It's been a long week. It started with two familiar foes in conflict with each other. If only they could work together, the sky would be the limit, but one side is so obsessed with the other, that they seem to have lost their own way. Of course I'm talking about radio and podcasting.
On Monday, iHeartMedia laid off another bucket of local radio employees. (Edit: More came Thursday.) It's no secret that the radio industry has been hard-hit by the pandemic, and radio revenue is way down. In a vacuum, you can understand the tough decision to have layoffs. In 2020, that's not unique to radio. But consider this. Last week I told you that iHeart just bought Voxnest - rumors have the price tag around $55 million. Voxnest is big in podcast analytics, and also owns the Spreaker platform. Once iHeart filed bankruptcy in the face of its $22 billion debt, it freed them up to re-work their business ventures.
Radio's strength has always been its personality -the ability to connect to listeners. And a big part of that is its on air talent. But when a company decides its priority is to invest in podcasting, and keep slashing radio assets, that tells you where their priorities are. I just hope they don't destroy podcasting like they did radio.
iHeart owns the most shows in Top 200 podcasts, according to Podcast Business Journal, largely because they pimp them out across their radio network.https://podcastbusinessjournal.com/media-monitors-iheart-is-1/
Stitcher launching new app. Instead of Favoriting a show, you'll follow it to subscribe.
Magellan's AI Blog tracked the Election, and how the Biden and Trump campaigns utilized podcast advertising. https://www.magellan.ai/blog-posts/how-have-the-presidential-candidates-used-podcast-advertising-in-the-election?utm_source=podnews.net&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=podnews.net:2020-10-30
Nielsen has more data about host-read podcast ads being more effective: https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2020/host-read-podcast-ads-pack-a-brand-recall-punch/
Finally, two great courses I took this week in my professional development.
Tom Kelly from Clean Cut Audio did a "Beginner's Guide to Equalization for Podcast and Voiceover on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/share/103H9oAEASdFhTR3gJ/
Tanner Campbell's "Learn to Edit Your Own Podcast" on AppSumo. https://appsumo.com/learn-edit-your-own-podcast/?utm_source=sendfox&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=this-week-in-podcast-editing
Both courses were very helpful as I work to improve my skills in Compression and Equalization.
Welcome in. I am Jon "Jag" Gay and it has been a week. It started with two familiar foes in conflict with each other. And if only they could have worked together, the sky would be the limit. But one side is so obsessed with the other that they seem to have lost their own way. Of course, I'm talking about radio and podcasting. On Monday, iHeartMedia laid off another bucket of local radio employees, and rumor has it there are more layoffs to come.
Now it's no secret the radio industry has been hard hit by the pandemic. Radio revenue is way down and in a vacuum, you can understand that tough decision to have layoffs. That's not unique to radio in 2020. A lot of industries have been hard hit by this, but consider this. Last week, I told you that iHeart just bought Voxnest, which is a podcast analytics platform, also owns Spreaker. Rumor has it that iHeart paid around $55 million for Voxnest. Now iHeart had filed bankruptcy in recent years in the face of $22 billion in debt. And that bankruptcy allowed them to rework their business ventures. Now, defenders will tell you that radio, in addition to the revenue loss, has more competition than ever with Spotify, Pandora and more. But the one thing that separates radio is its personality. Largely its on air talent. And over the last 20, 25 years, for reasons that would be an entire other podcast in itself, radio has slowly taken the personality out of its stations, except for of course, news, talk, sports and morning shows. A lot of it has become just a jukebox, thus not separating itself and not differentiating itself from the Spotify and Pandora world.
So a lot of radio's wounds are self-inflicted, and now,when a company decides its priority is to invest in podcasting and keep slashing those radio talents, that tells you where their priorities are. According to Media Monitors, iHeart owns the most shows in the top 200 podcasts. And the reason for that is they have pimped out their radio stations to promote the podcasts.
Podcasting is the priority for iHeart and some other radio companies as well. I shouldn't just single them out, but I sincerely hope that these big companies don't destroy podcasting. Like they did local radio.
Okay. On to other podcasts news. This week, Stitcher is launching a new version of its app. Instead of favoriting a show you'll follow it to subscribe to it. Magellan's artificial intelligence blog tracked the election and how Biden and Trump's campaigns utilized podcast advertising. You can read that link in the show notes, Nielsen, the radio ratings company, has more data about host read podcast ads, and then being more effective than prerecorded ads. It's the old radio live endorsement model. A commercial or an ad read by the trusted voice of the podcast carries a lot more weight than something prerecorded.
Before I wrap up this week, two quick shadows for some professional development courses that I've taken this week. Tanner Campbell of the Portland pod has a great course that is on sale now through the AppSumo platform on podcast editing, equalization compression, I learned a lot. It's an area that I'm trying to improve on. So thank you to Tanner Campbell. And also former guest on the podcast, Tom Kelly of clean-cut audio has a great course that I took as well. I'm going to link to both of those in the show notes.
As always, as you look at your marketing plans for 2021, you should think about podcasting. In most cases, it's a lot less expensive than things like print advertising and has a lot more staying power. Nobody can tell your brand's story better than you can. If you're thinking about a podcast, let me help you create one. If you have an existing podcast, you need professionally edited. I can help with that too. Just find me at jagindetroit.com or on social media at JAG in Detroit. All my contact information follows. As always stay healthy, stay safe, and I will talk to you next week, hopefully with a little bit more sleep than this week. Lata!