Content, technology, and podcasts

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I have been hearing and reading a lot of communicators lately proclaiming that, in podcasting, content is king. While I agree wholeheartedly, I’d like to respectfully disagree.

If that sounds like an incongruous statement, indeed, it is. So let me explain the incongruity.

Content is king. Nobody is going to listen to a podcast with content that sucks. To put a finer point on it, nobody will listen to a podcast with content that doesn’t appeal to them. So solid content rocks.

The problem is that lousy implementation of the technologies that underlie podcasting will keep many listeners from ever even getting to the content. A couple examples:

I subscribe to several podcasts I never hear. That’s because they do not include an album title in the ID3 tags, which means these podcasts do not get classified into a playlist. I access my podcasts via the iPod playlist feature. If a playlist for that podcast doesn’t exist, I don’t know it’s there. Hence, great content gathers dust in the deep recesses of the iPod’s and iTunes’ file structure.

Then there are those podcasts where audio levels are not adjusted. A simple normalization action before exporting to MP3 would solve this problem, but instead, I’m forced to crank the volume to max in order to hear an audio comment, then when the host comes back, my eardrums are shattered as the volume returns to its previous higher level. I simply give up on many of these shows as being unlistenable, even though the content is terrific.

So in our haste to proclaim content the be-all and end-all of podcasting, let’s not understate the importance of using the technology correctly.

1. Shel,

   I couldn’t agree more and it’s exactly what I’ve been saying to clients.

   Back in the day, it was amazing to sit in a tinfoil-lined room and pick up shortwave radio from soviet Russia. When the same thing became available as an internet stream, who wanted to struggle with the crackling tinfoil version?

   Podcasts are the same. As the average standard improves, the willingness of people to listen to a guy shouting into a tin can on the end of a piece of string diminishes, however wise those words may be.

   Posted by Steven Lewis  on  09/16  at  03:14 PM

2. I’m starting to order the ingredients of podcast fandom as follows:

   1. Content
   2. Personality
   3. Listener participation
   4. Production values

   But that’s only if the production values are good enough that you don’t think about them. If it’s hard to hear the podcast, or the podcaster hasn’t mixed the interview tracks and I’m getting dizzy from the whipsaw effects of podcast stereosis, or I can’t find the podcast because it comes up “Unknown” (a shocking number of podcasts have no ID3 tags at all), then it’s a lot harder to appreciate the content or the podcaster’s personality.

   Posted by Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with "sketch")  on  09/17  at  05:57 AM

3. MP3Gain.
   It’s free & I’ve used it for years on mp3 files. And there’s all kinds of tagging apps.
   It’s astonishing to me that people who are allegedly intelligent Professionals in the Real World don’t check any number of places to find out the basics. D’oh!
   Love & Peace, Clarence

   Posted by Clarence Jones  on  09/17  at  07:16 AM

4. You are right, of course, Shel. I do like to say that “content is king” when it comes to podcasts, but this ASSUMES (and what did our moms tell us about this word?) that people can produce a podcast with at least a mininal knowledge of production values. This is akin to a writer knowing where to place the commas, or a graphic designer understanding how to lay out a page.

   Great post, Shel. Timely, too, because I just uploaded my latest podcast— on the subject of content!

   Posted by donna papacosta  on  09/17  at  02:57 PM

5. I agree, Shel. I would consider the basic of podcast production skill as a minimal requirement to publishing a podcast.

   This sort of increasing the accessibility of the podcast; inviting listeners to go into untouched forest by building at least a clear path.

   Good content is to engange.

   I think we have used to term “king” in a way that is too ambigous. Only a live creature can be a king. A king also is not supposed to do all the work but control them.

   Posted by Hendry "The Podcasting Scout" Lee  on  09/17  at  07:26 PM

6. Production values are important, but you can have the best produced podcast say nothing of value…*yawn*...

   Push comes to shove I’d rather have great content be poorly produced versus the opposite of that. At least it’s easier to fix people’s production problems than to fix the fact that they’re boring and having nothing useful to say.

   We can all teach people how to produce a podcast (quite easily too) with good production values…but can we teach people to be interesting?

   Posted by Ben Yoskovitz  on  09/18  at  12:01 PM

7. As I said, Ben, the content must be great, but I give up on podcasts that are unlistenable, even when the content is compelling. As noted in my post, I’m particularly put off by dramatic alterations in volume. I crank it up to hear an audio clip, then my eardrums are shattered as the clip ends and the h ost comes back and a gazillion decibels. And the abuse of ID3 tags is insane. If the podcast doesn’t appear in my playlist, it simply doesn’t matter how good the content is. I won’t hear it because I won’t know it’s there!

   In communication planning—ANY communication—your first issue must be logistics, because nobody can pay attention to your message if the communication fails logistically. In podcasting, that is represented by meeting some minimal production standards.

   Posted by Shel  on  09/18  at  01:51 PM

8. To use an old media analogy: if there are two newspapers of equally good content and one is printed on good stock with a clear typeface and the other is blurry and on poor quality paper, which would you read?

   I can think of three great podcasts for communicators. I might listen to a fourth but, with three quality offerings already, I’m not going to if it’s hard on the ear.

   To many podcasters are clinging to the day—not so long ago, I admit—when there was little competition so listeners would put up with poor quality.

   Posted by Steven Lewis  on  09/18  at  02:54 PM

9. I understand in terms of the poorest quality around - no one wants you or anyone else to go deaf listening to crazy audio gyrations in a podcast.

   Still, the basics of podcasting are becoming more and more clear, with straightforward, fairly easy steps that everyone can quickly learn on how to produce something at decent enough quality to avoid the problems you’re describing. If they choose not to do that, I agree, we won’t listen.

   But, if a podcaster can get the basic quality levels to the point of being reasonable, then it’s all about the content at that point. Maybe to take it up a notch, the quality has to improve too, but without the content supporting things, it won’t matter.

   I don’t listen to that many podcasts, so I can’t speak to how many are missing the boat in terms of the basics on sound quality…but I can’t believe it’s that many…

   Posted by Ben Yoskovitz  on  09/19  at  06:02 AM

10. Ah, Ben, you’d be surprised.
    

    Posted by Shel Holtz  on  09/19  at  10:43 AM

11. You’re probably right Shel…let’s hope I suppose that podcasters recognize the importance of not having horrible audio, make the adjustments needed and then we can focus on the real differentiators of importance vs. the technical details that everyone should, for the most part, have down pat / playing on a level field.

    Posted by Ben Yoskovitz  on  09/19  at  03:45 PM