U2, Apple, and Free Content: What Podcasters Must Learn from the Latest Apple Event

What in the world do podcasters have to get from Apple's recent announcements? And how in the world is U2 involved? Great questions. It's the podcast report, episode 13. Show hotline is 503-897-1290. It's the podcast report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul. All right, I just finished the Apple announcements. The big shindig, the big deal. And it was fun, actually. The kids were home, we got our homework done in time, we sat in front, and then this silly stream just nearly exploded. The tweets were funny about what was going on, jokes about Rick Moranis and whatnot were happening, but Apple blew it at the beginning of the stream. It was a pathetic, lousy mess. Now, here's the interesting thing. You can survive from a bad stream launch. Apple's going to be fine. Apple's going to sell a lot of I Apple watches and iPhone sixes and all this stuff. And that's the thing we need to learn. Sometimes when we crash big in front of a large audience, we tend to freak out and think, oh, my goodness, I'm not going to be able to get from this. Well, Apple did terribly. I'm sure you won't be able to find copies of the terrible part online, but if you were there live, you know what I'm talking about. Basically, take heart here. You can crash big and you can still recover, because that's exactly what Apple is going to do. So that's the first lesson from the live broadcast. Now, lesson number two, the iPhone 6 camera, I don't know if you watched, but the iPhone 6 camera, I mean, these are getting better and better all the time. Obviously, logistically, in order to sell, to get people to upgrade to a new camera, to a new phone, they got to have a better camera. And that's what they're doing. But, oh, man, the stuff they have done, the stuff they put in, is just going to make sure that you have the ability to get great video from your iPhone. If you're investing in a webcam or you're investing in a prosumer camera or that kind of thing, think about what the phones are doing. If you're not doing video here in the podcasting space, you might seriously want to think about that. The jokes they made about, you know, do you remember what these things are looking at cameras and that type of thing? There will be a time very, very, very soon where we will laugh about the idea that video was outside of our reach. And yes, audio is fun and there's a Whole art to audio, and this podcast is audio. But are you thinking, are you ready? Are you in the realm of video? I want you to think about that. The next one didn't get a lot of press, hasn't got a lot of attention. The Apple Payments thing, I don't think Apple Payments honestly is going to have that big of an impact initially. Right now, Apple Payments only works the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and they're going to sell a lot of these bad boys, don't get me wrong, I'll definitely be one of them. But the fact of the matter is the majority of the world's not going to have them at this point. The fact that they don't go backwards and that kind of thing, and it makes sense from a security standpoint why that is, but it just doesn't necessarily have the scope to do that. Well, it was pointed out on Twitter that it also works online, but as far as I can tell, it only works online as well with the iPhone 6 in terms of an immediate impact. I don't think there's that big of a deal here with Apple Payments, however, and this is huge. Payments are going to get easier. There are a lot of us podcasters who have looked at the world of merchant accounts or looked at the world of PayPal integration, or even square that type of thing, and it's just too much at this point for us to take. And the fact of the matter is this, payments are going to get easier online. We're going to be at a point very, very soon. Seems a little science fiction today, even after the video, but we're going to be swiping our thumbprints, we are going to be paying for stuff. And podcasters should really, really embrace this because the idea of being able to be paid easily, quickly, directly through the major banks is something that should excite all of us, should get all of us salivating, should get all of us really, really exciting about what comes next. So not nearly as far along as the cool cameras are that come from the iPhone, but gosh darn it, we are at an exciting place, coming with payments, and it's something that you want to think about. Now, honestly, the big thing that came from the Apple event is about YouTube and I want to chat about that, and that's where I want to spend the majority of this. If you watch the event, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, I'm going to give just a quick summary. He did the thing. He comes out, talks about iPhone, talks about payments, talks about the watch, you know, it was a good show. It was a great show. Then they bring out Bono, and Bono rocks. And Bono plays a song, a tribute to Joey Ramon. And, you know, we thought it was going to end. Typically, they end a lot of times with a big singer, songwriter, star type of person. And then Cook comes out on stage. He and Bono banter a little bit. Bono is not that good with the improvisational banter. Now, I'm a big fan of the guy. I'm a huge fan of U2. And, yes, this could color my thought here. But bear with me on this one, because I think this is a pretty, pretty big deal. So Bono comes out and Cook says, hey, this is a great album. And Bono says, well, you have a way to get it out to a half a billion people. And Cook says, yes, I do. And Bono says, why don't you do that? Anyway, make a long story short, bam. The new U2 album is available. And as I was getting ready some stuff today, I've listened to it. U2 is the type of album where you don't know how good it is until about 30 or 40 listens. Right now. It seems good. I'm liking it, but who knows what will happen? But anyway, Cook releases the new U2 album. One of the biggest bands in the world on itunes, to the world for free. Now, I think this is huge. I think there are a couple of implications that we need to chat about here. Now, yes, I love the band. Yes, Apple paid them a huge chunk of change to make this happen here. But realize that one of the biggest bands in the world, one of the biggest attractions in the world, one of the methods of monetization that everybody at one time embraced as being real album sales. And let's face it, if anybody's buying albums right now, it's only the U2 demographic. The younger kids just aren't buying albums. A lot of money could be made by putting the U2 album up for sale, but by giving it away for free, they realize that they have other vehicles to make their money. Now, I have bought every U2 album that comes out. I'm not a T shirt guy for rock bands. I like my wacky T shirts other places. But I did pay a lot of money to see them in concert. Got great seats and gosh darn it, loved it. And the money that was spent on those tickets and I'm sure concessions and part of the room that they got and that type of thing multiple, multiple, multiple times. What they've got from all the purchases that I've made. I actually also went, I guess, to speak to royalties. I did go see Spider Man Turn off the Dark on Broadway, written by Bono and the Edge. So they got that as well. Basically, here's the deal. They're going to tour off of this, they are going to get connections off of this. This album is going to get downloaded, this album is going to get played, it's going to get airtime, there's going to be a big tour, and they're going to make a bunch of cash from. Yes, they're giving away something for free that they're going to make a bunch of cash from. They are eschewing, they're kicking away, they are getting rid of the old concept that you have to make your money this way. Now, two things really, really cool here. Number one, that thing that Bono said to cook about, well, you can get it in the hands of 500 million people. That's itunes. That's the same place us podcasters podcast. That free button that got Bono so excited is the same free button that you've had access to for a long time as a podcaster. If you're not a podcaster, you should be just jumping up and down with the excitement here. Itunes just became synonymous with the distribution of high quality, valuable content that you want to grab right now as podcasters, this should get us jumping up and down, excited. This should thrill us to no end. And the fact that it's the exact same engine available to you should put you at a really, really exciting place. Now, the second part to this, hinted to earlier, is just the simple fact that they're taking a model that people traditionally say, this is how you make money. You make an album, you sell singles. That's how you make the money. Well, in podcasting, you make a podcast and you sell advertising, and that's how you make the money. Here's the deal with what has happened, with what they did. They're breaking that model and they're expecting to make their money somewhere else. Now, yes, of course, Apple paid them some sort of huge licensing fee. Let's admit that. Let's get that straight out there. It's not the perfect comparison, but that's okay. I don't need to make all of the money that YouTube's making. I'm fine with a small percentage of it, but the fact of the matter is, they wouldn't have done it if they didn't think, if they didn't believe, if they didn't know, if they didn't internalize that there is revenue to be made from the distribution of free content by itunes and from itunes. And again, this is exactly what you have. Not only can you do what they do, but you can do it on their platform. And here's the cool part. Right now, itunes has an exclusive contract on this stuff. You can't get it from any of the other music stores. You can't get it from Google music. You can't get it from Pandora, you can't get it from these other places. With you as podcasting, not only do you have itunes, but you have all of these other places. And this is really exciting. You know, the implications that the largest band in the world, one of the greatest rock bands ever, has realized that free content distributed by itunes is going to make them more money. You have the same thing. Free content distributed by itunes is going to make you more money. Question whether or not your revenue stream is from ad insertions, for goodness sakes, and get excited that the same thing that is distributing Bono and the boys is distributing to you. Okay, I know this one is going to bring some controversy. If you visit the podcast report@the podcastreport.com 13 for episode 13, this episode I'm going to link to. I'm going to put something up at the Google podcast area. I've got something up already where I asked people how it was going to happen. I put some up at Facebook. And what I'll do is I'll put links up to a couple of conversations and you are welcome to disagree, you are welcome to agree, you are welcome to. You can do it at the blog as well, the podcast report 13. But let's get this dialogue going. I just am tickled pink that my favorite band, the biggest band in the world, you know, YouTube, for goodness sakes, is embracing redistribution of their content by itunes so that they can seek something bigger and better. Realizing where things are going. If this is not the rallying cry for podcasters, there is something very wrong. If you agree with me, the podcastreport.com 13 if you disagree with me, the podcastreport.com13 I know there will be the jackals out there, but you know, I'm right on this one. This is where things are going. All right. This has been a special edition of the podcast report. Normally we're a bit more flowed here, a bit more stuff, but basically, if this is your introduction, please subscribe. Please come in, get the back episodes. If you haven't thought about subscribing to a podcast, it's part of the power of podcasting. It's not just downloading things one offs as they come, but it's clicking that button and having the stuff come to you automatically every time it is released. We're at all the locations and you can find them all@thepodcastreport.com iTunes, the podcastreport.com Stitcherthepodcastreport.com they're all there. Facebook, Twitter, all that good stuff. We've got a good place. I haven't put myself up at Soundcloud yet. Still trying to crack that nut in terms of automation and traffic and stats and that kind of stuff. But we are there. We would love to have that happen. Next week in episode 14, we're going to be chatting about running a podcast. Number one in the iTunes slots right now, obviously Bono and the boys are going to be number one in music, but what does it take to be number one in terms of itunes? We'll be chatting about that next week on the podcast report. Now, I want to leave you with a interstitial commercial, if you will. Wait a minute, Paul, didn't you say commercials aren't the way to make. Yeah, he didn't pay for this. This is done as a service to you and a cross promotional thing for each other. But Fred Castaneda, one of the preeminent, hardest working guys in podcast again, one of my original students back in the podcast secret days, Fred has been working his little keister off since day one. He produces about 357 different shows. I joke, but actually Fred is prolific. When I launched the podcast report, Fred jumped out and said, you know, I'm going to do the podcast reporter and you know, some of the same themes, slightly different. And so one of the things we decided to do was after about 10 episodes or so we would, we would cross promote each other. So what you've got is 60 seconds of Fred and well, you know, enjoy that.

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All right, there we go. That was Fred. That was the podcast reporter. This is Paul Colligan. The podcast report. The podcastreport.com 13 for episode 13. If you would like to get transcripts from this episode, we do transcripts of all the shows. Just text me the hashtag EP13 as an episode 13 to the show hotline of 503-897-1290. With that said and done, I'll see you next week. Bye.