- Sounding Off
- Posts
- Happy New Year! Beware and Good Luck.
What's Below
I don’t spend a lot of time on New Year’s Resolutions and setting goals for the year ahead. But then other people publish theirs and I shop and adopt the best ones. What I do have is some advice for 2025 for broadcasters and podcasters.
As I write this, I am looking across the Winter desert called Manitoba and seeing the absolute best of what January offers. Three distinct colours of Winter white, the dull brown of the trees, and the light blue of the sky. Thankfully, it is a nice day and the beautiful blue is not engulfed in cloudy gray. And this is where I feel radio is right now. It offers some bright spots on good days, but it Is largely beholden to the cold and frigidness of the season. But there is no spring on the way for radio. If radio wants to change, it will need warmer temperatures.
The January View in Manitoba
It's really easy for me to sit on s podcast and point out all of radio’s flaws and what it needs to do. I think that time has passed. You have what you have and good luck is the best I can offer. We all know what the problems are. The people who own most of the radio stations in North America are not champions of the product. They have no interest in the medium’s success and prefer to see it supplement other aspects of their business like phone sales and cable tv subscriptions or engagement with their app.
However, there are some people who really are invested in the radio space – and I love their passion for the radio. We know they are busy and hope to have them on the show this year. The invites have been sent out!
Specifically to Canada, I would love to see the CRTC get a group of 12 smart audio minds together and to consult them on the best ways radio’s power can be maximized for Canadians. As in the radio listener. Not Record companies. Not lobby groups. Not Socan or anything to do with music. My worry is that the proposed changes the CRTC is considering for Canadian radio – should be good enough to finish it off for good.
The View from my Sister’s home in Costa Rica.
My 2025 message for podcasting is … Beware. Beware of your brand, be cognoscente of your audience, understand that you do not have to do everything that every podcast wizard tells you to do. There’s plenty of time to make changes and adjust. I think the best example of this is doing video for your podcast. In 2023, there was a push towards video which was born out of Google shutting down their app and asking podcasters to transition their shows to YouTube… where – if you used their tool – your show was reformatted into a video where it would not accommodate things like an update, your podcast ads, and count the same as your other podcast download stats. And one of the most disturbing trends throughout all this, are the number of podcasters who started to promote their show on YouTube… or themselves as YouTubers. They were asking people to watch the show rather than the best and easiest way to consume it – which is through your ears.
Yes the Sound Off Podcast is a show is on YouTube – but I should wear a shirt that says “I’m only here for the search”. I love the search YouTube and Google offer but that is all I am interested in. If you are stoked to see an unedited version of me talking with this week’s podcast guest – it’s available. Seeing the video on YouTube, Facebook, X or Twitch is just there to serve as a reminder that there is a really kick ass audio experience waiting for you on your podcast app of choice.
And that brings me to Spotify… who have decided to get into video and encourage podcasters to upload their audio to the platform. And the same sort of thing happens as it does for YouTube – you lose your dynamic podcast ads if you have any, the stats are Spotify stats and no longer count as downloads with your podcast host and oh wait a second… who watches video on Spotify. This is not why your listener went to Spotify in the first place. They likely love the combination of music and podcasts together on one app. And again, we are going to have podcasters who are going to want to monetize their video on Spotify… has anyone read what It takes to get money from them?
I can sign up today and instantly become a Spotify partner and monetize….
To qualify for Spotify Monetization my videos need…
To Be hosted and uploaded through Spotify for Creators or Megaphone
Have 10,000 streamed hours on Spotify in the last 30 days.
Have been streamed by 2,000 unique Spotify users in the last 30 days.
Have at least 12 episodes published.
So I consider The Sound Off Podcast to be a successful podcast. It pays for itself in many ways…people can watch or listen to it. If I wanted to qualify for Spotify monetization on video… I would have to ask the people who use Spotify to stream video – which is a lower listening experience… and even if every spotify user I had did that – I would only come in at 7620 hours… which is 3/4ths the way to qualifying. In contrast – YouTube is getting nearly 4000 hours a month from my videos… and these are people who are choosing to watch the show.
All this to say if you are a podcast creator: Beware. Beware of platforms coming to undermine the good you have created between you and your audience. You need to find ways to have Spotify work FOR you. To have YouTube work FOR you. These are platforms that want to take your content and monetize it for themselves. But you need to remember that you need to only participate in the parts of the platforms that work for you.
Yes – be on youTube for the search. If you can monetize that’s great.
Be on Spotify but don’t jump over a 20 dollar bill to get to a 5. If being on Spotify with video means a lot to you – then upload to an alternate video feed and keep the audio feed pristine. I just know that you are likely listening to this show through headphones, and making a great audio listening experience is what keeps you coming back.
So that’s my pep talk for you for 2025. Guests return next week with Dani Stover and Jay Stone.
Terry Dimonte: A 9th Very Terry Christmas
I got together with Terry Dimonte for the annual Christmas podcast tradition, which began in 2016. Terry explains the difficulty in scheduling a meeting with the departing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau due to his busy schedule and Terry's travel plans to England. We recalled radio days, including Terry's time at CITI FM, CHOM-FM and his experiences with new wave music. Both of us watched the Yacht Rock Dock and loved it.
We also discuss the decline of traditional radio, the rise of podcasts, and the importance of local community connections. Terry highlights the success of his local podcast, "The Standing By Podcast," and its growing audience. We ended with reflections on their upcoming trip to England and their love for Christmas traditions
Talking About Radio
I had the pleasure of joining John Leslie on his podcast Talking About Radio. When Matt Cundill was told his radio job was dissolved, he took his skill in a different but similar direction. Matt is now owner of Sound Off Network. In addition to hosting a popular podcast titled "Sound Off", Matt is an experienced consultant to those who want to have a professional sounding podcast of their own.
He counsels businesses, corporations and individuals who don't have the experience necessary to create an enjoyable podcast. He talks about this in this new episode of Talking About Radio with John Leslie.
You can also listen to John appear on the Sound Off Podcast.
Best Thing I Listened to This Week
Join sex historian Kate Lister on Betwixt the Sheets as she gets intimate with the stories that would make your history teacher blush. What were the Victorians really like behind closed (bedroom) doors? How did the Black Death favour women in medieval England? And what was Caesar like in the sack?She'll be bed-hopping around different time periods; from ancient civilisations, to the middle ages, to renaissance and early modern...right up to now. You’ll laugh, you’ll wince, and you’ll ask yourself how much has actually changed.
So join Kate Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society - a podcast from History Hit.
We are knee deep into the Black Friday / Christmas side of things.
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