537 podcasters told us what they care about (and don't) - here's the data: Part One of Two

The more podcasting grows, the more people talk about it. Some of it is genuine news, and some of it is gossip or clickbait. Rather than waste your time with articles about irrelevant topics, we want to know what the average podcaster cares about most.

So, we put up a survey and invited our entire audience to take part through the blog, email and social. We offered a few prizes to say thanks, including a 1st prize gift voucher and a few of our own books (The Podcast Host Planner and Podcast Growth manual). 

We were delighted to see responses from over 500 podcasters (537 in total!) who generously shared their opinions with us. Let’s take a look at what podcasters think of the topics that spark debate in the content creation community.

Get the full Podcaster Cares Survey Report right here. 

Transcript

Colin:
Hey folks and welcome to another episode of Podcraft. This is the show all about creating a successful podcast. I'm Colin Gray from thepodcasthost.com joined by Matthew. As always Matthew, how are you getting on?

Matthew:
Very well. Thank you Colin. Time of recording, Friday. I've got some beer in the fridge. I usually start drinking on a Friday about half 11. It's seven minutes past 11 at the moment. So if we could just get this wrapped up quickly, please.

Colin:
Half way through the show.

Matthew:
Yeah. You just hear a crack of a bottle.

Colin:
We occasionally do that at Christmas. Have a couple of beers in the podcast. Never managed it in the last couple of years.

Matthew:
I do it every day.

Colin:
True. So what are we covering today Matthew?

Matthew:
What do podcasters care about? So I could just ask you what you care about Colin, or we could look into the data of 537 podcasters what we asked in a survey. Because we love a good survey, don't we?

Colin:
Yeah, indeed. This was really cool actually. I loved this idea when you first brought it up. The idea of asking podcasters really genuinely, what do you actually care about? Because I think the industry is young, but it's been around long enough now that there's people in the industry that think they know what matters to podcasters. And I think you and I often rebel against that slightly, the podcasters really give a crap about whether an RSS feed is involved or do they just care about get their voice out there. So we decided to ask them those kind of questions, to see what people really care about. There's a few surprises, wasn't there?

Matthew:
Definitely, yeah. I would say so. There was certainly a lot of interesting data in here. And a couple of nuances as well, which we'll get to. And I think a good starting point for this survey was just to find out a bit more about who was answering that. Specifically how long they'd been podcasting, because for you and I, Colin, we've been going 10 years plus now. Obviously loads of folk are coming in the medium every year. And it's likely, I suppose that, folks that have been doing it for 10 years are going to have a lot of different thoughts and opinions than maybe somebody who started yesterday. So that was the very first question we asked, was just how long have you been podcasting? So you got to look at the data there Colin.

Colin:
Yeah, sure. Right. For me, this is important and it was kind of this was our thinking. As the medium opens up, we get newer podcasters and do they care about the same things that podcasters that started five years ago do. Because it was a very different place, five years ago really, podcasting.

Matthew:
It was all dinosaurs and iPods.

Colin:
Indeed.

Matthew:
I remember exactly.

Colin:
Yeah. So the way it was split in the end was... What did we have? We had 5%. So one in 20 of our respondents were 10 plus year podcasters. So we had a good view. What was it? Let me see. So 500, roughly, podcasters. So what's that? It's 50 of the 500 are actually over 10 year podcasters. And then 50% were two to five years. So we had a big representation from pretty experienced podcasters here, somewhere between two and five years. And then the other 40 to 45% was in the kind of... Well actually, no, we've got five to 10 as well. So 10% were five to 10. So actually 15% had done five plus years of podcasting. And then we've got about fortyish were either less than a year or yet to launch. So decent distribution I think, wasn't it?

Matthew:
Yeah, definitely. And it's worth staying upfront as well, rather than us keep on mentioning loads of links and stuff like that. You will find all of this at The Podcast Host. I can't even get the link, thepodcasthost.com/cares. That will take you to all of these graphs and stuff like that we're going to be talking through now.

Colin:
And since you're linking as well and we're about to dive into the data, I'll say as well. Obviously our content is always supported by the products we do, which is Alitu generally. Most often mentioned Alitu is our podcast maker app. It helps you record from call recording to solo recording. It helps you edit with a custom podcast editor built in it. Does all your audio cleanup for you automatically from noise reduction to audio levelling. Pieces it all together, puts in your music, your fades, and helps you publish to your host as well. So if you fancy an easier way to make your podcast pop over to alitu.com, A-L-I-T-U.com, and you get a seven day free trial. And that's what supports all the free content we put out, including podcraft, including the blog, including the surveys, all that stuff. So your support there much appreciated.

Matthew:
Yeah. It also pays for my beer. So get signed up to that right now. Looking back to the folks that responded to this survey. We also asked them the question, why did you start a podcast? Again, just trying to get to know them wee a bit. So 7% were doing it for an employer, 13.8% for a cause or activism purpose, 19.7% wanted to grow their business, 21% wanted to build their personal brand, and at the top 30.4% as a hobby. A few comments about the term hobby. I think a lot of podcasters, they're not keen on that term. And I heard the term creative outlet used a bit more. So Lindsay actually did a good article about that too, she's linked in there.

Colin:
Yeah. I like that a lot. Actually, that topic it's really interesting actually, hobby. Hobby just kind of almost demeans it a little bit. There's a lot of podcasters do it for fun, they start for fun. They do it to be creative, to talk, to get their message out. And it could be termed a hobby because they're maybe doing it about board games, or about cycling, or something like that. But actually they want to get out there and get their message out and make a difference in people's lives and potentially earn a little bit of money in future. So it's not necessarily a business but it's not something as small as a hobby either. So it's a good question I think.

Matthew:
Just looking at that next question too. We asked, well statement was the point of my podcast is the end result, not the process. And this was one of those answers where you like greater or not, strongly agree, strongly disagree. Unsurprisingly on this, you've got one of the patterns where it's low at the start, low at the end, and high in the middle. Because it's very easy just to go in the middle with these things, isn't it?

Colin:
Yeah. It's funny that actually, because I always thought that people would want to get is the end result, they don't care about the process. But actually I think this shows that people still actually just quite enjoy the process of podcasting. There was quite a lot of people actually were in the middle. They wanted the end result and the process, that's how I read it. So they enjoy the recording, they enjoy speaking to their guests or their co-host, and they enjoy the end result as well. So I think it was quite good, it shows that people out there still care about podcasts and they still enjoy it as a medium. It's not just for marketing, or just for growth, or just to make some money, or even just to talk to their friends like if it's a hobby. Am I allowed to say that now? If it's a more creative podcast, they want an end result and they want the fun part of it. So I think that was quite cool.

Matthew:
Yeah. I'm doing a gaming podcast just now. And for me, I just genuinely really look forward to the conversations. I wouldn't say I don't care about them once they're out there, but for me the main fun part is, I'm speaking to the Frostgrave creator tonight. That's just cool. I'm going to have a good chat with him, find out some stuff that I'm interested in. The fact that people are listening to it is just a bonus, but it's a conversation I would just love to have anyway. So I totally relate to that.

Colin:
Yeah. That's cool. What about the next one? So this is one of the more thorny ones, about monetizing your podcast. I think there's a lot of opinions around people who do it as a passion project, just as a creative outlet and they're not fussed about monetizing. But actually what do the numbers tell us here Matthew?

Matthew:
Yeah. So again, this was being asked to pick whether they strongly are interested or totally not interested. And it was almost still a pattern going up here. So 4.5% had no interest whatsoever. 3.6% actually on the one scale, 6.8 on the two, 17.5 on the three. Climbing up to 22.6 on the four and then up at five was 45%. So almost half of the folks that answered here are interested and I'm not surprised at that. I'm not surprised. I think we talked about 10 years ago, it was probably a bit more weird then when you saw somebody monetizing, you're like, I don't know about that. But these days it's quite normal.

Colin:
It's selling out. Absolutely.

Matthew:
Nine years ago, that's just before Patreon and everything, that wasn't an easy thing to do, monetizing a show.

Colin:
Yeah, true. It's pretty clear the numbers show. Very few people, on the zero you've only got six, nine, about 15% of people on the bottom half are there. And all the rest, so 45, 70, 80 plus on interested side of monetizing. So definitely an area we need to develop in podcasting, because like you said, it's getting easier. Tools like Patreon, memberships like Memberful, all that kind of stuff, all these tools that have come out and really work closely with podcasting. Even the private podcasting tools that have come out with all the podcast hosts, like Castos is really pushing on private podcasting for example. And all these tools out there that make it easier. It's still not super easy. It's still not all totally tied together. There's still a lot to be done there, I think, to make it really simple for folk.

Matthew:
Yeah. It was a meme a few years ago going around and it was, want to monetize your podcasts? Sell your equipment. Which always made me laugh. But much easier now.

Colin:
Yeah, totally. All right. So we're onto a few of the questions that I think we asked intending to find if there was any control versus if it wasn't there. So this is around the importance of certain elements of a podcast and the statement was, any serious podcaster must own their own website. And the intent behind this was that they shouldn't just use the website that comes with their podcast hosting platform. They should have a home for their podcast. So what did that come out with Matthew?

Matthew:
Yeah. So 19% just didn't care either way. 28.9% disagreed with that statement, 52.1% agreed with it. So over half of the folks that answered this survey felt that any serious podcaster must own their own website, what's your opinion Colin?

Colin:
I'm definitely on the agree with this one actually. I think it's one of those stage things though. When we're working with very new podcasters, it's quite a big job to think about creating a website and actually making it all great for your customers. So it depends what kind of podcast you're doing, but if it is customers, or if it is audience, or is just fans, a website that you can customise, that you can own, that you can start. And building out to be your own home base, that is the home of your brand, that you really own, is so valuable. But the one that your hosting platform gives you is fine for the early days, for your first 10 20 episodes. Concentrate the content, that's what brings people in. And then you can make the website later. But for certain that's the statement, any serious podcaster. You get serious once you're 10, 20, 30 episodes in. You decide you really want to do it and you start to really double down on it. So I'd agree with that, absolutely. What about you?

Matthew:
Yeah, I think so. And I kind of agree about that stage thing. It's not something I'd say on day one you should be on support chat to Bluehost or that. It's just going to stop you and you will be on support chat to Bluehost a number of times as I've found out over the years. But if I was totally starting out, I'd probably go that middle ground between the self hosted and the one that you get with your hosting platform, I'd go with Podpage. I really like Podpage. You can set a really cool website in a couple of minutes. So that's a great service, shout out to them. But long term, I reckon I'd be looking to establish for ownership over it.

Colin:
Yeah. I agree. Podpage and those kind of website building tools are great. And some of them have WordPress templates that are really podcast suited as well, which makes it really easy to set up a good podcast site, even if you're putting it on WordPress. So something that you own as well. All right. What's the next question?

Matthew:
Yeah. So one we've alluded to earlier. So the statement was, a podcast isn't really a podcast if it has no RSS feed. So what did we get in terms of the results here Colin?

Colin:
Almost dead on half and half. We've got 50% of people agree and 50% of people either don't care or disagree. So to break it down, we had 12% of people disagree. So there was 12% of people, so what's that? Fiftyish folk out of the 500 actually directly, strongly disagreed with the fact that our podcast needs an RSS feed. Which is interesting because that means that they're thinking, it doesn't matter if it's got an RSS feed, it could still be a podcast. And I think it's equally interesting that nearly 38% people just didn't care. So I think that shows kind of what I've been thinking for the last year, the last two years. I think you as well Matthew, podcasters don't care about the tech buying podcasting. They want to get their message out, they want to get their voice out. They want to create great content and gather fans around it. That's what podcasting's about. What about you?

Matthew:
I'm in two minds because if a show only exists in one place, especially behind the [inaudible 00:14:31], then that's a problem. I need all of my shows and the app that I use to listen to your podcast.

Colin:
Yeah. For sure.

Matthew:
So some might argue, technically maybe correct at this point in time that, well, you need RSS to do that. And that might be true at the moment, but surely it's not that's stuck with it forever. There might be another way of doing it that's not RSS technically. If we could put a robot on Mars I def say you could deliver podcast effortlessly to multiple apps over there on that. So yes, I think it's just... The technical aspect of it and the definition of RSS doesn't matter to me, but I think a show being available... We're covering an opinion downstairs, I don't know if [inaudible 00:15:17]. The fact that a show has to be available on all the different listing apps, I think that is important. So I do agree with that.

Colin:
Totally. Yeah, absolutely. I think it needs to be open. So I think that's a different question. Is it a podcast if it's Spotify only and it's not got an RSS feed? So the only way to listen to this is on Spotify. I think that still is a podcast, I would suggest. Because it's more about the format, it's more about the approach. But I don't agree that's a good thing for podcasting necessarily, that that kind of thing exists where there's only one place to go for it. There's arguments against that too to be fair. I think the tech behind it essentially is not something to really dig your heels in about, which I think some people in the industry do. They get really wound up if you think of any other way to put a podcast out.

Colin:
If I see somebody on YouTube, I'm calling it a podcast. Because it's more kind of talk radio and they just happen to have a video feed as well, but they publish it on YouTube. Then fine, call it a podcast. It's a podcast. It's not necessarily someone you can subscribe to in your podcast and listen to that, which means that it's less accessible. So I would say republish it on an RSS feed, sure. But it's a podcast in all those forms. So it's fine. It's all about the content, getting the message out. That's all we care about really, I think.

Matthew:
And next up then we're talking about email lists. So another statement presented to the survey filler outer, was any serious podcaster must run an email list. What results did we get here Colin?

Colin:
Well, we had 40% here agreed with that fully. 13 nearly, 30%, 28% no real opinion either way, and 32 disagreed. So a bit more of a split on this basically almost equal between them all, or very close at least. We kind of often tell people it's a really good way, it's one of the best ways, to promote your show, is to start to build that list and have a way to reach out to your audience in a push format as opposed to pull. If you've got their email address, you can tell them that your new episodes are out rather than try and pull them into the app. So I still think it's a really good approach to grow a show, but certainly it's not essential to be a podcast. What about yourself?

Matthew:
Yeah. I'm totally sold on all the benefits of it, I guess. I just don't want to railroad people into doing it if they don't have time to do it properly, because it's not the thing you could just fall in. Don't just do one because you feel you should because you're going to need to spend some actual time on it to do it properly. Otherwise you're just mugging your listeners off and yourself. So I wouldn't be forced into doing it. The priority of your podcast is to get your podcast out. If you can make time for this, brilliant, but don't feel don't feel bullied into it.

Colin:
Yeah, totally. I agree. All right, Apple. So what best sums up your feelings on Apple and Apple podcasts? That was the question we asked next. How do people feel about Apple podcasts. And what did we get there Matthew?

Matthew:
Yeah. So the three answers they were asked to select, 50% had no real opinion on Apple either way. 36.8% said that Apple could and should be doing more to help podcasters. And 12.6% said that Apple have done a lot for us and they can't be expected to do more. What's your opinions on that Colin?

Colin:
This was one of the old debates as well. 2, 3, 4 years ago you'd have people really kind of get angry at Apple for not taking more care over the podcasting world and building more tools and helping podcasters and stuff. And I suppose there's probably two parts to Apple have actually done a bit more in the last few years. They still could do a lot more, I think, if they wanted to. They've put out more of their stats, they've improved their podcast connect, all that kind of stuff. Built new tools like subscription tools, that kind of stuff. So they have put a bit more work into it the last couple of years, but I think people are getting wound up about this.

Colin:
My thoughts were always, the folk that get wound up about Apple not taking more care we're kind of expecting them to do something that they really don't have to do or really shouldn't be expected to do. Podcasting's ours, the podcast belongs to the podcasters and we can do what we want with it. Apple gave us this platform, they kind of created it in the first place, gave us that platform and then just let it run. Didn't try and control it, didn't try and have too much influence on it, which I think was a good thing in a lot of ways. Although they could have had a positive effect on it by doing more work, but they could have also had a negative effect by doing more work on it. I don't think we can expect Apple should have done more or to do more in future. I think we do what we want with podcasting and don't expect the big platforms to do anything else.

Matthew:
Yeah. I think this complaint maybe comes from a lot of folks who don't think that the podcast is doing really well and they want to blame somebody else. So I would say your podcast is your own responsibility and any third party platform that provides a tool for you to use that might make it easier or whatever, that is great, but you can't rely on these things. It's your show. If it's not growing there are a hundred things to try before you start thinking about, I wish Apple would help me a bit more.

Colin:
Yeah. I think the stats here are interesting in that, I have no real opinion on Apple either way. I wonder if we maybe could word this a little bit differently if we did this survey again. But you could interpret that as people thinking, I'm not really fussed about this question. Or it could be people who actually don't really think of Apple being such a massive driver in the space anymore. That's one of the big changes in the last few years as well. The fact that other platforms have climbed up so much. Like Spotify are pretty much matching Apple in terms of influencing podcasting and listenership and podcasting too. And it's interesting as well that... What was the stats I saw the other day? It came from Albon from Buzzsprout I think, where he said that there's a big proportion of their shows now don't seem to be listed in Apple at all.

Colin:
So there's a lot of people creating a podcast using traditional hosting. There's plenty of people creating podcasts on Anchor and they only end up in Spotify because they don't know any better. But there's people creating podcasts on traditional hosting platforms like Buzzsprout and still not listing it on Apple for some reason. That's interesting. Well arguably yes. But it kind of shows the waning influence though. The fact that they're just not... Apple used to be podcasting. You were a podcast when you were listed in Apple podcast, or iTunes at the time, but these days it's not the case anymore, is it?

Matthew:
You'd have to have a very good reason not to put it in there, you honestly would. I don't understand why.

Colin:
Well, but I would argue maybe possibly for some people, maybe it's actually just lack of awareness. Because they're not so big. If you don't know that they're really a big influence in podcasting, all you know in the world is Spotify. You've never really come across Apple for podcasting. You just know that you use Spotify, you suddenly discovered this medium called podcasting because of Spotify, which I think is the case for a lot of folk. This line just popped up in your music and said podcasting. What are these things? And that's all you know about podcasting. So why would you think then about seeking out other platforms for it? All right. Next one. We've got a statement which was, and so this goes back to what we were talking about just a little bit earlier, wall guarding content like Spotify exclusive shows, for example, will endanger and potentially ruin podcasting. What stats did we get in that one?

Matthew:
Yeah. So 30% disagreed with that statement. 33.8% had no group opinion either way, and 35.8% of... God, sorry.

Colin:
She's gone crazy. What did you do to her?

Matthew:
She's running her own podcast and she disagrees with my opinions on Apple as well. I don't know what she's doing. But anyway, Spotify. Spotify's wall guarding. So wall guarding content like Spotify exclusive shows will endanger and potentially ruin podcasting. 35.8% agreed with that. Do I agree with that? I think I possibly do. I think the minute that stuff's all broken up, and fragmented, and put behind paywalls nor in different apps, I think that's going to be a bit of an issue potentially. So I think I do agree with that. What about yourself?

Colin:
Me too. There's the two sides to it. One half of which is, it is good that podcasters have more options to attempt to monetize their show, which Spotify are obviously offering in this way. Spotify have put that money into podcasting. So we don't necessarily think it's a benefit that Joe Rogan gets tens of millions of pounds for his podcast individually, whether you agree with his type of content or not. But the fact that that can happen and hopefully might spread out to more smaller podcasters in future rather than just the top 0.001% or something, I think the fact that that can exist is good.

Colin:
The fact that it's concentrated in such a small proportion of podcasters right now is not so good. But I don't know about the wall guarding, I'd prefer podcasting to be open entirely. I want podcasts to be everywhere all the time and to be free all the time. That's the thing behind podcasting. I definitely agree with the idea of having exclusive content behind your podcast. You create a free podcast and you give away exclusive extra content yourself, which is a good way to monetize. But generally having each show accessible to the world anywhere I think is a good thing for podcasting, the best approach.

Matthew:
From Spotify to Anchor then. We provided the statement, Anchor is having a negative effect on podcasting with the amount of dead shows on its platform. So what was the results here Colin?

Colin:
The results were a third of people agree. So 33% of people agree with it. Half have no real opinion either way, 48%. And about 20% disagree. So this is a funny one. What about you Matthew, what do you think?

Matthew:
It's a crap answer, but it depends I suppose. Well, that's the thing. I was going to mention if they're all on Apple, but they all kind were anyway. Because Anchor had this weird thing where you just created the show and got in.

Colin:
Yeah, totally.

Matthew:
But again, it's one of the things I'm tempted to just say focus on your own stuff. Because you'll rank well, if you're getting subscribers and you're putting episodes out, you'll do okay. So I don't know that you need to worry about. There will be the odd occasion where it's frustrating, because there's this show sitting on the name you wanted and they probably compete in search and stuff like that.

Colin:
I think the thing is as well though, that those dead shows are probably not going to be really competing anyway. Because they're not going to have any of authority. Apple podcast, there's also a debate about how they rank podcasts, but definitely there's the active or how active a show is, how many reviews it has, how often it posts, how many downloads it gets, all that kind of stuff. That all goes into generally how podcasts are ranked. So a dead show with one episode I don't think is going to compete too much. And I don't see why people moan about it so much. Do people really care that much about the stats, how many podcast exist in the world? Is that what it is? People get wound up because they're like, I want to be able to say that there's 2.1 million podcasts in the world right now and not worry that 200,000 of them are dead or something like that. Is that what people get wound up about?

Matthew:
Potentially, yeah. I think it's the clutter. Fear that new listeners come in and maybe the first six or seven shows they try and listen to are just a guy who's like, hey, it's my first episode. I'll see you soon. And then he never comes back. Interestingly, we were updating our stats article recently and the podcast index, they keep a record of all the podcasts out there, fullstop. And it was four and a half million last time we checked. And then it was down to 4 million.

Matthew:
So we reached out to them and just said, "What's going on? What happened to 500,000 podcasts?" But they said that they've actually changed the way that they're counting a proper podcast, if you like. And a lot of them it's stuff coming through the three hosts that had less than three episodes. And one of the episodes, they wanted it to be over three minutes and stuff like that. So they've totally changed the way they're counting a lot of these things. Just because, like they were saying, that there's so many shows out there where somebody's just testing their mic and they've submitted it to Anchor or whatever there is.

Colin:
So yeah. I think there is an argument to be fair for platforms like that. Having some kind of requirement before they do the automatic submission or even the user clicked submission. Really all the good hosting platforms, you can click a button and it helps you submit to places like Apple pods and the other ones. And maybe there should be some kind of filtering whereby if there is only a one minute episode on there and there's only one they say, are you sure? Are you sure you want to post this? Here's our advice. You should have this, this and this. So I don't know, maybe there is an argument for that. Just to avoid a bit of that clutter, but I don't see it creating massive harm. Maybe this is naivety, maybe there are real reasons in the technical sense behind the scenes, but I don't know. I don't see it being a huge issue. All right next one.

Matthew:
Yeah. Let's talk about some technical stuff that goes into the back end of making a podcast. So starting with podcast loudness. So when it comes to podcast loudness standards and we asked a multiple choice question here. I have a certain consistent loudness level for my shows for example, minus sixteens LUFS, 36% agreed with that. That was the top answer. Second answer was, I have no idea what LUFS are and I don't worry about loudness levels, that was 28%. 26% said that they outsourced their production or used a tool like Alitu that automates this all for me, without having to know anything about it, really. And the lowest answer at 9.5% understand LUFS, et cetera, but I don't bother setting a loudness level. So was that surprising or interesting to you Colin?

Colin:
No, not really. To be honest, I thought that was pretty expected. So about a third know what a LUF is and they set it, that's cool. It's kind of thinking about those people that worry about the technical sides and the fact that a third of people just don't really know what they are, and they don't care. That's pretty expected as well. It's nice to see a quarter of folk, just over a quarter, 26% actually using tools to do it.

Colin:
So they do kind of know and they care enough and they don't worry about trying to learn all the technical sides of it. They just use something like Alitu or any of the tools out there that'll do it. So that's cool. Nothing too surprising in there I thought. But definitely food for industry folk who are kind of really militant about this, showing that maybe there's a bit of education or a bit of maybe they should stop banging on about it quite so much. Or maybe they should actually, or maybe the platforms are the ones that need to worry about it more. Because we can't really expect your average podcaster to know and care about such a technical thing.

Matthew:
Fun fact, I once had a draught article about podcast loudness with the working title, How Deep Is Your LUFS? But I abandoned it because I thought nobody's going to know what that means. But I'm glad it's finally seen the light of day on this episode.

Colin:
Yeah. Nice.

Matthew:
So the next question we asked, when it comes to podcast bit rates, do you have a preference? What were the results here Colin?

Colin:
I've no idea what a bit rate is, most popular answer, which is not unexpected at all to me either. It's 40% nearly, 38.9. Then we've got a third of people nearly, so 31%, saying that they thought 128 to 192 KBPS seems like the right balance. So they obviously know. They're experienced enough, they know the technicals behind it and they know what they want to aim for. You've got 10% saying my media host alters my files, so I've got no control over my bit rates, which is always interesting. 10% to totally depends on the type of show I'm creating. So that's another group I would say, are pretty experienced, they know the technicals behind it. And then we've got 5% said 320 KBPS. Go hard or go home. And then 5% seriously and I'm happy to go as low as 60, 40, 96. So that's another bunch.

Colin:
So how many we've got in there? So it's nearly 40% don't know bit rates. And then the rest actually all had an opinion. So we've got kind of 40 to 60 in terms of, 40 that don't care, don't know what it is. And 60% actually do kind of think about it and know a bit about it. So that seemed kind of to my expectations. Actually no it's not. I would've thought more didn't know and didn't care. So that surprised me actually, that so many had a relatively strong opinion on bit rates. What about you?

Matthew:
I'm surprised the low number of folk that are happy to go with 64 to 96. I'm really surprised at how few people that is. So for the record, my answer here would've been that it totally depends on the type of show because if it's just spoken word content, then I'll go 96. But if it's more audio drama, I'll go 192. So I don't think there's a one size fits all answer. It depends on the content. But I'm very surprised at how few people want to go a 96.

Colin:
Yeah, same. I think we recommend 96 KBPS on our site as a kind of good average, don't we?

Matthew:
Mm-hmm(Affirmative).

Colin:
Because I think we've done a bit of testing around that as well. Listened to different files at different rates. I think I've listened to the same recording encoded down into 64 96, 128 and 192 and tried to tell the difference. And I couldn't tell a difference.

Matthew:
It's not a lot.

Colin:
Exactly. Can't tell a difference. As soon as you get a bit of music in a background and it's a bit more complex than yes, fine. And I think some people argue that because they've got theme music on the start, that means they should encode the whole thing at a higher rate just to get that theme music okay. But do you think even about theme music, 15 seconds of theme music at the start sounds fine with 96 too.

Matthew:
Absolutely. And if it doesn't, you need to get rid of it. And then there's one podcast, I'm not going to throw them under the bus, but there's a podcast I listen to and it's total conversation, just voice recorded online. And it's over 20 episodes and they do it at 320. And at times you're downloading it and maybe you don't have the best wifi in the world, and it takes ages and I'm so annoyed at them for doing that.

Colin:
That's the thing. A lot of people argue, well, but you might as well, I've got 192 or 320, because everyone's got good internet these days, but that is actually simply not true. I rarely download shows ahead of time to my phone. I am always out and about when I'm listening to a podcast. I'm driving between here Inverness and Edinburgh, there's zero signal. Well, not quite zero, very bad signal. So I can listen to a small show. I can download and stream a small show, but I can't. I always struggle with Tim Ferris show, I listen to that a lot. Two hour episodes. And they definitely take much longer to get started in my listening app. So it makes a difference. It does make a difference. And that us thinking where we live as well, nevermind places in the world that might have more remote areas and worse internet connection and stuff, and we want to reach everyone, don't we?

Matthew:
Yeah. You don't want to be excluding anyone at all. Get those bit rates. Unless you're making an audio drama, I think, then just release the wav. In fact, just perform it live for every single listener. That's how you should go over it.

Colin:
All right. Next one. Hosting to censorship is the head of your [crosstalk 00:37:05]. Podcast hosting platforms are constantly adding new features to their offerings. What do you think about this? So 44% answered, I enjoy seeing new features and tools in my hosting account. I'll always check them out. 36 said I think new features and tools sound interesting when they're announced, but I rarely have time to check them out. And 20% said, I don't care about the bells and whistles. I just want a reliable place to publish my episodes. What do you think of that?

Matthew:
I'm surprised at how many people always check them out, to be honest. I'm surprised that number is high. I would've anticipated that that would've been a minority of people. The various platforms I host various shows on, when they reach out, I've added this thing. It's like, that's cool. I'll never use it. But it's nice to know it's there. So I'm surprised at that. What about yourself?

Colin:
I wonder if there's a bit of actions don't follow intentions there. A lot of people say, oh yeah, I definitely check out the new features, but if you look in reality at what they really do, they maybe don't. It's hard to say that obviously, but I'm not sure. I feel probably there's a lot more people in that second one. They think they sound interesting when they're announced, but they rarely have time to check them out or use them.

Matthew:
What would you have answered?

Colin:
I would be the second. I'm always interested to see what they're releasing. But it's maybe less actually that it's sometimes it'll be I don't have time to check them out and use them. And sometimes actually it's just it's the bells and whistles that I don't need. So I'd probably be between answer two and three actually somewhere. I just want to get it out there.

Matthew:
We had a wee team discussion about this when it came out. And I think one of the points I was making was that a lot of platforms now release a monetization tool. But podcasters that are already monetizing their podcast have got ways set up so they don't need it. So it's like you're saying, it's not that they don't have time, it's just that they don't need it. So could be a bit of that.

Colin:
And there is an argument though, for the newer podcasters or the ones that are thinking about it, and if your hosting releases a tool for that, it gives you the option or...

Matthew:
No, I just mean folk that we're already doing it. I don't mean newer folk.

Colin:
For sure. No, I know what you mean. And I suppose even people that are already doing it, it's nice to think that you could bring everything into one place. But then again the places that dedicate themselves to... Monetization's a good example. A host bringing some, for example, sponsorship tools or something in-house compared to ways that you can do it outside. Kind of sponsorship marketplace or something like that. The sponsorship marketplace dedicated to that's probably going to be a better service. So you might have it all in one place, but it might not be as good. But then again, I don't know. It's a funny one. I think it's just down to competition. Hosts always feel they have to add in new stuff because it's so hard to differentiate yourself. I do understand.

Matthew:
Yeah. If one came out though and just marketed themselves as, we are the no bells and whistle. Just upload the thing and forget about it. I wonder if that would actually be a USP possibly.

Colin:
Yeah, totally. You would then counter that or accompany that with being the lower cost one, I guess. Because you're putting less time into development features, and you are just saying, this is just going to be rock solid, great quality basic podcast hosting. And it's only going to cost you eight quid. In fact, there's probably a few hosts out there that would be exactly that as we looked.

Matthew:
Let's talk about the podcast 2.0 name space. What do you mean you've never heard of it? 8.8% of people. This is a curious one because I think only the podcasters who are really interested in all the backend stuff and industry stuff, really know much about this at this stage. How would you define the podcast 2.0 namespace? From my understanding of it, it's a series of wee tags and features that apps can use to keep podcasting open and stuff like that.

Colin:
It's the former, not all the latter. So some of it is around keeping podcasts open, but most it's just about expanding RSS almost in a podcasting sense, specifically for podcasting. So adding new tags, for example, one was the protection tag. I can't remember exactly the word that's in it, but it's the tag that locks your RSS feed, that can pop into an RSS. So basically there was a problem that anyone could copy your RSS feed and import into a new host and you could plagiarise somebody's podcast and publish it elsewhere. That's a problem.

Colin:
So the podcast 2.0 namespace. Do you know why I'm saying this? I'm pretty sure it was the 2.0 namespace brought this in, if I'm wrong I'm sure listeners will tell me. But that's the idea. They create new tags for your RSS feed that solve problems that we have just now, or expand out podcasting, or just add features, or just make it better essentially. It's a group that set themselves up with that intent to help develop podcasting, the technical sides behind it. So I think it's a good thing, but it's more for the industry, I think, than podcasters. So I'm not surprised that 60% of people have never heard of it.

Matthew:
Your average podcaster probably just doesn't need to know about it. The other answers is it's vital for the openness of podcasting, as we know and should be embraced, 22.8%. I don't really understand what it's all about, 18.5%. So folks that have heard of it, but still don't really get it. We got a bit of flack from someone. I wish I could remember the names so I could credit them. I like to credit people who have given us stick. But no, it was constructive. They said, "Look, you've not done a very good job with this question. It's kind of loaded and flawed in your answers because..." They made the case, and it's a valid one, that somebody might have heard of it and understood it, but still had concerns or disagreements with how it worked. So fair enough. We'll learn from that. We'll make our questions better in future.

Colin:
Yes. Yeah. For sure. Every time we do a survey, there's always some of the questions. It's really hard to make a survey that actually accounts for everything. We always iterate every time we do it. Next one around subject of, this is an interesting one, policing content. So the subject of policing content and censorship is a hot one right now. Which of these do you most with? I'm concerned about harmful, dangerous and misleading content in podcasting, but censorship is a slippery slope, there are a lot of grey areas. Or it's the responsibility of hosting providers to weed out harmful, dangerous and misleading content. Or it's the responsibility of listening apps and platforms to weed harmful, dangerous and misleading content. Or it's nobody's right to try and police podcasting for everyone else.

Colin:
So the one where it was kind of, it depends. There's a lot of grey areas, was 50%. So half of people said, they're concerned about it, but it's a slippery slope censorship. 20% thought it was the responsibility of hosting providers to weed it out. And 18% thought it's the responsibility of listening apps and platforms to weed it out. And then 14% said, it's nobody's right to try and police podcasting. So a bit of a spread there and kind of not surprising, I suppose, that almost half of people said, we probably need something around this, but I don't know how to do it. It's a slippery slope.

Matthew:
Yeah. I'm in that top camp, the fence sitting. I've got splinters in my arse and I'm quite happy there because good luck to anyone who has to make any decisions from this.

Colin:
Exactly.

Matthew:
It's not a job I would like. We're going to split this episode in two. There's still a lot of ground to cover here from, how podcasters measure success, to the divisive topic of NFTs and podcasting. We'll also dive into a few notable differences between the opinions of newer podcasters, compared to folks who've been doing it for five years or more. And on top of that, and most importantly of all, my wee girl might have stopped crying by then. She's got a couple of teeth coming through at the moment and it's great fun for all the family. Anyway, final shout out for Alitu. That's somewhere to record and edit your podcast that won't make you cry like a baby. See, this is why I don't work in marketing, but maybe I should. I guess the metrics will speak for themselves. Get a free trial at alitu.com. That's A-L-I-T-U.com.