0:00

I get to kick off the show today? Let's do it.

0:02

Yeah. Quick cast. These are my favorite

0:04

episodes. One topic, 10 minutes. Everyone

0:06

knows the rules. They're starting to be my favorite

0:08

episodes, too, if I'm being honest. Yeah. They're great.

0:10

All right. Happy Friday to everybody. I looked at

0:12

the outline. I know what we're talking about, and I'm

0:14

super excited. Pocket Cast has

0:16

adopted another podcast namespace feature.

0:19

Yeah. All right. What is it? Kevin,

0:22

I feel like you can't, we have two topics,

0:25

so you can't kill the one topic that I've

0:27

been prepping and thinking about all day. Well, I

0:29

didn't kill it. Quick Cast is one topic, 10

0:31

minutes, everybody knows rules. And then the joke is

0:33

that we always break the rule. OK. We always

0:35

go over time. We always talk about two topics. So

0:38

the joke is not funny now that you explained it

0:40

to everybody. I didn't explain that.

0:42

That was me not knowing. I

0:44

just wasn't in on the joke. All

0:47

right. Pocket Cast added

0:49

the new feature. They're adding

0:51

the podcast funding tag. And this

0:53

is one that I think overcast like

0:55

created this tag right years ago.

0:58

Oh, really? Yes. They call it in

1:00

the podcast namespace project, they call

1:02

it like building off of existing art

1:04

and the existing art that they

1:06

utilized was overcasts implementation of the first

1:08

version of the funding tag. And

1:10

then everybody adopted it in the

1:12

podcasting space and then overcast killed

1:14

it. Oh, seriously? least

1:17

in the overcast app. Right. And I

1:19

think, okay, so Marco talked about

1:21

it on ATP, about why he

1:23

pulled it out. And I think it

1:25

was an overabundance of caution. And

1:27

I don't think he framed it that

1:29

way. He framed it as the

1:31

appropriate amount of caution. But I think

1:33

it was an overabundance of caution.

1:35

He was afraid that at some point

1:37

Apple might reject a build or

1:40

threaten to pull his app because there

1:42

are a lot of very strict

1:44

rules around in -app purchasing and the

1:46

funding tag circumvents those rules. Kind

1:48

of. The funding tag gives you the ability

1:51

to have like a button appear in your app

1:53

to make a donation or a payment directly

1:55

to a podcaster. and

1:57

it does not go through in -app

1:59

purchase and it doesn't follow their rules. So

2:01

typically in an app, that would be a red

2:03

flag. It would be a reason for denial. No

2:06

one's challenged this. An app hasn't been

2:08

rejected. The developers fought it and won or

2:10

lost. So we don't know what would

2:12

actually happen if Apple raised an exception and

2:14

then it was disputed, ultimately, if Apple

2:16

would allow it or not. And that's why

2:18

I think it's an overabundance of caution

2:21

versus the appropriate amount. I think what is

2:23

the big deal? We have apps in

2:25

the app store. We've gone through the rejection

2:27

process. You just appeal it. You just

2:29

write up your case. If

2:31

ultimately, you know, you win or lose,

2:33

you, you, whatever, you make adjustments and

2:35

you go removing something because you fear

2:38

it might be rejected. I feel like

2:40

that's the overabundance part. It's like, it's

2:42

a good feature. Yeah. He pulled it

2:44

out when he was doing that big

2:46

rewrite of overcast. And so my

2:48

guess is that he was afraid I'll roll out

2:50

a bug. I'll need a quick update. I'll roll

2:52

out the update. Then I'll get hit. I'm just

2:54

going to pull this and he took it out.

2:56

Yeah. And I still, I just don't agree with

2:58

that much. And it's not like it's

3:00

a core feature of the app where like

3:02

pulling it out would be like a big

3:04

disruption. It's not like the audio engine that

3:06

plays back podcasts or something that would take

3:09

him weeks to adjust it. I think it

3:11

would probably literally be a couple of lines

3:13

of code that he'd comment out and resubmit

3:15

the build without it. And you'd be good

3:17

to go. Well, you know, who

3:19

does have it as a core feature now

3:21

is pocket cast. That's right. Back

3:23

on topic. Nice. Let's

3:26

tell you all the apps that

3:28

don't have this feature. Yeah, let's go

3:30

through that. Pocketcast has it. Pocketcast

3:32

is on a roll, adding so much

3:34

support for open podcasting. And this

3:36

is just the latest piece of it.

3:39

So the funding tag is supported

3:41

in many of the major

3:43

podcast hosting platforms have it. But

3:46

Buzzsprout definitely does. And you can go in there

3:48

and you can put in your Buzzsprout subscription or

3:50

you could put in a Patreon link or buy

3:52

me a coffee link or all sorts of things.

3:55

And it's a quick way for you to say,

3:57

here's the main way I want you to

3:59

support the show financially and people can click that

4:01

link and give you a little bit of

4:03

money. Right. Oh, I didn't realize

4:05

I thought these were like lightning payment. No,

4:08

no, no funding. Oh, it's like

4:10

any sort of podcast or

4:12

support. Yeah. So in Buzzsprout,

4:14

for example. you can click on monetization,

4:16

you can click, there's a section,

4:18

a subsection within monetization called support the

4:20

show. If you have a

4:23

Buzzsprout listener support enabled, we'll

4:25

automatically populate that for you with

4:27

the Buzzsprout page that we

4:29

create on your behalf to accept

4:31

donations. But if you don't want

4:33

to use the Buzzsprout thing, you can put whatever

4:35

link in there you want. You could put in

4:37

a Buy Me a Coffee link, you can put

4:39

in a Cash App link, you can put in

4:41

a PayPal link or a Patreon link or whatever

4:43

you want. The Buzzsprout listener support feature is a

4:45

nice, simple way because you already have a Buzzsprout

4:47

account, so just turn it on and you can

4:49

start accepting donations. But if you want to do

4:51

something else, you totally can. And there's a couple

4:53

of apps, and I think every podcaster should start

4:55

promoting them now. I don't see a good reason

4:57

why a podcaster from a very early point in

4:59

their podcasting journey shouldn't enable listener support. You

5:02

might only have 10 listeners, but maybe one

5:04

of those 10 want to give you $3 a

5:06

month or $5 a month or $10, whatever. And

5:08

there's a couple of great apps now that are

5:11

starting to incorporate the funding tag. So it used

5:13

to be that if you had a funding tag,

5:15

you had to promote it yourself. You had to

5:17

talk about it and maybe put a link in

5:19

your show notes or something like that or put

5:21

links on your social. Now that

5:23

they're starting to appear in apps like Pocket

5:25

Cast, like Truefans, I think I'm

5:27

hoping that more people will find them without you

5:29

having to promote them as much because the apps

5:32

are helping you promote it. That's great. Yeah, it's

5:34

really great. So I think that podcasters Like turn

5:36

it on, figure out a way, like how do

5:38

you want to do it? Do you want to

5:40

just do it through the Buzzsprout provided page? Or

5:42

do you want to use Buy Me a Coffee

5:44

or whatever? And then talk about it

5:46

and tell your listeners, listen, you might be listening

5:48

in Apple podcasts or something. I want to introduce

5:50

you to a couple other podcast apps that are

5:52

really great and help support us because they provide

5:54

ways for people to support the show. And so

5:56

go out and check out Truefans, go out and

5:59

check out Pocketcast. And there might be a few

6:01

more that support the funding tag. But the way

6:03

that we're going to continue to grow and to

6:05

build the open podcasting space and get new features

6:07

like this into our apps is by supporting the

6:09

apps that are supporting us. And

6:11

so tell your audience about these great new

6:13

apps. And again, the two I'm really pushing

6:15

today are Truefans and Pocketcast. But there might

6:17

be a few others that support the funding

6:20

tag as well. Okay, so

6:22

another thing that I want to talk

6:24

about that I just felt like was

6:26

a really big hug for podcast creators

6:28

is the fandom phenomenon for Edison and

6:30

Wondery. This is a study that they

6:32

did, they released. I think that

6:34

this was discussed in podcast boom evolutions,

6:36

though I'm not sure because I wasn't

6:38

there, but I think it was. So

6:41

if you go to fandom .wondery .com,

6:43

they provide insights on the power of

6:45

podcast fans and how they can

6:47

grow your brand. But what I thought

6:49

was actually better about this, not

6:51

just growing your brand, is they have

6:53

a little snapshot here of podcast

6:55

fandom. And it says, the podcast industry

6:57

is still young compared to legacy

6:59

media, but its impact is undeniable. 46

7:02

% of fans say they

7:04

love their favorite podcast more

7:06

than anything else. Is that

7:08

nice? More than anything else. More

7:10

than anything else. I don't know what

7:12

anything else is, but I'm going to assume

7:15

that's other forms of media. Yeah.

7:17

This is the one study that

7:19

kicks off numerous divorces. Like what? Your

7:21

podcast more than me. Yeah.

7:24

But the thing is, is that this

7:26

love of their favorite podcasts grow

7:28

and grow with each year. So 61

7:30

% of fans say that they love

7:32

their show. more now than they

7:35

did 12 months ago. And that's probably

7:37

because they get to know the

7:39

hosts. And as they listen to more

7:41

episodes, they feel like hosts are

7:43

their best friends, even though they've like

7:45

never met them. And more than

7:47

half of podcast listeners say that podcasts

7:49

are a part of their daily

7:51

routine. Multiple things that stood

7:53

out to me about this were around

7:55

the power of like branding and

7:57

building a relationship with your audience over

7:59

time. I think spending a lot

8:01

of time thinking about AI content, and

8:03

it's becoming easier and easier to

8:06

just churn out tons of content. Right

8:08

now, a lot of that content is

8:10

just okay, but in the future, it's

8:12

going to be pretty good. What does

8:15

it look like for a content creator

8:17

to work in a space where all

8:19

of this junk is just getting pumped

8:21

out constantly? I think the

8:23

answer is going to be brand. How

8:26

is your podcast unique? How is your

8:28

brand actually connecting to your listeners? And

8:30

that stat that you shared, I mean,

8:32

one, it's people's favorite form of media

8:34

for their favorite shows, their favorite form

8:36

of media, but that they love it

8:38

more than they loved it a year

8:41

ago. And I think that's why podcasting

8:43

builds these connections is because it pushes

8:45

you to stick with shows in the

8:47

long term so that you don't just

8:49

listen to something for three months and

8:51

you listen to a handful of episodes

8:53

and you move on the same way

8:55

that at least that's how I engage

8:58

with YouTube. I get into

9:00

a creator for a bit and find

9:02

someone else and move on the

9:04

stick around part of podcasting allows for

9:06

this deep emotional connection. And that

9:08

is a moat that isn't going to

9:10

be replicable by AI. People are

9:12

not going to be able to make

9:14

another show and then get into

9:17

someone's feed that is your voice with

9:19

your inside jokes and your cadence

9:21

and what makes you different because people

9:23

have listened to you for years

9:25

and they'll know. This is what I

9:27

like. These are my people. And

9:30

all these personal human touches are

9:32

kind of like the point. Even if

9:34

they can get the same type

9:36

of content, the underlying subject

9:38

matter can be the same. The

9:40

brand voice is what is

9:42

really valuable. Yeah. What I think

9:45

is so cool about podcasts

9:47

is that they're very niche. And

9:49

so the listeners of those

9:51

niche podcasts, they have very niche

9:54

interests. And so a lot

9:56

of times, when you're just in

9:58

your regular communities or online,

10:00

it can be hard to find

10:02

people that have those niche

10:04

interests or viewpoints as have the

10:06

same ones as you do. And

10:09

so when you listen to a podcast

10:11

and you get to hear from people

10:13

that have the same passion about this

10:15

small hobby or interest, it can make

10:17

you feel like you're a part of

10:19

something bigger than what you would normally

10:21

feel in your everyday life. Yeah, I

10:23

agree. I think that Podcasting

10:25

is very unique in that there's a

10:27

regular cadence to the publishing cycle. I guess

10:29

you can get a little bit of

10:31

this in the video world too, and I

10:33

know we're not talking about video, but

10:35

let's say I read a book or even

10:37

listen to an audiobook. Oftentimes,

10:39

a very enjoyable experience. I

10:41

will usually find a lot of the content in

10:43

the book or something that I've read that resonates with

10:45

me, that I'm excited about, and that I might

10:47

share with people or talk about for a week or

10:50

two, and then it's like two or three years

10:52

before the same author comes out with another book. Right.

10:54

And so like the connection doesn't happen. It fades

10:56

and then they come out with another book and I

10:58

might again talk about it for a week or

11:00

two and then move on. But podcasting

11:02

being built in like a regular publishing schedule,

11:04

you form this connection and it grows over

11:06

time. And I know it's totally fine for

11:08

podcasters to take breaks and stuff, but the

11:10

reliability of being able to tune in and

11:12

listen to the same personality or personalities on

11:14

a regular basis builds a connection. Way beyond

11:16

even some of the people who I might

11:19

follow on YouTube or who I might follow

11:21

on social media or something like that It's

11:23

just it's it's very different in that it's

11:25

long form and it's consistent that becomes a

11:27

part of my routine and I don't just

11:29

recommend the show one time like Shows that

11:31

I really love I recommend again over and

11:33

over and over again, and they're just a

11:35

natural normal part of my life So at

11:37

any given time in my life There's four

11:40

or five or six podcasts that I'm listening

11:42

to on a regular basis and have mind

11:44

share that I'm talking about and that I'm

11:46

wanting to share with people And

11:48

so, yeah, I don't think you get that

11:50

in a lot of other, maybe any,

11:52

any other form media. I mean,

11:54

I think it used to exist a bit in

11:56

blogging, which I know there's so many similarities that

11:58

we tie back between blogging and podcasting. The

12:01

connections are very similar. Well, I wrote down

12:03

a few takeaways that I got from this.

12:06

One is continue to be yourself and I

12:08

think lean into it more and more. I

12:11

think about Buzzcast, like it really wouldn't

12:13

be Buzzcast now if you didn't get

12:15

a good rant from Kevin or I

12:17

and you didn't get Jordan's laugh and

12:20

you didn't get like these little side

12:22

conversations at the end or the beginning

12:24

of the episode. Like lean

12:26

into, I think we

12:28

accidentally started saying keep podcasting or

12:30

we just did it on a whim.

12:32

And then it became how we

12:34

close out every show, encourage fan participation.

12:37

Like if you want to build that connection. bring

12:39

them in, make them part of the community,

12:41

use fan mail. And then

12:43

I think we should be looking

12:45

more and more about how do we

12:47

bridge the gap between the podcast

12:49

and the real world. And so like

12:51

doing that little meetup at podcast

12:53

movement evolutions, we should be trying to

12:55

do more of those. We should

12:57

probably make merch. We should try to

12:59

find ways to connect to people

13:01

in real life because I think the

13:03

internet is just to become more

13:05

and more fractured. And podcasting can be

13:07

an area where we're kind of

13:09

the stalwart against this trend towards, hey,

13:12

we're actually to be the one

13:14

of the few consistent things in your

13:16

life, at least media that's in

13:18

your life, consistent media. And we can

13:20

do that best by building community

13:22

and reaching people in the real world.

13:24

Those are great takeaways, Albin. All

13:26

right, so just a reminder before our

13:28

next episode, we still need some

13:30

responses to our sound off question of

13:32

what feature would you like to

13:34

see in your podcast app that you

13:36

do not currently have. And until

13:38

next time, keep podcasting.