In this video, Christine answers the question that has been on every media creator’s mind this year — what is a podcast now? And what isn’t? She gives examples of what should be called a podcast, what shouldn’t, and why it’s worth it to be strategic about what you call the media you make.
See full transcript of the video below.
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Transcript:
Welcome to our video this week. I’m going to cover a timely topic and it is the end of the year. It’s the end of 2024. And so I hope this will be helpful now and maybe all of 2025 or wherever you may find this video in the future. And it’s a hot topic among podcast world, media world throughout this year. And I haven’t addressed it directly on the channel, but I think this is the perfect time to do it. So the question is, What is a podcast now? And the reason this has been hotly debated all year long in the podcast sphere, in the media world and the advertising world is because podcasts are about 20 years old. And they’ve become many, many, many things. And the original term and the original idea of what a podcast was has changed so dramatically that people are creating all kinds of interesting media creations and calling them podcasts. And that’s not a bad thing, but it does bring up the question like, what is a podcast now? Because podcasts can be audio, they can be video, they can be long, they can be short. They can be narrative. They can be journalistic. They can be chat shows. They can be super highly produced or not produced at all. They can be professional. They can be hobby. They can be easily found or private. They can have a paywall or they can be free. They can literally cover any topic. You can have as many people or as few people. You don’t even have to have a human host a show anymore, right? Like you could have an AI persona be the host of a show. Podcasting literally can be anything now. And that term is kind of being used to describe almost anything. And I have this conversation all the time with clients and with friends and peers in the industry, but I wanted to offer this to you on the YouTube channel because I think going forward into next year and into the future chapter of media creation, especially in kind of the world of online media that doesn’t really have gatekeepers, it’s really helpful to understand what a term means versus what it used to mean and kind of how to strategically use its current connotation smartly. Because right now, if you share with someone, whether like in your professional bio or just casually, yeah, I’m a podcast host. Most people will think like, oh, you sit down once a week and have a recorded conversation on a microphone that’s maybe also videoed. that you put out for free on podcast apps and YouTube and you probably like, you know, have conversations with somebody about whatever you’re an expert in or whatever your thing is. And that might be true, but you might have a totally different take on podcasting and people might not realize what you’re talking about if what you’re doing is like a five minute daily show with meditations and mindfulness tips for your paid community. you know, like you could still call that a podcast, but people would have no idea that’s what you’re saying. If that’s what you were doing, the more important thing and the more strategic thing to think about here is if podcasting started as like, you know, some guys in their garages kind of fiddling around with microphones and then sort of figuring out how to publish on iTunes back when iTunes is the thing that had such like a wild west gorilla, like, just very underground feel to it. And podcasting now is considered like a mainstream media format that A-list celebrities host major networks, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars are put as a price tag on the biggest shows, bought and sold between platforms and networks and publishers. It’s just a totally different medium now. And so I want to empower you going forward, whether you’re working inside of a big company or a brand and trying to figure out like media strategy and should I try and pitch a podcast to my executive team or my marketing team or should I pitch a YouTube show or what should I call it. That might be your scenario. You might be a show host or someone who wants to be a show host and you’ve seen a lot of your friends host podcasts and you’re trying to figure out like what should I call what I want to do. Or you might be a podcast host who’s been podcasting for a long time and you’re like, should I still call myself a podcast host? Like, what does this mean? So here’s some strategy to help you think through this. One, a podcast, like the actual word is usually associated with an audio format. So if you’re doing something that’s purely video that may be doesn’t even have dialogue the whole time. That’s maybe much more of like an infotainment video series that lives mostly on YouTube or behind a paywall. It probably doesn’t make sense to call it a podcast because you’ll mislead people. You’ll send people in the wrong direction. They might not realize they found the show you were talking about. So at its basis, podcasting is still associated with audio. It doesn’t mean it can’t be video. Most people assume, especially chat shows will be video now as well, but just do a quick check in. Like, have you been more interested in exploring audio formats of what you want to share? Or are you like, actually, we just really want to focus on our YouTube channel and build out a whole like carousel of interesting different playlists and video types, then like you don’t need to call it a podcast. Like podcast is still associated with platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. That’s primarily an audio experience and that oftentimes has a video component. The other thing to consider here is if you are leaning towards a video first content, whether that’s like unscripted long form or different series, think about how people will experience your content on a TV. I just read some interesting new data about how many hours people are spending watching podcasts on TV, like in their home. And it’s kind of slowly becoming on parallel with like, you know, like late night TV, like chat shows, talk shows, like the thing we’ve all watched for decades. So if you are really interested in going video first, consider putting maybe more of your emphasis into the visual storytelling because more and more and more people are starting to watch podcasts like they would TV shows. And that’s an interesting kind of shift we’re seeing that I would just advise you to like think maybe more or maybe pull on some resources or inspiration that’s from traditional TV. chat shows because that’s actually becoming like very integrated. And a lot of late night TV hosts also host podcasts now. So those two worlds are kind of becoming more and more closely associated than ever before. Another thing to think about when you’re like, do I want to do a podcast? Is a podcast what I want to do? Do I want to call it? I do a podcast is considering if you want to be associated with where podcasting is heading, right? Podcasting has been many things through the years, but the most well-known, the most high-profile versions of podcasting are kind of these personality-anchored chat shows that are, you know, on a ton of different topics across many different spectrums. But it’s helpful to understand that if you continue to call yourself a podcast host going forward, people are going to more and more expect that kind of thing from you unless you make it obvious that you, you know, have been doing this for 10 years and it’s something else. So if you like the idea of being associated with other high profile podcast hosts and you want that to be what comes to people’s mind when you tell them what you do, like call yourself a podcast host. And if you realize like, actually I’m really feeling pulled more towards this Other kind of content that doesn’t really fit in that chat show or journalistic style, long form audio content, you can call it whatever you want. But maybe a podcast doesn’t make the most sense anymore. Maybe it’s not something you’re going to put on Apple Podcasts or listed as a podcast on Spotify. There are so many other platforms you can publish your audio or video content on if it doesn’t quite fit into those buckets, Substack being one of them. Obviously, you can post on social media or on a private platform like Vimeo, but I think because we have sort of an embarrassment of riches when it comes to options these days, like, you can be strategic about what you call the media that you create. And the more that you can specify what you’re making for people, the better they are at sharing it. People may erroneously call your work a podcast, and that’s maybe not the worst thing, but if you can really get clear on what you’re making and why and who and what for, then when you talk about it, you can use the vocabulary that will help people be your marketers, right? So if you say, I host a weekly video series on my YouTube channel, then that’s what people will say when they tell their friends to go watch your weekly video series on your YouTube channel. Versus if you just say like, oh, I have a podcast, And then what you’re actually making doesn’t really fit with what people think when they think podcast, that’s like an opportunity to lose listeners or audience members. Cause they’re like, I don’t know. I couldn’t find the thing that I thought I was looking for. Does that make sense? Okay. So there’s some big kind of big picture strategy things to think about, but I want to leave you with like one more tip to think through this, that will probably be a little more personal and helpful. And that is, everything in media has kind of an arc, right? Like it’s coming up, it’s unknown, it’s, you know, early adopters, then it hits mainstream and everyone loves it. And then it kind of goes into that like late stage version where everyone knows what it is, but like, it’s not a hot thing anymore. And it kind of has this like long afterlife. And podcasting is still considered really new in its arc, but it’s no longer like super early stage. It’s kind of hit mainstream, And so I just want you to think about, is this the best time for me to use a medium that’s hitting mainstream? Or do I actually love working with media types that are earlier stage? Or am I not comfortable to really get into something until it’s so widely adopted it’s considered late stage? And if you’ve never heard these terms before, I don’t want to put you off. I’d be like, oh, she’s just jargon from the marketing world. it’s a strategy to help you understand like how to match your strengths with the actual tool we’re talking about, right? Because if you realize like you’re always someone who kind of gravitates towards early stage stuff, maybe podcasting is kind of already too mature for you. But if you realize like, I actually don’t like to adopt new tools or platforms or ways of communicating until they’re so well established that I don’t have to do any explanation. maybe you want to wait a little bit because podcasting is not going anywhere. It’s evolving and maturing and getting more money behind it. And it’s going to keep doing that for several more years and it’ll keep becoming something else. So if you’ve been really interested in podcasting, but it’s never felt like the right time. Cause like for whatever reason, there are many valid ones. You’re like, I just don’t know yet. You can just wait. It will keep evolving and become something else and it’ll get more mature and it’ll become more adopted. and a door might open in the future that’s way more attractive to you than where it is right now. I know that may be funny coming from a producer, but since I’ve been on this ride for 10 years and I’ll, you know, continue to be watching this and working in this space for the future, I just know from my own perspective, like the book’s not written on this yet. We’re still right in the middle of it. And yes, this is sort of a chapter change and what, how we’re using the medium, what we’re calling it, like there are future chapters to be written. So, if you feel like in your gut for some reason, like it’s not my space yet, I’m going to keep, you know, enjoying it, observing it, consuming it, but not creating it. Like that’s okay. You can wait. All right. If you have questions, if you want me to kind of go deeper on anything I said, feel free to leave a comment, subscribe to the channel. We’ll be bringing you new content in the new year and we’ll see you in the next video.