PodMov Daily: Thursday, January 28

Episode 360: Your Thursday Podthoughts

A How-To Manual from Podcasting’s ‘First Family’

Bello Collective editor Galen Beebe reviews Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You), a new how-to book from the McElroy brothers. Justin, Travis, and Griffin launched My Brother, My Brother and Me back in 2010. Their comedy “advicecast for the modern era” has since led to 24 different podcasts, all in the extended family.

Aimed toward aspiring podcasters, (Except You) covers practical terms, equipment, and basic production. However, Beebe says, nuts and bolts were never the point. “Their thesis could be summarized in two sentences: make something you care about, and ‘act like a decent human being’ while you do it. The rest is gravy.”

This ‘decent human being’ tenet is truly part of the McElroy fabric. “The brothers explain the fundamentals of human respect, including how to show your audience you love them (and why you should love them in the first place),” Beebe writes. After all, delightful advice you can’t find anywhere else is a family specialty.

What’s Up with Anchor? Hot Pod Takes a Closer Look

According to Ashley Carman of The Verge last week, “Spotify is paying podcasters tens of thousands of dollars to buoy its own sponsorship tool.” Hot Pod’s Nicholas Quah takes a detailed look at the Anchor Sponsorships marketplace, weighing the claim that its dominant ‘advertisers’ are just Spotify and Anchor.

Though Carman’s account was based on a small sample of podcasters, Spotify’s response didn’t make much of a case. Who are these sponsorships designed to benefit? Quah recognizes that Anchor’s opacity makes it hard to tell. [Side note: The term “dogfooding” isn’t the point of the column, but it may be the highlight.]

Clearly there’s some corporate dysfunction at play, but Quah explicitly does not imply that Anchor is a scam: “What I’m saying is that there seems to be an increasingly noticeable tension between Spotify’s persistent dream-weaving of the past few years and what seems to be the actual lived experience on the platform.”

Dynamic Content: A Powerful New Tool from Buzzsprout

With Buzzsprout, it’s faster than ever to keep your podcast fresh — and your listeners up-to-date. The new Dynamic Content tool lets you easily add and remove short pre-roll (intro) and post-roll (outro) content to your episodes. It’s the perfect solution for timely messaging.

Whether you’re promoting a virtual event or giving a special shout-out, Dynamic Content makes it simple to swap, automatically add content to new episodes, or apply it to your existing catalog with a click. Old files are removed and replaced, so there’s no clean-up.

For podcasters, this new tool offers more than flexibility. It benefits your audience in more ways than one: Buzzsprout respects your listeners’ privacy. Unlike most Dynamic Ad Insertion, the Dynamic Content tool includes no tracking or targeting. Ready to make the switch?

Here’s what else is going on:

• Don’t fear: Tomorrow at 2:00 pm ET, Brendan Baker will lead a free course on REAPER for podcasting. The award-winning producer and sound designer (Love+Radio, Marvel’s Wolverine) will give an overview of the DAW and share his custom settings, shortcuts, templates, and workflow.

• Two scoops: Tomorrow at 8:30 pm ET, Hot Docs Podcast Festival presents “Stories That Slay,” a live talk with Roxane Gay, co-host of the acclaimed Luminary podcast Hear to Slay, and Avery Trufelman (The Cut). $14.99 admission, or use promo code PODMOV for 25% off a Festival Pass.

• Level up: For podcasters with realistic downloads, membership platforms can be a realistic solution. “Many shows have seen Patreon be a good way to generate a return,” says audio writer Matt Deegan. The Allusionist has done so in three months, due in part to glorious tier descriptions. 

• Final say: Season 3 of Serial will be developed into an HBO series. Sarah Koenig, the creator of the landmark podcast, is an executive producer. Co-host Emmanuel Dzotsi (now a co-host of Reply All) will also oversee the project, a study of the criminal justice system in Cleveland.