Evo Terra:
Who says you can't teach an old podcasting dog new tricks?
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The start of a new season is a great way to introduce fresh ideas and collaboration
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opportunities to your podcast listeners.
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Today's episode is brought to you by the Advancing Podcasting
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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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The first week of Season Four of Podcast Pontifications is complete.
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Or will be in a few minutes when you get to the end of this episode.
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Thanks so much for sticking with me while I took a much-needed break as I always
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do in the summertime in-between seasons.
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Now, for you who have been listening to Podcast Pontifications for
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some time now you have likely noticed some changes already.
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One of them, quite trivial, but something I like to do,
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and others more foundational.
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So let's get the trivial, the small thing, out of the way first, and then we'll
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jump into the more important things.
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Brand new theme music!
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Did you notice?
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Of course, you noticed.
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Brand new theme music, and if you've listened to this for a while now because
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this is the fourth season, you will know that I've changed the music on Podcast
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Pontifications - this is the fifth change.
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Five to only four seasons, Evo.
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How'd you do that?
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Well, because I did one kind of mid-season.
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So yeah, big changes.
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Let's go back in the way back machine.
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Here's the first little bit of bed music you probably heard.
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Way back in the day.
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[Sweeper swell plays] And I occassionally pull that out from
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time to time as I'm doing things.
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That was for the very first thing.
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And then I went to - [Season 1 music plays] That was fun for Season One.
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Season Two was - [Season 2 music plays], which everybody liked, and I did too.
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But then Season Three was - [Season 3 music plays], which I still hear
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in my head every single time I do the recording of the cold open, which
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brings us to where we are today.
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[Season 4 music plays] Yeah, I like that, jazzy and funky.
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And what I've done with that new one is I've actually extended it out.
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There's a full track that I have now, and it plays all the way through the
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new outro, which you probably have also noticed is something different
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on the show that wasn't there before.
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Yay.
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So that's fun.
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Oh, and by the way, no, I do not recommend changing up your theme music
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every season, or anytime, really.
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I mean, look all seriousness, branding is important to building your audience
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so that they know what they're in for.
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And especially an audience that has no idea who you are.
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Getting too flippant with the music can really be a detriment to you.
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Audio branding is super important, hugely important in podcasting.
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And to be honest, I sort of picked all of the different theme music for this show
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at the last minute, without really giving it a whole heck of a lot of thought.
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So I don't recommend doing that.
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Instead, if you really want to do bed music the right way, I highly
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recommend you should choose theme music that is created by a bespoke
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composer that you're working with.
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I've done that for other shows, some of mine, some for clients where we work,
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I work directly and the client works directly with the composer and we come
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up with a really cool piece of music that properly encapsulates the overall theme.
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That's the best way to do it.
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It's not an inexpensive way to do it, but that, in my opinion, is the best
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way to really do your theme music.
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All right.
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All right.
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Enough of the trivial type stuff.
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Let's get into more of the foundational changes, shall we?
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You've probably also noticed something at the top of the show.
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That's an ad.
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"Oh my god, Evo!
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You said no ads!"
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Well, I didn't really say no ads.
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I said I don't run ads.
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But right after the cold open, right before the intro, there's a house ad.
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It's a house ad, and by the way, thank you very much to the many listeners who
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have signed up, went to that URL given in that house ad, proving that it works.
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Sorta, right?
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I mean, clearly it's me asking for something that's part of the show.
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I totally get it.
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But again, thank you very much to them.
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The reason you're hearing that ad at the top of the program is I am
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implementing something that Bryan Barletta from Sounds Profitable, you're
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reading Sounds Profitable, right?
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I mean, you know that I'm helping edit Sounds Profitable.
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So you should be reading Sounds Profitable.
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Anyhow, Bryan wrote about it this week, as the week of this
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recording, in his weekly newsletter.
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The article is entitled, Never Let an Ad Slot Go Empty, which I highly
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recommend that you should actually read.
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It's very good if you're running ads right now, but if you're not
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running ads as I wasn't running ads, it'll still spark some ideas.
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Bryan writes about a pretty complex adtech stack to blend all sorts of ads together.
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And by complicated, I don't mean that the technology itself is complicated.
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It's actually quite straightforward to set this up.
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It's just that for me, and perhaps for you, selling ads isn't a top
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priority for my show, so I didn't go through the complexity of figuring
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out where the ad inventory is coming.
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But that doesn't mean that I'm not making that ad spot available.
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I am.
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I'm viewing that spot as a potential for a collaboration with a few
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of my other longtime listeners.
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It helps spread some of the awareness of the cool things
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they are doing in podcasting.
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I'm all about making podcasting better.
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Many of the people who listen to this program are also about making podcasting
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better or have products or services or ideas that make podcasting better.
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So we're still hashing out the details between me and the few folks
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who want to do some collaborations.
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Look, I thought it was important, as Bryan tells us, to start off the season
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with that ad spot running so you're not surprised when you hear other
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things drop down in that position, or perhaps even in other positions.
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And yes, that spot is available to you if you wish to collaborate with me.
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Just simply get in touch with me, evo@simpler.media, and we'll set up
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a time to chat about your idea and how we might collaborate together.
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Now, that's not the end of the changes you're going to see, or I guess hear,
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or even read with Podcast Pontifications this season, or even with me.
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I looked at the calendar just before coming on and there are fifteen more
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weeks, which is roughly sixty episodes.
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I might take a day off here and there.
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That's just for the first half of Season Four and I'm going to
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be making incremental changes to Podcast Pontifications along the way.
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So listen closely and be sure - again, sign up for Podcast
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Pontifications In Your Inbox.
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That's where I will email you a quick little note every time a new episode
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comes out, as well as other changes.
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PPIYI is the best place to go so you're never going to miss a thing that's
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happening with Podcast Pontifications.
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Now, if you like the changes or you just want to help ensure that I keep
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doing the things that I do, bringing you this show four days a week, you can
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please go to buymeacoffee.com/EvoTerra and lend me your support.
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That's it.
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Have a fantastic weekend, everyone because, as you know, I do not
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release episodes on Friday.
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So with that, I shall be back on Monday with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
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Cheers!
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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
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He's on a mission to make podcasting better.
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Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes
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section of your podcast listening app.
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A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at
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podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected
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transcript, both created by Allie Press.
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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.
