LISTENED to RMB monologue about Star Trek and other things for two hours He releases his SHOW on Youtube. It looks like this.

I’m not staring at that for 2 hours and 16 minutes. I have things to do.

But I did listen to it!

At 2.3x speed. (Sorry Adam).

So once again I will ask everyone, what even is a podcast?

A guy talking about stuff, consumed by me, on an iPhone, using Pocketcasts, no video component. That’s a podcast, isn’t it? Except its not.

It’s a show.

I was listening to a very good Podcast About Podcasting (there are many Podcasts about Podcasting) and heard Rob Greenlee say something very similar to what’s in italics below. (Rob, I am trying to get your words right, but the Apple Podcasts Desktop doesn’t sync the words to the audio the way it does on mobile, and I’m just trying to bang out a newsletter here……and the transcript was shaky….so I made some edits….anyway, Rob said something similar to…)

“…. the perception of a podcast now, just the fact that….I put an interview out with someone and…That's a podcast, no matter how I watch it, listen to it or consume it, it's the fact it's an interview. And I’m just like, have we got to that? (or words to that effect)

And that got me thinking.

Do we need to kill off the word podcast?

When I got to my destination (after all, I have things to do, you don’t think I have time to stare at Rob and Mark for an hour, do you? I listen to podcasts. Oh, and I was driving, which does not gel well with watching YouTube videos or Spotify For Creators Creations)

Anyway, when I got to my destination, I posted the below on LinkedIn as is…

Rob commented back, which I share here because I want to be fair to his words….

I like that. The audience now owns the word podcasts. He’s right. A podcast is whatever the audience says it is. The other night I decided RMB was a podcast.

I propose all of us - you, me, The Podnoscenti, listeners, all of us - begin discussions of killing off the word podcasts. I’ll start with “Shows.” In and Around Podcasting is a show. Daily Comedy News is a show. Critical Drinker is a show. Serial is a show. The Daily is a show. Joe Rogan makes shows.

Apple can call their app Apple Shows. (Note they have an app called TV on which I can watch movies, so this is not crazy talk.)

Shows.

Maybe perhaps possibly that might lead a potential audience to ask “where can I get your show?” Then I can tell them on Apple Podcasts.

Maybe?

Discuss!

……

I have a bunch of other things I want to get to including what some others have to say about Spotify’s recent “for Creators” announcement, but right now I have to keep moving, but will try to get to those in the next few days. And Music Monday is coming so when you’re like Why The Hell Did He Write About A 30 Year Old U2 Album you were warned. There are no rules on this substack.

While I have the floor - one of those podcasts about podcasting had some experts on to make predictions for 2025. Guys, if you’re a podcasting expert or a show about podcasting, you gotta have better audio. Seriously. You gotta have better audio. I heard an expert speaking into an open-air laptop mic and it sounded like garbage, so I hit stop and deleted the podcast. Come on guys, drop the buck fifty for a USB microphone if you’re going to do this. You gotta have better audio.

I’m not nitpicking your LUFS or some edits or a music bed that’s a touch too loud or a guy occasionally doing a show from an airport lounge and being open about it (always fun James, and I’ve done that myself, thanks United Club Lounge!)

This was a talking head podcast expert who sounds hollow. At least run the hollow audio through Descript or something. We have technology now. Lead from the front. You gotta have better audio.

Self promotion time.