Being Good Beats Being a Celebrity

Being a good content creator will always be better than being a big name celebrity. A couple of weeks ago. I was fortunate enough to be back in Syracuse, New York for our annual alumni event for the WJPZ student radio station there.

We had a fantastic keynoter. It was Beata Murphy, the new program director of KISS FM in Los Angeles. And during the Q and A part of her keynote session, a student asked her, "How are up and coming radio DJs, or in this case, podcasters, supposed to compete with these big name celebrities that are getting these huge deals to develop their own radio shows and their own podcasts?"

And to her credit, Beata said that the celebrities are not going to be better than people creating good content. Content is always going to win. You can look at a long list of celebrities who have tried and failed both in the radio and the podcast side. The list is too long to go through here. Some celebrities have had success, but only because they've been good content creators.

So, yes, it can be discouraging that a celebrity radio show or podcast is going to make a big splash, have a big following out of the gate, but if they can't back it up, if they're not developing good content, like you are, as a good content creator, eventually they're going to fail. Good content is more important than being a big name.

Another thing during the weekend, I learned from the students, TikTok is now increasing the max length on their videos. It used to be that the max length of a video uploaded from a computer was three minutes. That is growing. So you may start seeing this podcast grow to more than three minutes like it used to be. I promise not to keep it much longer than that though.

Amazon is developing a program called Amp, which kind of lets you be your own radio DJ. I'm really curious to see how it's going to work. I have an access code that I'm going to attempt when I have some free time, but the Amazon amp app will allow you to mix your voice with whatever music you want, as long as it's on Amazon music, to essentially create your own radio show.

I wonder how that's going to turn out. Could that be the new proving ground for up and coming radio talent or podcasters? Or might it just be a hobbyist thin?G. I'm curious to see how this is going to shake out. 

University of California, San Diego, has a new study out talking about how headphone listening creates much more of an impact than listening over the speaker. When you think about it, the biology and the science is pretty straightforward. If you have somebody in your ears with air pods or headphones or whatever it is, that is more of a direct line to your brain than a speaker from across the room, but there's actually a science to back it up. Got a link to the study in today's show notes. 

Twitter is working on a podcasts tab. Some eagle eyed developers have seen this. It makes sense. Facebook in only a few months has grabbed half a percentage point of all podcasts listening. Again, not a huge number, but significant for how recently they got into the game. And, you know, if Facebook is having success with it, Twitter is going to be right on their heels. So keep an eye out for a podcast part of the Twitterverse.

YouTube is trying to find podcast content. They're offering up to $50,000 to creators or $300,000 to networks to create video content. And in fact, YouTube's head podcast person is going to speak at Podcast Movement Evolutions later this month. More on that in today's show notes.

Also developing in the podcast tech space: iHeart, within their podcast app, is developing a talk-back tool, which will allow you to send a short audio message to your favorite podcast hosts. Talk about real-time feedback and borrowing a page from radio!

I don't think it's going to put the iHeart app into the lexicon with Apple and Spotify. However, I do see if it's successful, the big boys incorporating something like that as well for you to send a short audio message to your favorite podcast hosts in hopes, maybe they use it on the show. Caller on line three. 

Sabrina Tavernise has been named the second full-time host of The Daily. You may have heard her filling in a lot in recent weeks. If you listened to that podcast from the New York Times, she had incredible, incredible, real raw reporting from inside Ukraine as the war started. So congratulations to Sabrina. And speaking of Ukraine, Ukraine has a Hidden Voices podcast. It's featuring the voices of the people on the ground as things are happening, not filtered by Mr. Putin. 

If you know, one person that enjoys podcasts or wants to know more about podcasting, I invite you to share this podcast with them on whatever platform you're listening right now. And until next time, stay healthy and stay safe. Lata!