551. Jay Shetty’s $100M deal: What Can Podcasters Learn?

0:05 Marc Ronick: Good morning, Today is Wednesday, july 15, 2020-six and today $100 million podcast deal changes everything. New data exposes video podcasting's biggest challenge, and we'll explain why one bad sponsor can cost creators their audiences trust. Clubhouse, hit the share button top right hand side of the screen and share it however And if you're catching us via podcast, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. please share this with a fellow podcaster. And now, give us about 30 seconds, and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. The podcasting morning show is powered by Ironick Media, helping podcasters launch, polish, and grow great shows, and by Content creators' build real business behind their Good morning again, podcasting morning show.

1:22 Thank you so much for being here. I am your host, Marc Ronick. co-hosts Ralphie Step, D.R. Fay, Phil Better, Sid Meadows, and we also have Dan Schultz and Dave Campbell from the audience joining us. Thank you all for being here today, and a shout out to those who have joined us already this morning on Clubhouse. Tim, Jessica, Rez, thank you for being here. So today, I know when we dive into news, one of the first things we do, I share with you some podcast stats, and I will still do that this morning. But I want to do something. I'll call this breaking news, even though I wouldn't really probably call it breaking news.

2:07 But it is a fresh story from Pod News this morning. It just came through. little game with you today. So, the story AI narration may have just crossed a line that many listeners swore it never would. A company called Spoken, which creates AI-generated audiobook narration using multiple character voices, commissioned Edison Research at SSRS to blind Before hearing the samples, only 30-1% of the listeners said that listening to a human. So we're going to run our very unofficial experiment here. Edison has posted the AI and human versions that were used in this study, and I'm going to play both samples for the team, and really everybody-not just the team, right? Everyone who wants to play along, and as you listen, pay attention to the emotion, the pacing, the authenticity-if overall experience. And then I was trying to

3:37 decide if I should tell you which one's the human? DR. Shaking her head no. Okay, then I won't. I will play. So this comes. There are two experiments that we have to work with. I will play version A, and then I will play version B. Audio Clip: As I lay there with clods of earth thumping all around me, I thought of my son the bird was unavoidable. The poor thing was on its side, staring at me from only a few inches away, clearly as confused as I was by the strange turn of events. Marc Ronick: All right, I'll a pretty long clip. So that was clip A. Here is clip B, the same passage from the book.

4:21 Audio Clip: As I lay there with clods of earth thumping all around me, I thought of my son, and of a sparrow. Thinking of the bird was unavoidable. The poor thing was on its side, staring at me from only a few inches away. Clearly, as confused as I was by the strange turn of events, sparrows often bathe themselves in dirt. Okay, so there you go. Marc Ronick: So those were the Does anyone want to take a guess first? Which one is the AI voice? I know you. Dan: Holy crap! I know that guy number B. He was something else. Holy cow! Marc Ronick: Was he human? Dan, was he human or AI? Dan: I think he was turning the human. No, Marc Ronick: so so honestly, Which one, A or B, was the human?

5:06 Dan: A. Marc Ronick: Okay, A was the human. DR. Your guess. DR: I think I thought B was the human. Marc Ronick: Okay, it looks like heads in agreement with you, Dr. correct. The second voice was the human. I'm going to play one more for you guys because then I want to talk to you guys about, and I want you to really think about this. Which one do you prefer? And I know that now you might be a little biased. You might be swayed because you may have an opinion one way or another about AI. But I really want you to try to be objective here. Which voice do you prefer? Here's Exhibit B. Audio Clip: You had a discovery you plan to reveal tomorrow. I said with an unblinking stare.

5:51 I do not see how this will help to solve this terrible tragedy. Antonio Campiglio said, and it would not be possible to discuss such sensitive topics with everyone here. Olivia leaned forward and raised a hand. Marc Ronick: Okay, I'm going to stop it right there. Okay, and yes, these-they're doing multi voices, different character voices here. So here is the human version. Audio Clip: You had a discovery you plan to reveal tomorrow. I said with an unblinking stare. I do not see how this will help to solve this terrible tragedy. Antonio Campilio said, and it would not be possible to discuss such sensitive subjects with everyone here. Olivia leaned forward and raised a hand, fingers pursed like an Italian nun about to bring the rapture. Marc Ronick: All right, there you go. So, what say you, BC?

6:46 What which one do you prefer, And again, AI was choice A, human choice B. BC Babbles: I personally like because he sounds a little bit my favorite voice actors. So that kind of caters my decision a little bit. But the first one was good. But I do like B better. DR: I think the timing on the human was better. The pause was longer with the human. It gave you a chance to let what he was saying sink in a little bit. You know, I used to listen to an enormous amount of audio books before I got into podcasting, and every now and then I will do one now, and there is some AI voices, and it's fine up until there might be just one word where the syllable is on the wrong impasses, you know.

7:44 Yeah. Just and when there's just one, it sticks out like a sore thumb, man. Marc Ronick: Yeah, and I see Tim. The AI had a little less of an accent. Okay, I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, Tim. I guess that's just a personal preference. And Matthew Matt Bliss is here with us. He says the human one is much better. Unexpected spacing and breaths is good for audio books and speaking parts. Yes, and just gonna call out that he's in the audience. And just to call it out, Matt, since you're a little late, this comes from a study that was done, and what happened was 30 around 30% of the people went into the study saying that they're cool. They like AI generated voices for audio books. After they went through this study and had to pick their preferences, they heard heard these samples like we did. They ended up it ended up being over 60% of the people liked and preferred the AI voices.

8:44 That's why we're covering this story today. And Ralph Estep Jr.: I think I have a take on this, Marc. Marc Ronick: Yeah, Ralph Estep Jr.: and I think it's because so many people are hearing these AI voices on TikTok and Reels that they're becoming well known with these voices, and they're having that relationship with the voices. So that's why it didn't surprise you. I saw that this morning as think we've already been led Marc Ronick: Yeah, and even if that maybe we typically hear on TikTok, you may be onto something, Ralph. Like I can't argue with you. Maybe people are just starting to get more used to AI voices, but I do think that this particular voice that they used, this AI-generated voice, I thought it sounded overall pretty natural. There were certainly some signs of AI, but overall, I felt like it was pretty natural, and I liked how they did the different accents as well.

9:36 I thought that worked really well. So there you go. That's just something to keep an neighborhood. DR: I would have liked to have heard a passage of AI when the male narrator has to become a female in the story. Marc Ronick: Well, yeah. So I would just guess. When they need the female voice, they just quote unquote go into character, right? They'll have that female voice playing that role. DR: But I mean, are they going Are they? How are they going to handle it? Yeah, was my question. Marc Ronick: Yeah, very interesting. Cool experiment for sure, and maybe to some a little All right, let's dive in to today's usual news.

10:24 So we'll start with some podcast data, and this comes from Podcast Business Journal, and they track something that they call active podcasts. And this is worth slowing down for a moment because I always have a hard time explaining it. So an active podcast means that the show itself has been updated recently, either in the last week or the last 30 days. These are podcasts that still are being updated and therefore actively marketing themselves. So, if you're creating shows, listening to this show or at might consider this number to be unquote, rather than that 4.7 million podcast number that we have out there, just as far as every podcast that's ever been created in existence. So, with that, the total podcasts that were in fact updated over the last week were 180-2318 182,318 a way smaller number than that 4.7 million podcast number. And if we want to zoom out a little bit over the last 30 days, 343,472 podcasts updated.

11:35 By the way, the first number over the last week that's up just point 2% The last 30 days is up 4.4% Did you have something, DR. Did you want to say something? DR: No, no. Oh, I'm sorry. No, Marc Ronick: no problem. You're just gearing up for your top five. I'm looking DR: at all the top five. All right. Well, then Marc Ronick: let's go right to it. Then, Dr. What are your two top five lists today? DR: Okay. So this first one is Apple's technology top five. Okay, so number five is probably nothing about what it is. Number four, AI Business Daily.

12:19 Yay, good name. acquired, number two all in with Freberg, and the number one podcast in technology is Tomorrow Today. Marc Ronick: Most of these, I would say, the names don't do the show justice, right? I mean, not all, right? AI Business Daily. Okay, I can guess what that's about, right? But the rest of them acquired. I don't know necessarily what that is, although the tagline helps a little bit. It says every company has a story, but the Room podcast, like you said, tomorrow today, yeah, all in doesn't really tell me a lot. But yeah, DR: I'm busting my ass as a producer trying to come up with just the right strategy, you know, Marc Ronick: yeah, DR: it's crazy, Marc Ronick: yeah. But that's you know most likely without knowing a lot about all those podcasts, it's because they either have a big budget, have a team, have both, etc. They've already had a big following.

13:20 the top. Marc Ronick: Their way to the top. Sure. Okay. Ralph's eyes just popped out of his head. Ralph Estep Jr.: DR. is on a roll today, and I see her next, and I see her next list, and I go, "We are in big trouble. Marc Ronick: Yes. What is that next list, DR. DR: Okay? Well, we've been talking. The word beer has come out of my mouth today more than I've ever spoken about it because the pre-show we were talking about root beer. Marc Ronick: That's right, DR: and this one is Good Pods Top Five Beer Podcasts. Marc Ronick: Okay, DR: who knew? Okay, so number five is Dad's Man Cave Podcast.

14:01 Number four is Buffalo Brews Lord, it's not. Oh, oh, I can't get it to. Okay. Oh shoot! You finish. Stop the. Stop the thing. Marc Ronick: Stop the tympani. Everything. Stop everything. Audio Clip: Did I say that out DR: I couldn't get my scroll Marc Ronick: All right, so here we go. Number three. DR: Number three, drunk with buds. Number two, hops news, and the number one beer podcast is Strong reviews, stronger drinks. Marc Ronick: Now, see, those are We have an idea what these shows are about, even if you didn't tell us what the category was.

14:49 DR: Exactly. Audio Clip: Yeah, love that. Thank you, DR. Let's keep things moving. I'm looking for my button, and actually, of course, that's not the right button. So Ralph, shall we? He's looking for the button. Marc Ronick: Let's hit the right move. Yeah, content creators business bite, Marc Ronick: and today's by Ralph Eastep Jr. of the He's the guy that's going to be handling this next story, and he's also the guy that does my he does a fantastic job. Just had a meeting with him on Monday, going through the books, identifying the things that really understanding where my business this year. So I can't encourage you to reach out to Ralph enough, if you are in need of an accountant, so go to contentcreatorsaccountant.com get the information you're looking for, and reach out to Ralph today. Go for it, Ralph.

16:11 What do we got? Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, good morning, everybody. There's a study out this week that says advertisers love podcasting more than they ever have in 12 years, and I want to tell you why that headline is a party that you're not invited to, and here's why. This study was done by Westwood One and Advertiser Perceptions. It's an annual study. They've been doing it for 12 years, and it was published on July 13th. And it's basically looking at the buy side interest, saying it's at an all-time high, and everybody's sharing it, but almost nobody's reading past the headline. Here's the numbers: nine out of 10 marketers or agencies have discussed podcast ads for potential investments. Now that sounds good. 70-5% are likely to consider that in the next six months. 70-4% said that's a 12-year record. Now compare that with 2015.

17:02 That number was 10, so that's a seven times jump, and 76 percent currently advertising in That's a five times since the first IAB upfront in 2015. Now those are real numbers. I'm not going to argue with them. I'm here to ask a different question: Whose pocket does that money actually land in? You got to consider the source here. Whenever I talk to people, the number one thing you got to look at is who is the author of the study. This one was done by someone called Westwood One, which is Cumulus Media. Cumulus Media sells podcast advertising. So what this really is a 12-year sales document. It doesn't mean the numbers are wrong, but advertisers went in is exactly what a seller needs the market to believe. You got to read every study by asking who benefits if you believe it.

17:50 I want to do the math out loud. I'm a numbers guy. I'm a math guy. Buried in the report, Magellan's benchmark data says that marketers spent around 360-$4,000 a month on podcast ads. Look at what that says. That's not per show. That's the entire 500 combined. So slow down here. We're going to do math online, divide it live. So if there's 360-4000 of the top 500 podcast, that's roughly 720- a month per show, and that's assuming you're in the top 500. If you're not in the top 500, guess what your share of the money is? Zero. Now the good news is new advertisers are entering the space are averaging $32,000.

18:32 But the report also uses the words "spray and pray. So maybe there's sky high interest, but there's microscopic dollars. And here's the issue for independent creators, do-it-yourself creators who are in the audience today. The 5% solution doesn't trickle down. Reports Big Ask says the brand should be spending 5% of their digital budgets in the podcasting. Now that 5% rule actually comes from BBDO's Arnie Semsky back at the dawn of cable, and it sounds great, but follow the plumbing. Brands, agencies, networks, impressions. Minimums are on an indie show that none of us are going to hit. The mechanism to deliver those dollars to you doesn't exist.

19:15 So think about this for a second. More money at the top of the funnel doesn't widen the funnel. It just makes it deeper. So here's my accountant's take on this. This is one of the reasons we do this section. I've spent 30 years looking at how creators actually make money. Here's what I see in the report: Ad revenue is the only business model where you do all the work, and somebody else That's not a revenue plan. That's a revenue hope. The 12-year trend line is a decision, and it's been made by the top 500 people. You don't need a brand to write you a check. You need to know what the problem your audience has and make them an offer. As I've said on the show yesterday, audience times problem times offer equals value, and that's why a 400 download show with a $200 offer. Beats of top 500 ad slot, and nobody's media buyer has to approve it.

20:04 Nobody's agency has to add you to a list. You're not waiting on a There's the whole difference. So in the end, take this series, this study seriously. Podcasting is winning. That's a good thing, but just be clear out about which podcasters are winning. This report is good news for podcasting. It's not good news for podcasters, and you got to waiting for permission to get And that's today's business plan. Marc Ronick: Thank you, Ralph. If anyone has any thoughts or chime in, at least on this part of the news and comment edition of the podcasting morning show. Okay, so with that, thank you again, Ralph, and again, that's contentcreatorsaccountant.com Let me quickly share some events If you didn't know it, Empowered Podcasting Three is coming up in As I've shared, it's built for indie podcasters, DIY podcasters, content creators who want that real connection, that practical growth, and a community that actually understands the ups and downs of creating consistently, and if you want to see the tentative schedule, we've just posted it online this week. You can go to empoweredpodcasting.com/schedule

21:35 you'll find that link there. And you can see exactly how it's going to run down. I will say it's always subject to change because lots of things can happen over the next month. But overall, that should be the schedule, and we're actually continuing to update it as well. talking about it right now, it you're listening to this. So it is fluid, but it'll give you a great idea of how this event's going to look and feel, and who the speakers are, what they're talking about, etc. Also, by the way, if that entices you and you want to get your your tickets, you can use coupon code EPC Mark 20 to get 20% off.

22:16 That's EPC Mark M A R C 20 for 20% off. And also, by the way, we are still looking for volunteers. We have opened up six volunteer slots. Some of them have been filled, So volunteers will receive a free ticket and full access to the entire event. If you're reliable, community minded, and would love to be a part of EPC three's experience from the inside. Head to empoweredpodcasting.com or reach out to me direct. As a matter of fact, go to empoweredpodcasting.com/contact-us interested, and that link will also be in the show notes as well, and for some other events going on tomorrow, Thursday, july 16, podcasting That is a Podmatch production hosted by Alex Sanfilippo, a friend of mine and a friend of this community's.

23:15 You can get more information about that live online event over at Podmatch.com/events, and I would be silly. It would be silly if I didn't mention Podcast Movement New York City, one of the biggest podcast convention events as far as attendance goes. That happens here in the United States and in the world, for that matter. Not the biggest, I don't think, but one of, and that happens Thursday, september 19 to september 18, and that is a paid event. Just search for podcast movement on your favorite search engine, and we will put a link to that in the show notes as well. And also, by the way, I should say I know that several of our team and community members have want to speak at the event and to speak, they have to get your vote.

24:05 Ralph, I know you're one of those people. If you would remind me by sending me your link, I'll put that in the show notes. And anybody listening right now live, if you are looking to get a vote because you want to speak at Podcast Movement, send me that link, and I will make sure we put that in the show notes. We want to support our community. Ralph Estep Jr.: Thank you, I really appreciate that. You're welcome. DR: Which is the big podcast Marc Ronick: Well, that's this That's Podcast Movement. DR: Movement. Okay. Yeah, Marc Ronick: yeah, and that's their first time ever in New York City, I believe. After however, impression DR: that it's going to always be in New York now. That's the impression that Marc Ronick: that it might be the impression ever since the buyout once they merged with Sounds Profitable.

24:49 I think that became their plan is to make New York their hub, much like so far anyway. Empowered podcasting, Charlotte is our hub. So I can't, and also like Podfest or. every year, so makes sense. I get that. Okay, let's get into some news bites. These are some stories that may or may not. What do I want to say? May not bring out the conversations, but important nonetheless. DR. Will you take that first one? DR: Yeah. So there's a new ranking system for business podcasts, and this one is basically saying, "Well, downloads are cute, but did you actually learn anything? So it's called the B 2b Podcast Index, and it was built by the B 2b Podcast Agency, and that agency is called Fame. God, I miss David Bowie.

25:40 Whenever I see the word fame, I have to say fame. And instead of ranking shows by popularity, audience size, or ad muscle, it scores them on The index samples recent episodes, transcribes them, and uses an AI-assisted Rubik for to rate each show across five areas: insight, density, originality, guest caliber, specificity and evidence, and conversational craft. In plain English, it's asking: Are these shows packed with useful ideas, real examples, sharp questions, and guests who've actually done the work for creators, especially business podcasters. This is worth watching because it hints at a bigger shift. The next wave of podcast credibility may be less about who has the biggest numbers and more about who's creating the strongest, smartest, most useful Marc Ronick: I like the idea. It would be even cooler if it wasn't just limited to business to business podcasts.

26:50 But I do think DR: that's a glue from somewhere. You know. Marc Ronick: Yeah. I mean, I guess where it really holds its weight is how much people know and respect the source that it's coming from because they're the ones that are quote unquote judging what yeah what the how well these shows are done. Dan has something. Let me check in with Dan. Go for it. Dan: Yeah, I just assumed people But like at the end when I'm ready to upload, I take the transcript and I run it through AI, and I'll just say, do we look stupid? Do we look smart? Are we funny? Does this thing flow? Where did we mess up? Is the audience actually going to get anything worthwhile out of this? Like, and I don't ever ask it to like change anything. I'm just saying, like, well, where did we mess up? Because that should be our job, and like, you're right, it shouldn't just be business to business. You know, we do one about banned books. Like it's the goal should be like, are we putting something out there that people are actually going to get Marc Ronick: Yeah, a great And by the way, because you're a newer voice here, would you share your show with everybody in case they're interested?

28:01 Dan: We have a show called Band Camp, like banned as in banned books. It's a comedy podcast where we read banned books out loud and then try to figure out why they were banned in the first place. We've been doing it 11 seasons, still haven't found a legit reason why people want just always like even something that simple, which is just like, well, I want this to matter to people. Marc Ronick: Do you ever, as what you're doing here, if I you guys are actually reading them, trying to get to the Do you guys go a step further and do the research and actually share? You know, maybe there's a news story. Maybe there's information out there on why it was. So you do that too.

28:44 Dan: Yeah, we. I mean, yeah. Usually, though, it's our take. Like we're college-educated people who somehow have not read any of these books, and our reader, our listeners vote on the books we do each season. We read a book from chapter to from cover to cover, two episodes a week. So the show itself is literally Jennifer, my co-host, reading because she's a mom. She used to read to her kids. She reads the book out loud. I make the smart ass comments, and then, but we're both stumbling over words, like because we've never read the book before. So a lot of people are listening and are like, "Why are these idiots? They don't understand what Mark Twain, you know, Huckleberry Finn is all about, but at the actually learn and what could be Like we're literally reading it in front of you.

29:30 Fascinating. DR: And Dan, what was the most recent book that you read on the show Dan: this season? We are right in the middle of The Handmaid's Tale, which is such a fun comedic romp. Oh, that's so depressing. The last season, Marc Ronick: I was like, "Where are you going with this? Dan: Oh my god, it is so incredibly hard to try to be a comedy show while this stuff is going on. But the last one we just finished, season 10, was The Catcher in the Rye, which is so awesome. Marc Ronick: Very cool. Thank you for. Dan, appreciate that, and appreciate your insight as I'll keep things moving. Video podcasting has a 1% problem. Video podcasting may be growing fast, but most of the audience is gathering around a very small group of shows. A new analysis of roughly 30-4000 active English language video podcasts found that the top 1% captures about 40-2% of all listening, meaning the typical show reaches an estimated audience of around 2000 monthly listeners. The numbers suggest video podcasting now operates more like an established media business, and we talk about that here all the time.

30:45 That an open than an open playing field, long-running shows with large content libraries, consistent schedules, recognizable hosts, guest interviews, and strong distribution have a major Apparently, buying three cameras and hanging neon lights behind the host was not the entire strategy. Adding video may create more opportunities for visibility, but video alone does not guarantee growth. Podcasters still need that consistency, the clear positioning, audience loyalty, and enough patience to build substantial catalog. The findings also show why comparing a newer independent podcast with industry's biggest shows can create unrealistic expectations.

31:30 The audience is growing, but attention remains concentrated. So basically, sure, video podcasting is all the rage, but is it really helping those of us, especially those of us that are indie podcasters, DIY podcasters, etc. That's the thing to really pay attention to for our audience, for our community, for sure. All right, let's see here. Let's go to our next story. Oh, this is actually going to be some tech news. sharing some interesting news Go for it, BC. Yes.

32:12 Good morning. So PodPage is now offering to automatically enhance your episode for SEO. So the article released this morning mentions the main problem with posting your next podcast episode as podcast feeds BC Babbles: by search engines. written content, titles, your RSS feed often contains descriptions. So now it's offering a new automatic tool that steps in to turn every episode into a search engine friendly moment. So this SEO boost tool is now going to offer a focus key phrase, optimized titles and descriptions, a listener friendly summary, key takeaways, FAQ pairs and smart categorization.

33:02 Now, Mark tried to find this morning on Pod Page since we have the show on Pod Page, and he mentioned he couldn't find it. I'm guessing this is something that's not part of the manual interface. It happens once your episode is out. But further offers from SEO, this SEO boost include more organic traffic, better episode page performance, time you no longer have to spend on ultimately the perfect compound effect for getting more listeners potentially to your So, new automatic tool. Hopefully, it helps boost your show every single time a new episode is pushed out there. Fingers crossed, since we can't actually see it happening.

33:42 Yeah, yeah. Ralph Estep Jr.: I was going to say I can speak to that because my team picked that up this morning, and it's movement in the right direction. We actually been using the Elite product with PodPage for a long time, and there's actually a scoring system within PodPage, and basically it's a 18 of 18 score. So my VA this morning Abby what we found is that and this love Dave and I love Brendan it scored 11 out of 18 with the AI so there's still some room to actually this is a very very model that it's doing because a lot of people just use the word "spray" and "pray" for A lot of people do that with their RSS feed to their website. This will actually help you get those key phrases in. So it is a wonderful plan, a wonderful product. They got some tweaking to do to make it work correctly, but it's very simple to use once you get the feel of it, and it really is impactful.

34:39 BC Babbles: Now, one thing I though, is like once it applies these changes to your episode, does it give you a kind of like report? It doesn't mention here, but does give you a kind of a report on what it did change. Ralph Estep Jr.: And it and Beast doesn't actually apply them. It tells you what it would yes, I would like to do this. So there is. Still a human element to this because sometimes you know as well as I do, AI goes off the rails sometimes. BC Babbles: Very much, Ralph Estep Jr.: but it gives you some very good ideas, and then you just have to go in there and say, "Oh yeah, that's brilliant. Oh yeah, that'd be great. That'd be great. So yeah, I mean, it gives you all the tools. You just have to approve them. Gotcha. Marc Ronick: And if anybody is or switching to PodPage, start I'm going to share my affiliate link in the show notes.

35:26 That will not change any pricing for you, but what it does is it gives me a 20% commission for referring you. So just want to be upfront and honest about that. And I would really appreciate it if you go ahead and use that link if you're interested in Pod Page? So check that out in the show I'll put that at the top of the list of links so you can't miss it. I'm actually making a note right now to do that. And let's keep things moving. Let's see here. for you. Riverside. We've talked about this. They've teased it, and it's finally here. They're expanding beyond remote recording with a new in-person multicam setup inside. Sorry, DR. Inside its Mac app.

36:15 DR: Mac Marc Ronick: creators can connect multiple cameras and microphones in the same room, assign each input to a participant, and record every automatically synced track. session, giving producers one or fully remote shows. The feature also brings Riverside's editing tools into the studio, including automatic camera switching between or based on who's speaking, text-based editing that we a lot of us already know about, social clips. We a lot of us know that has that magic clips feature and direct publishing.

36:58 It could simplify multi-camera production for creators who find tools like OBS or hardware switchers too complicated. Although it's currently required by to use on a Mac in Riverside's Pro plan or I'm very curious about it, and I don't do currently a lot of in-person recording for the podcast, other than yours truly sitting here, and then everyone else is remote. But I would love to try it out. I have a new client that Janaid and I are going to work with to set up the studio, and we're going to probably hook it up to Riverside to try it out. So more to come on that one for sure. Dan: Quick question, Marc. Marc Ronick: Oh yeah, go ahead.

37:39 No, that's okay. Go ahead. Dan: Okay, so your work case that's for. Could you're all alone? You're sitting there, but could you record through Riverside? But you have camera A on you, like your front-end camera, but then you have another camera on you, just right there next to you. Yep, the only person in the you know Riverside studio. Is that what that's actually doing? Yeah, Marc Ronick: I could absolutely do that. I could set up three cameras. I assign those cameras. what have you. And yeah, I could set it up for multi angles, right? Which is a common practice that a lot of people do in the industry and other entertainment industries, which is for cover-ups.

38:19 So let's say I flubbed a line, and I'm looking right now at camera. If I flub that line in post production, I could just switch to a different camera angle and avoid the flub altogether, and just keep things moving, and nobody would know the why. So Dan: that's literally so key because if every show does that type of thing, all of a sudden the old issue of like, well, I should be on YouTube, but I don't want to spend any effort on it. That all of a sudden makes it real easy because you don't just want to have just like you don't want to have your cover art as the main video for a three-hour podcast episode, but you also don't just want two You know, you and your co-host, you and your co-host. Like that's pretty amazing. Like that will change how you know how easy it is to go on YouTube and actually make compelling content? That's pretty cool.

39:06 Marc Ronick: Very cool. Very cool, and a great idea. I wasn't even thinking that through, obviously. And yes, that does change the typical Zoom style podcast and makes it a lot more dynamic if you have the ability to do that, the means to do that, and yeah, setting up those multi cameras and just changing angles every so often will help make it feel a little different than just like watching a Zoom conference call. Yeah, BC, did you have something? I see your hand is up. BC Babbles: Yeah, real quick. So this would not work through browser specifically. This is a specific on your computer app versioned feature. Marc Ronick: That is what it says. Yes, it says you have to have a Mac and you have to use the app and you have to have the Pro plan or higher to do that.

39:52 All right. So the DR: Android gets the shaft again for now. Marc Ronick: For now, I'm sure it'll change over time, and I'm sure. A lot of Android users will let them know about that. Although it's really this isn't really an an iPhone Android thing. This is an Apple Windows, yeah, yeah, yeah, DR: Apple. Ralph Estep Jr.: And it comes down to working on Dan: that typewriter. Marc Ronick: Yes, and Ralph Estep Jr.: and this comes down to the fact that the onboard tools that the Mac has allow this to happen. I use this with eCam already, so yeah, it's a great tool because all your onboard tools are. I don't know that it's going to cross over into the PC landscape. Actually, I don't think the tools exist. Marc Ronick: That's interesting. Yeah, good take there, Ralph. Thank you. All right, so you heard the music a moment ago.

40:33 That means we're now moving into These are some of the what we feel are the headlines that will probably invoke that was the word I was looking for earlier some conversation. So let's dive into it. Jay Shetty's $100 million YouTube exit. That's the name of the first and main headline today. Jay Shetty has pulled a new pulled new full length on purpose videos from YouTube Spotify agreement, reportedly transforms years of audience payday and raises a question: distribution would you exchange once your content becomes valuable enough for major some of the key points of this july 13. The audio podcast remains available on Spotify specifically and other podcast apps. New full-length episodes will no longer be uploaded to YouTube, removing the show from one of its biggest discovery and will serve as the show's global advertising sales representative, giving it the audience across the Reports describe the agreement as a multi-year deal for exclusive rights to the show's video version.

42:01 The publicly available information doesn't establish that Shetty sold the podcast itself or gave up ownership on the on purpose brand. Shetty entered negotiations with a lot of leverage on purpose. The show reportedly has more than 1 billion listens overall, a large established video audience and a track record of attracting major celebrity guests. So, we actually shared this story among the team when it first happened, and we had a good, healthy conversation around that. So, I'll just start with a question: What does owning your content mean once you license part of it exclusively to another company?

42:47 To yeah, what does that mean? Let's see, Alex, you want to chime in? Go for it. Good morning to you. Alex: Hey, good morning, This just reminds me of a really unique story between Michael Jackson and the Beatles. Okay. Marc Ronick: Oh yeah. When he bought the rights. Alex: Well, well. One thing that Paul McCartney said to Michael Jackson is you should always own your games. And it turns out Michael Jackson ends up owning the Beatles. And short term or long term play is you get a lot of money. Long term is, you know, you might not own your stuff down the road. Now this isn't the case, but you know, just know that there's an advantage and disadvantage to for most people isn't a big deal because people have Netflix. But you know, we said that about a lot of different things. You know, and if Netflix ends up not becoming or not staying on top, it could be a problem down the road. But you know, we'll see what happens.

43:50 Marc Ronick: I mean, a problem his wallet, though. If Netflix, oh, absolutely, he's Alex: going to be-he's laughing all the way at the bank, and you know. But then again, you know, this is the question: Is relevancy? relevancy important to him? You know more than a bag full of dollars. You know that's the question. Marc Ronick: Yeah, and I don't know if I'm in his shoes. I'm thinking maybe it's not as important to me anymore, and not just because I've just walked away with $100 million but because he's he has spent years building up this show, building up his community. I think he's at a point way beyond where a lot of us are. Obviously, being able to close $100 million deal, right?

44:30 But let me go to Phil Better, who wanted to chime in. Good morning to you, Phil. What did you want to add to all this? Phil: Good morning, Marc, and I just see this as another similar to the Joe Rogan in 2020. I believe it was 2020. He got his 100 million from Spotify. It's just going to bring one. It's good because it's going to bring more people into podcasting because people are going to be like, "Oh, we can get the 100 million from Netflix or any of these other streaming platforms. So you're gonna we're gonna see a big. Force on that, but it's just the reinvention. I mentioned this in our talk: All these shows are pretty much independently grown.

45:14 There's no big production houses behind them, and platforms like Netflix, Amazon. In Canada, we have Crave, but other streaming platforms are looking for their talk show episodes that cable TV used to have, and with Jay going to Netflix, he's actually shooting himself in the foot. I perceive it as that because, like you said, Mark, he's getting he took away his Marc Ronick: Discovery Channel. Phil: Thank you, because words YouTube. YouTube is the biggest discovery channel for podcasts, whether it's video or audio. And with him moving to Netflix, he's in my view shooting himself in the foot. The same thing happened with Joe Rogan. He didn't grow as much after the exclusivity happened. Marc Ronick: Yeah, and he ended up eventually switching it back.

45:59 Like now, I think they're back short-term gain, which great for him. Get that, get the dollars he But I believe in the long term, it's actually going to hurt him more because people are less likely to find out about him, regardless if he's on Netflix. Marc Ronick: Yeah, I would say that again. Like he has spent years building this to. I am going to guess what he wanted it to become, right? I'm sure he had this as a goal in mind. Maybe not specifically. I'm going to sell the show for $100 million to Netflix, but I'm sure he probably had a goal to to do something like that, and I think that you know maybe there does come a point.

46:45 Actually, I believe there does come a point where okay, you've accomplished all those goals that you set out to accomplish. Now there's this offer on the table. Is this a good fit now for me? Is this my next step? And clearly, Jay Shetty said yes. I can't fault him for that. I mean, if somebody came to me right now and said, "I'm going to buy the morning show for $100 million, I'm going to seriously consider that, even if it means we're no longer going to be on YouTube, as an example. Phil: I would tell you to take By the Marc Ronick: thank you, Phil. Yes, DR. BC and Ralph. I'm sure you wanted to chime in as well, so I'll go to you after that. Go ahead, DR. DR: Okay. So Phil mentioned about taking-I think it was Phil taking away the biggest Discovery Channel, basically. But you know, Netflix is not really doing a tremendous job of marketing the podcasts that they and I'm a foodie, so I do a lot of food podcasts.

47:48 Yeah, let's see if the 100 million means that they're going to pay a little bit more this particular show. Yeah, that's all. Marc Ronick: Yeah, that makes Let's keep it moving, just for sake of time. BC, did you want to add something? BC Babbles: Yeah, double down. I think the timing is not great because right now Netflix is actually pivoting now towards trying to look into live video, live TV avenues now, and I think that's another sign that the podcasting move was not the best, and what really there's been no innovation on their end because, as we mentioned in a previous episode, there's nothing new with their podcasting lineup.

48:30 It's all the same stuff that's already been established and has won everywhere else, and now they're looking for a potential new avenue of live video live channels as the next pivot, and so I think that kind of indicates this could not. This may not be the the best timing for this decision. Marc Ronick: Okay, that's yeah another fair point, Ralph. How about you? What do you got? Ralph Estep Jr.: Yeah, I just want to make it very simple from an accounting perspective. $100 million is a ton of money, and it gives you a ton of flexibility to do things that you might not be able to do. Marc Ronick: That's a real hot No, I'm just saying I'm just $100 million is a lot of money. Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, no, because I think people are getting fixed on.

49:11 Well, he's not going to do this, and he's going. Who cares? At $100 million you can set the table for what you want to do the rest of your life. Marc Ronick: That's a fair. Ralph Estep Jr.: That is that is He can decide to do whatever he wants to do, and that's the most beautiful part of that. So I say, hey, congratulations! I'm I'm love. I love capitalism. It's a beautiful thing, and you know, and all of us can sit Monday morning quarterback and say, well, yeah, but this, it's $100 million He can now decide what he wants to do. Marc Ronick: Yeah, I mean, look, We didn't even talk about that part when we talk about his goals and what he's trying to accomplish, and what does this do to all those goals? Maybe his goals now require some money for some next steps, and he's got the money now to invest. Now, look, he was already a pretty wealthy guy. DR: I was about to say he wasn't before, but even still, like he's again.

50:03 I'll go back to what I said earlier. He's been doing this for several years now. He's probably checked a lot of the boxes off all the goals and accomplishments he wanted to achieve, and maybe he didn't hit dollar goal made him say, "You know what? I accomplished enough, and I'm Walking away with this large payday, and now let me explore some new things I can do. Ralph Estep Jr.: And that's the thing. I deal with a lot of high net worth people, and the thing I will tell you is, the people who have the most high net worth ever met, and that's because the anymore. So it could very well be that he's looking for passion. He's looking for something that's going to get him up in the morning.

50:45 Money probably doesn't mean a whole lot to him at that point. And I'm just telling you, I work with people that are very similar-not at 100 million, but big money people-and a lot of them are just looking for something different than money And that could very well be what this is for him. Marc Ronick: That makes sense. Anyone else have any thoughts? DR: I saw that Sid. Sid does. Go ahead, Sid Pepper. Sid Meadows: Yes. Good morning, everybody. There was something that Rob just said that I think is really interesting. I mean, yeah, he doesn't need the money, but if you look at his career as kind of what he's done, he started out as a monk, Marc Ronick: yeah, Sid Meadows: which basically means he had nothing, right? And then he came out of that and But you know, is the money important to him? I doubt it.

51:32 It's not that important to him. Yeah, it's life altering and pretty much do whatever you want to for the rest of your life with $100 million But is the money what's really important to I find really interesting too, because Netflix is not a discovery platform. That why does he need to promote his show? Why does he need to drive to drive listeners to his show? Right, that's Netflix's issue now. Dan: Yeah, Sid Meadows: that's not his issue. His issue certainly when it's on YouTube to try to get as many people listening to it, but that's Netflix's issue to drive people and discover. And I don't know that his show needs discoverability. Maybe my younger audiences in the Gen Z, but his show's not suffering. However many millions of listeners you said it was earlier, Marky, his show's not suffering from discoverability. So, but it becomes to me the ownership of discovering that podcast went from him to Netflix. That's I don't know the deal or any of that, right? But to me, that's on the surface, that's what it looks like.

52:29 Marc Ronick: Yeah, great points, I'm glad, and I saw Ralph. You were nodding emphatically there as well. Ralph Estep Jr.: Oh, absolutely. seat now because now he's like, "Hey, great! I've licensed my stuff to you. You go make a win of it. I've already cashed in. Marc Ronick: Agreed. Okay. So listen, I we did have one more story to cover, and we are short on time, so we are going to hold that because I think it can probably hold until next week when we do the news all over again tomorrow. We are back with our an all new episode at eight a.m. Eastern. Join us over at podcastingmorningshow.com/join different ways you can be a part fact when we put it out as a And by the way, I know we had some people on YouTube today, but for whatever reason here on Riverside, it showed me zero as far as live participants on the video stream, but I did go check and I see you people are So if you've been in the chat, we may have missed it.

53:29 So please forgive us for that. We will fix that and see what's going on with that, and hopefully have that resolved by tomorrow morning. And until then, make it a great day, everybody. Take care.