¶ Message from Editing Jordan: Audio Experiment
Hey there , this is Editing Jordan . I wanted to give you a quick heads up that this episode might sound a little different . We want to do a live experiment of the Magic Mastering Power Clean , and so , kevin and I , we recorded outside with bad reception and used our AirPod microphones and it was a pretty rough recording .
So we ran through the Magic Mastering Power Clean and you know what ? We're pretty happy with the results . So here's the episode .
¶ YouTube Combats "AI Slop"
This could be a huge mistake , but today we're recording on our porch . This is the porch cast now .
Yeah , I'm using my AirPods like version two or something Very airpods yeah , I'm also rocking the airpods , the older generation airpods .
So today we're talking about uh , youtube prepares crackdown on mass-produced and repetitive videos as concern over ai slop grows . That is a mouthful um . Have you ever , kevin , been doing any research ?
And you go on youtube and you try to find videos on something and then you click a video that looks interesting and it is very clearly AI written , ai voiceover , ai images over it .
Yes , 100% .
And you're just like . I don't know if I can even trust the information .
And it's happening more and more .
Yeah .
Like I use YouTube quite frequently to answer questions . So how do you do something ? Or I want to learn something and I'll search YouTube and more and more I'm coming across stuff that looks like it's the right video for me .
So you know it's giving me the answer that I'm looking for , and you get a couple of minutes into it and then I start questioning like I've never seen this person before . It looks kind of fake . Sometimes they just turn out to be infomercials , where they're just I don't understand why . Like maybe they're trying to monetize .
So it's kind of like they're just beating around the bush of answering the question that you're trying to get answered .
Yeah .
You know , like we jumped around before , like anything from like trying to fix something in your house , like your AC is not working or something , to whatever . Yes , these AI videos are becoming a problem in the YouTube space .
Yeah , it's almost like the AI generated content , like just the crap . Content is completely filling up the feed , and so sometimes you have to dig pages back to even find something that , like an actual human made .
Right , I think this is a problem that you know . Free platforms that host audio and video are going to have to deal with this .
Yeah .
It sounds like YouTube is starting to recognize this now and trying to figure out how they're going to process the garbage AI slop out of their system . But like we don't really have this too much in podcasting , part of it is that free podcast hosting is a little bit of a thing .
Spotify for podcasters will host for free , and of course there are people who just do podcasting on YouTube , but for the most part , the podcasts that get any traction are usually hosting on a paid service . So yeah , there's not a lot of spammers out there that are interested in paying to try to , you know , put their spam content out there .
And the other thing is the discoverability . It's not algorithmically driven like it is in the video world , and so it's hard for a podcast to be like illegitimate or trying to use some spam technique or something to get a ton of traction , because algorithms really aren't pushing them that much .
Now , again in the YouTube world there are some podcasts that are probably doing that . You know , more video podcasts are than traditional audio podcasts .
But we talked about this on this show , like Alban would raise the concern about AI generated podcasts and could that be a problem for podcasting , and my point was like I don't think it will be , because we don't have algorithms really pushing audio podcast content to us .
When you go into Apple Podcasts , when you go into Spotify , you can find podcast recommendations . Podroll is another good way for podcast recommendations to pop up , but they're usually based on either the number of shows that are getting good engagement on those platforms , and that is more than just clicking to listen .
It's not just a minute or two which might fool a YouTube algorithm , but it's not going to fool like an Apple algorithm . Gosh , this is hard to say Apple algorithm . It's not going to fool that because Apple can actually see . You know this is an hour long episode and how long did people listen ?
And you know they don't disclose exactly how they do their charts , but usually the episodes that are at the top of their charts are all legitimate stuff .
You don't really see spammy type ai generated slop getting to the top of any of their charts and you certainly would never see it like in a pod role or something like that , because those are all you know recommended by humans yeah , and it's .
It's funny that you mentioned the free podcast apps like Spotify or hosting platforms . I saw in Pod News this morning that Spotify has changed its website to say that there's now 7 million podcasts on Spotify .
So , I think they're going to have to do something very similar to what YouTube is doing on cracking down , because there's genuinely no way that even 3 million of that 7 million is legitimate . There's no way . So they have a lot of work to do . I don't know how they're going to do it .
I don't know how they're going to combat that unless you know they move to paid , like you said .
Right , I mean , do we feel like it's a problem for independent podcasters who are trying to put shows out there and reach an ? Mean , do we feel like it's a problem for independent podcasters who are trying to put shows out there and reach an audience ? Do we feel like this could be ultimately a turnoff for people who are listening to podcasts ?
If the space gets more and more crowded with junk content , how do you get your good content to stand out ?
I think it's going to be more of an issue with the video podcasters , because they're really the ones that are competing against this AI video market that's getting millions and millions of views . They're the ones that are getting pushed down the algorithm by these shows .
So I really think it's going to be the YouTube podcasters and potentially the Spotify ones , because Spotify also has an algorithm that , you know , recommends shows and stuff like that , and so if it finds that all this , all this stuff , is very similar , it's going to recommend the stuff that's similar , which all the AI stuff is going to be similar , because it's
all coming from the same source , I suppose .
Yeah , so you read the article . What did it say that YouTube is doing to cut down on this stuff ?
You know they actually didn't specify . It said that they're updating their monetization policies on July 15th . So what they're wanting to do is , if they find mass produced videos that often feature synthetic voices , stock visuals and minimal originality , they're going to demonetize those videos .
So they're not removing them from the platform , they're just demonetizing those channels which , uh , it's one of those things like when you're running into issues like this , like so , with spotify combating the use of copywritten music , like I mean , I had like 50 episodes taken down .
I imagine there's probably going to be a lot of people , you know , posting , posting on Reddit and in Facebook and stuff , and going , oh my gosh , youtube demonetized my channel for no reason and , you know , maybe they had AI generated content in their episode , artwork or you know something like that and that's gonna demonetize them .
But yeah , so they don't specify exactly what they're doing . They haven't actually updated the monetization terms as of yet , so I guess we'll see .
Yeah , I'm sure it'll be interesting to see how it shakes out . Youtube is a hard world to play in and it's not necessarily something that we're experts in . We don't teach much on that , but it just feels like another reason why I would caution anybody who's thinking about video podcasting . It's just another thing .
You have to learn another thing , a potential pitfall .
Yeah , a potential pitfall .
And , yeah , building an audience on youtube and and getting into the youtube ecosystem . Like I , I you know this doesn't sound like anything that they're doing maliciously . It sounds like they're trying to protect their platform and their environment .
But , like you mentioned , jordan , you play by all the rules and you have all the licenses and , uh , the rights to use all the music that you use and stuff in your podcast . But even you have been swept up a few times by these things .
So it happens and it's a hard fight when you're trying to get that content back or you're trying to get your platform monetized again . It's a real pain . So we're still looking for responses to our sound off question asking what podcast gear do you recommend ?
We're going to be talking about podcasting gear and for different budgets and different experience levels next week and I'm really excited about the episode . So if you have any input on that , make sure you tap the text show link in the show notes
¶ Podcast Movement Announcement & Special Swag
and send in .
Oh , hang on real quick before we go . I just wanted to mention we are about 30 days out from podcast movement in Dallas , yep , and if anyone is attending Podcast Movement , if you're on the fence , go . I think it's going to be a great show .
We just got some speakers announced this last week Jordan is going to be doing a session , adam Curry , the podfather , is going to be there doing a session , and I've been so excited about this conference so I went out yesterday and I ordered some really cool , unique new Buzzsprout swag .
Don't have a ton of it Only got about 70 pieces total , and so I want it to be a surprise . But if you're a Buzzcast listener , find us at the conference and if you , you know , mention hey , where's the special swag for Buzzcast listeners ? Come mention that to Jordan or I or Albin and we'll hook you up .
Oh , I'm so excited . I don't even know what this is , so it's going to be a surprise for me too .
Yeah , it'll be great .
Awesome . Well , I'm really looking forward to that and , until next week , keep podcasting .