Author Archives: Rob Greenlee

On-Demand or Podcasts are the Next Evolution of Talk Radio

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If done right podcasts are much better then regular broadcast talk radio. The niche focus is very much the strength of the medium and their general on-demand accessibility on internet connected devices. This scheduled live or live-like broadcast radio is just not needed as much for topics other than traffic, weather, local news, live sports and breaking news. That is enough to keep broadcast radio alive in the future, but much of that will be delivered to the car via internet radio streaming. We will also see some DVR like functions in the car via live radio apps and on-demand radio show playlists that auto update.

Podcasting vs. YouTube

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By podcasting’s definition, YouTube Channels are not the same as podcasts.  I keep hearing the comparison and matching going on by users and some newer content providers.  The current state of perceptions might lead one to that conclusion, but they are very different things.

What you generally find is that podcasters and YouTube content creators are very different.  You also find that successful podcasters are not always successful YouTubers and successful YouTubers are rarely successful podcasters. The two areas cater to very different audiences and usage scenarios.  Here is a case study presented by content provider Pat Flynn that discusses his success in combining YouTube and Podcasting distribution.  He did find a synergy between the two for him, but depending on the type and genre of content your success will vary.

The existence of proprietary distribution platforms like YouTube and other mostly streaming hosting platforms is creating some confusion around what a podcast is today.  Things come in cycles and we have seen this gravitational pull to streaming that started in the late 90s and is continuing to grow in popularity. The thing that always kept streaming grounded in reality is the unreliability of internet connections to deliver the data speeds to keep us connected to the audio and video content we seek online.  While admittedly, our wired and wireless broadband has gotten much better over the past 10 years, we still have a need to store our media files locally for playback anytime at a consistant quality level.

We are seeing increasing user demand for on-demand streaming like playback for podcasted content today and am sure the demand will continue to grow.  This will cause the podcasting community to evolve the current model more towards favorites and click-to-play user scenerios.  These new user scenerios and functions are already being built into podcast aggregator apps, but for us to move towards more streaming, will require podcasters to move beyond the current download and subscription model that is still popular, but fading today.

Top 13 Things That “Really” Build A Podcast Audience

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I have been recently reading the advice given by many others about ways to promote your podcast.  Many focus on new types of things like distributing CD’s and making business cards for your show – not really the best of ideas really!  I believe in making sure you are doing the basics well first before doing some of these other ideas.  While all the promo ideas given online can help to some degree or so.  The real keys to building your show audience boil down to these things mainly – doing these things well WILL GROW YOUR SHOW:

  1. Great audio/video quality
  2. Entertaining or informative topics with passion, knowledge, personality are KING!
  3. Compelling album art that is refreshed/updated regularly
  4. Clear and interesting show name/series descriptions
  5. Get your show distributed to as many aggregation platforms as possible – even broadcast radio
  6. Major parts of the show include audience involvement/contribution to show and topics
  7. Meet your audience in the real world as much as you can
  8. Guest on other podcasts/radio/TV shows – as a topic expert or entertainer
  9. Contribute via written word to online topic discussions in your genre
  10. Produce shows on a consistant basis and at a fairly consistant duration
  11. Join a network of other podcasters
  12. Work to be known locally in your community and gain local media attention
  13. Get top listing in search engines based on your topic genre keywords

On-Demand and Time-Shifted Talk Radio is the Future of Audio Podcasting

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The talk of the death of podcasting is an annual right of passage these days,  but I am starting to think that nothing is really wrong in the podcasting medium. We are just seeing the natural maturation of this form of media.  Saying that is not to discount the need for the medium to improve its distribution platforms and offer greater quality content. It seems like the future should be centered on developing more synergy with the broadcast radio side.  I know this is a little counter to what we might all think, but really radio has wide adoption and podcasting fills a need that radio is weak at and that is around on-demand and time-shifted consumption of serialized audio programming.  It seems like many of the folks on the radio side don’t really get podcasting and the podcasting side does not get how radio works.  Both could really learn from the other and help each other.

I also see the video side of podcasting beginning to fade away as video shifts to being more cloud based-streaming that can be more easily monitized.  It seems that within a few short years podcasting will be 90% audio and radio stations will be much larger podcasters then they are today.  The other major concern area for me is around distribution platforms viability long-term as it is very difficult for any of these platforms to make any or enough money to keep investing in these platforms.

Here is an excerpt from a recent Wired Gadget Lab article:

“Stitcher Stitcher is a free talk radio app that lets you listen to your favorite programs on demand. You can choose from more than 7,000 shows, and the app is available on all major phone platforms — including Windows Phone for the first time.

“We decided that the time was right to create a Windows Phone Mango app now that Windows Phone is definitely becoming the third member of the space,” said Collin Billings, Stitcher’s director of user experience.

Stitcher aggregates popular content by source (for example, NPR, BBC and CNN) and by topic (for example, food and motorcycles). Content is wirelessly synced, so if you start listening to a program on your Windows Phone, you can pick up where you left off on an Internet-connected radio or on your PC.

The app’s name is derived from the practice of “stitching” together multiple stations and podcasts to create a personalized talk radio playlist. If you’re not quite sure what to listen to, or are looking to branch out to new sources, you can see what other listeners of the same show also liked.”

I need to say that the lack of podcast aggregator platform revenue is number 1# limiting issue around podcast distribution platform innovation and improvement.  The answer to this question looks a lot like Stitcher with more integration with internet radio in the car and on mobile/wifi devices.