The Podcast Industry Report: Navigating Apple's Dominance in Podcasting

Yes, podcasting never would have happened without the ipod. But is podcasting better because of Apple? It's the Podcast industry report, season three, episode 101. This is Paul Calligan, and this is the Podcast Industry Report, season three. This is the show where I show you, the podcaster, how to reach more with your message, profit more from your content by understanding the industry that you are playing in. The big idea for this episode is simply what you think about Apple doesn't affect your podcast in any way. What you do about Apple affects your podcast in some extremely important ways. Why the Podcast Industry Report? What happened? Why did you change the name? Well, if this is your first episode, welcome. We've got 100 episodes in the past that you can listen to. They're great. I'm proud of them. We did a lot of stuff. But one of the things that happened at the end of season two was I came to this realization that the industry's just got some problems. Some of our leaders are not leading. Some of our leaders are doing damage in their leading. Some people that need to be leading maybe need to be leading more because they sure as heck aren't doing it. We got to deal with our leadership. So in season three, we're going to look at leaders. We're going to look at the ones who are doing well, we're going to look at the ones who are doing poorly. We're. We're gonna look at the ones that need to step up, we're gonna look at the ones that need to step down. Should be interesting. Each episode, I'm gonna take a topic. I'm gonna take a leader in the space, a obvious leader, an unobvious leader, a clear leader, a leader who needs to act, a leader who doesn't need to act. And we're gonna chat about them, but we're also gonna chat about what we do about them. So we gotta start with Apple. We have to start with itunes. That's the only thing that makes sense. Hence, episode 101, Apple. My clients are trying to figure out how they fit into this industry. They figured out podcasting, they figured out revenue, they figured out production, they figured out all the things that seem to matter so much to podcasters, but there's still that big question, what do I do in this space? So this season, as much about my clients as about it is the industry, but it is also about you. Because when you figure out your place in the industry, when you figure out your place in all this, you're going to move from being a show to a Player. And I think you want to make that move. So I want to work, I want to help you make that move. Let's get to it. On my bookshelf is a podcasting book by Todd Cochran from Blueberry. Before Blueberry, before all that time, Todd wrote one of the first podcasting books. I remember to this day when he handed it to me at Gnome Decks. I was on the right hand side. He had the book, just a couple of copies. He was proud, the industry was moving. We were talking about podcasting and he gave us this book. Now, the funny thing is this book came out and it was ahead of its time and it was amazing and it was the first. But the thing that was interesting was it didn't mention itunes. Now why didn't mention itunes? Well, it didn't mention itunes because at that time itunes did not have podcasting involved. This is important. You need to understand that Apple did not beget podcasting. Apple did not bring us podcasting. Apple maybe embraced it, maybe put their arms around it, maybe whatever term you want to use, but it didn't start with them. It started with Dave Weiner and Adam Curry trying to figure out a way to put MP3 files into RSS feeds. And for those of that who it's too nerdy, just know it didn't start with Apple. That's the important thing. But that's said and done. We have to start with Apple because they are the big player. It's fascinating. There are a lot who think poorly of Apple. I don't like being on Apple. I don't like Apple. I don't like playing with Apple. Well, I don't care. Apple is the 800 pound gorilla. We have to start with Apple. I released this specifically on the day that iOS 10 was released. Ten iterations of the iOS platform, podcasting has been around for all of them. The podcast app is still there. It's still a pretty bad app. There are actually better apps out there. But with that said and done, so even on the iPhone, Even on these 1 billion devices, there are better options to get podcasts. But the fact of the matter is the majority of them are coming from itunes, from Apple, specifically from the podcast app. This is why we start here. We're going to hit everybody over the course of time. If there's someone that you'd like me to hit, head out to the podcastreport.com101 or the podcast or thepodcastreport.com Facebook, let me know. I've got a good list of people we're going to hit. If there's people you'd like us to hit, go ahead, we'll do that. With that said and done, 1 billion iPhones sold. That doesn't include iPads, that doesn't include ipods. That doesn't include people on the desktop. Apple reality is real numbers. There are some out there who speak to the world of the amount of devices that can get podcasts. Well, it's not about the amount of devices that can get podcasts. It's about the amount of devices that are listing to podcasts. And here's the thing. Unless you are an extreme fringe case, and if you're an extreme fringe case, gosh darn it, you're not in the reach more with your message, profit more from your content demographic that this whole show is built upon. But unless you're an extreme fringe case, the biggest part of your audience, ranging around the 80% mark, and I've got some clients in the 90% mark, I've got some clients in the 60 to 70% mark, but ranging around 80, this is going to be the biggest part of your audience. The Apple reality is they are bringing you the most listeners through their directory and through their infrastructure, through their app. I would love to get better numbers. I would love to have Tom Webster and the whole Infinite dial group start giving us numbers on where people are getting their podcasting. Maybe that'll come in future years. Tom, you are definitely a leader. Tom, you're definitely going to be in a future episode of the show. Real numbers, they're the 800 pound gorilla. They are being used. But with that said and done, let's look at some realities here. Here's a problem. You can't really contact Apple about your podcast. There is no 800 number. There is, there's podcast connect. We'll chat about that in a second. There's no 800 website. There's a really limited strange email support system. There is the new podcasts connect.apple.com portal which is now where you register your podcast is now where you do some things. But here's the thing. There's no way to switch accounts. There's no way to get stats. There's no way to move from one email to another. It's. It's crazy and it's dysfunctional and hopefully it will get better. But it is what it is. Now let's put this into perspective. Stitcher, who is responsible for a tiny, tiny fraction of percentage of my downloads. Stitcher. I was able to successfully move a client from one partner account to another partner account by a simple email in the course of 48 hours. Whereas right now, inside of the Apple infrastructure, there's not even the ability to do that, let alone the quick turnaround and getting things done by email. Apple is kind of out there, kind of hard to reach. They've been doing better, but they're not doing good enough. But then again, they're the 800 pound gorillas, so you have to deal with that. Apple is secretive as part of their culture. You know, when the iPhones get released, when the new computers get released, it's always the gamble. What are they going to do, where are they going to go, what's going to happen? Their culture is secretive. And if you're going to deal with them, you're going to have to deal with this secret, secretive culture. It's important to think about, important to ponder. The database. This is huge. Not only is the itunes database responsible for the itunes listeners, but let's be honest, the itunes database is slurped, is imported, is scraped, is whatever you want to call it. And what that means is basically some of your other podcast platforms are getting their information from the itunes database, not necessarily by permission, but the fact of the matter is, if you were to take a look at your listings inside of itunes, you find very, very interesting stats on some of the other numbers that are out there doing better than groups like stitcher are coming from that database. That database is important, that audience is important, that footprint is important. Yet they're secretive, they're hard to contact, and they're hard to deal with them. So in summary, what do we do about this? Well, you have to play with them, but you have to play strategically. You have to understand what an impact they've got, what a position they're in, and you got to deal with it. So how do we do that? I got seven ways. I got seven strategies for dealing with Apple, realizing their place in this industry and realizing what you're going to get from them and what you gosh darn it, are not going to get from them. If you visit thepodcastreport.com 101 yes, we've updated this to the podcast industry report. Go ahead and search by that, but we'll keep the old domain name. If you go to the podcastreport.com 101, I've got an option for you. I've got these seven things on a PDF. You can download it, pin it to your wall. They're the 800 pound gorilla. This is where you start. This is the part of the Industry, where you begin, this is key. This is vital. And there are seven things that you have to do. Number one, you got to get right on what really matters in itunes. Here's the thing. There are a lot of people telling you a lot of things about itunes that simply aren't true. And it's frustrating and it's irritating. Some of them are telling you things that aren't true because they're things they want to be true. Some of you. Some of them are telling you things that aren't true because they're selling a course that only makes money if these things are true. Some of them are telling true because they wish they were true. Some are telling you things are true because they did it once and it worked that way for them. You got to get right with what's right with itunes because they are such a player. Don't do what makes sense according to Guru X. Do what makes sense according to what makes sense. New and noteworthy is a big one. You can go all over the Internet. You can hear a thousand things about new and noteworthy. Here's the deal. I've gotten to new and noteworthy with only four downloads and I've gotten next to major computer companies that are publicly traded. A new noteworthy is not that big of a deal. It's just a response to you being get this new or noteworthy. Think it through. If you hear something about itunes that doesn't make sense, that's a hack. Ask yourself this. Could this be a hack? Is there a reason why this would work? Why would Apple do this? Think it through. Think it through. I was in LA this summer with the launch of one of my clients. We'd done a major launch. He made it. It was really funny. We got up in the morning and typically I love to chart it all day long and do all the screenshots. And so, you know, I'm a 6am Riser kind of guy. And I got up and I wanted to see where he was at in his main category so that we could start the charting. And gosh darn it, he was at number one and self help. And then I went over to the health category to see where he was at and gosh darn, he was at number one health as well. He'd already made it number one in two categories before we even started charting the thing. We got to itunes and he was like in the low 90s and we started charting it. He was doing extremely well. The campaign was working. Everything that needed to be done was being done. He was going up the charts and I'M sitting having lunch with this guy at his event and a guru, nameless texts him and says, dude, you better do this if you want to stay on the charts. Now, this guru wasn't even in the top 200 of even his category yet. He was telling this guy, well, you have to do this. And it was based on something that some other guru had told him and it wasn't something that made sense. And my client looks at me and goes, paul, does this even make sense? No, it doesn't. Then why is he saying this? This is part of the problem. Step one, get right on what really matters in iTunes. Step two, look good for and at itunes. If you do something that looks ridiculous in itunes, you are going to look ridiculous. There's the programmatic issue to this. There's just you don't want to look like a darn fool. You don't want to look like a darn fool in the itunes database. And again, remember, this happens in other databases as well. The other thing is you just want to look good socially. You know, if I look at this podcast that you supposedly have spent your life on and poured your heart and soul into and I go to your itunes page and it looks kind of silly, you know, don't do that look good for and at itunes programmatically, their database, all the other people who are slurping at it, but also people who are just looking at it. Number three, this should be pretty obvious, but it's funny, the amount of people who don't do this is significant. Number three is just check yourself at itunes. I don't care if you're on Android. I don't care if you're on Pocket cast. I don't care if you're on Overcast or whatnot. Check yourself on a regular basis at itunes. It is the 800 pound gorilla. And you know what? Apple's not checking for you and your clients aren't checking for you. You definitely need to be checking for yourself. The email tied to your account. This has been the bane of everybody's existence. Keep the email associated with your account. If you have a podcast and it was submitted originally on an AOL account, keep your AOL address. Just do what you can right now inside of Apple and inside of this massive bureaucracy. And this is recorded in September of 2016 and hopefully they will fix it. But right now, everything you got, what access you got, is tied to your email address. So keep your email address. Number five, play the Apple's rating game. This is huge. Apple wants to know if you're clean if you're not marked. If you're explicit, Does Apple check? No. Does Apple have people go in and listen to every episode to see if you drop an F bomb? No. But what's happening is a Podcasts that are not being listed as clean are not popping up in some of their educational areas. Podcasts that are being marked as explicit are certainly being drawn away from some websites. You want to think about it. You don't want to be banned. You don't want to be miscategorized. You don't want to be deemed untrustworthy. You don't want to deem anything that's happening by not categorizing yourself. That's part one of playing the Apple's rating game, but part two of playing the Apples rating game. Yes, there was tremendous freedom inside of itunes, and there's tremendous freedom inside of podcasting, and it's enabled us to do some wonderful things. But here's the deal. If you love to drop explicit content, just realize that soon you're not going to be able to reach as many people as you were before. And maybe that's just who you are. Maybe that's your audience. But maybe there's a change that needs to happen for you to reach more people through this thing. That is the majority of your feed. So deal with that. Number six, don't ignore the video podcast. The video podcast is coming quickly. It's coming faster than a lot of us saw Apple the tv. I've chatted about this in previous episodes. Don't ignore the video podcast. It's coming fast and it's very, very important. This year I'm speaking at a industry event and I'll have the links to this at the show. Note if you go to the podcastreport.com101 well, VidSummit is the name of the event and they asked me to come in not to speak about YouTube despite my YouTube book, but to speak about how it all comes together, live streaming and podcasting. And video podcasting is part of it. Don't ignore the video podcast. Maybe it's part of your future strategy. And then number seven, consider forking your feed. Now, what do I mean by forking the feed? Forking the feed is a term I came up with and basically, well, Libsyn, I don't even remember how long ago it was, but Libsyn, when they announced Google Podcast Player and yes, we'll hit Google in another episode of this, when they did the Google Podcast Player, they made it possible for you to have a Different feed for Google now, right now. Does that matter? No. Does Google need a different feed? No. Are there a lot of Google podcasts being fed from the itunes feed? Yes, but what Libsyn did and we'll chat about them in leadership. Libsyn realized that soon people are going to be wanting and asking for different things. As people drip into this, some stronger than others. The idea of having different feeds, Libsyn does it with destinations. Personally, you know I'm a fan, but. But the fact of the matter is regardless of what platform you use, consider forking off your stuff and getting yourself in a situation where you're thinking long term and you're thinking some people might need different content than other people. So definitely, definitely consider forking your feed. So again, the seven get right on what really matters in itunes look good for and at itunes. Check yourself at itunes. The email tied to your podcast, keep it. Play the Apple ratings game, don't ignore the video podcast and consider forking your feed. Those are the big seven. If you want the worksheet, you can head out to the podcastreport.com101. It's the Podcast Industry Report Season 3 Episode 101. You can head out to the podcastreport.com 101 to tell me what you think about the new season focus, the new season approach. The way we've put this together. Yes, it's going to go a little bit longer. Do you like that? Do you not like that? Let me know. You'll get a chance to download that PDF. The 7 Ways to Deal with Apple. I think that's important. I think that's key. Again, they're the 800 pound gorilla. What you do here is the 80, 20 of it all and very, very important. I've got some links at the website as well. I've got links to my three books, the how to Podcast 2016 book, the how to Stream Video Live 2016 book and the YouTube Strategies 2016 book. All great deals. All really, really well done in my opinion. A link to the VidSummit event happening next month. It'll be fantastic to catch you there. Link to the two apps, both the Podcast Report app and the how to podcast app. Yes, iOS right now. Would love one day for those to be Android games, apps, places, destinations and they will at some point. But right now, 80, 20 people, it's extremely important. Even if they are a gorilla that's hard to deal with. I've got a link to Todd's book. I don't know if I'll be able to link to the original version. I think they've updated it at Amazon, but a little short. Shout out, Todd, a link to Tom Webster's report. It's extremely important and again, Todd, would love to have you on the show. And then I'll try to link to a file as well, the text about Libsyn and the whole approach to Google with a different stream and what that means. This is episode 101, the first episode of season three. This is the new podcast industry report. Would love to hear from you again. The podcastreport.com101 if you want to hit me on social, the podcastreport.com Twitter, thepodcastreport.com Facebook. Pick the social platform of your choice. Finally, subscribe. This is what makes podcasting a podcast. I don't need to market this thing. Every week you click subscribe, you click follow whatever it is on the podcast platform of your choice, and then, gosh darn it, it comes to you automatically. It's neat to know that the second I publish this thing up, that there are going to be so many of you who are going to get it, who are going to go, okay, Paul's back and are going to get consume. I want you to be in part of that group A, because obviously I like doing this show for you, but also I want you to see the power of this. So many of us think of podcasting now as audio on demand, and it is so much more than that. So if you're at itunes, click subscribe. If you are at any of the other platforms, do what it takes to follow there. The podcastreport.com, iTunes, Stitcher, Google, you know, they're all there. Find the one that you want, subscribe and we'll chat next week. Bye.