Destination Unknown

I'm writing this in Dallas as Podcast Movement is wrapping up, and one of the thoughts I'm taking away from this event is that too many decisions are made without any real consideration of the kinds of questions you need to be asking before you do practically anything. People launch shows or businesses and never ask the key questions that you need to answer first.

Let's take podcasts, for example. You wouldn't start a podcast before knowing who your intended audience would be, right? Or whether what you're offering is unique or strong enough to cut through the huge mass of podcasts, active or inert? We're not talking about undergoing a detailed research study here; it's just knowing who your listeners will be and knowing what you need to give them so that they become loyal, engaged followers. There were countless panels here talking about starting podcasts and getting on networks (hey, I moderated one of those) and building a following, but I didn't encounter a lot of talk about something we used to do in radio, defining the intended audience and creating content aimed specifically at that composite "average listener." (No, you don't have to post a photo collage by your microphone of a 32 year old minivan-driving soccer mom. That's a radio thing that's kind of superfluous.)

It's not a radical idea to "know your audience," but everyone here seems to be jumping from "I should do a podcast" to "Why am I not getting a Rogan-sized deal from Spotify?" without the part where they ask, "Who in their right mind wants to hear this?"

We did, however, get some "you need to do video" and "you need to do TikTok," countered by the occasional "you don't need to do video because nobody wants to see you sit in front of a mic for an hour." And video is what Mark Cuban and Falon Fatemi have pivoted to with Fireside, the Clubhouse wannabe they debuted last year. That's the app that came along with "social audio" right when Clubhouse was fading fast and Spotify and Twitter were charging into the same space.* Fireside reemerged at Podcast Movement this year, but I have no idea why, since they've forsaken the audio thing and are now doing video interview and cooking shows with the viewers able to interact with the hosts... which happens to be talk radio, but with video. They threw around a lot of jargon like calling Fireside the "first participatory entertainment platform" (again, that's talk radio) and claiming to be a Web3 thing, which, as far as I could determine, means that they'll let creators on their platform sell NFTs of their shows.

Some in the audience nodded as if they understood it. I just wondered if Cuban, Fatemi, or anyone else involved asked some key questions: Who wants this? Who's the intended audience? How is this different from just doing a YouTube or Facebook Live stream? Is this just technology in search of a point? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? IS there a meaning to life? When's the spaceship coming to beam me up and rescue me?

Wait, sorry, those last ones were MY questions. But, again, you have to know what you're getting into -- and why -- before you do these things. If you ask, "Why should I be doing this?," "Because everyone else is" is not a good reason. Neither is "Because I don't know what else to do," or "Because everything else I'm doing isn't working." For podcasting, you should also ask "Am I doing this as a business or a hobby?," and if it's a business, "How much can I spend on this before it's impossible to break even?"

To the latter point, I see companies paying a lot of people to produce shows and I wonder, even with high CPMs, how they can possibly make any money that way; it's like what I used to say about public radio using a staff of 15 to do what commercial radio would try to do with 3 people. Sure, the 15 will do a better job (and radio always suffered from having too few people trying to do too much), but that only works if you can make it up with donations and grants, because commercial revenue ain't gonna cut it. There might be a sweet spot in the middle, but, again, you aren't going to get there unless you ask the right questions.

Maybe that's just me. Maybe gut instinct is better than researching. Maybe I'm spending too much time looking at Google Maps before hitting the road. Maybe I should just wing it, get behind the wheel and drive in whatever direction the car's pointing. It just seems to me like a better idea to know your intended destination before you find yourself too far down the wrong road to turn around.

*The PR people point out that video was always part of Fireside, but last year, they were stressing its value as an alternative to podcasts, replete with a deal to automatically send completed shows out as podcasts through Libsyn; this year, they're stressing video and saying things promoting "vodcasts" over "podcasts." Still a pivot.

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Thanks again to Audioboom's Brendan Regan, Lemonada Media's Stephanie Wittels Wachs, and UTA's Shelby Schenkman, the panelists for the session I moderated at Podcast Movement. They were terrific, smart, funny, and deserving of all the praise in the world for balancing my usual buffoonery. And it was great to see so many of you at the event. (No, I didn't see any prominent conservative talkers making drop-in appearances. Why do you ask?)

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter @pmsimon