I was on reddit earlier today and saw a podcaster writing an article about how they'd made it to the front of iTunes on a large banner advert that put them pride and place above everything else. They thought this was their moment, the day they become big names in the world of podcasting and everything started to roll.
In reality, they saw a rise of about 300 listeners, many of which disappeared once the advert was finished. That sounds rather familiar, not necessarily the drop afterwards, but I have been wondering for a while now - is iTunes as a podcasting platform dying out? For the record, reading the article above it doesn't seem like a quality issue was responsible for the drop on his part.
Since starting Podcasts back in 06/07 I have been involved in the release of six shows, 4 I was a host on and 2 I helped set up and promote.
In gaming, all three 'Mature Gamer' shows started out riding high in 'New and Noteworthy' - we got better and better at making them hit the top spot from day one as we realised the algorithm behind it only places you once you've got 3 episodes and a few hundred listeners behind you.
Best Thing From suffered from being our first, because we didn't really know the routine, so whilst we got into New and Noteworthy eventually, our Writing podcast (IPA) and 'We're from the internet' both made it straight in as per the algorithm stuff.
We're from the internet, and MGP have both been given the large scale promo treatments. All 3 Mature Gamer titles have been bunched into the gaming categories and placed highly, even in the current 'Press Start Gaming Collection' that was created during E3 a few years back, Mature Gamer featured across the board.
We seem to get nice numbers in the thousands but there has been a decline over time as the platform is saturated with so so many 'roundtable discussions' and people get bored of the non stop conveyor belt producing them.
Sure our format has changed over time, and I don't deny that we've lost a lot of people who got tired of the quality - but our audience is amazing and 'get' what we're about. The biggest thing I learned in doing podcasts is that whilst feedback is a gift, what you do with it matters.
Sometimes people tell you what they think they want, and then when you try to do it people moan you're boring them. Or you feel unnatural. We've reached a point now where we don't really try to 'educate' with news and so forth. We just tell folk what we enjoyed and what we hated, highlight what is coming out and whats going on.
Its what we want to do and how we want to do it, and that is a great feeling. Most people love it, some don't. The ones that tell you they don't and want to give negative feedback aren't going to force a change, but it is useful to know how they feel.
It looks as though the podcasts that are seeing a rise in listeners are the ones that have made the cut on Spotify. We've never tried to appear on there so I don't know what our chances would be. But when iHeartRadio and Spreaker teamed up they ran a competition for unlimited free 'broadcaster' hosting which we submitted all of our podcasts onto in the hope we would win a rather awesome hosting plan.
Surprisingly Mature Gamer and one of our non gaming shows both made the cut. We were on iHeartRadio and we have the unlimited hosting. That means in theory if we had the time, inclination and there was a route to make a living from it, we could in theory produce radio around the clock. Spreaker doesn't really get the listeners though by the look of things either.
Everyone seems to follow the same processes, joining a network, adding their show to every site going in the hope that 1 or 2 new listeners will come out of it. None of that seems to make a real difference. The only thing I can safely say does make a difference is regular gaming nights, and a community spirit. 2 Things that we don't have the time for anymore sadly. Or at least I don't. When we were students it was easy to put a console on and game with folks. My friend list went through the roof.
The problem with iTunes and such right now is that the biggest 'podcasters' seem to be people who are famous for working at The BBC, Absolute Radio, Radio X and so forth. These are professional broadcasters who are paid decent money and have access to the best recording gear.
They're creating a mainstream Podcasting platform that is great, like watching BBC1 or Sky TV. That is good for Smartphone owners who need interesting content to keep them going on long journeys and so forth. It does mean that people like us suddenly stand no chance in growing without an unpredictable, viral shot in the arm. The guy in the article above seems to have paid a bit to market his work, and has put way more time and effort into it than most ever will. I'd be surprised if he made as much as a YouTuber though...
I'm not really sure what the point of this post is about today. I wondered where people found MGP or our other shows. I wondered about the iTunes platform and whether things are dying off for indies as the mainstream get involved. I don't even listen to podcasts anymore personally. When I did it was shows by Gimlet (though they cancel everything I bloody like) and the TED talks. I always hoped that we could iron out the kinks in podcasting and make use of it long term but I feel like it has mainly been a learning curve for how the world of media works.
The biggest lessons I have learned are these:
There are lots of other things I could add here and maybe in time i will update this to show more. If you have questions at all then let me know and I'll do my best to help. I believe it is virtually impossible to start a new show from the ground up without a platform and without an audience in place these days. I think if there was a total block on any and all new gaming podcasts for the next 5 years, there would still be too many.
I've got to go and record Mature Gamer now, so I'll finish up here. Let me know how you found us, and your thoughts on podcasting!