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Surviving The Flood Of Celebrity Podcasts
Episode 132nd August 2021 • Podcast Pontifications • Evo Terra
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Evo Terra:

With the rise of celebrity podcasts, many indie

Evo Terra:

podcasters are worried about being overlooked and outspent.

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But another concern is the lowering of the quality bar as

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the pace of these shows continues.

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Today's episode is brought to you by the Advancing Podcasting

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Podcast Pontifications and it's populated by like-minded working

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Evo Terra:

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

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Are celebrities making it harder for indie podcasters?

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Well, that is the current buzz and question that is out there today.

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But if you've been around for a while, and I have been around for

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a while, you will know that this is very common recurring buzz.

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It's just, you know, here we are with celebrities today.

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Because look, we don't like it.

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We don't like it when big players, big industry, big tech, big celebrities

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come in to the space that we spend all of our time, energy, and effort,

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our blood, sweat, and tears laying out the groundwork, doing the hard stuff

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to make podcasting what it is today.

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And here come these big guys, plop right down and just take over.

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We collectively do not like that.

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I understand that.

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I don't necessarily agree, but I certainly understand it.

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More to the point, I don't really see the need for quite as much alarm and

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concern as we have about this today.

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And I say that because I know as well as you know that the internet, the place

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where all digital content is stored and referenced and welcomed, and podcasting

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is digital content, it's big enough.

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The internet is big enough to hold it all.

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Celebrities doing their things, indies doing their things, big corporations, big

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tech, whatever - I think it's big enough.

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I really do.

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But one thing that I do understand and commiserate with my fellow podcasters,

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indie, big, or otherwise, is that these celebrities that are dropping podcasts

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on us now, they don't have the same discoverability challenges that we have.

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Now, I'm still not sold that we really do have, truly, a discoverability problem.

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I think more it's a findability challenge or individual podcasts

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have a discoverability problem.

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But that's for a future, and probably lots of past episodes.

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I'm not going to dwell on that for a moment.

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In fact, I want to recognize the fact that podcast apps and directories

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where this so-called discoverability happens, they love celebrity content.

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Holy cow.

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They love it when new celebrities drop new podcasts or existing

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celebrities drop new podcasts.

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And I don't think you and I should really underestimate the number of people who

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listen to whatever is listed on the homepage of their listening app of choice.

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I know that's anathema to you and I, who rarely even bother to look at that thing.

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But still, don't underestimate the number of people who listen to whatever

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content is pushed in front of them.

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They will do it a lot.

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And the reason they will do that a lot is because people, they like celebrities.

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But the reason that the apps will push the celebrity content to the home

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page is because apps need to keep up their MAUs, their Monthly Active User

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count, to keep their investors happy, to keep whatever income sources they

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have happy, and to show that people are actively using their app and it's

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going up and to the right all the time.

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So they are going to keep promoting anything that has name recognition.

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A celebrity drops a podcast, you can bet your bottom dollar it's

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going to go to the homepage really quickly of just about every app.

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So long as they are good, obviously, or maybe the better way to say

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that is as long as they are a good enough, that's no problem.

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I think we, who are not celebrities, will still get some spillover from

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those celebrity podcast listeners when those listeners decide that

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they want to go a little deeper, and they want to see what other shows

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might be available in that app.

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Where I really worry is that low effort, and by low effort, I mean low

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quality, podcasts that are hosted by these celebrities are going to have

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a chilling effect on podcasting.

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Now, the reality is most of those celebrity podcasts

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actually are well-produced.

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They've got a big production house, typically, behind these and

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producers and writers, just like television, and other people, they're

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investing heavily in this space.

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And so they're working, generally speaking, to make a good quality show.

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But, what happens if the income they've projected that makes all of this

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worthwhile, whether that's selling ads or merchandise or whatever it is, what

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if the reality of those incomes is lower?

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So that therefore, the studios, or whoever it is, that's funding the

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production of the show, these celebrity podcasts are now looking to lower their

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costs on the next show because they can't be hemorrhaging money like that.

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It's cheaper to make a podcast, true, but these celebrity-style

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podcasts are not cheap.

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We're not talking hundreds, we're talking thousands, and oftentimes

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tens of thousands or more.

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So if it's not working, if they can't justify that cost, but there's

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still a need to get celebrities out there, then they just go

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cheaper, which lowers the quality.

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And a little lower next time, and a little lower next time because they get

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caught up in the idea of cost savings.

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It's just audio.

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How easy is it is?

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Yeah, well...

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And I don't think there's much of a danger in them doing that because

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the real fans of the celebrities, they've got a pretty high tolerance

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for mediocrity from that celebrity.

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They want this.

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I mean, they love the celebrity because they love the stuff.

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That's why they're fans.

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But for the rest of us, we don't really love it so much.

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So let's not go back to underestimating the percentage of people, the number

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of people who listen to whatever it is that our podcast app is pushing

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towards them on the home screen.

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Look, if what's being pushed stinks, then the other celebrity shows listed next to

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that celebrity show also stink because that quality had been continued to be

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lowered, as I mentioned previously, and the other options in the app don't look

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like anything you even recognize, are those people going to be hanging around?

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If your first experience on an app was you came for celebrities and the celebrity

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stuff is garbage and there's nothing else there, it's kind of like the fast

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food - or not the fast food, it's the checkout aisle in the grocery store.

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Once you've been spoiled or fooled by those magazines once,

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you're not picking up another one.

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You know, those same people might decide to give audio books a go where

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they can listen to celebrities or at least pick from the bestselling titles.

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They may decide to switch over to their music listening app, which

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either is filled with songs they like on their own, or the apps

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are good at pushing towards them.

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So look, I'm not anti-celebrity podcast.

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I still believe that celebrity podcasts can and do and will continue to bring

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new listeners into our ecosystem.

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It's my hope that these apps and directory developers out there, and the designers

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out there, are paying attention and playing their part in providing a - oh,

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let's just call it a well-balanced diet on those home screens to draw users

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of that app in deeper into the app.

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I don't think we have to split it by celeb and indie, but I think they

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just need to do a very good job of making sure they're building it so

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that people can continue down the path of podcasting in that own app.

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And then I think we can survive this flood of celebrity podcasts.

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I want to end by saying congratulations to Mr.

Evo Terra:

Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable.

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A few days ago, as you might've heard, Bryan and his wife, Sierra, welcomed

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their second child into their household.

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That's Bridger.

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He is here with us now.

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Bryan, if you don't know, writes, and I edit, the Sounds Profitable

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newsletter and the accompanying podcast.

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You should definitely read and listen to that if you can.

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I'll put a link in the episode details.

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And if you got any value at all out of today's episode, or the other content,

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the other episodes I bring to you four days a week right here on Podcast

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Pontifications, please return that value by visiting BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra,

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and, well, buying me a virtual coffee.

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That's it.

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I shall be back tomorrow 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.