What are we even doing? (Podcast)
The mad rush to make HLS Video for who exactly? Put your phone in your pocket!
Greetings from Audio Island, where the pool is open for the summer. I will spare you the image and quote from Godfather III but man the Podcasts About Podcasting are all talking about video again.
I was listening to the always excellent Podnews Weekly Review, and here’s myAtakeaway:
Podcasters can/should now…
Make a podcast while also shooting video.
Upload their audio to a hosting service, then distribute via rss
Next, upload video to Youtube, hope the algorithm is kind. Reach the one billion people who Neal Mohan said are monthly podcast users on Youtube. Of course the entire population of the USA is roughly 330 million, including babies, so you’ll be reaching an additional 660 million folks worldwide! All who speak English and are interested in commercials for Harry’s Razors which is what actually pays the mortgage.
While you’re at it, upload your video to Spotify which makes the programmatic ads go away (which doesn’t pay the mortgage). Also something something don’t use the API something something locked into a hosting service so just manually upload your video to overwrite the audio.
Next, you get to pay your hosting service for HLS video so people on Apple can switch back and forth between audio and video like 4 people in the world do. Amazon has now added this feature, and if you check your podcasting dashboard you know what a huge segment of the market Amazon Music is for your podcast!
Now that you’re on Apple HLS, the gang at PWR tell us you might get “double” the downloads except you’re already too late because they promoted the initial partners (and you’re also not famous-ish Apple Youtuber Stephen Robles) so sit over here with the unwashed masses who don’t have CAA Agents.
Oh, your Apple paid subs don’t get the cool HLS video on Apple.
I also learned one service will let me upload a separate alternate-alternative enclosure to my extra-cost host so the audio people can get the good audio in the first place rather than the audio of the video
And now that you’ve done all that, you can get your agent at CAA to get you a deal with Netflix at which point I disconnect everything but the original mp3 rss feed.
I may have some of that wrong, I actually don’t think I do, but it kind of gets to what I am getting at - what are we even doing?
I will point out that I was listening to PWR while walking my dog in the park. james was recording from a park in Australia. Sam was wherever Sam was in the UK, 9500 miles away from James. It all sounded great. At no point did I have any desire to watch them have a conversation, and it’s not like I don’t like them, I am actually flying 3500 miles next week to have a drink with them in person.
cc Jackson did a very good recap of all this, but it was DJ’s episode that inspired this What Are We Even Doing article today. My head was spinning about halfway through it. Dave did a good job, the guests were lovely, I’m sure their product offerings are amazing, but again, what are even making at this point and why?
Dave said of Apple HLS, “Is that the right word? I don’t know that I don’t get it. I mean, I get it that it’s, you know, it’s another way of growing your audience, but I just didn’t get the whole like, oh, yeah, yeah, I was kind of like, I was very meh”
I still don’t think the economics of any of this is going to make sense for anyone involved, both hosts and shows. Why not just put your show on Youtube which is where the algorithm is anyway? As Dave said on the episode - you can always switch to audio by putting your phone in your pocket which is the smartest thing anyone in the industry has said in a year and a half.
And this week on AI's Talk About Podcasting, the AIs discuss AI generated podcasts!
This week I am listening to….
A good feisty economics discussion.
David Letterman was on Bill Simmons! The Bill Simmons Team can’t place audio markers correctly and Dave gets cut off mid-sentence! Bill is Spotify’s Head of Talk Strategy! Did I mention Dave gets cut off mid-sentence!
Good numbers on Daily Comedy News coming off the Roast of Kevin Hart. Should be good next week with Stephen Colbert’s final episode.
Let’s talk about the roast for a minute.
It was shockingly B-list, maybe C-list. It’s not like most of the top comedians weren’t in town.
Structurally, I think they made a mistake batting Tom Brady lead-off as it set the tone, not well. I would have dropped the opening bomb with Katt Williams in the top spot, which would have given the room more energy, which then feeds the lesser acts.
Tony Hinchcliffe was good, but this is what he does. Jeff Ross was good, but this is what he does. Nobody else really registered.
There was a version of this to be had with, I dunno, Chappelle who was in town, Jamie Foxx who lives in town, Eddie Murphy (major ask and would have been a nuke). Nikki Glaser is trying to reposition her career (listen to Daily Comedy News, I talk about that often, here’s one…)
An Industry Expert agrees with me that we have to convince Richard Deistch and Jimmy Traina to combine forces and make one great Sports Media Podcast. They bring out the best in each other.
And that’s it for today. I have to go make a ton of shows to cover some travel that comes along with time-zone disadvantages.