Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

Category: Podcasting

  • Another drop of water outside the podcasting fishbowl

    Podcasters Across Borders was incredible this weekend, with so many great presentations, so many good friends, and lots of discussion about podcasting. It was the quintessential community-centered event, deep inside the fishbowl, in the echo chamber, and that’s a good thing.

    Events like PAB are essential for podcasters to recharge, to regroup, to get together and share and reaffirm that podcasting is still the exciting venture it was when they started. It’s a source of energy, a source of inspiration to help people motivate or remotivate themselves to produce new media.

    On the way home, Bryan Person and I stopped at a McDonald’s in Oneonta, New York. There, a senior in high school who had just graduated came up to me at the table (Bryan was still in line) and asked, “Hey, my friends and I saw your shirt – what’s a podcast?”. (for the record, I was wearing the PAB2007 shirt, skillfully designed by Nico Pin of Snowy Day Design)

    Full stop.

    Here’s someone who is probably as ideal a candidate for new media as you can get, and they don’t know what a podcast is. When I said “it’s an MP3 internet radio show” she got it immediately as to what it was, but didn’t know what kind of content was available.

    We have a lot of work to do.

    The conclusion of PAB kicks off the promotional season of PodCamp Boston 2 for the PCB team. We’re rested, recharged, and ready to bring new media to the mainstream, and the best way we can do that is to do as much outreach as possible. PodCamp Boston 2 will ideally be the largest, best, most exciting PodCamp ever – until the one that follows it. We’re going to take the lessons of previous PodCamps and put together what we hope to be the best community UnConference we can, and we’ll need your help.

    In the weeks to come, we’re going to be talking a lot more about what we need for PodCamp Boston 2, but immediately, we’d love your help in directing people to the registration page. The URL is easy to remember: https://www.PodCampBoston.org/register

  • Podcasting is missing half a million in Europe

    We as podcasters may be missing half a million or more audience members, and we don’t even know it.

    Here’s the thing I noticed all over Stockholm, and other European PodCampers confirmed in other countries – there were an awful lot of people listening. They had headphones jacked into devices all over the place.

    FEW of those devices were iPods. Of the ones that were MP3 players, the iRiver T series seemed to be the player of choice.

    For every MP3 player I saw, I saw 10 mobile phones being used as media devices. Mobile phones that were spinning up music, content, and everything primarily from telco carriers.

    I also learned that there are an awful lot of handsets equipped to be able to listen to podcasts – most of the Nokia N and E series phones supposedly can – and that the only thing missing is a way to get the listener to subscribe easily. Right now, asking the user to key in an RSS feed is far below optimal, but if we can figure out a way to get one click subscribe working on those handsets, then podcasts can join the music on headphones everywhere.

    If you had the opportunity to have your show – audio or video – on half a million more devices, to half a million more listeners, would you? And how much would that be worth to your show?

  • A Missed Opportunity for Podcasting?

    A Missed Opportunity for Podcasting?

    Just got off the phone with a company representative that wants to do a regional sponsorship for a few grand here in New England. My show was very much not the right fit, so I talked the rep through navigating MySpace and Google to locate other podcasters in the area, as well as pointing them at the New England Podcasting home page for other great shows in New England that might be a better fit.

    Here’s the zinger – the rep was on every major podcast network site out there, and couldn’t search by locale. This is a local sponsor, and there was no way for them to say, “Show me all the podcasts in Massachusetts” that they could find. MySpace is one of the few sites that publishes that info.

    And Todd Cochrane – I stand very much corrected in my initial statement about demographics in the last post. This advertiser wants a specific area because their ad spend would be wasted if the target audience isn’t within an easy drive of the locale, so demographics very much do matter here. Crow ain’t bad with dijon mustard. A little feathery.

    To everyone out there running their own podcast or podcast network – if you want to take advertising, make sure you have a media kit. Want to see an awesome media kit? Check out the Mommycast media kit. It’s a thing of beauty. If you run a podcast network, please help make it easy for people like this potential sponsor to figure out which shows would be a good fit for them, right on your site.

    Maybe I’ll add how to create a nice media kit to PodCamp Europe.

  • Podshow's Gold Mine, the RIAA, Sound Exchange, and sucking less

    Time to turn the Podshow discussion more positive with an idea they can execute on, instead of just complaining. One of my many causes is helping podsafe independent artists as much as I can, and this year I’ve been fortunate to be part of two projects to do that – Bum Rush the Charts (yes, still waiting on IODA to get me sales data) and Virtual Hot Wings.

    A few friends and I were standing around in CC Chapman’s U Turn Cafe in Second Life the other night and had an idea the other night that I would LOVE for someone at Podshow to steal/use/borrow/make. Podshow is the only company that can legally execute on the idea because they own the PMN.

    From the PMN license for artists:

    “Broadcast” means Work or an acceptable Derivative Work thereof that is played publicly for the benefit of interested listeners, and particularly when such Work is played by a listener accessing a digital file such as a podcast or streaming media file.

    3. You hereby waive the following rights to any and all musical compositions:
    a. the right to recover performance royalties under blanket licenses, including the right to collect such royalties individually or through a performance rights society.
    b. the right to recover mechanical rights or statutory royalties.
    c. the right to recover any royalty that may be applicable for public digital performance of the Work, such as webcasting or podcasting.

    From the PMN license for podcasters:

    “Broadcast” means Work or an acceptable Derivative Work thereof that is played publicly for the benefit of interested listeners, and particularly when such Work is played by a listener accessing a digital file such as a podcast or streaming media file.

    2. Subject to these Terms of Use, You are hereby granted the following world-wide, non-transferable, non-exclusive, royalty-free rights
    a. the right, and to access the Music database and reproduce each Work included therein for the purpose of Broadcasting the Work, including the right to use and incorporate each Work into a Collective Work, which may itself be Broadcast.
    c. the right to create and distribute webcasts and Podcasts that contain the Works

    What am I getting at? The PMN contract overrides the statutory royalty issues that SoundExchange and the RIAA have been nailing Internet radio/streaming radio stations with. By my read, as long as you are a valid, registered podcasting member of the PMN, you can play podsafe music and NOT have to pay SoundExchange/RIAA. If you run an Internet radio station, record all your shows with podsafe music from the PMN and publish them as podcasts as well, and you get to stay in business and not pay SoundExchange a cent.

    Pandora’s been making noise about going bye-bye due to increased web radio rates. A lot of other small Internet radio stations are saying the same. The law around SoundExchange is that it is a compulsory license – if you don’t have any other form of licensing, you MUST pay up to the RIAA, whether or not the artist ever sees a dime of the revenue. The law also states that the compulsory license can be overridden with a license directly from the artist, and Podshow has that license with the PMN.

    So the idea can go one of three ways:

    1. Give/sell/rent/grant Pandora a license to use the music on the PMN under the terms of the PMN license. This effectively ends their liability for royalties to SoundExchange, AND provides a great tool for exposure to podsafe artists.

    2. Built an equivalent Pandora-esque system using PMN artists.

    3. Alert every single streaming internet radio station in the United States and wherever draconian RIAA-sponsored laws apply that with a registration to the PMN as a broadcaster, they too can eliminate SoundExchange royalties as long as they only play podsafe music from the PMN.

    It also almost goes without saying that Podshow should be negotiating playlist time with lots of small, independent internet radio stations for its contracted podcasters, because those podcasts on the air also incur no SoundExchange penalties. Get Accident Hash or In Over Your Head on the hundreds of college radio stations, web stations, etc. so that not only are more people exposed to podcasting, but the Podshow family of podcasters also gets more promotion.

    So, to Joe Carpenter, Adam Curry, Jersey Todd, and everyone else involved in music at Podshow who was party to the last discussion about Podshow, here’s an opportunity to single-handedly save internet radio, earn goodwill, promote the PMN, and most of all, help podsafe artists all at once.

    This one’s on the house. Go to it, guys!

  • Here is what is wrong with Podshow (and maybe how to fix it)

    Here is what is wrong with Podshow (and maybe how to fix it)

    I’ve been collecting Twitters from folks about Podshow’s campaign:

    Mike Yusi: Is anyone else on Podshow getting emails complaining about the new openings?
    P. W. Fenton: Better question: Is anyone not?
    P_Dub: Some podcasters have avoided putting out podcasts until the one minute “suck less” goes away.
    Mike Yusi: P Dub: I actually got someone that said they weren’t going to listen to any more of my shows until they change it.
    C. C. Chapman: @UCRadio – I have already lost some listeners due to it.
    Rob Usdin: Podshow needs to use the radio model – have 5-10 different spots ready to go at the get-go – rotate them. Less listener fatigue.
    Rob Usdin: @P_Dub: See my comment to noebie re: having multiple spots ready at one time. Want me to listen? Make it so I have a reason to.
    Ranslow: I listen to a lot of podcasts from Podshow. The new intro is annoying after awhile. How about some variation on the theme.
    Matthew Ebel: Hey PodShow… the 60-second Suck Less crap is making me stop listening to your podcasts. CC and R&RG are all that remain on my iPod
    Britney Mason: Wondering if i listen to too many, PodShow Podcasts…They can suckless by coming up withnew plug for Suckless, tired of hearing it already
    Britney Mason: I do luv My PodShow friends, but not sure what knowing how much I make per year has to do with suckingless…
    Britney Mason: PodShow should put together a podcast like bluberry does.. let people know whats going on..be open!
    Britney Mason: Okay then not to turn this into a PodShow pick on session..where does the $25 mill VC go? equipment?

    All of these comments were made publicly on Twitter. They indicate a serious problem in the marketing department and in many ways, in the corporate culture of Podshow. Here’s what is broken about Podshow: Podshow believes it is the most important part of its network.

    It isn’t. Not by a long stretch. What is?

    The podcasters. The people who are providing the content for the network. Podshow has some of the finest, best podcasts online – Lifespring, Managing the Gray, Digital Flotsam, UC Radio, the Jersey Todd Show, Pacific Coast Hellway, Accident Hash, Phedippidations, Geek Brief, the ReMARKable Palate, U Turn Cafe… I could go on for quite some time. The network derives its value from the content its members are providing it, and by extension, the audience that is attracted to that content.

    What’s broken is that Podshow treats its content producers as commodities. What do I mean?

    Example: the Super Panel. You don’t need a Super Panel to tell you what listeners want. Listeners do that already with each of the shows they listen to. Look at the comments on AccidentHash.com. Look at the sales of tracks in iTunes from podsafe artists. Look at the subscriber base, server statistics. Listeners are already telling your content producers what they want, and the most successful shows are listening and changing to fit their audiences’ needs.

    Example: Suck Less. This may have been funny in a conference room somewhere, but hearing Suck anything in front of shows like Lifespring, which has a dedicated, super-family friend focus, or in front of Managing the Gray, a business show that has executives (like myself) listening, is just inappropriate. Asking your producers, “Hey, what do you think of this new campaign?” before you start putting it in front of their shows is not only a good idea, it’s also professional courtesy.

    Example: Podshow Plus. I’ve asked many Podshow-contracted producers about the tools they receive when they sign onto the network or how it’s performing. I’ve been told that frankly, there really aren’t any. There’s no indicator of how large the network actually is (44,067 as of 1:50 PM ET 6/1/07) or how fast it’s growing. What’s more, Podshow controls the Podshow Plus platform – why do their content producers, especially the ones under contract, have to manually DIG people like any other user? Why wouldn’t you give them special tools to reach the entire 44,067 registered users to promote your premium shows?

    Example: Contract. Keith and the Girl made quite a show about this, but fundamentally, why wouldn’t Podshow publish a standard contract for everyone to see? At the Student Loan Network, our affiliate contract is public, open, and a matter of record, so prospective affiliates can see what the terms are and whether it’s worth their time to sign up.

    Example: Sirius. Did anyone ever explain to the podcasters WHY the Sirius contract vanished so suddenly?

    How do you fix something like this that’s broken? Change focus. Your podcasters need Podshow for its ability to aggregate advertising dollars across a network, broker deals, do promotion, and provide tools. The function of the podcast network is a lot like a well-run, ethical record label like Binary Star Music. They take care of all the administrative functions for the artist so the artist can focus on making music. They even help the artist improve their music.

    A podcast network needs to do exactly the same and more so. Provide podcasters with great marketing tools – MySpace data managers, mailing list software, podcast widgets, chicklets, blog themes, anything and everything you can use for guerrilla digital marketing. Heck, I give away most of my tools when I present podcast marketing at PodCamps – Podshow should be doing the same thing on a network-wide scale.

    Treat your podcasters not as commodities, but as talent, as rockstars. Make them the rightful stars of their shows with tools like inexpensive press releases, search engine optimization for their show notes, webinars and seminars for them to learn how to improve their shows, and more.

    I have no plans to start a podcast network. I don’t have enough free time as it is. If I were to, however, I’d invest the bulk of my time helping podcasters who joined the network with so many tools that any independent podcaster who wanted to grow their audience as fast and as large as possible would be insane NOT to join the network. Tools, metrics, advertisers, everything I could find to help them be insanely successful immediately, because the more listeners they gathered, the more advertising dollars I could raise.

    Let me also be clear about this: I hold no animosity towards Podshow or any other network except for what it earns. I very, very much want Podshow and ALL podcasters to succeed, to grow, to be able to QYDJ if they so desire, or become new media rockstars. To that end, I want Podshow to suck less by helping their rockstars instead of focusing on the organization itself. The network is nothing without the people who produce for it.

    Bottom line: help your podcasters become the very best they can be, and network growth will take care of itself.

    THAT is how you suck less.

  • How To Suck Much Less

    For anyone who listens to Podshow podcasts, like Accident Hash, In Over Your Head, the ReMARKable Palate, and others, and is tired of hearing the 59 second pre-roll ad for their Suck Less campaign, I just posted directions for skipping right past it or any other pre-roll ad using iTunes on a Mac. No idea how to do this on Windows – if you know, post it in the comments at Marketing Over Coffee!

  • Dear RIAA: Please get your royalties from terrestrial radio

    Steve from the Wicked Good Podcast points us all to this LA Times article. Short version: the RIAA wants more money, and is tired of radio freeloading off of its content library. They want to extract performance royalties from terrestrial radio just as they want for every other form of media in which their artists are played.

    To which I say:

    You go, RIAA! Please, please, PLEASE demand money from radio stations. Please ask for as much money as you can in your demands from ClearChannel. Please make terrestrial radio PAY!

    Why?

    Because this could be a major opportunity for both podcasting and podsafe musicians. Working together, working as a coalition, we can offer terrestrial radio an alternative to paying huge bills from the RIAA. The arrangement is as clear as day – free play for free promotion. I’ll tell you as a podcaster, and I’ll put it out here publicly, that terrestrial radio stations may play the Financial Aid Podcast free of charge. I hereby waive the non-commercial clause of the Creative Commons license for any FCC-licensed terrestrial radio station. Please play my stuff.

    For podsafe artists – NOW would be a great time to make sure your EPK is looking great. Now would be a great time to make sure that your marketing and sales teams are on hot standby, because if the RIAA successfully overturns the federal exemption on performance royalties, simple economics will favor the podsafe independent artist over the RIAA-signed artist, but you’ve got to have your stuff together, your quality as good or better than what’s currently on commercial radio, and have pre-drafted paperwork for radio stations.

    As with many empires, the downfall of the music industry empire must come from within, and they’re doing a bang up job. Thanks, guys.

  • Mental Caffeine

    If you haven’t tuned in yet, be sure to check out Marketing Over Coffee, the marketing podcast I do with M Show producer John Wall. It’s a weekly podcast that is a giant audio Twitter – what are we doing in marketing?

  • Numbers redux

    I talked to a fellow podcaster this evening, who was told by his network (the podcaster and network shall remain nameless) that in order to get sponsor deals, he needs to get his numbers up, hit certain metrics, etc. His network is missing the point because it’s still on the CPM model. CPM is an old media metric that makes little sense for most podcasters, because most podcasts have niche audiences. Even if you have a broad subject, like music, your slice of the overall audience will still be relatively niche compared to the broadcast media numbers advertisers were used to seeing in the 20th century. CPM is a loser for them because they’ll chew up an ad budget quickly, and it’s a loser for the podcaster because the numbers won’t be there to derive a huge income unless you literally have millions of listeners for every episode.

    No, where podcasting shines is in audience engagement. Again, if you sell Gulfstream aircraft, you need to sell one G5 every two years or so to live well. If your podcast has 2 listeners and they both buy airplanes, you’re golden. If your podcast has 2,000,000 listeners and none of them buy airplanes, then your audience is just chewing up your resources.

    Action is all that matters. So where as a podcaster do you get some action? (belay the snickering in the peanut gallery) If you don’t belong to a podcasting network that is managing sponsors for you, your best bet is existing affiliate network programs, like those at Linkshare, Commission Junction, etc. They pay for performance, usually per sales lead. Take a look at some of the top paying performance programs on Commission Junction:

    • Loans.co.uk – $852 EPC (earnings per click)
    • Capital One mortgages – $771 EPC
    • HSBC credit cards – $499 EPC

    Look at some of the payouts per sale:

    • Gay Date.com – $40 per sale
    • WebEx – $130 per sale
    • AN Hosting – $100 per sale

    If you have a specific niche you serve, there are products, services, and advertisers waiting for you to come help them out, and they’re willing to pay. An audience of just 100 people, if 50 bought AN Hosting Packages or WebEx packages, would pay the rent for a month with money left over.

    Leave CPM behind, leave raw audience numbers behind, and start actually making some money AND serving your audience with highly qualified, highly relevant sponsorships that you can get right now.

    Example: consolidate your student loans with the Student Loan Network, and my podcast gets $100 per signed, returned application. All I really need to make expenses for my podcast is 1 loan application a month (to pay for Libsyn). Anything on top of that is gravy.

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