How Amazon Music Is Shaking Up The Competition

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alban (00:00):
The RODE X kind of looks cool.

Kevin (00:01):
Yeah, I think they kind of they kind of look cool, but
they kind of look like it'stargeted towards the type of
person that would have bought anAlienware computer.

Alban (00:08):
Yes. 100%. Right. Exactly what I was thinking.

Jordan (00:13):
Yeah

Kevin (00:20):
It's just, I mean, it's kind of cool. But it's also like
a little bit too much like, Iwould never buy

Alban (00:24):
RGB lights in the keyboard. There's like a water
cooling thing going on inside ofthe computer. And you're like,
do you need the LED lights inthe water cooling system?

Jordan (00:36):
See, here's the thing is on TikTok and like my Instagram
reels and stuff, I totally getthose videos of people showing
off setups like that, like theredoing their keyboards and it
has the lights and they've gotlike the LED lights behind and I
will watch those for like anhour. I love looking at that
kind of stuff. And I see some ofthose microphones that have I
think it's called like theHyperX or something like that. I

(00:56):
can't remember what it's called.
And they're those condensermicrophones, but they have LED
light cell like completelychange color. It just ebbs and
flows, all these differentcolors, and a part of me really
wants it.

Alban (01:12):
So what we discovered here is that RODE actually knows
what they're doing. Becausethey're like, Yeah, we're going
for the gamer, Alienware crowdand Kevin and I are like, big
mistake, and you're you're like,Oh, yes, send me this. RODE made
me the mic, and they get LEDattachments.

Jordan (01:31):
But you know what, the thing that would hold me back
from actually getting somethinglike that is that I hate red.
Oh, yeah. And for whateverreason, like gaming companies
and stuff, they use red so muchand is my least favorite color
for like electronics anddevices. I despise it. So I will
not be getting it.

Kevin (01:49):
Yeah, you who did something similar was with a
similar color palette was Shure.
They have the Super 55, whichit's got a long history, and now
it's like a very retro mic. Andthey had a black version and it
had a red foam windscreen insideof it. And I thought it just
wrecked the whole thing. And Iwas like, why wouldn't have just
gone black? I think they cameout with a special edition that

(02:09):
had like blue inside and itlooked a little bit better. But
I still think the whole thingshould have been black, but the
red version actually caught onwith some well, a very famous
musician, Metallica JamesHetfield, he still uses it to
this day on stage. But yeah, ifyou're either a gamer or one of
the most popular rock musiciansin the world, maybe you can pull
off black and red. I feel likeit's a little bit too much for

(02:30):
me. I don't think I could pullit off.

Jordan (02:33):
Your headphones are black and red though.

Alban (02:35):
You're wearing them right now.

Kevin (02:38):
These are not great headphones, for $20 on Amazon
and they're comfortable.

Alban (02:44):
OneOdios, is that what those are the OneOdios?

Kevin (02:48):
I do love these things, but not because of their color.
That's funny. I had never evenconnected.

Alban (02:55):
Wait, now that we're on Kevin's gear review.

Kevin (02:57):
Yeah.

Alban (02:58):
What is this mic?

Kevin (02:59):
Can you see it?

Alban (03:00):
Yes, but I'm not happy about it.

Kevin (03:03):
Oh my gosh. It's so good.

Jordan (03:05):
It looks like a pipe. It looks like you attached a pipe
to the end of the boom arm.

Alban (03:10):
It's an Earthworks.
Jordan, this is what I said onthe show, like two months ago
saying we got to get one ofthese. And Kevin said no, you're
gonna hate it. It is isn't it?

Kevin (03:20):
Yeah, I did. I'm so sorry. Because you would love
it. It is amazing. I was verywrong. You said you'd use it and
I would hate it. No, no, it'sit's uh, I didn't say I used I
hadn't used it. But I said itwas a condenser mic and you'll
hate it.

Alban (03:34):
Jordan, check the tapes.
I hope you've got this on the

Kevin (03:38):
I did check it out at the B&H booth at Podcast Movement.
recording.
The last conference we were at,and the person there who's a
microphone expert from B&H toldme that unless you had a treated
room, you're not going to likethe sound of it. Well, my room
is treated so I do like thesound of it. I don't know if
you're gonna like it in yourroom, but I'm happy to give it
to you and you can try it outfor--

Alban (03:57):
I've got treatment. I can put in treatment. I can add more
treatment.

Kevin (04:03):
Yeah, you're right. It looks amazing. It sounds really
good. It is a condenser mic soyou have to be like if somebody
started mowing my lawn right nowthat'd be a problem.

Alban (04:11):
Which of them is did you end up getting Kevin so it's
Earthworks

Kevin (04:15):
ETHOS.

Alban (04:16):
ETHOS...looks so good.
There's so there's a silver anda black version.

Kevin (04:20):
Yeah. And so the reason I decided to get it was this is
mic's been out for a very longtime and it's been $800 and I've
never wanted to try it out for$800 I wasn't that curious.
Well, they just reduced theprice to $400 dollars. They cut
it in half. So now it's a $400dollar mic, same price as SM7B
or something.

Alban (04:36):
Whoa

Kevin (04:37):
The black one is still 800 So can't get the black one.
So I grabbed the silver one.

Alban (04:43):
Yeah, it's only on B&H It looks like

Kevin (04:46):
Or Sweetwater. I got it from Sweetwater but for $400,
you should absolutely considerthis against the SM7B if you're
looking to spend $400 on amicrophone. It's a good
contender. You should put it upnext to each other and I think
the difference would be if youhave a treated room, get the
Earthworks ETHOS and if youdon't, the SM7B would be a

Alban (05:04):
Our friend Steven Robles, he's now at Riverside.fm, who
better option.
does a bunch of podcasts andhosts with Buzzsprout. He uses
one and he swears by it. Hethinks it's the like greatest
mic he's ever used. He's a hugefan. He's always talking about
it and showing it off in hissetup. And for like months, I've
sat there and looked at it gone,man, that thing looks good. That

(05:24):
thing's pretty sweet thatKevin's like, I've heard it,
it's not any good, you aren'tgonna like it. Then, lo and
behold, you're just waiting forit to go on sale. So you'd be
the first one to get it.

Kevin (05:36):
Yeah, I'd really didn't mean it to work out that way.
But that was kind of the way itplayed out. I apologize. I'm
happy to put it in your handsand let you use it for a little
while. And if you'd like to grabone. It is awesome. I do like
it's my favorite looking micthat I've ever seen. And it
feels amazing. And has like toolmarks on it. You can tell that
it was there were some handsinvolved in the manufacturing of

(05:57):
it. It's very Mid Century Modernthe design of it, which I
appreciate

Alban (06:01):
Johnny Ives made a microphone. Yeah, kinda right. I
mean, that's what it looks like.

Kevin (06:06):
It kinda does. Yeah.

Jordan (06:07):
I think it's really ugly. I think it might just be
too masculine. Like, it lookslike actual plumbing fixtures.
And so you guys are like, Yeah,this is great. You can see the
tool mark.

Alban (06:17):
You were the one who was just like 30 seconds ago talking
about I really liked themicrophones with the LED lights
like all the gamer boys.

Jordan (06:26):
It's aesthetically pleasing! That...I don't get it.

Alban (06:29):
You want your mic to kind of like fade into the
background, so you can reallyfocus on the podcast absolutely
looks pretty. But if I havelike, I don't want to get like a
seizure during--

Jordan (06:40):
It's not a strobe light!

Kevin (06:44):
My opinion is it's the first mic that is clearly better
looking than the SM7B. I lovethe SM7B, how simple and clean
it is.

Alban (06:53):
Yes.

Kevin (06:53):
And I think this takes it to a whole nother level. Jordan
is shocked.

Jordan (06:56):
Oh, I just don't agree.
Are we having another debate?

Kevin (07:01):
No, you don't have to agree because these are
aesthetics. So there's you canhave your opinion, I can have
mine and neither one of us hasto be right or wrong. But I love
the way it looks.

Alban (07:09):
Okay, so The Great Splatter Debate of like six
months ago where we argued aboutthe Vocaster. You got one,
didn't you?

Kevin (07:17):
I did. I bought one of those, two.

Alban (07:18):
This is just tech review Kevin Finn now.

Jordan (07:21):
Okay, wait that is also black and red.

Kevin (07:26):
So I think you might be right. I might be drawn to black
and red subconsciously. But I ambuying a lot of black and red
stuff. Yeah, it's the GeorgiaBulldogs like Georgia colors.
Yeah, that's not me. So I did, Ibought the bow caster. What I'm
trying to do is I need anotherrecording setup. So this is why

(07:46):
I got some additional gear, Igot another microphone set up in
my home studio, I'm gonna takethe one that I was using here,
which is the RT 20. And I'mgoing to use that in the office
because I find myself in theoffice and I need to hop on a
call or do a recording and Ican't I gotta run home quick. So
going back and forth is being apain. So I'm just gonna set up
another recording set up in theoffice. And so since I want to
use the RE-20, that RE-20 is apretty gain hungry mic and I

(08:08):
don't like using Cloudlifters orFetHeads. So what is the best
simple preamp that you can puton your desk? It's the new
Focusrite Vocaster One Yeah. Idon't love the aesthetic of that
as much. I'm not drawn to how itlooks. But I am drawn to its
performance. It performs reallywell.

Alban (08:26):
Jordan, I hate to do this to you. But I feel like we've
got to go back and get some oldclips of Kevin just railing on
the vote cast or her having likea minor speckled palette.

Kevin (08:39):
And then you look at the side and they it's like a
rubberized coating around theside that they splatter painted.

Jordan (08:44):
It's not splatter painted. It's recycled
materials. So it's got like amica kind of effect to it. Oh, I
don't know.

Kevin (08:51):
I'm telling I promise you, Jordan, when you see us in
person, there'll be a mistake.

Jordan (08:55):
I like the texture.

Kevin (08:56):
I like it. No, it doesn't go together. It clashes. It's
like the aesthetic. No,

Jordan (09:02):
I feel like it has like an organic kind of thing to it.

Alban (09:04):
I could tell you Kev so I've I've held one of these.

Kevin (09:07):
I saw I saw one at the pod show. But it's a mess on the
way the treatment on the side isa mess.

Alban (09:12):
I will be very excited to follow up on this in the future.
Just Kevin is he is triggered bythe formica countertop. Look the
recycled materials as much as heappears to be right now.

Jordan (09:27):
I like it I don't know maybe it's--

Kevin (09:29):
It's like a poor representation of a starry
night.

Alban (09:36):
He was so triggered by these speckles. And now he's got
it and you were so good to thismic and now you have it.

Kevin (09:42):
I'm gonna paint it. I'm gonna paint the sides. I like it
from the top down.

Alban (09:46):
You're against red and black and you're wearing the
headphones. This is justcomplete hypocrisy in your
podcast setup.

Kevin (09:52):
You wait till next show.
I'm gonna get new headphones andI'm going to paint my voice. I'm
gonna fix all these problems,all these inconsistencies in my
life You guys are pointing out.

Jordan (10:04):
Every month, Apple posts a review of all the updates that
they've added to Apple podcasts.
So one of the ones I reallyliked is helping followers
discover subscriptions. Appleadded a feature as like an extra
way to promote subscriptions. Soif a listener is following a
show, and they've listened tothree episodes that have
subscriber only content, liketied to it or something like

(10:27):
that, and wasn't really exactlysure how it works, what happens
is there's a hint that asubscription is available for
that podcast that they'refollowing and listening to on a
consistent basis.

Kevin (10:40):
I love it. I love that it's a hint, it's not an ad to
buy something. It's a hint. Thisis like watching a football game
and they go to a club forBudweiser. You might be thirsty.

Jordan (10:56):
They just kind of like nudge nudge the listener a
little bit. And I don't know inwhat way they nudge nudge, maybe
it's a pop up maybe it's justlike a little like whisper of
something on the screen.

Kevin (11:09):
Or they call this the like the Apple distortion
universe or whatever.

Alban (11:13):
The Steve Jobs distortion field

Kevin (11:14):
Distortion field. Yeah, where they just convinced us to
continue to give them more andmore money. They're so good at
it. They're like we all neededto take lessons from these
people.

Alban (11:23):
Okay, so it's called a call to action. And that's a
very lame marketing phrase. Ithink hint, if I wrote hint, I
would have been very proud ofthinking. So I'm not against
this.

Kevin (11:36):
Yes. That's it's a genius.

Alban (11:38):
I love it. It's a good feature, right? Yeah.

Kevin (11:40):
But we're gonna buy a 62nd Superbowl hint next year or
something. You mean acommercial?

Alban (11:45):
No. I feel terrible for the person who wrote this ad
out. Kevin's like, oh, let'spause the whole talk about the
thing. We're talking about theone word Oh, but

Kevin (11:55):
it's, it's hilarious.

Jordan (11:57):
I mean, it does kind of have that connotation of like a
quick tip. Hey, just so youknow, like, it's like a helpful
sort of thing. So I think that'skind of like a positive spin on
a pop up or something, I don'treally know.

Kevin (12:10):
I have too much money sitting in my bank account right
now. So I need a few hints onwhere I could spend it. Thanks,
Apple, I will buy that premiumpodcast.

Jordan (12:19):
They're using such like gentle language. They also say a
subtle banner is also displayedon the Now Playing screen
between the artwork and episodetitle.

Kevin (12:27):
Yeah, I'm just joking about it. But the reality is,
this is a really great featurefor podcasters. Because Apple is
doing a lot of work to help yousell premium content. And
they're seeing a lot of successwith Apple podcast
subscriptions, and they'recontinuing to invest in it. So
this is a huge win forpodcasters. If you run a premium
podcast, and you're not takingadvantage of Apple podcast
subscriptions, you probablyshould. And the reason why I

(12:47):
think people push back on it isbecause the fees are high, it's
it is a 30% cut. But this is howthey justify those fees. They
are trying to sell your podcastfor you, they're helping you get
more subscribers. And so onlygetting 70% of a bigger pie in
oftentimes works out than having80% or 90% of a smaller pie. And

(13:07):
so apples doing the work here tojustify their cut. And I think
it's it's a win on both sides,apples hopefully will sell more
subscriptions. So they make moremoney, and podcasters win
because their subscriptions arebeing sold more. So more stuff
like this, this is really good.
So I am joking about the hintingand the language, but it's like
they are marketing geniuses.
They know how to do this stuffreally well. And they're doing

(13:27):
it for the benefit of podcastersto help you sell more shows and
for listeners to find shows thatthey might be interested in. So
it is a really good thing. I amjoking about it because it is
funny, but it's also a funny,really good thing.

Jordan (13:38):
I totally agree. It's so much easier, like I actually
don't have to do anything andI'll just get subscribers
because Apple's the one puttingit in front of the audience and
promoting it in every way theypossibly can. They're putting it
just right under people's nosesand giving them like a whiff of
like what--

Alban (13:58):
Neither of you are gonna be our copywriters in the
future. I'm just letting youknow that. You're both cut off.

Jordan (14:05):
Like a pleasant whiff! It's like when you smell like
apple pie coming out of theoven. And it's so nice because
like with Patreon or Supercast Ihave to market the heck out of
that. I'm constantly postingabout it. I'm constantly talking
about it. But Apple, I can justlike sit back and just gain
subscribers without doinganything extra. So yeah, I
totally agree that the 30% It'squite a bit but it's totally

(14:27):
worth it.

Kevin (14:28):
Yeah. And it sounds like the way that they're triggering
this is not like creepyalgorithm you like this, you can
probably like this and yourfriends like this and all that
stuff. It's like what you'reengaging with. So if you're
listening to the free episodesthat are available in this feed,
and they notice that you have apremium feed, they are going to
start dropping hints that thismight also be something that
you'd like or that maybe you'remissing out on because you're

(14:49):
unaware of it in a subtle way.

Alban (14:50):
Yeah. And it says the you engage with three episodes. So
their timing is pretty wellengagement is something that
Apple measures that's the If youlisten to 20 minutes, or 40% of
the episode, then you count asengaged. So this is somebody
who's probably listened to threefull episodes. And then they are
presented with a call to actionto upgrade to the paid content.

(15:14):
I think what's unsavorysometimes is, hey, sign up for
this newsletter and pay for it,sign up for this thing and pay
for it. I'm like, I don't haveany trust yet. Why would I sign
up and start paying or give youaccess to my email inbox or
whatever it may be? Apple's ableto see, Okay, looks like someone
actually is into this. Now's theright time to tell them if you

(15:34):
want even more, there's a way topay money and get even more. I
did some real life customerresearch on this. Recently, my
wife, I saw we started getting arecurring charge for an apple
podcast subscription. And I waslike, Oh, you're listening this
podcast? And she was like, Yeah,I just, I was listening to one
with our daughter. And then Isaw that you had to pay so just
clicked and paid. I was like,Oh, you don't have to pay for

(15:56):
all of them. But it'sinteresting to like, see it.
Like they listened to a few.
They got the hint. And they tookit. And they went ahead and they
upgraded. So I think it's like agood timing for people who are
trying to get their subscriptionin front of more people.

Jordan (16:09):
You know what, that actually makes a lot of sense to
me, because I did get a reviewonce. It was after I started the
apple subscriptions. I got areview. And it was a lady
shaming me for pay Walling, allof my content. And I was so
confused. I didn't understandwhy she thought that. But that
makes complete sense that maybesomeone would see that and be
like, Oh, I have to pay tolisten this podcast, they don't

(16:31):
realize that it's like the bonusepisodes.

Alban (16:34):
But it works even better.
Like three engaged episodes, youclearly know their stuff here
for free. And you've nowprobably started hitting like, I
wouldn't mind those bonusepisodes right now. So there's
no, there shouldn't be too muchconfusion that it's paywall
totally. And now you're probablylooking around going if there's
more of this stuff, I'm reallyinto it, it's kind of a perfect
opportunity to present it.

Jordan (16:55):
I'm a little curious on the language that they use,
because they say if the personis following the show and
engages with at least threeepisodes that have subscribed
our versions. So I wonder ifthat kind of like hint is
specific to episodes that havead free versions or something
like that?

Alban (17:12):
Oh, interesting. I read that to be the show has
subscriber versions. But if thesubscriber version is applies to
the episodes, then yeah, it hasto be like ad free or early
release. Maybe like it couldhave been hey, these could have
come out a week earlier.

Kevin (17:27):
Yeah. Or extended cuts is the other type of premium
episode that they allow you todo. Oh, well, I think that this
is becoming more normal. Youknow, Albin, you said, your wife
bought one, my wife has boughtone. And I think, you know, we
think about this through thelens of podcasters. People who
are very much into podcasts andpodcasts for the longest time,

(17:47):
have been totally free. And theidea of paying for some premium
versions is relatively new, youknow, the last couple years,
more and more people are tryingto do this. But it's coming on
the heels of the entire worldgetting very used to paying for
premium content, like Netflixwas the first big one, right?
And then there's Disney plus.
And there's Hulu soon to beTwitter, Twitter, there's been a

(18:08):
lot of these things becomingvery normal. And so like, when I
noticed that my wife wasstarting to pay for podcasts, I
was very interested in how shemade that jump. And for her, I
don't think it was a big thing.
She was like, What's the bigdeal? You pay for Paramount plus
and HBO. And so I listened thispodcast and I want to buy the

(18:28):
premium version. Like, why areyou making the deal that I'm
like, Well, I'm excited thatyou're spending money in the
podcasting industry. But forher, it was not a big leap. And
for me, it was like, Oh, this issomething very new. So I think
it's interesting. And I think ifyou're a podcaster, that's
considering, like you have thebandwidth to create some premium
episodes or to do something alittle bit above and beyond.
Again, we don't recommend youtake your best content and hide

(18:49):
it behind the paywall. Butadditional stuff if you have the
capacity to do that might beworth considering. Because I do
think the world is getting to aplace where more and more people
are accepting this as normal.
It's not a weird thing to buyentertainment or support or
creator. And like I said in thepodcasting world, it might feel
a little bit new, but maybe theworld is a little bit further
along than at least I haveopened my mind to. And I think

(19:10):
subscriptions could work formore people. I might be coming
around to that opinion. Okay, sothe other thing that Apple
talked about this happens everyyear, but they have announced
their holiday deliverydeadlines. And so the team over
there Apple, they take breakslike most of us do around the
holidays. So for Thanksgivingand Christmas, New Years, those
holiday seasons, this was when alot of the team takes off. And

(19:31):
so if you're going to submit ashow, be aware that between
November 19 and November 27,that there may be some delays
and December 23 to January 2,there may be some delays as
well. So that applies if you'resubmitting a new show if you're
setting up a subscription ifyou're emailing their support
team, any interactions with theApple systems, there would be a
delay because they will be shortstaffed during those dates.

Jordan (19:57):
Buzzsprout remove email addresses is from RSS feeds. I
mean, this is one of the moreexciting things for me. I hate
spam. I think everyone hatesspam. So this is extremely
exciting.

Kevin (20:12):
The reason that email addresses are in RSS feeds in
the first place is becauseiTunes namespace specification,
which is the old spec, thatpodcasters use to create an RSS
feed said that we had to put itin there. And so that has been
what we've done for a very longtime. That has just changed.
It's very recent. And Appleactually said, starting in early

(20:34):
2023, we're no longer going torecommend that you have email
addresses and feeds. So wereached out to Apple and said,
This is great. We can't wait tomake this change. wondering, do
we have to wait till 2023? Orcan we do it now? And they wrote
back and they said, No, oursystem is not using email
addresses. Now, we don'tactually recommend that you use
them now. But we're givingpeople time to make the change.
If you guys are ready to makethe change now go for it

(20:56):
perfectly safe to do so. So westarted doing research with
other directories and figuringout would this cause any
problems anywhere else. And wefound out that it really doesn't
cause any problems anywhereelse. James over at pod news, he
took email addresses out of hisfeeds a while ago, he's not
seeing any issues, we startedpulling email addresses out of a
few test feeds on our sitedidn't see any issues. Where you
run into a bump once in a whileis you want to get listed in a

(21:16):
new service or new directory,and they're using that email
address to verify that you ownthe feed. So we had to come up
with a solution for that. Andour solution was, we're going to
give people the ability to addan email address to their feed
for 24 hours. That way you canadd it in, you wait five
minutes, your feed refreshes,you go ahead and verify you get
in the directory. And then 24hours later, we pull it out
automatically. So it's not justsitting out there for spammers

(21:37):
to pick it up.

Alban (21:38):
The reason it's important is because this wasn't being
used by many directoriesanymore. It was absolutely being
used by every spammer and boughtin all podcasting. And it just
became like a lot of newcompanies, the way they launched
was they went and they boughtone of these lists that was
like, Hey, can I get the emailaddress for everyone who's ever

(21:58):
had a podcast ever? And they'relike, Sure, here you go, I just
sold you the list. And then theywould just mass email,
everybody. I mean, it really goton our radar when a competitor
started emailing everybody onBuzzsprout saying, why don't you
move over? Here's why, you know,we're better than Buzzsprout.
And then people started saying,Hey, did you sell my email

(22:19):
address to your competitor? Sothat would never have made sense
for us. But all of a sudden,people started going, like, how
was my email even getting outthere into the world. And it
wasn't just like one competitor.
But it was also like 12listening apps, and all these
random services, and some arejust complete scams. So
something really had to change.
The marketers ruined it. And youknow, something had to give. And

(22:42):
so that's kind of where I'm sureApple started thinking about it
and why we started thinkingabout it, because something's
got to change when everyone'sjust getting spam, just because
this happened to have a podcast.

Jordan (22:52):
Yeah, I've had a sharp decline in spam emails, like I'm
still getting a couple and theyprobably obtained my email
address prior to the removal ofit. But I've actually seen a
pretty decent decline, which isgreat, because I was deleting
probably two or three spamemails a day for a while there.
That's great.

Alban (23:11):
I think as soon as James Cridland started kind of naming
and shaming the companies thatthe most, he was like putting
podcasts out in the world withspecific email addresses so that
he would know how was beingpicked up. And then he was just
publishing it all. And so whenhe'd say here's the biggest
spammer from the last week, andhe would name them, and it's

(23:32):
funny, if you look at hischarts, the amount of spam that
at least we're going to hisdropped off a cliff once he
started writing those articles.
So I think there's a lot thatjust the industry as a whole
being very vocal about it washelpful. And I hope now that you
don't just them not existing infeeds because they don't need
to. We'll do the rest andeveryone can just go back to

(23:53):
like getting email forwards fromtheir uncle, like political
emails and all the otherwonderful things you've got in
there. You can focus on thatstuff and not focus on scammy
podcast emails. I'd like to be aguest on your podcast.

Jordan (24:11):
Speaking of being a guest, if you have ever had a
podcast guest coming on to yourshow, maybe they aren't a
podcaster they don't backgroundit they're nervous about it. We
have created a new video thatyou can send to your future
podcast guests and Alban youstar in this video and it is

(24:31):
spectacular.

Kevin (24:33):
That's a common misconception. It's not Alban
looks a lot like him. It'sactually his dad. Yeah, that's

Alban (24:38):
my dad.

Jordan (24:39):
That's right. Buzzsprout founded in nepotism, I forgot
about that. Yeah, it's Albert.

Alban (24:44):
Yes. And most people don't know this, but my dad
worked at Buzzsprout back in theearly 90s. And that's how I got
the job. So it worked out wellfor me. We pulled up the old
video, dad and none of thecontent still hold up today.

Jordan (24:58):
Yeah, I mean, it was pretty Crazy. We were going
through some old archivalfootage cleaning things out and
yeah, had a dust this one offand put it in VHS player and lo
and behold, great information.

Alban (25:11):
This video actually does date back longer than most
videos back definitely to, youknow, at least a year ago, I
feel like I talked about thiswith Travis back in the day. And
when we would go and we dointerviews, there's always this
painful 20 minute period,because people are three minutes
late. And then they go, let mestop my mic. And then they

(25:33):
realized they don't have theirmic. And then their air pods are
dead. And like they're usingtheir laptop mic. And then
you're like, Do you have agaming headset, and like, you
just go through this whole thingof trying to set everything up
and getting the camera right andinternet connections. And so
Travis started keeping a list.
And he was just like, here's allthese things. And then when I'd
run a new ones I was adding tothe list. At some point, we were
like, we just need to make avideo that says, here's your

(25:56):
instructions, here's six and ahalf minutes. And this is going
to cover like so many of thoseawkward conversations, we had to
have, like, Hey, I'm not thefashion police, but like large
earrings during the interview isactually likely to cause some
noise, I don't want to tell youto stop typing in the middle of
the interview. Because that canbe kind of condescending, just

(26:16):
like all those little awkwardthings that we were running
into. Well, now you don't haveto say it Buzzsprout will say it
for you. So that it's kind ofout of the way. And hopefully
the guests are showing up toyour interviews, way more
prepared. And they've alreadykind of troubleshot all these
little things so that yourinterviewer can be focused on
content rather than the anxietyor the social awkwardness of

(26:39):
setting up the podcast.

Kevin (26:42):
And since you're sending it to guests, guests might not
be in the podcasting as much asyou are. So we tried to come up
with this concept. That'd befunny and entertaining. And a
little bit like, you know,reminiscent remember the 90s a
little bit remember how goofythings were. And so that's where
the entertainment factor comesin. But the information is all
really helpful and current andmodern. It also

Jordan (27:01):
comes with a preflight checklist for your guests to use
to make sure that they are readyto go before they sit down for
the interview. And then it alsocomes with a document that has a
little bit further explanationof some of the points that we
hit in the video to to helpthem.

Alban (27:16):
Yeah, so that's everything from you know, it's
just a good reminder to telleverybody in the house, hey, I'm
recording an interview, I didthat with my daughter before we
hit record today. It's good foryou to make sure your internet
connections are high, it's goodto pick a location that's
unlikely to be disturbed. Lotsof little things that podcasters
you've kind of just learned allof those little checklists,

(27:38):
Jordan put together into thisreally good document so that
you're guessing you just just godown and go, Okay, check. I did
that. Okay, check. I've donethat. So they go, I'm fully
comfortable. I know that I'mgonna nail this interview. And
now they're focused on like,what are the questions not? How
do I sound? Oh, did I just makea noise is that awkward?
Whatever it may be.

Jordan (27:59):
Yeah. So if you want to check out that video, I will
have a link to it in the shownotes. And I highly recommend
that you watch it, it is a goodtime.

Alban (28:07):
It's definitely the best reception we've ever had for a
video. It came out yesterdayless than 24 hours ago. And I've
already gotten a bunch of textsfrom people in my life who are
not podcasters. So it's alreadygotten a little bit outside of
podcasting, and they'recomplementing the video because
we had some fun, we were goofingaround. We had a good time with

(28:27):
it. So I hope everyone enjoysit. And what I really hope is
that it's enjoyable enough thatpodcast guests will watch it.
And maybe we can make podcastsinterviews just a little bit
less stress, a little bit lessawkward and get people off of
those computer mics.

Kevin (28:47):
So did you guys catch that the last episode of pod
land dropped last week?

Jordan (28:51):
I did yeah, their 100th episode and final they said

Kevin (28:55):
100 And a final episode of pod land. So if anybody's
listening this podcast if youhaven't listened to pod land
yet, don't go searching for itnow because it is no longer
called pod land. It is calledpod news weekly review. Yeah.
All right. It's a great show.
They host on Buzzsprout. We arethe sponsor that show. This is
James Cridland and Sam Sethi.

(29:16):
They do a great roundup everyweek of what's going on in the
internet. And they did thislittle marketing spin on
renaming their show. So we talkabout renaming shows all the
time, because it's somethingthat happens all the time. And
so how do you do it in a waythat's not only non disruptive,
but possibly gives you a littlebit of a little boost? And they
came up with this clever ideathat last couple of weeks, they
started dropping hints in theirpodcast episodes that this was

(29:39):
going to be their final episode.
And they didn't let everybody inon what they meant by that.
Everyone's like, What are youtalking about? Is this show
really, you're gonna stop doingit? Well, it turns out they're
just renaming it. So it was kindof fun, but they got a little
bit of press about it. I mean,James actually runs a newsletter
so he gives himself some pressabout it. People are talking
about it. On Twitter, and youknow, podcasts are chatter, like

(30:01):
what's happening with you know,pod land? Well, it's a cool fun
way, if you're going to rebrandyour show, rename your show,
like why not use it to get alittle marketing buzz going.

Alban (30:11):
It's a good name switch to they went from pod land,
which I think for a lot ofpeople was not exactly clear
what pod land was. But pod newshas a really good name ID and
the podcasting industry,everybody knows the brand. They
very likely if you work inpodcasting, you read the
newsletter every morning. Andnow, you know, this is the show

(30:32):
where we round up the biggeststories in podcasting each week.
It's two people who are reallygood both have a radio
background. So they're reallygood playing off each other.
They do really good interviews.
It's a good show. And so Ihighly recommend it. And I think
what they've done is they'vejust made it a little bit easier
for new listeners to get intothe show, because it's very
clear what the show is about andwho it's for. So highly

(30:54):
recommended. Sam and James areboth great guys. Yeah, hope
people really enjoy listening toit.

Jordan (31:01):
Yeah, I think that this is a really perfect case for
changing the branding of yourpodcast, if anyone's ever
thought about doing that. Andthey did it in such a great way
to like not just the clickBeatty like this is our final
one by but also announcing topeople why they are doing the
rebrand what to expect and justkind of prefacing it and James

(31:23):
said that basically, what washappening was everyone knows pod
news. And what was happeningwhen he'd go meet people is they
would confuse pod land with PODnews or vice versa. And then he
finally went like, Okay, well,it just makes sense to rename
pod news to pod News Daily, andthen have this be the pod news
weekly. And that's the maindifference between it because

(31:46):
they're both podcasts aboutpodcasting news. So yeah, I
think that this was a reallysmart move,

Alban (31:52):
one podcast that did announce that they were ending
and then followed through withit was EVO Tara has been doing a
newsletter, and a podcast calledpodcast pontifications. For
years and years. I don't knowwhen he started, but Evo is
like, I want to say the 40thpodcaster in the world. Maybe he
started really, really early andhas been doing shows like I

(32:15):
don't know, since 2004, Ibelieve. So he's just decided to
shut down podcastpontifications. And he said,
Really, podcasting is changingso much. It's a lot to keep up
with that. And when he'sredoing, he started something
new is a whole fiction podcastnewsletter called The End. So
there's a whole world of fictionpodcasts, the EVO has been a

(32:35):
champion for a long, long time.
And now he's doing a really coolnewsletter. So highly recommend
following Evo and payingattention to him. It's really
nice person, good friend of theshow, and wish him the best with
his new newsletter.

Jordan (32:49):
Yeah, I went looked at his new the newsletters, the end
dot FYI. And I love that it's afiction newsletter. And it's the
end like the end of a book. Butit's also the end, as in the end
of a season, or the end of aseries of fiction podcast is
very clever. It's really great.
If you have a fiction podcastthat you just finished a season
of or you have one that you hadfinished a while ago, you can

(33:11):
actually submit your podcast befeatured in his newsletter.

Kevin (33:16):
That's great. And you know, I'm not a fan of fiction
podcast. But I have a feelingthat I'm not a fan of fiction
podcasts because I've neverlistened to one. And so I'm
really open to the idea oflistening to some fiction
podcast. So I might start withthe end and hear his reviews and
then go check out the project.
And could you think of any goodfiction podcasts or your mouth
is like dropping to the floor,

Jordan (33:36):
I love fiction podcasts.
So I can definitely put togethera list for you.

Kevin (33:42):
I will take that list, and I will start listening to a
few.

Jordan (33:48):
Amazon Music has made a really, really big move by going
ad free for their Prime memberswith their podcasts. What's
really cool about this is if youhave Amazon Prime, you can go
into the Amazon music app. Andthey have like a list of ad free
and exclusive podcasts. And itincludes things from like
wondery, Amazon Primeexclusives. I mean, there's

(34:11):
things from like the New YorkTimes Wall Street Journal, CNN,
ESPN, all these really bignetwork podcasts are now ad
free. If you have Amazon Prime,there's

Alban (34:21):
a really good podcast episode actually about this.
Amazon's VP of AMP, I think it'slike Amazon music. Steve boom
was on decoder, which is theverge podcast with Neil Patel.
And they kind of talk throughthis decision. So Amazon is
always kind of trying to lockeven more people into using

(34:44):
Amazon Prime. And part of thatwas tons of more free music on
Amazon music. But now whatthey're claiming and I think
they're right, is now thelargest ad free podcast
directory in the world. So allthe wondery Plus shows are in
there, all the biggest likeDaily News. So like the daily

(35:05):
and up first and there's a lot,all these Amazon exclusives are
in there. And then 1000s ofshows from a cast to they have
this exclusive. So I personallylove this for a few different
reasons. But one of his what wekind of talked about earlier, if
we want a world where everythingisn't driven by advertisements,

(35:27):
then there has to be another wayto monetize. And Amazon said you
know what we're willing toactually pay the creators for
this content just to get alittle bit more lock in with
Amazon Prime. If you don't likeAmazon and other things about
them, or you don't use primetotally cool because all these
shows still exist in their adform. But now there is an

(35:48):
additional option for anybodywho does like prime, I use
prime. And so if I was listeningto the shows like this would be
pretty cool. Look at Amazon'sstrategy juxtapose it with
Spotify strategy, Spotify hasalways been acquire a show make
it exclusive. Now we've kind offorced the diehard fans to use

(36:08):
Spotify for their podcastplayer, and Amazon. They went
in, they bought wondery. Theygot smartlace. They've gotten a
few other exclusives. And Ithink all of them are still
available on all apps, they'retotally cool with being part of
the open podcast ecosystem. Andthen they now are providing a

(36:29):
pretty strong incentive, in myopinion, to convince you to come
try out Amazon music. Now withthe caveat that I don't use
Amazon music. And so I don'twant to say anything positive or
negative about the app Kev, haveyou ever used it?

Kevin (36:43):
I'm using it right now, as we're talking about it, but
no, I've used it for testing. Ittested a lot of different
podcasts and Amazon music andsee how they will excuse your
notes display, you know,checking for Chapter support all
that kind of stuff I've done,but I've never used it when I'm
just listening to podcasts tosee how it goes. So I'm going to
put on my list this week to playwith it a little bit more, I
want to see if they have anApple Watch app, I will tell you

(37:04):
the first time I just launchedit when you guys started talking
about it on my phone and itcrashed. So I launched it again.
And now it seems to be working.
I did see a little banner aboutthem promoting the fact that
they have all these new songsthat they just added. And that
said something about the world'slargest selection of ad free
podcasts. So it seems likethey're playing it up quite a
bit. So they're pretty excitedabout it. So it's probably worth

(37:24):
checking out. You know, I don'treally have anything positive or
negative to say about Amazon, Iwould say this on the positive
side that it's good to have morediversity. Like we don't want
apple having too much control orpower over podcasting, we are
concerned about the amount ofpower and control that Spotify
is gaining over podcasting. Soit's good to have another big
player trying to make moves anddiversify some of that power and

(37:45):
influence. But on the downside,then it's just another big
player with power and influence.
Like really what we arechampions of here at Buzzsprout.
Is the independent podcastersindependent podcast apps getting
more power and influence. Why isAmazon doing this isn't
necessarily for the benefit ofindependent podcasters? Or is it
for the benefit of shareholders.
And it's going to be for thebenefit of shareholders. Like

(38:06):
they had probably one of thebest ideas that's been generated
and used on the internet in thelast 20 years, which is Amazon
Prime, it is huge. It's it'shelped Amazon Go from an online
bookstore to the largestretailer in the world over the
past 20 years. And so they'recontinuing to bank and you know,
like extract more juice out ofthe orange of Amazon Prime, this
is another way that they'redoing it. So like I said, good

(38:27):
and bad, maybe mostly good fornow. And Amazon still is very
small player in the podcastingspace. So it wouldn't hurt to
see these numbers creep up to 5%or 10% of listenership happening
through Amazon, that would onlybe a good thing. Again, the only
time it starts to get scary iswhen you start getting to like
Spotify size, and then you startmaking decisions that are truly
not in the best interest ofindependence. So Amazon's not

(38:48):
doing any of that yet. So I'mnot really concerned.

Jordan (38:53):
You know, the thing is, is like I think that Amazon is
making a really big push, andthey're podcasting. You know, we
heard this week that they hadlaid off 50% of their, like live
music employees, which were theones that put together that amp
app that I talked about. It'slike the like curating a DJ
playlist sort of thing. It wasit was an absolute dumpster

(39:13):
fire. So I mean, it makes sensethat they would walk away from
that a little bit, but I do likethat they're pushing this and
you know, I was I was veryexcited about them going ad
free. And I think that it's sofunny because I had talked about
paying for Spotify yet Ilistened to add still in the
Spotify podcasts like they stillinsert ads into it. And I didn't

(39:35):
really think anything of ituntil Kevin, you said something
about it. And then I kind of hada moment where I was like, Wait,
yeah, why am I paying for ads inmy podcasts? Like that doesn't
make any sense. And so this isreally great. And I hope that
Spotify kind of takes you know,notes on this because my husband
was asking me, okay, well, wealready have Amazon Prime like

(39:57):
should we just pay the $8 amonth For the Amazon music
subscription, as opposed topaying the like $12, or 15, or
whatever it is for Spotify. AndI told him, how about you use
their app for one day, and thenyou let me know, because I have
personally use their app. And itis so unusable. And I feel

(40:22):
really bad for saying that Ireally do. But here's the thing
is like, their user experienceis a little bit clunky, and it
hasn't made any changes. Andit's really hard to find the
podcasts that like you followit, the music's really hard to
access. Amazon music was maybesomething that they weren't
super focused on. And they werekind of focusing on some other
things. And so I think that thisis a really good indication that

(40:46):
they are making strides to maketheir platform better. You know,
they added this podcast previewsfeature, I think Spotify was
playing with this a little bit,and then they didn't really
launch it. But basically, youclick on these podcasts
previews, and then they havethese clips that you can just
like carousel through. And youcan find new podcasts that way,

(41:07):
which is really cool. The listsare easier to scroll through,
it's easier to find things. SoI'm hoping that this means that
they are like putting more focuson Amazon music as a platform,
because if they do get it to aplace where it's really
comfortable and intuitive forpeople to use, I think that they
will gain that traction, becauseI mean, right now they only

(41:28):
account for less than 1% of allof Buzzsprout stats,

Alban (41:32):
the thing that I really like is that there's a natural
alignment between the creatorsof these shows, and Amazon,
where we've talked a lot about,there's a lack of alignment for
Spotify. And that's why I thinkat times, you can come off
exceptionally critical ofSpotify to say it lightly. what
Amazon is doing is they'resigning shows, and the creators

(41:53):
are getting paid, or they'rebuying wondery, who are paying
creators, and then they'resaying we're keeping these open,
so everyone can listen. And sohow many times have we heard the
stories of someone who's goneexclusive, and then really
stinks when their listenershiptraps off a cliff? And then they
get let go, because their showdoesn't do well. And they're
kind of left there going? Well,of course, it didn't do well, I

(42:15):
was only available in a singlepodcasting app. Well, Amazon
saying, let's get you out to theentire world. And then we will
sell people to move to Amazon,because they're so excited about
the content, they'll move overto support you the Creator, and
they're gonna get the ad freeversion. That's really nice.

Kevin (42:33):
But they also do have a lot of exclusive shows. I think
that means that not they're notdoing that strategy with
everybody. Oh, interesting.
They're doing that strategy.
Yeah, they're doing thatstrategy that you talked about
with some shows that theypurchased like smartlace, which
I think is the right strategy.
But I'm also noticing in the appthat they do have, they have a
whole section called exclusivepodcasts. And if you click into
it, you'll see that the majorityof them are listed as exclusive.
A lot of them are just listed asthat free, but they do have

(42:56):
plenty that are exclusive. So Ido I do have the same concerns
that you do that if you'reexclusive on Spotify. That's one
thing, like you only had thepeople who listened through
Spotify, have an opportunity tohear your show. That's a much
smaller world on Amazon musicbecause even fewer people listen
on Amazon music. Yeah, I'mseeing like 20 or 30 shows that
are listed as exclusively Idon't know how many they have.
But that is a possibility thatthese shows will not get enough

(43:18):
traction for Amazon to continueto invest in them. And then what
do they do with them? Do theyshut them down and retain the IP
until the creators that they'reon their own? Or do they let
them take the show? Or do theyjust open up to the world? I
mean, there's lots of differentthings that could happen and we
don't know. So I don't want tospeculate.

Jordan (43:33):
Those podcasts that are exclusive. There. Specifically
Amazon exclusive. It's not likeSpotify, where they bought
podcasts and now podcast you canonly listen to on Spotify. It's
not like gimlet where gimlet youcan only listen to it on
Spotify, you can still getwondery Even though Amazon owns
wonder you can still getwondering on other apps. Yes,

(43:54):
you can.

Kevin (43:55):
And I hate to be the guy who's like shutting it down.

Alban (43:57):
But there are Wondery, all the Wondery are still
available everywhere, Kev.

Kevin (44:01):
Well, let's do a little real time research because, baby
this is Keke Palmer is listed asa Wondery--
That's an Amazon Exclusive.
It says Wondery. WonderyExclusive.
but it has at the top of thecover or Amazon Exclusive right.
What I'm trying to say is thatthere are some wondering shows
that are now Amazon exclusives.
And there are some wonderingshows that are open to the
world.

Jordan (44:22):
But it's not all of them.

Alban (44:24):
Yeah, so it sounds actually very similar to gimlet
with Spotify, where they boughtgimlet and gimlet not only
brought a lot of IP that stayedmostly public, and was some
benefits to Spotify. But it alsobecame a production house where
Spotify started brand new shows.
Oh, you

Jordan (44:44):
can find Spotify on Apple, huh? Their marketing just
convinced me that I could onlyfind on Spotify. I've been
bamboozled.

Kevin (44:55):
So I think what we're seeing is that Amazon is trying
a little bit of everything whenthey first bought Smartlist they
I can't remember exactly whatthe pitch was, but it was
something about an Amazon musicyou get to listen to episodes a
week early. Yeah, it was timed.
Yeah, now they're doing Amazonexclusive podcast. They're also
doing ad free with prime.
They're trying lots of differentthings, which I think is great
because they're gonna figuresome things out, they're gonna
figure out what is working bestto be able to sustain podcast

(45:18):
creation, and then they'llprobably start focusing more in
that direction. So I don't seeanything alarming here. I think
they're doing they're doing goodwork. We need more listenership.
So if you're a prime member, andyou don't have any problems
listening the Amazon music app,like give it a shot, try it out,
try some ad free podcasts, letus know what you think. And the
way you can do that is throughbooster grams. There's a

(45:40):
transition. Smooth.

Jordan (45:45):
It is time for Buzz boosts. We need to start off
with giving a huge thanks toJean bean and mere mortals
podcast for suggesting Saturn.
Because using that has been, Idon't want to say life changing.
I want to be hyperbolic here,but it's up there.

Alban (46:04):
Definitely. Podcast changing.

Jordan (46:06):
Yes. I am disappointed that we are a podcast for
podcasters about podcasting. Andwe didn't know about this
because this is one of thegreatest tools we have used in a
long time. So yeah, Saturn dotDev, it's better not fly dot
Dev. Oh, that's right. Saturndot fly dot Dev is amazing for

(46:30):
sorting your booster grams. Soyeah, thank you guys for telling
us about that. Now we'll getinto our actual buzz boosts.

Alban (46:38):
All right, first buzz boost was 1530. From Brian at
top tier audio. The idea I lovedwas using audio to extend the
story and experience of TV showsby providing supplemental story
based content, rather thanbehind the scenes commentary or
interviews. Great idea. Thanks,Brian. I love that story, too. I
mean, if that's the that'spossible for TV shows to do more

(47:01):
of that extended story. I thinkthat is a really cool way to
have podcasts, you know, kind ofhelp super fans get even more
into the content. So thanks forthe boost.

Jordan (47:11):
Yeah. And I think that was in reference to a saying we
didn't know what he was saying.
The good idea was for Do youremember that? This is the whole
reason why we are now on Saturnis because of Brian's comment.
He just said good idea. And wedidn't know what it was. Yes, I
also agree, Brian, I hope thatwe do get some more fiction

(47:33):
podcasts. All right, we

Kevin (47:36):
got 4500 SATs from Silas TV. Hi, my name is Silas. I'm
one of the hosts of a showcalled uploaded a tech news
commentary show. We've recentlymoved to Buzzsprout. I have a
suggestion for Buzzsprout ads,why not allow advertisers and
podcasters to choose if theywant pre rolls or post rolls as
well, in exchange for a reducedcost per download for the pre
and post roll placements. Thiswould allow people shorter

(47:57):
episodes to get something whilegiving both sides the option of
choosing what type of placementsthey want. Yep, that's a good
idea. It's something we'vetalked about, we'll continue to
talk about if we can find a wayto do something like that.
We're, we're open to it. It'sjust where you have a lot to
learn about the ad space. And sowe are continuing to experiment
and talk with people who areinterested in running ads
podcasters, who are running ads,and we're doing a lot of

(48:19):
learning. So look for more andmore in the Buzzsprout ad space.
What you're seeing today is ourfirst attempt, and we think it's
pretty good. But there'sobviously a lot of room for
improvement. So keep sendingyour suggestions. And we'll keep
on thinking them through and seewhat we can get rolled out for
you.

Jordan (48:33):
All right, and then we have 9000 from Dave Jones. Kudos
to the dev team for rolling outthe email address privacy change
this week. Love it. We love it,too. Dave Jones also sent us
5150 which I looked up is theVan Halen boost.

Kevin (48:47):
Why is that a Van Halen boost?

Jordan (48:49):
I haven't the slightest idea. But it sounds really cool.

Alban (48:53):
There's a Van Halen album called 5150. I don't remember
what that's in reference to. Ithink it's a song on the album.
But 5150 is a pretty famous VanHalen album.

Jordan (49:04):
All right, oops. And he says, Please make a separate
show called podcasting horrorstories. I'd follow and boost
that right away. If you put thecrackling fire in the
background, smiling face. Thatwas a lot of fun. And then he
gave us a tent, fire, heartemoji. Yes, it was really fun.
That was a blast. So thank you.
I'm glad you liked it.

Alban (49:23):
We got 8222 from mere mortals podcast. Hey, gang, I
emailed your team about gettingmy two shows set up with the OP3
tags and they didn't know what Iwas talking about. Maybe you'd
be able to do that for me and hetold us what shows. By the way,
this is a Buzzboost, 8222, Ifyour numbers still come through

(49:44):
wonky Yeah, I don't get it. 8222that is the official Buzzboost.
I like it.

Kevin (49:49):
I know the 8 is a B and the 2's look like Z's but what
is the first 2 look like a U? Isit the closest we can get to a
U? Oh, "Bzzz" Oh, yeah. I loveit.

Alban (50:03):
Why does the first 2 like a you, you guys missed out on
that whole eighth grade periodwhere people were like writing
naughty words or calculators.
Like

Kevin (50:12):
I was listening to the teacher and trying to

Jordan (50:14):
You'd have to turn the words upside down. Like you'd
have to turn the numbers upsidedown for it to be a naughty
word. So the numbers were upsidedown.

Alban (50:21):
That's just the way to like blow your friend's mind. So
when you like you did it upsidedown, like oh my gosh, this guy
has gone over anyone who'syounger than like, 30 years old.
This is what passed for likeentertainment back in our day.
So you guys have like TikTok nowand like lots of fun things. We
were trying to write things onour calculators,

Jordan (50:43):
Or draw like the six lines and make it into an S?

Alban (50:47):
Yes. Yeah.

Jordan (50:50):
It was so cool.

Kevin (50:52):
So I'll follow up on that boost because I saw that come
through. And so I went andchecked and our support team had
figured it out. And they had putin the mp3 tags for one of his
podcasts. I went ahead quicklyadded it for the book review
podcast as well. And then Ifound his podcast in Fountain
and I boosted him back his buzzboost is 8222 and said your tags
are all set up. So that's theend of the story. Thanks for the

(51:15):
boost, Keiran.

Jordan (51:16):
All right. So we also got another boost from Dave
Jones. And this one isborderline blasphemous, I think.
He said, Alban is Brake MasterCylinder a real person or did
you make that up?

Alban (51:31):
No. You really boosted he sent that?

Jordan (51:34):
Yeah.

Alban (51:37):
Oh, no. Okay, well, to derail the podcast.

Kevin (51:42):
Storytime.

Alban (51:42):
What was the context of that from last week?

Jordan (51:45):
The context was we were talking about episode footers.
And you're talking about, youknow, putting credits and you
briefly mentioned the music byBreakmaster Cylinder, and I
guess he picked up on thatbecause he was listening.

Alban (51:58):
Okay, so...

Kevin (52:00):
And he's a car guy, he's into cars. So I think he was
wondering, did you make this upbecause master cylinders and
cars and brakes.

Alban (52:07):
Alright, so Breakmaster Cylinder, I think better known
as the Mysterious BreakmasterCylinder is a real person.
Gender, not specific goes bythey/them. And we do not know
anything about this person. Theycompose a lot of theme music for
podcasts, I think it's over 60shows a lot of shows that I

(52:27):
listen to, or do listen to nowactually have music by the
mysterious brake mastercylinder. It looks like the
first person to discover themwas Alex Goldman, when Alex was
doing TLDR, which kind of likewas the precursor to ReplyAll.
And this is what Alex said, "Ifound him or they we don't

(52:48):
really know, on the internet. Icontacted him or they and he
agreed to work with us. So aslong as they could remain
anonymous." So that's how thisperson got into podcast theme
music. And now has done showsfor Business Casual, for Morning
Brew, Darknet Diaries that wetalked about a lot, Decoder, and

(53:09):
like 60 other shows, I have alsotalked to Breakmaster Cylinder,
only over text, but on Twitter,trying to get quoted for how
much if we do a anotherBuzzsprout show it would cost to
get them to do music for us. Soit's very particular style. And
I love it. I am such a big fan.
So we'll need to like link tosome of those shows. So you can

(53:31):
go listen to that the music isexceptionally well done. It's
also I think, inspired. I thinkthey're classically trained. I
might be wrong about that. But alot of it is like classical
music inspired you would notnotice that when you listen to
it, because it's all electronic.
And it's a little like gritty,but I think there is like
classical training and there'swell, we'll link to it. I'm a

(53:54):
huge fan. And if I'm involved inlaunching a new new shows after
at these extremely reasonableprices from Breakmaster
Cylinder, I will 100% say that'swhere we've got to go for our
theme music.

Jordan (54:06):
Well, actually, I was going to get the link to put in
the show notes. And I discoveredthat Breakmaster Cylinder has a
Bandcamp account. Yes, you canactually buy and download the
discographies of like all thetheme songs for podcasts, which
is very cool. But they also havea ton of Creative Commons music

(54:28):
as long as you attribute it toBreakmaster Cylinder. You can
use it in your podcast. And so Idownloaded and purchased a
Creative Commons song that I'mgoing to play this episode out
with.

Alban (54:40):
All right, awesome.

Kevin (54:41):
Fantastic.

Alban (55:36):
It's just it gets super loud in here. Sure you heard it.

Kevin (55:40):
I did. I've got same problem on the other side of
this wall in front of me is ourshower and our Master. It's not
too bad, but I can hear it in myheadphones.

Jordan (55:47):
I'm in like one of the noisiest areas of my house and
then the lawnmower shops outsidemy window.

Alban (55:54):
We might put that in the next guest video. Jordan, make
sure you don't buy a house neara lawnmower shop. Yes,

Kevin (56:01):
I follow a guy on Tik Tok who goes around and finds like
lawn mowers pressure washers,things with small engines on
them that are people are givingaway for free on Craigslist or
on the internet. And then hedoes little one and a half
minute tech talks on how hebrings them back to life. super
interesting. But it's like whatI think it's what he does is
business. He brings them back tolife restores them and sells
them. And he can show you how hetakes a motor like a riding

(56:24):
lawnmower from like deadcompletely non functional, to
functional in 60 seconds. It'samazing. I mean, it takes him
days, but a one minute video.
Like, it makes you feel like Icould do this. It's like I'm
gonna go find a free lawnmoweron internet and I'm gonna fix
it.

Jordan (56:42):
You know what I actually had that experience recently,
I've been seeing a lot of likebutternut squash soup recipes
lately. And it always looks sogood. And people are always
like, oh, like eating with liketheir French bread. So
yesterday, I spent two and ahalf hours making butternut
squash bisque. And I hatesquash. But they convinced me

(57:03):
that I made it last night. Andit was so gross. I was like
forcing myself to eat it becauseit's sweet. And I just I hate
sweet food. Like it's supposedto be savory. Not sweet soup
shouldn't be sweet. So tiktoksgood at making you think you can
do things.

Kevin (57:22):
Alright, so what I hear you saying is don't go get a
free lawn mower. Don't it'sexcellent. It's good.

Alban (57:27):
I just learned that there's this whole category of
ideas that are like, I saw thisas a 62nd video. This might be
my new lifestyle.

Kevin (57:39):
I'm walking away from podcasting. I'm gonna restore
lawnmowers.

Alban (57:43):
You're going down? Like tic tock knows that I'm gonna
really like this soup. And thenyou spend all this time you're
like, Oh, it's terrible. I maybeshould have read a recipe before
I started making it. Kevin'slike investing in all lawn

Jordan (57:56):
care. No, no, the recipe was good. The recipe was very
good. It was like spicy andsavory. But there was that
squash sweetness. That was justit. Ah, you just you can't get
it out.

Kevin (58:10):
I think the clue was right there in the title of the
thing you were making.

Alban (58:14):
Jordan is actually the one person whose benefits from
those long kind of likebelaboured stories at the
beginning of the recipe that'slike, great grandmother used to
make this recipe when she was aprairie farmer. And God said
like, it's mainly made ofsquash. Jordan was like, Oh, no
squash. I hate that.

Kevin (58:32):
But I love a good story.
So I'm in

Jordan (58:35):
Oh, I hate those like the food bloggers and stuff. And
I swear to God, it's like, everytime I go to like revisit a
recipe that I really liked onPinterest, I have to like do
that thing where you just scrolland you have to wait for that
page load and they scroll again,as far as you can you wait for
it to load. And it's just themgiving you some crazy narrative
that like doesn't matter. Nobodycares. Nobody cares.

Alban (58:54):
Oh, no. So when he does No, nobody's Google know that.
It's

Jordan (58:59):
that's why they do that.

Alban (59:00):
It's an SEO requirement.
Yeah. So what's happened is overthe years, I mean, it's really
easy to copy a recipe, right?
You could just say like, breakpotato and you go into someone
else's, and you Ctrl C Ctrl Vand you say like you're slightly
more sour cream. And now you'vemade your own recipe. And so

(59:20):
when people were making allthese recipe blogs, people are
trying to differentiate them.
And at some point, Google sawthat as optimized, though, maybe
it was when longer content wasprioritized or something. But
now Google highly associates allthis extra verbiage with being a
good recipe. And so it's a goodexample, honestly, of where
Google's kind of lost its way inmy opinion with search engine

(59:44):
optimization, like the mostoptimized recipe shouldn't have
to have a super long story thatnobody's reading to rank.
Instead, it should be highlyfocused on reviews of the
recipe. or feedback say that itwas either good or not? Or how
to modify it

Kevin (01:00:03):
right? Like or how many people tried to make that recipe
and it came out tasting good,

Alban (01:00:08):
that would be highly optimized.

Kevin (01:00:11):
That's what I that's what I'm saying. Like I'm just adding
on to your list of things thatwould make it good.

Jordan (01:00:15):
So to put like a podcast or spin on this, does that mean
we should like start a blog andlike have our episode embedded
in the blog and then write likea long novel for every single
episode about like the originand our like, grandmother.

Alban (01:00:29):
It's even got to be like, more meta than that. Right? It's
got to be five fiction podcastsrecommended by Jordan Blair. And
it starts off with when myhusband Josh and I were on our
latest trip in the car. Ireached for my favorite
podcasts. These are two of theones I went to my children

(01:00:50):
didn't enjoy this part of thisepisode. It was too scary. And
you have to go on for like 4000words at the end, like, Oh, I've
already listened to these fivepodcasts. Okay, moving.

Jordan (01:01:02):
They're just like scrolling trying to get to the
list at the bottom. But what didshe recommend? Okay, so maybe
not a good marketing strategyfor podcasters

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