Latest / Buzzcast / Apple Original Podcasts, Remote Podcast Interviews, and Customer Support Q&A

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Apple Original Podcasts, Remote Podcast Interviews, and Customer Support Q&A · Buzzcast

• 0:00
  Travis: Yeah.
• 0:05
  Travis: So glad I was recording that.
• 0:10
  Travis: Welcome back to buzz cast.
• 0:12
  Travis: The podcast are people who work at Buzzsprout talking about podcasting.
• 0:15
  Travis: We've got our usual suspects plus a very special guest.
• 0:18
  Travis: So we've got Kevin Resident, co-founder Alvin, head of marketing is here as well and I Travis Salt Britton and the head of content of Buzzsprout and our special guest today for Silverbrook.
• 0:31
  Travis: Hey Travis.
• 0:31
  Travis: Thanks for having me.
• 0:31
  Travis: This is great.
• 0:32
  Travis: Great to have her silly here.
• 0:34
  Travis: She works on our customer happiness squad to answering all your questions, keeping your podcast running and basically runs the whole runs the whole ship here as well.
• 0:44
  Travis: Um, so Priscilla's gonna be helping us out later in the episode with some questions, some customer questions from you that myself, Kevin, and Albin.
• 0:52
  Travis: We'll try to our very best to answer and then Priscilla will tell us the right answer and then facilitate, correct us and say, actually, this is the credit right answer.
• 1:00
  Travis: Uh, but we want to start this episode off talking about a bit of news, a bit of excitement potentially in the podcasting space.
• 1:07
  Travis: Uh, there's a Bloomberg article that came out talking about how apple plans to bank roll original podcasts to fend off rivals
• 1:16
  Alban: according to people familiar with the matter.
• 1:18
  Travis: Yes.
• 1:19
  Travis: Anonymous sources of course.
• 1:21
  Travis: Um, but, but the reason that we wanted to kind of dive into this a little bit is original content, siloed content paying for podcasts is becoming more normal in the sense of it's not just one or two players doing this anymore.
• 1:36
  Travis: Now it seems like it's becoming kind of par for the course.
• 1:39
  Travis: So just want to get your quick thoughts on kind of your initial reaction to hearing this, this rumor that could potentially become something and then, you know, just kind of how it affects independent podcasters in general.
• 1:50
  Alban: May I actually, so overall my thinking is I'm anti all the paid podcasts, um, that are run through a platform, but I actually like that Apple's going to jump into it as well.
• 2:04
  Alban: And I'll explain why I have kind of those two differing opinions.
• 2:08
  Alban: If Spotify was the only one doing it or luminaries, the only one doing it to make their own exclusive shows, they have the ability to kind of control the whole ecosystem and try to force everyone into the Spotify or luminary app.
• 2:22
  Alban: And then all the free shifts have to be there as well.
• 2:24
  Alban: If apple jumps in as well, it's going to be really hard for some other player to consolidate everybody into one app.
• 2:32
  Alban: And if there was to be one app, I would probably prefer it to be apple and for them to run it.
• 2:39
  Alban: Um, so I feel like it kind of puts up a big hedge, or at least a big barrier, maybe a moat for, uh, everybody else to try to get, you know, to everyone onto their platform.
• 2:51
  Alban: So overall I'm pretty positive and there's probably gonna be some good podcasts that come out of it and they'll probably be free.
• 2:57
  Travis: So like a moat filled with alligators, like,
• 3:00
  Kevin: like a business moat.
• 3:01
  Kevin: But yeah, you can put an alligator in there too.
• 3:04
  Kevin: Hedges.
• 3:05
  Kevin: Kevin, what are your thoughts?
• 3:07
  Kevin: I think I'm pretty excited about it.
• 3:08
  Kevin: I like the idea that there's going to be more great podcasts, content coming onto the scene.
• 3:15
  Kevin: So I'm a big believer in the more good content that we have available.
• 3:19
  Kevin: The more people will find their way into the podcasting world.
• 3:22
  Kevin: And when you do that, there will be some highly produced original content shows that of course you love, um, but it also then opens the door for you to find works from independent creators and, and that is who we're excited about and who we're passionate about who we are.
• 3:36
  Kevin: And so I think that's a really good thing.
• 3:39
  Kevin: If you look at like what happened with Youtube, you know, youtube is this place that is the answer to the broadcast TV problem, right?
• 3:48
  Kevin: We can't all just go grab a show on a network or even a cable channel or something like that.
• 3:55
  Kevin: Youtube provides a place for independent creators to be able to create video content and put it online.
• 3:59
  Kevin: And then they started doing their own original content and licensing content to drive more people to the platform.
• 4:04
  Kevin: And again, it's just pushing more and more people into a platform that is filled with content from independent creators.
• 4:10
  Kevin: And so the idea that this is starting to happen in the podcast space is super exciting.
• 4:15
  Kevin: Again, I will go back to the thought that in my opinion, if it's original content and it's exclusive to a platform, that means it probably doesn't have an RSS feed.
• 4:24
  Kevin: So I don't really think it's a podcast in the strictest sense of the word, but I don't know that it's super harmful.
• 4:31
  Kevin: What is harmful is what Alvin said is the idea that one platform wins and then that becomes a place that we have to go to publish content and consume content.
• 4:41
  Kevin: That's not exciting, but I don't think if apple wanted to do that, I feel like they would've done it years ago.
• 4:45
  Kevin: The opportunity was to do it a couple of years ago.
• 4:47
  Kevin: Right?
• 4:48
  Kevin: Um, now Spotify is trying to do it and I think apple is saying, no, no, no, we don't like that idea of you trying to own this space.
• 4:56
  Kevin: We better have an answer to that.
• 4:59
  Kevin: And so I think apple is still, but 50 to 60% of all podcasts listens come through a apple app or a podcatcher or listener like iTunes or apple podcasts apps.
• 5:11
  Kevin: Spotify is starting to catch up to that.
• 5:13
  Kevin: And so I think Apple's just playing some good defense right now, which is good.
• 5:16
  Kevin: And I think that's great for independent podcasters.
• 5:19
  Travis: Yeah.
• 5:19
  Travis: And I don't have any, any problem with original content.
• 5:21
  Travis: I think where, where I get tripped up is, you know that, that now you're requiring people to pay in to get contents.
• 5:32
  Travis: Like it's still very early on in this rumor, right?
• 5:35
  Travis: Not even sure if this will actually happen with apple podcasts, but there's a difference between having to pay to listen to podcasts and having podcasts that only stream on certain platforms.
• 5:46
  Travis: Right.
• 5:47
  Travis: So like I'm totally fine that if apple podcast wants to take Carpool Karaoke and turn it into a podcast, right.
• 5:51
  Travis: Cause that's something that they produce for Apple TV.
• 5:54
  Travis: And so we'll just kind of have to see how they plan on making money or if they plan on making money or if this is just, just the very top of the funnel.
• 6:02
  Travis: How do we get more people to buy iPhones kind of strategy
• 6:05
  Alban: in a goofy way.
• 6:06
  Alban: I actually am more turned off by the exclusivity than by the paid piece.
• 6:11
  Alban: Um, because when it becomes exclusive, it means that the platform is banking on.
• 6:17
  Alban: We are going to roll up all of audio into Spotify and we're going to force everyone to abide by our terms.
• 6:25
  Alban: Even the free plans eventually will freak, excuse me, the free podcasts, we'll have to abide by our rules.
• 6:32
  Alban: And if you're a luminary, you know, we're going to create all these paid podcasts that's not as, you know, as much of a bummer to me cause I'm like, Hey, it's, you know, maybe I have some qualms about whether or not you could, should name it a podcast since it's a paid thing.
• 6:47
  Alban: But you know, if they want to try to put together some great shows to get people to pay for it, that's cool.
• 6:52
  Alban: Um, I think the thing that excites me the most is almost like kind of this patrion model where they're like, hey, you've got a podcast and it's totally free.
• 7:02
  Alban: And for your really dedicated listeners who would love another show or two from you or some exclusive content, ask them to throw five bucks your way and then they can get some extra stuff.
• 7:12
  Alban: Um, thinking about it a lot today, because you has no sub stack is no, I know it's like a, it's like a really micro blogging form blogging site and every time you publish it sends an email blast of that blog to everyone on your list.
• 7:26
  Alban: So it's totally free.
• 7:28
  Alban: And then eventually you can say, hey, this is like a subscriber only post.
• 7:32
  Alban: So just read about them today thinking like that's kind of a vision for podcasting.
• 7:37
  Alban: That's really cool.
• 7:37
  Alban: Totally open feed and some paid stuff on top.
• 7:41
  Travis: Yeah.
• 7:41
  Travis: Yeah.
• 7:41
  Travis: So we'll keep you updated on, on this apple podcasts movements if they start diving into original content and a, and obviously what that means for, for all of you independent podcasters.
• 7:52
  Travis: But right now, just something that we're keeping our eye on.
• 7:58
  Travis: The main thing though, what we wanted to talk about in this episode was remote podcast interviews this week we put out a, I think a really great blog post on it.
• 8:07
  Travis: I wrote it so I'm a little little bias there.
• 8:10
  Travis: Um, but in the reason that I want to talk through it and just kind of share our collective knowledge and wisdom about it is because it's becoming more common than not or I think more podcasts that are interview style, do remote interviews then in person interviews.
• 8:25
  Travis: Would you guys say that that is true?
• 8:27
  Travis: Yeah.
• 8:27
  Travis: Most podcasts I listened to, if they're interviewing somebody, most of them are remote.
• 8:32
  Travis: Now on youtube it's the opposite, but I think you have this wonderful luxury in podcasting where if you're doing a youtube setup, like it's really hard to get cameras set up professional on both end and usually it's this awkward, uninteresting screenshare or something like that.
• 8:46
  Travis: But in podcasting, the technology and the internet speeds bandwidth has gotten to the point where we can have great sounding audio on both sides of the recording.
• 8:54
  Travis: And so it's really hard to tell.
• 8:55
  Travis: Are these people sitting in the same room?
• 8:57
  Travis: Are they sitting across the world from each other?
• 8:58
  Travis: Yeah, I mean it's, it's definitely changed the landscape in the sense that you aren't limited geographically for the people that you can interview.
• 9:08
  Travis: Um, cause there, there certainly are shows.
• 9:09
  Travis: I think Mark Marin's show comes to mind.
• 9:11
  Travis: Joe Rogan show comes to mind where all of their guests are in house.
• 9:14
  Travis: Like they do everything locally.
• 9:16
  Travis: But for the most part, I think having these online interviews solutions broadens your horizon for the kinds of people you can talk to and the kinds of people you can have on your podcast.
• 9:26
  Travis: Um, so, so we'll reference the blog periodically through this episode.
• 9:30
  Travis: I definitely encourage you to read it, to go like fully in depth in the different software solutions we talk about.
• 9:35
  Travis: Um, but really just wanted this to be more of an opportunity for us to, to share stories of things that went wrong, things that went well.
• 9:43
  Travis: Um, to kind of give you more of like a strategic as a podcast or doing interviews or being a guest on other podcasts, things to avoid.
• 9:51
  Travis: Cause I know Albin you have some, some pretty, they're funny now.
• 9:54
  Travis: Some pretty funny interview stories.
• 9:58
  Alban: Yeah.
• 9:59
  Alban: So I've done a handful of, I think I'm always on the receiving end.
• 10:02
  Alban: I'm always like the guest.
• 10:04
  Alban: But uh, so I've been on a few remote interviews and one that when I listened to it, the sound quality, even though the guides put all this work into getting these set up correct, it ends up coming down.
• 10:17
  Alban: It's just so bad.
• 10:18
  Alban: I was like, man, a Skype call would have been better than this.
• 10:21
  Alban: Do you want to jump into a little bit of why before I tell the story why we do these special setups and don't just record a Skype call.
• 10:28
  Alban: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:28
  Alban: Go for it.
• 10:29
  Alban: All right.
• 10:30
  Alban: So the problem is if you just record a Skype call, you don't get great audio quality because Skype is compressing the audio before it sends it across.
• 10:39
  Alban: Dear friend crossed the ocean or whatever.
• 10:42
  Alban: So you don't want to record that or else you get like Travis and great full fidelity audio and then you've got me his buddy somewhere else like sounded kind of tinny and you know, not the best sound, you may get that in person as well.
• 10:58
  Alban: So the goal is what you're trying to do is get a software solution that is recording a great full lossless audio, hopefully on both ends.
• 11:08
  Alban: And then you combine that later on.
• 11:10
  Alban: So the audio recording is even better sounding than what the interviewer heard the host heard during the interview.
• 11:19
  Alban: Um, so that's the problem that's we're trying to solve.
• 11:21
  Alban: And one guy, the way he did it was he was like, hey, open up audacity and you record just your channel all order open up, audacity, all record, just my channel.
• 11:32
  Alban: Send me the audacity file at the end and I'll put them together.
• 11:36
  Alban: So one downside to this is it's super, it's more technical.
• 11:39
  Alban: And then when I got the audio from it and I'm like listening to it, it was like I got a little bit of his audio in my side.
• 11:47
  Alban: He got a little bit of mind.
• 11:48
  Alban: The sinking wasn't done right and you just got this like really bad sounds.
• 11:53
  Alban: So
• 11:54
  Kevin: you know, I guess that's my example of where it can go wrong.
• 11:57
  Kevin: Even if you're trying to do the right thing.
• 11:59
  Travis: Yes.
• 12:00
  Travis: That, so we don't recommend Skype.
• 12:03
  Travis: I'm just going to throw that out there.
• 12:05
  Travis: You can unsubscribe from this podcast if you think Skype is the greatest thing ever.
• 12:08
  Travis: I'm going to, I'm going to try and I'm to strong, I'm going to try and talk you off of Skype for podcast interviews.
• 12:14
  Travis: It's great for talking to your grandmother.
• 12:16
  Travis: Not Great for, for doing your podcast cause there are so many better solutions out there than Skype.
• 12:22
  Travis: Um, but yeah, and lost like all five of our Microsoft listeners or Microsoft's listeners are gone.
• 12:27
  Travis: Sorry guys, Arlene's expressed in this podcast.
• 12:30
  Travis: Those are Travis alone do not represent Buzzsprout.
• 12:33
  Travis: So, so the, the three solutions that I've seen, the aside from Skype, from like the more seasoned podcasters that have really come to the forefront, our zoom squad cast, which is relatively new, like, like five months old and Zen caster.
• 12:51
  Travis: So the three solutions that have kind of come to the forefront, the podcasting space in the recent past, like the ones that are currently the top three for most season podcasters, UserZoom, Zen zencaster and squad cast.
• 13:05
  Travis: And I think between the three of us, we've all had experience with each of them.
• 13:11
  Travis: And so, so I be curious like Kevin, of those three, which ones have you used before?
• 13:16
  Travis: Um, zoom seems pretty much all I ever use.
• 13:18
  Travis: So tell me a little bit about what it's like recording an interview in zoom.
• 13:22
  Travis: Zoom is super easy because as we learned this week, they put all this spyware on your computer really easy.
• 13:29
  Travis: I make it really easy to record you.
• 13:33
  Kevin: No, you don't have to worry about that.
• 13:34
  Kevin: There was a problem.
• 13:34
  Kevin: Apple fixed it.
• 13:35
  Kevin: They worked with zoom, zoom updated and apple fixed it if you haven't updated.
• 13:39
  Kevin: But the great thing about zoom is the audio quality is really high and it's super simple.
• 13:45
  Kevin: I'm the only awkward newness I ever experienced on a zoom call is like if you get to the room first or whatever and you get your Webcam on and you're ready to do this face to face interview and then somebody else pops in and they don't turn on their camera and we're like, we're not doing cameras today.
• 13:58
  Kevin: And they're like, no, you can leave yours on that.
• 14:00
  Kevin: I'm not.
• 14:01
  Kevin: Now it's like this is a real story.
• 14:04
  Kevin: Just cause a real story.
• 14:06
  Kevin: They want to look at you but they won't let you look at them.
• 14:09
  Kevin: So that awkwardness should be worked out before the interview starts.
• 14:12
  Kevin: Are we doing cameras or not?
• 14:14
  Kevin: But other than that, I've never had any problem with the audio quality or the ease of set up.
• 14:19
  Kevin: And usually what happens is I'll just get a link in like a meeting request to be there at this time.
• 14:24
  Kevin: You Click the link pops up in the software and you choose your microphone, you choose your video camera and easy peasy.
• 14:30
  Kevin: Yeah.
• 14:30
  Kevin: And Zoom has this like ability now where you can actually do the double under double ender thing where it records your local audio and then sends it to you later, which I think is pretty awesome.
• 14:42
  Kevin: They just kinda like tossed it in like, I don't know, didn't notice when they added that feature and now it's in there and it's like awesome for podcasters.
• 14:48
  Kevin: Yeah.
• 14:49
  Travis: So the setting is called record original audio.
• 14:53
  Travis: I believe that's the name of the setting.
• 14:55
  Travis: It's a little box you have to check in your advanced settings.
• 14:58
  Travis: Um, but yeah, zoom, zoom is great.
• 15:01
  Travis: The thing that I like about zoom is that it's a video focused[inaudible] which when I'm interviewing somebody I've never met before and I'm trying to establish a connection with them, being able to see their face makes a difference.
• 15:13
  Travis: Right.
• 15:13
  Travis: Cause then you can pick up on, you know, cues and like visual cues and like it doesn't sound like a, like I'm interviewing them for a job.
• 15:20
  Travis: Right.
• 15:20
  Travis: It sounds like we're having a conversation.
• 15:22
  Travis: Um, and it is super easy.
• 15:24
  Travis: I've never had anyone in my limited experience of doing like probably a hundred, 150 zoom interviews of someone saying, I don't know how to use zoom.
• 15:33
  Travis: Like that's never happened to me before.
• 15:35
  Travis: Yeah.
• 15:35
  Travis: And so, so I think that's like, its greatest strength is it's very easy to use.
• 15:39
  Travis: It's very intuitive.
• 15:41
  Travis: Um, and so, so yeah, zoom, zoom is a, is a great solution.
• 15:45
  Travis: And they have, what's the pricing on zoom?
• 15:46
  Travis: Maybe a free plan, right?
• 15:47
  Travis: They have a free plan.
• 15:49
  Travis: You can get unlimited recordings with two people for free.
• 15:53
  Travis: So if it's just going to be you recording one other person and you're never going to be in a room of like three or more than you can use zoom for free forever.
• 16:01
  Travis: And that includes most of the features that you would ever want for your podcast interview.
• 16:05
  Travis: And then if you need to jump up and do three to a hundred people, it's$15 a month, which I can't imagine doing a podcast interview with 99 guests.
• 16:15
  Travis: That would be, that'd be insane.
• 16:17
  Travis: But, uh, I don't know.
• 16:19
  Travis: Maybe we'll have to try it now.
• 16:20
  Travis: But uh, but yeah, so for 15 bucks a month, you can use their a world record for most guests on a public.
• 16:26
  Alban: We should definitely, definitely look into it.
• 16:28
  Travis: Buzzsprout in the Guinness World Book of Records.
• 16:29
  Travis: That'd be cool.
• 16:30
  Travis: There's definitely a 99 problems joke in there somewhere.
• 16:33
  Travis: I just don't know what it is.
• 16:36
  Travis: So, so that's zoom.
• 16:37
  Travis: A zencaster is another, another platform that we like.
• 16:42
  Travis: And I think Albin, you probably have the most experience with Zencaster of the three of us.
• 16:47
  Travis: Yeah,
• 16:47
  Alban: I've done a couple zencaster interviews.
• 16:50
  Alban: I think, I know I'm Brian and I met the guys at Zencaster I think at podcast movement in Anaheim and like I really liked them.
• 16:59
  Alban: And that was the, I think that was when like I started using, I used it a few times.
• 17:04
  Alban: It's a bit more technical than zoom is.
• 17:10
  Alban: Um, it's pretty easy to set up.
• 17:12
  Alban: I've always had pretty good experiences though.
• 17:15
  Alban: And so I don't, I, and what about say, you know, take it with a grain of salt, but I've heard of people not having good experiences.
• 17:22
  Alban: So we see this sometimes in some of the podcasting groups we're in where people are like, oh my gosh, I just lost everything from my zencaster or my, we see with the ringer sometimes too.
• 17:33
  Alban: They're like, I lost everything.
• 17:35
  Alban: I don't know if it's like a zencaster thing or if it's a person thing, but, uh, I have seen that.
• 17:42
  Alban: I don't know if you guys, are you guys ever see those posts?
• 17:44
  Travis: Ah, each tool is quirky in its own ways.
• 17:47
  Travis: So like Zencaster has some things that you need to be aware of with just how it functions and how it saves your audio.
• 17:54
  Travis: So if you've ever used Ancaster, you'll know that after you stop recording the interview, it is still uploading your audio file to the server.
• 18:04
  Travis: All right?
• 18:04
  Travis: So it's continuously uploading lossless audio, which is kind of their, their big thing is they get you really great audio quality.
• 18:12
  Travis: Um, but you have to wait until you get a pop up saying that your audio is uploaded before you close the window.
• 18:18
  Travis: And this applies to every single person on the call.
• 18:20
  Travis: So if your guest is on there, it's like great, the interview's over, bye.
• 18:24
  Travis: And then closes the window before it finishes the Audio Upload, then that's where you can run into problems with trying to get the Andreas.
• 18:30
  Travis: Yeah.
• 18:30
  Travis: So that's what, that's what all these people are running into.
• 18:33
  Travis: So they're just not using zencaster the way it's designed to be used.
• 18:36
  Travis: Does it give you a warning if you try to close it and I haven't finished, you upload.
• 18:39
  Travis: I'm not 100% sure because I've not tried to do that.
• 18:41
  Travis: Knowing housing catcher works.
• 18:44
  Travis: Um, but, uh, so I'm not sure.
• 18:46
  Travis: I'm not 100% sure.
• 18:48
  Travis: Oh Man, that's Kinda scary.
• 18:50
  Travis: So, but the third solution I'm actually really bullish on and I really, really hope that they continue to, to, to grow and do well, which is squad cast.
• 18:58
  Travis: And what I love about squad cast as a platform is that it includes video, like zoom, which for me is important, but then also they have the Zencaster Progressive Upload, lossless audio.
• 19:12
  Travis: So as you're recording, you can see each person's, uh, microphone input, you know, output.
• 19:18
  Travis: So you as the host can see if they have the right microphone selected.
• 19:21
  Travis: You're not just taking their word for it.
• 19:23
  Travis: Um, and you can also see their internet speed.
• 19:27
  Travis: So you can see like how strong their connection is and if at any point any person drops out, that audio is saved.
• 19:35
  Travis: And so it's not like you lose the audio from somebody's dropping out of the airport internet.
• 19:40
  Travis: So, so I've had limited experience with quad casts so far, but all of my experience has been extremely positive.
• 19:46
  Travis: Everyone that I talked to that uses it, that switching from platforms like ringer or Zencaster or zoom is really positive about it.
• 19:54
  Travis: Um, so that's one that's like pretty new in terms of like all the other solutions that I could totally see us switching over to for Buzzsprout podcasts in the near future.
• 20:04
  Travis: They start using squad cast instead of zoom.
• 20:07
  Travis: That's good.
• 20:07
  Travis: So what does the pricing look like for squad cast?
• 20:10
  Travis: So squad cast has one plan that you can do a free trial, um, which most of these softwares will let you do a free trial so that you can kind of test drive them and things like that.
• 20:21
  Travis: Uh, but the squad cast plan, you can do$20 a month or$200 a year and that allows you to record separate lossless audio files for rooms up to four people.
• 20:34
  Travis: If you want to learn more about all this stuff that we just talked about, make sure they click the link in the description for this episode.
• 20:41
  Travis: Go check out the blog post that, um, that we have on our blog about how to record long distance podcast interviews.
• 20:47
  Travis: We go super
• 20:48
  Kevin: in depth on all of these platforms.
• 20:49
  Kevin: Give you another couple that you can investigate and then also teach you how to run a double ended.
• 20:56
  Kevin: So now we're doing customer yes.
• 20:58
  Kevin: Service questions or core support questions?
• 21:01
  Kevin: Happiness.
• 21:02
  Kevin: Yes.
• 21:03
  Kevin: Customer happiness.
• 21:03
  Alban: Can I, can I make an announcement?
• 21:05
  Alban: Okay.
• 21:06
  Alban: We don't just have the head of customer happiness.
• 21:11
  Alban: We have two former in the current.
• 21:14
  Alban: Kevin was running it for a long time back when we called it help
• 21:20
  Kevin: and then I ran it on somebody else when we got one of our reviews that said support at Buzzsprout ranges from happy to help to gruff.
• 21:32
  Kevin: So you'll be happy to hear that gruff is no longer running support.
• 21:36
  Kevin: Billy Billy goat gruff is not running support anymore.
• 21:39
  Alban: And then I took it over and I think we called it support and people were fine there.
• 21:45
  Alban: Yeah, it was fine.
• 21:47
  Alban: And now Priscilla does it and now it's called customer happiness.
• 21:50
  Alban: I feel like that's a good progression.
• 21:53
  Alban: Right?
• 21:53
  Kevin: We're going in the right direction.
• 21:54
  Kevin: Yeah, definitely.
• 21:55
  Kevin: Awesome.
• 21:56
  Kevin: Well welcome Priscilla.
• 21:57
  Kevin: Thanks for joining us today on this, this episode.
• 21:58
  Kevin: I'm excited to be here.
• 22:00
  Kevin: So you've got some, some questions and, and so you're going to test our ability to, to help with support and make customers happy.
• 22:07
  Priscilla: Yeah.
• 22:07
  Priscilla: So, um, I have a couple of questions for you guys just so we can kind of discuss them.
• 22:12
  Priscilla: These are ones that come in quite a lot, um, to support and so I thought it'd be good to go through them.
• 22:18
  Priscilla: Um, so the first one is a two parter.
• 22:21
  Priscilla: Let's do it right.
• 22:22
  Priscilla: It's gonna stump all three of you.
• 22:24
  Priscilla: Okay.
• 22:25
  Priscilla: Um, so the question is can I have multiple podcasts on one account?
• 22:31
  Priscilla: And if I can, can they share a billing plan?
• 22:34
  Alban: Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding.
• 22:36
  Kevin: We have to buzz in.
• 22:37
  Kevin: Sure.
• 22:37
  Kevin: Go ahead Alvin.
• 22:39
  Kevin: Yes,
• 22:39
  Alban: I haven't actually got a lot of jeopardy's do you guys are not the meat toasted.
• 22:44
  Alban: Alright.
• 22:44
  Alban: So can you have multiple podcasts on a bus product count?
• 22:49
  Alban: Yes, you can correct.
• 22:51
  Alban: And there was a day, there wasn't one day a long time ago when the answer was no, but now you can, you can have multiple podcasts, one account click create a new podcast and then you create one.
• 23:05
  Alban: The one piece of the second question there is, yeah, they aren't separate accounts.
• 23:10
  Priscilla: Separate billing plans.
• 23:12
  Priscilla: Oh yeah.
• 23:13
  Alban: Separate billing plans.
• 23:14
  Alban: So you have separate cards?
• 23:16
  Alban: Nope.
• 23:18
  Kevin: You can have one car.
• 23:20
  Kevin: Can I buzz in?
• 23:21
  Kevin: Yeah, go ahead Kevin.
• 23:22
  Kevin: Maybe you can clear it up a little bit.
• 23:24
  Kevin: Okay.
• 23:25
  Kevin: So every podcast on Buzzsprout has its own billing plan.
• 23:30
  Kevin: So you can use the same card, you can use a different card, but every podcast has its own subscription and you can have multiple subscriptions per user.
• 23:38
  Kevin: So you can login as with one email address and password and you can switch between multiple podcasts.
• 23:44
  Kevin: One of those podcasts be on the free plan.
• 23:45
  Kevin: One can be like on a$12 plan and one can be on an$18 plan, played with same card, play with different cards, however you want to do it.
• 23:52
  Kevin: And I think that's the best answer.
• 23:54
  Kevin: Yeah, I think that's pretty good answer.
• 23:56
  Kevin: Good job, Kevin.
• 23:57
  Kevin: [inaudible] that.
• 23:59
  Kevin: I'm not picking a winner.
• 24:00
  Kevin: Alvin, your answer was fine.
• 24:03
  Kevin: Years went from good to now gruff.
• 24:08
  Priscilla: Okay, awesome.
• 24:09
  Priscilla: So the next question is what counts as a play?
• 24:13
  Priscilla: This comes in every now and then.
• 24:15
  Priscilla: I'm wanting to know does that include, you know, plays from my directories?
• 24:20
  Priscilla: Is it just my embed player?
• 24:21
  Priscilla: Is it just my Buzzsprout website?
• 24:24
  Priscilla: So what counts as a play technically in our stats, I feel like this is a Kevin Question.
• 24:29
  Priscilla: Oh yes.
• 24:30
  Priscilla: Well I want to hear how Travis answers it.
• 24:33
  Travis: So, so I see.
• 24:35
  Travis: So typically when people ask this, it's in the context of plays, downloads, listens, streams, right?
• 24:44
  Travis: W where, where do all those things land?
• 24:47
  Travis: They all land in the plays counter.
• 24:50
  Travis: So if you see 300 next to an episode, that means it's either been streams live, downloaded and listened to later on.
• 24:58
  Travis: Your embed player in apple podcasts in Spotify, wherever people can access your podcast, once that particular website or app has requested the file and said, this person wants to listen to it, you get a play.
• 25:13
  Kevin: Right, right.
• 25:14
  Kevin: Are you given full credit for that?
• 25:16
  Priscilla: I feel like there are some nuances.
• 25:17
  Priscilla: He like there's some nuances there.
• 25:19
  Priscilla: I feel like I give you guys some space to add anything.
• 25:22
  Kevin: Okay.
• 25:23
  Kevin: Let me go.
• 25:24
  Kevin: Okay.
• 25:24
  Kevin: Some nuances.
• 25:26
  Kevin: Uh, one thing I'll push back on a little bit is you said streamed live.
• 25:30
  Kevin: That's not something that we do at Buzzsprout.
• 25:32
  Kevin: We don't do like live podcast like playing or streaming like that.
• 25:37
  Kevin: Uh, I think what you meant when you said that is like if they go to your Buzzsprout website or they go to one of your in bed players and they click on, they play it like that's like streaming off of the server technically that it is what's happening as they're listening.
• 25:47
  Kevin: So just clarifying that nuance.
• 25:50
  Kevin: The other one is, are directories like Spotify, right?
• 25:54
  Kevin: So Spotify rehost your file.
• 25:56
  Kevin: We don't love that they do that, but they do it, they pull it off of our server.
• 25:59
  Kevin: And then when somebody is using the Spotify app to listen to your podcast, it's actually streaming from the Spotify server and not the Buzzsprout server.
• 26:06
  Kevin: And so we have to then rely on them to send us play data and they do that on about a three day revolving delay.
• 26:14
  Kevin: So all your plays, you might have hundreds of plays that happen on the day that you launch your podcast through Spotify, but they're not reflected in Buzzsprout until they send us the data about three days later.
• 26:25
  Travis: So Priscilla, what is the correct way of, and
• 26:27
  Kevin: we've all had different approaches to answering the question.
• 26:30
  Kevin: How would you answer the question?
• 26:32
  Priscilla: So I tell people that a play is whenever it's played anywhere across your directories, through different apps on your Buzzsprout account or on your Buzzsprout website and through embedded players.
• 26:45
  Priscilla: And we collected all and that it doesn't all show up right away.
• 26:47
  Priscilla: And sometimes depending on the question and how it's asked to us and support, I'll give more information about, you know, specifically it's about Spotify, I'll give them that information, that kind of a thing.
• 26:58
  Priscilla: Um, but that's usually how I answer it.
• 27:00
  Priscilla: So that pulls it all.
• 27:01
  Alban: Can I tell you about a time someone back when it was called support and I was doing, it challenged me on his stats.
• 27:07
  Alban: Okay.
• 27:07
  Alban: The guy wrote in, he was like, Hey, where are all my stats?
• 27:11
  Alban: And I was like, oh, you got like 300 plays.
• 27:13
  Alban: He goes, no, I have 90,300 and I was like, what?
• 27:17
  Alban: And he's like, yeah, I have 90,000 plays.
• 27:20
  Alban: And I was like, first off, there's a very specific number and how would you know that?
• 27:25
  Alban: And he's like, I definitely do.
• 27:26
  Alban: I know like there people are listening to it and sound like whatever to John.
• 27:30
  Alban: I was like, what is going on here?
• 27:31
  Alban: And he's like, dude, there's a Bot blowing up this guy's account and it's hit it exactly 90,000 times and then I search it like there's, Yup.
• 27:42
  Alban: He, he was buying a Bot, hit his own podcast thinking we were going to update it.
• 27:47
  Alban: So he's going to be able to like tell people like chuck it out.
• 27:49
  Alban: 90,000 players, one of the top podcasts, Joe Rogan, your icon.
• 27:54
  Alban: And instead all that we did was just blocked all of the plays.
• 27:57
  Alban: Yeah, those are fake the guy.
• 27:59
  Alban: So as soon as I wrote back and was like, hey man, you're right.
• 28:02
  Alban: But it does look like, it looks like it was a Bot tried to do 90,000 I wonder if someone bought plays for your epic podcast, instant radio silence.
• 28:10
  Priscilla: And did you explain to him not to focus so much on his stats and to just enjoy podcasting?
• 28:16
  Alban: I don't think I added that in.
• 28:17
  Alban: That's why I was fine.
• 28:18
  Alban: It wasn't, there was a great support.
• 28:21
  Priscilla: Priscilla.
• 28:22
  Priscilla: Oh, that's a tough one.
• 28:24
  Priscilla: I feel like I want to give it to Kevin.
• 28:25
  Alban: Oh cause he pays your
• 28:27
  Travis: yup.
• 28:30
  Travis: Be The reason I when we're switching to whose line is it anyways, standings where the points don't matter.
• 28:36
  Priscilla: There it is.
• 28:37
  Priscilla: All right.
• 28:38
  Priscilla: Um, so this last question is a little more in depth.
• 28:40
  Priscilla: Um, and I'm interested to see how you guys answer it.
• 28:42
  Priscilla: So, um, the question is kind of more broad and it's about how your descriptions and your summaries show up in your apple podcasts listing and in the app.
• 28:54
  Priscilla: So versus how it shows up for subscribers versus non subscribers.
• 29:00
  Priscilla: You guys have some thoughts.
• 29:01
  Alban: Kevin knows this one.
• 29:02
  Alban: I know she's like nodding like, yeah, he's just waiting for one of us didn't answer correctly.
• 29:09
  Alban: Difficult and detailed, but I feel like Travis,
• 29:11
  Travis: we're going to have it also.
• 29:12
  Travis: Well, so from what I gather, apple podcast has some quirks.
• 29:17
  Travis: One of those is if you're not subscribed to a show, you see different information than you will if you are subscribed to a show.
• 29:25
  Travis: And I guess that's Apple's way of saying you're not fully committed.
• 29:28
  Travis: We get it.
• 29:29
  Travis: Here's like the stuff you would see in this person's Tinder profile, you know, swipe left or right.
• 29:34
  Travis: So once you subscribe, you got the analogy about Tinder,
• 29:38
  Alban: you're not getting the, that's a good question.
• 29:42
  Priscilla: We'll follow up.
• 29:43
  Priscilla: Follow up question[inaudible] that was a good analogy.
• 29:45
  Priscilla: Times when you're replying to a support email, do you reference Tinder profiles?
• 29:49
  Priscilla: There's probably a reason.
• 29:50
  Priscilla: There's probably a reason I'm not probably not in help scout.
• 29:54
  Priscilla: Um, but so when you're subscribed to a podcast you will see more information than if you're not subscribed to a podcast in apple podcasts
• 30:01
  Alban: specifically the exact details of what apple includes.
• 30:07
  Alban: Yeah, I'm going to leave the Kevin, oh wait, wait.
• 30:09
  Alban: Can I take a shot?
• 30:10
  Alban: Oh, when you're looking at the episodes on like the apple podcast page or in the app, it's gonna use the summary, that one sentence and then when you subscribe you'll actually be able to see the full description for the episodes.
• 30:25
  Alban: And another quirk I know is the ordering is one way and I think the order is newest episodes at the bottom for like episodic for season shows
• 30:40
  Priscilla: and then flips.
• 30:43
  Priscilla: I was just getting all try to get all the points.
• 30:46
  Priscilla: It's a Kevin can't steal them and a don't stuff.
• 30:50
  Priscilla: Author tags.
• 30:51
  Priscilla: I wrote that too.
• 30:53
  Priscilla: You go, that's, yes.
• 30:57
  Priscilla: Great job album.
• 30:58
  Priscilla: Staying relevant.
• 30:59
  Priscilla: All right.
• 30:59
  Priscilla: I feel like Alvin was on the right track with the summary being what you see before you subscribe to the show.
• 31:05
  Priscilla: Is that right?
• 31:06
  Priscilla: You're still liking?
• 31:06
  Priscilla: Give me a head nod.
• 31:08
  Priscilla: Yes.
• 31:09
  Priscilla: Okay.
• 31:10
  Priscilla: I'm getting the head nods.
• 31:10
  Priscilla: So we're on the right track.
• 31:12
  Priscilla: Supposed to give you any information before you finished your answer.
• 31:14
  Priscilla: Yeah, yeah, no special treatment, Kevin.
• 31:16
  Priscilla: Yeah, and then once you subscribed you can see the full show notes or what in in Buzzsprout you would put in the description field.
• 31:23
  Priscilla: Some people call it description.
• 31:24
  Priscilla: That's what apple podcasts call it.
• 31:25
  Priscilla: Some people call it show notes.
• 31:27
  Priscilla: That's what you get once you subscribe.
• 31:29
  Priscilla: Um, can I ask a question?
• 31:32
  Priscilla: Sure.
• 31:33
  Priscilla: Okay.
• 31:34
  Priscilla: How come?
• 31:35
  Priscilla: I upload episode artwork for all my episodes, but then I play it in apple podcast and I can't see it.
• 31:40
  Priscilla: Is that because Apple Pod, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding Travis.
• 31:46
  Priscilla: Is that because apple podcast does not support episode artwork?
• 31:49
  Priscilla: Priscilla, I'm pretty sure it does show in the app.
• 31:54
  Priscilla: But it doesn't show in your listing.
• 31:57
  Priscilla: But is that True Kevin?
• 31:59
  Priscilla: Not a hundred percent on that.
• 32:01
  Priscilla: I want to hear Alvin's answer.
• 32:02
  Priscilla: Yup.
• 32:02
  Priscilla: I Dunno.
• 32:03
  Priscilla: You don't know.
• 32:05
  Priscilla: No one asks this question.
• 32:06
  Priscilla: It's not super common.
• 32:08
  Priscilla: I think that it does show in the app but it doesn't show on the listing.
• 32:12
  Priscilla: But I could be wrong cause it's not super common.
• 32:15
  Priscilla: I think I'm like 90% confident.
• 32:18
  Priscilla: So we can follow up in our show notes with the correct answer if we get it wrong.
• 32:22
  Priscilla: But I don't, the latest version of the apple podcast app that runs on Ios devices supports episode level artwork ever.
• 32:32
  Priscilla: Kevin you say that and actually I think, I think you might be right cause we have had that question in the past where it has shown up.
• 32:38
  Priscilla: But I think a couple of weeks ago we had a question asking about it and, and it, it wasn't showing up in the app.
• 32:45
  Priscilla: Right.
• 32:46
  Priscilla: So I think you're right.
• 32:47
  Priscilla: I think I must have been a new version.
• 32:48
  Priscilla: It's very surprising to us because they, they do like in the apple podcasts, RSS Specs, they say that you can put artwork at the episode level, which would like, okay, well why do you say that if you don't use it?
• 32:59
  Priscilla: But I think the latest version of the app is not using it.
• 33:03
  Priscilla: So let me clarify the original question about the, to make sure we actually answered the descriptions versus summaries.
• 33:10
  Priscilla: Yeah.
• 33:10
  Priscilla: So you were all kind of there.
• 33:12
  Priscilla: So if you're not a subscriber and you're looking at a listing, you're going to see the summary.
• 33:17
  Priscilla: You're not going to see the full description.
• 33:19
  Priscilla: If you look on like your desktop, if you're looking at the online, through the desktop, you'll see the beginning of the description, but you won't see the whole thing.
• 33:27
  Priscilla: If you're in the apple podcast app, you won't see the description at all.
• 33:31
  Priscilla: So this throws people off a lot because unless you're subscribed, you can't see any of the district description.
• 33:37
  Priscilla: Um, you'll just see the summary.
• 33:39
  Priscilla: Once you subscribe, you can see the description when it's downloaded onto your, your episodes.
• 33:46
  Priscilla: So if you're still viewing the listing and not going to your library where it's downloaded, you're still going to just see the summary.
• 33:52
  Priscilla: Does that make sense?
• 33:54
  Priscilla: This can be really confusing for people.
• 33:57
  Priscilla: Um, the other trick about it too is if you don't fill out anything in your summary, in your buzz broad account, then it will populate with the description.
• 34:06
  Priscilla: So sometimes you will see the description.
• 34:08
  Priscilla: If you don't have anything in the summary, the full description or truncated, no, it'll just show the beginning of it.
• 34:13
  Priscilla: It doesn't show the whole thing.
• 34:14
  Priscilla: Right?
• 34:15
  Priscilla: And so that can be confusing for people too, because if they don't have a summary in one episode and then a description and then they have it in the next one.
• 34:21
  Priscilla: And why is my description showing here in my summary showing here?
• 34:24
  Alban: Can I throw out a old, a old support email?
• 34:28
  Alban: This is one of my favorite emails I ever got in my support days.
• 34:32
  Alban: Got One in Cavan full entire email, all caps, how to go viral.
• 34:39
  Alban: So guys, how to go viral, how do you do it?
• 34:43
  Priscilla: So answer, how do you answer that?
• 34:45
  Priscilla: So if that email came into me today, I would respond with some links to probably are, how to get started.
• 34:53
  Priscilla: Because if I'm going to get that email, I'm going to guess it's someone who probably isn't so far along in their podcasting journey.
• 34:59
  Priscilla: So I'm going to send them some links on the, the probably buzz cast probably are, how to get started podcast, kind of give him some of those links to get going.
• 35:07
  Priscilla: And then I'm going to remind them not to focus on stats that in the beginning focused on making content that you love.
• 35:13
  Priscilla: And then if it's gonna go viral, that's great, but that's not the point.
• 35:17
  Priscilla: As a support customer happiness person, that's how I would respond.
• 35:22
  Priscilla: It's not really answering the question of what's the trick to go viral, but it gives them kind of a way to get started.
• 35:28
  Priscilla: I would say that is a fantastic question.
• 35:31
  Priscilla: And I have a secret method that works
• 35:34
  Alban: that no one else has figured out, which is why it's join my
• 35:38
  Travis: mastermind group.
• 35:41
  Travis: So, so I think, uh, I would, I would echo Priscilla's point that's, you know, stat downplay the importance of stats in your mind.
• 35:51
  Travis: Don't become a podcast or just to be famous because it's just not, it's not going to happen.
• 35:59
  Travis: Famous.
• 36:01
  Travis: Don't place everything on that.
• 36:03
  Travis: Yeah.
• 36:04
  Travis: Don't put your happiness in how many downloads you have.
• 36:06
  Travis: I would recommend contagious.
• 36:08
  Travis: Why things catch on by Jonah Berger.
• 36:11
  Travis: He's a professor I think at Wharton and he's a marketing professor.
• 36:15
  Travis: He wrote a book about why things go viral.
• 36:17
  Travis: So yeah, I sent him that and maybe my personal Amazon affiliate link got gotta make a buck, got make a buck.
• 36:24
  Travis: I'm pretty sure that isn't no, no of support.
• 36:26
  Travis: You can't drop affiliate links in your support responses.
• 36:28
  Travis: No, I don't.
• 36:29
  Travis: I don't personally.
• 36:30
  Travis: Oh, good.
• 36:32
  Travis: You're like, man, that's 17 say the rest of the support team, but 17 cents.
• 36:35
  Travis: You left on the three Bluelab and travesties invited someone who's viral mastermind.
• 36:43
  Travis: Kevin, how would you answer that?
• 36:44
  Travis: I can't answer that.
• 36:46
  Travis: And that's why we have Priscilla.
• 36:50
  Travis: Awesome.
• 36:51
  Travis: Awesome.
• 36:51
  Travis: Well, Priscilla, thank you for being our hi our awesome special guests for this episode.
• 36:57
  Travis: Great.
• 36:58
  Travis: Um, if you have any questions about anything we talked about in this episode, please drop us a comment in the Buzzsprout podcast community, which is our Facebook group, which will redo most of our real time communication.
• 37:09
  Travis: Um, if you want to read that blog that we were referencing about remote interviews, I'll leave a link in the episode description or put all the details for this episode, or you can email us@supportatbestroute.com and either addy or I will get back to you.
• 37:25
  Travis: Yes.
• 37:25
  Travis: And sometimes other people and sometimes other people.
• 37:28
  Travis: Yeah.
• 37:28
  Travis: But most of the time it's going to be out of your eye if you get a gruff reply is because Kevin was not gruff.
• 37:35
  Travis: Kevin was not the gruff one that was somebody else.
• 37:39
  Travis: And if you get Kevin, that's a good thing.
• 37:41
  Travis: Trust me.
• 37:44
  Travis: Sometimes Kevin offer stuff that I don't even know we can do.
• 37:46
  Travis: So it's great.
• 37:47
  Travis: Awesome.
• 37:48
  Travis: Thanks for listening guys.
• 37:49
  Travis: Keep podcasting.
• 37:54
  Travis: Kevin, can I get my six months for free?