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Amazon Podcasts? + Buzzsprout's New Descript Integration · Buzzcast

• 0:00
  Alban: Hey everybody. This is Alban. We're recording this episode on June 3, as the country mourns the murder of George Floyd. And as thousands of Americans across the country are protesting for racial quality. We honestly wondered whether or not it was even appropriate to do this episode. Talking about podcasting in our industry can feel flippant in light of what so many Americans are going through. But one thing that is clear to us is that we cannot be silent about the injustice that we see. And we have a responsibility to use our platforms, like this podcast for good. The murder of George Floyd was a heartbreaking example of how differently black and white Americans are treated in our country. This is an injustice that cost George Floyd Life. But it's also an injustice that plays out to a lesser extent in thousands of ways across America every day. This is the time to make changes. This is the time to come together to hold America to her ideals of justice, and equality for all. And we cannot claim to seek this justice while also turning a blind eye to the horrors of our country's past, from slavery to lynchings, to segregation, to redlining, to the hundreds of other examples of how this country has mistreated African Americans, we have to face what has happened. And we have to face what is happening to our fellow Americans. We have to do this so that we can honestly seek justice and equality for all. Thank you.
• 2:02
  Travis: Hey guys, welcome back to Buzzcast another couple weeks in the podcasting world and it's just good to see it's good to continue to check in and just see how you guys are doing so well we have these bi weekly therapy sessions with each other scheduled on the calendar.
• 2:16
  Alban: It's kind of remarkable to me now I'm thinking you just said that I'm like, Whoa, it's been like over two months since we've been in the same room. Like, it's just it will be it'll be like 2021 before we record again in the same room, but uh, yeah, it's nice to see you guys over here via squad cast and record this episode.
• 2:37
  Kevin: Yes, I agree. I've been out of town for the last week so not only have we not been in the same room, but I've been kind of disconnected from the what's going on in the world of podcasting. So it's good to jump back in and get caught up. What's going on this week?
• 2:52
  Travis: Well, first of all, while you were on your your hiatus, did you come to any like life changing breakthroughs or revelations that you can share with the rest of the class. Last
• 3:00
  Kevin: No, no it wasn't, wasn't one of those trips, it was just a family, a family getaway for a few days, and the beaches are open. So we got some sun, and we did a little family fishing. And, yeah, I just tried to, as best I could stay off my phone and hang out with a family, which is a something that happens less than it should shouldn't be as hard to do that. But it was really good. It's really good to spend time with the family. And it's also great to be back and to jump in and see what's going on worlds in a bit of a crazy place. But podcasting seems to be doing well. And it's really encouraging that we work in an industry that gives a voice and a publishing platform to thousands and thousands of people. You know, one thing that I am reminded of and I don't want to get into, you know, art this show is about podcasting. So we're going to talk about what's happening in the world podcasting. But one thing that's encouraging that I'm reminded of Is that kind of regardless of where you are and what messages, you want to get out to the world and opinions that you want to share, podcasting is an amazing platform to do it. Right. Like, one of the things that was a recurring theme that I was seeing on the news and stuff is like, Twitter is now dealing with, how are they going to flag or possibly censor tweets, and YouTube is under the same pressure. And Mark Zuckerberg is under the pressure at Facebook. And like, none of that exists in the world of podcasting. podcasting is just like hosting your own website. And you can put whatever you want in your own website, just like you can do with your podcast, you can put whatever you want on your podcast. And it's not going to get flagged by a certain provider, it's not going to get taken down because there's independent open ecosystem in this world of podcasting. And so, I'm really happy that this is the where we get to do our work, and what the community like the ecosystem that we're passionate about supporting and keeping this way, right. So that was encouraging that Even in these crazy times we work in a profession, supporting the ecosystem that gives people a voice
• 5:07
  Travis: well, and even just seeing how, like, like, we're really privileged to see and interact with our customers consistently, whether it's in support or in our Facebook group. And it's so cool to see how something that started just as well, hey, let's make this free Facebook group for podcasters people interact with each other turn into like this huge community of people helping each other that at the very beginning, it was us kind of like helping people with questions. And now it's like before I can even check to see if there's been an update 17 people have answered questions. Right? And it's, it's just totally awesome. And in fact, this past week, we hit a huge breakthrough. We hit 10,000 members in our Facebook group, which is awesome.
• 5:48
  Alban: Yeah, I can still remember less than a year and a half ago, Kevin saying we really need to start some kind of Buzzsprout community and I immediately said, I'm not doing it. I got a Facebook group, I don't want to be on Facebook. It was like I, I get to answer all the questions. And Kevin was very adamant about it. And Travis, you pretty much did all the work. And here we are. I'm jumping in at the tail end at 9900 tried to get us over the hump so that I can be part of the celebration. It's very cool. We hit 10,000. And we actually did a big contest. So I don't know, we should probably tell Kevin with this God test is. We did five prizes. Each of them is like a year of a software tool. So you know, it was like a year of descript or a year of Hindenburg. A year of otter.ai transcripts, you know, we did different tools. We've got we're gonna pick five winners. And the way to enter was just to kind of tell us what you've learned from the group so people just left comments. Right now. I'm pulling Got the group. We have 411 comments on this post. And I actually sent it to Kevin while he was on his vacation, and said, if you're ever having a rough day just read through these comments, because it was so kind over up to 412 comments now. There's just tons of people talking about why the group has been has been helpful and what they've learned. Do we want to go ahead and pick the five people who win?
• 7:28
  Travis: Yes. So it was extremely difficult picking five winners, because there was so many great comments, so many really cool perspectives and people sharing things that they've learned, but also how this group has shaped the way they think of themselves as a podcaster. Right, that there's a lot of groups on Facebook that have a lot of really smart people in them that aren't as inclusive and aren't as community oriented as ours. And so I think it's just really special we have and that was just consistently reiterated in those comments. So we are like Alban said, giving away five prizes, we're going to be giving away Wait one year of transcripts from otter.ai, one year of descript producer, which is a online audio editing software that we're really bullish on, we're giving away a license of Hindenburg Journalist Pro. We're giving away one year of animated videos from wave for all your social media goodness, and one year of remote podcast interviews from squad cast. So some tools that we use ourselves that were really that we really like and really benefit your shows. And we chose five winners. So Alban, do you want to read the first winner?
• 8:35
  Alban: All right, so Travis is so wait, which would you give me which one are we doing first? We're doing otter.ai
• 8:42
  Travis: Yes, let's giveaway otter.ai first,
• 8:45
  Alban: okay. Okay, yeah, drumroll please. The winner of a year of otter.ai transcriptions? Colin Reeves. Whoo. I hope I'm saying that right Colin said that learned how To treat a studio without thousands of dollars of equipment, you can do it with just you can record in the kitchen with a phone recorder. It's a creative inspired medium, and you have endless opportunities to tailor for you and your vision. Thank you for posting the comment. We're glad to have you as part of the Buzzsprout family. And we will reach out to you with a year of otter.ai. Do we know the name of the podcast? Travis?
• 9:23
  Travis: Yes. So Colin co hosts. We're here for the booze with Macy. And it's a podcast that covers all things spooky, including paranormal, true crime, aliens and conspiracy theories. So if you're into that kind of stuff, make sure to check out we're here for the booze and we'll leave a link in the podcast show notes as well.
• 9:43
  Alban: All right, so next one, a year of descript. If whoever wins, this one is going to want to listen to the interview that I do that we will have later in the show. Kevin, do you want to read this one off?
• 9:56
  Kevin: Sure. This is Mark Jacob helberg He said honestly, it's been a game changer. For me being a family man having a very limited budget, I have to be careful where I spend my money. And when I was in this group that helped me so much so from microphones and knowledge about audacity and everything else, this group has been super helpful and helping him maximize his dollar in his for his podcasting journey. Thank you, Mark, Jacob helberg, you have won a year of descript.
• 10:23
  Travis: And his podcast is the fandom effect, which is a podcast designed to showcase how the fandoms we are part of can have profound impacts on our lives. So if you want to look at that, check that out whether you're interested in anime, comic books, MMA video games, all those kind of things, go check out the Phantom effect. And we will also leave a link to that podcast in the show notes.
• 10:45
  Alban: Third up, we've got a license of Hindenburg Journalist Pro. This is actually not just a year this is going to be for good. So and the winner this one is Martin Cohen. Martin wrote, I've learned A ton from the Buzzsprout community page, I've learned hints and tips on how to market my podcast, how to begin to reach an audience. Martin, thank you for posting this. We're happy to have you as part of the group. Thank you for answering so many questions for, you know people who are new to the group and helping them along their podcasting journey.
• 11:19
  Travis: Yes, and Martin co hosts a show with Stewart's called movie probe with Stewart and Martin. It is a podcast which the sex inspects and reviews, movies. So if you can't get enough movie podcasts in your life, make sure you go check out the movie probe podcast.
• 11:37
  Alban: All right, fourth, we've got a year of animated videos with wave. The winner of that Who is this Travis? This is Kayla
• 11:44
  Travis: cash, and they wrote finding the perfect podcast host was a challenge. But Buzzsprout stood out for being simplistic and super straight for this community has been a great source of support as asked questions as a podcaster going solo for the first time and more important It's incredibly humbling to pay it for but offering advice to new members who are starting their podcast, journey and keela We are so grateful you are in this podcast Facebook group that we are hooking you up with a year of wave and you want to go and check out Kayla's podcast is called wrestle soap topia, it is your one stop shop for all things professional wrestling. And like all the other winners, you can find a link to her podcast in the show notes.
• 12:29
  Alban: And then the last one. And this is last because this is the biggest one because it's the one that cost the most a year of squad cast. Totally the unlimited version is going to go to the professional use only podcast. And they right we joined Buzzsprout in March of this year, and it's been the best decision we ever made for the show. We learned about the various ways to edit audio in Audacity. We learned how to grow our following by engaging other people in that community and most importantly, we've learned The numbers aren't the most important thing, as long as you're enjoying and making good quality content. Thank you so much for you guys do for the podcast community. Well, thank you for the comment. Thank you for being a part of the group. Because I was joking before I would Kevin wanted to serve the group I was nervous that we would be the ones answering all the questions and we rarely are because people like you are jumping in and answering and helping so many new podcasters out and supporting them in their journey. So thank you for doing that. We want to support you with a year of squad cast. And so we'll reach out to get your info so we can send that over travesty note this podcast is about
• 13:36
  Travis: absolutely so the professional use only podcast is to black women lawyers discussing the highs and lows of being professional women in today's corporate America. Awesome. Very
• 13:45
  Alban: cool. So we'll link to all of these shows in the description. Travis will personally reach out and make sure you get all of your all the winnings were really thank you for everybody who participated 412 comments We shared him around a ton in the Buzzsprout headquarters. And it was very encouraging to read everything you were learning about. If you're not already in the group, make sure you join because we're going to do another big giveaway. We're going to give away five, one year licenses to descript. In conjunction with our next topic.
• 14:26
  Kevin: descript is for those who are not aware it is a really new, new take on editing audio files. So I mean, you can also do video but being a podcast hosting, specifically talking and living in the podcasting world, we have used it and been interested in it for a podcast editing. So it is a huge challenge for anybody who doesn't have a lot of experience editing audio, to get in and learn a software, whether it be audacity or GarageBand, or even moving up to professional software like Hindenburg and Hindenburg is amazing. We talk about all the time because it's a professional level tool, but it's really easy. To use. Well, what descript is done is they've just taken a totally different approach. They've said, Forget about looking at waveforms and slicing and trying to figure out where your arms are. And that can take a long time. Maybe there's a group of people out there who are very comfortable just editing, like a Word document, like a Microsoft Word document or editing an email. And it can we can we get the technology to a place where if you edit the text on the screen, the machine, the computer can actually edit the audio, and they've done a really good job with that. So it is it's, again, it's it's not for everybody, but it's for a lot of people. And it's for a lot of people who are interested in on the Buzzsprout platform, because Buzzsprout is all about making things really simple. And so we when descript came out, it piqued our interest quite a bit. And we got to talking with the team and we liked what they were doing. And so that is what we are announcing today is that we've actually partnered up with them and have done an integration. So now much like you have in Hindenburg when you get done. editing your your podcast episode, you can now push from descript straight into Buzzsprout. So again, this just makes the process even easier. Because before, what you would have to do is you'd finish your editing, then you would save the file to your computer, then you'd open up Buzzsprout. And then you'd upload it. Now it's just one button. So now you get finished editing and descript. And you click Publish. And then there's a little Buzzsprout icon that pops up and you say, share to Buzzsprout. And it automatically opens your browser and imports it straight into your Buzzsprout account.
• 16:30
  Alban: Yeah, one of the coolest things. And we I'll talk about this a bit in my interview with Heather as well is that we're also bringing in the transcript. And what's so cool there is we've been doing a ton of work with transcripts because we can see on our side, the episodes that have transcripts rank better in Google, and that's just a fact they do better. It's awesome for people who just want to be able to read the podcasts rather than listen or for anybody that's hearing impaired. It makes it so much easier for people to discover. and consume your content. And we think it's a great thing that most podcasters should be doing. And now if you're on descript, especially whoever just won the year of the script, you will now be able to bring all this perfectly accurate transcripts right into Buzzsprout. And they will get published to your page. And it will be, hopefully a great experience.
• 17:20
  Travis: Yeah, so why don't we go ahead and jump into the interview, I was able to be a little fly on the wall and run tech support while Alban talked to Heather, about one what makes the script different than a lot of the other audio editing software's, but then to why from their perspective, they wanted to work with Buzzsprout before they started working with any other podcasts. So I'll go ahead and jump over to that podcast interview now.
• 17:43
  Alban: Alright, so I'm here with Heather Ellis, you do marketing at the script. And Heather, before we do anything about Buzzsprout the script and integrations or anything, I think you need to tell people listening how you're recording this because we're gonna make so much People who've recorded I'm very thankful and proud of that. The pros do it the same as they do.
• 18:06
  Heather: Yeah, so I got caught off guard and quarantine without a good microphone in my house. So whenever I need to do recording like right now, I am currently I'm sitting on my bed. I have a pillow on my lap with my computer on top of the pillow. Behind the pillow is an upside down dining chair, which is acting as the tent pole of my blanket for it with my comforter, over the chair and over my head and the temperature outside the blanket for is probably like a cool 60 the temperature inside the blanket for it is a rapidly rising 95
• 18:47
  Alban: so Westtown, you guys do a great job with your down comforters. They're amazing soundproofing. They are also very insulating. So affiliate links in the show notes Exactly. We just launched this integration with descripton Buzzsprout. And I'm thinking, you know, for our listeners, there's probably a lot of people who have not used a script. I think I first ran across you a few years ago when some of your team was at podcast movement. And the script has a really unique way of editing. And you want to just tell us a little bit about it. And we kind of talked about what is different about the script. So yeah, what do you do and what is, uh, how is your the paradigm different with the script?
• 19:30
  Unknown Speaker: Yeah. Um, to script is really interesting, because at its core, it's editing software, you're able to edit audio. But what truly makes it different is that you are able to edit audio the same way that you're able to edit a text document, and it enables you to edit a story the same way that you tell a story. You think about the narrative, you think about the words you think about getting from point A to B to C, as you're speaking You can literally look at the automatic transcription of what you said out loud and edit the story where you're seeing Okay, here, I made this point, I'm going to copy and paste that down because that actually fits a little bit lower in my narrative. And it disrupts the software lowers the barrier to entry for an editor. So if you as a podcaster are coming from the point of view of I'm a storyteller. I want to get my stories out, I want to tell the stories of others, but I'm not a professional audio editor. descript helps you do professional level audio editing without having to learn all of those skills and complicated software. And on the flip side, if you are a professional audio editor, D script helps you do the same actions that you would do in more traditional software, but allows you to do them oftentimes much more quickly and in a Similar way. And then if you do still have some editing actions that you want to take that you prefer to do another software, you're able to easily export your D script project to that other software and do whatever finishing tasks you need to do.
• 21:16
  Alban: Yeah, it's crazy to me, I was an English major and undergrad. So I spent all my time with you on narratives and writing stories. And then when I approached the world of audio editing, and Travis I feel like he was the one always try to show me stuff. audio editing is just a totally different way of editing because you're going to listen, you make a cut, you listen, you move something you listen, it didn't fit, right, you change it and you're constantly moving things into script does everything the just a totally different way, rather than dealing with a big audio file. It's transcribed the entire thing. And so now we have basically just text it they think you'd call it like your script, and then you say, That's it. was kind of boring delete that section was very interesting, but it actually ties in better with the second point I made. And then you just like, edit it like a text document and move it. And then what you guys do that is so brilliant is that that's changing the actual audio file that actually comes out at the end. So you just make all your changes in that transcript. And then at the end, you've actually got the audio file so that I think that is so cool, very different paradigm. It's funny because I see when people use it, especially people, I think, like me who don't understand audio editing very well, but have maybe feel a little bit more comfortable with editing a story. It definitely like it works. The way my brain works is that that's a good way of putting it.
• 22:47
  Unknown Speaker: Absolutely. And it's really interesting that you say that because your background is as a storyteller. I personally I come from the music industry, and it's interesting to look at editing software and you can see how most editing software evolved from analog music recording studios. And the way that your different tracks and your different channels were historically routed to specific instruments and microphones and pieces of hardware in the studio. And if you sort of play that out all the way to present day podcasting, you're often faced with a situation where you're looking at a piece of software that is as complex as an analog musical recording studio. And it's set up in a way that it's prepared for, you know, dozens of different tracks and inputs and each one with different treatments. Some of those instruments being actual analog instruments vibrating air in the room that you're in, some of them being MIDI instruments or samples. And all of that is obviously super helpful. And when you podcasting, you need some of that. But a lot of the complexity can be reshaped in a way that makes more sense for the podcasting environment. And with D script, we came about the whole situation from the point of view of I want this to work the way that my brain works, I want to tell a story. And by reframing it in that way, by reframing the editing process in that way, we have approached the entire problem of podcasting. Not well, this is how recording has always been. And instead, this is how storytelling has always been.
• 24:40
  Alban: Yeah, I think that that is brilliant. And that's one of the things that we really like about the script, because I felt like we aligned in lots of ways, where Buzzsprout you know, our whole goal is how do we make people successful and make it as easy as possible for you to start a podcast, and you were kind of reimagining this editing portion and we looked at it and go you For a lot of people, that's probably the easiest way to edit is just to edit something like it's a Google Doc. And then it spits out an audio file that has been edited the same way. So that was what got us excited about, you know, working with the script. Maybe from your side, where where did you kind of see the alignments between descript and Buzzsprout? Why did you decide to work with us first,
• 25:22
  Unknown Speaker: one of the things that I think first struck me about Buzzsprout is that when you are on the internet, and you're asking the question, you know, you're asking Google, how do you make a podcast Buzzsprout shows up in a way that a lot of other platforms don't Buzzsprout not only offers the specific services that are required of podcast hosting, you know, you host the podcast, you distribute it to Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, you know, it does those basic things, but Buzzsprout also provides The level of support for podcasters that I think a lot of podcasters really truly need where they help you. Well, I shouldn't say they where you help podcasters go from the question of how do I make a podcast through actually creating that podcast? And I think in a lot of ways philosophically, the script tries to do the same thing, where it's how do I edit? How do I create a professional quality audio file? And we try to walk creators through that process in a way that's intuitive in a way that's genuinely helpful. And as we continue to grow as a company, it's something that we're trying to do more and more of, and I think the partnership with Buzzsprout allows us to do that in a way that's really informed and coming from a point of view of in real life for real life. podcasters. Who are they working with? What are they trying to do? How are they trying to achieve the goal of Launching a successful podcast and maintaining a successful podcast. And I mean, from my point of view, I don't think anybody does it better than you guys.
• 27:07
  Alban: Well, I, we definitely appreciate those kind words, I'm going to snag a segment of this recording up for my annual reviews coming up interview. So I will appreciate that. So maybe we should talk a little bit about just what the script integration does. So basically, you take your audio file, you drop it into the script, and then it will transcribe the whole episode, you make all your edits on the text, it makes those edits with the actual audio file for you. And then you go in, you export your file. And now one of the options is to export to Buzzsprout. So we have other integrations to do this and other software. But one of the things that's unique is because you guys are actually doing the transcription, you're able to send us the transcription as well.
• 28:00
  Unknown Speaker: Correct. So just by virtue of the way the script works, when you finish your project, and you have a finished audio file, you also have a finished transcription. And when you click that, you know, single button to export your finished project out to Buzzsprout. The audio and the transcripts are both sent. And when you go through the motions, and you land in Buzzsprout, with your product with your finished project, you're able to do your your final publish within Buzzsprout with audio with the transcript right there. And we're very excited that the Buzzsprout D scripts integration has that transcript built right in.
• 28:42
  Alban: Yeah, we see this ourselves. I mean, episodes that have a transcription are much more likely to rank in Google. It's really nice for people who just prefer reading that they have the ability to read a podcast interview rather than listening to it. And then there's lots of people who are hearing impaired and for them to try to listen to a podcast is either not available or very diminished the ability to do it is very hard. So having a transcript just makes it more accessible to anyone who's hearing impaired. So we're huge believers of transcripts. We've been doing a lot of work on our end on transcripts, and it's very exciting to work with descript to be able to bring that in. Before we go, you guys have one feature that is like, crazy, and I kind of feel weird that we haven't even talked about it. What is overdub? What does it do? And like, are the robots going to like take over the world with this feature? Like what so tell us what that is. I mean, this is this is nuts.
• 29:40
  Unknown Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. overdub is like our prize winning show dog right now. Yeah, so overdub effectively allows podcast edits to happen without re records. So what you do is you record yourself Speaking and we have a script. It's about 10 minutes of audio that you record. And as you're recording, the AI technology within D script is sensing the different qualities of your voice. It's sensing your tambor the way that your voice sounds when you're speaking emphatically versus when you're speaking very plainly and Matter of fact, and it takes in all of those different data points, and effectively clones your voice so that as you're creating a podcast, if you let's say Miss quoted a statistic, you're able to type in the correct statistic. And your cloned overdub voice will seamlessly speak that correct statistic in the final podcast.
• 30:48
  Alban: Yeah, so if you're listening to this and you're like, not sure if you're hearing this correctly. I think the example you guys use in the video is like somebody says I was talking to this person. And over sash one chicken and that she was on. That's not correct. She deletes session one chicken and type biscuits. And then the audio says biscuits. And she never recorded anything that said biscuits, it just that the AI from knowing her voice from all this other stuff is actually gone. This is how you would say biscuits in this scenario and it sounds so good. But you can only use it for your own voice. So it's it is guarded but it is incredibly interesting. I could totally see Travis like loving this when I say something goofy in a podcast, that he could edit that out that he's like, Oh gosh, Allen should have said the opposite. He should have said not there. Got it totally backwards so you could fix it.
• 31:46
  Unknown Speaker: Overtime is currently still in beta testing. So you do have to sign up and then a member of our team works with you to get your overdub voice created and to get you on boarded. So it's in beta right now. is coming for real in a little while, but for now, you can learn more on our website and sign up to join the beta.
• 32:08
  Alban: Well, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on. We're really excited about this integration. Buzzsprout is now the only podcast host that integrates with descript, we think is really going to be a great thing for a lot of people to use both soft pieces of software, you can just move your content right over. I know, you've got to be up to about 105 degrees cooking under the blanket right now. Any final words before we end?
• 32:33
  Unknown Speaker: Like I would stay under this 130 all day long to talk to you guys. We are very, very excited to be working with you. I mean, I already said it, but I personally think that Buzzsprout is one of the most valuable resources for guiding and educational material for podcast creators out there. So thank you guys for all that you do. We are very, very excited to be working with you and I am looking forward to what else we can do together.
• 33:02
  Travis: How well would you survive without amazon prime right now? Oh gosh.
• 33:08
  Alban: Tell a story. Well Kevin would do was I had to go by and I had to run an errand and in doing so I had I actually drove by Kevin's house. And I looked over a Kevin's yard, I guess while he was out of town. It was just like this mountain of Amazon boxes. And so I asked your neighbor Kevin, I said, like, hey, do you know something about the fence? Like you've got a bunch of boxes? There you go. Oh, they've always got boxes. I'm like, Well, I think they're at a town should we like do something I put it by there's like, no, there's literally always boxes at their house. So yeah, I don't know. How about Kevin would perform without a without his Amazon subscriptions.
• 33:48
  Kevin: Yeah, and I'm the one who's always trying to tell people if you can get it somewhere else besides Amazon, please do. So we do get our sheer sheer number of Amazon packages, but we also get packages from every other online store in the world as well. We don't shop at stores anymore. It's crazy.
• 34:05
  Travis: You don't you don't go to the mall to get free Chinese food samples, no experience recirculated air with all
• 34:12
  Kevin: these other local restaurant guys, you know, and owners and who we like and we frequent and there's a few shops that are within like writing distance from our house that I'll buy whatever they have, if I need it, I'll go by there but for the most part, like I don't go to malls, I don't go to BestBuy. Like I don't hit any of these stores anymore. I cannot. I don't know. I can't stand it.
• 34:33
  Alban: So this transition is actually a bit a bit more in depth and we expect aren't we talking about Amazon?
• 34:41
  Travis: So there is a recent Bloomberg article that came out talking about how Amazon which has had amazon music for a while, they bought the audible app very early on and are the number one destination for audiobooks that they are now trying to be more serious and get into the podcasting game in a bigger way. Not a lot of details to this points. But whenever Amazon does anything, it can very quickly become noteworthy, right? Like it was just a while ago where Amazon was trying this new kind of niche grocery store where there's no Checkout, and then boom, they buy whole foods. Right? So I think whenever Amazon decides to do anything, it's noteworthy. And I think important to just to kind of look at what their perspective is, like why they would want to be making this push into more audio content. And then, you know, potentially the impact that it has on the podcasting industry as a whole.
• 35:36
  Alban: Yes, there's two main articles that I read. The one is in Bloomberg, and then the other is in axios. There's there's it looks, there's two prongs one is the audible angle, which is interesting to me that so this is from Bloomberg. Audible has also explored the possibility of rolling out a lower priced plan that would offer access to originals but not book so I don't If you guys are huge users of Audible, but audible has actually, for a long time had these podcasts like audio content. And it's not served on a feed. And it's always not always like in the actual style differently. But they've done this kind of short run audio content. And I guess they're now exploring the ability of having that outside the app. I don't know. Either you use this. I think I was actually on the beta for it. And I never got a whole lot out of it, though. I am a massive fan of audible.
• 36:34
  Travis: Yeah, I'm not an audible consumer. I think all of my audio content is his podcasts. I don't know. What about you, Kevin?
• 36:43
  Kevin: Yeah, I love audible. I'm an audible member. What's interesting, like, the audible angle I don't, I don't really know that I fully understand. I'm sure the team at Amazon has a much bigger vision for what this can be then then I've been able to come up with myself. I've never listened to audible originals. What I have noticed is like did Alban year since you're an audible users well did you listen to talking to strangers? The new Malcolm Gladwell book?
• 37:11
  Alban: No, no you Kevin is like pushed me to real estate this book quite a few times.
• 37:15
  Kevin: Yeah, whether you like Malcolm Gladwell or the content of the book or not, it's worth listening to just for the experience has been different than any other audio book that I've ever heard. He actually recorded that book more like a podcast, like it's actually produced. He has interviews with people. And so it's not just him reading the book. He does read the book, but then like when there's a segment in the book, where he's talking about a story, he will interject real interviews with the people, and he has background music that plays and it I mean, it sounds like you're listening to a really amazing highly produced podcast, it does not sound like an audiobook at all. And so I'm really interested if that is a trend that we're going to start seeing because now audiobooks are competing with podcasts, right and podcasts are highly entertaining. So when I get in my car For three or four hour road trip, there's oftentimes a book that I want to listen to. But I'm like, at the same time, podcasts are just kind of more fun sometimes. And so now I think this was the first book that I've listened to that I'm like, Oh my gosh, I think they're doing they're trying to compete with podcasts a little bit,
• 38:16
  Alban: which is very interesting. You know, I'm actually thinking of traps only if you listen to this, did you listen to can't hurt me by David Goggins?
• 38:24
  Travis: No, but I'm very familiar with David Goggins, and he intimidates me as a human being.
• 38:28
  Alban: Yeah, seriously as like a navy seal, who has like all these insane records, most pull ups and all sorts of stuff. But in his book, he not only does the audio book, it's different because he does, he reads it or it's read and then it switches over to an actual interview with David Goggins where they actually get a little bit more into the content of the book. I wonder if that was actually done by Audible. Maybe they are trying to say, hey, we've seen some things that are working in podcasting. How can we use those to improve the you know, listening to audiobooks?
• 39:04
  Kevin: So all that to say the article does go on to talk about other? I don't know if any of this is confirmed or not, or just speculation, but the idea that Amazon would be potentially adding podcasts to other apps or something, is that right album, what does it say?
• 39:17
  Alban: Yeah, so one is the audible angle, which I just don't understand what is kind of being the play there is. But the second part, amazon music will add podcasts to its app in the coming months. According to people familiar with the matter. Amazon has been talking with producers and networks by hosting their shows within its app, though they have yet to finalize many deals. So that sounds like there's an original content angle there. You know, this seems like the Cid come out on the heels of the Joe Rogan deal. So there might be some, you know, an onus to get some stuff done. Now. It's interesting to me that amazon music would be adding podcasts in the app because at the same time, we've got Google kind of splitting Google Plus Play Music up. They're actually taking the podcasts and putting it into Google podcast, take the music and putting it into YouTube Music. It's interesting to see how different platforms are trying to, you know, see it, they see a different way of categorizing podcasts.
• 40:15
  Kevin: Yeah, like Apple has a couple years ago, they split off the apple podcast app to its own app. They broke it out of iTunes. And now there's a music app and a podcast app completely separate. And Apple TV and Apple TV, right. And we see something similar happening in the Google world. Google wants to sort of silo these different types of content across different apps, Spotify going the other direction, Spotify, saying, Hey, we already have our app installed on hundreds of millions of phones. We just want to push more content into that one app. And a lot of it might have to do with the fact that Apple and Google can basically push whatever apps to hundreds of millions of phones at any given time that they want. So the podcast app is default app in iOS now. So is Apple Music. So is Apple TV. Google has the same leverage and power with on the Android platform. So if they want to give everybody Google podcasts they can if they want to give everybody youtube music they can. Spotify doesn't have that power. Amazon doesn't have that power. Amazon made a play at one point they had like fire phone and all this other stuff, but it never caught on fire. Right? And so there, they don't have the same advantage that Apple and Google do. So I almost feel like if they could, they would, because it probably is a better experience to be able to say, hey, my music lives here and my podcast live here. My TV shows live here, it's you know, you don't have a huge screen on mobile devices. So being able to dedicate the controls and the user interface for this specific type of content is probably a better experience. But you see Spotify saying we don't have the power on the option. So we got to push it all in. And it's one of the the criticisms that we have as podcasters is the podcasting listening experience. And Spotify is not great. It's not as good as dedicated podcast apps. So that's a bit of a disadvantage, but it's the only play that they have, and it's Seems like Amazon is following suit. So Amazon has a music app that's pretty popular. And they're thinking that by I'm assuming now now I'm projecting but I'm guessing they're saying, hey, let's put podcasts in there. That's just another reason for somebody to launch our app.
• 42:10
  Alban: Well, according to the Bloomberg it is that they would be adding it into the amazon music podcast app, or they'd add podcasts into that music app. So it seems more of that Spotify type play.
• 42:22
  Travis: And it might not. I mean, this is again, speculation. It's totally possible that this isn't even really about bolstering amazon music. But it's more about increasing the value of having an echo device in your house. Yeah, right, that they want you to buy an Amazon Echo for every room. So you can have your podcast follow you around the house as you do chores. Right. And that's similar to Apple. Apple wants you to buy iPhones. That's why they made Apple podcasts, right. They're not monetizing your listening habits and Apple podcasts, at least right now. They're big players. They want you to buy an iPhone. And so I could totally see Amazon just using podcasts as a way to make amazon prime subscriptions more valuable and to make their Echo devices and fire tablets and those kind of things more valuable as well.
• 43:04
  Alban: Yeah, one thing that I would love to see out of this is what we got when Spotify joined podcasting was Spotify, introducing a lot of music listeners to podcasting. And a lot of their growth has not been stealing people from other apps. It's been introducing people who listen to Spotify to podcasts. There's been a very good thing that for the Spotify has done for the community. It'd be very cool. amazon music is, according to this article, the third or fourth largest music, subscription service, they beat out, I don't know, title, I guess. But their third or fourth? And, you know, there's probably I mean, there's dozens of people who are using it and they could all you know, start listening to podcasts. Well, I'm not sure how big amazon music is. I would hope that it would introduce more people to podcasting give it a an easy way to start engaging with exciting content.
• 44:00
  Kevin: Yeah, and I love it from the idea of, you know, Spotify is pushing hard to control more and more of the podcasting world and it's going to take more big players getting involved in order to make sure that they never own Enough of your audience that they can start doing things that would make people want to pull out of their ecosystem. And so again, I don't have anything against Spotify in turn, like as long as they're playing nice, but when they start not playing nice or like showing that they want to exert control, that's when I get cautious and I think in the last episode, we talked about how they we get more takedown notices from them than anybody else and, and stuff like that. So it makes me nervous, but I'm, I get really excited when another big player comes to town and says, Hey, we want to help podcasters independent podcasters get their content available and accessible to more listeners. That's That's fantastic. Again, this was an article that we read, if it comes to fruition, then you can rest assured as a Buzzsprout customer, we will be doing everything in our power to make sure that we are one of the first to help you get your podcasts listed in whatever solution Amazon rolls out for podcasters. We'll use whatever influence and power and technology we have at our disposal, but it's something that we're super excited about, and we hope it does happen.
• 45:17
  Alban: You know, as we talked about the different ways that all of these companies are engaging with podcasts, I'm noticing all the Google Play Music is going to be is being moved into YouTube Music. And it kind of made me think about, you know, so much podcasting, quote, unquote, podcasting is on YouTube. You know, the original reasons why we launched five minute Mondays, which is now Podcasting Q&A, was to ourselves experiment about what's the best way to a podcast content on YouTube. And so I thought maybe we could do a bit of like a after action report and maybe Travis you could speak a little bit to how we have taken this content. That was a Originally for podcasting, and are using it on YouTube, and what we think our best way to do that is,
• 46:06
  Travis: yeah, for sure. And I think the easiest way to kind of enter this conversation is to put it in the frame that people kind of recognize and understand, which is, if you look at social media platforms, they all have kind of their own unique way of displaying and interacting with content. Or I think the way that you create a Facebook post for Facebook is different than what you do for Twitter, which is different than what you do for Pinterest, which is different than what you do for LinkedIn. If you just took the same image in the same words and copy and pasted them everywhere. It wouldn't, it wouldn't work, right? Because each of those apps have their own culture, their own way of interacting with the content. And so in order to do well, on social media, you have to respect the platform, right and do what works well on the platform. And so this is no different, right? When you're talking about taking audio content and putting it on YouTube. You have to think through Well, how would you actually do that in a way that respects what YouTube does very well? And leverage is that to actually get the result, which is that you want more people to listen to your podcast. And so when we first started it, we just started like, bare minimum. You know, we're just gonna set up a camera and record the podcast like that's it. There was no bells and whistles, no nothing. It was just me recording my podcasts and I wasn't even looking at the camera. I can't tell you how many comments we've gotten on our YouTube. Oh my gosh, it's a challenge. Look at the camera.
• 47:27
  Kevin: It was literally fly on the wall. It was camera on the wall, just watching you record an audio podcast,
• 47:33
  Travis: right? So like super low barrier of entry. Like, let's just try this. And the reason we did that was because for the same reason I just talked about when you go to YouTube, you don't go to YouTube to look at a still image with audio playing in the background. That's not why you go to YouTube, you go to YouTube to watch videos. So if you want to use YouTube to grow your audience, there needs to be some kind of visual element. So that's where we started
• 47:59
  Kevin: right away. And our opinion on that has not changed, like the data supports that we've looked at that multiple times about allowing people to publish their audio straight from Buzzsprout into YouTube, we continue to monitor and look at it, it is not working for anyone, anywhere. One of the biggest podcasts that that I like, and enjoy, and it's a software company that we respect is the rework podcast. They've started doing it now they've got a huge following a huge mailing list. And they are pushing still images with audio in the background might even have like little waveform graphics or something like that. And they are getting, I mean, like, less than 100 plays or something like that. And again, it's not about the numbers like 100 plays is 100 plays and that's if that's where you are and your numbers. Fantastic. But what I'm saying is when you contrast that with the audience that they have, and the draw that they have their podcast, I'm thinking does 2030 40,000 play, I'm just I'm guessing, I mean, they just have a huge audience. I know that their blog posts, when they, again, we've been following them for 20 years. So they used to talk about like when we post something on our blog, We get hundreds of thousands of reads. So this is a company that has a massive following and a massive voice. And because they're, I guess it's an experiment or something that they're running on YouTube, it's not, it's not producing for them. So for somebody like us a smaller show, like we get, you know, 1200, or 1400, listens to every Buzzcast episode. You can imagine if they're doing 10s of thousands on their audio, podcast, and hundreds, if we were doing audio only on YouTube, we would get like five listens. Yeah. And it's not just about is it worth it to get a few lessons. It's also about how that hurts your reputation on YouTube. So now they have a channel on YouTube. And YouTube is saying this is not a good channel, so d prioritize, it's going to continue to make it worse. Again, why does that matter? Well, if at some point down the road, they actually want to use that channel that's tied to their brand to do something that would normally rank well on YouTube. Now they're starting with a handicap. They're starting behind the eight ball because the algorithm early says that you don't push good content up here. It's one of the questions that we get a lot and it's one of it's a tough one. Because we do feel a little bit like we're, we don't want to parent anybody, right. But you're giving somebody a tool that can that is most most if you did that, so there are podcasts so so you upload your audio, and then they will push it to YouTube on your behalf. But there's, there's we have not found a good use of that technology yet. And so it's not like we couldn't build it and give it to everybody. But it just doesn't feel responsible because there is no good use for that. So you're giving somebody something that is ultimately going to hurt their brand, or their their their content. Now what I am interested in doing is like the other way, right, the idea of Hey, if you're producing video content, and you just want to go ahead and shoot that up to YouTube, I would love to be able to pull it down into your Buzzsprout account. So that's something that we're exploring because we could extract the audio very easily. it very easily goes the other direction. But when you're trying to take audio only content and put it on a video first platform, it just usually does more harm than good. And again, if anybody listening has an example of saying hey, there is a channel that actually is doing that and it's working for them. I would love to see it because again, we continuously monitor this stuff and trying to if we can figure out a good way to do it, we would love to do it. So all that to say back to you, Travis, and what we're doing with Podcasting, Q&A.
• 51:08
  Travis: Yeah, so we recently did the rebrand. We're a couple months out from that. And the reason we did that is because we decided that strategically for this show to do well, it makes more sense for it to essentially be a YouTube show. That is podcast friendly. Right? So Buzzcast is a podcast through and through, sometimes we livestream it, sometimes we don't. But it is an audio first show, Podcasting Q&A. We wanted to explore the opposite. What if you made a primarily video show, that also works extremely well as a podcast. And so that's what we do with Podcasting, Q&A, where there's a lot more visual elements. There's things like B roll and animation effects and things like that, that lend themselves to doing well on YouTube. And so we see we've seen a gradual shift In our numbers go from mostly podcast downloads, to now it's 5050 most of the times and then sometimes YouTube picks up one of those episodes, and it takes off, right? Like we had one of our last five minute Monday episodes was about how to record podcast episodes with your phone, like what microphones to plug into your phone and what software to use. And that's got more than 10,000 views, but that that one video just got picked up by YouTube. And now a lot more people have seen our channel. So that was the thing that we did. And the reason we did that, do I think that it's the thing that most podcasters should do? Probably not. YouTube is totally a different beast than podcasting and takes up a lot more time to edit to produce to really do it. Well. You know, there are certainly some benefits, especially when it feeds into other content we do like we just are about to wrap up a seven video series on different audacity editing techniques, which is like okay, if you're going to teach someone how to use Audacity, they need to be able to see the screen so they can follow along with what you're doing. Like Certain things that we want to do to help podcasters lend themselves to video. And so we know by making Podcasting, Q&A, better YouTube content that will ultimately feed people to the other content, we have to help them. So for that reason, it makes sense for us to do it. But unless you have a strategy that is really leveraging video content in a big way, then it's probably best to just focus on growing your podcast, be super focused on that. And then really do everything you can to market your podcast well,
• 53:29
  Kevin: and there's nothing wrong again, remember where we started out? So we started out by putting a camera on a tripod and filming Travis, you know, at a 45 degree angle from the side, just recording his audio podcast because we knew at least that was the right format of content to put on YouTube. And as as we saw some engagement off of that the views were going up and we're getting comments and we were responding. Then it was that what was the next step after that? Okay, how do we make it a little bit better Now we're kind of like in phase three, where we actually have a team of people who are working on our YouTube channel and working on our content. And so just one step at a time, if YouTube is something that you're interested in, we do believe in it as a method to grow a podcast. But it is a it is probably one of the most expensive ways if not the most expensive ways to grow your podcast. So you need to just take it in small steps. So nothing wrong with grabbing a little phone, Mount tripod, and hitting record, and setting it in front of you while you're recording your podcast, and posting some of those videos to YouTube. And just see how it goes for a few months. You know, maybe there's nothing there and you can move on with a different marketing strategy. Maybe there is something there and if there is then you can take the next step. So just be aware of that. It's totally different thing but could be a fun and effective way to market your podcast. We've seen a little bit of traction with it enough that we're gonna keep going keep taking the next steps. And if you haven't seen our YouTube channel yet, please go check it out. Travis and Jonathan and a lot of the other people From the office who are appearing in videos, Joanne and Sarah are putting out amazing content every week, answering questions that you guys are sending in and Podcasting, Q&A, doing equipment reviews, software tutorials, it's it's really an amazing resource. And again, there's benefit to us in just teaching people just being educators on how to be a good podcaster. Regardless of how many people subscribe to our channel, or end up listening to this show, there's a lot there, and it could be a great marketing tool for your podcast. So check it out.
• 55:30
  Travis: Well, that does it for this installment of Buzzcast if you want to be in the know with our next giveaway that's coming up that we talked about as far as giving away some descript licenses and make sure you join our podcast community on Facebook. The number one place to get your podcast questions answered. I just came up with that tagline on the fly. How do you guys you guys like that? Number one place, according to me.
• 55:56
  Alban: Survey one rated by yelp.com and Travis Albritton Whoa.
• 56:02
  Travis: But seriously guys, it's a fantastic community and if you're not there yet, you're definitely missing out. And also, if you got a lot out of this episode and and you want to let us know what you think head over to pod chaser, leave us a review there, share the episode with your podcast buddies, and let's just keep this train rolling. But that does it for us for this episode and we'll catch you in the next one.