Podcast Pontifications

Podcasting Has A Hub-and-Spoke Problem

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September 05, 2019 5:00pm

12m

You already know that you and your episodes need to be in/on the places where these new “rookie” listeners are already consuming podcast content. And you know that “being there” isn’t enough, but that you need to have your content live there, since that’s where the rookie listeners are living. And there’s no reason not to do so, because you can make a version of your podcast episodes that can comfortably live there.

Today I want to wrap it all together and point out why the feral hog or herded cats metaphor is right. And to convince you that the hub-and-spoke model is broken for podcasting.

Because downloading our shows media files or subscribing to our RSS feed isn’t required for people to enjoy our content. Too many podcasters either don’t know or forget this important fact.

Not that this will be easy. Yes, it’s going to mean not all of your listening activity is traceable. Well… big deal. Much of it isn’t already. 

And to do it right, we’ll need to make each of our media files customized to the destination platform. Until new technology comes along to help us that, we have to do it the hard way. And the tools we have today to help us distribute actively fight against customization. Boo.

This again makes my case that the future of podcasting is going to look quite different than the past of podcasting. Podcasters are in for some massive changes as we survive our way through podcasting’s existential crisis.

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