A (0:00)

The other day I was browsing through Facebook and I came across a post that said video podcasting is no longer optional. Apple podcasts bringing native video this spring is a big signal the ecosystem is moving toward video first podcasting. It's not just YouTube anymore. Now, along with Spotify, Apple is full, fully coming on board. If you're not recording high quality video already, now might be the time you need to rethink your workflow. I call baloney and I'm gonna talk about that on this episode of the podcast, Answerman. Well, hello my friend, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast, Answer Man. My name is Cliff Ravenscra and this is the podcast devoted to helping you take your message, your business and your life to the next level. That's right, my friend. It doesn't matter if you are brand new to this content creating world or if you've been creating content for many years. There is something that we can all do to take everything we do in life to that next level. And one of the things that I continue to do to take things to the next level is champion the format for audio only podcasting to help defend those who prefer that audio only content, or at the very least audio first content. It needs a bit of defense today because there is a public narrative that is catching fire and a lot of people are being burned by it. In this episode I am going to speak about Apple Podcasts announcing their HLS video integration and how that moves people even further away from owning their content via an RSS feed, being able to take their audience anywhere they want to go. I'm going to share with you about how video is complicating everything because YouTube does it one way, Spotify does it another way, and now Apple pilot podcasts yet another. And there's even a different way of. Well, there's a two other ways to do it with RSS feeds. I'm going to explain all of that in this episode. But to kick this off, I want to share with you three very important definitions when it comes to content creation. I'll then share with you why I, as a content consumer prefer an audio only podcast or at least audio first and and also why I prefer audio only or audio first content when it comes to being a content creator myself. So first let's talk about these three definitions. The first one is audio only production. This is a production where no camera is involved at all. I'm sitting here in my studio right now speaking directly into this microphone and, and I'm talking to you. It's me and you having a conversation. I'm not performing and I'll get into all of that other stuff, but there's just no camera involved. Audio is the only way this conversation is being captured. Another example of audio only content is where maybe myself and my wife, who do a lot of podcasts, co hosted together in the same studio space and there's no camera involved. We're each speaking into a microphone and it's being captured in audio and it's the only way this content will be distributed. Now, I will even go so far as to say that sometimes I will have a podcast interview or even a co hosted podcast episode where I have my guest or my co host join me via via Zoom. The two of us might have a video camera on so that we can see each other as if to replace being in that same physical space, but where the actual video of that Zoom call is either number one, not even being recorded, although that would be crazy not to have it as a backup. But anyway, but where there's no intention ever that that video will ever be seen by anyone. The only, only thing that is actually going to be used in the production of this content, this conversation, is the audio only that is audio only content. The second definition is audio first content. Now this is where you may actually have one or more cameras involved in the recording of your content. For example, if I'm in studio by myself, I may have one or two cameras trained on me, I might have a co host in the same physical space with me and we may have a two or three camera set up where yes, the video version of that conversation, that piece of content is going to go out to the world. Maybe it'll exist on YouTube, maybe it'll even exist out there, subscribable via podcast feeds. But where the primary focus is where we're communicating first and foremost to those who will be listening only via audio, the audio first content creator has this mentality that most of the audience are gonna be listening on their commute to work or while they're working out at the gym or the various other places where it makes sense to consume this in audio format. And you'll know that content creator has an audio first mentality. Whenever a guest might bring up something that they can show on camera and the content creator says, hey, for those who are listening to this in audio only, I just want to explain to you what my guest here has just held up and they describe it in detail so that person doesn't feel any compulsion whatsoever to go look for that to see what they've missed in the video portion that is available to others, that is audio first content. And then the third definition that is important in this discussion is video first content. Obviously there are cameras involved. Not only that, there are all sorts of things that are designed to capture the attention and keep the attention of the person consuming the video content. Some hallmarks that are typically seen is that oftentimes these content creators don't want microphones blocking the mouths of their guests or the hosts or co hosts of the show. And oftentimes that means they'll use shotgun mics that are out of the angle of the camera, they'll use lapel mics, they'll use all sorts of other mic techniques that typically will look better on video but produces a sub par a less than optimal audio recording. But for these content creators, these video first content creators, they think about the video audience first and they're not as concerned about giving the best audio experience to the audio listener. Because this is not an audio first content creator. This is a video first content creator. Other hallmarks of a video first content creator is that they are oftentimes putting words up on the screen. They'll put screenshots up on the screen, they'll show full blown slides, B roll footage, and hold up all sorts of objects and say things like, hey, for those of you who are only listening to this via audio, you'll definitely want to go check out the video version of this because this is incredible. You're totally missing out. I'm exaggerating just a little bit, but this is the mental of somebody who creates content first and foremost for those who are consuming video. So those are the three definitions. You've got audio only, audio first and then video first. Now I want to share with you why I as a content consumer prefer audio only, or at least, at the very least, audio first content. The first reason is that when it comes to time for me to consume content, I have a lot more time to consume audio content than I do screen time to consume content. For example, there are still millions of people every single day driving to and from work. And, and I think a lot of people forget about the commute. In fact, I'm somebody who works from home, but I still oftentimes have that commute to and from the gym. That's 25 minutes there, 25 minutes back. There are people who are taking their dogs for a walk, going on road trips, getting ready in the morning, fixing and having their lunch by themselves, and then doing the dishes afterwards, working on a house project. Maybe you're building something in the garage, you're cleaning up a space in your home. There's a lot of time out there for you to consume audio content where watching something on a screen just isn't a fit. There's a lot more time that people have to consume audio compared to consuming video content. That's not to say that I sometimes don't have screen time, but when I do the second reason I prefer audio only or audio first content is because when I do have screen time that there's much more competition for my attention. I'd almost always rather watch a fully produced full length video on YouTube on some sort of topic that I care deeply about, where the visual elements of the video drastically add to the enjoyment and the value of the content I'm watching. Heck, these days I might even prefer scrolling TikTok and having the algorithm feed me what it knows or the topics that I'm interested in and seeing video first content delivered to me not pretending to be a podcast, but being the kind of content that's short form video, not trying to get me to some other platform to see their long form, but actually delivering true value in two to three minutes or less. This is a great platform and if I have screen time, I'm probably going to go over there. Or if I have my ebook with me. Which by the way, I have the most perfect e book these days that goes in my pocket anywhere. If you haven't heard about it, it's the XTE Ink ebook reader. It's only 4.3 inches. It fits in my pocket in the palm of my hand. Anyway, this is not a podcast episode or about that, but boy do I love my ebooks. But what I'm getting at though is that if I have screen time available, I'd almost rather just pull out my ebook and read a couple more pages or another chapter or two in my favorite book that I'm reading right now. Or if I have screen time and I'm in front of a good size screen, I'd almost prefer to work most of the time because I love the work that I'm doing. So this second reason why I prefer audio only or audio first content is because when I do have screen time available, there's almost an infinite number of other things that I prefer to do than to consume a podcast in that moment. The third reason is because I simply do not like to listen to the audio only version of a podcast that has a video element to it. I'll give you a perfect example. I have two podcasts that I've been listening to for nearly 20 years. Both of them are from Leo Laporte, this Week in Tech and MacBreak Weekly. And for the very first few years, they were an audio only podcast. Then they moved to an audio first podcast and somewhere around middle mid to late 2008, both of their shows transitioned into a video first podcast. Now, if I hadn't already fallen in love with the content and had a relationship with the hosts of the show, I probably would have never subscribed to these podcasts had I found them when they were video first content. But because I did, at least one thing they did right was when they moved to video first, they actually created a separate podcast feed where I could subscribe to and receive the full video version of the media file that is video delivered via RSS feed. So in any podcast app of my choice that supports video playback of video files, those video files get downloaded directly into my phone. And I don't have to rely on any other third party app showing me all these other algorithms and things like that. I can literally manage the content the way that I prefer to do so. And ever since Mac Break Weekly and this Week in Tech had moved to a video first production, I unsubscribed from their audio podcast feeds, never to listen to it from the audio feed ever again. And I'm only subscribed to the video podcast feedback. And what I do is I pull out my phone, start the playback, I will then close the app, turn off my phone, stick it in my pocket or sit it on the counter or whatever. And then I start my day. I get ready for the day, getting dressed or whatever, listening to it in the background or while I'm fixing my breakfast or doing the dishes or all of these things that I do. And, and because it is a video first production, there are often times when they're like, oh, did you see Apple's latest ad? Hey, let's throw it up here on the screen and have commentary on it. And I'm like, oh, well, let me go see what they're doing. And so I have to pull it out of my pocket or I have to go search my phone down. Where did I what counter is it on? And I have to go and back it up, back it up and open the app so that the video is playing so I get to see what it is. Because I really enjoy their content and I want the fullest. I want to experience everything that they have to offer in that show and I want to be able to do it via a subscribed podcast link. Now, here's what I will tell you. As much as I love this Week in Tech and as much as I love MacBreak weekly, if they for some reason did not have a video podcast feed that was subscribable with RSS where I could download that, I'm not gonna use the YouTube app to watch this. I'm not gonna use the spot to listen to podcasts or view podcasts. If I can't use my podcast app of choice to consume that video first content and have the option to just shut it off and listen to the audio in the background and then open it up and just watch the bits and pieces where they're referring to something that I would like to see. Then if that wasn't available to me, I would simply unsubscribe. I'm not gonna listen to the audio only feed of any show that has content where video is available because it's inevitable. Even in many audio first productions, there are those occasional slips where they're like, we're sitting here walking through this town and man, we see this beautiful scenery in front of us. For those of you who are listening on the audio, I wish you could see this. Of course, for those of you watching in video, you see this, don't you? And it's beautiful. And again, I hear it. It happens. I simply do not like the idea of having an audio only podcast feed in podcast directories and then having your video somewhere else so that you know, if you mention something there. I'd just rather not consume your show. I'd just rather not, even if it only happens every now and then. Another reason why there are some video podcasts out there that have an audio version in the podcast directories, but the video is only over on YouTube. For example, Diary of a CEO. The reason why I won't go and subscribe to the audio version of that podcast is because there is intrinsically more information available to the video consumer of that content than there is to the audio listener. You see Diary of a CEO, even though it's a conversation, it's an interview, and even though there's not B roll footage, although they're starting to include a little bit of that here and there. But even if you think there's no additional video elements introduced outside of the conversation, there are things that are communicated in body language. And when that video exists and it's somebody that I'm genuinely interested, it's like some A list celebrity guest, which are really the only episodes of Diary of a CEO or Joe Rogan or Lex Friedman, you know, a three hour conversation is just ridiculous on an ongoing, regular basis anyway. But that's my own opinion. Who's got time for that? Obviously a lot of people, right? But the thing is, if it's an amazing guest that I want to know more about, and there's an entire video production crew and multiple camera angles, and even though it is only that conversation, the reality is if the ability to see their facial expressions when a question was asked or to see their body language when they said that phrase, if that's available, I don't want to not be able to experience that. And so again, if you have a video version of your podcast and there's an audio version in the podcast directories, but the video version is not available via the podcast directory of my choice, via an RSS feed, then I'm not even going to subscribe to your show. I do not subscribe to the Diary of a CEO. I don't subscribe to Joe Rogan. I don't subscribe to any of those podcasts. And the reason why is because if they have a guest that's gonna peak my curiosity, somebody's probably going to talk about it. They're probably gonna put a clip on short form media, and I'll go watch that one episode, add it to my YouTube watch later playlist, and do you know what I do that? I probably consume about one out of every eight or nine of those episodes of those video podcasts that I add to my Watch later. And eventually my Watch later playlist gets so big I just start deleting them. And I never did watch them. Why? Because there's a lot of other things that I'd rather do. I'm just not into video podcasts. So those are the reasons why I prefer audio first and even audio only content as a consumer. But there are many reasons why I prefer creating content as audio only, or at least audio first. Number one, less technical challenges, less things break. And if you've been into video production, I need to say nothing more. You just get it. If you haven't and you're thinking about trying it, you'll understand very soon. Number two, I don't have to concern myself with how I look. Oh my goodness. I should have trimmed my nose hairs before I recorded that entire one hour piece of content. Oh my gosh. I had Chipotle for lunch and I forgot to go in and floss afterwards. Oh my gosh, there's a piece of cilantro right there. During that Entire live stream, that entire interview. Ah, man. I don't have to think about things like, oh my gosh, let me go style my hair. Let me make sure my beard looks just right. When I sit down to record a piece of content, I don't have to go put on a dress shirt because I'm typically wearing a T shirt because I'm a solopreneur and I've chosen that. I love the freedom of having casual dress day every single day of the year. I love that I don't have to stare into the eye of a camera and pretend to be making eye contact with you. I love that I can sit here behind a microphone and just know that you're out there listening. I'm not performing. For me, when I speak into a microphone, I feel like it's me having a casual conversation with a friend. When I'm looking into a camera, I feel like I'm a presenter in front of a small crowd. Whether I'm teaching a workshop or speaking from a stage, there's a performance that seems to be turned on whenever I start looking into that camera. As a content creator, I don't have to do anything with video editing to maintain your interest. I can keep everything going by the enthusiasm, the tone of my voice, the story elements that I'm bringing into the conversation. I don't have to switch every few seconds. I don't have to zoom in, zoom out, switch between this camera angle and that camera angle. I don't have to bring in B roll footage. I don't have to put any graphics on the screen, none of that stuff. I sit here, I hit the record button, I I talk into this microphone, and if anything, I do some very deep edits to cut out some of the mistakes that I've made along the way. Maybe run an audio process to make sure this thing sounds absolutely pristine audio quality and deliver it to you. It is so easy for me as a content creator to create audio quality that rivals any production out there. Whereas with a video piece of content, I'd have to hire an entire team of people and they'd have to spend a lot of time and I'd have to have very expensive equipment to rival the best content out there. Also, the stats don't lie. Retention graphs are available now to podcasters. For example, the retention graph of a video on YouTube will show that the video, the vast majority of the audience, drops off within a first few minutes of your average piece of video content. However, with the same content but in audio form, especially if your content is High quality audio, high quality production, and also audio first. And it's even better. The retention graphs are even better for audio only content, where no video was ever produced out there and released to be a part of the audience. The retention graphs of an audio podcast. An overwhelming majority of every person who hits play listens to the end. Now, don't get me wrong, there are outliers out there. There are a lot of people with very boring podcasts and their content is not all that great. And yeah, their retention graphs don't show those things. But those of us who have been creating audio only content, and we've been it for decades now, we could show you some of our retention graphs. You'd be shocked at how many of our audience are hitting play and make it all the way to the very end of the episode. Especially for those of us who aren't filling our content up with inserted advertisements. And then audio only subscribers are far more engaged with your content than video subscribers. It's not uncommon for a YouTube channel, for example, to have a hundred thousand subscribers and see several of their videos over the last several weeks where it's got 5.3 thousand views. Whereas if you have an audio podcast with 15,000 subscribers, nearly every single episode produced by that podcaster, they will have at least 15,000 downloads within 30 days of publishing each episode. There are so many reasons why, as a content creator, I advocate for audio only. I advocate for audio first. And so finally, I can now address the opening of this podcast episode. Apple Podcasts just dropped an announcement and said, hey, we're switching things up and we are supporting video versions of podcasts in our directory and here's how we're doing it. And to complicate things, they're doing it different than YouTube, they're doing it different than Spotify, and also they're doing it different than independent content creators and industry experts doing it the old fashioned way, or with the new RSS standards, where you could have multiple media enclosures to choose from in a single RSS feed entry. Little geeky, little technical. But here's what I will tell you. Video is a mess. It is super complicated. It can be done. It's rather simple for those who know what's going on, but it is far too complicated for the average person. And it's getting to the place where if you are serious about doing a video version of your podcast and you want that video to be in podcast directories, you're going to need to support all of the different methods you'll need to create the video version and upload it to Spotify so that Spotify can deliver it to your Spotify subscribers. And by the way, those audio subscribers who are subscribed to the RSS feed where the audio files in there. Guess what? They do not even hear those audio files anymore because they're only going to now play the audio from that video on Spotify. This will make more sense when I play some clips from some other people talking about this. So if that, if I lost you there, stick with me. I promise you. This is just a complicated mess of different standards. There are going to be at least four or five different ways to distribute your video version of your podcast to those who would want to consume the video version of your podcast. And guess what? You're going to need to support all of them. You're going to need to push it out in all of the different ways. At some point, you're just going to need to hire a team to manage all of this for you. Like I said, the complexity of video, it has always been high. It's always been a hassle for a lot of people. And it's only getting more complicated now that Apple is jumping into the ring with its own proprietary way of delivering video versions of your podcast. Let me give you a super overly simplified explanation of Apple's announcement. Apple announced that they're going to start supporting video delivery of podcasts via what they call hls. This is a special proprietary streaming method of delivering video content that Apple created. And by the way, Apple has supported video podcasts in their podcast app ever since podcasting was first introduced into the Apple ecosystem, all the way back to the earliest days of the very first support for podcasts. In itunes, video podcasts were a thing. Video files delivered via an RSS Media enclosure has always been supported, but now they want to bring a different type of support available, such that when somebody is consuming a podcast in the Apple Podcasts app and there happens to be a video version and an audio version, they want to be able to create an experience where the user can seamlessly go between the two. Which why they can't just subscribe to the video RSS feed and start watching the video and then close the app of choice and listen to the audio play in the background. I don't understand. I've been doing it for almost 20 years now, but now Apple says that's. No, that's not how we're gonna do it. We're gonna actually do this via the kind of the same experience that you're getting from Spotify. We're gonna bring that over here to Apple, but we're gonna do it a different way. We're gonna do it via hls. And I gotta tell you, I think one of the reasons why they're doing it this way is because if you're gonna dynamically insert ads into your podcast, I think this is a way for them to get a piece of that pie. Now, I told you that one of my favorite podcasts is Mac Break Weekly, hosted by Leo laporte and a panel of other technology experts and Apple enthusiasts. And three of the four people who were on this podcast panel this week are podcasters themselves. And since this was an Apple related announcement, they had a conversation about this. And I'm going to play several different clips from this week's episode of Mac Break Weekly and I'm going to then give you commentary on each of them. Here's clip number one.