Your Podcast Isn't About You

My advice to you this week is that if you want your podcast to grow, it's NOT ABOUT YOU. Many people start a podcast because they feel it's the "in" thing to do, or "my friends say I'm funny," or a myriad of other reasons. But if you want people to listen to your podcast, if you want to grow your audience, if you even want to MONETIZE your show...it has to be about your listeners. What is a LISTENER getting out of your show? Are they informed, entertained, or educated? Have you been able to connect with them on an emotional level? People aren't going to listen to your podcast just because they like you and you asked them to. Too much other content exists to compete for their attention. You've got to stand out from that crowd.

Incidentally, that's a lesson that baby radio DJ's have to learn. When we first crack the mic, the world is our oyster. But to succeed as an entertainer, you have to make the content about the listener. Memo to college senior Jag: No pop radio listeners in Syracuse, New York care about the Patriots winning their first Super Bowl? Get the idea?

Seth Rogen is developing a podcast for SiriusXM and Stitcher. And Spotify will exclusively host Michigan Native Dax Shephard's Armchair Expert podcast. They'll still be free, but only on Spotify as of June 1st.

Speaking of Spotify, they'll soon roll out high fidelity audio for music and transcription for podcasts. Also, combining both sides of their business, they have now figured out a way to let podcasters use full songs, not just clips, in their podcasts. It has to do with their music licensing deals. Sounds great, right? Well, hang on a second. This will work on Spotify, but you still can't legally publish that same show on Apple and other platforms. And that's important, because Apple and Spotify are still the biggest two platforms out there. Who's got a bigger slice of the pie? Well, depends who you ask. Podcast host Libsyn has Apple way ahead, but podcast host Buzzsprout has Spotify in a dead heat. Now there's a lot of technical back-end reasons for this discrepancy. James Cridland, as always, breaks this down brilliantly in Podnews here: https://podnews.net/article/spotify-apple-podcasts-market-leader

But the key takeaway is this. Be everywhere you can be. At the very least, make sure your podcast is on Apple, Spotify, and Google. And you can consider other desintations like Stitcher, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Amazon, and Pandora. It doesn't cost you a dime to be on any of these, so you may as well do it.

Podcast advertising grew 19% in 2020, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. And listeners don't mind commercials. In fact, they are more effective in the podcast medium, according to a study from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, as reported by PodNews: https://podnews.net/press-release/cumulus-signal-hill

Podcast Movement first week of August in Nashville: They've announced their first group of speakers, and have a scholarship program open to students: https://podcastmovement.com/featured/1st-round-of-pm21-speakers-announced-plus-scholarship-applications-are-open/

I'm looking forward to my first in-person podcasting event in two years. And if you're coming to Nashville, I'd love to connect. Until next week, stay healthy and stay safe. Lata!

Find jag on social media @JAGPodcastProductions or online at JAGPodcastProductions.com

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