430. Your Podcast Can Be Reused, Resold, and You’d Never Know

0:05 Good morning podcasting Morning Chat. Today is Wednesday, January 7th, 2026, and today it's News in common day. So we're looking at protecting your podcast value, why chasing every platform can backfire, and a shift in how people listen that creators can't ignore. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand, side of the screen and share it. However Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast chat or YouTube, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds. We'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. Good morning again podcasting.

1:22 Morning chat. Thanks so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronick and currently on stage. Hold on to your hats. This might take a minute. We have Ashley Feller, Ralph Estep, Jonathan Howard, Sid Meadows, Dr. Fay, BC Babbles, Nick Naulback, Alex Baelish and Matthew Bliss, so we will not be short of opinions and thoughts today clearly, as we cover all the headlines from around the world of podcasting. And before we dive into all of that, two things for you. First, our Thursday evaluation that's coming up tomorrow. And of course my notes have just disappeared on me. Darn it, Hold on one second.

2:10 But what I'll then what I'll do is let me jump ahead for a second and tell you that I saw this on POD News and I think this is important to share and it's not a big deal, but it's something that I know a lot of us sometimes miss this time of year. It's one of those tiny details that almost everyone forgets about. And that's exactly why it matters. Pod News shared a simple reminder that's worth acting on the next time you publish an episode, check your podcast feed copyright notice. For example, I know from being a long time Lipson user, there's a place in the settings that you can go and change your copyright date.

2:55 So for example change it from 2025 to 2026. Some of the hosting platforms will do it for you, but a lot of them don't. So if it still says 2025, it's time to update it to 2026. You don't have to include a date at all, just the year. But if it's there, it should be right? And in my experience, most podcasters forget it even exists until someone points it out. It's just a way you know it. Like I said, it's not a big deal, but to me it looks a little weird if somebody's coming to your podcast and maybe that copyright date says 2024, right? And maybe you forgot to do it last year. It just seems like maybe maybe the podcast isn't on top of it or just isn't updating regularly. So where is this again that you're supposed to change it? It depends on your hosting platform, but you do it in your with your podcast hosting platform, Lib, Libsyn, Buzz, Sprout, Pod Bean, etcetera, etcetera. Alex, did you have something?

3:52 I was going to say oh I need to change it from like 2023 I think but that's all. I mean, that's trust me, I'm sure there are instances like that. And I got to look on Spotify for creators 'cause I don't even, I don't think I've checked that in two or three years. I forgot about that too. So it happens to the best of us. So go do that. And thank you to Pod News for for giving us that information and reminding us about that. So let's see here. I also wanted to remind you that tomorrow, January 8th, on the right here on the podcasting morning chat, we're evaluating the indie podcast Better Call Daddy, hosted by Rena Friedman Watts.

4:34 She's joined us once or twice in our PMC history. It's a story driven interview show featuring a wide range of guests with Rena's jet. Let me say that again, with Rena's dad chiming in after each episode with his thoughts and perspective, we'll break down the concept, storytelling and flow and share live constructive feedback that you can take straight back to your own show and see where it may apply to you. Links will be in the show notes if you'd like to listen to that episode. That will be breaking down, but certainly not required of our audience, our community, because we'll play clips and I think we do a pretty darn good job keeping you in the loop even if you haven't listened. So there you go, It's time for the news. So the way we like to kick things off is a little podcast data for you.

5:36 I'm going to share with you all of the podcasts, the total number of podcast episodes that were posted over the past week. This past week it was 469,000, 57 new episodes that were published and that was up 9.7% compared to last week. And if you're curious over the last 30 days, it'll be no surprise to you. I'm sure. If you recall, we just had some the holiday season, so it was down. The total number was 2 point. I'll just round it, 2.2 million episodes that were published and that's like I said down 6.6% from the previous month.

6:21 So let's, we should expect that to change next month as everyone is not only gearing or not only back, but also probably a lot of new podcasts have popped up this month or will I should say also, let's talk about some of the top podcasts around the around. Well, in this case, around the United States, Apple Podcast, the number one podcast once again is The Daily. It's becoming the Joe Rogan of Apple podcasts. In other words, we know who is number 1 normally over on Spotify, The Daily has been number one for quite a while. So I'll just give you #2 I, I don't do the top fives. I leave that to Dr. #2 on Apple in the United States was Crime Junkie. Now Dr. it's time.

7:09 Let's go to your top five. You have two lists from Spotify. Go for it. #5 is the Tucker Carlson show #3 is the daily I'm sorry I skipped #4 #4 is the daily #3 is the Shawn Ryan show #2 is the Crime Junkie and #1 is the Joey Rogan Experience. I wish I didn't hit the button on you when you realized you skipped something. Made you really rush that one. But that's OK. I think there's a little bit of entertainment in that. She is going to beat the drum. OK, now in honor of Mark, I have chosen the random chart of the week is fantasy sports and and Mark, you have access to the list. So do you listen to any of these? Just choose the number so #5 Fantasy Football Happy hour with Matthew Berry #4 Fantasy Baseball today #3 Fantasy Football today #2 The Ringer Fantasy Football Show and #1 Fantasy Footballers Fantasy Football Podcast. Talk about SEO right there.

8:30 Yeah, I do. I am familiar with all of these shows and what of course bugs me a little bit is number 3 and 4 because those are CBS productions, I believe. I know definitely #4 is and I believe #3 is as well. It just bothers me 'cause they're really TV shows unless they really have a spin off or something. But I'm almost certain these are the TV shows. They just ripped the audio from the TV show. So and of course they'll they probably put the video up on YouTube and elsewhere. And not surprising to see in the fantasy sports category to see mostly football because the NFL regular season just recently ended and that means it was fantasy football top playoff time.

9:15 And we just, most of us just finished their fantasy football championships if they were lucky enough to get that far. I won out in two of one of two of my leagues. And Nick, I think you won a championship too, didn't you? Yeah. We did a weird thing where there were like multiple leagues that had their own championships and then the Champions went on to another championship. So I won the first championship of my league and then I lost in the championship. Yeah. Yeah. So I won my league, but then lost in the championship game of the, like, Super League. Well. There's money exchanged in all of this, is there? Usually it depends.

9:56 Most people play for money. ADR. If you're not keeping score, what's the point? If you're not playing for money, what's the point? I did participate in a free league as well, just because I was in one league that I pay for, I couldn't find another. What meaning you put in money and then it all sits in a pot until the end of the season and the other. But I like to have at least more than one because if the league that I'm in, if I'm not doing well, I'm hoping that I could have another league to depend on. So that's why I do at least 2. I am as ignorant about football as my husband is ignorant about podcast. Fair.

10:36 You need to get her hooked up and then then this will turn into the podcast. It'll be turn into the fantasy football morning. Chat, yes, because. She'd be like all she would love it with all the numbers. That's right. Oh God. Okay, so let's keep it moving. I realize I'm using my old news music. I got to switch that out. Let me go back to there we go. OK, so you'll hear a different little new Stinger coming up. But first let's talk about some events. This is a category, by the way, a segment of our news and comment that I'm looking to shorten up and I had already been thinking about that. I think even Dr. can attest to that.

11:16 I think as we were wrapping up last year, I was saying we I want to run through this section. And maybe I was finally inspired to follow through on that after yesterday when we spun the wheel of jargon and Evergreen was what landed on the wheel. And we talked about what Evergreen content means. And I feel like we spend too much time on events and somebody who might be listening to this episode a week or two later, a lot of the stuff, it's too late, right? So we're going to try to do these relatively quickly. First, just a reminder that Thursday, January 8th, Podcasting Made Simple live, that's Alex Sanfilippo of Pod Match.

11:58 That's his quarterly live that he does. It's kind of like a spin off virtual event from his podcast, also named Podcasting Made Simple. We'll put links in the show notes. Also, Jonathan, you've got something upcoming. You've got something coming up in just a little while if you want to share that real quick. Probably mostly really only for our live audience. Yeah, for the live audience here today at 8:00 over on Chatter, I am going to be talking about 2026 being the year of community and how how to start really building your community. And this year, we're going through the basics today. Awesome. Thank you, Jonathan. I am definitely going to make a point to at least come and listen.

12:41 Hope to participate because this is right up my alley and the discussion I'm going to be hosting over at Podfest next week. Dr. Do you want to share quickly your your event? Right, this is put on by the podcasters directory. It's the meet up and match up event that podcast hosts with podcast hosts and guests ready to boost your network game and meet like minded professionals in an engaging virtual environment designed for creators like you to connect, collaborate and expand your professional network. There's authors, speakers, podcasters, subject matter experts. It is every single Thursday and it would be 4:00 PM Eastern Time. Make sure to use PMC, just the initials to get in for free. This has taken on a little bit of a change. I think they're experimenting with a little bit of a change with this new coming year.

13:37 So let's see how it works out. You know, usually I, I name off the subjects and I think that they are just experimenting a little bit. Cool and this could be considered more Evergreen because this is a weekly thing that happens every Thursday and again I want to I'll for you remind everybody that code is PMC as in podcasting morning chat and you use that and you get in for free. Thank you Dr. Also, if you're under a rock then you don't know that pod Fest is coming up their 12th annual event next week starting Thursday the 15th and goes through January 18th. That happens in Orlando, FL. We'll put a link in there and please do come, especially if you're a part of this community for one, come support me on Thursday, January 15th.

14:26 I'll be speaking at 1:45 PM. My talk, why community creates buy in for growth and it's about how podcasters with quote UN quote, small audiences can build real authority, momentum and opportunity by leading with community first. And also, in my opinion, leading with community first. Those download numbers, those analytics that we all worry so much about, those follow if you focus on community. And I'll share and explain more at that talk. Also that day, that evening, Thursday, January 15th at 5:30 PM, we're hosting the Empowered Podcasting Happy Hour meet up.

15:09 So RSVP to both of those things using the Hoova app, WHOVA. Because that's where Podfest has decided to put their event info. So go check that out. Quick tip, smart move. Yeah. Content creators business. Bye. There you go. It's time for Ralph and the content creators business Bite. Take it away, Ralph. I'm still not sure about that one, but it definitely gets your attention. It does. Don't you like the bite I added? I like it, dude. That's perfect. So let me get right to it. I got a quick one for everybody today and this come from Pod News Report on January 5th on a tool called Podcast Adblock and you need to hear this.

15:57 Here's what it's doing. It's using AI to copy podcast episodes. It strips out the ads and then sells the ad free versions to its listeners without permission. Now Pod News tested this on a thing called Pivot and it claimed about 10 minutes of ads were removed for $1.99 a month. And the resulting file, when James Cricklin put this on Pod News, it had no ads in it. But here's the scary part. Based on their own hours of as removed counter Pod News estimated roughly $944,000 in lost revenue in in under 6 months. Now in a second, I'm going to have Mark play a short clip from podcast attorney Gordon Firemark because he explains just how the real revenue loss is. Mark, if you want to play that now, we'll jump into that. What the number of ads removed are. And James does a little math.

16:43 He says using a conservative $10 CPM that's cost per thousand for a 32nd spot. The based on their numbers, that could be nearly 1,000,000. Dollars in lost revenue for the industry since this outfit started up about 6 months ago. Now, I'm not an attorney, I don't play like I'm one on TV, but here's an interesting angle. Now, if you go watch Gordon's YouTube, and I think Ashley can put that in the in the show notes, he talks about how this is a derivative of the original podcast. But I've been thinking a lot about this. And if podcasters are using dynamic ad insertion, someone might be able to argue that these ads are inserted. They're not part of the original content. So litigation could get complicated. But now even today, James takes it up another step further. He raises a bigger issue today and what he said is tools like this are gaining traction because it shows cross this invisible line and listeners feel overwhelmed by ads. So I thought this was a really important thing to talk about today because and, and where it's going to affect podcasts is if you're doing your own memberships, if you're doing your own add on options where people can buy ad free. Now all of a sudden somebody is out there in the pod verse doing this and they're getting paid for it and you're not. So if your ads are getting skipped, that's a bigger issue, but you still need to get paid.

17:57 So that's why I wanted to bring this to everybody's attention today. Thank you, Ralph. And if anybody has any questions, now is your time to ask. Yeah, Alex. I still don't understand what the big problem with this is. I have a problem with people with why ads are such a big deal. It literally takes about a second to press the the advance. Button. I just don't get it. This is so pretentious and what just reminds me of is the now old Napster thing where it's going to end up causing a whole thing where people are going to be stealing podcasts. That's kind of what it sounds like. I mean again, I might not. I get it. And sometimes there are other instances on other in other areas of life that people complain about very similar things.

18:43 It's like I got to actually click three times instead of just once. Like people get genuinely bent out of shape about that stuff. And yeah, it's a little annoying, but at the end of the day, it's not a big lift. Now Mark, we need to listen from Nick from the Android user who has a problem with everything. Yes, but first I saw that Sid had his hand. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Sid. Good morning. Good morning everybody. My question is, as a listener, I can enroll in this program and submit my show and my favorite shows that I like to watch that are filled with ads like Mel Robbins. All the ads are removed. I believe that is how it works. Ralph is.

19:24 Yeah, that's my understanding, Sid is exactly, exactly what you can do. And when when James tested it out, he did that with a podcast called Pivot, and it took it out and he said the only thing it added was a disclaimer about how many ads they stripped out for you. So yeah, so that's exactly what it's doing. I'm on the fence about this then, because there's somebody who's going to have ads in his show coming up this season showing in February. You know, my father's are paying for that. And they're not going to be long and they're not going to be like, you know, 7 minutes worth of ads in the mid roll. But still, it's taking value away that people are paying for. So I don't know. It's interesting to follow along with this. It is. It's really. Yeah. Because look, we some of us wear 2 hats, some of us are listeners and some of us are also hosts.

20:10 I think this is interesting. So the first comment that I was going to say about this was with podcasting. It's interesting to me, like to what Alex was saying, like just press the skip button and you can get past the ads. And that's so different from every other platform that you're on. Like if you're not paying for Spotify and you get forced, the ads where you can't skip or YouTube where it's forced and you have to listen for so long before you can skip. With majority of the podcast platforms, all you have to do is press a button in your skip. So it to me it seems kind of silly that someone would pay that. When I was here in Sid talk that got me thinking like that could be problematic for people who are working out deals with like sponsors that are paying like cost really price per Mille so many downloads.

21:01 And if a platform like this were to take off and half of your downloads for being consumed on a platform like that would really hurt your chances of getting a sponsorship in that kind of model. Now, I don't think it's the best model. And I also there's been a lot of podcast platforms that I feel like I've tried to come out and change the game and make new waves and they've all really flopped and everyone just keeps going back to YouTube, Spotify and Apple. So I I don't see anything like this really grabbing hold, but it's still something to to watch and pay attention to. I wonder if it still ends up counting as a download because you've submitted it to this podcast Ad Blocks and you have. You'd have to think that they're downloading it in order to do whatever magic they're doing to remove the ads, so maybe it would still at least count as a download for. You but Mark I I don't think it will because what they're doing is they're moving it to their hosting platform so they. Have to pull the file.

22:00 They have to have a file to do that. Right. I think they're pulling the file one time though, Mark, that's the whole thing is they're pulling the file one time. They're containing it on their server now. So they're getting the credit for those downloads at that. Point right? So yeah, you'll still get one, but then if multiple people are accessing it through their platform, you still only get that one download. Yeah, I get it. BC did you want to chime in? I did not, but I do have a question to clarify. Are these ads that we are ourselves putting into our show in post production or are these ads that are being run by the host based on us hitting a certain download or like right marker for views? You're so BC is talking about either burnt in ads, right?

22:45 Like these are ads that you're actually building in your podcast production process or are they dynamic ads that you can set up oftentimes through your podcast hosting platform? I don't know for sure. I would imagine they can't get to those dynamic ads because that is coming through one of Buzz Sprout, for example, Buzz Sprouts servers, they're actually playing that through their server. And then they're jumping over to your podcast that's also on their server. They're not marrying these together, in other words, if that makes sense. Before I check in with Dr. Matt, you put something in the chat that I think is worth sharing out loud here, if you don't mind. Good morning.

23:27 Good morning. The internet's been dealing with this for a long time with the prevalence of adblock plugins for websites. And there has been a broader impact that's been broadcast, recorded, talked about for quite a long time with media companies who used to monetize mostly through ads on websites, but without block. And the advent of Google caching pages in its AMP, not software, whatever it is, server based caching of websites. And then the AI generation of summaries of those websites means that the traffic doesn't get to the websites, and when it does, it blocks all the ads that would otherwise make the money. So that's why a lot of articles are getting paywalled these days. Same with cookie recommendations. They can't deliver ads to you and won't even give you the article if you don't accept all the cookies on a website. These are ways for websites, media companies, etcetera to get around these kinds of user pushed limitations because you know, anybody can develop anything these days in order to create a function that that they think listeners need. And in this context, it's just the beginning of what would happen.

24:40 I think Nick had the right idea, at least with what I got from it. Is that what he said? It's a flash in the pan. I don't think it's going to last. It's not something for $2.00 a month that someone's going to per user, someone's going to support in perpetuity. And I don't think it's on the same level as the inception point stuff that was brought up in the chat earlier that some podcast players are making a choice to filter out AI generated slop content. I don't think it's going to be on that level. But the thing that is inevitable is that it will will hit the hip pocket somewhere at some point for as long as it exists. And the three things I mentioned is something that is what Ralph has already talked about. Add free versions on Patreon.

25:23 No one's going to pay that money. If you get paid by CPM, it's potentially going to lose out for the podcaster and podcast is going to sponsors saying that it's a flat fee to advertise on the show as opposed to CPMS. Being aware of this will probably not pay as much as you'd want predictably from the CPMS that you would expect if it wasn't the case that something like this existed. It's going to be a lull in advertising, but we're also in a stage where in in the future or where we're transitioning away from CPMS into a landscape that has more community and extra stuff that people are using to monetize migrant niches, all that kind of thing. So is it just a big corporate thing where we're sick of seeing Stephen Bartlett talk about blue jeans or Fuel and it doesn't really affect the small podcaster? Who knows?

26:13 It will remain to be seen. I'm curious if it will actually take off because one of the things I mean, they'll they'll have to if they want this to take off. If this company wants this to take off podcast Adblock, they're going to have to do some heavy advertising because, you know, sure, we as podcast hosts, we probably know will know about this, right? But really, the average podcast consumer, how are they going to even know that this thing exists, right? So this company's going to have to put in a heck of a lot of money to really get the word out there to where the casual listener would be even interested. Well, they first have to even know that it exists to get interested in this product.

26:55 So we'll see, but it is a little alarming, you know, like Sid said, you know, here he is monetizing his podcast now, and this now kind of throws a little bit of a wrench in it, or at least it's something now that he has to pay attention to. And I think it's definitely something we should all pay attention to. Thank you for that, Ralph. If they could flood the podcast market with ads, I feel like they have a shot here. Sure. You get so annoyed with their ads that you're like I have to pay for this because I'm so sick of hearing their ads. But that's where we might be more in the driver's seat at that point because if they're going to do podcast ads, we're going to have to allow those ads to happen.

27:36 And if it's dynamic ads, you know, if they're paying in the back end to, you know, be one of the ads on a Buzz Sprout that pops up randomly if you've elected into that program, I would imagine that Buzz Sprout wouldn't allow something like that. So we'll have to wait and see. But definitely something worth paying attention to. Let's get into some of the other stories around the world of podcasting. Jay, Klaus, somebody that Nick used to be pretty close with through the Pat Flynn community. And I've been working on getting Jay on as a guest on this show.

28:21 He recently shared a really honest review of his personal year, like many of us do on social media. Pod news actually surfaced this for me anyway, And I'm glad that they did because there's a big lesson here for a lot of creators. Under his quote UN quote low lights of 2025, Jay said that the more he focused on YouTube last year, the less attention he gave his actual podcast. And that really hit when I saw that he he went on to say that this year he's renewing his vows to the podcast, the audio show. And that having that clarity feels really good to him. And I love this level of awareness.

29:01 It's easy to chase the next shiny thing, the next shiny platform. It's harder to admit when something fundamentally gets neglected in the process. That kind of reflection is how you recalibrate with intention. So credit to Pod News again for sharing the story and to Jay Klaus for saying this quiet part out loud. I think I, I had to share this because I am guessing there is someone out there who is second guessing the efforts that they put into whether it's YouTube or something else, and it doesn't feel like it's working yet. They're probably banging their head against the wall saying it's got to work.

29:44 I got to make this work because I've invested so much time in it. And by the way, that person that could easily be me, I know that I do that often with things. Yeah, I get really attached and that's something I'm working on. But I get really attached to these projects, these efforts that I make and I don't want to give up on them. But sometimes it's to a fault. Other things get neglected and then you start having sleepless nights like yours truly. OK. Moving on to the next one, Dr., Do you want to take the next story? Sure. So at home listening hits a new normal for audio consumption. Edison's Share the Ear data shows the share of daily audio listening done at home settled around 55% in 2023 to 2025. That's still higher than the pre pandemic era when home listening hovered just above the 52% mark and listeners now engage with audio at home on phones, smart speakers, TV's and computers more than ever.

30:51 This rewires podcast discovery and engagement habits since home environments change focus. You know you at home with the you're doing chores and stuff like that. Device choices and attention spans. For podcasters, it means optimizing episodes for at home multitasking rather than than just commuting ears. So my question on this is what device trends most matter for at home audio discovery now? What devices are we do we think people are going to use most for the at home listening? I think what would come to mind first and foremost are devices like Alexa and other devices like Google Home, etcetera.

31:39 I bet you though, I bet you, but just a guess, but I bet you that people are probably still using their phones more than any of those other devices. If I had to guess there, there was a list that you had called out somewhere when you were sharing the story. I can't find it now, but like I think that it would probably be phone and then it would be those home devices that we just listed. And then I bet you it might be computer and then TV in that order. Well, but put video in the mix. Sure. But here's The thing is that this article says that it's specific to daily audio listening and that it's up and that's 55%.

32:25 I'm thinking that still people are probably listening more than watching and that's why I ranked things like computer and TVA little bit lower than the listening devices and those home devices. Like if you have one like me, I have a Google Home video display so I can actually in the kitchen put the video on while I'm, you know, making dinner or what have you. Got to admit when I'm doing, when I'm in the kitchen, I have my my conductive, you know that bone conducted earphones and and it's the phone all the way with the Bluetooth. But just a hint to all the podcasters out there. Every now and then I will call out one of my clients shows and test it on Alexa.

33:12 Sorry people, but I said the word the a word just to make sure that it's coming through on those devices as well. Thank you. Yeah. And Ashley, I think we should put up a poll here on Clubhouse and we can do it on Spotify for our podcast audience. When you're at home consuming podcasts, what device do you use the most to consume those podcasts? And if you want to put it in the chat to here on Clubhouse, by all means, feel free. But yeah, what are you using most? If you're going to turn on a podcast and you're at home, are you putting it on your phone? Are you putting it on your computer or you firing up your TV and putting it on there? Curious about that.

33:55 That's a good poll question. So Ashley will put that up for you. And in the meantime, I will share the next story with you over the winter break. Our winter break meta somewhat quietly introduced something called Sam Audio. I shared this with Nick a couple weeks ago, and this was just the first opportunity I could share with you here. And it's a new AI tool that lets creators isolate and edit sounds almost as easily as clicking on an image. And I want to be clear, this is a little different than something like Authonic and Adobe Audio Podcast Enhance. Built as an extension of Meta's segment Anything Project Sam Audio can pull specific sounds from a recording using simple prompts like typing, remove background noise, and then clicking on a person in the video, selecting a time range where a sound appears that you want to disappear. I'm going to play you the clip or the promo video. It's pretty short and I debated because there's maybe one or two small parts that you might not be sure what they're doing, but I think overall you're going to get the gist and I'll try to explain if there's anything too confusing, but I think you'll get the gist here.

35:17 This is from Meta. Introducing Sam Audio, a state-of-the-art model for isolating sounds and music, speech and general sounds. Separate audio with text prompts. Isolated. Just a guitar sound here. Or extract a sound using visual prompts. Hey, hang on, can you hear me? Super. If you want actually it's better. You will not. Believe the day that I have had. Use a span prompt to get even more precision. Or combine multiple prompts to dial in your workflow. I just have to double check to make. Sure that it was.

36:02 Handful because you know that that instructor is kind of a little flaky, so. No, check. Check it out because otherwise he's going to follow up with you. Sam Audio is a cutting edge audio model with applications for musicians, audio engineers, video creators, and tinkerers of all skill levels. Learn more about Sam Audio today. I realize, thank you, Nick, I realize you put it in the chat here that the clubhouse audio isn't quite doing it justice. Check it out on the podcast or we'll put a link to the video in the show notes if you want to see it there. But you know what you couldn't see? Because I wasn't, I didn't play you the video specifically. But what you couldn't see is just the ease in which the sound, the background sound removal happened, the ease in which you could just click on one person in a two person conversation and isolate just their audio.

36:53 And then when you want to isolate the other person, you just scroll your mouse over and click on that person and it isolates it. It's really. Impressive. I think it's very important to point out for podcasters that a tool like this, while it's very attractive, removes some flexibility. We need to make sure that we're isolating. Funnily enough, terms like sound isolation or speaker diarization with voice improvement or vocal improvement. Because the thing that I automatically think of, especially going to the website and hearing some of the way that the vocals were isolated from the environment in these cases is that the there was a bit of signal destruction there.

37:35 So I think it's important to be able to have the option to reduce some train but keep more woman, as opposed to keeping just the woman but making it sound like she's talking through a tin can. Something important for the podcasters, I think. Often times when these new tools come out, I kind of find myself sitting there and contemplating what was the point of being getting my bachelors in broadcast media again, all the time spent learning Adobe Audition and Remiere Pro. But at the same time into to Matt's point to, you know, it's almost like having somebody else be your arms and legs. So I do so come back to my senses and I'm like, you know what?

38:16 I do like having the control that I know I can have because I did learn these other these other tools that are not so automatic that don't potentially make the file worse because they're so kind of broad in scope with their prompting. So a little bit of an identity crisis sometimes, but I always come back. I always come back. I'm good. I guess the precursor to this is you know, we just got 2 new TV's in the house here and we have noticed that on a lot of especially movies that the music is so freaking loud that we cannot hear the dialogue. And there is something in the settings of both of these TV's that we can bring forward the dialogue.

39:00 This is just taking it to like another another degree. I agree, I feel that pain with the varying audio volumes. I just want to make sure that BC feels OK that he hasn't wasted his time doing media production and broadcast production, all those things because there is an advantage for the people who know how and why and where as opposed to those who go straight to an LLM and prompt it, not understanding anything behind the process. We never disappear into the background. We are always the most important and the one thing, not the one thing, something that the producer of The Last of Us mentioned.

39:42 But the thing that's talked about with him a lot is that he's a great director, he's a great leader because he's so supportive of his team. But the thing that everybody knows is that he can step into any role that anyone's doing as part of his game production team. Be that person BC be that person. Don't forget it. He's giving you the thumbs up. Awesome. Thank you, Matt. Good point. And by the way, before I go to Sid, we have some results from our poll here live on Clubhouse. 90% of the people who voted said they use a phone to consume a podcast while they're at home. 10% said computer.

40:23 Nobody offered television or some other device as their means in which they consume a podcast. Our TV is so freaking loud and I'm like, why is the TV so loud? And then they go to something and it goes really soft and then it goes back and the music's really loud and I'm like, what the heck's going on? So there's actually a setting that you can change in order to make this better. And some TV's on some smart TV's there is that that ability to do so if you go in the settings, I think it's in the audio settings, Dr. Is that fair to say? We found it. Yep. What was this setting called, Dr. You're like teasing me here. Like, come on, you got to give me the dates, woman. Gosh.

41:03 I can't even because, you know, I'm not a little techy person. You're worthless. You're worthless. What would that be called? I don't know. I really don't. How old are your TV's? It probably needs to be somewhat of a newer TV. We're about to get a new. Samsung dealer for details. I guess this is a good question for ChatGPT. I think so too. Or you know what I've started using more of is Rufus over on Amazon? When I'm on Amazon, we we just, yeah, Rufus is their AI and we just used it last night. And so we were looking for a specific type of filter for our hot tub over at our Airbnb. We needed to replace it and it needed to be very specific to the model that we had. So we asked Rufus, this is the model that we have, find us the right filters for it and it did a great job. Oh my God, I'm searching for Rufus right now. That's right, it's not conveniently located. But if you go into your Amazon, at least this is how I did it last night, you go into your Amazon mobile app. If you go to the search bar you should see a little option for the Rufus.

42:16 Oh, it has to be on your mobile. It's not going. To be I don't know that for no, I think it's probably also on the the desktop version as well. But I was just going off of something that I just did yesterday. But I think if you go in the search bar on either platform mobile or desktop, you should be able to find an option to ask Rufus. It works pretty well. Let's see, here we are. We've got a lot of stuff to get through, so we'll have to limit what we're going to talk about today. Looking at my notes here, what should I dive into first? New research shows podcasts and streaming reaches different audiences, which may equal big opportunity for advertisers. New analysis from Magellan AI reveals that streaming audio and podcast advertising don't just hit the same listeners. They reach different households, offering advertisers A broader combined audience than they may expect. Magellan AI looked at third quarter 2025 data from major audio networks, including iHeartMedia and SiriusXM, and compared who was served podcast ads versus streaming audio ads using household devices.

43:34 I'm sorry. Using household device graphs from Experian. The result? There's meaningful, unique reach in both channels, meaning brands can extend their audience by investing in both podcasts and streaming. This challenges common assumptions that streaming and podcasts reach the same people, or that podcast ads only duplicate audiences already covered by other audio buys. For marketers and media planners, that suggests more efficient reach and greater incremental reach when they combine formats. As advertisers look to stretch dollars and avoid saturation in anyone channel insights like these could shift how audio ads budgets are planned in 2026 and beyond.

44:22 Dr. Do you want to take story #7? The podcast ads get serious. Verified metrics drive 6 billion dollars worth of surge as brands demand ROI and accountability So here's the story. New measurement tools and shifting listening habits are finally giving marketers the proof they demand it. Brands are moving money into podcast ads now that verification, attribution and campaign tracking are getting closer to other media. That means more ad dollars, stricter scrutiny and higher expectations for how ads are written and measured.

45:04 And some of the highlights of this are ad spends surged, I already told you, roughly tripling to about 6 billion in the first half of 2025, per incremental data reported by E Marketer. Podcasts claimed 18% of ad supported audio time among adults 25 to 54, beating streaming audio and satellite radio. Listeners rate podcast ad claims as highly trustworthy, roughly about 48% believing ad claims and outsourcing social platforms on trust by about 10 points. Nielsen shortened its portable portable people meter that's hard to say window from 5 minutes to three, which will likely raise counted impressions and change campaign reporting. So my question is our host read ads. I'm sorry our host read spots still your go to or will you test new formats now that ROI is a little bit clearer? I still believe the host read ads are the most effective and that is my preference.

46:17 Look, I I do hope to monetize a little bit more of this very show and bring in some sponsors. But the thing that I really would like to avoid is having to put in pre roll, post roll recorded ads. I'd rather just share with you here live while we're talking about it. I think that that lands better for with most audiences. Yeah. Thinking of that, Mark, is there like some video tape that is available to our listeners? First of all, did you just say videotape? I didn't say videotape. Actually, we have to cut that out. No, you want to ask that again?

47:00 To our readers. What? What's your question? What's available to our readers? I'm nudging you toward the the mid roll. Oh, you're trying to get me to do a little spot of my own. I see what you're saying. I see. I will quickly then thank you. DRI will quickly share that. Please. If you missed or you were a part of the Empowered Podcasting conference last September, the video from every single talk over 25 different talks are available to you. And Full disclosure, it costs a little bit of money, right, because we are trying to pay back Janaid for taking charge and do covering all the audio and video from the conference all out of the kindness of his own heart. And we're looking for a way to support him. It costs 47 bucks.

47:53 And I'm telling you right now, if you are looking for podcast courses and looking to pay, you're not going to get a better value than this. And I'm not just saying that because it's a quote UN quote commercial. These are really valuable half hour talks and workshops that you can go and get all of that same information for probably a fraction of what you were going to pay for some course. And you can pick and choose what you want to watch. So if there's a specific area you're looking to improve on, no problem. You can just easily click through and find the ones that you're looking for. So check the show notes here at Podcasting Morning Chat.

48:33 We'll put a link in there for you. And ladies and gentlemen, that's how a mid roll, a baked in mid roll is done. That's right. That's right. Thank you, Der. I appreciate that. Oh, Sid has something. Go ahead, Sid. Well sorry to interrupt the music. So I saw Ashley's chat about host red ads all the way. I may have missed something here, but was the question about whether it should be a host red ad or should we have a pre produced ad or let our sponsor read the ad? I think so, right Dr. Yeah. And because there are new measurement tools now available and so that's why the question, are host red ads still your go to or will you test these new formats now that ROI is just a little bit clearer? OK, thank you.

49:26 Because I'm actually offering my sponsors the opportunity to do a host thread ad. I said just give me the script and I'll do the ad. Or you could produce the ad yourself. I've listened to podcasts we're the sponsor is actually doing the ad and I really like it. Like hearing from the sponsor. I like the addition of a different voice into the. Show you can pattern disrupt, right? It's like a pattern disrupt. I like it. Too. So I've given them the option. We'll see what they choose, but I'm happy to read the ad. We're going to put a little, you know, Swoosh or whatever transition into the ad the same. Time said don't they need, I mean, I've you can be an entrepreneur and be be very successful and not be able to Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You might be really good at hosting a show, but really bad at producing an ad, so yeah.

50:17 You got to be. Make sure the ad does what it needs to do, and that has to do with your energy, your tone and all those kinds of things. So. In some cases it might. Be better. Right in in some cases it might be better, but it has to come up to the quality of your show. Agreed. Yeah, that's what I was going to say, is it might be better for the host to read the ad rather than have someone else read it. So it's something to pay attention to, you know, and and as we get into getting ready with our ads, it's a certainly a question I'm going to be asking. Is it sound good with the way they did it or should I be the one to do it? But I do like having another voice on the show, right? And it it just kind of because we're not going to say, you know, a lot of podcasters will do things like, hey, let's take a break to hear from our sponsors.

51:00 We're not going to do that. I'm going to pause at certain places in the show, which is the indication to the editor that that's where the ad needs to go. She's going to insert some sound and then we're going to have the ads happen and then another sound and then the show continues. So that way I don't have to, you know, disrupt the conversation to say, all right, let's take a break from this amazing conversation with Dr. to hear from our sponsors because I will screw that up in like a really big way. Fair enough. Thank you, Sid, and thank you, Dr. Appreciate you guys digging into that a little bit more. We are out of time. We were going to get into a little bit of social media news and a little bit of AI news, but now Jonathan has to jet because he's heading over to chatter.

51:45 So if you're interested in hearing more about his talk on Community, you can head over there just after this show if you're listening live. Otherwise, you're kind of out of luck if you're not, if you're listening via podcast. But we'll fill you in. And if you're going to Pod Fest, I'll give you a great talk on Community as well. Thank you all for a great discussion today. Lots of news and I'm glad we got to cover all of that. We're back tomorrow with our podcast evaluation series covering Better Call Daddy. So take a listen if you have some time. If not, just come join us tomorrow. We'll break it down and share with you what works really well and where maybe there are some areas for improvement. Join us tomorrow and until then, make it a great day. Everybody take care.