Podcasting's on-demand nature is both a strength and a weakness.
Evo Terra:Is the resurgence of in-real-time and appointment-based content
Evo Terra:just a fad, or does it point to an easily-tapped market for podcasters?
Evo Terra:Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
Evo Terra:Before I cut the cord, as we say, in modern-day speak, or we did 10 years
Evo Terra:ago, I was a serious TV channel surfer.
Evo Terra:I didn't really use the guide too much.
Evo Terra:I would just surf from channel to channel.
Evo Terra:When I listened to the radio in my car, and especially back when I was working
Evo Terra:in radio many moons ago, I was a seeker.
Evo Terra:There's a little seek button.
Evo Terra:Push the button that says seek and ye shall find something good on the radio.
Evo Terra:But oftentimes it'd just continue to rotate through.
Evo Terra:See, this sort of channel changing works really well or worked
Evo Terra:really well in radio and TV.
Evo Terra:Not so much anymore now that we have, again, TV guides on
Evo Terra:screen that we can flip through.
Evo Terra:Our radio stations are tuned to maybe just three or four
Evo Terra:stations in the area, anyhow.
Evo Terra:It used to work pretty well.
Evo Terra:And during that time, especially on television, let's switch the focus
Evo Terra:on television just for a second.
Evo Terra:When I found a movie or a television show that I found interesting, I would
Evo Terra:watch that show from right there.
Evo Terra:Oftentimes these were shows I was already familiar with.
Evo Terra:These were content that I probably owned in a digital media library of some sort.
Evo Terra:But still, if that movie or TV show that I thought, "Oh, I love this," came on
Evo Terra:and sometimes more opportunistic viewing of things I'd never seen before came
Evo Terra:on, I'm just going to stop and watch.
Evo Terra:Oftentimes even sitting through the commercial sure.
Evo Terra:Can't really back up like that on radio, right?
Evo Terra:If you're in the middle of a conversation, if you've been tuned to
Evo Terra:a station and it's twenty-two minutes after the hour, and it's a deep
Evo Terra:conversation, there's no way to back up.
Evo Terra:And I don't own the content of the radio, but it's still on that radio station.
Evo Terra:When that radio program ,that talk show was playing, I would probably
Evo Terra:just, you know, stick around if I found the conversation interesting.
Evo Terra:Hang out.
Evo Terra:Same thing when I think about it, you know, opening a newspaper or magazine,
Evo Terra:which I recognize I don't do very often, but it's also a little bit different when
Evo Terra:you're opening a newspaper or a magazine.
Evo Terra:I mean, look, you're not starting reading a story in the third
Evo Terra:paragraph or anything crazy like that.
Evo Terra:You bounce around, however.
Evo Terra:You bounce from column to column in a newspaper, or you flip through pages
Evo Terra:in a magazine, you know, look, no one reads a magazine cover to cover, unless
Evo Terra:you're bored on a flight somewhere.
Evo Terra:And we certainly don't order back issues as a general rule of thumb, no
Evo Terra:matter how much the magazines would like to push those upon us, right?
Evo Terra:Now, all of those forms of media consumption, when we don't have
Evo Terra:something specific in mind, is really opportunistic consumption.
Evo Terra:And it's something that we really don't have in podcasting.
Evo Terra:We never have had opportunistic listening in podcasting because podcasting doesn't
Evo Terra:perform like those other broadcast media, especially radio and TV.
Evo Terra:Right?
Evo Terra:When you open up the podcast listening app, it doesn't
Evo Terra:automatically start playing.
Evo Terra:Even when you browse to a show that you like, or you think you might want to check
Evo Terra:out, it doesn't immediately start playing.
Evo Terra:Now, that's partly a good thing, don't get me wrong.
Evo Terra:But in those other two forms of media, TV and radio, they do.
Evo Terra:They play automatically as soon as you get there.
Evo Terra:You know, Netflix has started doing that, as well.
Evo Terra:You've probably noticed now the autoplay feature is on by default on Netflix.
Evo Terra:It might annoy you.
Evo Terra:You may hate it.
Evo Terra:But I promise you, Netflix is doing that for a reason.
Evo Terra:And that reason is opportunistic viewing, in their case.
Evo Terra:Now, I used to think that the lack of opportunistic listening,
Evo Terra:if you will, in podcasting, was a limitation of podcasting overall.
Evo Terra:And while I agree with that, my position has changed somewhat.
Evo Terra:I don't think it's the fault of the apps.
Evo Terra:I don't think that's the case.
Evo Terra:I think instead it's just a different type of consumer, the opportunistic listener,
Evo Terra:who is likely using different services.
Evo Terra:If you are opportunistic in nature and you're listening, podcast
Evo Terra:listening apps don't help you at all.
Evo Terra:They don't.
Evo Terra:There are other apps that you know of, that you've heard of, that are much more,
Evo Terra:let's just call them drop-in and listen.
Evo Terra:There are also ways people can watch live events unfold on their computer screens
Evo Terra:when they're really and truly live.
Evo Terra:Now, the argument against doing that, which I think I've been on that side
Evo Terra:before, is yeah those drop-in audio, those live interactions, it's all
Evo Terra:about the chat room and the hearts and the communication back and forth.
Evo Terra:And look, if I just put my podcast in that live situation where no one can really
Evo Terra:give me any feedback or talk during the thing, no one wants to listen to that.
Evo Terra:And maybe I can understand why you might think that, but let me suggest to you
Evo Terra:that the people I'm talking about, these opportunistic listeners out there who are
Evo Terra:consuming lots of drop-in audio and who are watching, in some cases lots of live
Evo Terra:streamed content or listening to live streamed content, those opportunistic
Evo Terra:listeners are listeners first.
Evo Terra:They're not contributors.
Evo Terra:They don't want to contribute.
Evo Terra:The platforms they are using might allow for some sort of contribution
Evo Terra:in the form of, again, hearts and flames and chats and various thing.
Evo Terra:And we can watch them and see all of that going around, but the vast
Evo Terra:majority of people who use those live stream things aren't using any of the
Evo Terra:collaboration features, they don't care.
Evo Terra:They just want to lean back and have the content delivered to them.
Evo Terra:So thinking about that, just for a moment, I want you to rethink your
Evo Terra:position on live streams like this.
Evo Terra:This is actually being recorded as a live stream out on LinkedIn.
Evo Terra:No way people to communicate with me right now.
Evo Terra:Cause I'm not watching the screen.
Evo Terra:Let's rethink our position of maybe as a recording our podcast episodes,
Evo Terra:maybe our interviews with our guests or a conversations with our co-hosts.
Evo Terra:Maybe there's a way maybe it's time for us to let that live consumption happen for
Evo Terra:the small segment of people who want that.
Evo Terra:Maybe that's an opportunity we should be doing.
Evo Terra:You should be exploring more.
Evo Terra:You're already recording it.
Evo Terra:If a few people want to watch live, let them.
Evo Terra:Maybe even hundreds of people, maybe even thousands of people want to
Evo Terra:watch what you're doing, listen to what you're doing live as it happens.
Evo Terra:And sure, you won't have the same kind of interaction that those
Evo Terra:apps are really designed for.
Evo Terra:Maybe there's enough people out there who want to listen that way, that it's
Evo Terra:something that's worth your while.
Evo Terra:Now, astute listeners or watchers or viewers or readers or whatever
Evo Terra:will recognize now that my position on this has changed.
Evo Terra:And it's probably going to change again.
Evo Terra:Such is the nature of working in the internet world, right?
Evo Terra:We're just going to change our opinions as we try and explore new things.
Evo Terra:Now, once again, I'm going to invite you to share this episode
Evo Terra:with your podcasting compadres.
Evo Terra:Find out what are they thinking about this?
Evo Terra:What's, how's their thinking evolved about using live and drop-in content
Evo Terra:to produce, to distribute some, if not all, of the content they make.
Evo Terra:Maybe it's different.
Evo Terra:And if you got any value out of this whatsoever, this rambling
Evo Terra:from where are we going here?
Evo Terra:Check out buymeacoffee.com/evoterra.
Evo Terra:That's where you can buy me a virtual coffee if this sparked
Evo Terra:any fantastic ideas for you.
Evo Terra:I would appreciate it.
Evo Terra:That's it.
Evo Terra:I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.