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April 4, 2025 12 mins

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Content boundaries have been blurred, challenging traditional definitions of what constitutes a podcast. Jordan and Kevin discuss Oxford Road's What is a Podcast? survey and the problems that come when the definition is unclear. 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jordan (00:00):
Hey Kevin.

Kevin (00:00):
Hey Jordan.

Jordan (00:02):
All right, it's just you and me, Alban's, on a plane.

Kevin (00:04):
It just you know, it seems like did he miss the last
quick cast also.

Jordan (00:08):
I think he did.

Kevin (00:09):
I think you know we have to put something in place.
There has to be some sort ofpunishment for missing two quick
casts in a row.

Jordan (00:16):
I think he's just like slowly easing out of it, you
know like just slowly breakingup with the quick cast.

Kevin (00:21):
Right.
So yeah, he's on a planeheading back from podcast
movement.

Jordan (00:31):
Evolutions, evolutions, yeah, say that, right, yeah.
So I think we'll hear about hisadventures in Chicago next week
on our big episode, but today Iwant to talk about what is a
podcast, and that sounds like areally basic thing, and it's
super funny because I think itwas the last episode where we
talked about how you don't haveto tell anyone what a podcast is
anymore, right, right.

(00:51):
And so I was surprised when Isaw a study come out a week
later after we talk about thisand it said what is a podcast,
saying that podcasting issuffering an identity crisis.

Kevin (01:02):
You know, Jordan, I don't pay a ton of attention to stuff
like this.

Jordan (01:07):
And I don't.

Kevin (01:07):
Not that I don't think it's not worth talking about,
but I think the people who aremostly interested in stuff like
this are people who are reallybig in the advertising space.

Jordan (01:17):
Yes, 100%.

Kevin (01:18):
Does that make sense?

Jordan (01:19):
Yeah.

Kevin (01:19):
Okay, and you agree with that.

Jordan (01:21):
I do.

Kevin (01:21):
Okay.
My opinion is that if you selladvertising or if you run a
podcast however you define apodcast and you want ads, you
sell ads for your show, oryou're in the advertising space
or in the marketing space andyou're buying ads.
It really matters, I guess, tothose people how much money is
being spent in advertising inpodcasting.

(01:43):
And then the way that youdefine a podcast becomes
important, because did you buy aYouTube show or did you buy a
podcast, an audio podcast or avideo podcast?
I guess all that stuff matters,so we know which bucket to put
the money into.
Say, like, how much money wasspent in podcast advertising,
and I guess maybe you know,since advertising isn't a huge

(02:06):
thing of importance toBuzzsprout, thus it's not a huge
thing of importance to me.
I don't really.
I don't really pay a ton ofattention.
The point I made in last week'slonger episode was that I think
that people who listen topodcasts, who consume them I
never hear them talking aboutthis they don't seem to be
worried about figuring out.
Like, when someone says, hey,do you have any podcast

(02:28):
recommendations, I don't hearpeople saying, well, what do you
mean by podcast?
Do you mean a YouTube show ordo you mean a video podcast or
do you mean an audio podcast?
Usually, when someone's like,have you listened to any good
podcasts, lately, people arejust like, yeah, I have, and
they name a show or two andgenerally, at least in my life
experience, the shows that Ihear people talk about as

(02:49):
podcasts, generally those fit mybroad definition of a podcast,
which means to me that I cankind of get it in the podcast
app of my choice.

Jordan (02:59):
Yeah, so this study is Oxford Road, which is, as you
said, an ad agency, and theyworked with Edison Research, who
is also really big intoadvertising, and what was
interesting about this is I waskind of expecting the same stuff
over and over again.
The advertisers don't knowwhere to put the money and which
.
They did bring up that pointbecause all of these podcast

(03:20):
apps are kind of like siloed offand so it's really hard to do a
widespread campaign.
But they also looked moredeeply into how creators and
podcast listeners felt that apodcast should be defined.
So they surveyed podcastlisteners should be defined.

(03:41):
So they surveyed podcastlisteners and 72% of them said
that recordings of peoplediscussing any topic on YouTube
that are also available as anaudio only show elsewhere is
considered a podcast.
That makes sense.
Yep, this one threw me througha loop.
Okay 29% said how to and do ityourself.
Videos on YouTube are a podcast.
Okay said how to and do ityourself.

(04:01):
Videos on YouTube are a podcast.
Okay, I don't know when I whenI saw that, I was just like I
don't know how good thisinformation is, because I
personally would not considerthat a podcast at all.

Kevin (04:09):
Yeah, for real, Like if you, if you go on YouTube and
you watch I don't know how torenew your bathroom tile by
painting it or something likethat If you watch that.

Jordan (04:19):
Yeah.

Kevin (04:19):
And then someone asks you a week later have you consumed
a podcast in the last week?
And you say yes, and the onlything you've done is you've
watched that how to video on howto paint bathroom tile on
YouTube.
That is definitely misleading.
Yeah, for us in the podcastingworld, or people who enjoy
podcasts like none of us, wouldconsider that a podcast.

Jordan (04:36):
Absolutely not no.

Kevin (04:42):
And so it definitely begs the question with all the
reporting recently about how bigYouTube is in the podcasting
space, how accurate are any ofthose measurements?

Jordan (04:46):
Exactly Right.
I feel like the essence ofpodcasting is just starting to
like blur and bleed into otherthings.
Lucia Moses, with a businessinsider in her article.
She was talking about thisstudy and she said more broadly
the shift raises identityquestions for hosts as they go
beyond audio to video and thendo live events and sell ads on

(05:08):
social media.
They start to look more likeinfluencers and I feel like
that's kind of the thing is.
People are trying to makepodcasting everything.
It's starting to bleed into athing where they're like oh yeah
, I have a podcast, but they'realso like repurposing the
podcast content so much in somany different ways that now the
audiences are starting tomisunderstand what a podcast is,

(05:30):
or we're somehow changing themeaning of what a podcast is.

Kevin (05:34):
When you say this stuff, it makes me wonder what other
industries have had issues likethis.
So I don't know that I haven'tanswered your question, but it
makes me think like if I askedyou the question, like when was
the last time you watched amovie, what would you say?

Jordan (05:46):
I would say Saturday night.

Kevin (05:48):
Saturday night.
Yes, and what did you watch?

Jordan (05:51):
I watched the Barbie movie for the first time I'm
like two years behind yeah.

Kevin (05:54):
At home on your TV I watched at home on HBO max.

Jordan (05:58):
Okay, or I guess it was max.

Kevin (06:00):
So there might be some people in the movie industry
that would say that's not reallya movie, Jordan you didn't go
to a theater.
Yeah, you didn't go to atheater like, because they want
a very strict definition ofgoing to a movie or seeing a
movie and that has to happen ata movie theater.

Jordan (06:14):
Yeah.

Kevin (06:15):
I don't know because I'm not in that industry, but I
imagine there was some sort oftransition period of which it
happened and when movies kind ofcame out of theaters and got to
like VHS or what were thosehuge discs or whatever that
people used to watch movies on.

Jordan (06:28):
Oh, betamax, or like what was it.

Kevin (06:31):
Betamax was like a alternative to VHS, but there
was this huge disc.
They were like giant CDs, likea alternative to VHS, but there
was this huge disc.
They were like giant CDs.
I can't remember what thosethings were called, I don't know
.
Anyway, there was thetransition from movies like out
of theaters and into homes.

Jordan (06:43):
Yeah.

Kevin (06:44):
And then I'm sure there was an argument for a long time
Like are you watching TV?
Are you watching a movie,especially as networks started
popping up that started creatingmovies for at home watching,
like they were never in theaters, they were only on TV first.
So like all the Hallmark moviesand everything, oh yeah, disney
Channel movies, yeah yeah arethose really considered movies?
Yeah, and I wonder ifpodcasting is getting a little

(07:05):
bit of that, but it's sort oflike the other way around.
It's almost like you know,YouTube has been around forever
and really YouTube hasn'tchanged much.
I mean, I guess the type ofcontent that's appearing on
YouTube is certainly evolvingand we're certainly getting a
lot more talking head videoswith people with microphones in
front of them than we used tohave.
You know, it's a podcast, it'sa video podcast, I don't know.

(07:28):
And then at some point peoplejust assume that anybody talking
to camera is a podcast.
Really, as a podcaster, does itmatter?
As people who consume podcasts,do we really care?

Jordan (07:40):
Yeah.

Kevin (07:40):
I don't know.
I think it is problematicthough, Like if you talk about
how to and do-it-yourself videosbeing considered a podcast.
I could see how that could be aproblem for people who are in
the ad space, but as contentcreators, I don't know that it's
that big of a deal.

Jordan (07:53):
Yeah, I mean, unless you're trying to make money from
your podcast in the traditionallike advertising way, it is
harder to get sponsorshipsbecause a lot of these
advertisers are throwing moneyat influencers.
And now there's this questionraised of like is a podcaster
actually just an influencer in away, because they're doing all
this different stuff and theyhave their social channels and

(08:14):
they have YouTube videos andthey have all these different
things?
But advertisers just don't seepodcasters in that way and so we
don't get quite as much moneyas the influencer space does.

Kevin (08:24):
Yeah, but I mean, would like an author of a book be an
influencer, if they are doingYouTube interviews to promote
their book, or if they're doingshort form video as marketing
for their new book, or ifthey're doing lectures and those
things are being recorded andput online.
Those are all things also thatlike influencers do.

Jordan (08:41):
That's true, but they're probably using it more as like
a marketing funnel as opposed tolike getting advertising
dollars for it.
I don't know.

Kevin (08:48):
Yeah, it's true.

Jordan (08:49):
It's kind of confusing and it's kind of difficult.
But there's a lot of peoplethat they quoted in the study
that were talking about how,with all the changes that have
been happening and witheverything bleeding into
everything else and it's allgetting mushy.
They were saying, like the wordpodcast should just go away and
nobody cares about an RSS andlike all these different
platforms are trying to definewhat a podcast is for that

(09:10):
platform to make money.
And it's kind of like muddyingthe waters for podcast creators
and they feel like they have tolike chase the algorithm and be
on this place and this place andthis place.
But it's harder becauseeverything's so siloed off.
So it's hard for the creators,it's hard for the advertisers,
it's hard for the industryleaders that are trying to like
standardize everything.

Kevin (09:31):
Yeah, you know.
Another way we can think aboutit is think about some of the
like talk radio hosts.
I think specifically about,like the Howard Stern show.
He started off as just radio.
He just did a radio show, Ithink when he got picked up by
Sirius XM.
I think is when they startedadding the video component.
Is that right, or was he doingvideo before that?

Jordan (09:50):
I don't know.

Kevin (09:56):
But at some point he started doing a video version of
the show.
Right, they just put cameras inthe studio and now you can
watch Stern online.
I think you can watch them onYouTube.
At least you can get clips ofthem on YouTube.
I don't know if the full showis available there, but I think
the primary audience for Sternis still Sirius XM.
It's still like audio onlyfirst right.

Jordan (10:12):
Yeah, he's still a radio show.
I don't know if he would beconsidered a podcast, but is
that just because he was beforepodcasting, right?

Kevin (10:22):
Yeah, I don't know.
If somebody buys an ad on theHoward Stern show, is that
podcast revenue, or is thatradio revenue, or is that like
video podcast revenue?
What is that?

Jordan (10:30):
I mean, I believe if you were to go by, like what the
IRS says, it would be internetbroadcasting, like that would be
the classification.
Yeah, so I guess it would justbe internet broadcasting.
It's so hard, I don't know.
But there's one definition ofpodcasting.
I know that a lot of people saylike, yeah, a podcast is an

(10:51):
audio file distributed by an RSSfeed done.
And now, with all the changesand the advancements and I don't
know everyone just kind ofgetting into the podcasting
space, there's one definition Isaw in here that I actually
really like and I think thatthis is very simple, it's to the
point and I think that it worksfor defining a podcast.
And this is, if it works.

(11:11):
With your eyes closed, it's apodcast.

Kevin (11:14):
Okay, so I like it.
If it works with your eyesclosed, it's a podcast.
The only thing I might add butI wouldn't add to the general
public, but just for likepodcast nerds like us is I also
think it needs an RSS feed sothat it's available, so that you
can listen to it in the podcastapp of your choice.
But you're right, for thegeneral audience, people of the
world who are not podcast nerdsif it works with your eyes

(11:36):
closed, it's a podcast thatworks.

Jordan (11:38):
You're a purist.
It has to have an RSS feed.
It's like the film versus moviesort of thing.
Which is it?
Yes, All right.
So for our next episode, we'restill looking for sound off
responses to our question.
Have episode?
We're still looking for soundoff responses to our question.
Have you ever had anembarrassing foot and mouth
experience?
If you want to be anonymous forthis, let me know.
We can do an anonymoussubmission for it.

(11:59):
So until then, keep podcasting.
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