The Future is Nigh

Hi. This is Timothy Kim O'Brien. And this is Calabado. And you're listening to Pod Rec, where we help you survive your podcast. This episode, the future is nigh. What's gonna happen in 2021? Our special guest Pods Drew Damis. Hey, folks. We are back here in 2021. I can't believe it. All the pod rack gang is here with us, and we're getting ready to let you know our 20 predictions for 2021 last year We did fantastic. This year, I'm going to be putting on my alter ego, nostradamus.

I'm gonna be channeling his wisdom into my brain and out through my lips, and we're gonna get started on this. So the first 1 up, and folks, Play along at home. It's on the website podrect.com. You can check out these predictions with us here. Get out your bingo cards. Because last year, those folks of you that are with the Salvage dog team knew about the pandemic. So here we go. Number 20. Amazon is going to be a big player with

and they're gonna be setting up a pay wall. So Amazon is gonna be the next big player in podcasting, and they're gonna set up a paywall folks. We've already seen this kind of happen a little bit. There was a little thing a few weeks ago here where they accidentally, and I'm using my finger quotes here. Kyle Kyle can verify I'm using finger quotes. They accidentally put it got it messed up with Audible or something like that, and they were charging, like, 8 bucks for a podcast.

It's gonna happen, folks. They're gonna put up a paywall. They need to make some money, and that's how it's gonna happen, folks. What are you what what what are you thinking about that, Mister Kyle? Yeah. I definitely think that Amazon enters the content war, and they're gonna challenge Spotify and Apple for not only just podcasts, but music and audiobooks too. And I think that Amazon might even take this a step further is, okay, Apple Podcast has an app. It's called iTunes.

Right? Mhmm. I think that's how that works in the I I'm a I'm an Android guy. That's why I'm not allowed in the clubhouse. I've been clubhouse. That's an official word. Google has a has an app. Spotify has an app. Who doesn't have an app? Amazon? Well, if you think about Amazon Music, Amazon Music is an app, and Amazon Audible audiobooks

is also an app. Why not podcast? It just makes sense. It just sounds like it's going to be something that's gonna have to happen. Amazon is big when it comes to Amazon web services with their cloud offerings and all the kind of features they build. They come build it into their ecosystem. Just like all the other big tech companies, definitely gonna see Amazon have an app that's gonna be a podcast player in this space.

What comes with that? Well, you have to If you want your lady in the in the tube to give you the songs, you can't you can download or buy. They'll you can be offered, like, 399. You can get their unlimited

Apple or Amazon music plan. You can play it on your tube. Played in your car, played on your phone, you can download music as long as you're part of their plan. It's the same thing with Spotify if you're on their mid remember. Right? Same thing with Apple. You buy it, but for 99¢ or a dollar something, you can download music. Well, Amazon, getting into the space, is gonna charge for it.

Guarantee it. Guarantee there's gonna be an app that you're gonna buy or a program you're gonna buy to get unlimited numbers of podcasts. Which will include not just the free stuff. Because remember, you get the free stuff, all the other guys too. It's gonna include their special stuff. And we saw this with Amazon Prime, with the Amazon video, they took the podcast homecoming and turned it into a movie or a a, I guess, a series

the 2 season series, which is not bad either. The 1st I think season 1 star, Julia Roberts. So it's, like, big time production. Well, why would they not be doing that with podcasts too? I totally see that not only is Tim's paywall prediction true, I think that the content wars is where Amazon is going. Why? Because attention is money. And just like I heard, I think, I wanna say Dave Jackson. We've not said Dave Jackson yet. It's it's like what? It's

just few minutes into the program. We have to mention the Dave Jackson. It's a hundred bucks a day. Where? And I don't know if he said this or not, but I'm going to credit him with this quote. And it's if If the product is free, you are the product.

So if you're paying for it, well, you're paying for new content and that's what people want. They want their eyes, They want their ears, and they're gonna have to pay for it to get it. Otherwise, you're gonna have to eat ads or you're gonna have to to groan through free demo garbage

you know, for us poor folk who don't wanna pay the fee, that's the price. You're gonna have to you don't wanna eat that stuff. You're gonna have to go to higher level and get the unlimited plan. I see that. And then I I see it also being as part of Prime. Is you're gonna Prime's gonna cost a little bit more next year for for this year, 2021. I see Prime going up. But it's gonna include all this other stuff. Because right now I'm paying what? 15.99 a month to get a credit on on Audible.

Well, I feel that Amazon's gonna, you know, paywall this whole bundle. That's my prediction pod Stardamus. Mhmm. You what do you think of of I I think I took it to the next level. I think you did. I was here. And then I was here. And and and that's why we also call you Yoda pod Kyle. So you're you You are you are the we 1. I am the great 1. And and, yeah, just for full transparency, I mean, I I may my Amazon Prime member,

but I don't you know, I so I get the, you know, I get the music. I get the videos. And, you know, the music and the videos are great for my girls when I'm putting a bed or I wanna watch a video, but I'm always prompted, oh, hey. But if you want more exclusive content or more content, you gotta pay extra on top of your prom. Which I'm not gonna do because I've also got Netflix. I've got other stuff that I've got. But I can see them And now here, I'm gonna we're gonna do this number 20.5

prediction. Oh, we're already going.5. Okay. So not only are they gonna put a payroll up there, but they're gonna be the 1 of the first ones, I think, that is going to because I also publish my own poetry, so I'm on the create space thing. So I get a certain amount back when I sell a book. I'm thinking that they're going to show us how to monetize it. It's not gonna be a lot. Folks, you're not gonna get rich off of this.

It's gonna be better than Anchor and and their stuff, but I think they're gonna find a way to do the Amazon exclusive podcast where they have, you know, professionals popping out, and then they're gonna have Amazon Amazon podcast where we as content creators can go and upload her stuff, but it's only gonna be available there to Amazon subscribers. It's not gonna be available anywhere else. So maybe like a quasi Patreon kind of thing where we can make a little bit of money off of it.

Okay. I like I like that idea. I think I think that's very plausible. Because if you think about it, it it with a with a $1,000,000,000,000 evaluation is what Amazon is right now. That, you know, they could throw a little crumbs to us to us content people. Why not? Sure. I think that's I think that I think that's a pretty because the same way they do with audiobooks and the same way with books, they just make sense. Just sounds like that fit their culture. Mhmm.

Definitely. Well, that brings us to the number 19. Number 19 goes a little something like this. Apple will start hosting podcast content and threaten indie podcast hosting companies This is something that I heard Evotera talk about on his podcast pod podcast pontifications. That's a mouthful. But if you're interested in in Evotera's, I'll put the link to to him in the show notes. He talked about What if Apple Podcasts

start hosting their own content? That would destroy the indie podcasting hosting company market. Maybe. But I'm thinking that Apple may do this. This just kind of to me, this kinda makes sense that if they do this, that they're they're trying to bring more content into their ecosystem. The same way that Amazon and their first prediction is doing that, I think Apple's gonna have to start antiing up,

you know, you know, their poker chips in order to get into this. And at this ultimately, if this does happen, will will cause indie podcast companies start buying their competitors, and this will start forming bigger hosting monsters. We're gonna see this rise of new podcast hosting companies. They're gonna appear because Anytime these companies and think about Lipson. Lipson is a huge company publicly traded. There's a couple other big ones. Blueberry, podbean, BuzzFeed,

These are big you know, well, they'll in the they'll indie podcasting world. They're big. 80,000, 100,000 podcasts. That's a lot. Think about plus all the stuff they're doing privately on the side.

That's big stuff. It's not about 100,000, but there's only 1,000,000 podcasts out there. So if you have 80,000 podcasts. You've got a nice chunk of the pie. Right? These are active podcasts too on top of that. Well, What happens when these companies then start buying up little companies and becoming bigger companies?

Well, they're gonna start going after bigger fish. And every time you see this in any kind of market, when a company grows and goes to bigger fish, they don't care about little fish anymore. They don't care about the podcast. It only gets a 100 download. And this is going to then kick off new podcast hosting companies that will support podcasts that either can't get into the bigger platforms because then there's a threshold that starts to be created because you're not a big fish,

and you're gonna see little companies show up here. So this is this is I call this the trifecta. Apple starts hosting bigger, you know, podcast companies freak out. They start buying their competitors in order to take enough chunk of the market. Because Apple is not gonna not gonna appeal to everybody.

We experience this with a provider page. If you're a podcast network and you want provider page, well, Apple will give you 1. They won't let you brand it. They will not let you put colors on it. And if you won't hit a certain number of downloads, they won't even talk to you. But if you're wondering, wow, they'll make it beautiful.

And themed buttons and all that stuff. Why? Because wonder is big, big money, and Apple's gonna cater for that. Well, if they start hosting, they're gonna do the same thing. If they're not doing it now. And I suspect now I don't have proof, but, you know, what do they say in the navy? A rumor's just a premature fact. I suspect Apple's already hosting some people's content already.

Mhmm. That's just me. So what is this a big push? No. It's just you're gonna open the market up. It's just another revenue stream for Apple. Why? Because Amazon's gonna start eating their lunch. That's why. Google is already starting to eat a little bit of their lunch. Apple's gonna have to get will have to wake in the sleep and giant, did they say? What do you think, Tim? Well, you you you say Apple, Waken, the sleeping Giant, I don't see them as

Yes. Right now, they are the £800 gorilla, but Spotify is catching up, Google Podcast is catching up. Amazon, once they go toe to toe with it, I think Apple is gonna be if they don't move quickly on it, they're gonna be left out in the cold because then people are gonna, you know, podcasters won't need iTunes. They won't need, you know, Apple Podcasts. It tells their stuff.

People will be directed to go over to Amazon, to go over to Google, and to go over to number 18, which is my prediction of Disney. These all kinda flow together, don't they? They do kinda flow together. Disney is gonna set up a paywall for their for all their content. Now think about it. Disney plus came out in the middle of a pan well, not in the middle, but at the beginning of the pandemic, right before it, and then as it was hidden. And Mandalorian is been a runaway hit

for them. They have they have so much content that they could do with podcasting, and kids are now used to podcasts because they're now used to sitting in front of the screen all day and, you know, listening to other teachers, and there's educational podcasts that are out there. But entertainment aimed at kids is what Disney and Pixar does best.

And they've already proven their their their thing with their streaming service because that's the big thing now with video is, you know, the streaming services. You know? Amazon, again, has it. Apple has their own Apple TV stuff. You know? This is gonna be the next big thing is Disney is going to jump into the podcasting thing because they've already got the kids watching on Disney Plus. Why not add on podcasts

to it? You've already got the talent locked in into the Disney Studios and the Pixar Studios. All you gotta do is drop the visual and put in the audio for it, the podcast for it. And, you know, parents will eat it up because they'll be like, well, Disney, it's gonna be nice and wholesome and healthy and and good for the kids. It's not Sesame Street. It's not Mister Rogers' neighborhood. It's not PBS. It's but that's word PBS.

Ish. But Disney is gonna fill that hole that is not being, you know, filled at at the big corporate level. There's a lot of podcasts out there that are doing stuff aimed at kids educational wise, but as far as entertainment wise. They've got 1000 upon thousands of characters that could do a podcast. And they got the voice actors all ready to do it. They don't need Tim and Kyle to do the voice acting for it. They ain't gotta find people. They've already got it in their backyard.

And they've already got those people signed up with contracts. They have a known known quality there. It's a known thing. So Disney is gonna jump in and do their do Disney plus podcast. I'm only gonna charge Disney 20% of the revenue because you guys heard it here first. I'm gonna go get the website here tomorrow, disneypluspodcast.com. Watch me do it. Watch me do it, Kyle. I'm gonna do it. Like, a programmer joke. It's it's it's a Disney plus plus. It's like Disney plus, but 1 more plus. Mhmm.

This is this is a prediction, I think, that you have given. This is your 3rd year in a row. Of given given Disney the their props. And at first, it didn't seem like Disney was really gonna do it because they had content kind of all over the place. And then all of a sudden Disney plus came out. I mean, talk about timing. Disney plus drops and gets there and they figure their stuff out right when the pandemic

takes place. They have a cap they've captive bodies. I think they've released what Mulan, live action Mulan, view their their streaming service. Plus they also did the Mandalorian, 2 seasons of the Mandalorian, which is a huge breakaway. You're right. That was they that saved their Star Wars franchise. So they have they have the chops, they have the talents, and they have a a portfolio

of amazing songs, you know, You wanna build a snowman? I mean, come on. So you have you have ever all the all the pieces are there, and it's a and I think it's a it's an opportunity because I I know some people hate the word podcasts, but but Children's specific programming and podcasting. There's some of it out there, but come on to Disney. I mean Mhmm. That that brand name is like a it's like a £500 hammer. You cannot avoid I mean, think about all the things that Disney could do.

It's it it writes it. It writes itself. And when and you quote it in the the Disney plus package, if you would, almost like now I get the Disney plus in the car, I get Disney plus in my phone, I get Disney plus at home, why not? So it gonna be in the car? It's it's it could be audio. Why not audio? It's cars remain for audio. It's perfect for that. Or kids with their with their devices listening to a Disney story or a Disney almost like a cartoon created for that, probably it's perfect.

Which then leads us into number 17, which is localization and local podcast hubs will finally become a real thing. This is something that Tim and I have been talking about for, I guess, we're on 2 years now. I think even Matt Pasie is very big in the locality space. When we talk about it, it's a hundred bucks, Matt. The the idea of podcast being local. And what do I mean by that? I mean that the localization

part of it seems to be the problem. I come to a new town. I wanna know about the new town. I should be able to punch in the new town and get all the podcasts that talk about the new town. Mhmm. That should be something that exists. Does it? No.

I would say not in that simplistic sort of way. What happens is you get word-of-mouth, friends, people who live in the area tell you, oh, yeah. Listen to this podcast. You wanna know, There's a there's 1 thing about the about New Orleans, which is with Bourbon Street. There's a Bourbon Street 1. There's there's some locality ones for different places. I've heard some history ones that kind of give you a walking tour of maybe some places that history took place.

I remember with first time ever with the Cisco, which was in I was I mean, really I mean, I was there as a kid, but when you're a kid with your parents, you don't really get to see San Francisco, I went there as a US Navy tour. Our ship went underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, and we're just gonna go to a whole fleet week. Big big deal. All the Navy ships come in and get the Explorer San Francisco. We go to Alcatraz, you know, the big touristy thing. They hand you a

CD player cassette tape. It was a cassette tape at the time. And a pair of headphones, and you walk around the prison, and they, like, move to marker 7. When marker 7 and here's where Al Capone, like, had a cigarette. Like, oh, that's cool. Then you move on to the next 1. Podcasting is perfect for that. You imagine going on a battlefield and listening to that, I've yet to hear a good 1. I know there are some out there. I've had your good 1. Well, localization then becomes like, what's the best restaurants to eat at? What's the best places to go see? What's the real estate like there? I know it. I think Tampa.

Tampa and Orlando have some of these locality and locational podcasts about the best of in real estate market, and it just blow your mind. But you come to Fredericksburg or someplace else and then you don't have it. Well, I think this is the year that local starts to get in action. And then there is going to be platforms or apps or even podcasters that help localization become a real thing.

I think it's a perfect thing, especially when everything starts opening back up and people start traveling and moving around and and and I foresee that happening this year, you know, that that that people are gonna wanna as soon as people, you know, get vaccinated, whatever it is, the stuff goes to a do we get to a normal stasis catheter. Natural, please. You know, I'm not a doctor, but I play 1 on TV. I play 1 on Disney plus podcast.com. I'm gonna get you a webinar today.

But people are gonna want to, you know, to go places because we haven't been able to go anywhere since March. Of 2020. So people are gonna wanna go places and do family outings and trips and all that kind of good stuff. And what kind of you know, it's Okay, folks. I'm I'm gonna make you a lot of money here. Alright? This is this is this is us given back to you. What you need to do is you need to go to your local tourist board.

And if you're thinking about starting your podcast, Here's where you start off because you can go talk to all the local businesses, all the the parks, the expo centers, If you got a sports team there, boom. You you you don't have to create the content. The content is there. All you need to do is curate the content. Yeah. And these tourism boards, these city governments, they will pay through the nose for it. If you can produce good content and then get it out there to tourists,

you know, getting within travel agencies and have that podcast out there and available for them. Folks, it's gonna make you money hand over fist, and you know me, I'm not a monetization kinda guy. But, you know, I'm looking around here. Papa's got a new microphone, but Papa could use a new sound boost. I'm just saying. I think that's true because

people live you you you live in a place. You know where all the good places are. You know, the good people place, you know, the good store to go to, to get the the the hardware, you know, the good place to go to, to get the certain type of of tacos. You know the good places. You know the places that make the best sandwiches. Here around here, this is the Battlefield Store. Battlefield Store makes the EBS sandwiches. In fact, they're opening a coffee shop in their battlefield. So I was like, oh, come on. I mean, take my money, please. So this is the kind of place that we already know, like, in our hometown where the goods places are. So do you you know where the good places are. So the localization and the podcast, the local podcast,

this is a market that has yet to be tapped with any kind of significance. I think this is a year. This is the year that we get local because think about it. A lot of places closed. A lot of the things that you thought were out there, they're gone. Mhmm. A lot of businesses closed up, and it's tragic. So what's left? What replaced it? What's the 1 thing that's gonna become better than maybe the place that left? Or maybe they went off and started a new company.

You're gonna need to know that pod these kinda local podcasts are gonna help you do that. And there's just just it just needs a better way of managing how you find these podcasts. But right now, I think finding a local podcast is hard. It's really it's not yeah. It's not user friendly. And I think this will be the year that that changes.

Well, and as a side note to all of this, Kyle, about the localization, and this affects you and me where we live, Think about the people that are no longer commuting, that they're doing work from home. So for me, I was doing a 3 hour commute every day. And at the end of that, commute, I put, you know, I I feed my girls, and I put them to bed, and I'm exhausted. I don't go anywhere.

Now I do poetry readings every Friday night. Kyle laughs at me, and that's fine. But I do poetry readings now. I go Oh, wow. I I have time to go to, you know, the downtown Fredericksburg area and explore things. I can go to 1st Fridays and go to the art galleries and talk with the artists there. So now I have more time that I can spend in my local community, whereas In March,

3 hours. 3 hour commute, and I didn't have the time to do that. Now that I have the time to do that, Kyle, what do you got time to do? Well, just 1 more point to add to to this topic. If you've been watching, well,

I don't recommend you actually watch news at all, just turn it off. But there have been some stories out there about mass migrations People that experience the pandemic in big cities were like, this is the last time I'm gonna be in a big city or in places that had had to have heavy lockdowns. People are migrating out of those places. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, while those places people are leaving.

And they're looking for other places to go. So if you have a community that sounds like a place that these people wanna come to, Well, you are missing an opportunity to tell them about your place. How great it is? What's good about it? What's the business atmosphere like? What's the people like? Where do the tourists track? Attractions. What are the natural resources plays? Like, what are the vistas and the trails and the the parks?

This is the time to tell people like that because if you run a business, a local business, and you're wanting to get traffic to come in, why not have a podcast to advertise it becomes almost a perfect advertisement because you could be the podcast that is the tastemaker for that town. Mhmm. And then think about all the other businesses as you generate buzz for the best pizza in my town.

Well, maybe you get a free pizza out of that. Maybe you get something more. You could make a business out of this. I think this is the year. This is the way I think of them. I think this is the year. Absolutely. Absolutely. And now that brings us to number 16. Oh, sweet. 16. I remember when I was 16. I remember when you were 16, Kyle. I didn't know you back then, but I remember when you were 16.

And number 16 is virtual conferences will increase in attendance outpacing in person events historically. And the special 1 the special 1 the 1 that's near and dear to our heart is podcast global. They're gonna beat last year's record. Now last year, they got the Guinness Book of World Records. They had 5003. 5 1003 people attend. And when that was done, I was like, alright, 2021, 5004. Let's go. Let's beat the record.

Right. Right. Right. Is it $1 more? That's that's all you need to do to beat it. But, you know, I I'm gonna attend the 1 in 2021. It's happening March 1st 5th. You can go to Podfest Global. To get your tickets for that. I highly recommend it. It's 2 weeks, 2 weeks of wonderful programming. And, you know, we'll be there and talking about the programming, and our lessons learned. But virtual conferences took off.

Now last year, they they did the podcast, which I missed out on. In Orlando. They were the last ones the last event, in person event. I didn't catch the day. I didn't catch the day when we did that. Archer 2020. That was an old time when we didn't have we're massing stuff. Yep. Way back when. And Kyle's wearing a mask right now, not because he's not trying to get sick, but because I told him he needs to wear a mask. I can't look at him.

He makes a big deal too much. That was the last time I saw, like, people. That was, like, the the it was, like, the world ended, the minute that conference over the world ended. So your prediction this is off your prediction from last year where you talked about how the the they kind of maxed out a number of conferences they were having. Mhmm. It turns out. Okay. Yeah. Max out in real conferences with virtual. Man, there's a lot of appetite for virtual.

Exactly. Well, And the reason there's the appetite for virtual is because you and I were talking about this offline a couple of weeks ago before we got the announcement for podcast global. But podcast was gonna come back in June. And I was like, Kyle, why would I go? Now, if it happens, it happens, and I hope it does, But, you know, it's it's the cost to get down there. It's the hotel rooms. It is a magical experience. I'm not gonna deny that. But I tell you what,

this year when we did podcast global, I didn't have to take off work. My my my work laptop is right next to me here. I just signed off for, you know, like, a half hour or 20 minutes here or 20 minutes there, you know, signed back on and and did extra time at the end of the day. But I could do that conference from right here at home. And, you know, we had 5000 people attend that conference. Well, actually, over 5000 But then Supergio Pardo

did it with Icon in, you know, in the podcasting conference. He did a slew of those. And it had a ton of people attend. And then podcast Expo, they had to go virtual. They got a ton of people to attend. Third Coast out of Chicago had to go totally virtual. And they're already, you know, talking about doing virtual in 2021. So all these conferences are, like, We gotta go online,

and it's the best way to get people in because you don't have to go anywhere. You can just do it from the comfort of your own home. You can be in your pjs all day if you want to. Now people are craving the in person stuff. Don't get me wrong, but for me, I'm I'm not going back to my office. I'm staying right here at home and working from home. I love it. I love not having the commute. Which we were talking about earlier in in our localization prediction.

I don't want the commute. I don't wanna go drive in places. If I you if and when things do open back up. I will go to, like, 1, maybe, 2, in person conferences, and the in person 1 that I would go to would be podcast down in Orlando. And then the second 1 would better be really close to home like a DC podcast. Or, you know, in indie podcast up in New Jersey. I'm not gonna go over to Nashville. I'm not gonna go to Chicago. I'm not gonna go to LA. Say,

if I do 1, it's gonna be 1 big 1, and that's it. And I'm not gonna go and a lot of people are of that mindset. It's it's not cost effective. And for the folks that are running these events, it's more cost effective to do it that way. Versus then to, you know, bet on you're gonna get enough people in the hotel rooms. And, you know, how much do you charge for your your your programming and how you know, who Are you gonna get big name people to to come and speak at your event? It's a lot easier

on everybody to do it at home. Yes, 1 day we'll get back to in person, but virtual is going to be the way to go. Well then, we're also we're really it's we're we're there's a lot of gratitude in the sense that both of us are blessed to have full time jobs that we can work at home from.

That we have employers that we're able to keep going, and we are able to work at home and not have to go in the office. I had to go in the office the other day, first time in 9 months, it was weird. It was surreal. Places like it's like it's spick and span, but, man, it's just it's a it's it's a natural parking lot empty. The office was empty. It was really weird.

The so that's that's 1 thing. A lot of people did not. A lot of people had to change jobs or lost their jobs or had huge financial problems happen, and it just seems like it's not over. It's not over yet. The the and the economic ramifications of what's about to happen over the past year, I don't think has hit us. Yet. I think that's still coming through. There's a whole another tidal wave of of

of fun times ahead. Were they was the Chinese proper? Maybe you live in interesting times. Well, yeah. Well, check that box. So an informational conference, I I'm still I'm on the fence. I thought about going to Orlando, but you're right. It's a it's a $1000 for a for a hotel room for for a week, and it's just 3 days, 4 days, whatever. You get the driver fly down. That's gas and wear and tear or whatever, you know, plane tickets. And then there's the cost of extra conference. And

it's You know? And then you have you run the risk. If you're you can get the vaccine by then or maybe you do, but maybe the vaccine doesn't last forever. They don't know. You know? Maybe grows a third eye. They don't know that either. So you have all these kinda weird unknowns. It's almost like the there's just too many questions out there right now. To to know this far in advance. So the prediction is the virtual becomes the better option

First off, it's cheaper for the event promoter. I mean, virtual has a it's a lot of overhead differences. I wouldn't say cheaper than a sense of overhead. You don't have to do the hotel or maybe, you know, the IT costs then start to add up your clear your operations costs for IT become the actual expense versus the operations cost for having rooms. It just it doesn't make it cheaper, just changes, shifts the cost over. So there's still cost there, but they don't have to feed anybody.

That's cool. They don't have to you know, they're they're not managing the space. There's not you know, there's the the added extra thing of things like security. You're seeing 2 podcasters punch each other. That's a fun time. So you don't have to worry about any of that kind of stuff. You don't worry about, but your microphone's not working.

With, you know, 1 of the rooms or the camera dies or something like that, it becomes the onus of the speaker. If their stuff dies, they've sent a video with Chris Carrisos But podcast, you have to record a video of your talk before you actually talk. So if you have technical problems, all he does is he turns the video on. There you go. He's already solved his technical problem. It's already ahead of the game with that. So that's why I think virtual is really, really gonna be

the way to go. But, man, man, man, man, do I love hanging out with people? But here's my here's my fear with hanging out with people besides all the other fear. Take all that other crazy stuff. I can't I can't control 1 aside.

Who's gonna be there? Mhmm. I mean, I'm gonna meet some new people. Sure. But the people I it looks like all my old friends and the people I you know, the new friends and the the connections I I've made before, I make make new ones, but I just feel like that audience is gonna be really anemic. It's gonna really be a lot of people. It's just not gonna show up. Mhmm. And will that make it different? I don't know. So I'm

I'm tentative, but this prediction, I think the virtual. I think the virtual. I think I attended what? Jeez. 10, 12, maybe 14 virtual conferences this past this past year, all from the comfort of my home, I spoke at half of them, so I had to learn all that too. So I've seen it from both sides of fences being an attendee and being a speaker. So the virtual I think for for giving a presentation, Rachel's

way easier. I mean, I got my notes right here, posted notes. I'm all done with my scripts, so I can cheat all over the place. When you speak in person, you have to practice and you have to practice not only standing in front of a room, you have to read a room. When you're talking virtually,

You know, are people laughing? People not laughing? Who cares? Right. Some people aren't even watching. They'll watch it 2, 3 weeks from now. So virtual has its advantages, both for the promoter and for the speaker and for the attendee. But it's still, in person is always is better, but I just don't think I don't think 2021 is gonna be a good year for in person events, simply because don't think anyone's gonna be there, and that will be that'll make it that will make it not the same

environment. Does that make sense? That sounds Yeah. No. Absolutely makes it you know, because, yeah, we all wanna get back to being in person. We really do. 2021 is not gonna be the year to do it. And unfortunately, you know, the events circuit is going to take a hit. From that from those in person events. Yeah. And and it's gonna that's gonna reverberate past 2021. It's it's gonna roll under 2022, 2023 because then people are gonna be more comfortable

being at home. So if you have a event, if you have an in person event, you're gonna have to have a virtual aspect to it. Because you're only gonna get you might get half of the audience that you would have got before 2020. Maybe half of those people show up. Into an in person event. So you're gonna have to have the virtual alongside of the in person event. And that's gonna take a couple of years. Not not a couple of, you know, events, a couple of years.

To get back. And I don't think we're ever going to get back. This is gonna be it's a bad cliche. It's the cliche 2020. Is gonna be our new normal of you're gonna have to have if you're gonna have the envy in person, you're gonna have to have saddled with that. A virtual aspect for people that are not gonna hit it. And and actually makes sense because you're gonna get more people Internationally,

that way to do it. Because not everybody from Bangor or Bangladesh is gonna fly over here to you know, Orlando to go to pod fest. This is the only way that they can attend that pod fest, and we need their voices. Well, that that I'd say that the people have gotten a taste of how the virtual experience works And it's almost like the real thing, and people like it. I think that taste is not going away. And

I I hate I hate to do normal. I love ambiguity in dealing with, you know, this is the year of change. We're going to learn new things. This is the year of change, and that brings us to number 15, the year of change. My youngest child was on his phone. And I said, what are you doing? And he said, watching my favorite podcast.

And this is the prediction for number 15. His video podcast will become synonymous with audio podcast. And meanwhile, audio podcasters will have to adapt to the influx of new video podcasters but become pretentious, old Guardian leaders all. I remember the day back when we did only audio podcast. That's a real way to podcast. I think 2021 is the year. That goes away. The blending will have occurred. Video people who do podcasting will be the same as audio people who do podcasting.

And I'll tell you after all these virtual conferences, playing off that a little bit, The number of people now doing video podcasts in conjunction with their audio podcast is easily quadruple 10 x You pick a number. It's a lot. A lot of people. In fact, 1 of those people who's been doing video podcasts on top of their audio podcast is this guy right next to me with his radar podcast started doing video stuff. So I think that the video and audio stuff That's just delivery. I think a podcaster

is going to be gonna change. The definition is gonna start to change to mean something different. And it's gonna become like, you know, if you remember when Google first came out, hey, did you search to go search that? Go search that. We don't say go search that anymore. We say, did you Google that? Because now Google's become synonymous with with search. I think podcasting has become synonymous with digital shows, digital content Mhmm.

In the same way that that a movie on Netflix and a movie in the theater are still a movie. I didn't stream it. In fact, like, a a COBRA Kai just came off season 3 the other day. And it's if you haven't seen COBRA Kai, the the basically, it's where it picks up where karate kid 3 left off in a sense. So now they're all old. It's fantastic. It's well written. It doesn't take itself seriously, which is fantastic. It's basically a 10 hour movie. It is 10:1

hour episodes or 45 minutes with, you know, probably made for commercial, neighbor TV, the same. So it the production did union, whatever. But it's essentially 10 hour movie. It's still

movie, still content? Well, the same thing with video and audio podcasting. Just because you recorded on video, still podcast. This is for an audio, an on video, still a podcast. If you do both, still a podcast. I think it's all gonna become blurred, and no one's gonna care. Because my kid watching say recontoon critical role, is both a podcast you can listen to and a podcast you can watch. Guess what? They're both podcast.

Yep. And since you've jumped into this realm, walk me through your thinking of how I I think this prediction is correct. You you know, Kyle, we we we attended DC Podfest together the last time it was in in person thing, and we we attended my you know, the icon. Indian podcaster conference. And I remember the last DC podcast, they were talking about adding video. And when I heard that, I was like, Alright. I'm gonna have to jump into that water.

Mainly because create art podcast is about art and is a, you know, a lot of stuff is visual. And plus you have a fantastic time watching me wave my hands in the air when you're talking and going, oh, I I can't believe Kyle's had that or, you know, when you know, I'm doing my air quotes.

And people wanna see that kind of stuff. People wanna see the banter between you and I. And and eventually, maybe, you know, we turn Pod rack into something like that where, you know, our folks with the with the salvage team or the salvage dog team, they can actually see us go ahead and do this kind of stuff. But it's extra content that you can do that is easy to integrate into your podcast already.

So, basically, what I'm doing is I'm doing a streamyard thing, and then I am, you know, connecting me with my Facebook I'm also doing it on Instagram by my phone at the same time, and I'm pulling it off of Facebook editing it, doing video editing, which is simpler than I initially thought and free. I found a free video editor on that. And then putting it on my website,

and then putting it also on YouTube. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine out there. Why would you not? Why would you not have your podcast out there? And I'm also in the video. I'm referring to the podcast. Do you feel they're both podcast? Yeah. They're both podcasts. They're both podcasts. I was in the old guard. I was in the old guard back about 3 or 4 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And then I saw the light at DC podcast

when everyone was talking about, hey, videos and the next thing. I was like, okay. I was a little late. Yeah. I was late, but but but the thing, but it is you gotta think about it. Oh, it it says, like, Twitch. It's Twitch became my the the thing where I started video, and then I realized that Twitch could is the same thing. It's the same thing. It's a different platform.

Yeah. And we're doing the same thing. We're still talking. We're you and I are still talking to each other. When I do, you know, create our podcast, I'm talking to my audience. Yep. It's just a different format. You know, and and my reasoning for not doing it sooner was the cost. And how am I gonna integrate that into my podcast? I'm gonna do video editing and audio editing. Guess what? I know how to do audio editing. I pretty much know how to do video editing.

And I'm not trying to do any big flashy Hollywood kind of stuff. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit like I tell my girls. That's all there is to it. You know, the old guard needs to get over themselves. I got over myself. And I was part of the old girl too. I was like, no. No. It's not really a book because yeah. Guess what? It's a podcast or a podcast or whatever you wanna call it. That's what it is. And I call it my podcast. It's it's a vital part of my podcast. And

Yeah. We gotta get Kyle on board. So if you wanna get Kyle on board, you need to send an email at poddirect@gmail.com and let Kyle know, we need to do a video aspect of this for our Patreon, for our Yep. Salvage team and our salvage dog team. We do. But that leads us to to number 14, Tim, which this is where I'm I'm I'm back in the old guard because I think you have a little more forward thinking aspect on number 14. So

I know where I stand. Why don't you introduce this 1? Because I'm I'm I forget different feelings than you do on this 1. Yes. You do. Yes. You do. So clubhouse, If you haven't heard, all the hip hip happening. Kids are on the clubhouse. It is gonna be the next big thing kinda like Anchor was when it opened up. And especially when it opens up to Android, because I'm an Android guy. I don't have Apple.

But when it fully opens up to Android, it's gonna fizzle, I think, very quickly unless it's bought out by a big player. The the guys that run clubhouse, they're lacking 1 big thing, and that's good moderation for, you know, stuff that happens in the clubhouse. Because right now, it's it's wild, wild west. And you can do and say anything that you want in there, there's no, you know, which some people are like, oh, yeah. That sounds great. But, really,

if your kid gets ahold of that, is it that great, or if you're trying to get some good information or good news, and you run into a bunch of shysters up on there. And, you know, people are, you know, pinging you from money every 10 seconds. Is it that good? No. But I think if you get a big player to buy out Clubhouse. I think that could be the next big thing right now. For me, it's like anchor.

Anchors being held on by Spotify. You know, they they bought them out and, you know, they got a bloody thread on them. But if clubhouse doesn't get somebody to buy them out, I think it will fizzle out pretty fast. But, Kyle, are you in the clubhouse? No. Because I'm an Android user. So I've been clubhouse, which is when everybody joins the clubhouse, but you. And I think this is the problem with clubhouse. The exclusivity is trying to copy the Facebook formula,

which is be exclusive, and you can't get in unless you're in the club. Right? Because there are all these these famous people on there and notable talkers. But I think it's a gimmick. Now I said something about TikTok, but then I still think TikTok's kind of a gimmick even though it's fun to watch. I think Instagram Reels is pretty much killing TikTok anyway. But clubhouse, I think, will die quick, unceremonials

death this summer when everyone stops carrying. I think once the exclusivity wears off, because it's Apple only right now, that'll be it. When they let the Android people in us us us drags of the earth, us you know, dirty Android people when you get to come in there and, like, what's up? Bear. Have a bear. Yeah. That's it, man. That's clubhouse will be ruined. Oh, you few naves have ruined us. That'll be it. The exclusively be over the

the the country club feel of clubhouse will have been have expired, and no 1 will care anymore. I think the biggest reason why no 1 care can't record it. What's the point? I guess you can't you can't record it natively. Now, of course, I could plug clubhouse into

my audio equipment here and, yeah, I could rip the audio off there, that's not hard. That's a simple simple thing to do. The problem is, apparently, that violates a terms of service, and that's all bad. And if you do that, then they'll come after you with an army of lawyers. And this you know, I've heard all these things. I don't know if it's true or not because I'm not in the clubhouse. I'm standing out in the yard. I feel like this is what's that what's that movie with with Bill Murray.

Alright. No buddy. Yeah. Caddy Shack. That's it. Right. I'm a Caddy. I'm not in the clubhouse. I don't get to have them in tulips and the cheeses. I'm standing out in the yard with the go for or aren't cleaning the pool. Mhmm. I think I think summertime, no one's gonna care. Something else will have replaced it, and it'll be dead. And I think you're right. No 1 buys it.

But come on. In the day this day and age, but innovations for acquisition is the name of the game. These big tech companies follow-up. What either either to get rid of it, they buy it and put it on shelf or to incorporate it into their platform Well, Spotify bought Anchor. Okay? Who else out there might want to buy clubhouse? And then utilize it as a possible anchor like, you know, recording device.

I don't know. Because I also see another app out there called Discord. This cord is used in the Twitch space very, very well, and you can do all sorts of things with Discord. Clubhouse is kind of the elitist Discord. Well, we already have Discord. It's clubhouse really that important then of competitors. I don't know. So I'm on I'm in I I think it'll be dead. I'm gonna give it a date. It will die on But Independence Day, July 4 2021, Clubhouse will

release its its memo to its user saying we're sorry, but we discontinued it. I believe it's free. Is it not? Yeah. I I believe it is free. And and you know what? If you wanna send an invite to Kyle, you can send an invite to Kyle.mypodrick@gmail.com. And you know what? He can't open. He's got a heavy drooling. Oh, yeah. That's just it's it's it's like it's called Kyle. All the invites you wanna send him. Yeah. Send him

just yeah. Everybody in clubhouse to send Kyle an invite. Okay. Mary Rock. Jody Cringle are both on there too. And Jody was in the Andre Club for a while, but she pulled out her iPad and got it to work. And I was like, Jody, you join the dark side. So Yeah. Yeah. So talking about stuff like that about the clubhouse and exclusivity Kyle, I think lucky number 13 is right up your alley.

Hey. This 1 is going to get me punched in the face. Or is the objections. No one's gonna punch your face. Now this 1, I think, is gonna to forecast a lot. I think the there there is the possibility. Okay. Speaking of exclusivity, the IAB certification for stats, everyone has to have it. Well, if everyone has it, then is it good for anything? Because I'm hearing rumors that

1 person's 1 company's IAB stats don't exact line up with another company's IAB stats depending on how they measure it. And I thought, well, isn't that the whole point of an IAB certification? No. I could be wrong. I misheard that, but I've heard it enough times to make me go, there's some there's something here. I smell smoke. So I think there's an arrival of a new standard or a new standard organization

that will flip the IAB certification on its ear. Because it will not be good enough for some, and the result will create a new standard. And this will renew this cystic's war or the download war in podcasting. I think that IAB certification was a good version 1. I think version 2 is right around the corner, and I think that because it doesn't seem like it's apples to apples. Maybe it's like, you know, golden delicious versus, you know, crab.

Maybe it's 1 of those like, they're kinda like apples, but does it really matter? I I think they have put enough emphasis on IAB certifications that it does matter, it matters a lot because you want your down 1 download to 1 download because everyone's concerned about statistics. Especially marketer, that I think there's a vulnerability there.

Tim, what do you do you think I'm off base with this 1 or or What do you think? No. I'm I'm gonna take it 1 step further, and I'm gonna say that that IAB 2.0 is going to come from the big players in the podcasting world. It's gonna come from Spotify. It's gonna come from Google. It's gonna come from Amazon and Apple and those guys because, you know,

all all the all the companies that are doing, all the web hosting, and and all that, they're the ones that, you know, have a have a handle, and then but I think the big guys are gonna say, you know what? We're gonna set the standard. We're going to say this would what counts as a download. This is what counts as a listen, and this is, you know, we we can track it down to you know, the state that the person is in or the city that the person is in.

Now privacy is going to, you know, play in there. And I think they'll track they're not gonna track it down to your IP address. I don't know. They they could they could sell they sell that kind of stuff all the time anyways. But I think that IAB 2.0 is going to be directed by the big guys. It's not gonna be directed by your your your blueberries, your lipids, and podbeans and all and buzzsprouts, all that, it's coming from the big guys.

And they need it So that way, they can sell podcast advertising to the people that they're gonna sell it to. So it'll be exclusive with Amazon. You'll have big Amazon companies that work within Amazon. Manufacturers and all that kinda all that kinda jazz will have their ads on Amazon stuff and That's how Amazon is going to sell it to their advertisers. That's how Google is gonna sell it to their advertisers.

Because Google is the expert at you know, selling, you know, space on their search engine. So why would they not figure out a way to sell a space on their podcast stats. So I think they're gonna be the ones that dictated not the web host. I think to even take this a step further, you know, this is I'm gonna get into conspiracy land here. The podcast academy recently changed its entire board of directors. Supposedly

was part of their bylaws, and they're gonna redo it redo it every single time. Fine. If that's your bylaws, okay. I get it. Rob Greenlee, who's 1 of the v p's over at Lipson, was on that board, and he he's knowing that he was a chair or 2. He He's gone now. I was like, okay. Well, they they changed border directors every single year.

The academy was supposed to be the, you know, the new almost the awards in a way, plus also set standards for quality, etcetera, etcetera, right, by lifting up podcasts to a point where, you know, these are the best of the best, etcetera, etcetera. It's the new board of directors that made me go, made me raise an eyebrow, because 1 of them Sony Music, NPR and Amazon Music are on this list. And I was like, well, that's interesting. To see, you know, Amazon Music, but Amazon doesn't have podcasts.

Like, why would they care about the podcast? Well, they started down the podcast road. Sony Music too. It was like, why would Sony Music care about the podcasting industry? Well, again, it's content content content. So when you have big play I mean, Sony Music is a monster. When you start thinking about coming into this space, NPR is on this list as well. It's another monster. A couple different media plea tenderfoot TV, spokesmedia,

you start to think about the the way this is this is laying out. That if these big players are jumping into the podcast space or are expanding their portfolios to absorb podcasting into it, then is the IAB certification that's currently out right now good enough?

I would argue it's not. I would say that they're not even if it is, they're not going to accept it. I think you're right that they're going to abide by their own standard, and we're gonna go back into the statistics weirdness where an Amazon download is not equal to Google download, which does not equal an an Apple download. Even if you knew what that algorithm was in the background anyway. I think there is a an argument to be made that the certification is going to change again.

I don't think there's any way around it, but Mhmm. Again. That's just Kyle. Yeah. I'm looking at the space. I'm seeing the future. Remember, this is predictions. We could be completely wrong about this. You could be screaming at your your podcast player right now saying, Kyle, you are a moron. I can't believe you said that, oh, there's this ridiculous prediction. I'll just point back to 2019 2020. Tim and I are 75% ish for both years. So Is this the 1 I got wrong? Or dot dot dot.

And speaking of 3 dots, Number 12. Because when I think of 3 dots, I think of number 12. I don't know why. I just do. Each dot equals 4. There we go. Samsung q 9u microphone will finally come out in 2021. They promoted that thing at the beginning of 2020. It was gonna be the next thing since sliced bread. It was gonna be the microphone that I was gonna get. That was gonna be my next microphone Okay. Because it was $200.

It was purported to sound not quite as good as an re 320, but it was gonna be, you know, 1 of the big boy microphones. Now the Samsung to QU, the 1 that I used to use, which is a direct competitor with the ATR 21100, Sounds perfectly fine. I like my voice in that microphone, but this 1 was gonna up it up in a notch and get in that $200 range for for the microphone.

And there was a lot of people that were really excited about it because it had the US b in in the back where the USB c connection in the back and the XLR cable in the back. Oh. And if it sounded anything like the 2QU, the 9QU was gonna be even better. They they had better electronics in it and everything like that. And for 200 bucks, for microphone that that that is that versatile.

I think a lot of beginning podcasters were gonna give it a a a a good, hard look into thinking this is and a lot of streamers and a lot of video people, we're gonna take a look at it and go, This is kind of what I want once they heard it. The and I've I've been asking around and asking around, no 1 can give me a good solid answer. I think there was an issue with some of the electronics being made in China

and with the whole, you know, virus thing coming out and they had some problems moving stuff over. But with all that stuff dying down now, it's gonna come out. I'm not gonna regret it. I might get it for Kyle, for, you know, you know, our 3rd anniversary of PodRact, where we help you survive your podcast. It was a 3rd anniversary. I think that's wood. That's wood. Yeah. That's a wood door. Samsung 9Q.

Yeah. But I, you know, I I think when this microphone comes out and and I was reading a lot of reviews and a lot of people had tried it out, seen a lot of YouTube videos, lot of people really psyched up about this microphone, and I think it needs to come out. I I think we have enough room in the marketplace because the other $200 microphone is the zoomzd1 or zdm1

out there. Another really good microphone, but I think there is space in the marketplace for us to go ahead and have that $200 microphone for folks that, you know, okay, you let's say you've been podcasting for a year on year ATR 21100, or your, you know, your your your Samsung 2 2QU, people wanna upgrade their mics and going from a $50 microphone to $70 microphone to a $200 microphone is a comfortable thing to do. But to go to a $400 microphone like the p r the high l p r 40, the music, please.

That was my bad attempt at music. That is a huge jump. That is a huge investment. The $200 microphone has been proven that people will go to that $200 microphone, and there's space in in the podcast world for it to happen. It's coming out this year, folks. I don't have a horse in this fight because I'm I'm not a huge technophile like you are when it comes to microphone. However, that being said, a little birdie told me that they're gonna loan me their hial p r 40

coming in the mail. It should be here I might be here tomorrow. So we'll see whether or not I I like it. It's a it's a it's a borrow not a not a give. So I'm gonna use it to see whether or not, you know, my rich smooth voice. Sounds better on a microphone that is

4 times more expensive than the 1 I'm using now. So the the fact that this microphone is finally coming out, yeah, I think this is a just another example of how the world was kind of knocked around a little bit and production schedules and supplies of materials and, you know, on hand, keep employees. They actually put the thing together, kind of hit Samsung in a way that they hadn't expected. And, of course, that their whole slate of

of products probably got shifted to the right by 6 to 9 months, maybe even a year. Depending on how bad they hit them. So the fact that it's coming out, I mean, you think about they had it almost ready, then the world paused, and now they're ready again. What other microphone manufacturer actually got anything done during that time? They might be the only show in town, so it might be a bomb, you know, a a bomber year for them.

They may I mean, Samsung maybe may become, like, the microphone for 2021. Never know. I think that's a go to look at that. But bringing us to to number 11. Number 11. And again, I'm going I'm hitting all

all the institutions of podcasting right now. I think 2021. I think 2020 was the year of people sitting around thinking of stuff. And then 2021 is gonna be a year of changing it. I think a lot of people sat around and thought about the RSS feed. And I know this is another topic that podcasts get wrapped around the axle. Do not touch by horse house feed. You know? But, again, I think it's adapter dye. I think the push to improve the RSS feed protocol will gain momentum in 2021

and force the old RSS feed to finally be phased out. I think there will be a new version of it. I think it will include new tags. It will be more acceptable to some of the dynamic add insertion stuff. I don't think it'll be quite what they want, which is, you know, complete control. That's not gonna happen. Podcasts will control the RSS feed. But it will allow for things like the ability to do localization, I think that'll be a a cool feature. You know, geographical

type type data goes in there. I think it'll allow for podcasters to finally dictate where ads actually do go if they do dynamic ad insertion to their podcast instead it's you know, and then After his long battle with cancer, he died. Hey, now it's a word from my sponsor, black rival, coffee. You know, see, that's not how those work. And those worst transitions and I think podcasters will finally have the ability to control that with the new RSS feed protocol.

I mean, why not? The RSS feed protocol is an ancient dog. It's time for a puppy. It's time to bring in some new blood into this thing, and people have been Dude, let your hands off my arms. No. I think that is over. And a lot of people sat around thought about this, and I think 2021 is the year of the RSS feed. Will adapt or die. And it's not gonna die. I think it's gonna die. And the old one's going to die away. A new one's gonna come out, and we're gonna

accept it and move on. What do you think to him? I have no opinion on this because You know? Does I I I've had my RSS feed hijacked. I I had that happen 1 time with a with a company out of India, and it took a long time for me to get back to where it needed to be. I I think there's more security measures that need to be instituted so that way people can't ease bank hijack the the RSS feed. Is it gonna be RSS feed 2.0? Maybe, you know, can you piggyback, you know, some video and

some extra curricular stuff on that, whatever happens down the bike, that would be nice because the RSS feed has been with us for a long, long, long, long, long time. Maybe Mister Curry can you know, helping us start podcasting back in 2004. Maybe he can help us with the 2.0 version of this. But, yeah, it's about time for it to happen. Do we have the stomach for it to happen? Do we have the, you know, controversy for it to happen? I think we see more RSS feeds get hijacked.

Yeah, then people are gonna demand it. But if you don't if you don't have something that is breaking the system, then people don't wanna improve it that much.

So I want the security idea. I didn't think about that. Actually, that's that's a that's a novel concept to think about the encryption quality of an RSS feed to where you have to actually have almost like 2 factor authentication to allow someone to use your RSS feed There's an XML I mean, you can get really technical into this. Some of the XML stuff that you can add to that. There's the ability to almost do block chain with RSS feeds. I mean, there's a couple different things that could happen with an RSS feed to make it more secure.

I think this is the year that happens. I think there is enough there is there is enough room in the industry right now for an RSS feed version change to allow for some new technological features take place that isn't shocking.

Like, you know, you have to learn, like, a whole new software language or learn a whole new way. I think it's gonna be just like the same old, same old, just with some added features, some some new functionality, and maybe an approved. Maybe it's a JSON file or something a little more user friendly because you can't you mean, you ever you look at our RSS feed? Dear god. It's like, It's like it's like the stuff they found on the Roswell crash. When you look at it for the first time, it's terrifying for new podcasters.

But If you could get a little more user friendly, like a JSON file where you could actually read what's going on, a little more, you know, they call it human readable, Mhmm. Then maybe there's some improvements there. I think there's something to be said for the advancements in cloud technology, and some of the new languages that allow for better understanding of files that this can this can take advantage of. But something I think that is even more critical

is number 10. And number 10, Is the number of Spanish speaking podcasts, I think, will overtake English speaking podcasts and the total number of active shows. I think that the Spanish speaking world, when it comes to podcasting, is exploding. And podcast and podcast global summit proved that there is an appetite for Spanish language podcast, for dual or bilingual podcast, and heck, I mean, 1 of the biggest countries in South America, Portuguese,

out of Brazil, Portuguese speaking podcast, are starting to be big. There is an international flavor of podcasting coming out. I think Spanish is gonna be the biggest 1, but not the only 1. And I think It's gonna overtake English as the primary language of the podcaster. What do you think about that 1, Tim? We no. That's French. C. Yes. C as in your. Yes. Yeah. It excites me that, you know, when we were doing these predictions, that excites me because that really is bringing it international.

It is bringing it to every corner. So as podcasters, you know, we we're we're kind of biased in thinking of, you know, So, you know, this podcast is heard all over the world if you want it, if you know about it. And

it it mixes the podcasters think outside of just the United States because, okay. Well, we have the holidays. You know, we we celebrate Christmas in New Year's, but other countries don't do that. They have or they celebrate New Year's. At a different part of the year or they celebrate boxing day. And that's not where I go and hit Kyle all the time. You know, that's that's something else that happens in other countries.

And, you know, so you that's gonna help us not be so US centric, but that's gonna make us aware of what's happening in the outside of the borders of the United States. And and it's very important that we do that because the Internet really brought the world together. You know, some would argue that it's tearing us apart too, but it's really the great the great equalizer that we can, you know, talk on our microphones here and reach people in Mozambique.

If they have the technology and the technology is cheap enough now, whereas most people around the world can have it, there's, you know, there's 1,000,000,000 of these little cell phones made. There's a reason for it because they're cheap. You know, you you can buy them here in the United States for, you know, certain amount of money, but you can get them overseas even cheaper. And people listen to their podcasts on their cell phones, or if they have a laptop, or if they have an iPad,

or if they have, you know, some or a tablet, something like that, we can reach so many people out there. We can reach the whole world out there and having Spanish outpacing English podcast. Yeah. I see it happening because you look just south of the border there. Mexico City, how many people are in Mexico City? Oh my god. It's huge. It is huge down there. They knock out, you know, the it's a couple of LA's down there.

So Spanish. Yep. Speaking, I I I think it's about time that it it overtakes us in in 2021, and I'm excited for that. I I think it's a good thing. And the thing about that is if you because I'm I'm not a native Spanish speaker Yeah. I speak American English, figuring out How many Spanish speaking podcasts there are? Not an easy I took a I took a dive down it. It's not an easy thing to do. So I would even say, to add to this prediction, a 9.5,

if you would. Or what is this? No. 10.5. 10.5. Go figure out where I'm at. That I think that a new iTunes, like application will emerge for Spanish speaking podcasting, that will be able to give you the data that you need for Spanish speaking podcasting. To show just how many of these shows. I know iTunes has

language specific on there, but I think there's going to be something that's gonna be a little more central and South American centric. That's going to emerge or maybe even American. I mean, there might be an American. The the Spanish speaking communities within the United States has the same it's starting to get the same kind of poll that

that other communities have or the countries have. So there's gonna be an application out there that will be for Spanish language podcasts, that will be like an iTunes, that will be able to finally give us the data for for what that looks like. I think that's I'm gonna add to that. I think this is the year for Spanish language podcasting. Now I would say, you know, you could probably add to that, why not Chinese? Well, because because of the way their government is built,

Chinese 1 doesn't really play as well. You get kind of this weird mix mash of of podcasts that are that are that are not as as, you know, back a better word free where you get in in Spanish speaking countries. The Spanish speaking countries had there's a lot of lot of, you know, a lot of new media and free flowing economy and middle class people started to emerge from Spanish speaking countries in South And Central America, including

the ones that are living here in the United States who have family, that live in those areas. And not to mention, and this is the 1 I always love to bring up that everyone forgets. Spain speaks Spanish too. That's a country over Europe. Yeah. Who knew? Right? So you have all this stuff going on. And this culmination of Spanish language podcast,

I think this is the year. That it gives English podcasting a run for its money. I think you're gonna see this rise of that in which which probably will we'll see a lot of bilingual stuff start to appear too. Absolutely. Maybe not technology wise right now, but definitely English podcast being translated into Spanish and vice versa. I think that's gonna that might be a thing too, but we'll call that let's say, 9.55.

There's, like, a prediction with a prediction. Yep. And a predictions round about a prediction. Right? A lot of predictions there. Yeah. Exactly. But, Tim, lead us in too because 9 and 8 are linked. 9 and 8 are linked because You gotta, like, take the opposite ends of the spectrum on this 1. So tell us about the Well, I you know, number 9 is a personal favorite of mine because I was right last year, and I'm gonna be right this year. Apple Podcasts. Now, Daniel and Jay Lewis, pay attention.

Alright. Because I know you listen, Daniel. So listen here. Apple Podcasts will hit 2,000,000 total podcasts by November of 2021, and I'll tell you the date. I'll tell you the date. Mark it on your calendar. It's gonna be right before Thanksgiving. It's gonna be on the 21st. 21 November, we hit 2,000,000 podcasts on Apple Podcasts. And why do I say that? Because there was a big surge of podcasts being done

in, you know, when the pandemic came out. We had literally hundreds of 1000 of podcasts come out because of this and a big chunk of them. Are now dead. They just are. They are Pod Rec because

did they listen to Pod Rec? No, they did not. That's why you need to tell your friends who do a podcast, who wanna do a podcast, who are starting up their podcast, I'm Anchor. Tell them, you know what? I'm gonna give you some good advice. You wanna go listen to Tim and Kyle over at Pod Rec. And you can even email us podrec@gmail.com for advice for us to, you know, help you out with, you know, surviving that podcast. You're gonna see 2,000,000 by the 21st November 2021 proved me wrong, Kyle.

Well, I think yeah. I I I I come back that. I come back to 2,000,000 podcast, but I think I'm on the death side. Yes. I will be the I will be the 4th horsemen here. On the pale horse. I think tons of action podcasts will die, and the number of active podcasts. That's the keyword active. On Apple Podcasts will fall below a 100,000. And the content wars will put more and more active podcasts behind the paywall.

C. Joe Rogan. Because Joe Rogan's podcast disappeared from my from my PocketCast app at when he finally finished his transition over to Spotify. Now, if I want Joe Rogan, I have to go over Spotify. I can get some free stuff by Spotify, but I gotta pay if I wanna hear the new Joe Rogan stuff. My free stuff is no longer there. It's gone. It's gone everywhere. I think YouTube stuff's gone too

because it's a weighted down of haywall. So as they start to snatch up all this good talent, these good podcasts that actually are are put, you know, making the numbers of audience, members listening to them, these companies are going to pay for that content and put it behind their paywall. This is gonna drop the active number. And on top of that, the 2020 blitz for podcast, yeah, those a lot of those people are going to go away. Why? Because podcasting is hard work. This is not easy.

It's simple. But it's not easy. It's very fundamental is I can teach you to podcast in a in a in an afternoon, but it's gonna take you a lifetime to master this and that is why you're gonna see so many podcasts drop away. I even added a little bit to this 1, Tim. For number 9, we write your 2,000,000 podcast. And I said, forcing Apple to finally fix the horrible search engine, but that's just me. I guess. You need to fix your stupid search engine Apple.

You're, what, almost a $1,000,000,000 company, if you're not already. Come on. Still 2021, it's not fixed. Get over it. Fix your junk. Okay. That that was my soapbox. But, yeah, I think that 100,000, we're gonna drop below 100 active. So while we're active, we're we're predicting, what, 120, 180,000, I think it's gonna drop below 100 I think 2021 is gonna be the coal the coal. They're gonna coal the the herd or, you know, they're gonna harvest the wheat.

That Mhmm. They're trying to get rid of all those people who thought in 2020 podcasting was easy, and then just they're gonna, you know, screw this. So we pod racks and pod fades and pod death all over the place. And it's gonna be about a 100,000 of us left still kicking. That excites me, Kyle. I could you know me? I love my 1 of my favorite Shakespearean plays. Is a a Titus Andronicus. And in that play, everybody dies. Everybody dies. Everybody dies. And I love that kind of stuff.

Elevative? Never 1 dead. Never 1 sick dad. You know? I I I think and now do I wanna see, you know, 100 of 1000 of podcasts go, by the way? So I no. Of course, I don't. I'd love to have all that kind of content out there, but It's been proven. We've talked about it. By the time you hit between 7:13 episodes, that's you know, if you get past that 13th episode, you you'll probably go for a full year.

And then at at that year end time frame, then you're like, uh-huh. I I'm either gonna stop podcasting or I'm gonna keep on rolling, enrolling, enrolling. But we're gonna we're gonna we're we're already seeing those people that hit the 7 to 13 episodes. They they're done. They are done now. And you're you're below a 100,000. I'm gonna say 200,000. I I I think we'll grow below 200,000, but I don't think we're gonna go below a 100,000. I think that's gonna be too low.

Because then I I think if that happens, then advertisers will be like, we're I don't know. I if below a 100,000 increases the listenership and the engagement, okay, I got it. I can buy that. But I think it's I think it's gonna be below 200,000, above 100,000. Well, remember the caveat there is that I think that these big media companies are going to harvest the the wheat they're gonna pull these people behind their paywall because they're good creators

and their content is compelling. And the audience wants to listen to them thereby in, you know, enticing them to buy their service or their platform or pay for their app. So the 100,000, those are us, you know, freebie free loaders. He's floating out in the ether, right, who don't have any contracts, you know, yet. Hey. You know? Hey. Call me. Pod rack. Atgmail.com.

And Tim and I will talk to you about whatever you want us to make. So there is I think the 100,000 is just the leftovers after the the big company's pick, you know, their new content creators for their their 2021 launches. So I'll if I I like I like that prediction, the 200,000, I like that. It's a nice Mhmm. We're definitely gonna see some some some numbers play out because the cool thing about this prediction is that both can be correct. Yeah.

And only a 100 of them are active. That can actually happen in podcasting because we named our show after it's called PodRacks. You smashed your podcast on the rocks, and you walk away from it. But you still pay, or you got a free hosting company, and it never goes away. That's a pod. Correct. So But we didn't know

Daniel Taylor Lewis will let us know. He will let us know. Hell, we might even be able to get him on the show, and and then he can, you know, laugh at us next year. And and I else. We're either right. I like that idea.

So moving on to number 7, this is something we keep bringing up. It it's the 1 thing, it's like a like a penny in our shoe, but I think this might be the year. And I think after all the virtualization of of events and the amount of kids, they were home who had to learn from virtual teaching environments. Number 7 is education based podcast will finally formalize to create a new and better podcast universities where you could actually get a certification or degree just by listening to a podcast.

I think this is the year that you get the University of of Washington or George Mason or the what's another 1? A Texas AM certification from podcasting. And, again, remember what we said earlier, video and audio, are now a podcast. They can be, you know, synonymous with each other. So I think this is the year where you see this type of education come out. Maybe you're in the free space. What do you think I think we have to be careful about that certification, who's giving that certification.

If it's a oh, I'm gonna get punched in the face for this, and I'm okay with that. If it's a online university, like, say American, you know, Continental University, AIU, or or Colorado Tech University, or even DeVry. Now full disclosure, I used to work for DeVry. I used to work for AIU a long time ago.

Southern New Hampshire University. I am not affiliated with them. They're not for profit online university. Go check them out for yourself. I think if it comes maybe Phoenix, you know, University of Phoenix online Exactly. There you go. If it comes from their That certification doesn't carry as much weight as if it comes from a Texas a and m. If it comes from an MIT, And we're already seeing the MIT open courseware.

We're already seeing Coursera out there doing their own certifications, which is all fine and dandy. I I think we run the risk of there was a big run on online university stuff. In the in the early 2000, and a lot of people got burned by that. I know it because I worked for 1 of the companies that burned people for that. Lot of horror stories. Maybe I can make a podcast out of it. Anyhow, yeah, Tim's previous jobs, that would be its own podcast. It could be.

For the ICT 1 of those? Like ICT 1, a bankrupt, didn't they? ICT. Yeah. I could and nobody would take their certificate. No 1 would take their credits. No. And they even said, you know, they had to legally say in their ads, you know, credits are not transferrable because nobody was gonna take it because they were a bad university. So I would like and the educator side of me

and and the tech side of me says, Yes. I agree with the Kyle, but we need to make sure that the right educational institutions, a respected educational institution, is providing these certificates. Now you have a Kimball with Seth Godin that has the ALT NBA. That's right. And he is getting a lot of good traction from it. I'm actually, you know, considering taking a couple of classes, not the old MBA, but a couple of the workshops from a Kimbo.

Because I really like his thought pattern on education in the 21st century. So I can see this happening. I'm just cautious. I agree. And, you know, we go we go in the way back machine when I got out of high school. I went to a place called High-tech Institute in Phoenix, Arizona,

and it doesn't exist anymore. Now they they do, like, air aircrafts like Tijuana Polytech and motorcycle repair. It's not It's not anything of any value anymore. So, basically, my the the the certificate I have from that place, although the knowledge I got because it was electromechanical Engineering. I still have, you know, still somewhere in my meat computer here. But, you know, the certification is not worth the need to print it on. But then again, I think in the world of disrupted education,

there I think there's an opening here. I think there's an opportunity for formalized education that could be you mean, think about the the having guest speakers and guest lecturers, be podcast hosts or virtual hosts in that environment. I think there's something to be said about that, and I think this is the year that something could create it. Even if it's small, even if it's something more related to, you know, skill or, you know, a non university because not everyone has to go to university.

I think it's I mean, People need plumbers. They're oh my gosh. You can get so much money driving a truck right now. It's amazing how much money left. Right? They'll pay for all your schooling and everything. So in all the schooling for the for the for truck driving, right now, most of its virtual. So there this is already kinda happening. That's for truck driving. Of course, you obviously have to get into a truck eventually. But to get the CDL license, a lot of that stuff is all virtual.

So it's already starting to to that's it's already there. Podcasting, I think, is just another element for their for their operation. Mhmm. But speaking to you, speaking of controversial, let's get it to number 6, Tim, because this this is 1 of yours. I think I added a little bit to this, but I think it all applies.

Yeah. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna read what you added to. No. I'm kidding. Of course, I will. Of course, I will. So I'm gonna caveat this with today that we are recording this is January 12 2021. So president like Joe Biden will have the podcast similar to the Roosevelt Fireside chats, which I will, you know, naturally offer my services up to produce because You know? I'm I'm good like that. And Kyle says every politician in 2021 running in 2022

or not, starts a podcast. All of them. They all start a podcast. Now I don't know how old Wauano, Kyle, is Kyle, same age as I am, but I remember hearing about the fireside chats, and that was happening during the Great Depression. And that really helped out the country and it was done over radio. It was oh, gee. It was audio only. Oh my god. And it worked. It it it was before Apple because Apple didn't invent podcasting or radio. That was Al Gore. No. I'm kidding.

Alright. Al Gore is grave. Exactly. But you know, those fireside chants, you know, I I've talked with with my grandparents about that when they were alive, and that really helped the country through that time. It was a very tough time. You can go through your history books and all that good stuff, or listen to it on a podcast. Where people talk about the fireside chats, which, hey, that's a good idea for a podcast.

But I think that it's going to we're gonna see the the politicians here in 2021, and it's gonna start with the top because you already have Michelle Obama has her podcast.

You know, and what would be a great guest, the former president Barack Obama on there, and they have, you know and, you know, these these these world leaders have already been on podcast before, but this 1, I think, is going to be started up by Joe Biden, by president-elect Joe Biden, and it's gonna be in the vein of those fireside chats because

Guess what? Joe is what? 70 6, 77 years old. So, you know, he might have heard 1 or 2 of those, and it's a possibility that He might have you know, he would get a kid at the time, but he knows the effect that that can have on a population. So I think that's gonna be coming out here in 2021. And, you know, I I I agree with Kyle in in that you know, and all the politicians out there are going to need to do a podcast. Now after the election cycle, if they win,

Either podcast keeps on going on. If they lose, then they're a pod wreck, but they wouldn't be a pod wreck if they would listen to. Podirect. And they can do that and send us emails, podirect@gmail.com. So that way, we can help them with their podcast help. We can help them with their plat form of the politics, but we can help him with a great sounding podcast. Love the plug. Love the plug considering how much money is in politics right now. Why not?

I definitely don't have a podcast. And I I think this is the case too because I I heard that that senator Ted Cruz had his own podcast out there. There was a local guy here in the Spotsylvania County. His name is Nick Ferris. He had he had his podcast out in but he lost. Abigail's hamburger beat him in the race by just a me just a hair. And he stopped podcasting

in October, and then it just, like, it did because he lost, he stopped podcasting. And I think what the the thing with podcasting allows you to do, which I've seen with these politicians, these local politicians, especially, local politicians especially. I mean, keep saying that. Local, local, local, right, is they don't get anybody there's no 1 interrupting them. There's nobody challenging their position.

They get to say what they think directly, and you get to decide how it what's more democratic than that. You could hear it from their from their mouth what they think about certain certain situations, and then you could listen to their opponent and think about what they're they're standing for, and then you get to decide. You don't have to you don't have to you'll filter.

Ask them. But I think this is the this is the key for future elections is where you can hear 1 side, hear the other side, they side for yourself. You don't have to listen to some radio or some talking head, tell you or the TV, tell you what this is. These people can then bring the message directly to the voter. Wow. I think that's that's incredibly powerful. If you think about the president-elect Biden right now, when he goes and does does his fireside chats, which I think it's an excellent idea. Hopefully, he'll do it. So, Tim, you need to send him a letter, and then tell him that we'll help him out in Tell them to, you know, check out pod poddirect.com

because or gaggle pod.com where you can see all the all the things we can help them with. That what's the better way? I mean, how many people tune in to a news conference on TV or see it or hero like a sound bite on the radio? They don't get the full thing. But I can download an episode and listen to it at my leisure

in the privacy mail and home. That's kind of a big thing. Then you could hear it from his mouth. So then when he he says something and then he doesn't do it, you can go, wait a minute on his podcast. He said this, but then he didn't do that when you hear the, you know, the news people say something the opposite or you hear a some pundits say the opposite. You're like, no. No. No. He said this on his podcast and you're not telling the truth, and you can decide for yourself. Wow. What a concept. Decide for yourself.

You know? Use your own brain. I know. It's 2021. We thought about things in 2020. This is the year changing things. The changing the thing, I think, is politicians finally getting out of their own way and saying what they what they they're going to do on a podcast. Why not? It's direct to consumer. Can't be that. It's a d to c. But that thing brings us into the other bizarre thing and the number 5. And number 5 is what I've already seen happening for the past couple years. But, wow, already

2020, the end of 2020, and end of 2021 have already seen this starting to take place. The podcast that just came out recently called the Oyster. And the Oyster is a podcast produced where high level, like, actors you would recognize are in it. Mhmm. And you're starting to think that it's like, well, what actors would I would I be thinking of? And it's it's something that you cannot it's just weird that you would you think a podcast would have high star power.

But it can. And this is the year I think that Hollywood continues to prototype their new TV and movie content within podcasting and using real pod or real actors, a, b, c level actors to push out they're very cheap, very easy to produce story ideas to see whether or not they have merit. And if they do, it's almost got minimal viable product for Hollywood, And then if they do, they can then turn around and produce a full blown

full blown production out of it. This is the the Netflix Amazon Prime Hulu concept kind of micronized into the the Audible space. And we already saw this with shows like Homecoming, with Julia Roberts. Homecoming jumped from a podcast to an Amazon Prime 2 seasons. Can imagine the dollar signs that went with that. This is the year that had I think this is the tidal wave year. I think they're all because actors are sitting around. They the movies aren't being made.

So what do they gotta do? They need work. Wouldn't you love your audio drama to have Julia Roberts? Oh my gosh. She's not doing anything right now, and she would like to do some stuff to stay relevant. This is the perfect time to call her agent. And I hear Tim is looking for audio drama work too. You wanna call his agent. His name is Kyle Bondo. Hit me up at utdirect@gmail.com, and I will negotiate a great fee for you to get him to work on your show.

Tim, what do you think as a as a former recovering actor yourself, What do you think of this prediction? Well, Kyle, I have to say that the check bounced and the coffee that you sent me wasn't wasn't up to snuff. I'm gonna have to end this episode right now, and I'm gonna turn it off my microphone, and thank you very much. It's been interesting working with you. Sorry. I got PayPal, man. We'll we'll figure it out. Oh, I'm back up. So

Yeah. You you have an industry that, you know, got ground to a halt, and they What has worked in the past for them is now it's not working for them now. You're not going to the theaters anymore. I I know the theaters in town here are anemic at best. You know, if they get anything in there and in Hollywood is hurting from that. Oh 0, poor Hollywood. They've made, you know, 1,000,000,000 off of us, and now they're getting to feel the pinch of it. So I I think they'll use it as

for as test audiences. Is this gonna work? Is this people what people wanna wanna do? It's very cost effective, and you can, you know, pull up a podcast and then pull it down right away in case that test subject bombs really bad. And nobody has to know about it. You know, it's not an embarrassment. It's not like Kevin Costner's Waterworld that cost 1,000,000 and 1,000,000. I think it was like the 1st $100,000,000

film or something like that, and it bombed in the box office. And that's an embarrassment that Kim Kosner is always gonna have for the rest of his life. You know, people will know him for that, for Waterworld. And, you know, for Robinhood where he didn't use a British accent, like, you know, all that kinda good stuff. I'm a sailor. I thought Wild Roll was really good with me.

Well, I, you know, I thought it was good too, but it bombed in in the box office. Okay. It's it's simple when you make but I get it. Yeah. I get it when you have problems that yeah. This is a way to definitely,

you know, sneak 1 past. If you it doesn't that very good, no 1 will know. And and if it's and if it's excellent, then you can go, we'll see. Obviously, the, you know, the the stuff works and we're we're geniuses. And, you know, we only ask, you know, I mean, a hundred thousand people that go, watch something like this be interesting there. Yeah. They would. Boom. Let's make a, you know, web series or let's make it exclusive to Amazon

to this. And, you know, make our millions and 1,000,000,000 of dollars again. So you're you're you're you're seeing Hollywood, you know, change their tune. Just like a lot of things and podcasting is changing. There are our tunes. They're they're gonna have to come to us. And We're all primed and ready for it. And, yes, Kyle is my agent, so he only gets 15%. I'll take it. If you think about this podcast, the Oyster, it it's not good. Yeah. It's okay.

It I don't like the writing is kinda the direction's gonna add, but it stars like big people. I mean, it's got Carlo it's got Carla to Gino. She's from the Haunting of Hill House and the Haunting of Blime Manor on Netflix. That's the big it stars Logan Browning. She's from Netflix, Dear White People. It stars Glen Carlo Esposito. That's the guy from Breaking Bad, and the guy who's in the Mandalorian right now, which is really hot.

It's got Keith David in it. Everyone's Keith David from community and from the thing. These are big stars. These are that little tiny stars. That has big time production value behind it because of the of the amount of people that are in it, that are people you recognize. Mhmm.

And that is an interesting change to the way podcasting has been done where you maybe get a 1 a or b or c celebrity in it, not a whole star all star cast. And this I think is the is the big deal that Hollywood is realizing that. So not only do their actors need work, but this is a excellent way to prototype, like you said, a a you know, will the oyster be I mean, I'm sure when the oyster

becomes a TV show, considering what talent in it. If it gets, you know, the kind of Anika gets, it's not a bad drama, but, you know, you know, maybe it's just not for me. But It it has some elements that are pretty good. The acting is, you know, when the actors come on, they're they're good. So they bring their star power to the podcast. Is just that, you know, it's interesting to see

this level. Imagine how much does this cost? How much does that cost to make? That podcast must be super expensive. But then again, compared to a TV or movie, that's probably a drop in the bucket. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I think that way it goes. Well, Tim, bring us into number 4. We're about to about to get extra terrestrial here. Well, you know, ET was 1 of my favorite films from the 19 eighties, but so number 4 is and I think we're gonna have this happen to us in March of this year from Pod Fest.

The 1st space podcast based in outer space will be will be started, I say, by SpaceX. I I think they're gonna put somebody up in the International Space Center. Or space station, or it will be space force. It'll be some space cadet from space force out in outer space. Talking about things all space all the time, but we're gonna have our 1st podcast, Interstellar. Which will be fantastic.

I think SpaceX is gonna be the the guys to do it because, I mean, they're they're the only game in town. I mean, you know, NASA's not really watching a whole lot up there, but SpaceX is proving that, you know, a a a commercial company like that. A non government company like that can put people, can put butts in the seats in outer space. So why wouldn't they wanna start a podcast

about it and then base that podcast in outer space? It's really easy to do. You have enough recording stuff up there. They're recording, you know, gamma rays and, you know, those 5 g, you know, rays that are coming down from outer space. And from planet in that boo that are hitting us and changing our mental to think up our makeup there. So, yeah, I I I think we're gonna have our first interstellar podcast in outer space. And I think here's a crazy thing. I I know we tried to do it in 2020

with PodFest Global. I think this is either that PodFest Global. Actually get in contact with the International Space Station, and we have a live feed to them, and we're doing the podcast right then and there. And, Chris, make it happen, dude, get Antarctica, and get ISS, and we take over the world. That is awesome. I love this prediction. Hashtags base force.

This I I pulled down over this 1. Yeah. I don't think I don't think I don't think I don't think I see any more about this. This is I would love to see this happen. So, yes. Yeah. Chris. That's a $100 for the idea. So we take it in Bitcoin, by the way. It's a number number 3. Number 3. The content wars heat up as media companies start buying up podcasters, podcast networks, podcast content, or any other audio content not nailed down or copyrighted.

Tim, what do you think of I think this is this is I think this is part and parcel too. Now I've I've been talking about the content awards for a while. I think as Amazon becomes a new player in this, in these new new collection of I've I've I have a theme running through some of my predictions, but the content wars, I think, are just gonna get crazy. And this is where I believe they're gonna start snatching up podcasters

for their little their little networks. And media companies start consolidating some of their stuff based upon their whatever their their bend is. Like, I like, wondering was going down the true crime world. And then wonder where you got butts. So it's like 1 of those kind of things where you start thinking about, you know, if you have a couple friends who are podcasting, you wanna start a network about similar podcasts, the topics, and you guys are good at it. Who knows?

You might just corner the market on a niche that an Amazon or Google or an Apple or Spotify will snatch up for a lot of money. But you think of that 1, Tim? And I think all those companies can contact us at podrick@gmail.com, and we would be happy to be the 1st upper echelon of podcast about podcasting to help you survive your podcast to make it big with Amazon or Google

Disney plus. I'll take Disney plus. I don't mind. That's fine by me. You know, I can I can watch frozen Frozen 2 and Frozen 3, just as much as any man out there? And He'd be a bigger man out of you. Exactly. The content wars are are already there. I I think how it affects us little guys and and, you know, we have a chip on our shoulder as the independence as as the, quote, unquote, little guys and all that kind of good stuff. But I think the challenge is to be ready

if it happens to you. Have your all all your ducks in a row. Have the legal stuff hashed out. Don't look at a contract and go, learn all that means. I don't have a lawyer. I'm gonna go look for a lawyer, you know, in the in the yellow pages or on Google search, and Google is coming to you saying, hey. You know, we want your, you know, your stuff up here. Oh, you're gonna look for a lawyer. Well, we're gonna, in your Google search, have the lawyer that is gonna work for us actually.

Represent you because most people when they do a Google search, they look at the first page. They don't look at the second or third page. So be ready. Be prepared for that to happen. If that's something that you wanna get involved in, now is the time to do it. While the getting is good, get in now. A lot of people say, you know, the the best time to get in podcasting was in 2004. And right now,

guess what? I'm looking at the time. And the time always tells me it's right now. Right now. So Yeah. Right now is before these content wars, blow by you and you and you get locked out of it. Now is the time to be planning your stuff, to be producing your stuff, and to making that content fantastic and to avoid pod wrecking your show. Love it. Which is weird because this podcast is extremely long, where number 2 oh,

we gotta go the the opposite direction, which is Yes. Content gets even shorter to support smart speaker content exclusively, and most big podcasters will have to have a shorty version of their shows to adapt to this trend. And I've already seen a lot of my favorite podcasters have this where they have, like, their long form

show they do normally with guests or audio clips or what have you. And then also they have like like a briefing or a minute or some sort of tiny little show that fits nicely into the smart speaker space. So they can be added to a flash briefing or what have you. And I've seen this trend happen a lot towards the end of 2020

Mhmm. Where a lot of very popular shows that became even more popular because of the, you know, everyone's in home and as the the the the curve kicked back and people started listening to back to podcasting again because their commutes were over, where suddenly the short shows started popping up everywhere. Like, where why why Why is my favorite podcast or who talks for an hour a half, suddenly have a 3 minute episode out? You know? You listen to 3 minute episode. It's like, I want more.

See, there it is. That's the reason. That's the reason. Make it make it easy to consume for people who are new and make it easy to fit in a speaker. What do you think with that, Tim? I'm gonna keep my comment short. Yes. Yes. Perfect. Perfect. And a speaker. Yes. I think that's the best 1. And then Last but not least, we finally reached after all that finally reached number 1. Tim, tell us what their number 1 prediction for 2021 is for PodRx.

And this prediction is for all of you out there that are listening to us. Now, we'd like to, you know, we we had conversations about, you know, should we put, you know, should we put out extra shows so that way we can hit, you know, a certain number in in you know, we we told you guys, we're we're not gonna do that. We're not gonna put out extra shows just to hit a certain number. Some abstract, you know, idea of what success is. We're gonna put out good content in each and every episode.

And we actually had a recount this year. Kyle did a recount for us. So last year, we were saying, you know, 50 episodes. Well, for folks, we thought we didn't hit that. We actually did hit fifties last year. So we got our fifties last year. We're doing 75. Not 75 more. We're gonna hit 75 total episodes by the end of 2021. And if that means that, you know, Kyle has to bring me in here kicking and screaming, to knock out an episode.

You'll hear all the kicking and screaming. But, folks, we're we're doing it because we we care about what we do with this podcast we started off with mission to help you survive your podcast. And that's from number 1, episode number 1, episode right now that you're listening to, and it'll continue to be our mission is to help you survive your podcast because here's the thing. Back about, you know, 4 or 5 years ago,

we weren't around doing this kind of stuff. You know, Kyle wasn't, you know, doing the meetups. You know, 5 years ago, 6 years ago, 7 years ago. He had to learn the hard way. I had to learn the hard way. And and and and, you know, we screwed up a lot of things. But now that we're here and we're we're knocking this out of the ballpark for you, we're here for you so that way you don't have to make the same mistakes that we made. You can make your own mistakes. Make them beautiful. Make them huge.

But the stuff that we've already learned and already messed up on, we wanna help you avoid that kind of pain and that kind of agony. So this year, 75 episodes, I think we can do it. Kyle? Well, not only that, but we're going to we're gonna up it up and up it up a notch. Up a notch. We're gonna take it up a notch. Take your note. Oh, we have both Tim and I have recently got ourselves connected to our local library.

And the local library over the 2020 error time, they already had a plan, but the 2020 kinda messed up their their schedule. Finally finished studio space, an AV soundproof room, which is magnificent. It's beautiful. It's called idea space. And their sound booth with Roadcaster microphones and full audio suite. He's got a green screen and a camera, and it's all free. Because it's it's it's county resources

that you pay for with your tax dollars. And as long as you register and get badge and you you're agree to to the rules of the space, you get to use it for 2 hour slot when you when you reserve space, and the sound booth is what we're gonna use to produce

future episode of Pod rack. We're gonna do it from the booth. Try it out. Because we've seen it. And now we're like, you know, it's like a brand new shiny toy. We gotta take that Porsche around the block and see how the how the rim spin and the engine runs. It's gonna be cool. And that's gonna be definitely something that we're gonna do in 2020. I mean, in 20 or in 2021, in 2019

2020, we did, like, a live from a Starbucks. We did Mhmm. We did a couple different weird stuff. We tried different audio platforms. We've done a lot of different experiments. We're gonna continue to experiment with different things that you can do on your own that you didn't think you could do. I don't have soundproof stuff in your house. Did you know your library might? Have you even looked?

I mean, you'd be surprised what sort of kind of resources might just be outside your your front door. That as the world wakes up again and is allowed to escape its space again, the the idea of space has only allowed 4 people in the building at a time. So it's it's, you know, it's pandemic friendly. You get you're in a booth. You can't be more isolated than that. That's pretty pretty pretty good, and the sound quality in there is just, ugh. Wow. It's beautiful.

Tim, the the the I mean, you and I both have looked at this space. Mhmm. I think many episodes do you think we can do from this space? We're at least gonna do 1, but that's definitely something we need. I predict we will record from this space. That's a special. That's a little extra, little cherry on the top for our predictions. But it it helps our it helps our local community because we were talking about localization before. And these are things that, if it's not in your community, ask

You pay taxes. I pay taxes. I pay college taxes. No. I don't pay for college taxes. But we all pay taxes. We we all put into the pot. These are things that, you know, it is 2021. We need to be asking from our our local government and all that kind of stuff. To get this stuff set up for us. And if it's not set up for us, maybe we can help out by getting it set up. Maybe they just lack the the the vision or the knowledge on how to set this kind of stuff up, and it benefits the whole community.

We're gonna have a bunch of podcasts coming out of good old Fredericksburg, Virginia. I never thought I'd say that. We're gonna have a bunch of good pod has coming out of this local locality because we have this set up now, and there's gonna be a lot of good video coming out of it. They've got a 3 d printer there. They've got a ton of stuff here that because somebody had the vision to go ahead and do it, it's happened. You have that vision for where you live.

Go ahead, research it. If it's not there, make it happen. And we started with meetups. We started with meetups of just teaching people how to podcast, and now we're moving to understanding this studio space that will be able to teach other people how to do this too. Because

under knowing what the space is is different than knowing how to use the space. We talked about this earlier in the show that, yeah, you can explain to me all the tech, but until I walk into that room and understand what the sound acoustics are going to be like, and how they use the equipment effectively. So they don't, like, spend an hour and then, you know, don't have a recording because no 1 hit record. Which I guarantee will probably happen once because it always does. Mhmm.

But I think this is kind of the the trend or the the theme of this entire episode for our 2021 2021 predictions show, which is 2020. That was the year that we had to think about changes. Because we knew it was coming. We knew the changes were coming to us. We had to think about those changes. 2021 is the year that we change how we think.

So can take that internally and think about what you can do now that you sat around and thought about some stuff, This is the year to now put those changes into effect. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Pod Rec. 20 predictions. 20 predictions of we we think is gonna happen in 2021. And we've done pretty good the past 2 years. And if you don't believe us, please go to pot direct.com and click the predictions link and see how we did. Both 9 2019

2020 are there and we have a pretty good track record. It's almost like we know what's about to happen, almost. Though Podradamus definitely is got a crystal ball into the podcasting industry. But if you don't agree or maybe you think there's a prediction that maybe we missed, Please send us an email at poddirect@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. We'd also like to know what you think will help you survive your podcast.

Send us an email and tell us how we can make that happen for you and we'll turn it into an episode. That's a promise. So prodirect@gmail.com and let us know. Until next time. Take care. We'll stop taking speed, dude. Did I do it? I did it. It was hard. Do you need to spend some time on my couch here? Dude, it's been like 2 hours. Oh my god. Do we have to end it? We could have done 20 more predictions.

20 more. Okay. Let's go. I've got I've got the I've got 30 listed right here that you threw out, dude. So many predictions we could have done. We could we didn't even talk about the aliens? We didn't talk about any of that stuff that is with podcasting. Well, and and I had, you know, you you you didn't wanna talk about the whole flat flat earth stuff and how we didn't land on the moon, you refused to talk about that again. Are we done? I I I hope so. Are we done yet?

Okay. I think we can be. Can we be done? I I I don't wanna go to bed. I'm gonna give you a virtual hug, and then you can go to bed. You'll feel better. Alright. Here's your virtual bug. I feel better now. Good. Just sleep. Sleep. Now we're done. Have a good year. 2021, This podcast was part of the GagglePod Network. Find more podcasts like this atgagapod.com.