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Solving Podcasting's Opportunistic Challenge Today [S3E98]
Episode 9823rd March 2021 • Podcast Pontifications • Evo Terra
00:00:00 00:11:56

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Evo Terra:

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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.