E6 – The Future Of Podcasting

by | Feb 27, 2017 | Listen, Podcast | 0 comments

About This Episode

Host/Producer/Music

In This Episode

I talk about news stories and articles about podcasting and the podcasting market.

Links

Making sharing podcasts easier

Show Credits

Hosted, produced, mixed, edited & scored by Mark.

Transcript

Welcome to the ApexThis podcast. A podcast about…podcasting or rather, a chronicle of my journey to start a publishing side business. This will be a behind the scenes look at what I’m doing to make that happen. I’ll share tips and best practices that I learn along the way. These tips and best practices will be something that you can use to start your very own podcast and share your voice with the world.

Coming up in this episode, The Future of Podcasting.

<music intro>

In my journey to start a publishing company, there is a lot I must learn and in learning, there is a lot that I must read. And so, I figured that I would share this as well. Interesting things that I find to be cool, engaging, and helpful. News from the podcasting world, if you are so inclined.

First up, a discussion about podcast discoverability on Download This Show.

How do you find podcasts?

One thing that stood out to me in their discussion was search and how searching for a keyword in most podcast directories retrieves shows with that keyword in the show title.

(download this show clip).

Despite technological limitations, this made me think about how I have tried to make my podcast discoverable? How have others tried to make their podcast discoverable? You have social media that you disperse your podcast to and you have forums and blogs.

Why provide transcripts and show notes?

Releasing to social media is…easy. You manage the timing to post and you tag your show to allow others to pull it up in their search results. You can even interest more people with a behind-the-scenes look at what you’re doing. That could pull in people to start following your social accounts and eventually, you can make a listener out of them. But it’s all about being social and interacting with those that follow you, those that are discussing the same topic and those that do the same as you.

What about show notes and transcripts? A readily available body of text for the web.

Finding podcasts are incredibly difficult. For starters, not a lot of podcast directories such as iTunes, allow you to search beyond the show name and or title. But just beneath that surface is a treasure trove of data. Your show notes and or your show transcript IF you have them. There are many benefits to having show notes and especially a transcript but the primary reason here is to be found. Think about it, when looking for podcasts, you go to iTunes and search for a podcast…are you searching for text? Or are you scrolling through the new & noteworthy lists or the multitude of subcategories to find that business related podcast?

Even though technology can only give use the popular podcasts for each category, we are still missing out on so much more. So we turn to google, searching for keywords that hopefully hit your podcast, your show notes, your transcript. And we turn to our friends, to forums and to blogs we visit to see what people recommend because we can’t quite find what we need.

I’m looking forward to seeing how podcast discovery and sharing can be improved and allow smaller podcasts to shine. Until then, share what you like. Tweet your favorite episode and keep the word of mouth going for your favorite podcasts.

<transition music>

Adobe Audio Editing tool – Thoughts?

Next up, the future of Audio Editing

<clip of Adobe video 15s>

At Adobe Max 2016, Adobe demoed photoshop for your voice called VoCo. This isn’t just any editor. After recording 20 minutes of your voice, you can edit the generated transcript of your audio, and it will stitch together your sentences or any new words you add and generate the audio of your voice. Crazy right? I’m going to play a few clips from the video. Zeyu Jin is demoing the software and is using the recorded voice of Michael while Jordan Peele who is also on stage:

<clip 1m>

Zeyu edits the text to change the order of who Jordan kisses first:

<clip 3m>

Now Zeyu replaces a word and the audio is re-generated using Michael’s voice, who Jordan kisses changes entirely…

<clip 3m 55s>

At this point in the video, Jordan gets up and walks across the stage in disbelief. It doesn’t stop there. Zeyu continues to edit the text, adding new phrases. And when playing it back, it sounds just like him.

If you edit and produce podcasts or audiobooks, can you imagine what you can do with that? Maybe your story isn’t coming together and you decide you want to change the wording, sentence structure, or add something new altogether. If you are working with others, you have to get everyone back in the studio to re-record and perform different takes, but, but if you could simply edit the text. That takes your editing to a whole new level.

Of course, that could also bring on a host of ethical problems. Imagine taking 20 to 30 minutes of someone’s audio. Throwing it into Adobe so that it can learn and analyze their voice and then tweaking and changing what they say. You can get into some serious trouble with this. But Adobe says they have already thought of that. They will have watermark data to show the audio has been changed to mitigate he said / she said controversy.

Even so, VoCo will change the landscape of audio editing and I can’t wait.

<transition music>

Diversity in podcasting

How can we solve podcasting’s diversity problem? That’s the question asked in an article from The New Statesman.  Charley Locke a writer from Wired wondered this as well. She went on to write about the profile of a podcast listener and how even now, it is considered to be in its infancy. The profile of a listener is mostly male, young, and has a higher income. This profile is then catered to and becomes a cycle of the show mirroring its listeners and the listeners mirroring the show. This ultimately leaves little for diversity. 

Based on this article, sociologist Josh Morgan conducted research into US based podcasts to determine the ethnicity of the podcast hosts. Through his research, Josh found that 85% US-based podcasts had at least 1 white host with 18% as non-white. Josh deposited that this may not entirely be bad as it follows closely to other forms of media. But just like other forms of media, the audience will be catered to by advertisers and more podcasts will be created that caters to that audience and that may possibly make the 18% shrink. 

<transition music>

Podcasting & Audiobook Publishing Events

If I am trying to start a publishing company then I need to network and attend events. Outside of the local podcasters meetup, I’ve looked around in search of other podcasting events. And in perfect timing, I received an email from my podcast host Power Press.

First on the list is Podfest Multimedia Expo from Feb 23-25 in Orlando. A little bit late to attend now. Then there is the Mid-Atlantic Podcast Conference in Philadelphia. That event will be held Sept 8-9. Next is the Los Angeles Podcast which has yet to announce dates at the time of this recording. 

Another is the Audio Publishers Association on May 31st in New York. For this conference, I am unsure if this is open to all but it may be likely that you have to be a member of the association to attend. 

Last but not least is Podcast Movement. This event will be on August 23-25 in Anaheim, California. And it is this event that I decided to attend. The number one reason was the date of the event. Gives some time to save for flight, & hotel. It was this event that I’ve heard the most talk about and so I figured, why not? Their panels for 2016 looked good and had strong attendance. 

The power of networking is strong. Meeting others and sharing ideas can benefit both and hey, you might just find your podcasting BFF. As more and more pour into podcasting, I can see events like these continuing to grow to foster relationships from podcasters that may never likely meet or hear of one another.

If you are able to attend one of the big events for 2017, go for it! If not, I highly recommend checking out a local podcasting meetup in your city. If there isn’t one, start one.

<transition music>

So, what do you think is in the future of podcasting? Is it new technology that advances the sharing and discovery of podcasts? Or the advancement of audio editing and production? Could it be the diversification of podcasts that gives us a variety of content and voices? Or will the future of podcasting be the person you’re awkwardly sitting next to at a conference or meetup? 

Whatever it is, I’ve been on this train for over a decade and I can’t wait to see where we go from here.

That’s it for this episode. I hope that you liked it. I’ve certainly enjoyed putting this episode together and I plan to have many more news focused episodes of stories that have resonated with me and to include interesting news, stories, and recommendations in future episode segments.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @ApexThis. 

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