TikTok, Threads, and Rode: The New Era of Podcasting Is Here

0:05 Good morning podcasting Morning chat. Today is Wednesday, November 12th, 2025, and today Metis Threads is targeting podcasters, Tik Tok's teaming up with I Heart in the podcasting space and road drops new creator gear, plus more stories in today's news and comment. 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 this via podcast chatter, YouTube, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here.

1:21 Good morning again, podcasting, Morning chat. Thank you so much for being here. I am your host, Mark Ronic and on stage with me. Well, we've got a full house. We've got Jonathan Howard, Dr. Faye, Sid Meadows, producer Ashley Feller, Nick Naulback, and Phil Better. Also, Ralph is on stage joining us and Gil Dormius is joining us. Gil is here This morning. I asked him to join us because he tipped me off to a piece of news what I teased at the very beginning here. Rd. has some new gear that I know Gil is particularly excited about and I think a lot of podcasters are probably excited about it as well. So we will get into that with Gil.

2:03 And of course, Gil, you are always welcome to join any part of today's conversation, so don't be shy and official. Good morning to you, Gil. How are you? Hey, good morning, Mark. Good morning, everybody. Welcome. Good to have you here. And before we dive into today's news, by the way, thank you. I see David Griffith is here. Great to see you, David, as well as seeing Greg and Bez in the audience as well. Thank you for being here bright and early and leading the charge this morning in our live audience. So before we dig in, want to remind you that tomorrow is our evaluation episode and we are evaluating the podcast Exam Room Nutrition. This is hosted by Colleen Sloan, who's a physician's assistant and registered dietitian, and the podcast is all about helping medical professionals give better nutritional guidance to their patients and improve outcomes. Something actually that I, something you may not know about Me and especially my wife, really believe that nutrition is such an important part of our health. And where I'm really going with this is that we sometimes feel like some of the medical professionals out there aren't focusing enough on nutrition.

3:27 So this is a, in my opinion, a much needed podcast. And as I mentioned, the target audience is healthcare professionals, including doctors, physicians, assistants and nurses. So we'll be digging into her half hour episode and it isn't. As Dr. pointed out the other day, this is an interview format, first in our series to evaluate. We've had three other shows that we've evaluated so far and they've all been solo. So this will be a fun one and really interesting stuff. I did listen through for the first time yesterday and plan on doing it again and finishing up my notes for the evaluation. So join us, we'll put a link in the show notes if you want to listen to the episode and play along.

4:10 And if you don't want to listen to the episode but you still want to play along, just join us tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern live or at podpage.com/PMC when we drop the podcast episode. I learned stuff. Yeah. Listening to it, I thought. 100% now. Bite your tongue and I'm going to say to Sid too, bite your tongue because I know you want to share, but please go ahead and share, just not too much. I wasn't going to give any spoilers, but I have a question. When people submit their, I don't know if they're submitting a form or they request, do they share with you, like what their biggest problem is or what their challenge is or what they're hoping to accomplish by having us review the podcast? I do ask them for that in their evaluation or their application form.

5:02 I asked them if there's anything in particular that they're looking for as far as advice goes, I think I provided that to you guys and I can, I can share tomorrow on the show the specifics. But as far As for you guys who are doing the evaluating with me, I'll make sure you have that before. I haven't opened the form yet, I've only listened to the show if it's in the form and I haven't seen it, but I was certainly liked in no. Like what was her goal or what is her goal or something to that effect. It would just help me a little bit. Yeah, you got it. I will make sure you see that I might probably, it might be on the form that I gave you guys about our podcast that we're evaluating. So I'll share more tomorrow.

5:46 And thank you all in advance for playing along. Looking forward to this. These have been some of my favorite episodes of the podcasting morning chat, and I think tomorrow will be another fine addition to this evaluation series. So let's get get into today's news and comment. And yes, by the way, Nick says it's there in the form that I shared with the team, so you'll be able to see a little more as to what she's looking for for her evaluation. OK, so today, let's start with some podcast data as we normally do on News and Comment Day.

6:27 This is as of yesterday, November 11th. The number one podcast on Apple specifically is The Daily by the New York Times. Also total podcast episodes posted over the past week, 309,943, which is down just .7% from the previous week. And here's another one I'll throw out at you. New episodes published in the last 30 days. 1.5 million, almost 1.6 million, which, interesting enough, I guess. Compiling a data of 30 days worth of podcasts, it's down 21.9% from the previous month.

7:12 Not sure why. Can't tell you. All right, Dr. I'm coming to you with your Spotify top five lists. You've got two of them. Go for it. Yeah. All right #5 is the daily #4 is Crime junkie #3 where's the timpani? There it is. The Tucker Carlson show #2 is this past weekend Theo Long? And the number one is the Joe Rogan Experience. So that's the top five overall on Spotify. What category did you pick for your next top five list? Well, the random chart of the week is hobbies. Nice. Now I want you to kind of get a sense of the range of hobbies that are represented on this list. So #5 is Scoop and Scale, an equine podcast mostly about nutrition #4 is Oedipus ridiculous #3 is sports cards nonsense.

8:13 Number 2 is gun talk and the number one is Collector's Corner with Jimmy Starr. And you started listening to that episode or one of those episodes? Yes, he was one number one. These are like really short, like 8 minutes, you know, and there's about four minutes of advertising. And it's a man who well, he was talking about the action figures from Quest. And then there was another episode. He was talking about the action figures from that Burger King gave out for one of the promotion movie promotions.

8:56 Yeah, one, like one of their. I know it's not a Happy Meal, but it's their version of the Happy Meal. The old toys that were thrown in there. Yeah, that's cool. The collector. So he's collecting lots of stuff. Yeah. Sid, why did you give us Sid gave us the death emoji. How come you gave us the death emoji, Sid? Why do you think I gave the death emoji? Because what, you're not into collector stuff? No 4 minutes of ads in an 8 minute episode? Are you kidding me? That absolutely was bad. The death emoji. Agreed. 2 minutes before and two minutes after it was left pretty bad. Yeah. And you know what? Speaking of top five, the podcast Morning Chat has made the top five list this week.

9:39 We're actually #4 on the Good pods in their How to Indie Podcasts category. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fanfare. I know I needed the fanfare, and I don't have it handy. Actually, I should have that handy. Where is it? I have to play it now. Do I have it somewhere? Let me see. Did I get rid of it? I think. I think I got rid of it. Darn it. Oh, wait. No. Yeah, I got rid of it. Darn it. I got to do better with my sounds. Thank you. Thank you. Jonathan did that. Thank you. I forgot that we have sound effects here on clubhouse. So yes, I'm cheering.

10:20 Love it. Love it. Yeah, so good. Good on us. Good to see and I think we're that's on there specifically on there how to indie charts. And I think we are somewhere around top 25 in their overall how to category, not just indie podcast, but all podcasts. We are on their top 25 ish list. I can't remember off the top of my head exactly what number. So good on us and thank you to all of you who helped make this show go round, including those of you who are active listeners of the podcasting morning chat. Thank you because you're the ones that are getting us up there in the charts and we appreciate it. Let me give you some events coming up around the world of podcasting that you may be interested in. First, tomorrow at 1:00 PM Eastern Time, podcast, Growth in the Age of AI.

11:12 This is hosted by female entrepreneurs Business and Podcasting Society. It is a paid event and we will put a link to it in the show notes if that is of interest to you. Also, DRI know you're about to go start cooking some breakfast, but do you want to share your I Do your thing that's coming up tomorrow? The meet up and match up with podcasters, speakers and authors and I am Co hosting it this week and again next week. So Thursday November 13th, 4:00 PM to 5:00 30 it says 529. I know it says on our sheet here 529, I don't know why, but I guess they're going to end at 529 that's.

11:55 Eastern Time and this week's topics are because you know, every week they change topics. And so this week's topics are the arts, entertainment, sports, outdoors, travel and tourism. And of course, like always, if you just put in PMC as the discount code, you will get in for free. And you know what it is I'd I'd like to think that it is getting bigger and bigger because we're promoting it every week. But I got to say there is getting bigger and bigger every week. So it's very awesome to see. Indeed, very cool and I will do my best to be there and be a part of that Dr. because I'm going to support you as best I can. So let's try to do that if we can. It is free for us if we use like you said that code PMC for podcasting morning chat.

12:48 Can I give just a little hint? The link that will be in the show notes, you click on it, it's going to bring you to the page that has $10 da da da da. Go ahead and click on Get my ticket or something like that. That will bring you to the page where you put in the PMC discount code and then it will read as 0. Awesome, and I've also put it in the chat here live on Clubhouse if anybody wants to get a jump on that. Very cool. And by the way, since I said hello to a few people who joined us earlier, Jen, Michael, Tim, good morning. Thank you for being here in the audience. You are always welcome to come up and join us on stage as well.

13:31 Moving on to some other events, Pod Page, November, meet up with Matt and can you do you know how to pronounce his last name? DRI. Don't know if you'd know who this is or not. Matt Diamante, I believe is. Is it? That sounds. Yeah. So this is Friday, November 14th, starts at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. It's hosted by Pod Page and the description says join podcast expert Dave Jackson. We know Dave Jackson here at the Podcasting morning chat very well and SEO guru Matt Diamante for a live webinar where you'll learn how to use SEO to grow your podcast audience without needing to be a tech wizard again. November 13th, 2:00 PM Eastern.

14:18 Link will be in the show notes. And also I found this one interesting to highlight Memes for podcast growth. Creating and using memes for your show. This happens Wednesday, December 3rd at 6:00 PM Eastern Time. Hosted by and I'll probably butcher these names so please forgive me. Danielle Bizal, Bizal Bizal and Ariel Nessenblat. It is a paid event and I'm very curious about using memes for podcast growth. We've met here on the podcasting morning chat. One of my clients, two guys on a plane, they've got a great social media following. Their podcast is kicking some butt these days and they built a lot of their growth on social media using memes. They kind of became known for it, so much so that that was one reason why they started a podcast because they wanted some some new content, some fresh content other than having to put out memes all the time because again, that was what they kind of became known for.

15:23 And just in case you're curious, they are two flight attendants and they share lots of interesting stories, passenger stories, as well as just the life of a flight attendant. And it's fascinating to me. And I'm not just saying that because it's a client. So check them out if you're interested. And finally, Pod Fest Expo, the 12th annual event happens Thursday, January 15th and it concludes January 18th. And that happens in Orlando, FL Yes, it is a paid event and if you use promo code Mark Marc, you get 10% off. So come join, maybe come support me speaking at Pod Fest. And also, yeah, I should mention we're also going to have an official Empowered Podcasting conference community meet up at Podfest.

16:15 It'll be part of their program. They will be promoting it to the Podfest community. So a great opportunity for us to continue to grow as a community within Empowered Podcasting. I decided here live, I'll pause for a minute to make sure I press the right button, and then hopefully actually you can tighten up that pause a little bit. Let's get into some news bites before we get into our main headlines that we teased at the top of the show. Following up on our continued coverage of Netflix in the podcasting space, according to Bloomberg's Screen Time, Netflix is now looking to Commission its own video podcasts.

16:58 So we've talked a lot about partnerships, but this is about them looking to put out their own video podcasts. They're also exploring changes to their interface that would give these shows more visibility. Bloomberg's sound bite adds that the deal Netflix is offering our one year in length. So for example, if they came to Sid to bring his podcast on Netflix, he would be able to sign a one year deal. Nothing more, nothing less. According to this article, this signal is this signals a move to test the waters and see how podcast style content fits into their platform strategy. Very interesting to see these big players continuing to make moves.

17:47 Moving on, Apple almost fixed its podcast app. We've talked about some of the changes to their app that have come along with iOS 26. They almost fixed it until it made it worse for subscribers. And again, just making the clarification for you, a subscriber on Apple Podcasts is one that is paying to hear the content. A follower is somebody who is listening to the free content available on Apple Podcasts. So we're speaking specifically about how this app may have gotten a little worse for subscribers specifically. So as we've shared on recent episodes, Apple recently rolled out two new features for its podcast app, auto generated chapters and something called time links. So again, just for a refresher, chapter markers are built into the episode file itself.

18:45 They divide your show into segments, for example, intro, interview and probably subtopics of the interview, takeaways, etcetera. And it lets your audience easily skip around while they're already listening. And then timed links, on the other hand, those are external shareable links. They take someone directly to a specific time in an episode when that person clicks the link that you provide. It's great for sharing particular moments on social media or in an e-mail newsletter, or if you're just sharing with a friend. According to Inc columnist Jason Atten, though Apple did add some of these features, they still haven't fixed the real problem.

19:30 The issue is is that Apple removes chapter markers from subscriber only episodes. That means if you pay to listen to an ad free version of a podcast, your experience is actually worse. No chapters, no artwork, no navigation. So even though creators upload these chapters, Apple strips them out a 10 calls it ironic that creators paying Apple 30% of their revenue are giving their most loyal fans an inferior experience. His message to Apple is to stop reinventing podcasting and just. Stop breaking what works. Fascinating story.

20:11 OK, And moving on. You know, last week on Thursday, I forget who called it out, but Elsie Escobar, formerly of Lipson, had a sudden exit from Lipson. And so we want to. So I actually spoke to her. I'll explain a little bit more. Here's the story. As we mentioned briefly last Thursday, podcast Hall of Famer Elsie Escobar has officially left Libsyn. She was inducted into the Podcasting Hall of Fame back in 2017 and spent almost 19 years working with Libsyn. With the sudden closure of the Feed podcast, we talked about that two weeks ago, I think maybe even a week ago, which she Co hosted since 2013. We're witnessing a major shift for one of podcasting's most trusted voices, especially in the independent podcaster space. I got the chance to catch up with Elsie on Monday to hear where her head's AT and what's next. And she told me the transition happened quote very, very fast. But she's moving forward with a sense of gratitude and excitement after nearly two decades supporting podcasters threw lips in Elsie stepping back into life as a self-employed creator and strategist. And she'll focus on doing what brings joy, specifically content strategy and community building.

21:34 She's especially drawn to helping long time podcasters and business owners who are at creative crossroads. This is a quote from my call with her. She said a lot of the folks I work with have been podcasting for 10 years or more and find themselves wondering what's next. And then she went on to say I love hearing people work through those transitions. She's also told me that she's staying rooted in an audio first mindset, even as it the industry keeps leaning into video. She said to me that she wants to be the voice in your head, not the face behind your eyes. Or maybe that should probably say not the face in front of your eyes.

22:17 But no, actually, you know what? When I talked to her, I think she did actually say face behind your eyes. And I really like this quote. That's why I'm stopping here for a minute. I want to be the voice in your head, not the face behind your eyes. And she's basically what her point to me was. There's something that really sticks when you can hear that voice. Remember that voice that spoke to you versus seeing that face bouncing around on the screen? There's something more impactful to her and I happen to agree. I'm looking forward to collaborating with her on a local Asheville meet up, and she's also agreed to join us on the PMC one of these mornings. So we're looking forward to getting to know Elsie more for those of us who haven't gotten the chance to know her over the 19 year career with Libsyn.

23:05 So we are wishing her the best. Dr. Are you still in the kitchen? Should I move on or would you like to take the next? One. No, I am ready. I am ready to go. Go for. It and then we're going to get into some of those big headlines. Audio is hitting a new high. Ad supported listening is starting to dominate. So Nielsen's latest numbers show US adults are now spending more time than ever with audio averaging nearly about 3 hours and 45 minutes per day. And get this AD supported audio still leads the way, capturing about 64% of all listening time. Radio is holding strong, the dominant force accounting for up to 70% of the ad supported listening in some age groups. Podcasts are making steady gains, especially among younger listeners, where they can make up nearly 30% of the listening time for the 18 to 34 crowd.

24:04 And streaming audio is growing too, but still so it trails behind. So what does this mean for podcasters and creators? Audio is thriving, but competition for listener attention is kind of fierce. Understanding who's tuning in and how is more important than ever for standing out in this crowded space. Thank you. DRI just admittedly had a massive coughing fit. I just choked on my water so I missed some of that story. Just being honest. No problem. Yeah. Can you take the next one or do you? Want me to take it? I'm good.

24:45 I'm good. Yes, I'm going to jump into some headlines. So we'll we have some more. We'll call them, I don't know what to call them, News bites. I'll call them what we call them. We have more news bites and we'll get to them if there's some time at the end. But I did want to get to some of the big headlines that we teased earlier. So Gil, you're on deck. Just so you know, not yet, but you're on deck. TikTok takes a big leap into podcasting. And we're wondering, is this a smart move or a splashy gamble? Calculated. Dr. is like the big skeptic. We will talk about this in a moment. TikTok is teaming up with iHeartMedia to launch a new podcast network featuring up to 25 creator LED shows. The collaboration includes Co branded podcast studios in major cities and live events, marking Tik Tok's biggest move yet into long form audio and hybrid video podcast formats. Here's some details for you.

25:48 I Heart Media plans to use its radio event, it's radio event and podcast ecosystem to help TikTok creators reach audiences beyond the TikTok app. The partnership positions TikTok, not TikTok, not just as a short form video platform, but as a growing player in the creator LED audio entertainment space. New studios in LA, New York and Atlanta. We'll prioritize video first. Podcasting, reinforcing the trend toward watchable audio, quote UN quote. Iheart's latest earnings show podcast ad revenue up 22.5% year over year, now representing a record 14% of the company's total business.

26:36 Meanwhile, iheart's traditional radio division saw revenue drop 5%, highlighting a steady shift from broadcast to digital platforms. Found that pretty interesting. And analysts say that this partnership could introduce Tik Tok's algorithm driven discovery system to podcasting, potentially reshaping how listeners find shows. The challenge? Converting Tik Tok's short attention span users into long form listeners who stick around for full episodes. We know that TikTok has attempted to allow long form in the past specific for podcasters and I don't think it took terribly well.

27:18 And the broader take away social platforms are becoming media networks and podcasts are the next frontier for creator monetization and brand expansion. And we have more on that particular take away from another platform coming up here shortly. So what do we think? The first thing that comes to mind for me and I'm going to coming to you Jonathan as one of our social media experts, but I'm wondering just how this collaboration will work if and when TikTok as we know it is officially removed from the US app stores and replaced with AUS version that's owned by AUS based company. I think it's Oracle that's just confusing to me as just like what will this mean moving forward?

28:02 Jonathan, what say you, Sir? What do you what do you think about this story? Exactly. I have the same question as you. I mean, they're putting the studios in U.S. cities, but Tik Tok's not going to be able to operate supposedly by the end of this year, beginning of next year, whenever they decide. So what's that going to mean for the partnership? Or is it going to, I mean, probably better off the podcast, actually do go with the other TikTok and not the US one because I have a lot of reach. But I don't know. I think it's interesting. I also don't think it's going to work. Why not? It's not the right. The platform is short form. Their long form videos don't work. That's not the audience they have there. So it'll be interesting.

28:43 We'll see. Yeah, I don't think it's going to work. Anyone else agree or disagree with Jonathan? Do we think this is a good move in podcasting? See, Janae wants to come up and join us. We'll bring Janae up at DRU. We said we teased it. You were skeptical. So what? What's going on there? I don't know. It's just the timing of it. I just don't trust, you know, they're both big business. There's nothing altruistic about overdoing this for the good of the creator. I just have a heavy dose of distrust. OK. And Janae, welcome to the stage. What are your thoughts on this TikTok iheart merger? Good morning, good morning.

29:24 This is a fun new topic for sure. Of course, TikTok, as you all mentioned, is a short form content platform. But let me ask you this what's the When's the last time you spent time on TikTok? I spend too much time on TikTok to be honest. This. Morning this morning at 1:15 AM. OK, so think about that. And then they also have the TikTok live platform where a ton of people are live streaming anywhere from three to four hours at a time. So if you think about that, that's podcast kind of a listenership. So they're like, hey, we're already doing this. Why not jump in this new kind of new platform? But again, they are focusing on video. And who knows?

30:11 These creators that are on TikTok selling products on their TikTok shop, that's where they're making the money. So it just might work or it might not. It's a fair bet. You know, after all, businesses can always report losses and spend money on taxes. That's me. That's true. And that's just such a great point. Thank you, Janae, because here I was just kind of knocking that they had tried long form once before and it didn't work. But their their live platform is alive and kicking like it is doing really well. Like you said, on average, creators are spending two to three hours streaming live and they're streaming all sorts of things lately in my TikTok feed all of a sudden. Well, I know why because I probably stopped and watched a couple of videos of people playing Madden football, EA Sports, the video game.

31:02 And I've been for whatever reason, fascinated watching that. And so you never know what people are going to land on. And I think really this comes down to yes, of course it's a short form platform, but I do believe that the that long form will work as long as you can keep people's attention. I don't think it really matters. I don't think people are going into TikTok saying I better be delivered short videos only, right? All they're really the true motive is entertain me. So if you can, if they can land on your video and you can keep them with you for 20-30 minutes, I don't think they're going to go anywhere. As long as you're entertaining them, as long as you're giving them what they need, I think it could work. I'm very curious to see and I'm always excited to see stuff like this happen because even if it flops, it's putting podcasting in the news, it's keeping it relevant. And it's cool to see these social media platforms trying to find a way to make it work because they know how popular podcasting is.

32:09 So they're, and again, we'll get into it with one of the next platforms, social media platforms making its way into the space. I think it's really helpful to podcasting, like I said, even if it doesn't work, because eventually they're going to find a way that that works. The big thing then is how do you create a podcast that's going to keep them listening for that amount of time? You have to have something every every 30 seconds. I mean, that's not that's the culture of it. So it's going to be interesting to see how you create a podcast that's going to work in that format. But again, like. Maybe a really short 1. Yeah, but to Janae's point, there are people that are just talking on TikTok lives. They're just sitting there talking. They're talking to the chat.

32:53 They're sometimes bringing in other people into the live and having chats and, and, and people are sticking around and watching in droves. I think that. Or how was it traffic coming through? It could be traffic. Or is it traffic coming through it? Could be, but I mean, for the most part, you know, you see people, you know, especially popular TikTok channels having hundreds of people hanging out and participating in the chat. I agree with you, Jonathan. I hesitate. There is reason to hesitate about this deal, but I do think there's potential based on what Janae just shared about TikTok lives. So maybe that's part of the answer too, is recording your podcast live on TikTok. Maybe that's a way to to make it all work and where they're going to be.

33:40 OfferUp these studios, they can make that happen all. Right. We're saying that it's not going to work. It's not it's it is going to work. There's so many different thing about how about we experiment right? Yeah, you're already live streaming on YouTube or when you're doing this podcasting morning chat. How about we also are you also so you want take knock who knows if you get some new people. In your head's going to explode having to do all of these things in the morning. That's a lot of figuring out. It's a lot of figure. It's why Jonathan has just basically completely taken over the Chatter side of this show. Chatter Social, he's over there. He starts the rooms for me. He gets it all set up for me.

34:22 Yeah, it's a lot for me and for a lot of people for that matter. But yeah, I'm streaming on YouTube and Facebook and of course, Clubhouse and Chatter and adding another one does feel like a lot. But who knows? We'll see what happens. And I agree with you, Janae. I think the key is let's experiment. It's going to be there for us. Let's play. All right, let's get into the next story. Rd. launches the Roadcaster video S, the new creators new, the, I should say the creators new all in one studio for under 500 bucks. So I'll just give you a little tease and then I'm going to come to Gil, who's here with us this morning on stage. Some of you may know Gil from the Empowered Podcasting conference and also social media and his podcast as well. So Rd. just dropped this again, Roadcaster Video S It's designed to make professional level video and audio production easier than ever, all from a single compact device. The question is, could this be the hardware that makes full video podcasting truly easy?

35:30 Gil, what are your thoughts now? You were the one that actually tipped me off on this the other day. So thank you for that. And you seemed pretty excited about it. Have you already ordered yours? And tell us a little bit about what makes this piece of soft or piece of hardware so intriguing, so interesting to you. Hey, good morning, everybody. No, I haven't ordered mine yet, OK, but I am still super, super excited. What makes this thing exciting is that this is actually made perfectly for people who actually produced podcasts because it has three HDMI inputs and most podcasts, most video podcasts are three cameras, one per host and one wide shot.

36:15 So that's what I love about it because I have used the road caster video, I've built multiple podcast studios where I live so I have access to approximately 3 Rd. caster videos and it's a beautiful piece of machine, but it's super overkill. And we should really make that clear to people so there's no confusion. So Rd. what was it? Maybe a year or so ago they came out with Rd. Caster Video, which would, which is like a $1200 piece of equipment. So Roadcaster Video S is its baby brother and it's 500 bucks. So yeah, Gil, you're saying that their full version, the Roadcaster video, is overkill? It's overkill for most creators and which is why I loved the Rode Streamer X which is a solo console. It's one HDMI and one XLR plus it's 4K. So that was one thing that I I used to recommend to people. But now I would highly recommend getting the Rode Caster video S which is their new console and it's 500 bucks. I think it definitely grab especially if you have just a small podcast set up.

37:34 It's perfect. It's everything that they wrote the Big Brother Rd. caster video that has minus the micro SD card slot minus I think 2 HDMI out and instead of it have and it has a a 20 GB internal storage. It's pretty dope. Very cool. It has the two XLR inputs, so that's for your microphone or instruments depending how you're using it. And then it also has a USBC output or input. Sorry for another mic if you have Ausb mic. So you theoretically can do up to three mics, right, GAIL? Yep, up to three mics, 2 XLR and one USB and that USB port double S as a if you have a APTZ camera like a Ozbot camera. So you can have like a you have three cameras as well potentially SO2 HDMI and then one PTZ or two microphones or three microphones and two XLR and one USD mic. Yeah, very cool.

38:40 And also I know it has and I think so does its Big Brother. It has auto switching, so it uses voice detection to change camera angles automatically, which is perfect for the independent podcaster, the solo shows or even two person podcasts. I think that's a great feature. And if you're confused, what would auto switching be? Think of like when you're on a Zoom call and somebody speaks and the camera switches automatically to that speaker and then when the next person speaks, it just automatically knows to switch to them. That's the same thing. I think that can be really helpful to a lot of podcasters who don't have the people power to do the switching for them.

39:23 Or if they're like me and too many things to focus on at once and just wants to focus on the content. That's a nice little feature to have. Billy, I see you're you've joined us on stage and I know you're a gear guy as well. Did you want to add anything to this? And good morning to you. Yeah. Good morning. It's been, it's been a while. You guys are doing good. I just rented an office here, so I've been distracted by doing all the chaotic things in Puerto Rico you have to do to operate a business here. So I should have been creating a podcast about that. God knows somebody's going to need that help later anyway. I love the road caster video equipment. I've saw the the Big Brother to this one in person but I didn't get it because it doesn't split video feeds in software. So like I use like ecam live so.

40:13 It's like get one capture card and and the switching happens on the device. You can't like program it into software, which is what I don't care about, you know, whatever. I mean, they it's not that's not the use case for it. But I was curious like I think they do have software like video software for it. Am I mistaken in that or or do they do that? And how customizable is it? Because I haven't, I don't know if I remember from the launch first one. Hey Billy, you actually can use the road caster video app on your PC and switch with with the app. So you don't have to physically switch with the console physically you can use the app and click it's. It's pretty awesome.

40:56 Can you like build custom scenes like you can and like you can live or something? OK, but only on their software then? Yeah, only on their software and it integrates well with ECAM minus using ECAM to switch the scenes, you build the scenes on the console itself. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, Sorry. Sorry Mark, I decided. That no thank you. Thank you for asking Billy. This is one reason why I asked Gil to join us this morning. So thank you for your question. And Chris, go for it. Good morning. I I just want to put out a correction. Most podcasters have one camera. In a lot of cases the cameras the the webcam on our laptop. Most podcasters are not corporate podcasters. I think you're right.

41:37 There are tons of independent podcasts out there that are, for lack of a better term, wing in it and they're using what they can. Maybe they don't have the budget to buy lots of gear and such, but I do know there are plenty of independent podcasters. I mean, at our conference, Empowered Podcasting, there were several cases of independent podcasters that use more than one camera. Sometimes, you know, they makeshift it, right? They might only be able to afford one dedicated camera and then they use their iPhone to be another camera for them. They try to make it work, but I just want to make it clear, I don't feel comfortable saying most independent podcasters only work with 1 camera and that camera's only a laptop camera.

42:18 I think that there are lots of different. There is such a variety of independent podcasters out there at all different levels with all different size budgets. I just wanted to point us out. I've just, I've been to two conferences already that I'm not going back to because I feel like the conference organizers don't care about us and I just hope this conference doesn't go that way too. I don't think it will. It hasn't so far. We've had two years of it and we are building for year three as we speak. And we always, as you know from your experience there, this time it's the people, the community is really what this is all about for us at Empowered Podcasting. Thank you, Chris, appreciate you.

42:59 And Gil, thank you, appreciate your takes on this. Any other, just want to make sure anything else other than I know we've said it once, the price is $500.00 for this piece of equipment. Anything else we should know about it? I wanted to piggyback on Chris. I wholeheartedly agree. I love the actual podcasters and gear. It really doesn't matter at the end of the day, it's all about the message. I made a talk about that on my TikTok about the road caster video S. So you're absolutely right about that. But this is the road caster video console is solely for like production houses. So that's why when I when I said the comment about most podcasters have three cameras, that's what I was referring to because that's the setup for the corporate type podcaster.

43:48 You're absolutely right in that regard. So I do want to bring that up. Yeah. Thank you, Gil. The only other note I see here, the Road Capture app turns an iPhone into OK, so this is what we were talking about, turns an iPhone into a dual camera wireless source using both front and rear lenses for dynamic video podcasting. So that wasn't quite what we were talking about, but that is what I just mentioned earlier, how some podcasters are using their iPhones as cameras. So this would be compatible with that. Very cool. If anybody Janae you're on stage, are you going to buy this device? Yes, absolutely. I'll be putting a couple of these in local podcast studios that I'm working on because you know, it's perfect. It records ISO video and audio, which which mean that isolated video sources.

44:35 So in post production if you want to make a different type of stand up, you totally can with this. Thanks. Very cool. And Nick in the chat says Janae's already got ordered three of them, which wouldn't surprise me, but I think that was tongue in cheek. OK, let's move on to the next story from Dr. And this is the other story we've been teasing, talking about these social media platforms, getting into podcasting. We've got another to talk about. Go for it, Dr. Right, so PMC community member Simona Constantini flagged this one for us.

45:15 So it looks like Reds is rolling out podcasters specific tools aimed at making the app a go to place for show discussions, creator listener interaction, and podcast discoverability. So here are the key points. Threads will give podcast links in the feed a distinct look, like a colorful background image, thumbnails, things like that. So they stand out. More creators will now have a dedicated spot in their profile for podcast links, enabling direct show promotions. Thread says it intends to add further podcast centric features like the conversation, I'm sorry conversion tools, discovery enhancements, analytics in the next coming year. Meta, who owns Threads, does not intend for Threads to become a podcast posting or distribution platform. The emphasis is actually on discussion and show promotion now.

46:19 This move signals an effort to buy social platforms to capture and centralized podcast related audience engagement rather than leaving it scattered across forums, comment threads, subreddit posts, and things like that. For podcasters, this means better visibility on social, but also increased competition for attention as new platforms fight for quote place where fans can talk about shows, UN quote. A possible challenge for a possible challenge is traffic and engagement on threads still may not convert into listening and downloading behavior. The feature boosts.

47:02 The feature boost is visibility, not guaranteed audience shift. Now, actually, I was just talking about this in a group yesterday, in a Facebook group yesterday. It's a group full of podcasting producers. And I just wanted to make it clear that there are several different kinds of conversions. There's the conversion of engagement. Are you getting engagement? There is conversion for downloads, and then there's also conversion for money. Are you making money out of this? Are you getting clients? I'm not sure. I mean, I can see where this would be good for engagement that that's clear, but I'm not quite sure about the downloads or the conversion for money.

47:50 I look at this as both discoverability and building awareness around your podcast. I think it's cool because they are going out of their way to highlight posts that are podcast related. So you can now if you're looking at the article, we'll link to it in the show notes. But here on Clubhouse, I've shared it. If you look at some of the the demonstrations that they show here in the imaging, it's really cool. Like, you know, you see this person promoting his new podcast episode and it creates a nice thumbnail image with the headline or the title of the episode. It looks nice. It's going to catch more eyes, I think, than how it's currently been shared on that app on Threads. So I think that that's cool.

48:40 And I think it's going to be cool that they're also creating a spot with on your profile page of Threads, a spot dedicated to showcasing your podcast. Yes, I agree that I don't think it's going to automatically start delivering downloads to you, but I do think it could be a great area to promote what you're doing and build awareness for your podcasts in my opinion. I think so too. I think so too. Again, what I said earlier, I love that these social media platforms are trying to find ways of incorporating podcasting and help the podcasters out there, so I'm all for it. I know someone who's very heavily on threads and he's, he says that he gets a lot of his clients just through his posts on threads and you know, and he's audio only, by the way, he will die on that hill. He has nothing to do with video.

49:41 And that's just the way it is. So it's, it's interesting. I mean, he's got a formula for it. So I'll be curious to get his take on this new thing. Yeah, I was curious. What he'll think as well. Not mentioning him because I know he doesn't like me anymore. Oh no, I'm not talking about. That, but I am curious if he's going to embrace that. So we shall see. OK, Dr., do you want to take the next story #12 on the list? A new Metro Cool report confirms what podcasters have been sensing for a while now. Video is now king. And this is, by the way, the opinion of the article, not necessarily DRS or mine. And by the way, Metricool and maybe Jonathan can get in on this.

50:30 Metricool I think is one of those schedulers for social. Jonathan, what's it called, this scheduler? It's a scheduler, yeah. OK but they have this article and they say that video is now king. After analyzing over 12,000 social posts from the top 100 US podcasts, the study found YouTube drives the highest engagement rate at 3.13, while Instagram reels dominate interactions. But we'll see if your threads gets into it. Over 700%. I don't even think I've ever seen that that thing before. 700% higher than average despite podcast posting nearly 100 times a month on X. It's not translating to audience growth. The surprise Facebook might be creeping back. Oh please, no.

51:21 OK. Magical's CEO calls it a fundamental shift from simple promotion to full on community building through native platform specific strategies. Do the key takeaways on that mark. Sure, sure. So they're saying that 87% of top podcasts now post to YouTube, with many, many with full episodes. Instagram Reels accounts for nearly 80% of podcast posts. Their engagement beats frequency. More posts don't equal more followers. Hashtags and emojis are declining, with creators favoring cleaner messaging. And we know that this year we've heard from Instagram saying hashtags are no more or they just don't really hold any weight anymore. People are still using them on occasion, but I've actually dropped it ever since I heard Instagram make that announcement that they don't do anything anymore. Authentic engagement and platform native strategies Dr. Success according to this article and study. So there you go.

52:27 So that just, yeah, I think that's a great little article to wrap up when we sat here and shared a lot about TikTok, a lot about Threads and how they're getting into the podcasting games. I just, I feel like this article supports that well. So something to consider and something else to consider is to come back and join us tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM. Eastern live here on Clubhouse. When we do our podcast evaluation episode, Evaluating the Podcast Exam Room Nutrition by Colleen Sloan, we will dig into her episode, give her pointers and share a lot of what she's doing right because she is doing some things that we really thought thought are things that many of us can learn from.

53:12 So check that out. Come join us tomorrow and if you can't, that's OK. Just join us at podpage.com/PMC and catch the episode after it airs live or streams live if I'm going to use the appropriate terminology. So until tomorrow. And by the way, thank you to Gil for joining us as well. Really appreciate you being here. And until tomorrow, make it a great day. Everybody take care.