The Future Of Podcast Hosting

The podcast partnership is going to be on the floor of Podcast Movement this year. We're going to have a booth, we're going to have a table, come on by. But what's going to be interesting is on the floor at Podcast Movement are going to be a great deal. A big number of podcast hosts, people who want to host your podcast for you. And there is going to be company after company after company. And they're going to say things like, we're the premier service, we're the first, the best, that kind of thing. But the issue is, in many ways, they're all really just hosting your file and making them available via podcast. So some will die, some probably have already died even though they bought a booth. Some will have been there for a decade. But you, I think as the podcaster, your question needs to be, what is the future podcast hosting? And of course, if you're a podcast host, you also need to be asking yourself that question, what is the future of podcast hosting? It's not price. Any service that differentiates itself on price is going to have a lot of problems because price is the race to the bottom. You see that in the pizza world, the lowest prices, pizza are the worst tasting pizzas. Yeah, if you want to get a pizza for five bucks, you can get one, but it's not that much of a pizza. It's not about price. That's race to the bottom. It's not, despite what you may hear, an issue of compliance, you know, IABBCDEFG kind of thing. Compliance is important to a certain segment of podcasting and you're not worried about that because you're in my audience. Compliance is gonna work itself out. The big deal is that most of us, and you are included in this, are not in podcasting because you've got a certificate stamped of the amount of downloads that you can charge your 40 cpm for an insertion by a company that has nothing to do with what it is you're podcasting about. Compliance is not going to be a big deal. Interface is going to be a temporary differentiator. There are obviously some podcast hosting companies that look a lot better than other podcast hosting companies. But the fact of the matter is interface isn't going to last much longer. Longer. To be honest, all of our clients don't use a podcast interface because we do that management for them as part of their team. We're doing the publishing and you're going to see more and more of that. You're going to see organizations that do that. You're going to see Applications that do that, the interface is going to be unimportant. Price not important. Compliance not important. Interface not important. So the question is then, for a podcast hosting company, what is important? And really, it's the services of the podcast hosting company. And I was clever enough to make three different things that start with the letter S on this, but I think these are key. Number one, the podcast hosting company is going to have to, must stay ahead of the game. This industry is always changing. There are different needs, there are different preferences. There are different things that you might want to worry about, that you might not want to worry about. And this is gonna be really, really important. I think one of the things we're seeing right now, and it's gonna be interesting, between now and podc, which of the podcast hosts have just stayed ahead of the game and are ready for the new Apple categories? That alone will be telling. Have they figured out how to integrate that into the system? Are they all still using the code that they bought a couple of years ago from some sort of out offshore kind of situation? You want a podcast host who is staying ahead of the game, and you can only really stay ahead of the game if you know the game, and you can really only know the game if you care about the game. So I think one of the things that'll happen is if this is just a company who's dropped in, wanting some of that sweet, sweet podcast money, you better hire yourself a consultant who is watching and is helping you stay ahead of the game. So, number one in the services is simply staying ahead of the game. Number two, and this is important stats you can trust and understand. And this is big. Not everyone's selling ad insertions. Not everyone is doing the type of things that the IAB is hopefully coming in and making better for other people. Some of us just want to know, where is this going? Is this going up? Is this going down? Is Spotify a big chunk of my audience, or is it Pandora? Little things happen. Like the Apple Watch jumps in all of a sudden with an update, and all of a sudden we get all these downloads. And then some crazy people say that because the Apple Watch has downloaded a bunch of things, it's the new future of podcast consumption, when the fact of the matter is it was some bad code that downloaded a bunch of things. You need stats that you can trust. You need stats that you can understand. Not everyone is selling ad inserts. Not everyone is trying to prove their compliance. They just want to know what the heck is going on. You want a host that is Jumping in and they understand and then the last thing. And this is really huge. This is why you should jump into any kind of service. You know, in the email world, I'm sure you could run your own email newsletter, but what happens if Google Mail says you're spamming? Who's going to deal with that issue? Who's going to know what the rules are? If you're on some shared address, Tons and tons of things can go wrong in the email space. That's why you join with an email hosting plat or service platform, because they can deal with those things when it happens. The same thing is true in podcasting with any real online service. What you're paying for, the knowledge that comes in working in bulk. If you're on a hosting service, you're paying for a company that should scan to see if there's malware or these kinds of problems. The solutions made possible by the numbers is what you should be looking for in your podcast host. Let them do the work. Now, as an example, Pandora has entered into the game and Pandora is now doing podcasting. Now, all of our clients are on Pandora. Are you on Pandora? We've chatted about this in a previous episode, but the fact of the matter is the host that we are with came and said, hey, we talked to Pandora, we worked with Pandora, and because of our numbers with Pandora, we are able to offer you entry into Pandora. This is the kind of thing we want. This is the kind of thing that we need to be looking for. You see, because they are as big as they are and because they are as reputable as they are, they have the power in numbers and they can have the connection with Pandora. Just like the email service I'm with has the speed dial to the spam department at Google Solutions that are made possible by the numbers is what we want out of an isp. I'm sorry, out of a podcast host, the ISP is, you know, we want other things from them. Now, you'll notice I'm being very careful in this episode not to tell you who I host with, because the fact of the matter is. Hi. Yeah, I don't want to say it. I'm going back and forth. I'm proud to say I'm associated with them. I'm there. But I don't want this to be an issue of company A versus company B. Well, I heard these guys have this or that's that. I'll tell you this right now. You know, the company I'm with, their interface is just not that big of the Interface is not that big of a deal, but a lot of people don't care. And again, all of my clients have us do the publishing so they've never even seen the interface. I don't want this to be Company X versus Company Y versus Company Z. I want price to go away, I want compliance to go away. I want interface to go away. And I want you to be looking for a host that is staying ahead of the game. I want you to be looking for stats that you can trust and understand and realize the implications of what this means to you. And then finally join with someone who can bring you solutions made possible by the numbers. It's not that complicated. It's the future of podcast hosting. If you are with a booth at Podcast Movement and you want to know what's going to give you the longevity versus everybody else on the floor, it's those three things. If you've got any thoughts, got any comments, you can leave them here on Facebook where we're doing this live, or at all the old podcasting places. ThePodcastReport.com Facebook ThePodcastReport.com Twitter ThePodcastReport.com Instagram it's all there. Follow us there and deal with us there. If you want to email the podcastreportoutlook.com and of course we have the podcastreport.com website which will have this and all of the other episodes. The future podcasting is not that complicated. It's there for you. You're going to do well. Just think smart. Don't let emotions and, you know, fancy big words like best premier, et cetera get in the way. With that said and done, I will let you go for the night and talk to you soon. Bye.