Table of Contents

• The Echo Podcast Summit Experience

• Now Out: Justin Jackson from Transistor.FM

• The Podcast Superfriends is on Apple Podcasts with …

• Best Thing I Listened To This Week

• Voice Over Work

The Echo Podcast Summit Experience

I had the chance to experience The Echo Podcast Summit in Halifax a few weeks ago. It was an excellent event put on by Rhys Waters of Podstarter with support from Acast and Amazon Music. The theme for the gathering was community which has become a buzzword in the quest to build audience. This event could not have come at a better time for podcasters looking for new ways to connect and build audiences. Rhys wrote a nice piece in Broadcast Dialogue.

Over the last three years the definition of a podcast has changed so often, I have Rob Greenlee on the Sound Off Podcast annually to give us an update. Here is his latest appearance.

Today the perception of what a podcast is can range from audio on an RSS feed, to a video with an RSS Feed, to HLS video, to a TikTok clip, an Instagram Reel, people talking on You Tube, to people talking on Netflix with Shure SM7B’s.

If there are no Shure SM7B’s or microphones, then no one recognizes it as a podcast - It is bad television.

I feel that we are so wrapped up in what a podcast is being called by people, that podcasters have forgotten the value in an RSS feed.

It’s becoming the free spot on my Podcast Conference bingo sheet when someone in the audience gets a hold of the microphone, tells their life story and unloads on the stresses of doing a podcast, the cost of doing a podcast, or how podcasting has a discovery problem.

This time we got all that by noon and a new one where a podcaster railed about censorship from the CBC, (they had received a creator grant), shadow banning about content about Gaza. After the event,  asked the podcaster via email which podcasts had been affected.  It turns out that this was about social media and not podcasts, and “that people would have to use euphemisms or words that were similar when they wanted to talk about difficult topics. and that if they were to talk about these topics they would get suppressed or shadow band by the algorithm on these platforms sometimes they’re taken down for hate speech or harassment and bullying when all they were doing was telling the truth about a situation.”

(The irony is that podcasting already solved this problem. It's called an RSS feed. And podcasters have been using it since the early 2000’s.)

Later in the afternoon, Mike Tobin, one of the hosts of the Afternoon Pint asked a representative from YouTube about discoverability and cited what was going on in Gaza as a passing remark in hopes of getting a response to the question from earlier in the day.

So now it needs to be said: Podcasters – we are way off topic.

This is the moment to channel the late Todd Cochrane and remind every creator that if you have a website and an RSS Feed, you are in business. You have a website which is a searchable home address on the internet where you can engage with audiences, collect email addresses, and market directly to your audience with a newsletter algorithm free.

• If you are relying on any social media platform to help tell your story, or build your audience… you run the risk of losing everything overnight.

• If you are getting money from the public trust, a major donor or even a sponsor – they will have a say in what you say. If you don’t like it – don’t take the money.

• If you are want to build an audience on YouTube or Facebook, you will have to work hard, release consistently, promote often, and feed the algorithm engaging content.

• If what you are saying violates their terms and service, you will likely get removed. You’ll simply be told, “You Don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here”.

• Feeding fake news from Russia, Qatar, and Iran et al will likely work against community building your goals. (Honestly, violating the T&S is like signing a lease for an apartment that explicitly says NO PETS ALLOWED and you show up with 4 dogs and 3 cats)

• Even sharing a news in Canada on Facebook earned one podcaster a three month ban.

This is not a lecture on right, wrong, left or right; I’m here to tell you that you don’t get final say when you operate outside your empire. So build your empire on property you own.

Finally, podcast conferences shouldn't become complaint sessions about social media moderation. They're better spent discussing the things creators actually control.  If you are in the position of answering questions about discovery – please remind everyone of the value of a domain name, website and an RSS feed.

Now Out: Justin Jackson from Transistor.FM

In this episode we chat about…

• How Transistor differentiates itself through pricing strategy and features like private podcasts and Patreon integration

• Why consumer demand, not industry gatekeeping, ultimately defines what a podcast is

• The real meaning behind "podcasting is cooked" and what creators misunderstand about that message

• How RSS feeds remain vital even as younger audiences discover podcasts primarily through YouTube

• Apple's demographic challenge with Gen Z and whether video podcasts can help close the gap

Do you like Dogs? Of course you do. New from the Sound Off Podcast Network, Dogs Beyond the Lab. Check out the trailer.

Voiceover Credit: Nat Lauzon.

Tens of thousands of dogs are still part of laboratory research in the United States and Canada. A small number of them make it out.

After years, they leave research facilities and enter a world they were never prepared for: sanctuaries, foster homes, adoption, backyards, neighborhood walks, choices, freedom — and a chance to discover who they are beyond the lab.

What follows is the part most people never see: the delicate process of learning how to live in a world that is entirely new. At the heart of this, is the people willing to walk through it all with them — their first real family.

This story is about former research beagles and their people, but it is also about something bigger. It's about what each of our dogs ask of us, and who we become in the process.

The Podcast Superfriends is on Apple Podcasts with HLS Video

Best Thing I Listened To This Week

Back in 2021, I had Skye Pillsbury on my show. Skye is a former writer at Inside Podcasting and also made an appearance on Johnathan Goldstein’s show Heavyweight. It’s a pretty good story. Summer is a here and Skye returned to the show to revisit the episode that was recorded 9 years ago.

Voiceover Info Here

Summer means hitting the road. This summer’s microphone of choice in the Apogee Mic96k. I’ve had it for about 7 years now. I like it because it’s small and manageable. I also brought a Rode NTG3 that does not work well with my voice. And I also brought an old Shure shotgun mic which needs my Zoom H5 to to bring it to life. All that to say I brought 4 mics with me.