New Realities Of Video Podcasting - The Podcast Report Episode #162

If you think the Gimlet acquisition by Spotify was about audio, you're not really paying attention. It's the podcast report, episode 162, show notes, links, conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 162 being a longtime fan of the podcast report, I know that you're thinking to yourself right now, hey, Paul doesn't really like to do official episodes about moments in time. And yep, I just did that. And my comment about the Gimlet acquisition and the Spotify purchase and all these things dates this episode. This is definitely a February 2019 moment. But I guarantee what we've got here today is an examination of the world of video podcasting that's going to be prevalent for some time. We might even be able to go back to this episode and know this is where it all started. So I'm okay doing it this time. Right now we've got a moment in time that shows us what's coming and it's really, really important. Video podcasting doesn't get a lot of press. It is first expensive. The bandwidth to do a video podcast, especially a, you know, a high quality one, is much more expensive than the bandwidth to do an audio podcast. A good looking camera that helps you do better than, you know, other cameras is obviously going to cost you a lot more than a good microphone. The lights, the soundproofing, all the things that are needed to be done to make a good video situation happen is just a lot more work. Video podcasting is harder to produce. And then if you've gone through that process of producing a good video podcast, YouTube has, let's admit it made video very, very easy. You can put the highest quality video up there. If you've got video that they can't even serve yet, they'll hold that higher quality version, dumb it down to the audience. It's pretty impressive what YouTube's done. YouTube has also made monetizing with their ad platform a lot easier. You know, podcasting would love to have monetizing with the ease of use of what YouTube has. So YouTube's made video very easy. But one thing we, well, one of the many things we need to think about is simply the realization right now that YouTube's having some problems. Their monetization elements are being questioned. They have demonetized some shows, some for some very good reasons, some for some fascinating reasons. This is not a show about YouTube, but YouTube is not the wonderland that it once was for video. I think this is really important. But at the same time, with the video podcasting, Being expensive to make, harder to produce, harder to serve, more expensive to surf. And then YouTube out there in an interesting place so far that there are even some video podcasters or some podcasters, if you will, that I love, who produce great content, who are actually putting their stuff out on their video stuff out on YouTube as opposed to a video podcast. And this is an interesting thing that we need to examine and that's part of what we're going to do here on this episode. In the early days of video podcasting, we had some really interesting players. We had Geek brief, it was a nerd podcast. Callie Lewis and her husband at the time Neil, had a multiple time a week. I know they tried to go daily, but it was a lot of production, high production value podcast that was very good, very entertaining. We had Rocket Boom. Andrew Barron out in his New York City, New York City was able to produce almost daily show as well. That was fascinating. We had Tiki Room tv, We had Ask a Ninja that was doing straight out entertainment. That was fantastic. And we would have Dom McAllister at Screencast online who was doing video podcasts of a high enough resolution to walk us through how to do things. He taught many how to podcast. Video podcasting in the early days was prevalent and it was before YouTube was as strong as it was, but boy, it was even more expensive back then. And the bandwidth cost more back then and the production cost more back then. We had it for a little while. What happened? What's interesting, at least at the time of this recording, and I'm going to stress at the time of this recording, because I'm seeing a change coming very, very soon. If you look at the itunes desktop, there is a very. And that's Mac and that is Windows. There's a very clear distinction between video podcasts and audio podcasts. You can choose one or the other, you can choose to search all of them. But if you just want to look for video, you can get just that. If you want to search for audio, you can get just that. Matter of fact, if you look at an audio, the background normally is white. If you look at a video podcast, the background normally is black. There are some marketing elements inside of itunes that have this. Now, you've heard me say this before. I think itunes desktop is on the verge of a very major change very, very soon. But on the desktop, there is a very clear distinction in itunes between video and audio podcasts. What's interesting is that same company, Apple Duh, makes a podcast app on iOS, which is iPhone, which is iPad, which is Apple TV, which is even the Apple Watch that does not distinguish between video and audio podcasts. There are a number of implications to this. It's not a user interface issue as much as it is that now video podcasts can come up in audio. I think one of the big implications of this is we're gonna see something huge from Apple on the desktop soon. Maybe podcasting gets split off from itunes, I don't know. But you can tell that they're not as strongly involved with the growth of the itunes app on the desktop. So I think if we look to the iOS devices, we could tell what's going on there. And the fact of the matter is, is there is no distinguishing between the two. In the old days, in the days of Geek Brief, rocketbroom, Tiki Beam, Ninja, Screencast, we would do a show audio version. We'd do a show video version. Well, one of our clients here, Frank Kern. Your next million. With Frank Kern, we did that. We launched with youh Next Million Audio Edition. Your Next Million Video Edition. But here's what's interesting. If you go to your iPhone and you type in Frank Kern, the audio edition comes up. The video edition comes up. Oh, what does that mean? Pull up the video Edition, you click play. You'll see the video streaming in a really nice interface. Apple's done a really good job. And it is a video player that is, I'm going to say it, a better interface than YouTube, a better interface than some of the other video players out there. And it's a little bit confusing because if someone's searching, Frank, are they going to get the audio version? The video version? What do we do with that strategies there? That's a. That's a whole nother thing right now, to be honest. They're acting in parallel with each other. I think that'll change in the future. But you could have someone download the video version, click play, even tell Siri to play, not look at the. You know, at the app itself, and actually get a video experience with the audio in the background. Not necessarily caring. I think this is really interesting. But. So video podcasting was around for a while. Big distinguishing, not distinguished anywhere. Now, in the place where Apple's paying the most attention, I think this is very, very interesting. So what do we do about this? Well, a audio is still king in the space. It isn't about that right now. And for several years to come, podcasting will be very largely associated with audio. A lot of the great attention will be in Aud and I will continue to produce a lot of audio content only. I'm glad that I don't have to have the lights on while I do this. As a matter of fact, my camera is having a problem right now, and I'm not even really sure what's wrong with it. And I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be able to just pull out the microphone and record this particular episode. So audio is still king. But it's really important to realize that video is becoming easy to consume. Video is becoming easy to host. Video is becoming easily part of this game. And that's why I go back to the statement I made at the beginning of this about the Gimlet acquisition. Yes, Gimlet shows. Audio shows are good. Many of them. I haven't consumed all of them, but I was a big fan of startup from the day it came out. You've heard me chat about that. I've heard the Homecoming one is fantastic. I've heard they're really great. But here's the thing. Spotify did not acquire Gimlet for audio shows. Spotify acquired Gimlet because Gimlet's also making video now. Yes, they made that hideous Alex Inc. Sitcom that we've chatted about on previous episodes. But they also did things like Homecoming. You know, Premiere TV on Amazon prime with Julia Roberts, screen legend. Screen star Julia Roberts does a TV show. Why? Because it's good. That too came from Gimlet and Spotify does video. And Spotify is looking to become a bigger media play. And this acquisition is not just about audio, it's about video. I want to say that I want us to realize that and I want us to act on that in the so what thing? Well, I can't do video like they can. Well, actually you can. Obviously not to the production value. But don't worry, their expenses are much higher and they've got to make a lot more money in the process. Many times the independent, smaller podcast has got a better chance of pulling a profit than some of these big huge guys do. But you can take your video, you can compress it intelligently. Compress it strategically. We're doing this for a number of our clients. Put it on a reliable host, realize that bandwidth costs money. So if the number seems too good to be true, it probably is. You can compress intelligently, you can put video up, and if you just think smartly, realize some platforms like Apple Podcasts doesn't distinguish between the two. But if you put a video up, for instance, the Overcast client will take it but will only serve the audio version of it. Stitcher will take it, but only serve the audio version of it. And all the different platforms do different things, so you're going to have to have an audio only version anyway. But you can be strategic about it. You can do it. You can play in this game as well and your audience can consume it quickly and easily. Again, if you want to see a really easy example of this, go ahead and, you know, go to the podcast app and look up Frank Kern, your next million, and see what he's doing on the video edition. See what he's doing on the audio edition and you'll find some interesting stuff. But the now what side of it, that's what's important. I want you to consider putting up some video, even if the video is video of you doing talking head of your show. If you've been paying attention this season, I've been doing a little bit more talking head on Facebook. And now you're realizing Paul's actually doing some sort of test marketing to what a video version of the podcast report might look like or some testing to what a video version the podcast report might look like. Yes, and I will be putting some video out there. Many of our clients are putting some video out there. I want you to consider putting some video out there if you want to see it again in action. You can take a look at Frank Kern, your next million. You can take a look at Empowering youg today from OrganixxOrganix. Another one of our clients, they have a video and an audio version of their show. But consider that. Be careful with that. Be strategic about it. But definitely consider it and definitely test it. Do consider the streams. Know that many audiences consider podcasting as audio only. Many podcasting platforms consider podcasting as audio only. So have something that works across both platforms. Don't overwhelm anybody who can't make it. But do consider it. Do start playing with it, do start experimenting with it and you might be really excited about the results. Closing this up. This is a considerable conversation. This is a thing that we have to think about. The industry is moving towards this both on the big high level, high press stuff like Spotify's acquisition. By the way, you can go to Spotify to look at some of their video stuff, but the industry is also getting ready for it very quietly. When you look at some of the podcast hosts, letting you put on more storage, making bandwidth a little bit easier, there's some interesting options there. And if you look at what Apple's doing with no longer distinguishing between the two, I don't believe that's a UI thing. I believe that's a very strategic move to where podcasting is going. And as you someone who listens to the podcast report, if you're this far into this, you're trying to be strategic as well and you want to think about it, this is a conversation I would love to continue with you. ThePodcastReport.com Twitter ThePodcastReport.com Facebook ThePodcastReport.com Instagram let's get this conversation going. I think we are at a really interesting place. Season six is having all sorts of fun. The last episode was a test of some new tech. This episode will be a test of some new tech as well. As you are listening to this, you're probably getting pre rolls which is an interesting idea as well. A lot of things happening in the space. Stay on the podcast report to be kept up to date with it all. Thank you so much. We'll chat with you next week. Bye.