443. TikTok’s New Terms May Cost Creators Everything

0:04 Good morning podcasting morning chat today is Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 and today podcast ads outperform YouTube where it matters most. Podcasting claims a bigger seat at South by Southwest and Sub stack eyes the living room, plus more headlines you need to know. 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, YouTube, LinkedIn, please share this with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. Good morning again, podcasting, Morning Chat. Thanks so much for being here.

1:24 I am your host Mark Ronick and currently on stage with me. I say on stage 'cause that's what we call it here on Clubhouse we have Jonathan Howard, Ralphie Step, BC Babbles, Dr. Faye, Alex Baelish, producer Ashley Feller and Sid Meadows. And if you are watching live, we also have Ralph Estep, BC Babbles, and Dr. Faye joining us on Riverside. So now it's not just me. And you're hearing all these mysterious voices. You can see some of them on the live stream or if you're catching it later, you'll see it on YouTube, LinkedIn, etcetera. Welcome. And I should say also, if you want to learn more about all those people I just shared, just go to podcastingmorningchat.com, go to the about section and you can see everyone's profile, learn how you can connect with them, learn more about them as well.

2:18 So go ahead and do that and send them a note if you feel like something they've said resonated with you. I wanted to share something before we dive into all the headlines and news today. I do want to take a minute quickly to talk about our, what is now, I believe our every Other Thursday podcast evaluations. A lot of you already know we do these, but I want to reset the intention behind them because that part I think really matters. These evaluations are not about tearing people down. They're not gotcha moments and they're definitely not roasts. They're constructive, thoughtful conversations around a real episode of your podcast.

3:02 We talk about what's working well because every show I believe, has some strengths, and we talk about what could be improved because that's how podcasters get better. It's great to get feedback from your family, from your friends, and more power to you if that's what you're doing right now. But there's real value in hearing from seasoned podcasters who've been doing this for a long time, who've made the mistakes already and can give you the perspective that's hard to get on your own. That's what we do every other Thursday. If you've wondered how your podcast sounds, looks to experienced eyes and ears, or you want honest, supportive feedback without ego or judgement, you can apply to have one of these episodes evaluated.

3:48 We do it live, we do it respectfully, and the goal is always to help you move forward. So if that sounds helpful, the link to apply is available in the show notes. Ashley has shared it here live on Clubhouse as well, so go ahead and do that if you'd like. We would love to learn more about you and your show. That's the old Muse music. Oh, and I realized I even set it up so I had the new music. So I'm going to let me let it play out nicely here. I know no one cares but me, but that's so be it.

4:33 All right, let's dig in as we like to do at the top of our news shows. I've got some podcast data for you. Over the last week, 566,727 podcasts published at least one new episode. That's up 7.2% from the previous week. And then over the last 30 days, 2.1 million podcasts published, at least one new episode, down 7.6% from the previous month. And also Dr. is going to give us some top fives and we'll hear about Apple, we'll hear about Spotify.

5:14 And then she's got a top five from quarter 4 courtesy of Edison Research. So Dr. Take it away on camera. Hey, good morning to you lucky sons of guns. You get to see us all. OK, so the top five for Spotify this week is number 5. Crime junkie #4 this past weekend with Theo von #3 is a good hang with Amy Poehler #2 Billions Club, the series that's new and #1 The Joe Rogan Experience. Very nice timing. #2 is new for at least for me to read. Billions Club, the series that's new. That's number two.

6:02 All the others been there. OK, Apple's top five is #5 good. Hang with Amy Poehler #4. Pod Save America #3 is dateline #2 is the daily and the number one podcast on Apple is Crime. Junkie. OK, Yeah, Crime Junkie continues to hold that spot. I believe that's the one that's been coming up over and over again lately, right? I think so. OK, cool. And then you're going to do the Edison Research Top five. Yeah. You know, Edison Research has published its top five podcasts in the US, top 54, top 50, sorry, for last quarter 2025. And this based on weekly reach among podcast listeners ages 13 and up.

6:57 The list highlights which shows are pulling the largest consistent audiences, with familiar heavyweights from news, true crime, comedy, daily talk continuing to dominate the rankings. Are we sure we're not in this one? We should be in this one anyway. The report reinforces a long running trend in podcasting. While thousands of new shows launch every year, the bulk of weekly listening remains concentrated among a relatively small group of established titles. For creators and advertisers alike, Edison's quarterly rankings offer a reality check on audience behavior and a reminder that reach and loyalty are very different metrics in the podcasting business. So #5 I love to see this smartless. I love smartless.

7:47 Me too. That is number 5 #4 is Call Her Daddy. I think we've talked to ad nauseam this past week or so about Call Her daddy #3 is The Daily. Number 2 is Crime Junkie and #1 is, you know, Joe Rogan, Whatever. I was trying to find my trombone to play for you. Thank you. Yes, Dr. hates to say Joe Rogan at #1 only because he's constantly at #1. I don't think you have any personal vendetta against Joe Rogan. I could if I dig really deep, I could I? I don't.

8:33 Listen to him. I just can't invest the time that his shows are like 3 hours long. I just cannot invest the time in order to listen to him. And by the way, again, we have shared a link to see me and the three others that have joined me on Riverside. We've shared a link to the YouTube live page if you are so interested. Alex, did I see your mic flash? I'm just laughing because that Dr. that she doesn't have enough time to listen to another podcast. I'm a busy woman. You're a woman with means and you're just doing your thing. But it's nice to see you guys in the video, so to speak. Thanks, Alex.

9:16 And again, yeah, you can find us. We'll share links also to the YouTube page as well. So in the future, if you want to catch me and some of the gang on video, you can do that as well. Yeah. And we'll, we'll start doing more of this. I just figured Wednesday, since so many people really contribute to it, like we, it's an organized contribution. We, I figured let's get some of those voices here on camera as well. Makes the video a little more interesting than just staring at my ugly mug all day. All right, so let's keep it moving and head into events. This is what I read every week. It is presented by Podcasters Directory. Podcasters directory.com I should say. Ready to boost your networking game and meet like minded professionals in an engaging virtual event designed for creators like you to connect, collaborate and expand your professional network.

10:13 So there's authors, speakers, podcasters, subject matter experts. When is it? It's weekly Thursdays every Thursday, 1:00 PM Pacific Time, 4:00 PM Eastern Time. And y'all got to come to this meeting because if if you've gone to network meetings and you just sit there and you do that fast, kind of what do you do? OK, you're in lawn care, that's great. What do you do? OK, you're a cook that's great. This is all people who are interested in podcasting who have podcasts themselves. Maybe you can set up a guest swap. So come and join the fun. Thank you, Dr. And is it free? It's a good thing you brought that up. Use PMC and you will get in for free. PMC the initial.

11:02 Commercial OK coupon code podcasting morning chat PMC specifically. Thank you, Dr. And there's one more event I should have gotten to before I played the nice news Stinger. As some of you know by now, while I was attending Pod Fest, I ran a special ticket offer for Empowered Podcasting Conference and we decided to extend that offer to you, our community. So that means tickets are just under $200, really the last time you'll ever see that between now and August. That's the lowest public price available. And this deal is available through the end of of January this month. So to grab it, just go to empoweredpodcasting.com, click the buy tickets button and then use the promo code POD FEST 26 PODF EST-26. So if Empowered Podcasting is already on your radar, now is the time.

11:59 Thank you to our newest attendee who it happens to be in the audience, Jessica. She took advantage of the offer earlier this week. Somebody I got to connect with for the first time as well over Zoom. We had a nice Zoom coffee chat. Welcome Jessica for being in the audience and welcome to Empowered Podcasting as well. Quick tip, smart move, yeah. Content creators. Business. Bite. Take it away, Ralph. I love that intro man, that is the best. But listen, the biggest creator news story this week isn't about views, believe it or not, it's about ownership. And Cobby Lame is Tik Tok's biggest creator, just had his company and his name of his company is called Step distinctive limited.

12:42 It was acquired by AUS listed firm called Rich Sparkle. Listen to this a deal announced at $975,000,000 and the filings and release date includes commercial rights and plans for an AI digital twin. So you might be saying, OK, Ralph, what can independent creators learn from this? Here's the things I want you to learn. Your content is not the asset. Your intellectual property is your name, your likeness, your style, your catalog. That's what scales. So when you build an actual business, not just an account. So what I'm talking about here is having an LLC or a corporation, clean contracts and a simple system to track revenue and rights and then guard your likeness like it guard your bank account.

13:23 Because if AI can replicate you, then usage rights, approvals and limits aren't optional anymore. And the bottom line is this, creators who win long term don't just chase algorithms, they chase what they've built. So it's all about building that brand and building that intellectual property. Thank you, Ralph. Appreciate anyone. I'm just curious if anyone has any questions or wants to respond at all. I want to give you a minute to do that if I do. Oh, go ahead, Dr. Well, right before I leave to go fix my eggs, I just read about this huge petition that all the actors are signing about the deep fakes and AI and how, you know, they're all banding together and creating a movement basically.

14:08 So there's some heavy hitters on that petition. Wow, all of a sudden, why did his? I mean, I know his name like the back of my hand normally. And now I forgot who. Oh my gosh, the actor. All right, all right, all right. McConaughey. Thank you. McConaughey is just he just did a whole thing about this. I think he went through proper legal channels and copy did a copyright on his voice, his likeness, etcetera. And I think he got the rights to all right, all right, all right. Yes, he did. Yeah, Trademarker patented that as well. Yep. That's showing him. He got in deep fake. That's why that's what happened. There was commercials with him, well, with the likeness of him or his voice. Yep, it's scary.

14:49 Egg time. All right, go. Some eggs. Dr. Are you going to put like a little thing in front of your screen we talked about? This it's funny right before the show. That's OK, go ahead Dr. You can go make your eggs. We talked about this right before we went live and Ralph was saying, wait, you got to bring a camera to while you're cooking the eggs. We talk about this so much and we weren't prepared, but that'll be something for down the road for sure. She seems like a little sign that just says be right back. And have like an egg, right? Right. Just to make it easy. Alex, aren't you curious? I mean, don't you want to see her making the eggs? As much as I do sometimes, you know, the illusion is better than the actual thing.

15:30 You don't want to meet your heroes. You know, like when I met Mark the first time, these are the things that happened. And Mark, I just want to add one more thing, if it's OK. Sure thing. And that is the big take away here is run your content creation like a business because look at the way this guy was able to cash in and it's because he had a system design, he was able to sell something. So if you don't hear anything else I said today, lean into that. Really run your content creation like a business because it can pay off in the end. Absolutely. Thank you, Ralph, for that. Alex has something. Go ahead, Alex. Ralph, do you think that they'll be a, for lack of a better term, a poor man's or a independent podcasters way to protect all this?

16:14 Is there something that an independent podcaster or everyday person can do to protect legally or put things in place beforehand as far as their likeness? Like this voice, whatever? I want to be careful to say I am not an attorney, but I know there are attorneys out there that can help you with that sort of thing. And it doesn't cost a mint to do that. You just have to be intentional about it. Maybe set up an entity, maybe speak with an attorney, somebody that can give you an idea of how to do things. I will say one thing that's really evident in this, and we haven't really talked about this today, but understand when you're putting stuff on a platform, read the fine print because you might be giving them the rights to that.

16:55 I know one of the things that Tiktok just did is they're basically saying if you put stuff on Tiktok, they own it, Alex, That's the thing you need to be aware of is know where you're putting stuff and build your brand, not their brand. And it's easy to put stuff on these platforms, but understand you may be giving away your goodness or giving away your intellectual property by doing that. And good suggestion from Janae in the chat saying Gordon Firemark, the podcast lawyer, he'd probably be a great person to reach out to if you have questions about that. So go ahead and look up Gordon Firemark. You know you'll find him no problem if you Google him. OK, let's keep it going. Here, do some news bites. So from this is from Pod News yesterday.

17:37 Odyssey has quietly removed a number of third party podcasts from its app, including Pod News. According to a spokesperson for Odyssey the show, the shows that were removed were lower engagement titles that accounted for a very small percentage of overall listening on their platform. The company says that Odyssey App is still positioned as the home for a robust lineup, including Odyssey Originals, time shifted radio shows, podcasts from its premium network and Creator Lab, key affiliate partners, and other industry leading titles. The move comes as Odyssey continues to recalibrate following its exit from bankruptcy last year.

18:22 In a notable twist, the company added all of its podcasts and radio stations to the iheart app in July, effectively distributing its content through the ecosystem of its main competitor, iheart. And just so you know, Odyssey is a large US multi platform audio broadcasting company. It operates radio stations, a streaming app and multiple podcast networks. It's headquartered in Philly. It's one of the biggest commercial radio owners in the US and positions itself as a full audio company across broadcast, digital and live events. Also, this one's for you, Producer Ashley podcast hosting platform Fountain has launched Fountain for Artists, a new music hosting service built on RSS.

19:17 So that's how US podcasters distribute our content using the RSS feed. This is now for musicians. The platform let's music creators earn money every time a song is played, with payments made in Bitcoin. It works using the same underlying mechanics as podcasting 2 Point O's, streaming SAT's at model and where value flows directly from listener to creator in real time. Sharing this because it's another signal that podcasting's open infrastructure is starting to stretch beyond spoken word audio into music, with creators getting paid per play without relying on traditional streaming platforms or ad models. Ashley, as a musician, what's your initial, your first reaction to that?

20:07 I think getting an opportunity for musicians to earn a little more income is hopefully a good thing. I'm not so sure about the Bitcoin thing, mostly because I just don't know much about it, but aside from that it sounds interesting. Agreed. That's the one thing that caught my eye as well, the whole Bitcoin portion of it. Because yeah, Bitcoin is, I'm not saying it's not hot, right? It's a it's a big thing now. Not everybody still is on board with it. Not everybody understands it yet. And I'm, you know, I'm curious how musicians will embrace that. So more to come there. Speaking of producer Ashley, actually, I'm going to come to you in a second, Ashley, with your story that you brought to the table.

20:48 But first BC has a question or comment. Go ahead BC. Yeah. Does it say anything in there about whether or not one of the caveats of that is that any particular playing rights for the music that can be offered to the rotation would have to be signed over to the platform? It does not say that, at least in my summary, but I will make sure to get that link to the article and put it in the show notes because maybe it's there but not entirely sure BC. Gotcha. OK, Let's go to Ashley with an announcement from Apple that we may be interested in as creators. Go ahead, Ashley. This is for all the Mac folks out there. Apple just announced a new subscription bundle which is called the Apple Creator Studio, and it combines its major creative apps, which include Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro into a single cross-platform plan.

21:41 And it launches today, January 28th, 2026. And it's got consumer and education prices, just to name a few things about this new bundle. I won't read them all. There's quite a list, but the standard price is about 1299 U.S. dollars per month, or you can pay annually at 129 I believe it is, and you get a one month free trial for new subscribers. They have an education model that's 299 a month or 2999 for a year. The apps that are included are again Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion Compressor, Mainstage and Pixelmator Pro. There are a couple of changes.

22:23 For example, the iPad policy has changed on the iPad. The Creator Studio becomes the only way for new customers to access Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro and existing standalone iPad subscribers can keep their prior plans. And again, this is a one time Mac purchase or it can be they sell perpetual licenses for the Final Cut Pro Logic, etcetera. And I think that's going to be pretty interesting. I found this as I was looking for things on my ever going quest to replace the script. Oh my God, I can't wait to spend money on this. This seems like it's going to be something awesome and I'm so looking forward to dumping the script and all the other stuff and keeping it under a Mac family. These are some really powerful and popular tools that they're including in this suite of apps.

23:21 So I think people are going to be very excited about it. On one hand, I mean you can say it makes it more affordable than how it used to be because this software used to be pretty expensive, especially getting one of them as opposed to a whole bundle of them. But you know, do keep in mind you are paying a monthly fee that does add up after a couple of years, right? If you're paying $130.00 a year. You're doing the same on Adobe. I think the point is they're trying to probably go after the Adobe business. And I think that that's a good thing because for what I'm trying to do, I either have to learn Adobe to do cartoon stuff.

24:02 There's a couple other programs out there, but if I could keep it on their Mac, it would be great. It looks like they're going to try to hopefully expand. I don't know. We'll see. Yeah, I'm excited to see how this develops over time. And I'm going to go to you next, Ralph, with the next story. This was something on Reddit and I think you have mentioned you first saw it on pod news, but yeah, take it away. Something about Stream Yard? Yeah, I saw this on pod news originally and then it drilled down to Reddit and it's from a post that a small business team is walking away from Stream Yard after what they're calling pricing whiplash. Listen to this. Their 4C plan jumped from $89.00 a month to $417.00 a month overnight.

24:43 And in the article they said there was no upgrade request, no added features, and no warning. Just the same usage, same workflow, just a much bigger bill. And the team says they were effectively moved into a higher tier without asking for it, despite using Stream Yard for fairly standard needs. A collaboration and guest interviews, live streaming, recording, publishing. And while the while the platform isn't the court of their business, it plays an important role in promotion, which makes this four and five times increase hard to justify. And the timing isn't lost in them either. Stream Yard was acquired by a company called Bending Spoons in 2024. And this kind of aggressive pricing shift feels like a routine update and more like a signal that smaller teams may no longer be the target customer. So as a result, they're actively looking for alternatives that support small teams, guests, multi streaming and local recording, ideally in the 50 to $150.00 per month range.

25:31 But the big take away here is they were using this tool and five times increase overnight is a massive increase. Thank you. Ralph Streamer is the one that got bought by the script, is that right? It was bending. Yeah, is it Stream Yard or Zencaster? No, I think that was Stream Yard, definitely not Zencaster. And I know when that happened, they had initially started talking about a big price jump and everybody went up in arms about it. They did have a price jump. They almost doubled it, actually. They did double it just about. And then it went from like, like 40 to $80, you know, for their pro. And then I tried, I tried to drop down just to kind of, yeah. Save money.

26:14 I get it. Yeah. Thank you, Alex. Mark, part of this could be the introduction of a lot of AI tools and that's something we have to be aware of as companies are adding more AI. That's expensive to them. And I'm not trying to listen, I'm not trying to justify what they're doing here, but AI costs are expensive and you want to Add all these other tools and little pieces and nuanced things into there. It costs money for them to produce it. I'm an accountant. I'm always looking at the bottom line number. So I understand it from the perspective of the business as well. If they're giving you this big range of tools that's costing them more, they've got to pass those prices along. Ralph, you can't justify 100% increase in a short time like that. Stream yard, once they sold, they've had no plan whatsoever. They gave us no services.

27:02 They just threw out the new pricing. They're starting to add stuff, but it just seems like it's just really shifty and the only problem is it's a great program. I'm trying Ecam, it's hard, I'm trying Riverside. There's just nothing like it. That's the problem. I can speak to that because I actually use ecam, but I'm on a Mac and and that's where I started for. For me, this hasn't been a decision, decision point, but you're right, that is a huge increase to go up 100%. I don't disagree with you. And I guess the business side of me would say, well, you get what you pay for. But I totally hear you, Alex that it doesn't feel good from the customer side. And maybe that's the thing that they need to take away from this is, yeah, maybe your long term plan is we're going to offer more things, we're going to up charge this, we're going to charge more.

27:49 But to drop 100% increase and think about what I just talked about today, A5 time increase is absolutely craziness. Doesn't it feel like the next step after this might be an e-mail to their members saying, we regret to inform you that we are shutting down? Because if you price yourself out of the market instead of just giving you the whammy of we're closing, they're going to up their price so high that no one's going to. There's just too much competition out there for this price to be this high. Or at least giving some kind of grace and slowly climbing up that ladder, you know, and I know AI is expensive and stuff, but this is just way too big of a an increase.

28:40 Well. Dr. The other thing they could be doing though, is they may be changing their customer dynamic and they might be saying we're not trying to serve the independent podcast. There's the independent content creators. I mean, there's a place where I'm not saying that's the right decision, but I'm saying that they might want it to become, I'll use a funny term, they might want to be the Cadillac of this. And they're just saying, look, this isn't our target market. So that could be part of this too is they want to go into that, that high end that that more exclusive like I'll call it platinum market because that could be part of what's going on here as well. As a Stream Yard user, I totally see where you're coming from, Ralph. It's just a shame because like you said, wherever you start is where you like to be and that's your comfort zone, especially in this stuff. I still use Audacity.

29:27 I love it, but that's a separate conversation. It's so easy to use and to change platforms is such a difficult thing In a lot of cases for podcasters, they don't have you over a barrel. But if they're going to be the Cadillac, then First off, you better change the seats and you better make a nice steering wheel because it's been a real problem. And it's just a shame because it feels like it's the Titanic going down. From a strategy point, if I'm the company, I'm like, well, Alex isn't going to leave. Alex is invested in this. I can double the price and I make more money. So I'm not saying that's the right answer. I think that's what they're doing is they're playing the game of people love our software, they're not going anywhere. It's stable, they know how to use it, so we're not going to worry about it.

30:14 And if we lose a couple, if we're doubling the price, even if we lose a couple, our Net margin still it grows. You're right, you can't beat the numbers. But yeah, I got an egg timer with it, I'll tell you that. I'm going to break from the format for a second and go right to BC with his segment, which is still unnamed. And BCI know we were bouncing some names off each other yesterday and we were thinking we should share it with the group. But my working title currently is Hollywood Minute. Kind of a very generic thing, but this is where BC shares some podcast news in the celebrity world since we know celebrities have infiltrated our industry.

30:59 So with that BC, take it away. Good morning. And yeah, we are working on that title on plenty of ideas thrown back and forth. So kicking us off this morning, Sean Bean, the two time BAFTA TV and International Emmy winning actor is joining the podcasting space as the brand new host of Get Birding, which is a multi award-winning podcast for all birders. I thought that was just a thing that the dad did in Beetlejuice but apparently it's a real thing so he will be joining the show, has the new host saying. It might come as a surprise to many, but I was a keen birder as a teenager growing up on a Sheffield estate and spent many happy hours seeing what I could spot in our gardens and surrounding fields with my friends.

31:46 Now the podcast is produced by Peanut and Crumb, which aims to make bird watching and nature accessible to joy and joyful to everyone, everywhere. We'll hear Sean talk about his own birding adventures as well as those of his celebrity guests. For instance, on Episode 1, he's joined by BBC Six music DJ Guy Garvey, and this is actually him taking the reins from former host Maya Rose Craig, who did the first series as the host. She says it's a real privilege to be working with Sean Bean on this latest series of Get Birding. He is such an icon and comes with a completely different set of knowledge and experience to me. So any thoughts on, you know, birding? What's this doing it again?

32:32 Sean Bean He's known for his roles as Boromir in Lord of the Rings and in his role. I never heard of him, I'm so sorry. BC the most important thing, and I'll let you go Jonathan in one second, he can say the most amazing line winter is coming. Well, funny you mentioned that though, because of course his iconic Boromir meme 1 does not simply enter Mordor has of course revivified itself with this new announcement, which came out a few days ago with the new version saying 1 does not simply enter the podcasting world. It's definitely going to give new life to many of his iconic memes that have been out there in the space for a while. But yeah, I think this will be for anyone who who does nature things like that.

33:14 You got a brand new place to go and get your nerd on 100%. That's going to be our first story on good for the second one this morning. No, let's see. I think Jonathan wanted to chime in. Go ahead. Jonathan. What celebrities are birders like? What name celebrities is he going to have on there as birders? Aside from the BBC DJ, the I don't believe there's been a list released in future celebrity guests yet and it might just be him. And then every now and then, have a celebrity guest to come on to the show as well. Jonathan, why do you ask? Because I'm wondering what celebrities are nerds? I see it. Could be like rides with the guy that played Darrell from Walking Dead where he just finds people and they just ride their motorcycles.

34:01 Hey Jonathan, always looking for a celebrity. You could be the. Next, I was going to say that too. Yeah, absolutely. And actually, Yvonne is on stage as well while we were talking about this. So I'm going to guess she wanted to chime in as well. Go for it. Good morning, Yvonne. Actually I came up because you guys invited me up, but I'm like, I don't really have much to add this morning. I do have I do have a birder friend and I am officially a nerd, so there. You go, yeah. I think I've shared before on this show, I I've started getting intrigued by different bird sounds. I think living here in the mountains and hearing all these different chirps and songs going on in the background, I've gotten my little app that calls out what kind of bird is chirping.

34:45 One of my kids shared a link to a documentary that these two brothers did who got into birding and travelled the country as part of this very competitive birding thing where you're trying to get a certain, like you're trying to get the top number of bird sightings. It is so well done. And if I, if I can find it, I'm going to throw it in the chat. Please do, Please do. So well done. Awesome. Speaking of Speaking of well done, I just want to plug Yvonne's show again. Late Living bloomers. Did I say it wrong? I think I just totally screwed it up. That's OK, it's late bloomer. Living thank you yeah OK so on top of the ADHD and maybe a little dyslexia as well, but yeah, thank you I I was on that show I know she has a new episode out as of today. I think I saw Yvonne that might.

35:37 Is that right? I. Do I do is Wendy Perotti wrote a book called Keep the Tomatoes. It's like an illustrated book for adults and it's about boundaries and drawing your boundaries and not over giving. So that's today's. Episode awesome. And there's also the previous episode was with yours truly. I know I shared with Yvonne that I got a text from my mom randomly about the episode. She listened to it and she loved it and really enjoyed Yvonne and Yvonne hosting the show. If you haven't heard Yvonne's show, I encourage you to go listen, whether it's my episode or another one because I think she's a fantastic host. Asks really great questions, genuine questions that really I think as a guest really makes me made me think a lot and give some answers.

36:25 I I don't even know that I was expecting to share. So check out Yvonne's show. We'll put a link in the show notes as well. And Mark, can, can I interject something there? I had never heard Yvonne's show until you promoted it here. And wow, amazing. And I got to know Mark at a much deeper level. And Yvonne, I just want to say fantastic job. You really brought out a side of Mark that I didn't know. And if you want to learn more about Mark, go check it out. But Yvonne, great job, great hosting. So I just want to say as a person that's never listened to your show, who is now subscribed, great work. Thank you, Ralph and I owe you a message back and I really appreciate the shout out guys. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, BC you got another story for us. Yes, one more for this morning.

37:07 So this is going to be great for any Charmed fans out there and to clarify the original charm, but not the reboot that came out a few years ago. Holly Marie Combs, I'm sorry, Brian Krause, Andrew Fuller, who were both all three of them were actors on the show, have been hosting a podcast for a few years now called The House of Halliwell, which is a rewatch series talking about their experience on the said, in front of the camera, behind the camera, all the good stuff. And they let it be known a couple of episodes ago that true to her character, Holly Marie Combs will be opening a brand new club soon. So for context, she famously played Piper Halliwell on the Charm Show and for several seasons Piper was the owner of a club called P3 which acted as a set for numerous iconic moments and episodes, including providing the foundation for a number of awesome musical guests that showcased on the show, including The Cranberries, Goo Goo Dolls, Pat Benatar, and Bare Naked Ladies and many, many more. So she is looking to be open up a brand new P3 club, I'm assuming in Washington where she lives and here in the next couple of years.

38:13 So they already have a location set. I don't believe construction's begun yet or renovations have begun yet, but it'll be happening. So a great way to bring a beloved element of a still very big fandom oriented show into the real world. She did note that saying she's going to avoid using a neon P3 sign as the marketing because she thinks that'd be a bit too on the nose and this will be the latest addition to some more of her entrepreneurial pursuit. She does already own it. Two other restaurants with her husband, one includes a nice BBQ house, so I think that was pretty cool for especially any Charmed fans that we have who enjoy podcasting. Morning chat to get to know this morning.

38:54 I'm sure those fans include Ralph and Dr. here with me on camera, right? Charmed fans, both of you. Yeah, I, I've never seen it, but I, I got to go back to some of the bird thing. The whole time BC was talking after we did the show about Fleetwood Mac, I'm thinking bird is the word. I could get that out of my head now, you know, Bird, bird, bird. Sometimes remix but Rihanna song Work work work work no. Yeah, yeah, see and you can tell you can tell the generational differences on this show, right with these different references, Ralph with like what that was probably from the 60s and BC more from the 20 tens, I would say when I. Heard Rihanna, 20. I can, hey, I can twerk and I'm groovy and all that, but you know, I'm still trying to get down with the young folks.

39:41 Groovy. Not Groovy. Not Groovy. Hey, if I'm the only charming fan on on the show, I will take that as like a yes. I bring that uniqueness to to the crew. I'm excited personally because it was a it was a great experience on the show and I assume she is looking to make something similar happen in real life and a nice bar music club scene. We'll see what happens. All right, we're going to keep it moving. I'm trying to make a decision here. We have some of the major headlines that we haven't even got to, and I call the major just 'cause I assumed they may create discussion. But there is one story that I think we have to get to that I haven't teased yet.

40:21 Jonathan brought this up to me yesterday that as something worth sharing and I completely agree. Tik Tok's new update to their US terms has certainly caused a stir in the social media world. Jonathan, you want to tell us a little bit about that and then we'll talk more about it with the group? The biggest change is that US users are now contracting with TikTok. USDS Joint Venture LLC no longer Bite Dance, which is the company that's created for the US ownership restructure. So all the agreements are with the US. There are they are going to be doing things a little bit differently. They're going to be retaining information differently. If the precise location is something that they're going to be keeping, which is something that they did not use to keep, you will have the ability to opt in on or out of that one. There's some differences coming up with ads, some differences coming up with AI, and AI is one of the ones that's a little concerning because they added really explicit rules around it. But they also say the aim I may not work and then the data retention is a little bit different. Some of the things that they're retaining are going to be a little bit different and includes a little bit. More.

41:42 Breach with medical with some of the other things they're going to be retaining. So some mental health stuff. And bottom line functionally is going to remain the same. At least now the algorithm will change because it's going to be trained on AUS only information. But that's where we stand right now. Not a lot has come out. They've not shared a lot about it. We're a little bit on the shore, but the transition started happening last Friday, I believe. And Jonathan, you, like many others, have since deleted your TikTok account because of these new updates to their terms. Yep. And the owner as well. So I'm curious, is anybody else now looking at removing their TikTok? Or have you already removed your TikTok because of these terms? They're yeah, they're a little bit concerning for sure. I haven't made a decision yet, but the more I see people dropping off, the more it's it's making me think about it and what I want to do.

42:43 So more to come on that. But BCI saw you wanted to add something. That's a hard choice for me because it's it's where I've done the best so far and I see the most engagement for everything that I try to promote and for myself and and for colleagues and friends. So I forgot the verbiage for but the whole the geolocation thing, the the precision of it is, I think way too much. But also going back to the topic of content ownership, when we whatever, whatever we post on the platform being owned by TikTok at the same time, I'm kind of curious like, well, if they're ever going to pull right on that, not that what I post is should be considered like top tier. We want to own a content by any means, But you know, if they ever want to come after, what do I say?

43:26 Like, well, this is also on Instagram and LinkedIn. Do you want to fight them for it to like, how does how does something like that actually work in in practice is what I'm kind of curious about. But yeah, at this point, it definitely a hard contemplation. I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet. Yeah. And an interesting point that, yeah, the content will be on other platforms. So how does that all going to work? But I think honestly it there is nothing to discuss there. I think if it's on TikTok, they don't care if you're putting it on other platforms. I think once it's on theirs, according to these terms, it's now their content that they can do with as they please. Which what? Go ahead, dear. That's my question is where are these people going to put their tik toks? Basically, where where are they going to put this content? If they're not, if they've deleted it, is that what you're saying?

44:17 Yeah, I mean, I think they'll probably continue to use the other platforms, YouTube Shorts and Instagram, etcetera. I know that we've once, you know, last year when Tiktok went away for a hot 2nd, a lot of people jump to some other newer platforms that were on the rise, but I don't think any of them really took off like that the way that they had hoped. So, yeah, I think if anything, it's not a matter of looking for new alternatives. I think it's just maybe doubling down on some of the current social media platforms that we're already using. I think there's an opportunity here though, and that is I think you've got to look at these platforms a little differently at this point. These can be generation, they can be discovery generation, but you've got to be driving people back to what you own, drive them to your website, drive them back to your content.

45:07 And I think it's real easy to get lazy and just throw a lot of stuff up on TikTok and YouTube and Reels. I get it. It's, it's, you know, there's a lot of AI slop that people are putting out there just because there's tools to do it. But what you've got to really do is be intentional and be intentional and driving them back to what you own. I think that's the key to this big deal. And I'll be honest with you, I'm not in, I'm not interested in leaving Tick Tock. I don't get a lot of traction on TikTok. But what I will say when they made this change, I use repurpose. As a matter of fact, a lot of stuff gets put up there automatically. Well, now if I'm putting 6 or 7 TikTok things up there, I'm not getting any views at all except for maybe one thing. We'll get a couple 100 views. So that's changed dramatically. But again, I have a different mindset.

45:48 My mindset is let me touch you for 20 seconds. So you go, who's this guy Ralph? Oh, let me go find his content. So I think you've got to be thinking about how do you drive that and how do you build that? That brings them back to what you own because there's still opportunity there, but you've got to, you've got to be intentional with how you do that. Thank you, Ralph. Great point. I saw a bunch of people in the clubhouse room agreeing with you wholeheartedly. Yeah. I mean, this is another opportunity for us to pay more attention to or have our audience paying more attention to our content, living on our own platforms, our own website, etcetera, our newsletters, those types of things. I think that's super important.

46:28 Thank you for bringing that up, Ralph. Does anyone else want to chime in on the TikTok changes? I'll just say that I deleted my account. I never was big on TikTok. It was not a place where I was driving a lot of business. But if I was, I would definitely second guess that decision and and figure out a way to move my people from TikTok somewhere else before I totally cancelled my you know, account. And I would also go in and check my own privacy settings and make sure that I have nothing turned on that I don't want to share. I'm really surprised that the new owners of the US TikTok went that route. Maybe it was something that they could have had on their radar to do. But just to jump right in and make those big changes right out of the gate, I think is going to leave a bad taste in their customers mouths.

47:18 And I think they're going to lose a lot more people. I mean, look, I think a lot of people are going to probably stop using it or use it less anyway now that it is only US based and now that it's a new company. I don't believe they're using the same algorithm that TikTok is always has always been applauded for. You know, they, they seem to have figured out the algorithms and what to deliver to their consumers really well, better than what I've seen on any of the other platforms. So people were going to probably jump ship anyway. But to just throw that out right away, I think, I think leaves a bad taste in people's mouth and I think they're going to pay for it. So we shall see.

48:01 All right, we have time for one more story. And I let's see here. Dr. Will you take story #11 please? Absolutely. OK, so hold on this. Is the podcast. Got it. This is about podcast ads and YouTube. Right. So the headline is podcast ads beat YouTube, but where it hurts sales, a new measurement of podscribe and Oxford road shows, podcast audio ads deliver stronger purchase outcomes than YouTube video podcast ads. And I have a theory on this after this, after I read this. Based on the analysis of 1000 plus campaigns and 100 plus brands, audio podcast ads saw up to 25% higher conversions than video and 18% better survey responses, likely driven by listeners, intentional engagement and host trust. Studies suggest that YouTube views should not be valued the same as audio impressions in media planning are, and brands could be leaving up to $250,000 in conversion value on the table for every $1 million spent on YouTube. Audio remains a performance channel with measurable ROI, so the key points are podcast ad

49:32 performance. Measured with promo codes and surveys, audio podcast ads outperformed YouTube video ads on purchase driving metrics. For every $1 million on YouTube impression brands may lose 250,000 in conversions. Listeners intentional engagement and trust in host likely drives higher conversions. So I have a question here to ask, but I have my own theory. Yeah, I want to hear that. I want to hear that. OK, so on YouTube I automatically put my cursor where it says skip even before the word skip comes up because I am ready to just click on that so fast and I don't even, I don't hear anything besides, you know, before that before that skip thing comes up.

50:29 I just tune it out. We're so used to tuning it out. And so that's my, that's that's my. Theory. Gotcha. I think Ralph has something too. Go ahead, Ralph. Well, I guess I'm immune to this because I don't ever see ads because I paid for the YouTube whatever. And so to me, you know, it's funny, my, my youngest son loves YouTube and he listens to these ads. I'm like, dude, how much time do you spend hitting that skip button? Pay the 12 or 13 bucks a month and be done with it. So that's the account. I'm just, I'm sorry, I'm an accountant. I'm a cost benefit guy. I'm thinking how many times you hitting that thing you're going to have? What do you call that? Oh, a tunnel syndrome with your hand after. A carpal tunnel. Yeah, pay, pay the fee and and as I think a lot of people are starting to do it, just pay the fee and be done with it.

51:12 But I I get it. I totally get it. So I just want to interject that Dr. just I'm thinking just pay for the subscription. Yeah, I pay for it as well. And I, I used to avoid it for so long. And finally, I think, you know, they offered a trial or something and I did it and I could never go back after after the trial, I said yeah, that's going to be worth the 1012 bucks. Whatever it is now, it it because yeah, I I never see an ad anymore and it is such a nice thing. I don't even know how I how to act if I didn't see an ad in order to skip. I'm so used to skipping those darn ads. And let's not forget that YouTube also, some of those ads you can't even skip. You got to sit through them. That's true. Yeah, that's true.

51:52 You got to wait until I just can't. I can't do another monthly payment. I don't want to do another monthly payment. BC did you want us to chime in? Yeah, I was going to agree with VR there. So I feel like we're we're too, we're too traumatized by the ads. Like even if I paid for it, I don't know if I would trust it. I'm like, this isn't real. Like after a couple of videos go by where I'm looking at the view can and I know for sure it would otherwise have ads on it. I'm like, it's coming. This is coming. I can't let go of the trauma of having to live with that for years and years now. With audio, most people, when they listen to audio, they are multitaskers. They're doing something else. When we're watching videos, we are zoned in, we're ready for that skip icon to come up so we can hit it real fast.

52:39 But when we're listening just to audio, we're driving, we're doing the dishes, we're mowing the lawn, we're doing something. I think that's one of the reasons why it has a better ROI. I will tell you BC that I got used to it pretty quickly. The reason why I say that is because now if my wife hands me her phone to watch a YouTube video and I press play and an ad pops up, I'm like, Oh yeah, I forgot that YouTube does that, you know? So now I've gone the other way. When I see an ad on YouTube, it's a little bit jarring to me. So there's hope. That's fair. Yeah, there is hope. OK gang, Listen, that'll do it for today's news and comment and we are back tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern Time. We might cover a couple of these stories. We didn't get to tomorrow, but we have a few things that we want to discuss as well.

53:30 So come join us. Look, we talk all things podcasting. So if that's of interest to you, join us tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern Time live on Clubhouse, YouTube and other video platforms as well. Until then, make it a great day everybody. Take care.