0:00

- If I think back to some of the best moments I've had in podcasting, it's when I get

0:05

that feedback from that listener that said, wow,

0:08

that really hit me, or, wow, that really helped me.

0:11

Or I go back to the time when,

0:14

on my 200 episode when I, I lost my father.

0:17

And the letters of condolences that came in the thousands

0:21

of letters or emails that came in that really,

0:23

that personal connection, you really is.

0:26

It's, it's the deepest part of podcasting

0:29

because we can't forget that even we're talking about YouTube and video and AI

0:34

and all this stuff. In the end, we're, we're really inside our listeners' heads.

0:42

You're listening to Podcasts Insider, hosted by Mike Dell,

0:45

Todd Cochrane, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry

0:47

team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips

0:51

and tricks to help you start, grow and thrive through podcast, all with the support

0:56

of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting.

0:58

Welcome. Let's dive in. Happy New Year everyone.

1:04

I'm Todd Cochrane, CEO, and founder of Blueberry Podcasting.

1:07

- And I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist here at Blueberry.

1:10

- And I'm Mike Dell, the VP of Customer Relations here at Blueberry.

1:14

Today, we're going to give you our predictions for

1:17

what we think might happen in podcasting in 2024.

1:25

- Who wants to start out strong with their, with their opinion? Well,

1:29

- I'll, I'll start out with my predictions. There you go. 'cause my predictions always come true.

1:35

Oh, yeah, <laugh>. Except I owe Mike A. Buck from last year.

1:38

- You still owe me a dollar. I haven't seen it yet. <laugh>,

1:42

- Here's kind of where my brain's at. And, and again, it's just you,

1:45

it's just you try to have this crystal ball. What's gonna happen in the next year?

1:49

And, and obviously video, video is gonna continue

1:53

to advance, even though I think some people may become discouraged with the results.

1:58

But I think video will continue to, to advance.

2:02

And video podcasting will, will make reemergence, uh,

2:06

should I say video's been

2:08

around in podcasting literally since the beginning,

2:11

but most people forgot about it. All - The hosting companies that the beginning, that

2:15

that supported video and most of the apps out there supported video

2:19

- And we're one of the few that that do.

2:22

There's not a lot of podcast hosts that, uh, support video,

2:25

but I'm sure that we're gonna be

2:27

looking at that pretty hard. But definitely ai, AI is going to change, uh, everything.

2:33

A matter of fact, just we've been pretty public that we're working on stuff

2:36

and I got a ability, I today looked at some of our,

2:40

our testing that we're doing, and I'm pretty, pretty excited about

2:44

what we're gonna be able to bring to market on that.

2:47

But I think the real, the real big thing for me is

2:52

what you're seeing today already is a lot

2:56

of content's being put out and people are questioning whether

3:00

or not that content is been written by a human, created

3:04

by a human, or if it's been created

3:08

by an artificial intelligence, large language model.

3:11

So people are going to become more and more leery of what they trust.

3:17

And I think real voices will become more important than ever

3:22

because if you watch a YouTube channel,

3:26

you can see that person talking.

3:28

What's a real person? So YouTube content, podcast content,

3:33

audio, and video is going to

3:36

still be the source of truth.

3:38

In other words, people are gonna tune in to people

3:41

that are generating original content

3:44

and, uh, putting out their gen, their, their opinion

3:48

and their voice. I think real voices will be more important than ever.

3:53

And I think people are really, really going to seek

3:55

that out in a big, big way. Mackenzie, what, what do you think?

3:59

- I've got a few. One of them is definitely AI as well,

4:04

that people are gonna continue to use it, but I do see other platforms,

4:08

just creator platforms in general, integrating it more

4:12

for people to actually use. So we saw a huge spike in people using Che GPT

4:18

or some type of AI on a regular basis in their own lives.

4:21

But there's still a lot of people out there

4:24

who have not touched it and are lenient of it at this point in time.

4:28

And I just, over the year, I think it'll increase

4:33

as well as I think that we'll probably see more

4:35

and more companies coming out with accessibility improvements for their podcast,

4:40

whether it is transcripts like we've already been doing

4:44

or something in terms of hearing in

4:49

impairment or reading.

4:51

So there's a lot of different ways that people can go with that.

4:54

And then since it is 2024, that is a huge,

4:59

huge election year for the United States.

5:03

So that goes up like every election year shows go up

5:07

and then they drop out just because they're talking about the political landscape at the

5:11

time and campaigns. But also, I would not be surprised if we just saw a,

5:16

an extended version of that just based on

5:19

what is happening in the Middle East. I would expect that there's probably some

5:23

new content from that. And then my last one, this is kind of more

5:27

of a want than a prediction. I would like to see Apple Podcasts come out

5:32

with a creator program for anyone doing a show, not just

5:36

a subscription or premium show with them.

5:39

So hopefully they can get on board with that. Awesome,

5:42

- Mike. - All right. Well, I make this prediction every year

5:46

and it doesn't come true, but I'm gonna do it again.

5:49

SoundCloud will shut down. <laugh>.

5:51

- Well, they, they just laid off another 1500 people,

5:54

so maybe you're getting closer to your dream, Mike. Well,

5:57

- That's Spotify, but - Oh, Spotify. Oh, sorry.

6:00

- <laugh>. SoundCloud. SoundCloud. Cloud, cloud. - I was SoundCloud. - I was about to ask, I was like,

6:03

do they even have that many employees? <laugh>?

6:06

- I think they fired everybody several years ago. <laugh>,

6:10

- I just assumed you said were thinking about Spotify

6:13

because of all the trouble they've caused us in the past,

6:16

but SoundCloud, yeah. They have not updated their podcast offering since, what,

6:21

five years now or something - Fired the whole team there.

6:24

There is nobody over there that specializes in the podcast side of things.

6:28

Yeah. And why it still works, I don't know,

6:30

but it sort of does <laugh> it sort

6:33

of anyway.

6:37

And this one I'm probably wrong about,

6:39

but I, I'm, I'm looking at Google's, uh, past record

6:44

of implementing podcasting and air quotes.

6:48

But I believe that the, this initiative

6:50

with YouTube is going to fail as it is currently planned.

6:56

Uh, I think they'll announce something else, change it,

6:59

move it around, do something else before the end of the year.

7:03

That's, that's my guess, kind of when we first

7:06

learned about it, it, it really seemed like they were

7:11

doing it all backwards. But I think they've made some improvements in the plan,

7:15

but I still think it's gonna be a hard row for them.

7:20

- Well, it, it's, it's telling because we are not getting support tickets for it.

7:25

- Yeah. Yeah, - That's true. <laugh>, if it was a big deal,

7:28

if people were really excited about it, our our,

7:30

our inboxes would be full. - Yeah. Like when Spotify added podcasting, oh my gosh.

7:36

You know, yeah. <laugh>, we were inundated. - But YouTube, it's been crickets.

7:40

No one's cared because it's basically the YouTube initiative

7:43

for podcasting is just YouTube. Yeah. That's really all it is. Really.

7:46

There's nothing, nothing fancy about it. Putting

7:49

- Lip lipstick on the pig and calling it good.

7:52

It is cool though that you can now subscribe somewhat

7:56

to podcast inside of YouTube music.

7:58

So if you're a heavy YouTube music user, you can add your,

8:03

your favorite shows RSS feeds, but you gotta know their RSS feeds. So it's, it's,

8:07

- But I think most people say YouTube

8:09

music, what, what is that? I think Exactly.

8:12

- <laugh>. Exactly. Some people use it.

8:16

Uh, and that's fine. I have it because I'm, uh, I'm a YouTube pre premium

8:20

subscriber and I don't think I've ever used it <laugh>.

8:24

So anyway, of course everybody says AI will become bigger deal in

8:28

podcasting this year. I think that's a given being that AI is the,

8:34

the new catch word for this year and next.

8:38

And the one after that, probably. Let's see.

8:41

I think more and more podcast apps and platforms will adopt some

8:44

of the podcasting 2.0 features.

8:48

And what I'm thinking is, I'm, I'm hoping some of the

8:52

mainstream apps, some of the existing apps out there, like,

8:56

uh, I don't overcast, I don't think Apple will.

8:59

I mean, I think they have a little bit of something in there now already, you know,

9:02

even though they're not saying so, but I'm talking about PocketCasts and Overcast

9:09

and some of the more popular third party apps

9:12

Will, will adopt it. And, and of course there's all kinds

9:16

of new podcast apps [email protected] anyway,

9:21

and here's my, my big one. I think Rogan is going to renew his contract with Spotify.

9:27

As much as I'd love to see him to come back to regular podcasting, I think, uh,

9:32

I think that's gonna happen. - I think he'll renew his contract,

9:36

but I think they will allow him

9:38

to be distributed via RSS again. 'cause I don't think they have the money.

9:42

- Well, that might be good. - Yeah. I don't think they have the money

9:45

to renew his contract at the level that, you know, they,

9:48

they've spent a billion dollars on podcast.

9:51

- Well, they have more money this year than they have in the past.

9:54

- Well, they've invested a billion and flushed 900 million of it down the toilet. So,

9:59

- And they, and they fired 1500 people <laugh> just

10:02

- Recently. So, so we'll see.

10:05

- Yeah. And then here's my New Year's resolution.

10:08

And I, I have been a bit opinionated

10:13

over the past however long,

10:16

but, you know, podcasting's always been no rules.

10:19

And I just need to remember that if I don't,

10:23

if think someone's doing something the correct way, as long

10:27

as it's functional, it's not really

10:29

my place to correct them. I will offer advice,

10:32

but I, I'm not gonna jump on my, uh, soapbox as much

10:35

as I have in the past. I, it's, I don't know.

10:39

I was real grumpy the other day and, uh, <laugh>, I had to reassess

10:43

what I was, uh, telling people. So anyway, that's, that's mine.

10:47

- Oh, awesome. Well, we, we do have some other team members

10:50

that have made some, some suggest, blah, blah, blah, blah.

10:54

Some suggestions. <laugh>, I'll read the one from Kathy.

10:58

Kathy says, the space is going to continue its evolution

11:01

with blueberry at the forefront with expanded features such

11:05

as the implementation of ai. Since the podcaster's voice is considered more trustworthy

11:11

than traditional media reporting, I think

11:13

that there will be a natural progression toward higher

11:16

levels of accuracy and individual accountability.

11:19

In other words, the truth is out there, and though podcasting people will be able to find

11:25

and believe it, i, I, I think she's dead on.

11:28

Again, it goes back to the, the trusted voices piece. Yeah,

11:32

- Definitely. The authentic voice. Well, I'll, I'll read Dave's here.

11:37

It says, with YouTube officially entering the space

11:39

as a destination, I think more creators will need

11:43

to make video content, whether

11:45

that means live streaming episodes or video on demand,

11:50

or doing static image videos. Because of this, more tools are going to be developed

11:55

to make it easier for podcasters who have no experience with

11:59

any of the, uh, video editing tools.

12:01

And he also says AI will have a bit of a, a,

12:05

a role in this as well. - I'll finish it out with Barry, our legal counsel

12:12

and finance extraordinaire. He said, very similar to what we've spoken about,

12:17

your voice is real and your personality is real,

12:19

versus AI will be more important in 2024,

12:22

the personal connection to your listeners remains a

12:24

paramount objective in podcasting. It's a very strong last

12:28

sentence there. It's a good statement. - I, I agree. And I, if I think back to some

12:33

of the best moments I've had in podcasting, it's when I get

12:37

that feedback from that listener that said, wow,

12:40

that really hit me, or, wow, that really helped me.

12:43

Or I go back to the time when, on my 200 episode when I,

12:48

I lost my father and the letters of condolences

12:51

that came in the thousands of letters or emails that came in that really,

12:55

that personal connection, you really is, it's,

12:59

it's the deepest part of podcasting because we can't forget

13:03

that even we're talking about YouTube and video and AI

13:06

and all this stuff. In the end, we're, we're really inside our listeners' heads.

13:13

They're plugged in as deep as they can be.

13:15

They've got their earbuds plugged in. We're we're right, we're right there.

13:20

And I was listening to a podcast on the airplane,

13:23

or actually on the train yesterday, and I had to keep pulling my earbud out

13:28

because the audio was so good

13:30

that I thought it was someone was speaking to me externally

13:34

or my laptop computer speaker was on.

13:38

It really was that intimate. So I think that's really key there.

13:42

That personal connection to your listener remains

13:44

of paramount objective in podcasting.

13:46

I can't say it any better than Barry did. - I've had a a, a similar situation.

13:51

I, I was walking on our, uh, recreational trail,

13:54

which is next to a train track. I was listening to a sound seeing tour,

13:59

which you don't hear very often anymore. But somebody was walking around a city

14:04

and talk, doing a podcast at the same time,

14:07

and a train horn went off and I pulled my earbuds out

14:12

and looked for the train on the tracks 'cause it was so good.

14:15

We are definitely right in people's ears,

14:18

even if they're driving down the road and their car listening on the stereo in the car.

14:22

But most, most people that listen

14:25

to podcasts listen to them alone. And so it's just you and that person.

14:32

- Yes, I would agree with that. <laugh>, I don't really love

14:34

radio for the exact same reason. Talking about the train track thing,

14:38

and I've gotten these videos on TikTok

14:41

before with eight D audio and like, I'll usually be listening with my

14:47

AirPods in which have noise transparency. And everyone has fancy headphones nowadays

14:51

that eight d audio is insane.

14:54

They usually start out with something to like startle you

14:57

and you will hear in your left

15:00

or right ear, someone knocking

15:03

and you think it's in your house, like you jump,

15:06

you think it's happening and then you're like, Nope, that was just the recording.

15:09

The way that they do 360 sound

15:13

- Spacial if - Yeah. Yeah, if people could do that spatial sound

15:16

with particularly audio dramas like

15:20

that has very much picked up of people doing like their fictional stories here on po like

15:24

as a podcast as opposed to like an audio book.

15:27

That would be insane. I would listen to those because kind of the ones

15:30

that are out now, like they're great, but if you added that like really cool element,

15:37

I would be more interested in listening. - So maybe there's something there.

15:41

Then Mackenzie too is maybe the spatial audio type

15:43

of stuff will make some advancements.

15:46

- Yeah, - Podcasting has mostly been about audio

15:54

over the almost 20 years that we've been at this.

15:58

I think it, we should still focus on audio,

16:01

but of course video is now becoming more

16:05

of a thing in podcasting. But I think that's just a shift in the definition

16:09

of podcasting, not necessarily

16:12

a shift in the type of shows you do.

16:15

So if you're, you're an audio podcaster,

16:17

I think audio is important and even in video, audio is important.

16:21

- And I think too, the thing that's lost in video is

16:26

if you're listening, I, I would never watch,

16:29

I would never listen to a YouTube channel.

16:32

I, I would always watch because stuff happens.

16:35

They're showing stuff on the screen or there's transitions

16:38

and we're in audio. You have to be the, you have to be the storyteller.

16:45

You have to make, you have to make the listener

16:48

who can't see what you're talking about, understand what you're talking about.

16:51

And I think that's something that's important for anyone considering video

16:55

that's all already has an audio podcast. It's very, very easy to forget that our people are listening

17:00

and can't see what you're talking about.

17:03

So we can't lose that intimacy by,

17:06

I think if you plan audio first, you'll do well.

17:09

And if you add the video component, just always remember they're listening and not watching.

17:13

I think you'll transition and not transition,

17:16

but maybe add that additional component successfully.

17:19

- Alright, well I think that does it for our predictions.

17:22

We'll see how we do next year. I haven't dug up last year's predictions yet,

17:27

but maybe we'll throw that in there somewhere next in,

17:30

in the next month or so. But next week, speaking of audio,

17:34

we're gonna talk about equipment. We, uh, McKenzie and I have been working on that.

17:38

Uh, what, what equipment do you absolutely have to have

17:42

to start your podcast or what sort of equipment can you get?

17:47

- Yeah, don't, don't do what I did. - <laugh>. <laugh>, we will include that in the episode.

17:53

We don't want to have to ship a container of stuff.

17:55

<laugh> No. To move <laugh>. - Alright everybody. Thanks. Thanks, thanks for joining us.

18:02

Come back next week and in the meantime, head

18:04

to podcast insider.com for more information to subscribe,

18:09

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18:13

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18:16

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18:20

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