A Quick Look At Past Podcast Predictions - The Podcast Report InbetweenISode

In my mind, there is nothing worse than people who make prediction after prediction after prediction, hoping that one of them will come true at some point. It's predictions that actually have a chance of coming true that are actually, I believe, important to me or important to you, important to the audience, important to the world. Especially true in podcasting. People have said thing after thing after thing about what podcasting is going to do, where podcasting is going to go, and it hasn't gone that way yet. Somehow, you know, you make enough predictions, one of them is going to come true. So Thursday I'm going to be releasing on the podcast report my predictions for 2019. And I thought what we do that would be kind of fun is look at my predictions for 2017, look at my predictions for 2018, see how well those did. And maybe if I am the type of person that you should listen to, if you are watching this episode live, I would love in the comments any predictions you have for podcasting in 2019 might bring them up. But I'd also like your thoughts on how well I got on my previous predictions. So again, this is just a straight episode of the podcast report recorded to Google Live, sorry, Facebook Live. That's an interesting Freudian slip published as a podcast. And then Thursday you'll have the more professionally produced version of the podcast. But let's get to the predictions now. What's fun here is we have the ability to switch things out. Watch this now, for those of you who are listening to just the audio of this, what I did was I now have a dual screen here on the Facebook Live where I've got my past screen, the podcast report where I made predictions for 2017. And let's take a look at these predictions and see how I did. Number one, no new podcast consumption models in 2017. Podcasting doesn't need fixing. This came from the idea, and there were plenty of them, that podcasting actually needs to get better. Podcasting needs fixing or that type of thing. Podcasting doesn't need fixing. It doesn't need new models. The apps are great. And by the way, that's not a new app. That's not a new platform. That's not a new iteration of something. It's just a new model for getting a podcast. Because, believe it or not, there are people who are saying podcasting is broken, and there are people who are saying podcasting doesn't work, doesn't provide what it needs. Well, actually, it's doing a great job. No new models in 2017. No new models in 2018. There have been some who have tried. I have watched them fail miserably and no need to comment on them here because they are my friends. So I would say that prediction of no new podcast consumption models despite what the industry was saying at the time, I think I did pretty well there. Again, if you are live, I would love to have your interaction here on Facebook on what you think if I got that one correct. And of course if you're watching this on Facebook on the replay, go ahead and make a comment. If you want, I will go back and take a look. And of course you're listening to this on the podcast. Get ready for Thursday's episode where I give you what's coming 2019 at least one number one show with no ad insertions. My big thing has always been that was my second 2017 podcast prediction. My big thing has always been that the most money in podcasting is not made in inserting ads. The most money made in podcasting is building a business strategy around podcasting. That's something bigger than selling ads. Might be selling your own stuff, might be commission sales, might be gateway to other things. There were plenty. 2017 did well. Not a worry there at all. The 2017 prediction that I did not get right was a new tool set from itunes, but nothing from Google. I got the Google part right, but I did not get the new tool set from itunes. Now that actually came in 2018 and we'll chat about that. So the prediction there was accurate but slow. That's okay. I'm gonna myself a negative on this one because the fact of the matter is it did not happen that year and I want to be true to what it is that we're doing here. So no new podcast consumption models in 2017. Check at least one number one show with no ad insertions. Check a new tool set from itunes, but nothing from Google Negative. Although that did come in 2018 and let's chat about that one for a second. Apple in 2018 gave us these new tags that let us do episode numbers, let us do season numbers, let us do the type of podcast. Apple is definitely without a doubt taking podcasting more seriously and doing things in podcasting that's going to bring it to the next level that Google is not doing that others is not doing. So hats off Google. I'm sorry, hats off itunes for doing that. Thank you so much. Ross Brand joined us. He said, hey Paul, Ross, we're doing predictions and I'd love to hear what you think about my predictions so far. So that is the 2017 predictions that I made. I think I did pretty well on those, and I think that's what happens when you obsess about these type of things. If you have any thoughts otherwise as to how I did, feel free to go ahead and put that in the comments of wherever you are consuming this. But let's get closer to the reality. Let's look at what's happening in or what happened in 2018. That only started a couple of months ago. And this was the fancy page, the fancy show notes. We'll be doing a future article, a future episode about whether or not these fancy show notes were definitely worth it. But if we take a look at the predictions, they're right here. Okay. And prediction number one was minimal, if any, embracing of the new itunes tags from other players like Google, Stitcher, et cetera. I don't see them embracing the tags, but I think embracing the tags would be a good idea. Oh boy. Some funny stuff here. Not only does it feel like the others haven't been embracing the tags, but actually sometimes it feels like Apple isn't necessarily even embracing the tags and other shows have chatted about this. I don't necessarily want to go deeper into this, but the fact of the matter is the tags are there. We're seeing some results from them. What's really interesting is if you are tagging episode numbers and season numbers and then you miss one, it's not going to show up in your results. So be really, really careful. But yeah, the tags are not being as embraced as I thought they would be by everyone. I expected others to kind of hope it would go away, and I guess that's kind of working. So that's an interesting strategy. You as a podcaster, thinking about tags in terms of using them so that Apple looks well upon you is definitely a good idea. Let me give you one little juicy tidbit hint that I think is very, very important. Amazon does not recognize seasons. Amazon recognizes episode numbers. So what does this mean? Season 1, episode 1, season 2, episode 1, season 3, episode 1 are all the same for Amazon? Well, Paul, who cares? Well, if you're building an Alexa app, cares. So what you want to do. And now, now it's about to talk to me. Alexa, cancel. You're never supposed to do that when you're. When you're on a thing, you should actually turn off your device. But that's what happens there. Anyway with Amazon, you want to have episode numbers be sequential. At least that's the way it is right now. Not necessarily a bad idea. I don't want to get too geeky on it, but there we go. So the embracing the tags, nobody else has embraced them at all. Sometimes it feels like Apple is not embracing them either. I still think it's a good idea. I still think it's of strategic importance. And I would recommend everybody listening to this do that. For those of you watching this live, if you are embracing the tags, if you are doing anything with the tags, or if you've just ignored the tags, let me know. I would love to hear. I would love to see your comments on that. Number two, I said something else unexpected from Apple. They seem to have a new focus on itunes. They're probably dreaming up. Unexpected stats are fantastic, and we focus on them. In another episode, itunes and Apple will introduce something else that the other platforms will have to decide if they want to play in that world. Now, here's the thing. Apple did do something unexpected. Apple did something very unexpected. And what's funny is a lot of people haven't even necessarily realized that Apple's done this. And I see Ross on the show, I see Joel on the show, and I almost the the nervous type, and he doesn't necessarily want to give away the stat here. But the fact of the matter is, and this is fascinating, Apple has killed K I L L E D the distinction between audio podcasts and video podcasts on the iOS platform. What does that mean? Well, it means if you pull up itunes on your desktop, you'll actually see the difference between audio podcasts, video podcasts, both for search and that type of thing, and charts and all that stuff that is actually gone on itunes on the iPhone, itunes on the iPad, itunes on the Apple tv. What does this mean? Well, the best way to look at it, I know I chatted about them last week, but it's a client who is doing pretty fantastic things and we're having a blast with it. If you look for your next million with Frank Kern and you look at the video edition, look at that on the iOS app or look at that on the Android. I'm sorry, on the. That was an interesting slip. Look at it on the iPhone app or look at it on the iPad app. Pull up that video version and see how that interacts with podcast. Notice it doesn't say video version, but watch what happens. It is pretty stinking fantastic. And we could go into a whole episode of tinfoil hat moments deciding why Apple has made this change and not talked about it or not done anything with it. But the fact of the matter is, it's there. We're taking advantage of it with several clients. Frank's the easiest to use or the easiest to see in use. Apple is doing that. And if you look, if you look, Apple's done a lot of unexpected things in 2018. There's that. There's the whole thing where they put music, Apple Music on the Alexa. Why would they do that? Apple is a hardware company right now. But what's interesting is if they put Apple Music on the Alaxa, there could be a number of reasons, but I always like to go the shortest point between the two, you know, shortest line between the two points. There's more money in putting Apple Music on Alexa a than there is selling a home device that plays Apple music. That's my guess. There's a lot of changes that are happening in Apple. Another one that's really interesting in Apple, and I think all these are tied together. And podcasting, despite what nerd you talk to podcasting, a big part of podcasting is your Apple audience. So if Apple does things to expand their audience, they're doing things to expand your podcast. So you want to think this stuff through. Other thing that Apple's done that's really interesting, I've got mine right here. For those of you who are listening to the audio version of this, you know, this is my Apple. This is my iPhone. For the first time, in three or four versions of the iPhone, I bought the cheapest iPhone. Now, normally I buy the most expensive iPhone because of the camera. Notice here how I'm. For those of you watching the video version of this, seeing what's happening, for those of you watching the audio, listening the audio version of this, I've actually got some lights coming through the shade that is affecting my lighting here. Oh, well. Going to change some things in the office. Who would have thought in Portland we would have to worry about the sun? But anyway, back to the Apple thing. I bought the cheapest iPhone this year. Why? Because I'm cheap this year. Well, I'm always cheap. I've always been cheap. But the fact matters. I bought the cheapest version because the cheapest version has the same chip as the expensive version, and the cheapest version has the same camera as the expensive version. Why would Apple do this? Maybe Apple is not as focused on the hardware business as they once were. So, number two, I'm going to give that one to myself with an absolute bullet. And we got a lot of expected things coming from Apple. I think we're going to see a lot of unexpected things coming from Apple next year as well. Really, really huge. Really, really Huge. Thank you. For those of you who are watching, I'm chatting about my past podcast predictions and I'm actually going to be giving my 2019 podcast predictions on Thursday's official episode. But I thought it' go live to Facebook chat about this. And I also thought that I would, you know, like we're doing, we're putting these Facebook lives on the podcast and if you want to listen, two episodes ago we talked about the whole beast mode idea and that kind of thing, but that's where we're going there. Great to have everybody interacting. It's kind of fun. Ross, Joel, Jacqueline, Kim, Mark and the rest, thank you so much for interacting. Let's hit my third prediction, but what I want to do third prediction from last year. But what I want to do is I want to encourage if anyone has a prediction they'd like to make inside of Facebook. If you're watching this live, I'll even comment on it and we'll chat about it. My last prediction was the first video podcast hit in 2018. That has been a real certified hit recently. This is the year of video podcast hit. Did not happen last year and we don't have one early 2019. I was wrong on that one. I think we're going to see a video podcast hit soon. It's not necessarily going to be one of my clients. The industry that I work with are very specific business people with a very specific audience. So don't think I'm foreshadowing something that's coming ahead or something like that. I do think we're going to see some video podcast hits and I think these video podcast hits are going to be very, very good for the industry. I think it's going to cause some podcasters to kind of up their game and to think about some stuff. And I think we're going to be really, really good there. An event to think about, an event to focus on. I am huge fans of Darrell Eves vidsummit event. I've gone for the last three years. I will continue to go and it's something to watch the video space of what's going on. I think when video podcasting sees a certified hit, I think we'll start to see more podcast Conversations at VidSummit Past the Traditional how do I podcast thing, which has never been my thing anyway. Pat Flynn actually knocked that out of the park the last one. Pat did an incredible job. So my three predictions for 2018 we'll review them again. Was minimal, if any. Embracing the new itunes tags by other people I was so right there that sometimes it feels like Apple isn't even embracing them. Action item for you. Embrace them anyway. Number two, something else unexpected from Apple. We saw a bunch unexpected from Apple. I think we're going to continue to see it. I might even do a full episode of all the really strange things that app. Strange isn't the right word. They've got a plan. The surprising things that Apple's doing. Number three, I got wrong. No video podcast hit. Although I truly believe that's coming. So that's it for this episode. If somebody wants to make a comment or question that is relevant to the conversation, I'll certainly take it on. If not, we will take this episode and we will leave it at Facebook and we'll have fun with comments and that type of thing. But we will also grab the audio from that and put that up as a Currently we're calling them in between a sode of the podcast report. And then on Thursday the 2019 prediction show will come out and you can tell me if I am right or wrong. Thank you so much those of you who are watching this live. I salute you. And for those of you who are watching the replay of this knot, Ross wanted to know if I'm going to podfest. Not this year. Great show, Great event. Just timing. You got to be. You got to be careful. It's a good show, you know, definitely one to consider going to. It tends to go more to the podfest, tends to go more to the enthusiast side of things. And I am more on the business side of things. There's definitely some business users there and they're definitely some enthusiasts at all the other events. But two trips to Orlando this year, not in my my docket, but that's not a disagreement with the show at all. That's just the status of where I'm at. So thank you everybody who participated in this. I'm having more and more fun with the live. I think this beast mode idea is absolutely fascinating. For those of you who are just listening to this in the audio podcast, don't worry about it. I will take my live events and put them on the audio podcast and and we'll have fun with this new season of the podcast report. Thank you so much everybody. We'll chat again next Monday and you will grab the predictions episode on Thursday if you haven't subscribed. All the usual places, the podcast report, itunes, the podcast report, google thepodcastreport.com Pandora those numbers have been up. That's been interesting. We'll probably chat about that on a future episode. All the rest and thank you so much. We will chat next week. Bye.