Episode 5
Audio or Video Podcast? That's The Question
Aloha, welcome to the "Creator 50" podcast. I am Doc Rock, your content creation, coach, and host for the Creator 50 podcasts. Today, we're going to be talking about what's is the way to go with the future of podcasting? Should we stick with audio only podcast or start popping out video podcast or "vodcast" now? What does the future of podcasting hold.
I sat on the episode for months but thanks to a little nudge form a few friends, I released it.
Love you Pops! I miss you everyday. 🤙🏽
Transcript
Aloha.
Speaker:Welcome to ""Creator 50"".
Speaker:I am Doc Rock.
Speaker:I'm your host and content creation coach.
Speaker:Today, we're going to talk about a very controversial topic.
Speaker:It is a little prickly.
Speaker:It is a little friction causing, but we're going to talk about it today.
Speaker:Starting a podcast now, I don't mean what you've been doing before.
Speaker:Even if you already have a podcast now we want to talk about this concept of
Speaker:audio podcast versus video podcasts.
Speaker:The primary reason for this is there.
Speaker:It used to be, you always just did audio podcasts because they were just
Speaker:easier to do, but a lot of things have changed in recent years and a
Speaker:lot of people are starting right now.
Speaker:And if you're going to start a brand new podcast and say, you start to look.
Speaker:Into the internet to try to figure out which version you should
Speaker:do, an audio or video podcasts, you're going to get conflicting
Speaker:answers, just period, point blank.
Speaker:You're going to get conflicting answers.
Speaker:So I want to go through what I think is it, but I also want
Speaker:to leave the conversation open.
Speaker:I want to leave the conversation open.
Speaker:Should you decide.
Speaker:Or if you are in the process of deciding, or you have already made
Speaker:the decision, I wouldn't know where you are in this thought process.
Speaker:Thinking about 20, 22 and beyond about audio podcasts versus video podcast.
Speaker:If you're not sure what a podcast is.
Speaker:Oh, that's a whole different conversation.
Speaker:Let me know.
Speaker:I mean, it's kinda weird cause you're listening to one, but Hey, maybe
Speaker:you don't know how to start one and you're wondering how to start one.
Speaker:If that is something you're Into, please drop me a line.
Speaker:Let me know.
Speaker:You can find me all over the socials at Doc Rock on just about anything.
Speaker:And we can talk about that.
Speaker:Maybe we'll do like the beginner beginner start from right here episode.
Speaker:So let's get into it.
Speaker:So the audio podcast is most traditional.
Speaker:It's been out for quite a long time.
Speaker:We're talking eons really about circa 2003 a little bit before then, but
Speaker:what everybody really knows about podcasting, as far as the general
Speaker:population came about after "Serial", which was a very, very popular podcast
Speaker:it was a great audio podcast series.
Speaker:The strange thing, there's been a bunch of documentaries and fan
Speaker:videos made about it since then.
Speaker:So now it's kind of triggered a bunch of videos, but it started as
Speaker:an audio thing there, I think for the reason that audio was so popular,
Speaker:had to do with the fact that internet conectivity at the time, podcasts
Speaker:was really popular wasn't very quick.
Speaker:Internet connectivity, nowadays, is much, much, much quicker.
Speaker:Inter connectivity today is so quick that you can download an entire two,
Speaker:three gigabyte files in a minute or two.
Speaker:That was much harder back then.
Speaker:Also we had a lot more say stingy data caps back in the day, nowadays,
Speaker:depending on your cell provider, mobile phone provider, your house, internet
Speaker:ISP, you may or may not have caps for certain types of files or certain types
Speaker:of streams or certain types of systems.
Speaker:So for instance, If you're on a service like T-Mobile or AT&T they
Speaker:have screensaver, they don't charge you data for locations like Spotify,
Speaker:which is funny now, because Spotify is a great place to listen to podcasts.
Speaker:Like this one.
Speaker:Yes, you can get this on Spotify.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Now that bandwidth has been solved.
Speaker:There are a lot of creators creating their podcasts as video podcasts.
Speaker:I mean, a lot of creators creating their podcasts and video podcasts.
Speaker:There's a lot of creators that still believe that the way to go is audio only.
Speaker:So let's just talk about some of the differences we're going
Speaker:to do some pro cons, right?
Speaker:Audio podcast.
Speaker:In theory, the conversation was, is less complex.
Speaker:It is less friction to start.
Speaker:Really the only gear you need to start an audio podcast is a phone.
Speaker:You can grab your phone there's apps like anchor and a bunch of other out there.
Speaker:Anchors the most popular.
Speaker:If you're curious about how to do a podcast on anchor, you might want
Speaker:put in the words in your Google box, put in anchor and Ileane Smith and
Speaker:yeah, she'll get you down that pipe.
Speaker:Anchor is owned by Spotify and super common.
Speaker:Literally just pop your phone on press.
Speaker:Go start talking about your favorite subject.
Speaker:Your favorite subject can be things from pugilistic arts to your favorite
Speaker:anime, to what type of 12 year old whiskey you should be drinking.
Speaker:So that's simple.
Speaker:Video podcasts in the past were considered to be more complicated.
Speaker:And if you ask the average person, now, someone will still
Speaker:say that, but I don't think so.
Speaker:I want to negate that, that used to be one of the conversations, but I don't think
Speaker:that's the case anymore, because with that same phone, you can just turn the camera.
Speaker:If you happen to have an old phone and a new phone, you can take the
Speaker:old phone and have it recording audio, set it right on the table.
Speaker:You can take the new phone, leaned it up on a stack of books, or get a
Speaker:proper, small little phone tripod and record your face while you're talking.
Speaker:And I'll explain why maybe you only post the audio version as the podcast,
Speaker:but you should definitely roll tape.
Speaker:Pun intended.
Speaker:I know it's digital.
Speaker:You definitely should roll tape while you're recording the audio.
Speaker:I'm rolling tape right now.
Speaker:I actually have a couple of homies sitting in the audience, listening
Speaker:and enjoying a bourbon or so while we have this conversation, the reason
Speaker:why you should roll tape has to do with what are the first cons of audio.
Speaker:One of the first negatives of an audio only podcast nowadays, it is
Speaker:much, much, much, much, much harder to be discovered as an audio podcast.
Speaker:Discoverability is hard.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Number one?
Speaker:We're well, over a million podcasts now.
Speaker:Number two.
Speaker:The apps, unless you come up with some really fantastic idea right
Speaker:out of the gate and a pretty good marketing teams, the apps don't
Speaker:do a good job of just letting you see what's out there right away.
Speaker:Like you just don't find it like that.
Speaker:It doesn't work like that.
Speaker:Whereas a video podcast what a lot of people will do is put supplemental
Speaker:content on places like Instagram.
Speaker:TikTok YouTube, YouTube shorts, LinkedIn, things like that.
Speaker:By putting this visual content in the visual mediums, even your Facebook wall,
Speaker:people will click that and then watch it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So it is very important to make sure that you think about this.
Speaker:If you decide to go audio only audio only is still the primary winner right now.
Speaker:Let's make that straight.
Speaker:It is the one that everyone knows, but I'm discussing this today.
Speaker:As we sit here leaning into 2022, 22 is my lucky number.
Speaker:Something about this year.
Speaker:It makes me feel things are going to skyrocket!
Speaker:I just wanted to say that.
Speaker:Nevermind.
Speaker:Nevermind that I believe that even if you are going to post an audio only
Speaker:podcast, even if you've been doing an audio to audio only podcast for say
Speaker:10 years, plus now is the time to roll tape while you record and then use video
Speaker:clips in order to help you promote.
Speaker:I just believe that's what it is because to me, one of the pros of a video
Speaker:podcast on apps like YouTube, especially YouTube is the second largest search
Speaker:engine in the world owned by the first.
Speaker:So it is really, really SEO compatible.
Speaker:If you were to put your transcript in your show notes in that description
Speaker:box, where YouTube gives you the space.
Speaker:Uh, you just made it very, very discoverable.
Speaker:If you back that up with a blog post, that is basically the transcript and the show
Speaker:notes that gives you a second SEO bump.
Speaker:You can throw in some images, activate all your affiliate links, even putting
Speaker:in small video clips from your.
Speaker:There you're behind the scenes if you will, maybe the video is only on your
Speaker:membership site that you can generate in a blink at buymeacoffee.com.
Speaker:I will put a link down there for that.
Speaker:So that way people that are members of your podcast or subscribed members of
Speaker:your podcasts can see the video version.
Speaker:One thing to note about anchor, if you choose to use anchor, yes.
Speaker:Anchor does technically own the rights to your stuff, but not really.
Speaker:It's not that they take, or this has been the controversy about anchor.
Speaker:I could do a whole show on that.
Speaker:I purposely would never use it.
Speaker:That's just me because they have the right.
Speaker:You own it still, but they have the right to use it because you're using
Speaker:their platform so they can use it and advertise and make money off of it.
Speaker:And they don't have to share that rev with you.
Speaker:So that is something that does come up, but we'll do an entire show just about
Speaker:platforms out a different date, but it is a very good thing to think about.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Think about it from a discoverability platform, video is way better.
Speaker:It does come up in search.
Speaker:And the other part, what I just slightly touched on, but we'll touch it further.
Speaker:Right now you can generate tons of micro content out of the live video, sorry,
Speaker:or the recorded video that you recorded.
Speaker:You can take pieces and elements and chop them up into little 30
Speaker:second clips or 15 second clips.
Speaker:One minute clips.
Speaker:Or, and post those on your blog, your sites, your Instagram, your YouTube, your
Speaker:TikTok, your Twitter, places like that.
Speaker:And that will help you with your discoverability.
Speaker:So what a lot of people are doing now is taking their show,
Speaker:recording it live as a video.
Speaker:Full on chat conversation whole nine yards, but doing it
Speaker:in a very structured format.
Speaker:Then having that edited down to become a polished video with an
Speaker:audio version that plays along.
Speaker:The only thing to worry about.
Speaker:If you decide to choose that format, you have to remind people when you're doing
Speaker:something visual, you have to explain that visual stuff to the audio only listeners.
Speaker:The podcast that I've been involved with since long time ago, let's
Speaker:just put it that way, but that's the way we've always done it.
Speaker:We've always shot it as a video show and then export of the audio and place
Speaker:the audio as an audio only podcast.
Speaker:But the video has always been available either on a hosted server or.
Speaker:On something like YouTube back in the day, hosting video was very, very expensive.
Speaker:The funniest thing right now to me as a podcast or content creator,
Speaker:and a coach, it is cheaper to host your video now than the host.
Speaker:Your audio has been that way.
Speaker:Since about 2014, YouTube will let you post.
Speaker:Gigs.
Speaker:I mean, gigs and gigs and gigs of data, you can make a
Speaker:video every day of your life.
Speaker:Five hours long, 10 hours, long, 12 hours, long YouTube don't care.
Speaker:They'll host it, do that on Libsyn or some other audio hosting platform like
Speaker:such, and you'll be broke in about a week.
Speaker:I'm just saying, so right now it's funny that the video stuff
Speaker:is actually easier to host.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I believe the repurpose ability of video is also better.
Speaker:For you guys that want to stay in the audio game, you can still repurpose
Speaker:audio clips, but you're going to need to use apps like headliner or
Speaker:descript or wave to make them cute, to make them accessible, to make
Speaker:them work on a platform like Insta.
Speaker:Actually Canva you can do it too.
Speaker:You can drop in say a one minute.
Speaker:Into Canva and then add some imagery.
Speaker:So that way it's not hyper boring.
Speaker:CapCut will be another one, things like that.
Speaker:So there are ways to do it.
Speaker:The most important thing to think about is regardless of what you choose, make
Speaker:sure you educate your audience as to why.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So if I had to prescribe.
Speaker:A brand new content creator right now, I would say do the video
Speaker:podcasts and they're going to go, but I don't feel comfortable on camera
Speaker:and I'm going to make mistakes.
Speaker:And I don't like editing, blah, blah, all the excuses I get every five minutes.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Take those, just put a camera to the side and let it run for
Speaker:behind the scenes content then.
Speaker:Record your audio, whether via your microphone in your computer or your
Speaker:phone, or a little pocket, like, you know, Roland or Tascam pocket
Speaker:recorder, any of the above record your content that way, but keep that video
Speaker:running so you can use those assets.
Speaker:You can repurpose that make highlight reels and behind the scenes shared
Speaker:them because honestly, today, audio only podcasts if you aren't already
Speaker:discovered, they're very, very hard to do.
Speaker:So it will take you some time in order to get it out now, regardless
Speaker:of what you choose, I believe it's important to make sure that you
Speaker:power through that first 50 episodes.
Speaker:And I know that's going to be crazy because the rule of thumb
Speaker:is average podcast makes it about seven episodes and it eats it.
Speaker:But if you can get through 50 episodes, You're pretty much good to go.
Speaker:Now we'll start to roll.
Speaker:It takes a while.
Speaker:If there's no, there are few overnight successes where you
Speaker:just drop a podcast and everybody goes, whoa, this is off the chain.
Speaker:Unless you have a lot of experience.
Speaker:Now, some of the cons about video people say, well, what if
Speaker:the footage doesn't look good?
Speaker:That's so easy to fix.
Speaker:No, I phones now, Android phones.
Speaker:Now they're really hard to take bad video.
Speaker:They just are so set yourself up in a good light or get a light
Speaker:from, from you, uh, Amazon.
Speaker:So I was going to say, get a light from YouTube, get a light
Speaker:from Amazon for like 20 bucks.
Speaker:Throw it up on something and put it in a position to make yourself look good.
Speaker:Put yourself in front of a window.
Speaker:If you shoot at night or you work at night, put yourself in
Speaker:front of the fireplace, like give yourself just some basic lighting.
Speaker:You don't have to be production ready.
Speaker:And I say that.
Speaker:As I sit in my lovely studio, but I'm a professional videographer.
Speaker:That's a whole different situation, but that used to be one of the conversations.
Speaker:I believe people being able to see your eyes and see your face provides
Speaker:better intimacy and better connectivity.
Speaker:Now, another argument that used to come out is video podcasts can intimidate
Speaker:your guest, pick better guests.
Speaker:And if you have a guest that refuses to be on, throw up a picture,
Speaker:tell them, you know what, we're not going to put you on camera.
Speaker:We're just going to have a picture or we're going to have a ad that shows
Speaker:your business or whatever you're about.
Speaker:So I think that excuse was just kind of old and it's easy to walk
Speaker:people past, but the definite one that will scare people is editing.
Speaker:Video is a pain in the ***. Don't hyper edit.
Speaker:And this is funny because again, we're talking about 2022 now.
Speaker:In the past, these arguments were real deal Holyfield, but right now I'm going
Speaker:to say the arguments of mute or moot.
Speaker:Why do I always say mute it's moot anyway, if you look at TikTok reels and Instagram
Speaker:reels, especially me as a person who's been editing for over 30 years and used
Speaker:to edit with a razor blade and tape.
Speaker:Those edits are hot trash, and people watch them on a regular basis.
Speaker:If you watch YouTube a lot, the university of Jumpcut, most of those
Speaker:idiots and edits are medium trash.
Speaker:A lot of them are getting good.
Speaker:There's a lot of great editors there now, but in the, in the beginning,
Speaker:there was this Jumpcut city, the average person watching right now
Speaker:doesn't care if the content is good, unless your edits make people nauseous.
Speaker:It's good.
Speaker:Now, one of the last things that people used to say, well, there's two more
Speaker:people used to say, well, video podcasts is less convenient for your audience and
Speaker:phones are powerful everybody's phone.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We're going to go back to this discoverability thing.
Speaker:This and the industry is known as a callback.
Speaker:remember when I said it's harder to discover it, to get
Speaker:discovered on an audio podcast.
Speaker:Imagine this every television sold and about the last five years in many back,
Speaker:as far as 10 years have built in YouTube.
Speaker:So, yeah, you can watch that without watching it.
Speaker:I listened to many, many, many podcasts from the tele, not even
Speaker:looking at any video, even some of my audio podcasts I listened to from
Speaker:the tele compliments of the smart TV, having a podcast app in there.
Speaker:So I'll have that playing I'm in the kitchen, cooking the red beans
Speaker:and rice, but the TV is running.
Speaker:One of my favorite podcasts.
Speaker:You see what I'm saying?
Speaker:I could be listening to the Tom Buck enthusiasm podcast
Speaker:without looking at the TV.
Speaker:And so it used to be said that will many podcasts apps don't do video.
Speaker:Not anymore.
Speaker:Most podcast apps do do video.
Speaker:Now my podcast platform that I currently use, they do not
Speaker:support video, but that's okay.
Speaker:And I'm gonna tell you how I work around that.
Speaker:I shoot these with the camera on currently Live either on
Speaker:Amazon or in my Facebook group.
Speaker:I'll take the audio version out.
Speaker:Chop it up in my editor and send it to captivate.fm link in the description.
Speaker:That's what I use as my host.
Speaker:I'll send them the audio only hosts.
Speaker:The video version will be posted on my, buy me a coffee page for my
Speaker:members to have the ability to see.
Speaker:And if you want to be able to see the video.
Speaker:You'll go to buy me a coffee.com/ Doc Rock, and you'll see it, or
Speaker:you'll just go there and support the podcast, drop a $5 or something.
Speaker:I think the majority of the excuses about video podcasts back in the day are done.
Speaker:It's just a matter of like how much, again, go back to complexity.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And it's very easy to pop the phone up and just go and with
Speaker:Anchor you can press go as gone.
Speaker:It's on Spotify, apple, or Google, everybody seconds later.
Speaker:And there's other apps like anchor.
Speaker:You don't have to use.
Speaker:But I believe taking that little bit of time more to get your phone
Speaker:out, slapping on a little tripod and just have it looking at your
Speaker:face while you're doing it and use that to help discover your podcast.
Speaker:That is the better way to go.
Speaker:I believe for now 2022.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:I am pretty positive.
Speaker:I'm almost willing to stake a bet on it, that video podcasts,
Speaker:which I hope get a better name.
Speaker:I hope we get around through vodcast or something.
Speaker:Cause that's going to be silly just saying video podcasts all the time.
Speaker:I'll start now.
Speaker:I believe that vodcast is going to take over because multimedia has
Speaker:always been a thing when TV came and blew radio out of the water.
Speaker:So it's really funny that we have this argument now, because it seems
Speaker:we've already had this argument back in 1951 and here we are again.
Speaker:So I wasn't around.
Speaker:I'm not that old be quiet.
Speaker:All right, gang.
Speaker:I just wanted to touch on that.
Speaker:I really curious of your thoughts.
Speaker:You can find it.
Speaker:On the socials at Doc Rock Instagram is probably the best place or
Speaker:jump into the Facebook group.
Speaker:Go to docrock.live/group.
Speaker:Become a member of the group, or go to the, buy me a coffee
Speaker:page and leave a comment there.
Speaker:I'm curious.
Speaker:What do you think is the future?
Speaker:Is it more the podcast or the vodcast?
Speaker:Let's talk about it.
Speaker:This has been Creator 50 once again.
Speaker:I'm your content creation coach and host, Doc Rock.
Speaker:Like I said, you can find me all over the internet at Doc R O C K.
Speaker:And I appreciate you for listening.
Speaker:We'll be back again.
Speaker:Soon.
Speaker:Episode five is a wrap.
Speaker:Aloha peace.
Speaker:The Creator 50 Podcast is a production of Doc Rock Media, Copyright 2022
Speaker:. The show is supported and
Speaker:Please visit buy me a coffee dot com slash doc rock.
Speaker:You can find the show notes at creator fifty dot com.
