The Jag Show: Podcast Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices

Who's bigger? Spotify or Apple?  Well, both.... Welcome in to episode 100 of this season of the Jag Show Podcast. Spotify says it's now bigger than Apple in terms of users.  That's from their Q3 numbers.  As always, Tom Webster from Edison Research has a great explainer on this. (Full disclosure: Spotify and Apple are both Edison clients). Webster says that more users prefer Spotify, but Apple sti...

Amazon has changed the way we read, and the way we shop.  Could they change the way we consume audio? Respected podcast journalist Ashley Carman reported in the Verge this week about an Amazon plan called "Project Mic."  The idea is to combine elements of Clubhouse, traditional radio and more, to turn anyone into a DJ - with the ability to create content with music.  These programs can be then str...

If you have a podcast, you probably get spammed daily with promises of more downloads and boosting you to the top of the charts.  Don't fall for it. There was a podcasting company called Ozy Media.  They claimed “to vault you ahead of the curve – and spark change.”  Then, to stand out in an overcrowded space, they faked audience metrics and even a Goldman Sachs fundraising call.  And, eventually,...

So I've decided I'm no longer going to shoot and edit video for my podcast. So for a few months, I recorded video down here in the JAG in Detroit studio.  There are some podcasts who love doing video. My podcasting collaborator Johnny Peterson has really had the video side of his business take off.  But for me, I had to know what I don't know.   I worked in radio for 15 years. I'm an audio special...

It's been a really bad week for Facebook - including on the podcasting side. Apologies for not getting a podcast episode out last week.  With Facebook rolling out podcasts for business and fan pages, I was ready to do a how-to episode on that. After all, with podcasts hitting Facebook, we can get more ears on your show, and podcasting in general.  Well, turns out the Facebook podcasts process is f...

Joe Rogan is here to entertain you, not to be a trusted source of information. There's a difference. Last night, a friend of mine posted a meme that said "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."  On one side was a baseball fan, at a game, with a COVID-vaccinated QR code on a bracelet.  On the other side - a tattoo from a concentration camp.  Needless to say, I was offended,...

What Should I Charge for Ads on My Podcast? How much should you charge advertiser in your podcast?  Libsyn and AdvertiseCast have crunched the numbers, and average CPM for a one minute ad is $23.57. That means podcasters are charging $23.57 for every thousand listeners to their podcast.  So if you want a statistic, there it is.  But here's the thing - every podcast is different, and your listeners...

Book a podcast discovery call with Jag here: https://jagindetroit.com/calendar After countless recommendations, I subscribed to Apple TV and started watching Ted Lasso. I'm just into Season 2 of Ted Lasso, and I figured out why it's so popular.  In a world of political divisiveness, climate disasters, and general ugliness, Ted Lasso is a show of, as my friend put it, relentless positivity .   Now...

Website Link: https://jagindetroit.com/shownotes Are Show Notes Important?  YES!  Your show notes are important to the success of your podcast. Why Show Notes Are Important: Google Search is still one of the top ways people find podcasts. And, at least for now, Google can't search audio - it can only search text.   So if you write show notes with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in mind, you can g...

Turns out, Apple Podcasts may finally be getting it's act together. I have not been shy in recent weeks about sharing my dismay at Apple Podcasts' new updates.  Starting in May, shows weren't updating, new shows were taking forever to be approved, and people who make money off of their podcasts were getting hit hard.  Well, there's good news.  James Cridland of PodNews says Apple seems to have fix...

Your podcast needs to be everywhere - or at least in as many places as it can be. In 2007, I was working for a radio station in Vermont, where (fun fact) billboards are illegal.  I was trying to convince my boss that the station needed a page on this new thing called Facebook.  "Ben," I asked him, "if you could have a billboard in South Burlington in Interstate 89 with your morning show on it, wou...

As always, I learned a lot at this year's Podcast Movement convention, and I'm going to share it with you today. (NEW OPEN) Welcome in, I'm Jon Gay.  You'll notice I shortened the intro.  I talked to some listeners at Podcast Movement, and the consensus was that while a bunch of artists saying my name sounds cool, it has nothing to do with podcast news.  It was great for my ego, but that's about i...

Hello from my hotel room at Nashville's Opryland Resort, where the first full day of Podcast Movement wrapped up.  Some highlights from sessions I attended today. The first keynote was from Kate Erickson of Entrepreneur on Fire - she spoke to the importance of systems, workflows, plans, and accountability.  Another nugget: if you're out of ideas for episodes, set up Google Alerts for keywords in y...

Have you seen Ted Lasso?  Well, I haven't, but everyone I know keeps telling me I need to. But I'm not a soccer fan.  You'll still love it.  I don't have Apple TV.  Get it!  So I finally decided yesterday to drop the five dollars a month so I can watch it, plus The Morning Show, and some other stuff. I really didn't want to add another monthly bill - even $5 - on top of Netflix, Disney Plus, and Y...

I've long said the only way for music radio to survive is by bringing personality back and differentiating itself from Spotify, Pandora, and other streaming services.  We've actually seen some movement on this front, with some stations going back to two-person afternoon shows.  Even SiriusXM seems to be adding more DJ's to their Pop2K, Pop Rocks, and other channels. Sadly, Audacy, the second bigge...

Audacy vs Audacity.. Audacity is a free audio editing software with 100 million users worldwide, according to the BBC.  Recently, they were purchased by a company called Muse, headquartered in Cyprus.  A future software update will have users connect to the web, and as a result, they've had to put out a statement confirming to European and other privacy laws.  They are going to collect your IP add...

The last 18 months has taught all of us how to use Zoom.  It's great if you need to do a face to face meeting with someone who may not be great with technology, as most people have learned it by now.  Up until recently, however, I told my podcast clients to avoid it.   It can be glitchy over a bad internet connection, causing you to lose words and phrases, and if two people talk at the same time,...

Editor's note: No video this week due to me breaking my foot and my studio not being super accessible.  More on that later. The big news in podcasting this week was the launch of Facebook's new podcasting feature.  Problem is, it's only available in the US, and by invite only.  So to learn more about this new Facebook feature, I went to - you guessed it- Twitter.  Buzzsprout's Head of Marketing, A...

Welcome in, I'm Jon Gay. We start with a great point from Amplifi Media's Steve Goldstein. Watch any episode of Wheel of Fortune, and the game starts within the first FORTY FIVE SECONDS of the show. Take that approach with your podcast. Lose excessively long intros, and endless banter, and hit the ground running.  I'll try to do that here.  (Link: https://www.amplifimedia.com/blogstein/what-every-...

Editor's note: This podcast was recorded just before Apple emailed all podcast creators about the launch of subscriptions.  99% of podcasts should not charge a subscription, so in most cases this won't affect you. Just be sure to say "follow" my podcast as opposed to "subscribe" to avoid any confusion. There are many "sins" of podcasting. Some you can get away with, but there are 7 that will sink...

Are celebrities ruining podcasting? The great Tom Webster says no.  In fact, celebrities (and their social media followings) will help get eyes and ears on the industry.  But the proverbial cream will rise to the top, and only well executed podcasts will stick around.   Celebrities have long failed at hosting TV shows (and radio shows I might add).  It's nice to get people's attention, but in the...

For this week's advice, I'm shipping up to my home town of Boston, Massachusetts. Matt Siegel, aka Matty In the Morning, has been the morning show host at Kiss 108 since January 1981.  He's literally been doing the show since I was ONE MONTH old.  Generations of Bostonians grew up with him and love him.  Many folks have aged out of pop radio but still listen to him - he pulls in ratings and revenu...

My advice to you this week is that if you want your podcast to grow, it's NOT ABOUT YOU. Many people start a podcast because they feel it's the "in" thing to do, or "my friends say I'm funny," or a myriad of other reasons.  But if you want people to listen to your podcast, if you want to grow your audience, if you even want to MONETIZE your show...it has to be about your listeners.  What is a LIST...

Welcome in, I'm Jon Gay.  There are typically two types of people that start a podcast  Some throw caution to the wind and just go for it.  Others meticulously plan every detail before they start.  Now, there's probably a happy medium between those two extremes.  But too often, folks think once they start the show, it has to stay the same format.  So my advice to you this week is that it's ok to m...

Welcome in, I'm Jon Gay. I try not to cover the same topic in consecutive weeks, but I had to start with an update on the biggest story in podcasting right now - the disastrous rollout of the changes to Apple Podcasts.  And just to check....yup.... you can STILL hear Steve Jobs rolling over in his grave. Personally, I've had no issues with the Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard - under either of the...