476. PodPage’s Bold Acquisition: What It Means for You

0:05 Good morning, podcasting Morning chat. Today is Wednesday, March 18th, 2026. And today it's our podcast news and comment edition with more Apple podcast video push, surprising new data on podcasting's ad power. And Dave Jackson joins us live with the big merge with Pod Page. 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.

1:20 Good morning again podcasting morning chat. Thank you so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronick and currently on stage with me my Co hosts Ralph Estep, BC Babbles, Jonathan Howard, Sid Meadows, Dr. Fay, Alex Baelish and also we have Tide AKA Nikki joining us from the audience. Good to have all of you here this morning. And of course we also have live with us on video. We have Dave Jackson from pod page. Good morning Dave, how are you? Oh, you're, you're unmuted. You're muted, by the way. You would think the podcaster would, you know. Hey, I forgot to hit the record right when? We started. No, I'm good. Glad to be here. Yeah, we are excited to have you here. We will be talking with you in a few minutes about the big move on pod page and I hear some X something playing in your background.

2:11 I'm, I'm, I'm going to shop that babe, OK? Like you said, you know, we're we're professional podcasters here, everybody. Holy cow. All right. No problem, before we dive into all the news we have some personal news as far as the podcasting morning chat goes and if you are a pod news subscriber you may have seen this in today's Pod News. So as of today, Ralph Estep is officially stepping into the role of Co Executive producer of the show alongside yours truly. So many of you already know Ralph from the community and from the way he's been showing up with such consistency, generosity and care. And over the past several months, he's become a bigger and bigger part of what we're building here. And that's been really clear in the conversations behind the scenes and in support, and I should say, the support he's offered every step of the way.

3:12 Just last week, we announced that Ralph is officially the title sponsor of Empowered Podcasting 3 Content creatorsaccountant.com, which says a lot about how much he believes in this community and where we're headed. So for me, making this move feels like the right next step because my struggle, particularly over the past year or two, hasn't been that. I don't have the know how on the business side. I'm teaching podcasters how to do that all the time. But my struggle is that a, I'm too close to this show. It's like my child. And I think that creates blind spots for me. And B, the PMC is a real creative outlet for me.

3:55 It's given me the opportunity, which I know many of you know, to do something that I've wanted to do ever since I was a teenager. And that's to host my own show, morning show specifically. So this move means that I can focus on what I care about doing most, leading the conversations, hosting the show, and building a space where podcasters feel supported, connected, and empowered. Ralph will bring his experience in business strategy in the creator space, various resources, monetization, ideas, systems, and long term growth. And I'm really grateful that he's bringing those strengths into the podcasting morning chat in an even bigger way. So, Ralph, thank you for believing in me, believing in the community, and for being willing to help help shape what comes next.

4:44 I'm really excited to build this both with you and this amazing community. So thank you, Ralph. You're welcome, Mark, and I'll go back to the day I met you down at Empower Podcasting too, as you were sitting there interviewing Dave Jackson. I met both of you at the same time and I knew there was something special here. And once I got involved in the community, Mark, I just, it felt like the right thing to do. And I've really enjoyed this. Getting up early at 4:15 every morning has been fun, but I really like what's going on here. I see a great direction that we're taking this community. And so I'm honored to step into the role to help out where I can and to really take the show to the next level, Mark. So thank you so much for giving me the opportunity and I appreciate the community as well.

5:25 You guys are really become a family to me, so thank you so very much. You're welcome and thank you, Ralph. Yeah, again, really excited about this. I think that the, you know, as far as the show goes, that's really going to remain my territory. So I'll be guiding the show, help Ralph will help me along with the rest of the team as far as curating content and maybe coming up with different formats and styles of how we do things. But overall, the big changes are happening behind the scenes thanks to Ralph. So more to come. Good stuff with for this community and I say we get things going with the news today. So like I always do, I start this show, particularly news and comment with a little bit of data for you. This comes from the podcast Business Journal. Over the past week, 566,000 podcast episodes were published. So that means at least one new episode was published over this past week and that's up 2.3% from the previous week. And it also looks like, looking at their chart, it looks like this is an all time high since November of 2025. S lots of podcasts being published over this past week. And then over the last 30 days, almost 2.5 million podcasts published at least one new episode, which is up almost 2% from the previous 30 days.

6:58 And now we're going to go to Dr. for her top fives. Go for it, Dr. Good morning. Good morning, Dave Jackson. Good to have you with us. So the number 5 on Spotify is The Daily, the number 4 is Crime junkie #3 Q the Timpanis, it's the Shawn Ryan show #2 is this past weekend with Leo Von, and the number one podcast is the Joe Rogan Experience. Whatever what what a surprise. Always in the number one. Now we're not going to do the Apple top five because you know, look, we we introduced the Apple top five when we started noticing how many times the same usual suspects are there, especially Joe at the top. And so we introduced some Apple stuff, but we wanted to get back to Dr. sometimes gives us a random top five of the week and that's what we're going to do today. So what is that random chart this week? Yeah, So the random chart this week and I, I searched through a lot of them this morning.

8:05 So it is alternative health and I chose this one for a specific reason and I will tell you that after the number one is so #5 is biohacking beauty. The Anti aging skin care podcast #4 is Biohacket, which is different from the biohacking beauty #3 Cue the timpani is get sleepy sleepy meditation and stories. Number 2 is the Passion Struck with John P Miles, and the number one is the Dylan Gemelli podcast. Now, the reason why I chose this one, OK, is because it has zero podcast description, and it's still made #1 interesting. And it's still made number one.

8:53 Yeah. Huh. Yeah, I see that here in the chart, it says this podcast does not have a description and yet. We're #1 anyway. OK. I I want to know how that worked out. I mean, look, I don't think a description makes or breaks clearly a podcast, but at the same time, it's interesting that it's all the way at number one of the alternative health charts regardless. Like you would think that it would at least have a description there. Exactly. Fascinating. OK, well, thank you, DRI don't know, Dave. Any thoughts on how that could even possibly happen? That's interesting. It just makes my eyebrow go up. Just just want to realize.

9:36 So I'd love to see his completion percentage, you know, that kind of stuff. That's true, that's true. He could just have a lot of plays being pressed but not actually sticking around and listening. Who knows, but really fascinating. OK, cool, let's keep it moving with some events. I should have played my music. Some events coming up around the world of podcasting that you may be interested in. There is a meet up hosted by yours truly coming March 26th in the Washington, DC area. It's actually hosted by me and my friend Christina Vidovic. She has a community called Women Getting Visible. I felt like that was a really appropriate matchup being that we are recognizing women all month long this month. The event again next Thursday, March 26, 2026, and it starts at 5:30 PM.

10:30 It's at Pinstripes in North Bethesda, totally free to attend. So come check that out. Also, podcasting Made Simple Live, that's a pod match event and it is a premium podcasting virtual event focused on helping podcast guests and podcast hosts hosts improve their craft so that they can make a bigger positive impact on the world around them. I know it's technically a paid event, but I'm pretty sure it's relatively easy to get free tickets. If you want to reach out to Alex and Pod Match, I think you'd probably be able to get that free ticket. Go to podmatch.com/event For more information. But I will tell you it's April 16th starting at 11:30 AM Eastern.

11:17 Also, some news for you about Empowered Podcasting 3 which comes out August 21st through the 23rd. It's going to be back in Charlotte, NC at the Hyatt Centric in South Park. The news I wanted to share with you, well, two things. One, get your tickets now because they will go on, I should say, go up in price April 1st. So this is the last time this month that you will be able to get tickets for under $200.00. But the news I wanted to share with you here first, nobody knows this yet except the EPC team. Speaker applications are now open, so you can go to empoweredpodcasting.com/speakers. Oh, hey, thanks.

12:00 Thanks, Dave. You can go to empoweredpodcasting.com and you can get all that information. Apply there. And yeah, you can see that little speakers button at the top. Hit that and come join us over there. All right, so with that, let me see here what should where should we go next? I know where we should go. Quick tip, smart move. Yeah, Content creators Business bite. This business bite is brought to you by the guy who's about to host it, Ralph Estep of Content creatorsaccountant.com. Ralph is a licensed accountant and my accountant with over 30 years of experience at contentcreatorsaccountant.com. He helps creators stop guessing about taxes and money, turning financial chaos into clarity.

12:52 And I can attest to that working with Ralph is it's been one of the best decisions I've made and I encourage you to check it out. Check himoutinhiswebsite@contentcreatorsaccountant.com. Now this is a special content creators business bite. Ralph is going to talk to Dave a little bit about the big news from Dave and Pod Page. Take it away, Ralph. Thank you, Mark. And I'm so super thrilled to have Dave here today because something big just happened in podcasting and I think most creators are going to miss what it actually means. We're going to talk about that this morning. Pod Page has officially acquired the School of Podcasting and they're bringing Hall of Famer Dave Jackson into a bigger strategy. Now, on the surface, this looks like an acquisition, but I think it's a little deeper than that. In my view, this is a signal.

13:37 Podcasting is entering a new era. It's what we call the ecosystem error. And what makes this really powerful is who's at the center of this. Now, this is Hall of Famer Dave Jackson. I'm happy to say that Dave is a friend of mine, and it brings me a lot of great honor to have him here on the show today. Dave. So thank you so much for joining us today. Oh, always happy to talk podcast. You don't have to, you know, twist my arm too hard or talk about yourself. Well, enough about me. How's it go? Enough about me, let's talk about you. What do you think about me? Exactly. Dave, I wanted to start, when you look at this move and you know and I've been working with you a little bit on the business side of things too, is this just a business decision or is this the beginning of a completely different model of podcasting growth in your view?

14:26 It is. That's a great question. It solves 2 purposes. The first one is it I because at pod page I ask people when they leave, I'm like, why did you leave? And it's and I mean never Oh, I hate pod page, you guys suck. It's always I'm not podcasting anymore. That's it. That's the number one reason why people leave pod page is because they leave podcasting. So when Brendan asked me, he goes, I have a weird idea. He's like, and I don't know if this is offensive, he goes, but would you ever contemplate selling the school of podcasting? And I was like, never thought about it. Let's talk about it. And so part of this, I believe, is if I can help people stay podcasting because I listen to a really bad podcast yesterday where it started off, it had the title about such and such. And the first question was, so what's your favorite song? And I was like, what, what does that have to do with the, the topic?

15:26 And they went on quite a bit about it. And I was like, OK, so if I can tell someone, hey, you know, when you have a, a topic in the title, you like get to that you, you have a much better chance of getting people to listen to your show. If you have get people to listen to your show, then you're going to feel like you're successful and then you don't quit. And if you don't quit, then you'd keep your pod page account. So I think that's two things that are are going on. And then the other thing that made me go, yeah, I'm going to do this is Pod Page is not Brendan's first business. He's had. He was in the music business for a while, which I think is another reason why we click. He's had all sorts of different things and they've all been really successful. And then he usually sells them off. And that is not the plan here, by the way, with Pod Page. But I was like, here's a guy that's like, been there, done that.

16:14 So let's let's let him drive for a bit and we just click. I don't know. I'm I'm sitting here thinking, just to let you know, the the head of a podcaster. I'm now going. What was Ralphs question? You just talked a lot. Did you answer the question? So because you you asked me, is this a new dawn of this? I mean, we see a lot, we see the riversides of the world that like, oh, we will do remote recording and now we're a host and we will wash your car and we will do, you know, it's like, so some of that is good and some of that is bad. But in this case, I feel, and I said this in 2020, before I worked at Pod patch, I think it's just a magical tool.

16:57 And so it's it's I don't feel like he's bolting on the school of podcasting. He just saw it as a good mix. And when we talked he always said, well, like, what's whole? Like why isn't the school of podcasting like like he goes, you know, those in the know kind of know it. He goes, but why isn't it like the place? And I go, well, you know, I make part time income because it's a part time job. I work on it from, I don't know, 7 to 11. And I go, I do that five or six days a week, you know, and he's like, so I think that was the other thing. He's like, you know, this could be a lot bigger if this guy just had more time. So let's make the school of podcasting part of his day job. And I was like, so that was the other one that I was like, oh, this. I like that idea so.

17:40 I have a question for you as as a podcast industry business owner from one to another, I'm just curious, what was there any part of this that made the decision hard for you? Because I know it would be, even though there's some excitement and probably some financial aspect to it as well, I would still feel a little bit funny about relinquishing control of something that I've spent so much time building. So yeah, was there anything about that challenging for you? Yeah, yeah, It was not as challenging because I really trust Brendan. He and I are on the same page on I, I knew I was the right place when I first joined Pod page.

18:21 And you know, our whole thing is we make websites for people that aren't too nerdy, right? They don't want to learn how to code. So you are reaching out to people who aren't that nerdy and then you go, OK, and now configure your domain, which isn't that hard, but for some people they're like IP address, what you know, so we had a guy that was just struggling and I said, hey, can I just get this guy on Zoom? I go, I could fix him in like 2 minutes. I go instead we're going to do 20 back and forth and he's like, and let's see what happens. So I did and the customer was like, I can't believe I got a live person. This is amazing. So I told him that. He goes, OK, that's a thing. That's a thing now. He goes, now obviously you can't just do it at the drop of a hat. Let him schedule it.

19:05 So anytime we can do something to make the customer go, Oh my God, that's amazing. We like to do that where everybody else is putting AI between themselves and their customer. I kind of knew I was with the right guy and we're, we're very In Sync on how to treat the customer and how to listen to the customer and things like that. So when we came up with the kind of the, the paperwork of it, there was a lot of like this is what you're buying, You're getting this, you're getting this, you're getting this, but you're not getting this and you can't. And, and Dave still gets to be Dave and you know, all that kind of stuff to where we really figured out. And then the other thing we there is a clause like if this goes horribly wrong, how do we unravel it? Because the one thing we both said is we don't want to ruin what we have at pod page.

19:51 We have a great just set up there where, you know, he's the primary programmer. He still does some work and support, but I kind of do a lot of the everything else thing and we love that. We have a great relationship and connection. And so there is a part in there like in the event this goes horribly wrong, this is how we're going to unravel this and the money will go back and this and that. So we did that. But it the thing that makes me worried is back in the day I was the editor of the student newsletter at my college. And the problem was. I really liked being the editor of the student news. There's a lot of fun and it was creative. So scratching all those itches, the the problem was that given it wasn't getting me any closer to that degree and it just dawned on me.

20:37 I was like, I got to quit doing. I'll go back to being just a writer, but I can't do that. And so I handed it off to a guy that I knew. And the first thing he does is he changed the name of the newsletter. And it was like, oh, right to the heart, you know? And I was like, that's my baby. What are you doing with my baby? So I, I have that to know, like, hey, things are going to change a little bit. And some of them I will. But he's also smart enough to know, look, he's, he's like, oh, I have Dave. He's the guy that's been running a membership site for 20 years. Maybe I should listen to what he says. So it, it, am I nervous about it? Sure, but not as much. And especially as we, we just had a lot of talks of like, how's this going to work? How's that going to work?

21:19 And what if it doesn't work and things like that? So it's, it was it, it wasn't, It wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy. Right. Dave, I, I've been a member of the school podcasting since back in January. I think of 2024 now and I just want to say this publicly, Dave, you have been a huge impact on me. You have given me skills that I'm able to use today on today's show. So thank you. I want to say that publicly because you are a great mentor to me. My question for you though is as a member of the school podcasting, how does this impact that? What is that going to look like from the people who have already been working with you, the people who are already have that relationship? Like one of the things that I know I look forward to when it's not tax season is the lunch with Dave every Friday. What is the plan for for that kind of stuff, Dave? Is that going to pivot?

22:04 Is that going to change? What's that going to look like? This isn't meant in the next negative ways is what is that going to look like for the people who have already been involved? Yeah, that was one of the biggest things. There's like, look, we can't, you know, upset the apple cart for people who've already been paying. So the right now the only thing that's changed is we added a free tier. Now that free tier is nowhere close to what you get if you pay, but it's a funnel. And so if you're a paying member of the school of Podcasting, absolutely nothing changes because you have access to everything. That's kind of where we said this is the tier that gets everything, the people that are already paying. And then it was a matter of like, but we want a free tier. So what's that going to have? So for example, they get courses, but it's a little baby kind of like how to get started in podcasting course. Then, as you might imagine, a free course on how to learn pod page.

22:50 They get access to the community, but it's only one of the channels, which is just general podcasting. There's there's one in there on AI and monetization and statistics and a bunch of other channels, but they just get the one channel so they can come in and and chat a little bit. And then there's absolutely no coaching the the free people, because I offer one-on-one coaching. We do group coaching like Ralph talked about. There's no if you want Dave, you, you got a pony up for the, the thing. So if you're already a paying member, nothing. The only thing like yesterday I was like, holy cow, is I think we had 12 people sign up on the free account because of all the publicity and I make a video for every person to join. So every time I turned around, I was like, hey, thanks so much for yeah, so it was that.

23:33 So it's. Kind of like those Cameo videos. Well, it's funny because I now have to like show look, I have 10 fingers because people are like, what AI tool were you using to make that? And I go, no, that's me. Like that's actually, they're like really wow. And I'm like, yeah, that's I'm here to help. So I don't know how you prove that you're you're not AI. Now, do I need I yeah, because I could cut myself, but I'm like, no, that I could do that. And you know, nano banana or something. I was like, so I'm not sure how I'm going to do that of the hold of today's newspaper, but people go, what is that? I go, it's a newspaper, all. Right. Well, Dave, congratulations, This is really awesome news. I think it's great for the industry. Sounds like it's great for you too. So we are thrilled for you and you know, supporting you all along the way.

24:22 Thank you for being here and sharing a little of this. I know you're going to share a lot more later today. Do you want to share that with the group here? Yeah, today at 1:00 PM, I should have a link to this, but I don't. We are Brendan and I are basically holding a town hall to address all the questions. And there's some other things that Brendan is rolling out in terms of pricing that may actually make your price go down a little bit. So there's the tease of the morning, some other things. And just to let people know, like Ralph said, he's like, look, I'm, I'm a member like what's what's, what's happening, what's going on? So just to let everybody know what's going on in some more details on that at 1:00 PM today. Awesome. Thank you. Dave Jackson of podpage.com and I've shared my affiliate link here live on Clubhouse. I'll share in the show notes as well. Full disclosure, it is an affiliate link and I've been promoting Pod Page for a long time now, several years. And it's not just because I'm an affiliate, it's because I use it.

25:19 I have all of my clients or at least most of them using it as well. It is a fantastic service and it does make your life easier, especially if you are not one that codes. So yeah, check out Pod Page and use that affiliate link. If you sign up, that supports me a little bit while you're at it. And Dave, you are welcome to stick around for all the news. I know there's at least one story that you they have some thoughts on. It's that Apple podcast story. We will dig into that momentarily. Let's see here. First, let me share some what I call news bites. These are some stories that I think are important to share. I don't know whether or not they'll have a lot of conversation behind them, but if you have something you want to add, by all means, anyone here is welcome to do it.

26:06 This comes straight from Pod News. Their Monday Edition podcast Movement Evolutions, which hosted their event for the first time at South by Southwest, says that they're doing it there again next year. Brian Barletta says the event far exceeded our expectations. And he went on to say that showing up at South by Southwest with real talent, meaningful programming and new voices in the room is the new baseline. So more to come on podcast movement evolutions. Of course, their next big event is in September podcast movement in New York City. More from pod news. This is the story I I figured Dave may have a few thoughts on Apple podcast big push into video is making more headlines with a whole new wave of hosting platforms about to support its HLS video feature.

27:03 So Transistor Audio means Pod Beam, captivaterss.com, and Prodigy are all being added, joining a Cast, Omni Studio, Art 19, and Simplecast. That means most major podcast hosting companies will soon be able to deliver video to Apple Podcasts through, though I should say some notable holdouts still remain, including, not a surprise, Spotify for creators Megaphone, Spreaker, and Libsyn. Pod News confirmed yesterday, March 17th, that Buzz Sprout will support Apple's HLS video model as well. And Apple also shared that there are now 12 million episodes on Apple Podcast with chapters, helped in part by its AI generated chapters feature announced this past November. The company's appearance at podcast Movement Evolutions also marked the first time Apple has officially spoken at a podcast conference in North America.

28:02 I believe their first time doing it was at podcast show in London last year. As for when creators and listeners can expect Apple Podcasts video to roll out, it appears to be tied to iOS 26.4, which is expected early next month. One thing podcasters should keep in mind, video hosting will likely come with added costs. Thank you, Dave, your alarm. It's time to wake up, Dave. All right, so let's go to Ralph first. Ralph, you wanted to add something to this? Yeah, I just want to chime in here is the money guy on the show. What you just said at the end of that we all need to take note of video is going to be expensive.

28:48 You're hosting, companies are going to charge you more because they're going to have to store this. And here's the big part that people don't think about. They're going to have to store multiple versions of this. There are going to be different resolutions that Apple is requiring. That's why I understand from being inside this a little bit. So be rare. This is going to change your hosting costs. Dave Jackson said this all the time when we talk about AI, you know it's going to cost more. So as the as the money got on the show, I just want to bring everybody's attention to this. I think it's great, fantastic, outstanding. If you want to do it, do it, but just be prepared. I don't know what that's going to look like. My suspicion is my double or triple your hosting cost. When you look at what this cost to do this, it's not going to be cheap. Thank you, Ralph.

29:30 Yeah, Dave, what are your thoughts on that? That's what Ralph is talking about here. Is that something you think we should expect? And do you have any more insight on that? Well, I've I've always asked the question because I heard it and I was like, OK, well, First things first. Apple's done video since 2005. It wasn't this in chunks, but like it's not new and the other. So I'm like, OK, but I haven't heard a lot of broadcasters going, you know, I wish I could get Apple to do video in chunks. Never heard that. Never heard an audience member go, you know, I would love to watch video on Apple podcast if they delivered it in chunks. So I'm kind of like, who who is asking for this? And I forget it might have been the media roundtable, which is a one that's all about advertise. It's advertisers that are asking for this. And I, I get nervous when we make features for YouTube and for, you know, big companies and big advertisers, because that's not what built podcasting.

30:24 And I know a lot of people like, look, if we don't figure out advertising, podcasting is going to go away. And I was going no, no, no, if we don't figure out advertising, you go away. And I don't want you to go away. But I, so I'm not super excited. We could end up having a lot of companies build technology that never gets used, you know, but I know, you know, it is made for advertising and, you know, YouTube has made a model of annoying your audience so much that they eventually just go take my money. And I hope that's not where we're headed because you're going to have to probably do that to a certain extent, to Ralph's point, to pay for the fact that you're now paying. Because look, I'm, I'm surprised that Libsyn is not on the board because Libsyn and Blueberry weren't one of the first two companies that would host video. But again, it's, it's a different technology that is delivered.

31:15 And I'm going to be interested to see what that is because we might all be going, oh, Apple video and then they go and it's only X amount a month more and then we're going to go, okay, Youtubes fine for me. So I'll be interested to see, but I'm I'm not overly excited because I don't do a lot of it. I advertise my own stuff on my show, so I'm not that excited. But Dave, aren't you also interested in the, the Apple income side of this, how they're going to charge for that dynamic in installation? Because I thought it's interesting and it's little, it's been a little nuanced. Are they going to do it on the audio side for those in those ads as well? Because I heard some scuttlebutt the other day that what they're actually going to do is when you put your video up there, they're going to use the video as the audio feed. If they do that, are they going to to then start charging for those dynamic insertions, even on the audio side? I think that may be a play where Apple's trying to get some money from YouTube.

32:07 Yeah, that could be. I know. I was kind of bummed to hear that because when I do my live show on Saturday, I don't edit the video Once it's on YouTube, it's there. And I don't want to lose all the stats that I've gotten from the 1st 90 minutes. And so the audio version is a lot different. There's a lot of less umms in that and things like that. So when I heard when people go, oh, give me the audio, they're going to get the video. I was like, oh, I don't, is there a way I can turn that off and have them go to my actual audio file? But I do like the fact. And of course, it hasn't come out yet what they're going to charge when they actually display your ad, Apple's going to go and we'll take some of that. And they haven't said how much that is. And So what I like about that is that might stop people from just going just stick in any you want.

32:53 That's fine. They might actually think about it and make sure that the ad fits the audience. So that part I like about it, that I'm like, oh, OK, you, you actually, it's going to cost you money to put ads in your, your show. That might make people think about, well, what ad am I putting in there? Because I need to make some of this money back. So that's one part I do like about it. Yeah, and Dave, you know Spotify, they have their own system as far as uploading video podcasts. And I know you don't like that term necessarily, but here we are. And I know that Spotify you also, is it? Well, let me just ask it this way. Apple, are we going to have to upload 2 separate shows? Do you know?

33:33 I mean, obviously this hasn't been completely rolled out, so this might be just speculation, but do we have to upload a video version and an audio version to Apple Podcast as far as you know? It's one of those things where I think it's going to depend, you know, the the traditional podcast answer, it depends because if I want people to listen to the audio version that I've edited, I might have, you know, my show audio version. And then I mean, this is what people have done for years. Like Todd Cochran over at the new media show had new media show parentheses video version. So my whole thing is if I've got to upload it here to go to Apple and I've got to upload the video over here to go to Spotify and I've got to upload the video over here to go to YouTube, I'm like, This is why we have RSS feeds.

34:22 You upload it in one place and it syndicates all these other places and I just kind of go, aren't we kind of going the wrong way with this? But. It's yeah, it does feel more complicated this way. All right, well, we'll see more to come on this story. We'll see how this all unfolds, I guess, as soon as next month. So stay tuned for that. OK, some other news for you. This is regarding ads on podcast. A tiny ad budget shifts to podcasts delivered a big reach jump. Let me just explain. Edison Research says a real world media plan showed that moving just 5% of an ad budget from TV into podcasts boosted campaign reach by 41% without spending an extra dollar for podcasters. That's another strong signal that podcasts aren't an add on anymore.

35:17 They're becoming a smarter piece of the ad mix. So to share a little bit more, the original campaign targeted the in This study specifically targeted adults 18 to 54 and put 100% of the budget into television, split between 87% broadcast TV and 13% cable. That plan delivered a 39% reach after shifting just 5% of that total spend into podcasts. The campaign reach rose from 39% to 55%, which Edison describes as a 41% lift. Edison says that the change helped the brand reach 26,000,000 additional people while keeping the same total budget.

36:07 The broader messages that podcast can improve media efficiency, not just add impressions. In this example, they helped expand who the campaign actually reached. So and by the way, more to come on podcast advertising and just how powerful they can be later on the show. But first, Ralph, did you have a question? No, I just want to make a comment here. What this proves to me is that people trust podcasters and they don't trust TV. Let's not lose sight of that because that's a big deal. And but, but there's the other side to that. The other side of that is make sure if you're advertising on your show, have advertisements and things that you're promoting that you actually use, that you support.

36:48 Don't just let them be any Willy nilly stuff you throw on your show. This just proves that the needle moves. So, you know, don't lose your credibility by promoting something that you don't want to promote on your show just to make a few CPM bucks in the race to the bottom. Yeah. Thank you. Ralph gave, I saw you agreeing. Did you want to add on and? No pressure, just. Yeah, just exactly what Ralph said. The other thing, and this is kind of without getting on my soapbox, I love reports like this. But now, of course, my back scratcher is a podcast. So when they say podcasts are going up, I'm like, OK, now does that include YouTube? Like when you say pod like so.

37:29 And that's also why I get annoyed when people say YouTube is a podcast because that reputation you just heard about was built on audio podcast. And I think that's why YouTube is doing that. They're like, wow, if you're a podcast, you're really trusted. Guess what? Everyone on YouTube is a podcast. And I'm like, oh, here we go. So that's a great stat. That's a great report. I love Edison Research, and I tell this to people all the time. Like go grab that and put it in your media kit when you're trying to get a sponsor on the show. Go look, they trust me. And my buddy Glenn Hebert at the Horse Radio Network has turned down products that were for horse people, but he makes them, send them the product and he uses it and goes. And I don't think so he's, you know, technically leaving money on the table because when you say this back scratcher is the best back scratcher on the market and somebody gets it the first time they scratch their back, it falls apart. Your your word is worthless now.

38:22 So exactly credibility. So. So don't don't sell out your credibility. Yeah. And I love your point about, you know, this kind of information that we often share on Wednesdays. This is great stuff to, like you said, put in your media kits and when you're trying to pitch sponsors, showing them this evidence that it works is really valuable and I think it can go a long way. So yeah, great point on that, Dave. Let's see. I'm Speaking of YouTube, by the way. DRI think you have the next story here about YouTube. Yeah, shocker. But YouTube is pushing harder to make money from podcast content. What? Shocking. So advertisers will now be able to target audiences by category, including Sports, News, comedy, true crime, and society and culture. The goal is to give brands more control over who they reach. YouTube says it's leaning further into being the main home for video podcasts, pointing to over 1 billion monthly users, Billion with AB, by the way, monthly users and more than 100 million hours of podcast content watched daily. Thank you, Dr. And you know, we might as well keep it moving with the next headline about Spotify. Go for it.

39:49 Spotify let's listeners play, DJ play. What could possibly go wrong here? So Spotify is testing a new feature that let's listeners influence music recommendations tied to podcasts. So not only podcasts, but audio books and music. Instead of passive listening, users can now signal. What they want more or less of on their Spotify homepage, shaping the music experience around the shows that they follow. This pushes Spotify further into personalized audio ecosystems, ecosystems, ecosystems, ecosystems. I hate words in the morning.

40:30 OK? Where listener behavior directly impacts these impacts what gets served next for creators. It hints at a future where audience data does not just inform content, it actively molds it in real time. So the highlighted points of this is the features currently in a testing phase now and not widely rolled out. Listener input directly feeds Spotify's recommendation algorithm. The tool focuses on music tied to podcast listening habits, and this builds on Spotify's larger push towards interactive listening experiences.

41:14 Thank you, DRD. Dave has something. Go ahead, Dave. Yeah, it's just, it's kind of not new, but it's there's, it used to be you could go into your stats in Spotify and at the very bottom it would say here are your favorite artists of your audience 'cause I remember mine was like Ed Sheeran and like Slipknot. And I'm like 2 completely opposite people. So and they, I don't know when that went away, but it's not there anymore. But to me it sounds like that's what they're trying to do. It's like, oh, people that listen to this, you know, show like this artist. So let's put that artist out in front of them to get them to click play. So that's interesting. Yeah, it is. And also it reminds me a little bit of what Instagram announced not too long ago where we can kind of create our own algorithm, see the kinds of things in our feed that we request to see as opposed to it just being served to us. I think that's what this is talking about as well, where you can curate your homepage on Spotify. So yeah, Dr., go ahead.

42:13 What's not clear to me is, does my show have to be hosted by Spotify in order to take advantage of this? I don't think so. I think you can go in and manipulate that, but I do think you have to be a Spotify user to do that, I believe, but I don't quote me on that. I'm not 100% sure on that. We'll have to dig into that further. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Let's see here before we go to Ralph. I want to go to BC because BC has some entertainment news and possibly some other stuff too. BC good morning to you. We haven't really talked to you yet this morning. What do you got for us? Good morning guys.

42:54 I got some cool, a couple of nice celebrity ones, but I also have a possible features one, but I don't know if we've covered it previously. So it's in the chat. Let me know. First coming up is celebrity superstar drag superstars Trixie Mattel and Katya Zabolojakova have extended their previously announced spring run of their live show The Bald and the Beautiful, adding additional 9 dates for a fall run. The new dates include stops in Oakland, Denver, Washington DC, Newark, Brooklyn, Minneapolis, Detroit, Dallas, and Orlando. Additionally, $1.00 per ticket supports the Trevor Project and LGBTQ youth in crisis.

43:35 Love Trixie and Katya, they definitely take up a solid portion of my algorithm and they always bring me a really good, much needed cackle in the morning when I find myself a bit down in the dumps. Next bit of celebrity news, and this is kind of bringing to light a not new phenomena with YouTube, but we'll get into that. So YouTube has banned an episode of the Omnibus podcast hosted by Jeopardy host Ken Jennings and John Roderick. And it was flagged and effectively banned for quote, hate speech. Now, the episode is not new. It aired back in 2019. Now the focus was that it discussed and debunked an anti-Semitic conspiracy text.

44:18 And despite the fact that it was aimed to be educational, YouTube's system still flagged it. Now, as a result result, the channel has been restricted from posting content temporarily until June, which will probably annihilate their algorithm for the most part. Now, they did submit an appeal for this ban and it was projected within hours with no detailed explanation. Now, the reason this happened? Few things here. It's definitely an AI moderation misfire. The context was not considered at all within the appeals and education here was essentially caught in the crossfire because of AIS mishap. O this is not a new thing with YouTube. There have been major creators on the platform for the past several years that was spoken about how weird moderation occurs within the platform where channels are being audited randomly.

45:14 And if they find content from the past that happens to go against current policies, even if the policies didn't exist back then, they will flag the content and strike the channels. And so I think this is kind of a big potential issue for not just podcasters, but also all all creators on the platform, because this is definitely a weird kind of gatekeeping move for YouTube. And if AI moderation here is not able to or unwilling to consider the context of something, then it can pose a lot of risks for many different storytellers depending on the kind of content they cover.

45:54 And when you consider the fact that a lot of the major shows kind of go towards whether or not it's, you know, true crime or, you know, kind of hot topics and conspiracy theory this or that, it could pose a lot of, you know, potential issues to livelihoods, to revenue, to businesses. So, you know, a lot of concern there. And I, I can dive further into that if we have time, but do we know whether or not we're good on the whole? That I do know that Ralph has something he wanted to add in. Yeah, I just want to add, listen, I've talked about this on the show before. You're playing in their environment and you got to realize that. Look, as the money guy, I'm very cautious when I work with creators. I mean, yeah, it's your money, but it's not your money. And be very, very careful about this because if the AI goes haywire, they can wipe your livelihood out in about 3 seconds.

46:46 I see it on my faith channels where they throttle what I can put out. I can't even pay them to advertise sometimes. If my title says anything that they consider wonky in any way, share form. So just be aware you're playing in their environment and you are going to play by their rules. And if you don't play by their rules, they're going to yank the rug out from underneath of you and you may be living a lifestyle that you can't afford anymore because you've been banking on that YouTube money. So I just, I think we all need to be aware of that. I'm a proponent of Rumble. That's another option Dave Jackson put in the chat. You know, if they had an RSS feed, that couldn't happen. And so maybe this whole move to video on Apple is actually a way to prevent this, because then it's getting distributed to Apple on RSS feeds.

47:30 I guess until now, here's the thing we haven't talked about, But with video coming in, is Apple going to be putting AI bots out there to look at what's going out on video? I think they're going to have to, because if they don't, who knows what's going to happen. I think Dave wanted to say something. Or the problem with video is there's this little thing, you may have heard of it, called porn that. Yeah, and from understand it's this stuff and you don't want your kid. Yeah. So that's the problem with when you open them up the doors to video. Yeah, that that there are people that are going to promote their product, you know, come to our naughty little site, you know, and so that's that's you know what, we'll see what happens.

48:11 But yeah, for me, exactly what Ralph said, and I'm sure BC that it's somewhere in that report it says, and they let them know three months in advance. No, they did not. It was like, right, yeah, you're gone. So you're gone. And The funny thing is to both Daves and Ralphs point, we have seen channels with long standing content with millions of subscribers and then and with that and who knows how much money and revenue get fully shut down because of this weird mishap and moderation. And again to to point this out, this is not new content that's currently going against current policies. These are often times channels with older content that are being audited. So AI is finding this old content that happens to not agree with what the policies are now. Those policies may not have existed back when that content was made, so therefore it wasn't an issue back then. And in some cases channels have even already taken it down that older content that would not have worked with the current policies.

49:13 But thing is with YouTube, you may take something down from the front end, but there's a back end that YouTube still has access to, and it has a copy of that content still anyway. And it will audit that content even though you've done what you can to remove it from public access. And it will still audit that content. And if it doesn't work with current policies, boom, it's still a strike. Which I think is insane. Personally, I think Dr. had something. Go ahead, Dr. Well, the other side of this story is that they're messing with my Ken Jennings. And damn it, don't you mess with my. Bottom line. Jennings I I love him and I want to marry him when I grow up. I mean, he is, he is so great.

49:58 I play Twisted Jeopardy every Friday with my husband and he plays an integral part in my life. So don't. I want you to quickly Dr. share what that how that game works that you play with. Your well, it starts with a couple of cocktails. That's where the twisted part is. And we sit and we watch a week's full of Jeopardy and we yell back at the screen. We think we're hilarious. I think that's a podcast right there. That's right. I'm ready to book us in the Catskills. I mean, we are so great. It's like Mystery Science theater for Jeopardy. Yes, it is exactly. Yeah, I love it.

50:38 VC. Anything else, I don't know. You can just go ahead and maybe someone stop us if we've already talked about this. All right, so some good new platform feature news. Rebel Audio has launched its brand new AI powered podcasting platform. This was announced during the South by Southwest Film and television festival. It's positioning itself as the Canva of podcasting, which kind of has my ears peaked at the moment. And also some notable news here that Survivor and Shark Tank TV producer Mark Burnett has joined on as an advisor. So the platform is positioning itself as an all in It's built for scale, not just creation, and it's introducing this kind of social audio positioning, which means faster creation cycles, more content output, easier sharing across platforms, and lower barriers for entry. And the problem that this platform is trying to solve essentially is that a lot of tools today for podcasting are quote, too complex or too fragmented or too outdated. So what Rebel Audio is trying to do is remove a lot of those technical frictions, consolidate the tools and make podcasting more accessible for beginners.

52:05 Now this is kind of interesting because it's we're seeing this move of podcasting into what's kind of a Canva era. And by that I mean we're kind of seeing this redefinition of what creator skills means. So if AI handles editing, production and distribution, it does mean the differentiator becomes more about ideas, perspective and personality. But for me personally, as someone who knows how to do all the intricate, hard, hard things of podcasting from recording and post production and, you know, graphic design, all those things, I do kind of worry about, you know, seeing all this shifts into this Canva era of podcasting and what that could mean for those of us who have those technical skills to offer when they're being consolidated away by new platforms like this.

52:59 So open to thoughts of the of the class here. What do you all think? Go ahead, Ralph. Yeah, it's funny BC I got an e-mail yesterday. I shared this with Mark offline where a guy said he sent me an e-mail, just a cold e-mail, said, hey, I can put together a podcast for you. I will do everything for you. I'll do the content. I'll do the planning. I'll do it all. And I'm thinking, OK, well, where is Ralph in this? And this guy was serious. He says, give me a chance. I can do this for you. It'll be fantastic. Yeah, maybe not. Yeah, I've seen emails similar to that before. Dave Jackson's got something. Go ahead, Dave. Well, just on one hand, yes, podcasting takes always more time than you thought it does. But when I hear people talk about rapid fire podcast growth from the book, the Audience is listening by Tom Webster, there's a line in there where he says a lot of people talk about quantity over quality.

53:52 And he said with podcasting, it's only quality. And I'm like, to me, I'm like, look, you can do this and just spit out, you know, I'm like, yeah, that's not really the problem that there isn't enough content from you. It's that it's very OK. Yeah. I hear that. Thank you Dave and BC thank you as well. Appreciate you covering all those stories this morning. And I think this is a good place to say remember to come back tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern live on Clubhouse or any of those video platforms we're going to be celebrating podcasts on. All of us are going to come share a little bit about those charities, nonprofit organizations that we like to support and want to share with the community in case the community would be open and willing to support those causes as well.

54:43 I've shared a little bit about the cause that I'm supporting, the CMTA Charco Marie Tooth Disease. This is the association that is researching cures and supporting those who suffer from CMT. But we want to hear more about you and your charity, your nonprofit that you want to support. So we'll dig into all that tomorrow. And I want to find out why you support those causes because I think usually there's a story behind why we get up and start supporting a certain cause. And I want to learn yours as well. So bring that tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern. And remember, you can find out all the different ways to connect with us at Podcasting. Morning chat.com/joinus.

55:28 Thank you again to Dave Jackson for joining us. Congratulations again to you, Dave, for your merger with Pod Page. Really exciting stuff. Thank you for being here, Dave, and thank you to the rest of you as well. So until tomorrow, make it a great day everybody. Take care.