Category Archives: podcasting

Sharing Fatigue

podcasting, Podcasts, Social Media, , ,

socialmediafatigueFor some time, something has been going on with me I’ve been struggling to explain. My motivation to share things via social media has been waning.

When podcasting came along in 2004, and social media was still in its infancy, my motivation to share was strong. For several years, I was creating and posting new content at a furious rate.

However, in the past couple of years, the motivation I once felt has been on a sharp decline. I’ve been wondering, did something happen to cause me to stop caring? Was I running out of energy? What was the deal?

Lately, I’ve been toying with the theory that people have a fixed amount of sharing capacity, and once that is used up, the motivation drops off. To back this idea up, there have been plenty of people that had a large online presence that at some point simply seemed to run out of gas and ended up dropping off. This pattern seems to be common, whether it is with a large percentage of podcasters, or just people posting stuff on platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.

With me, motivation is everything. I find that if I am motivated to learn something and/or do something, I can bore right through to the center of whatever it is and make it happen. However, if I’m not motivated, I might as well forget it. I cannot force myself to do something that I lack natural interest in or motivation for.

So, this is the best answer I’ve come up with so far. I am currently tapped out when it comes to the motivation to create and share content online.

Will this lack of motivation to share continue? Would it return if I found myself in a different personal situation, such as when I retire? These are questions I currently have no answers for.

Todd Cochrane Being Inducted into Academy of Podcasters Hall of Fame

adam curry, awards, podcasting, ,

AoP LogoSome exciting news came down the tube earlier this week when the Academy of Podcasters, a new group created by the founders of the Podcast Movement conference, announced that the man who puts “Geek” into Geek News Central, our very own Todd Cochrane, will be inducted into the Podcasters Hall of Fame.

Todd will officially be honored along with five other podcasting luminaries; Adam Curry, Danny Peña, Leo Laporte, Mur Lafferty, and Scott Sigler at a ceremony held in Dallas on Friday, July 31. The ceremony will also include the first ever Academy of Podcasters Awards and it will take place the night before Podcast Movement officially kicks off.

Todd is being recognized for these reasons (according to the Academy website):

Todd has been executive producer of Geek News Central, an audio and video tech show, the past nine years. Cochrane is also the co-host of the New Media Show and is the founder of the People’s Choice Podcast Awards and the Tech Podcast Network.

In 2005, Cochrane wrote Podcasting: the Do it Yourself Guide, the first book on podcasting. Cochrane is the CEO of RawVoice, representing 17,000 media creators and podcast networks. RawVoice provides podcast data analytics, media hosting and advertising ppportunities.

Of course, we all know that Geek News Central started in 2004 and has been running longer than nine years. Regardless, it’s great that the Academy chose to include Todd in its inaugural group of inductees.

On behalf of all of the Ohana – congratulations, Todd!

PowerPress 6.0 Podcast Playlist.

podcasting

WordPress version 3.9 introduced playlist. The implementation was not well thought out for podcasters. So Angelo has tweaked the code and when we release PowerPress version 6.0 in a few weeks podcasters are going to have dynamic playlist like the one below..

Not only that but it will support podcasters who use category, channel, taxonomy podcasting and host of other features. We are excited to demo it here and look forward to showing off our spin of the default WP Playlist Player.

Check out the implementation with video here.

Beta Version so if something does not quite work correctly we will have it fixed before release.

Podcasting News

podcasting

pcn-itunesIf you have been reading this site for any given amount of time, you may remember that the first site my team launched in the podcasting space was PodcasterNews.com. It was a site that had at it’s peak over 100 podcasters covering the news of the day on a variety of topics. While the site never scaled to where it needed to be, it was the pre-cursor of Blubrry.com and everything else we have done.

With my teams permission, I have re-launched Podcaster News to be a site that covers news, reviews & general happenings in the podcasting space. We have a team of 6 writers to start and will ramp up from there. The team members are introducing themselves so as we get ramped up, I hope you check the site out from time to time.

Todd..

Stitcher Enhanced its Provider Portal

podcasting

Stitcher logoStitcher has made enhancements to its Provider Portal. Details were explained in a recent email that Stitcher sent out to people who are currently providing content through Stitcher. At the time I am writing this, it appears that Stitcher has not yet added this information to their blog.

What’s new? The Stitcher Provider Portal will now offer content providers page links and player widgets for new and archived episodes. It also has embeddable Stitcher logos and icons. Stitcher also added Twitter functionality.

All listing from shared show pages and player widgets will count toward an individual content provider’s Stitcher Rank List. In short, Stitcher has given people a few more ways to bring listeners to the content that they have on Stitcher. It also will “reward” that effort by counting the visits through those sources as part of your Rank.

Another new addition is the “Stitcher Stat Facts”. Every month, Stitcher is going to provide figures and statics about Stitcher user behavior and demographics, listening patterns, and insights. People who provide content through Stitcher can use the Provider Portal, click on the “Stitcher Stat Facts”, and learn more about the audience they are reaching through Stitcher.

One Billion Podcast Subscriptions

Apple, itunes, podcasting, Podcasts, ,

One Billion Podcast SubscriptionsWhile some people have suggested that podcasting is a dying art, the data indicates an entirely different reality. Apple announced on Monday, July 22, 2013, that there have been more than 1 billion podcast subscriptions through the iTunes store. Thats a big number!

If you visit the iTunes store today, and visit the part about podcasts, you will see the image that accompanies this blog. It is part of Apple’s special promotion to commemorate the 1 billion podcast subscriptions.

The data from Apple notes that the 1 billion subscriptions are spread over 250,000 unique podcasts. The podcasts are in over 100 languages. More than 8 million episodes have been published in the iTunes store (so far).

Those 1 billion podcast subscriptions do not necessarily equate to the same amount of “listens”. Many people, myself included, have fallen behind on listening to the podcasts that they have subscribed to. Personally, I have more podcast episodes that are sitting in my iTunes, waiting for me to get around to listening to them, than is reasonable. My intent is to get to them all, eventually!

MXL BCD-1 Dynamic Broadcast Microphone Review

microphone, podcasting

mxl-bcd-1In 2004 when I started podcasting my very first microphone was from MXL that paticular microphone I still have in my arsenal and pull it out when I have a guest in the studio.

Over the years I have owned a variety of Microphones, and have found by and large that condenser based microphones have always been better for me than a dynamic microphones. So when I received the MXL BCD-1 Dynamic Broadcast Microphone I was concerned that I would not be happy with it..

My first test with any Microphone is to see how it does plugged directly into my Mackie mixer with no per-amplifier in front of it. This will be the configuration most podcasters will use this mic in, at it’s price range of $170.00

My test at unity on the mixer with 4 inches between my mouth and the top of the mic was met with a raised eyebrow. It performed better than I expected. The sound was loud and clear straight down the middle, with great noise isolation from the sides.

The rugged build will sustain abuse in the broadcast studio and that is important as mics can last a lifetime. For a podcaster this is a great microphone that will not break the bank and perform at a professional level. I like the size, and weight best @ 1.25lbs and 6.2 inches long and 2.0 inches in diameter the mic comes with an integrated mount that fit all standard mic stands and desk risers. It is painted glossy black and very nice to the touch. The BCD-1 features a cardioid, dynamic element that features its own isolation to minimize noise and includes a windscreen

My general advise to anyone using a dynamic microphone that they consider a quality pre-amplifier between the mic and your mixer. This will keep you from having to crank the gains to high on your mixer, and introducing white noise or hiss. Those microphone amplifiers really make a big difference. Choosing the right microphone for you is like trying on shoes, y0u need to test a couple before you know what works.

This is a great addition to the MXL line and how can you go wrong at $170