511. The Video Race Reshaping Podcast Hosting | Podcast News

0:05 Marc Ronick: Good morning Today is Wednesday, May the sixth, 2026 and today it's our news and comment episode, diving into hosting platforms, making video podcasting unavoidable. Amazon strange audio experiment and the growing demands of full blown creator businesses. So if you're listening live on clubhouse, hit the share button, top right hand side of the screen and share it And if you're catching us via share this episode with a fellow And now give us about 30 seconds, and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here.

0:52 The podcasting morning chat is podcasters launch polish and creator's accountant helping behind their content. Good morning again, podcasting morning show. I said it right this time. Thank you for being here. I am your host, Mark ronick, and currently on stage with me. We have DR Fay, Ralph Estep, Sid meadows and Alex Ballish. We'll see who else we hear from as far as the casting crew goes.

1:38 And if you want to learn more about them, just go to podcasting, morning show.com/people and yes, today we are digging into the news. First, I want to share with you a couple of little things going on here with the show. Thursday. seventh we're going to be doing our evaluation series. So how does that work? If you want honest, helpful feedback for your podcast, we do this roughly. Every other Thursday, we review a real show from our community with the goal of helping the podcasters grow and helping everyone listening learn from that. This week, we're evaluating the loud, quiet, a podcast about empty nest living, hosted by Rick and Clancy Denton.

2:26 They are empowered podcasting community members, and I know Rick listens regularly here, on or at or with or to, I don't know what the right word is, the podcasting morning show. Thank you for listening so much, Rick. And if you want your podcast evaluated, all you got to do is go to podcasting, morning you want to listen to the full quiet, just go to podcasting. Again, podcasting, morning worry if you don't have time to catch that episode.

3:06 We play clips from the show, and we talk about those clips and put it all into context for you, so you'll be able to follow along along either way. But we encourage you to listen, just because, you know, it's a community member show, and I think it'll give you even more to chew on when we do our evaluation this Thursday. Okay, let's dive in to today's news. I think we got to all the housekeeping. So the way I like to do it, if you've been listening for any period of time, you know, we start this with some podcast data. This is as of yesterday, may the fifth, and it comes from the podcasting Business Journal. And what they say about these particular numbers, this is about act the current number of active podcasts. And what they say here on their website is it's a helpful number to understand the amount of podcasts being created. And while they're actually what they're saying is that a helpful number to understand the amount of podcasts being created is the total number of quote unquote active podcasts. These are podcasts that still are being updated and therefore actively marketing themselves. If you're making podcasts, you probably want to consider this to be your quote, unquote competition number, rather than the big number above.

4:23 By the way, I'm going to bring in BC babbles on the video here. Oh, he's also on clubhouse, cool. So welcome to BC. So let me give you the numbers. The total podcasts that were updated over the past week were 203,900 nice even or round number, I should say that's up 4.4% from the previous week. And also, as far as over the past 30 days, the total podcasts that actually updated is 372,081 which is also up almost 3% 2.9% from the previous month. So again, this is a good thing to know. You know, I was just on threads the other day, and I saw somebody post something about how they really want to start a podcast, but they just feel like it's oversaturated and they oversaturated. I just gave you that number this past week, only 203 204,000 podcasts actually updated with a we think about a lot of people will start a band in music, or they'll start a YouTube channel and not think anything of the millions and probably billions of others that are doing the same thing. But for some reason, with podcasts, they feel like, oh, there's it's just another podcast. I can't do.

5:45 I can't be another one of It's just not true. There's not nearly as many as we think about all the AI podcasts that probably make up a good portion of that number. So Authenticity will win the day. Marc Ronick: That is true. That is true, yes. And even still, those numbers, even before AI started infiltrating things, they were pretty lopsided. In that regard, lots of numbered, lots of podcasts out there, but not nearly as many are actually actively updating. All right, let's go to you DR with your two top five lists. D.R. Fay: Okay, so these two lists are both of both kind of random. The first one is good pods, best podcast for ADHD and a u, d, H D, Marc Ronick: odd h d for D.R. Fay: That's right.

6:39 So number five is embracing intensity. Number four is a, U D, H, D, flourishing, odd, odd, D, H, D, flourishing, okay. A, U D, H D, number two is, I have ADHD. And number one is, I'm busy being awesome, sustainable productivity for ADHD. Marc Ronick: The only one that I I have ADHD podcast, and yeah, the others, I don't know, and I'm sad. I want to get a couple of my clients in this top five here. I have a client.

7:21 Brooke schnittman, successful with two L's, successful with ADHD. And then a new client, Patrick casal, who he actually has, or was diagnosed with odd HD a while back. And he is he's doing super well in all different areas of his business, including his podcast, but we're doing a rebrand. He hired me to help him rebrand his podcast, which originally was called all things private practice, which really does has nothing to do with his podcast. So we are doing a full rebrand so that the title, the show, etc, speaks to his target audience. D.R. Fay: So anyway, that's the list. Marc Ronick: That's right.

8:01 D.R. Fay: So let's see a random chart. Number two the top YouTube podcasts. Now, when it comes to YouTube, they're always like two weeks behind. So this is like April 20 through April 26 Okay, so number five is Smosh reads, Reddit stories. Number four is good, mythical morning with Rhett and Link number three, haven't read this name on number three, the Joe Rogan experience. Number two, Doctor intensity podcast, and the number one podcast is the Midas touch podcast. Marc Ronick: Very nice, okay, and that is what you said. Specifically. What kind of list is that? Just the top YouTube podcasts.

8:43 YouTube podcasts, interesting. Okay, cool, that's a new one. We haven't done that one before. Thank you. Dr, appreciate you. Let's get into a couple, just a couple of events or things of interest to you, the podcaster, the content creator. First pod ground is back with its second creator micro grant. I don't know if we talked about their first one, so if we didn't, please forgive us. And this one is aimed directly at independent podcasters who need a little support to keep building. Two creators will receive $500 each to help with creative development, production or May the fourth and close may 15, Wasserman from rss.com I know I know Arielle nessenblatt from earbuds podcast collective, Claire wait Brown from podcasting 2.0 in practice.

9:42 And Gabe Burke from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and look, $500 isn't quit your job and build a podcast Empire kind of money, but for an indie podcaster, it can pay for lots of things. Maybe better cover art a short promotional campaign, equipment upgrades, or just a little breathing room to keep the show alive. That matters, because pod fade is still one of the biggest problems in podcasting. Pod ground says more than half of new podcasts don't make it past their third episode. I usually hear it's around eight, but that's okay. I think the point here is that single digits is usually all a podcaster can get to a newer podcaster can get to until they end up quitting. And this grant is a part of a bigger mission to help creators stay connected, supported and consistent. So if that's of interest to you, go to podground.io/grant dot io slash grant, and you can apply for your potential $500 grant.

10:47 Also, if you're new to this show or living under a rock empowered podcasting conference three is happening August, 21 through the 23rd in Charlotte, North Carolina. And if you're an indie or DIY podcaster who wants to connect, create and grow alongside people who truly get it. This is where you want to be. Come for the education, stay with new ideas, new for your podcast. So visit empowered podcasting.com to grab your tickets before May 15, because that's when tickets go up in price. So now's the time to do it all right? So yeah, so I'm trying to keep those events down a little bit. I just feel like sometimes we spend a little too much time on those.

11:35 So I just felt like that would be a better way to go. So with that, I'm stalling again, because when I am trying, whenever I want to find Ralph's business bite, I never can find it. So Ralph, you want to hit it for me. Quick tip, smart move. Content creators business bite. And today's business bite is brought to you by Ralph Estep Jr of content creators accountant.com Ralph is a licensed accountant with over 30 bookkeeping and the money side of their business with more clarity and a whole lot less stress.

12:15 He's also my accountant, and I'm happy to recommend him to you. You can learn more again at content creators. Accountant.com, all right, Ralph, what are we diving into Ralph Estep Jr: Well, thank you, business bite is all about into a little bit of why making content is not the same as building a business. Now, I actually decided to write a blog post about this after the money Monday show, we'll put a link to that out in the show notes. We were talking about creators and how so many people are making content right now. But after the show, I kept thinking about it, and I said, There's got to be more. I got to offer more. I felt like the conversation needed to go a little deeper, so Blog article, let me say that three times to expand on it, because here's the thing, the creator economy is growing fast. We read about this almost every day.

13:07 through this space. But just because the industry is growing doesn't mean every creator is actually making money or building something that can last. A lot of creators like we mentioned on Monday are focused on posting, focused on getting views, gaining followers, and staying active online, and listen, all those things matter, Your content gets people's attention, but what we need to step to is what happens after that. Do you have something to sell? Do you know who you're trying to help? Do you know how much money you're actually keeping after expenses from a real practical standpoint, do you know how much you're setting aside for taxes? have a plan for those slower This is the part a lot of people and especially content creators, miss. You can be busy every single day creating content and still not have a real business behind it.

13:58 You can have tons of followers and still not have steady income. And here's another thing, you can make money one month and still not know if you're actually profitable. So when I say creators need to build a business, I mean they need to structure behind what they're already doing. Have that clear offer. Know your numbers. Separate your business money from personal money. Hey, Dr, pay yourself. Save for taxes and build something that doesn't depend only on the algorithm. great, but views don't pay your bills. Followers are great, but followers are not the same as customers. So the real business news is this, the creators who last will be the ones who stop thinking only like creators and start thinking like business owners. And here's the question I want to leave you with, if your content stopped performing tomorrow, would you still have a business, or would you just have And that's today's business Marc Ronick: Thank you, Ralph Ralph, you called out, dr, because we had a behind the scenes conversation this morning.

15:05 Dr, you had suggested maybe an upcoming Money Monday topic. Did you want to share that? D.R. Fay: Yeah, I am always well to begin with. In 2025 I was commingling my stuff, and after listening to Ralph, I decided in 2026 I was going to stop. But now I'm faced with, what do I pay myself? Is there? How do I figure out the formula on how to pay myself? Right now I'm doing like 25% of whatever comes in, but I don't even, I just grabbed that out of thin air. I have no idea if that's right, and I thought that I would adjust from there.

15:48 So I don't know. Ralph Estep Jr: Great question, Dr and we are going to cover that on the very next Money Monday. I'll talk about, what I'm going to talk about, actually, is how to pay yourself first. That's what we're really going to talk about. And want to give you a whole model of how to make sure you're paying yourself first, because you matter. And that's what we'll talk about on the next Monday, Monday, which will be Monday a week from Monday. Marc Ronick: That's right, yes. And I would love to also know during that episode how we determine how much right, like, okay, pay ourselves first, but also trying to figure out to what Dr was talking to me about this morning. Yeah, how much is an appropriate amount? Amount? How do we figure that out? So, yeah, I'd love to do that too. give you the podcasting answer, Marc Ronick: awesome Ralph Estep Jr: depends. Marc Ronick: It depends.

16:32 Yes, yes, Ralph Estep Jr: just kidding, I'll give you, I'll give you a more clear answer on that. Marc Ronick: Awesome. All right, cool. So that's coming up a week from this Monday. Thank you, Ralph, thank you. Dr, for for that. I appreciate it. We're gonna keep things moving here. So let's get into a couple of news bytes you're gonna see a very common theme today in our news bytes section. Dr, tell us a little bit about what's going on with Buzzsprout. D.R. Fay: Okay, so buzz sprout has officially joined the podcast video train. Okay? out video distribution to Apple podcasts.

17:13 Their new video friendly plans start at $30 a month, or if you want to break you can pay it all at once annually, which is would even out to about $25 a month, and it includes up to six hours of uploads each month. They've also added a multi podcast plan for people like Ralph and transcript generation is included across all plans. However, Spotify video support is not there yet. Marc Ronick: Yep, thank you. Dr and I got some interesting stuff coming up here in a moment about Spotify video support. Stay tuned for that. But first, Libsyn also has officially joined the video train as of May. 1, all creators using Libsyn can publish and distribute video across Spotify. There you go, and YouTube with Apple podcasts rolling out, video publishing is now available across all Libsyn hosting plans and Spotify distribution functionality is available on plans starting at $25 per month. There's no wait list, no tier restrictions, no hand picking with which creators get access.

18:26 All existing Libsyn customers have access to video functionality with their current So if you are a Lipson user, there's nothing additional you have to pay for in order to take advantage of adding video to your podcast distribution and the pricing models all start at $8 per month, and they have different tiers from there. But again, you're paying that $8 a month or more, depending on that plan. Anyway, the video is just coming with it, and I think this is a major shift from how other platforms have been so far Gatekeeping The video features. And I know gatekeeping kind of makes it sound negative, but I do understand why they're doing it that way. They're rolling it out for one, they want to kind of do it slowly, right?

19:16 And also, there's a lot to this whole video thing, so I think that they're just taking Lipson. Lipson was able to do video distribution before this new way of doing it on Apple. Because, yes, we know there are lots of experts out there that like to tell us that video was always a thing on Apple, but it wasn't right. It was something available, but no one knew how to do it. It was very complicated for those that did. So this is the new answer from Apple. D.R. Fay: Didn't tell anyone. I mean, they didn't market it to anyone. Yeah, I want you to know something. Ralph Estep Jr: Yeah. I just want to give a shout out to in and around podcasting, the episode that was live this morning talks all about Captivate. And they get a real deep dive into Apple HLS. It's a great episode with Elsie, Mark Danny and Rob Walsh. So great episode.

20:09 They really dove deep into all of those dive deep sound like an AI guy. They really got into but they really got into it, and they said some really valuable things about the reality on the ground. So I would encourage everybody go check that out, because it really was, because I'm one this week, probably on are video. So for me, it's kind of a no brainer, but they really talked about the nuances of that. So I just wanted to interject that, Marc Ronick: yeah. And I you know, I appreciate what you're saying, Ralph. And I think yeah, for show or shows like yours, I think it is important or advantageous, I should say to Yeah, go ahead and take advantage and put those videos that you're already making on all the platforms that accept the video.

20:50 That makes a lot of sense. And I also don't think any of us have to do this if you are not a video first person. It doesn't mean now you've got to quickly rush to start becoming video it just doesn't. And I would argue that not a lot of people are even really people, meaning audiences are even really taking advantage of it on platforms like Apple and Spotify YouTube. Yes, go ahead. Dr, D.R. Fay: I got a question, so let's say you're on Lipson, and let's say you do have a video plus audio, and let's say you are manually putting in the video on YouTube. Do I need to also, well, not need. But since Libsyn also has this video thing, where does, where does that video go to I mean, if I was to submit it through Lipson, where are people seeing that video that I'm submitting to Libsyn?

21:48 Marc Ronick: Libsyn is saying from here you could get that Apple all in one shot. D.R. Fay: So I wouldn't have to any longer. Marc Ronick: That's the claim here. I have not tried it to see, but that is what they're saying here, that you can distribute video to YouTube directly using lit. Ralph Estep Jr: And I think going Captivate. Keeps alluding to that. They keep saying, well, we can't do it at this time. They're very clear about that. I think you're going to see an aggregation of a single point of entry that fans out everywhere, which is going to be great for creators, because I have a team now that somebody has to do this, and somebody has to do this, this should really streamline it.

22:31 But just the only caveat to that is, if you have a separate audio and video version, understand how that's going to play out, because just if they go, HLS, you're going to hear the audio of the video. I know it's confusing, but just be aware of that, because that is going to be impactful to some people. D.R. Fay: I wonder if you can pick and choose, because we do have for like my client, there is a separate I edit separately the audio and my video person So if I'm presented with all of these choices through Lipson, can I uncheck the YouTube box? Do you know what I'm saying?

23:12 And also, what about show notes? Is show notes also going over there too? Marc Ronick: Yeah, I think that would all transfer over, which does make it a little challenging, because, I mean, some people might argue that show notes or episodes or video descriptions should be formatted show notes, D.R. Fay: right? Marc Ronick: I've been I want to try at some point, I should say, to just go all in on the same descriptions, the same titles, and just try to optimize it for every platform. I think at some point that's got to be that's got to happen. At some point, I don't know it's just maybe it's more of a wishful thinking kind of thing than anything. But yeah, BC you had something BC Babbles: Yeah, to answer dr's be able to uncheck the YouTube It's been a few years since I was on Lipson, but I do recall back in the day when I was using that as a host that when I didn't for a little while, I was seeing a double up on my YouTube channel because I would do a separate YouTube manual upload. But then I had YouTube checked on Libsyn, so it sent the audio, a video version of the audio version up to the had to make sure that wasn't still be an option. D.R.

24:26 Fay: Okay, great. Thank you. Marc Ronick: Thank you. BC, thank you to all of you for chiming in there. By the way, shout out to Ashley feller in the audience. Great to see you, Ashley. It's been a minute. We do miss you a lot, and like nice to see a lot of familiar faces here in the clubhouse audience. And John, actually in the audience, said in the chat, I'm making a prediction Apple podcast video will be a huge dud. I'm already tired of hearing about it. D.R. Fay: John, I love you. Mary me Marc Ronick: See, we'll see if it's going to be a huge dud. I mean, the big things is we got understand that it's available interested in using it. I feel like we've, we saying that we've rushed on video. It feels a little weird to say, but I think that the video stuff is really being made more for creators than it is for audiences, right?

25:23 I just feel like it's being pushed on us a lot. And yeah. Go ahead. Sid Meadows: Actually, I have a question, okay? Because I'm not, I don't listen to podcasts on Spotify, because I'm Apple, right? But I'm curious is like, how many of you here watch a podcast on Spotify, or would watch a podcast on Apple? D.R. Fay: Neither one Marc Ronick: I would say, Dr, saying nope, and I, I would say, No, I don't really. I mean, I've done it maybe just to see how it works, but I tend to just listen to the audio, and I see Meredith in the chat. Says she does. She watches video podcasting on Spotify. Sid Meadows: I'm just really curious what the experience is like and watching it.

26:08 Because, I mean, when you have a device, right, and lot of us are doing things while we're listening to podcasts, which is also why I don't watch on YouTube, because that means I have to hold my phone best in the horizontal position. I can't be I can't be on my morning walk and, you know, listen or watch a podcast. the experience here, because, as additional expense into your business. Yeah, because it's not just what the hosting cost is going to be, basis for her, if we were going to go do this? Because obviously Apple's platform is completely different than what Spotify is, you know, video platform is, so it means extra work for us if we And so I'm in my mind, trying to think about, what is the cost benefit here to doing it? Is it going to get me more listeners that so there's, I don't think there's enough data, at least that I haven't done a lot of research.

27:04 I don't know that there's enough data to prove to me that I absolutely need to upload a video on Apple or Spotify when I Marc Ronick: Yeah, I think Sid, yeah, if we're going to jump into something like that, we got to make sure it's going to be worth the time and money that it takes to make a video podcast, I'm with you, and Meredith says in the chat, it's great on Spotify, because you can more easily Rewind and Fast Forward with more accuracy. So that's an interesting take. D.R. Fay: So I've got a question to piggyback on to Sid. So he asked, Who watches video on YouTube? Who watches video on Spotify? Now I'm going to ask, who watches video, who watches podcasts on Netflix?

27:52 Marc Ronick: I do not. I've seen the section, but I don't really engage with it much. D.R. Fay: BC, does, Marc Ronick: oh, BC, you want to chime in. How is that experience? BC Babbles: So far, I've just podcast, and I've enjoyed it a You know? I'm a complete sucker for bridgerton, so it's been great for that. I haven't explored the other ones, though. I haven't explored the how do we want to call them the Netflix exclusive podcasts that are like, not based off of a show, they are right, contracted to Netflix. I've not checked those out yet, so maybe that's a bit of a copy out there. Marc Ronick: Okay, D.R. Fay: now, I answered SIDS but as he was speaking, I what? I actually do watch one or two on YouTube, but they don't seem like a podcast to me.

28:39 I watch chewed up, which is kind of a continuation of a cooking show called chewed which was on ABC for a long time. Now, it's chewed up on YouTube, and I love it. They do it three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and when I'm chopping my vegetables on Saturday for Saturday night dinner, I'm seeing all three shows right there. So I actually do watch Marc Ronick: you do, but he was, but Sid was specific to Spotify and Apple, okay, yeah, because I YouTube, we assume that, we assume that people are going to be watching, or at least turning on the video. But yeah, he was curious about, you know, specific to Spotify and Apple.

29:24 think this is going to take off, because Apple is pushing this really strongly. On this morning, when I went to exercise, I looked at my YouTube or my apple podcast, and right center, watch this on video. Watch this on video. I mean, they are promoting it and promoting it. And I think for me, it's like, yeah, I'm exercising. I'm not watching it. But I clicked the video anyway, because if I wanted to see something and I had a break, I was like, why not? And like, Dave Campbell put in the in the chat. You know, the cool thing about this, and I disagree with John vehemently, I think this is The thing that I love about this is the is the ability to switch between audio and video. I. I think that's super cool. So that if you're in a position where you can't look at the video right now, you click one button and it changes. I tested it out the other day.

30:08 It works seamlessly. It works great. I actually think this is going to take off. Marc Ronick: Yeah, it's hard to say. I mean, I think, I think, most, more than likely, it will take off. But again, I think more consumers need to know about it. But like you said, Yeah, I mean, if Apple's really pushing it, that's a good thing. And more to come. We'll see where this goes from here, for sure. Now, I don't have my oops. palette cleanser. I don't have my whoosh quick on the ready. S I'll do that. But I do want to remind you that, if you'd like your podcast to be featured on the podcasting morning show for free, submit a 62nd clip about people a real feel for your If we select it, we'll play your clip on a future episode.

30:55 We'll share what stood out to us and introduce your show to our community of podcasters and creators submit your clip now at podcasting morning show.com/spotlight and I encourage you to actually do this more like a talking head type of video, or we'll say, or audio for that matter, but more so than just a clip from your show, because we want real context. We want to really understand what your show is about. And sometimes I think clips will only give us a little glimpse of what your show is about. I want to get more of the So I think you the host, sharing about the show, telling us who it's for, what problems does it solve? When can we find it? Etc.

31:36 That's what we want to hear. So podcasting, morning show.com/spotlight, and BC, did you have something? BC Babbles: Yeah, going back to the earlier point about whether or not this would be just a into the company for Apple, I'm curious as to whether or not this is meant to be a purely an additional element to the model, or is it meant to be a Because would not the smarter approach be swapping the earlier model out for one where anyone can only needs to concern themselves with uploading a video version of the to distribute out based on the platform access, so that no team, per se, your team, or dr's team, has to worry about doing audio and video version. They just upload an audio or video version, and the audio can be separated out for audio only or audio first platforms. Marc Ronick: Yeah.

32:34 What do you do, though, if you're not doing video like if you're a podcaster? So you just upload audio, that's okay. That makes sense. Yeah. So you basically, you're saying it would be cool that the platform just gives you the option, you pick and choose if you upload video, then it distributes it either as either or right, or if you just, if you just upload the audio file, then that speaks for itself, right? BC Babbles: Even now, lets you choose between even on music, to just listen to the song or pull up the music video, if there's available for it. Yep, absolutely, yeah. Well, we'll see. I do think at some point we change for for uploading, podcast More to come on that for Let's see. I'm just checking out the chat here I saw earlier that rocky asked a question that is one that I know we've debated here many times, and now I can't find where. Oh, I hate, okay, she she writes, what's the difference between podcast video and a YouTube talking head video, that can be a whole topic for sure.

33:45 Some may say there is no difference. Others will say there's a very strong difference. Especially, look, if it's a podcast, it's an RSS feed. That's what a lot of people like to hang their hat on. So it's an in mostly RSS But yeah, I can't go down that route right now, because we will derail the whole show. Ralph Estep Jr: Mark. Let me just interject something. By the way, on Friday we are going to have a special guest on the show. Rob Greenlee is going to join us. Oh, good. And Rob is going to get into this whole discussion of podcasting 2.0 HLS and all those sort of things. So make sure you join us on Friday for Rob Greenlee joining the show D.R. Fay: that is awesome.

34:26 Marc Ronick: Yeah, yeah. And Ralph, let's just real quick we can tease it a little bit. There was a little controversy with Rob and Rob by the way, just for those who may not know who rob Greenlee is, he is a 20 plus year podcaster. He is a Hall of Fame podcaster. He has a lot of influence in the especially in the indie space, yeah, and he, he caught a little heat recently, Ralph Estep Jr: yeah, my man, Rob got attacked. I think that's the best way to say it. Rob said something on his show, and, man, I reached out to mark, actually, yesterday, and said, you know. You should really talk to Rob, community, and Rob is one of the And man, they took him to the woodshed, and I think not in a fair way, and that's one of the reasons that I really wanted to have him on the show, because I want him to have an opportunity to speak about it. Because Rob is a very intelligent guy with a ton of experience, and he understands all of this, and to throw him out, like yesterday's garbage, in my opinion, was just not cool.

35:29 Marc Ronick: Do you have an idea what did he say that got everybody crazy? Ralph Estep Jr: What he said was about podcasting 2.0 and called it fringe. And that word fringe got everybody all fired up. And I understand that if I'm bought into the podcasting 2.0 thing, I totally get it, but Rob actually has posted something since then to explain what he was saying. But I just feel like, you know, it's not fair to just take one word and just go after a guy, got attacked on several felt like it was an opportunity for us to have him on the show to really talk about what he said and how he really feels, for podcasting. Oh yeah, this is a guy that deeply cares about podcasting, and we need to listen to him.

36:21 We just do. We Marc Ronick: Yeah, and I don't always agree with, at least I need to listen to him. didn't used to always agree with Rob's, but I do respect the heck out of Rob. And, yeah, like you said, he's very passionate about this, and he's passionate about seeing podcasters succeed. And yeah, I'm very curious to get his perspective on that little controversy. Maybe not so little, depending on your perspective. But yeah, feel bad for him. And great idea. I'm glad that you suggested it, Ralph, and I'm glad that he'll be here on Friday. So stay tuned Friday, 8am Eastern, if you want to join us, live podcasting, morning show.com/join, us. Okay, just keeping it moving real quick, another player in this video podcasting game prodigee.

37:08 They are also adding video YouTube and Spotify, and I think to, because, you know, video is now on with them anyway, is included across every podcast they're the first to support I think they beat Libsyn to that, but now I think they both do it, so they can't really claim that anymore to all three major platforms at every pricing tier. So they also told, by the way, told pod news recently that they're still looking into alternate, alternate, alternate. Words are hard in the morning. Yeah, where's that one?

37:49 Ralph, coffee's hot. Brain is not mouth says, morning. Guess I forgot words are hard in the morning. Did I say that out loud? They also told pod news recently that they're still looking into alternate enclosure support long term. That could mean video showing up in other open podcast apps too. Dr, we heard from a listener that I thought this would be worth a news bite. Share it, please. D.R. Fay: Yeah. So this was sent in from regular listeners. Steven Cofer, I believe that's how you pronounce his name. Cofer, is that right? Yeah, okay, okay, this was sent in to mark, and it's about Patreon.

38:31 Quips is a short term, I'm Words are Oh, Marc Ronick: do we have to do it again? D.R. Fay: Okay?Mouth says, glory. Guess I forgot. Words are hard in the morning. Did I say that? Okay, short form posts that let creators preview paid content to people who don't yet support them. It's essentially a recommendation feed like tick tocks for you page, except it's designed to send people elsewhere rather than keep them scrolling. The platform is rolling out discovery features to 300,000 creators and nearly 80 million fans, finally giving Patreon users a way to find existed. Unlike social media platforms chasing engagement metrics, Patreon is betting that helping people find the right creators is better business than Patreon, Marc Ronick: yeah, I think that's a cool idea, right? Because it's the type of content horizontal video content like, I think that's a great idea.

39:47 And, yeah, it's basically keeping people within the platform and introducing new, well, new to you, communities on the platform. I think that's a very cool feature. Looking forward to seeing more of that. I. Yeah, let's get into some headlines in the news. Amazon just turned product reviews into mini AI podcasts. Amazon's testing a new AI powered feature that turns product pages into short conversational audio segments, complete with two synthetic hosts talking through product details, customer reviews and shopper questions. I'm looking at this similarly to Google's notebook LM, right, where you can feed it a lot of information, and then you get the two AI hosts talking conversationally about whatever that content is. Well, this is specific to the product that you're on Amazon. It's weird, clever, and also a pretty big clue about where audio may be headed, next, everywhere, even next to a toilet brush.

40:55 Amazon's new feature creates short AI generated audio podcasts for certain products designed to help shoppers understand items without reading through long descriptions and reviews. The tool is powered by Amazon bedrock, which is Amazon's platform for building and scaling generative AI applications. Business Insider's take is pretty skeptical, calling it the world's least necessary product, while still acknowledging that audio could Shoppers who'd rather listen than read the early version does have limits. It doesn't work on every product, and some answers reportedly lack real depth when shoppers ask more specific comparison style questions D.R.

41:41 Fay: like none. Go ahead, no products. When I first saw this story yesterday, I'm on Amazon probably every single day. And I have not I know Ralph. Look at Ralph's go, Oh my God, that's where the money's going. So and I looked specifically for this little feature that they have in a lot of different genres, and I could not find it. I even took the story, even had, like an example, and I took the product that they had in the example, and I put it into Amazon, and I still didn't find it. So it's a slow roll. Marc Ronick: Yeah, it's a brand new feature. And, yeah, they have admitted that it's still, they're still working on it, but interesting, right? Like, is this a smart use of AI podcasting? You know, Ralph brought this up earlier. How much AI is infiltrating podcasting? Is this a better use of AI because now they're building it into specifically their products. And yeah, we can listen to some couple of quote, unquote people talking about a product. So Ralph, what are your thoughts? Ralph Estep Jr: Yeah, but here's Like, oh, Travis said you should buy this product.

42:58 But you know damn well, Travis is not a human being, that's my concern. And so I don't see Billy in here today, but like Billy does a lot of product videos, and I would think this is going to go right after him, and maybe Amazon's looking at it like, well, we can pay Billy, or we can pay nothing, and that may be technology is there. I just don't know if people are willing to embrace that. Funny something Dave Jackson said on his show a little while ago, he was listening to one of these llms, and the person was talking about losing their wallet, and Dave says, You didn't lose your wallet, you don't exist. You're fake. I just wonder, how many people are going to buy into that, or are we so naive that we're just going to listen to two people or one person talking When I look at the proliferation are listening to this stuff, so it must be working, Marc Ronick: yeah. And I, so I the way that the article reads, This isn't about replacing the Amazon influencers. This is about having a voice that you can listen to and interact with about the product itself, right?

44:07 Billy Thorpe does, Billy's persuade you to buy the product, I mean, that might not be the best use or the best choice of words, persuade, but you get the idea influence people to buy the product. And this is more informational, like I said, more like a Google notebook. Lm, Sid, you wanted to add something? Go ahead. Sid Meadows: Yeah. So what I heard you say is they're taking the reviews that have been put there by someone. Now, I think it's very probable that some of the reviews are AI generated reviews, or, you know, or owner related reviews. Maybe the business had five people go review it. But what I understand is they're going to take the reviews and they're going to put that in a audio format for you to click and listen to two AI voices to tell you about the reviews that have been left.

44:57 And I assume that means it's going to be the good and the bad. At as it relates to the reviews, certainly easier to listen to it if you're a seller on Amazon, certainly easier for people. If you shopper on Amazon, it's easier for you to listen to someone tell you really quickly in two minutes than it is for you to read. And a lot of times those reviews are hidden further down the screen, and you got to scroll down. And I think you also have to be very intentional about wanting to go see the or read the reviews, like you're really on the fence about buying this product. Let me go read the reviews. So I think this actually might help increase sales from the make it more accessible for reviews. So that's kind of what I think. But what I think.

45:37 But what Billy does is, I understand it's completely different, yeah, because there's like a video carousel inside of a where you're looking at something and you can click on videos could be from him or five other people, where they're demoing the product. They're not recommending it, they're demoing it, and they're telling you how it works. That's what I've watched a few of those. And then Billy gets paid if you click on his video and watch his video and then you buy that product, he gets paid a percentage of that and anything else from that time that you put in your cart. Marc Ronick: Yeah, thank you. Sid, I think that's a great way to put it. And yeah, I think it is built on, mostly on the reviews, but I think it also is built on the product information itself as well. But yeah, great points.

46:22 And I want to go to BC, who has something? And then, dr, go ahead. BC, BC Babbles: oh, I was just, well, I was gonna say earlier, when you announced this new feature, I just kind of sat here and thought to myself, What is a of time on the show, you know, with different features coming out, it pushes the boundaries of what is a definable podcast, or what, how do you define this or that? I feel so kind of like putting together reviews and little shebang is enough to call And this partially coming from my, you know, broadcasting background, learning the whole ship, and look learning the whole thing, and all the different skills and whatnot I've accrued over the past 15 years to establish and be a part of this world, and for that to be so overtly simplified and call it the same thing. It's like, what, what am I doing?

47:23 Well, why am I here? D.R. Fay: Agreed? Marc Ronick: You literally answered the question before I asked it. That was my next question. BC was, does calling this a podcast water down the meaning of podcasting, or is the format just evolving? And it's hard to say, really. And like I said, there are people out there that say if it is not on an RSS feed, it is not a podcast, so therefore calling in a podcast. And to those people, it's just completely false. BC Babbles: But also to Ralph's point, too, if they're if they don't have the nuance of a human You know, it's to his point about mentioning losing a wallet. You're not real. You don't got no wallet, you don't got no ID.

48:03 Your ideas is ones and zeros beyond that, I don't know you. What experience do you have? Yeah, that's very true. You can claim it, but it ain't there. How about this? That's my cat for the morning. You're welcome. Free, premium content coming in hot. Marc Ronick: Yes, he is and Gabe And Gabe says that this is a waste of AI. He goes on to say, I think many people are so unsure about a product and will trust the AI Yeah, that's certainly possible. Dr, what did you want to add as the final word here? D.R. Fay: Okay, so one of the things that I'm hoping that they include in this thing, we're not Amazon, I have been contacted before about a product that I have purchased.

49:01 big world is asking a specific contacted me to see if I know So I'm hoping that Amazon will include those questions. It would sound something like, Hey, John Smith wants to know if this cat fountain, how durable is it? You know, how long have you had it? Is it? Has it broken at all? And I think that would be beneficial. Marc Ronick: Yeah, absolutely. Very interesting. What Amazon's doing. We'll see if that holds any ground or not. Let's keep it moving. Dr with Gen Z doing something a little interesting. D.R.

49:45 Fay: Gen Z is buying old iPods because, well, they actually want to listen to music. Go figure. Okay. So not too long ago, we covered a story on younger generations buying old flip phones to become less. media. Now, a device nobody's made since 19 Well, since 2022 Marc Ronick: Say that again. Sorry, since when? Okay. Why are you laughing? D.R. Fay: Now, a device nobody's everywhere on eBay, Gen Z is reason is weirdly simple. They work offline.

50:29 No notifications popping up on mid song, no algorithms deciding what plays next, no ads. Some schools ban iPhones, but let students bring in iPods, since they're just music players used iPod prices are up 60% since 2023 and people are genuinely choosing a device that does one thing over a phone So Mark, would you actually use an old iPod, or would it feel too limiting? Right now, Marc Ronick: I think I would consider using it, especially for, like, road trips. I could see using it to listen to a podcast, listen to music, going to get those distractions.

51:17 You know, I don't know if some of you may have, like, Apple CarPlay, for example, I wouldn't have those notifications popping using it for certain instances. Yeah, yeah. But hey, BC you wanted to say something, go ahead. BC Babbles: I absolutely would. And this comes from the fact that I came up in from 22,007 to before music capability was fully integrated into the phone. So I still had to balance having a cell phone, a flip phone at the time, and a little mp three player. I never got the brand and stuff. Didn't have an iPod. I got the off brand, mp three players, and back in the day of iTunes, where every single song you had, you specifically purchased that song to put it onto your device. So I would actually happily go back to that to just get a little bit of a break from the constant, even more hyper velocity stream of information we have today compared to pre 2011 I kind of miss those days to be honest. Marc Ronick: Okay, that's fair.

52:24 for it. Sid Meadows: So there's one thing that I really dislike, which is when I'm walking or whatever I'm doing, I'm listening to a podcast, and my Australian voice on my phone, my wife calls him Jeeves. When Jeeves says, Mark ronnick sends you a text message and then he starts reading it, or there's a calendar notice that pops up and he starts reading. And I'm yelling through my microphone, stop, stop. And when I get to the third stop, it not only stops the podcast, it stops giving me the notification. So all that to say that really irritates me. It's like a pain, and I know I can probably turn it off. I don't know that I want, I want to, but so I'm just dealing with it.

53:06 All that to say is absolutely would use the device that would not interrupt you. Well, I'm either listening to music or listening to a D.R. Fay: I was about to say, don't you have a feature that turns off? You know, the notifications when you listen to podcasts? Because I use that feature all the time on my droid. Ralph Estep Jr: I want to go want to go back to my tapes. You know what I'm saying, my Sony Walkman, pop that single tape in there and I'll rock it because, like, I'm a little older than bc I graduated from high school in 1990 so, you know, we had the Sony disc. Man, somebody put that in the chat. Man, I think that's an awesome idea. What I was going to say is, I think this is the definition of this generation wanting to disconnect from so many distractions. And I think there's a real place for that at this point. Marc Ronick: Yeah, D.R.

53:56 Fay: and we go back to invest in all those pencils, yeah, and then you try and We are completely dating ourselves, and I'm gonna really date ourselves. D.R. Fay: Somebody's gotta date me. Marc Ronick: Here you go, Ralph, a Sony. But here you go. This is a Walkman, right. Here it is the Walkman I used to use when I was younger, and it still actually works. I've tested it before and it still works. And look, here you go. Dr, here's an actual cassette tape as well. Ralph Estep Jr: Tape is that a mixed tape mark? Y Marc Ronick: ou know what?

54:37 This is, Ralph. This is of me and my friend Lowell, who was also my co host on my original, well, not original one, my last podcast, the mark and Lowell show. This was when he and I used to call the local radio station every morning and try to make the DJs laugh. So it's a compilation of that, and it's also, I think, the appearance when they when we find. Finally really won them over. They invited us to the radio station and let us take over for an hour of their show completely. They walked out of the station and let us do it. And Ralph Estep Jr: we got to hear that mark. You got to drop that onto like the Facebook group or I will hear. Marc Ronick: I will maybe I'll play that for you guys, maybe on a Friday or something.

55:19 I'll play that for you guys. So we you can hear young, 16 year old Mark do not knowing what the heck he's doing on the radio. BC Babbles: And see, I'm a 93 baby. I think I missed the Walkman. We had those little, like square single hit ones you put into like a little capsule. CD players, which you can't move it'll throw the entire CD off. And, yeah, ruins the whole experience. But yeah, I didn't get the I did not get the Walkman experience. Marc Ronick: Yeah, and I, if you you'll probably miss it when you're hearing this now. But I posted a laser disc now that is really old school, that is like a giant CD. That's the best way to explain it. It's like the size of a LP, of a record, and it is of the original Star Wars movie, unchanged, unedited. This is the original screening of Star Wars D.R. Fay: on that.

56:17 Is there any like backstage stuff? Do they talk about the script? Do they talk to the actors? Do they talk to Marc Ronick: I don't even I think there are some extra features on it, but I don't know, because I haven't watched it since I had, my dad had a laser disc player when I was a kid. So Ralph Estep Jr: Mark, I just want to shout out something. Mark, one of our friends in the Philippines just put something in a private chat to me. Love the discussion on the show today. I miss my iPod, even across Philippines, absolutely right. Thank you for listening. today. Marc Ronick: That's hilarious. Yeah, all right. Well, listen gang. I think we had some more Maybe we'll hold them over for next week, because these are pretty ever green, so we will share those next Wednesday and a reminder that we're back tomorrow evaluating the podcast the loud quiet. Go to podcasting morning show.com/loud, quiet, and you can hear that episode we're going to be breaking down tomorrow morning and again, don't worry if you don't hear it, you can still join us and follow along beautifully, because we will play you lots of learn a thing or two while we're giving some feedback to the podcasters Rick and Clancy. So join us tomorrow, and until then, make it a great day. Everybody.

57:34 Take care.