Podcast Discussion

Why Podcasters Should Think Twice Before Trusting Spotify

~ podcast

In recent years, Spotify has become a significant player in the podcasting world, enticing podcasters with promises of vast audiences. However, beneath the surface lies a concerning reality that podcasters should not ignore. By placing too much trust in Spotify, podcasters inadvertently compromise their listeners’ privacy and sell out their audience’s data for little to no return. This is a problem that every podcaster needs to be aware of.

Considerations of Being on Spotify

Audience Privacy? Nonexistent

First and foremost, Spotify’s approach to user data is apparent. Read their terms of service and privacy policy. We have provided you with a summary below. When listeners tune into your podcast on Spotify, their preferences, including their listening habits, sexual and political choices by your listener’s listening habits, and even personal details provided by your account signup, are used for marketing to your listeners. As a podcaster, you should ask if you are responsible for protecting your audience’s privacy.

Open Podcasting through open RSS was designed so that audience members were not spied upon and their privacy was religiously protected. You inadvertently expose them to their marketing machine on the back of your content by distributing it on Spotify.

Marketing to Your Audience Without Your Benefit

Spotify’s business model is heavily reliant on advertising. When your listeners are on Spotify, they are constantly being marketed to. The worst part? The majority of podcasters earn zero from these ads. Spotify reaps all the benefits while you’re left out in the cold. Your hard-earned audience is being monetized, but you see no profits.

Re-marketing Using Your Audience’s Data

It gets worse. Spotify not only markets to your audience, but they also re-market to them using the data they’ve collected. This means your listeners are targeted repeatedly with ads while Spotify continues to grow its profits. Meanwhile, you, the content creator, receive nothing in return for the data Spotify accumulates from your audience.

Unfair Compensation for Artists

The issue of payment isn’t limited to podcasters alone. Music artists who receive meager compensation have long criticized Spotify’s payment model. If Spotify can underpay music artists who generate billions of streams, what makes you think podcasters will fare any better?

The Suppression of RSS Feeds

Spotify’s desire to control the podcasting landscape is evident in its approach to RSS feeds. By default, Spotify does not distribute podcasts via RSS feeds unless explicitly activated. This move is aimed at repressing the open podcasting ecosystem. Spotify owns Chartable and formerly owned Podsights, now rolled into Megaphone. By controlling these tools, Spotify can take all the IP data from those services and target your listeners without you seeing a dime.

The Consequences of Selling Out Your Listeners

By placing your trust in Spotify, you essentially agree to a one-sided relationship where Spotify holds all the power and reaps all the rewards. Your listeners’ privacy is compromised, their data is exploited, and their loyalty to you is taken advantage of—all for the benefit of a platform that gives little back to the content creators who make it successful.

It’s time for podcasters to think critically about the platforms they choose to host their content. While the allure of Spotify’s vast audience is tempting, the cost of compromising your listeners’ privacy and selling out their data is too high. Podcasters must prioritize ethical practices and consider alternative platforms that respect creators and audiences.

In conclusion, don’t sell out your listeners’ privacy for the short-term gains Spotify promises. Look for platforms that value your content, respect your audience’s privacy, and offer fair compensation for your hard work. Your listeners deserve better, and so do you.

Privacy Policy Summary:

Please Review the Official Spotify Privacy Policy for an updated and complete policy statement.

1. Data Collection

Spotify collects various types of personal data:

  • User Data: Includes profile name, email address, password, phone number, date of birth, gender, street address, country, and university/college for student plans. This data is collected when you sign up or update your account.
  • Street Address Data: Used for checking service eligibility, legal notices, support options, billing and tax administration, and delivering physical goods.
  • Usage Data: Information about how you use Spotify, such as search queries, streaming history, playlists, interactions with other users, and usage of third-party services and devices.
  • Technical Data: Includes URLs, cookie data, IP addresses, device IDs, network connection type, provider, browser type, language, operating system, and Spotify application version.
  • General Location: Derived from your IP address or device settings, used to meet geographic requirements and deliver relevant content and ads.
  • Device Sensor Data: Motion or orientation data from your device, used to provide certain features.

2. Purpose of Data Use

Spotify uses your personal data for the following purposes:

  • Personalization: Tailoring your user experience, including content recommendations and ads.
  • Service Provision: Ensuring the functionality of the Spotify Service, including streaming, customer support, and community interactions.
  • Communication: Sending marketing communications, notifications, and customer support messages.
  • Legal Compliance: Meeting legal obligations and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
  • Advertising: Providing tailored advertising based on your usage data and preferences. Users can opt out of tailored advertising in their privacy settings.
  • Business Operations: Supporting business functions such as data analysis, audits, and fraud monitoring.

3. Data Sharing

Spotify may share your data:

  • With Service Providers: To help provide the Spotify Service, such as hosting services, technical support, and marketing.
  • For Legal Reasons: To comply with legal obligations, enforce terms and policies, and respond to lawful requests from authorities.
  • With Business Partners: For tailored advertising and promotions. Business partners may provide Spotify with information about your interests.
  • During Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, sale, or transfer of assets, your data may be transferred to the new entity.

4. Data Retention

Spotify retains personal data as long as necessary to provide the Spotify Service and for legitimate and essential business purposes, such as maintaining the performance of the Spotify Service, making data-driven business decisions, and complying with legal obligations.

5. Data Security

Spotify implements appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data from unauthorized access, loss, and misuse.

6. Data Transfer

Spotify may transfer your personal data to other countries, ensuring adequate protection as required by applicable data protection laws.

7. User Rights

Users have rights regarding their personal data, including:

  • Access: Request a copy of personal data.
  • Correction: Request amendments to inaccurate data.
  • Deletion: Request deletion of personal data under certain conditions.
  • Opt-out of Tailored Advertising: Opt-out of the use of data for tailored advertising.
  • Data Portability: Request a copy of personal data in a portable format.
  • Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for data processing where consent is the legal basis.

8. Children’s Privacy

Spotify’s services are not directed to children under 13 years old. For users in California, the age is 16. Spotify does not knowingly collect personal data from children without parental consent.

9. Changes to the Policy

Spotify may update its Privacy Policy from time to time. Users will be notified of significant changes through the Spotify Service or other means.

10. Contact Information

For any questions or concerns about the Privacy Policy, users can contact Spotify through the provided contact details in the policy.

Terms of Service Summary:

We also reviewed their Terms of Service and have highlighted the most critical elements below. Please review their official Terms of Service, as they can update their policy anytime.

Spotify’s Terms of Service, effective as of March 24, 2023, outline how they may use user data primarily through their Privacy Policy and related provisions. Here are the key points regarding user data usage:

  1. Privacy Policy: The use of the Spotify Service is subject to the Spotify Privacy Policy, which details how user data is collected, used, shared, and protected. By using Spotify, users agree to this Privacy Policy.
  2. User Content: Users retain ownership of the content they post on Spotify but grant Spotify a non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free, fully paid, irrevocable, worldwide license to use, reproduce, make available, perform, display, translate, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, and otherwise utilize the User Content. This allows Spotify to operate and provide its services.
  3. Device Usage: Users grant Spotify the right to use the processor, bandwidth, and storage hardware on their devices to facilitate the operation of the Spotify Service. This includes providing advertising and other information to users and allowing Spotify’s business partners to do the same.
  4. Advertising and Promotions: Spotify may provide advertising and other promotional messages within the content, which may be influenced by commercial considerations, including agreements with third parties.
  5. Third-Party Integrations: Spotify Service may interact with third-party applications, websites, and devices. Users’ data might be subject to additional terms and conditions provided by these third parties.
  6. Monitoring and Removal of User Content: Spotify may monitor and review user content but is not obligated to do so. It reserves the right to remove or disable access to any user content for any reason.
  7. Licenses and Permissions: Users grant Spotify permission to use their data as necessary to provide the Spotify Service, which includes modifying and distributing user content, providing personalized services, and ensuring the functionality of third-party integrations.

In summary, Spotify can use user data to provide and improve its services, display advertising, integrate with third-party services, and manage user content. All these uses are governed by the Spotify Privacy Policy, which should be reviewed for detailed information on data handling

Focus on Blubrry Podcasting: Programmatic Advertising

~ jen

This is the fourth part of an ongoing series that focuses on features provided by Blubrry Podcasting.

Advertising has been a hot topic in podcasting for years. Podcast producers are always trying to figure out, “Where do I get ads for my show? How do I insert ads into my episodes?” Questions like these are exactly why Blubrry built its Programmatic Advertising service.

No More Gatekeepers
The typical story when it comes to podcast advertising goes like this: once your show reaches a certain number of downloads per episode (usually a VERY high number), you can reach out directly to potential sponsors or you can work with advertising brokers to get ads for your show. The challenge with that is, the required minimum per-episode download number will be unattainable to most shows, especially for niche topic shows that, by default, may not appeal to large audiences. Blubrry Programmatic Advertising removes this gatekeeping, as podcasters only need to meet some basic requirements, with no download minimums, to use the service.

Simple Setup
To start using Blubrry Programmatic Advertising, podcasters have to fulfill these simple requirements:

  • Have an active Standard or Advanced Blubrry media hosting subscription
  • Provide a complete W-2 form (U.S. residents only)
  • Provide PayPal information so Blubrry can process payouts

Once the above requirements are fulfilled, just enable Programmatic Advertising within your Blubrry Podcaster Dashboard.

Podcasters In Control
If you’re producing a show focused on healthy living, you probably don’t want ads for fast food or alcohol to precede your episodes. Or maybe you just never want a political ad to run on your show. Blubrry Programmatic Advertising has multiple categories that can be toggled on/off for different ad types to ensure your audience only hears ads that are relevant to your show. Here are some of the ad categories available:

  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Business
  • Careers
  • Education
  • Health & Fitness
  • Food & Drink
  • Hobbies & Interests
  • Law, Gov’t & Politics
  • Personal Finance
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Technology & Computing
  • Travel

And more! If you ever decide you’d like to change what types of ads appear within your episodes, you can edit the available ad categories at any time.

Set It and Forget It
You decide if you’d like preroll, mid-roll, or post-roll ads to appear in episodes. Once that’s done, the Programmatic Advertising system automatically finds relevant ads and inserts them accordingly; no need for you to choose specific advertisers. Ads won’t appear in every episode but the system typically fills about 80% of available ad slots. Estimated CPMs are between $5 and $15 with Blubrry taking 30%. Payouts occur after a minimum of $50 is earned in ad revenue.

Get With the Programmatic
Blubrry Programmatic Advertising is truly podcast advertising for the masses. Forget the gatekeepers and all the hassle involved in finding ads for your show. Sign up with Blubrry and get Programmatic Advertising today!

Red Apple Creative And SNK Studios Rebrand To Forever Media

~ jen

Specialist audio agency, Red Apple Creative, and award-winning audio post production house, SNK Studios, have rebranded to Forever Studio. The group has previously operated as standalone brands within the same company based in London and New York.

The business of around 50 people was founded in 2005 and includes a creative team who specialize in short form advertising and long form content. The creative team at Red Apple have grown a reputation for the level of innovation they bring to projects and industry events. They are Spotify’s preferred creative partner, working on global campaigns in multiple languages, as well as working with agencies indirectly with brands.

On the content side of the business, they work with multiple platforms and have recently completed a world-first project with Audible, adapting 6 books inspired by the popular Hilda series on Netflix into fully immersive audio scripts and productions with an ensemble cast. They have produced, recorded, edited and mixed podcasts for several organizations, most recently Goodstuff and Haringey Council.

SNK Studios are renowned for their work on global ad campaigns, from Amazon and Adobe to Range Rover and Sky, delivering voice casting, voiceover recording, sound design and mixing for TV and online. Their facility on Tottenham Court Road is home to 11 studios, includes 3 ARD stages, a Dolby Atmos suite and welcoming reception space. Their music services cater for every need, with in-house bespoke composition, internal library music catalogue and sync licensing services.

The Studios side of the business has also been approved to handle sensitive international ‘pre-release’ film and TV content for the major streaming platforms and Hollywood film companies. They have provided dialogue recording for The Crown, Bridgerton and Oscar winning film, Dune, which won the ‘Achievement in Sound’ category.

Company co-founder, Seb Juviler, spoke about the rebrand: “We’ve always worked really closely behind the scenes, with the studios sound designing and mixing everything that the creative teams write and produce. We felt it was time to lose the heritage names that we started our journey with back in 2005 and bring everything together under one overarching brand.”

Co-founder Paul Golliker added: “There’s no business that offers the number of audio services that we do all under one roof. We’re completely unique and on a daily basis we’ll have studios recording voiceovers for animated series and feature films. Then we’ll be creating bespoke sound design and mixing TV ads, audio dramas, audiobooks and podcasts. We’ve got specialist composition teams creating sonic identities for brands, writing teams who are experts in audio short form commercials and long form content.

“And we have media planning and buying across all audio platforms, plus a digital team who are completely focussed on interactive digital experiences for all audio platforms. That’s a lot to communicate when everything is under a different brand! So the rebrand to Forever Audio is really designed to bring all of these amazing offers together and give clients a clear understanding of everything we have to offer.”

Executive Creative Director, Kathleen Moroney, has led the Red Apple Creative team since 2005 and feels that now is the perfect time to rebrand.

“We live and breathe audio across all of our departments and we have done, quite literally forever. SNK and Red Apple Creative are really well known names, but clients might not have been aware of the breadth of services we can help them with across those brands. Now, agencies, marketers and businesses are thinking more strategically than ever before about their multichannel audio strategy and are often dealing with multiple vendors to deliver various audio assets. We offer long term partnerships as the specialists in every area of audio you can imagine, and we wanted to communicate that simplicity by bringing everything together under one name with one collective goal; to deliver world class audio services.”

Triton Digital Announces Executive Promotions

~ jen

Triton Digital, the global technology and services provider to the digital audio and podcast industry announced several executive promotions. Stephanie Donovan has been promoted to Global Head of Revenue, Alex Fournier to Chief Technology Officer, Benjamin Masse to Chief Product Officer, and Molly Glover Gallatin has joined the executive team as SVP of Marketing and Jelli Customer Experience. The promotions further support the company’s recent integration of Jelli to accelerate the development of innovative technology that serves the entire audio ecosystem across radio, streaming, and podcasting.

“At Triton Digital, it’s our mission to provide innovative technology and services that power the continuously evolving global audio landscape,” said John Rosso, President and CEO, Triton Digital. “These recent promotions within our executive team are key to maintaining innovation and operational excellence within our best-in-class audio streaming, podcasting, audience measurement, and advertising technology. Complemented by the integration of the Jelli team and technology, we are the industry’s most comprehensive suite of audio solutions.”

Stephanie Donovan is a recognized leader in the audio industry and a long-standing member of Triton Digital’s leadership team. In her previous role as SVP of Publisher Development, Donovan contributed to expanding Triton Digital’s client partnerships in North America while also advocating for digital audio strategies and publisher development expansion within and beyond the 80+ countries Triton Digital currently serves.

Alex Fournier has extensive experience leading technology and operations and has played an internal role in driving Triton Digital’s growth and performance. As Chief Technology Officer, Fournier will be responsible for leading the company’s technology roadmap and increasing its ability to meet evolving client expectations, specifically in regard to security, privacy, availability, and performance.

As part of Triton Digital’s integration with Jelli, Molly Glover Gallatin has been appointed SVP of Marketing and Jelli Customer Experience. Previously, Molly was the SVP of Marketing and Customer Experience, Glover Gallatin will oversee all marketing and communication activities for Triton Digital. In addition, she will continue to lead customer experience for Jelli products.

Benjamin Masse has a proven track record establishing synergies between business stakeholders, clients, and software development teams as Triton Digital’s Managing Director of Market Development and Strategy, As Chief Product Officer, Masse will lead product strategy and operations to ensure Triton Digital remains adaptive in the evolving audio marketplace. Masse will also play an intrigue role in integrating Jelli’s platform technology for the radio advertising market into Triton Digital’s suite of advertising technologies.

With Triton Digital and Jelli joining forces, Triton Digital’s audio industry. The combination of complementary products and technologies accelerates Triton Digital’s development and growth of innovative solutions that benefit the global audio ecosystem.

Third Coast International Audio Festival Calls for 2020 Entries

~ jen

The annual Third Coast / Richard H Driehaus Foundation Competition is here! Since 2011, the Competition has celebrated masterful, experimental, groundbreaking, and radical works in audio storytelling, and has awarded over $300,000 in cash prizes to many of the most innovative makers of the past two decades.

This year, they will award eleven winners in the following nine categories: Best Documentary (Gold, Silver, Bronze), Best Serialized Story. (NEW) Best Documentary: Short, Best New Artist, Best Documentary: Non-English Language, Impact, (NEW) Audio Unbound, Director’s Choice, and Best News Feature.

The Early Deadline (your chance to enter with reduced rates) is May 1, 2020, at 5:00 pm CST. The final deadline is May 25, 2020, 5:00 pm CST. Winners will be notified and announced in Fall of 2020.

This year, Third Coast has restructured their pricing to make the TC/RHDF to make competition more affordable for independent and freelance makers (entry fees starting at $45), as well as first time entrants working in countries underrepresented in their competition (entry fees start at $10).

Audio Unbound is a new category. It is described this way: “We’re breaking audio out of the podcast feed & the broadcast airwaves! It’s time to honor audio work that experiments with embracing other mediums, and artists from other mediums embracing audio.”

Best Documentary: Short is a new category. It is described this way: “We hear some of our favorite audio storytelling in short work – 10 minutes or less. We believe short documentaries are just as powerful as the rest, and deserve a bigger platform and spotlight”.

This year, for the first time, Third Coast will publicly honor finalists of the Competition in addition to the cohort of award-winners.

In 2020, Third Coast is taking the judging process completely virtual. (More details about this year’s panel of 2020 Competition Judges will be revealed later this month). They will also be featuring standout works from the Competition through their virtual programming.

Those who are considering entering the competition should visit the Third Coast website for more details about categories, pricing, deadlines, and more.

Spotify Might Buy The Ringer

~ jen

Vox reported that Spotify is in conversations to buy The Ringer. It seems to me that Vox would likely have some insight on the situation. Vox owns Recode, which has a commercial relationship with The Ringer.

According to Vox, The Wall Street Journal was the first to report about Spotify being in talks to buy The Ringer. The Wall Street Journal reported that Spotify and The Ringer teamed up in September to launch a podcast hosted by Bill Simmons, The Hottest Take. That podcast streams exclusively on Spotify.

The Wall Street Journal described The Ringer this way:

The Ringer, a sports and pop-culture outlet founded by former ESPN commentator Bill Simmons in 2016, has a podcasting network that attracts more than 100 million downloads a month. In addition to “The Bill Simmons Podcast”, the Ringer produces “The Watch,” a discussion show about TV and pop-culture; “Binge Mode”, which dives deep into pop-culture franchises, and “The Rewatchables,” a show that breaks down popular movies.

Vulture points out that these talks are early, and states that there is a good amount of details that probably need to be ironed out if a deal is to materialize. In other words, it is probably best to wait and see what happens, rather than speculate that this is already a done deal.

NOW Can We Call It Cool? A Perspective on The New Rode RODECaster Pro

~ admin
The Logitech Over-The-Ear Headset - Circa 2005I have been capturing, editing, promoting, producing and creating live capture facilities where the focus is talking about podcasts since 2005 and guess what? I’ve never required anyone give me a “multi-track series of files” to get any editing, production or podcast-based generation done – ever.
While I know this probably knocks back the sneakers of a variety of you reading, I wanted to first talk about what was, what is, and what shall be in the very near future.
My first podcast in 2005, was recorded as a Windows Media Player .WAV file, created with two el-crappo (that’s an official designation) Logitech, over-the-ear gaming headsets a ton of frustration and more ums, ers, uhs, y’knows and lipsmacking than anyone on planet Earth has ever experienced – as one, single file.
My most-recent podcast, captured just last night (2019), was captured via a Zoom H6, via Heil PR-40s, captured into a single-track .WAV file.
While each featured editing, post-production and an ever-shrinking UmErUhYknow Reel, each of them featured a couple of guys talking, that didn’t generally “talk over” each other.

“Where are you going with all this, Mike?”

I have used probably every device, doo-dad and “what if we try this” that’s been put out to capture podcast content over the years, and recently, a marvel of concept, technology and project completion was release by a company called, Rode. The device is a complete, in-on-simple small console device podcast recorder called The Rode RODECaster Pro. Put as simply as Doc Brown did inside the original Back to the Future feature film when referring to Mary’s camcorder as a “portable television studio”, The Rode RODECaster Pro is literally the central component to anyone’s future, much-portable Podcast Studio. Everything from the mic inputs, to the headphone inputs, to the cell phone inputs, to the optional sound/firing buttons for media files and sound effects, that even saves all of the information locally so that two mics, some cables, and a power source net you a literal, portable podcast studio. It. Is. Amazing. It. Is. Simple. And when it came out, it was resoundingly “hated” by all of the people that thought it was “kind of a good idea” except of course for the fact that it “didn’t record in multi-track.” Well, that’s getting a deployable software fix so – now it WILL capture and provide multi-track for anyone that has one.

NOW can we call this officially a great idea and product?

I guess what I’m driving at the most is that, especially inside an edited program, how often is crosstalk/talking over each other/whatever your team calls it – a giant problem? When you have an interview show that has lots of new guests or perhaps people that just don’t care of they’ve not taking appropriate turns – I guess i can see it. But I’ve literally never had a problem leaning across the desk, or into the teleconference suite speakerphone being used to capture the interview (that’ll be yet ANOTHER !GASP!-creating article) and asking the person to “remember, let’s take turns speaking so that people can hear what point both of us is trying to convey.” It’s one of the largest frustrations I have when reading “reviews’ of the Rode RODECaster Pro. My very brief note of it above DOES NOT DO THIS INSTRUMENT justice, but let’s be plain – this is newfound technology collective magic, for a good price, from an experienced company, in a burgeoning industry, that will be changing the podcast environment.
To whine incessantly because it “doesn’t record in multi-track” is something I just don’t comprehend, especially knowing that “the fix” was coming/will be a software update. There are a handful of other detracting elements (most-notably, that it will only record currently to an on-board micro-SD card – it is small, it is persnickety for those of us with reasonably el-crappo eyes) that just can’t possibly pile up to plunder the potential podcast punch this product promises to deliver.

What’s Your Worst-case Crosstalk/Talk Over Each Other Sample?

So I ask YOU – tell me YOUR “worst crosstalk/talk over each other moment, and why you let it continue so much that you now REQUIRE to have multi-track recordings for say, editing jobs where interjecting some simple direction would make things simpler, smaller, and much more straight forward!
Do it in the comments below!

What is the Value of your Podcast Brand?

~ admin ~ 1 Comment

It’s never too late as a podcaster to take control of your brand. It’s important though to consider the ramifications of not doing so.

When you say Starbucks everyone knows that company it has global brand awareness. Most podcasters will never achieve global brand awareness but some have. Some podcasts have created massive shows in the content space that has gained them national attention. Let’s look at the Lore Podcast everyone in Podcasting, Hollywood and 100’s of thousands of Lore fans have heard of the podcast and the team behind it has had monumental life-changing success.

Both brands have several common elements of brand awareness but I want to focus on one. Each has their own branded online destination that they own and share with no other! Starbucks.com and LorePodcast.com

Can you imagine Starbucks having an online presence that was at Starbucks.TheirPodcastProvider.com. this would be considered brand suicide.  It also is hard to even imagine that Lore Podcast could have achieved the success it has had today, building its brand at LorePodcast.ThierPodcastProvider.com.

When I started my show, I had already been a blogger for a couple of years, before I became a podcaster. The one thing I learned in the time before I started podcasting was that my website at its own .com started opening doors to people in the space I was writing in, and the brand became as valuable as the guy writing the blog posts. I spent a lot of time building my sites brand, and my own personal authority to go with it so that when I launched my podcast it was just another content angle that for many years dominated the website.

Today Podcasters are joining the podcasting space in the thousands monthly, and they are competing for ears to their shows and their sites. Sadly many of the shows cannot even be found on Google. It’s really not there fault, most podcasters are very creatively and assume that if they create great content listeners will come. Many take the easiest path to start their show in the excitement of getting started on their hosting provider’s sites.

Podcasters often realize when their shows are not growing that they have to find a way break out, part of that process is getting the branding of their show under there full control. Sadly though some never do and are happy being the product for their hosting provider to attract more creators.

My team understood though that a lot of podcasters jump in with both feet, often not knowing these pitfalls. I wanted our customers to have a way to get started fast, and then graduate their shows when they got dialed in through our guidance and provided a simple upgrade path to control their brand, so their shows could become the next Lore Podcast.

Today we see a lot of shows have that light bulb moment and understand the value of separating their brand from their hosting provider’s sites. Not all Podcast Providers provide an upgrade path where a host can bring their own domain, some host would rather the podcaster continue to be a product of their brand and would never suggest they get their own domain.

My teams first and foremost goal is to get a show host started using all the best practices before episode one drops this includes a site with their own domain. To our relief, nearly 80% of our customers are dialed in from the beginning, and we see very low show failure rates. For those shows that get started fast, we make it easy for theirshow.blubrry.net to graduate to theirshow.com by a couple clicks of the mouse.

The number of top-level domains has exploded so finding a domain is no longer difficult. My personal site/show which has resided at the same domain since 2002. The domain and thousands of content pieces on its brand brings in significant revenue. I would not take anything less than 1 million dollars for my sites domain and brand but back in 2002 if someone had offered me $500 I would have sold it without thinking.

In hindsight, I really did not know I was building a brand that would sustain my family and be that valuable. But I do today and I want every podcaster who has started or is getting started podcasting to consider the importance of building your brand, your show, your podcast, straight out of the gate. So hunt down that perfect domain today and align it to your show and quit being the product of your hosting provider.

Todd Cochrane is a Podcaster who has hosted the Geek News Central Podcast since October 2004, and is the CEO of RawVoice/Blubrry who’s services power 80,000 podcasts globally while respecting their brand and content.

Proven Social Media Strategies for Podcasters

~ admin

Many podcasters struggle with trying to build their audiences, yet we find podcasters that only have their podcasts on their hosting provider with limited information being posted about each episode. It’s like they purposely want to fail. The following presentation was presented at Podcast Movement 2017 to a standing room only crowd, and also repeated on International Podcast day. This is not a video teaching you how to tweet, but proven social strategies to grow an very large audience. If your struggling or just want some new ways to build your show I cannot stress enough how valuable this presentation is.

Bit Bandit Is a Handy App for Calculating Audio File Size

~ shawn

BitBandit LogoWe live in an ever-increasing world of “unlimited” services. But one place that utopian vision of “everything all the time forever” doesn’t really apply is podcast media hosting. That’s why it can be useful to know how big your media files will be before publishing them to the web. But the only method that’s usually available to determine file size is to simply encode a file and check its properties. That process works but it’s far from efficient.

Billed as “A bit rate and file size calculator for audio engineers,” a new mobile app called Bit Bandit can help you calculate file size before encoding:

Use it to quickly calculate the bit rate of a piece of audio based on its sample rate, bit depth and channel count. Display the results in units of your choice.

Bit Bandit can also calculate file size based on bit rate. Commonly used bit rates are included by default.

I downloaded Bit Bandit and did some testing. It has two sections. A Bit Rate section and a File Size section. The Bit Rate section is really more of a curiosity than anything else. But it might be fun to play around with if you’re a math nerd.

Bit Bandit Bit Rate
Bit Bandit Bit Rate Calculator

The File Size calculator found within Bit Bandit will definitely be of use to podcasters. In the example below, I told Bit Bandit to calculate the size of a file that’s 1 hour, 30 minutes long, and is encoded at 96kbps. The app told me that my file would be in the neighborhood of 63.3MB.

Bit Bandit File Size
Bit Bandit File Size Calculator

Bit Bandit is a free download for both iOS and Android. The app developer has suggested there will be a paid version of Bit Bandit with enhanced features in the future.