295 WWDC News For Podcasters, Automated Podcast Ads Open To All and Saying Goodbye to WTF with Marc Maron

The Feed. Everything WWDC and podcasters, including the new iPadOS 26 features that enhance audio recording capabilities for creators. AirPods Studio quality audio recording and Apple podcast updates. Plus, Libsyn has removed download limits to participate in automatic podcast ads. We answer all of your questions, saying goodbye to WTF with Marc Maron and the discontinuation of the ATR2100X. What?

a bit about the dangers of artificial downloads and the importance of organic growth and podcasting and, of course, mean and median download numbers. Hello. I'm Elsie Escobar, Director of Community and Content for Libsyn, and this is Episode 295 of The Feed, the official Libsyn podcast, the podcast that takes it beyond how to podcast into keeping you podcasting.

with podcasting tips and information for the everyday podcaster and taking you inside Libsyn. Now, if you are starting a podcast or simply looking to find a new home for your podcast, use the code THEFEED, all one word. to get up to two months free. If you would like to get featured on the show, send in your 30-second promo. 30 slash 60-ish second promo.

How do you do it? You attach it to an email and you send it to thefeedatlipson.com. If you don't have a promo, but you want your voice on the show, ask us a question or add to the conversation that you hear on an episode. Send us voice feedback now. You can call us at 412-573-1934 or you can use SpeakPipe at speakpipe.com slash the feed. Everything is done via email.

It's first come first served unless we run out of time. We go off topic, which happens a lot. So we have to push to the next episode. Hey, listen, that makes it more exciting for you because you don't know when your voice is going to come up. And now on to our main conversation with Rob Walsh, VP of Podcaster Relations at Lipson, as well as my co-host right after the first promo of the episode from Video Fuzzy.

Hi, I'm Terry Jayaman, host of VideoFuzzy, your source for media, commentary, and nostalgia, and in episode 103, a colleague's shocking death propels Agent Will Travers deeply into layers of spycraft, psyops, and subtlety in EMC's 2010 puzzle... Rubicon. Also, New Binder, Book Reports, The Dream Lord and Power of Stories, some major life updates, plus My Hero Academia, The Movies. For all this and more, add, follow and subscribe to VideoFuzzy wherever you hear podcasts. Happy viewing!

Hello, Rob. Good generic time of the day, Elsie. How are you doing? I got a little pang of anxiety this morning when I really recognized that it's June. Middle of June. I know. And I distinctly remember how I was like, oh, it's not even June when we last recorded and it was going to be June. And then I thought, oh, my God, it's it's going to be June. And now it's mid-June.

Feels like I'm speeding down the roadway of time where, whoa, it's a lot. We're almost halfway through 2025. I know. And but one of the special things about June, at least for me.

It's WWDC. Yes, and it's always nerve-wracking because we're always afraid that Apple's going to announce that. Private relay for all apps across everything. And IP addresses are gone. But they didn't. So we're good. Good for another year. But one of the first things I want to mention, because we talk about iOS and iPadOS and different stuff throughout the year.

Apple has changed the numbering system for all Apple OSs. iOS 18 is the current version right now for your iPhone. The next version will not be iOS 19, but iOS 26. The 26 will be there for... all of Apple OS's, Mac OS 26, iPad OS 26, TV OS 26, and of course iOS 26. So we often talk about iOS 17 when that rolled out, then the issue of stats going lower.

So just remember going forward, iOS 17 was two versions before iOS 26. I know at some point it's going to be weird, but I have to say, though, that that was something that I thought, duh, like as soon as I. When they rolled it, I thought it makes so much sense. Totally makes sense. Yes. And it makes it easier. You know what I mean? It just makes it easier all the way across for me. Because the numbers were all over the place. Yeah.

And now everything is unified. And now we know, okay, 26 means it came out in September of 25. iOS 27 will have come out in September of 26. But it's the one that's for the most of that year. That's the new numbering system. Anyway, rumor theory doesn't have to guess anymore on what they're going to be called the numbers next year. Yeah. It is now the 26th. And speaking of all this, we mentioned iPadOS. iPadOS 26 really almost turns your iPad into a computer. Oh my god, it is...

I'm so excited about this. Okay, so I'm going to read and then we can comment off of this. This is from the newsroom from apple.com. the article that was there. Of course, you guys, I'm going to put a link to the actual keynote. So in case you are searching for it or would like to, check it out there. So anyway, here we go.

Quote, new ways to work with apps take advantage of the incredible power of Apple Silicon. iPad OS 26 unlocks the ability to perform computationally intensive background tasks when users start a long running process in an app. Background tasks will show up with live activities, giving users complete control in a clear sense. of what is running and developers can use an updated background task API that allows users to perform long running tasks from their apps too.

End quote. I want to stop there, Rob, because I think you know why this would be a good thing for podcasters. Maybe doing transcoding, exporting of files. Maybe. Maybe. And then being able to do something else while it's doing that? Exactly. I mean, it seems so just no-brainer, so simple, and yet... that's been huge you know things so many apps that you have to stop and

and do this. And I think this is going to really impact not just podcasters, but obviously a lot of the different creators that are doing a lot of, you know, short form video content for TikTok and Instagram and things like that, because even in the past, I haven't used this app in a long time, but things like CapCut, you have to stop and wait for that render with that app. You can't

Just have it happen. It gives you a huge thing that says, do not close app until this is done. And you can't let the iPad go to sleep either. So this is going to help a lot of folks, I feel. Yay. More exciting stuff here. Yes, there is. So continuing on, quote, iPad OS 26 also brings new audio features. that offer more flexible input and streamlined recording. Users now have better control over their audio input with the ability to choose different microphones for each.

as well as individual websites. Recorded audio will be made even better with the ability of voice isolation, which blocks ambient noise and allows clear and crisp recordings. And with AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation and AirPods Pro 2 studio quality audio recording allows users to record their content with great sound quality.

And enjoy clear calls. End quote. And they say you can choose different microphones for each app. You can go one level beyond that. You can choose different audio sources for each app. So while they said microphone, it also could mean, I don't know, maybe a mixing board. So it's not just about choosing the microphone, it's about choosing the audio source, that which will be really nice.

For those of us that have a mixer or a USB source, not just the microphone, but where you bring in a couple of mics, right, where it's getting mixed. So you can bring in both of the audio or multiple audios or four people, right? through your Broadcaster. So that to me was really nice because you can choose and switch between. So you could have, if you have able to have multiple apps running now and doing different things, you could.

I would imagine in theory, the theory that proves it will work, is have one app that's recording in the background from your mic off of the iPad while you're recording off of... your broadcaster, the everybody. So you have a kind of like a backup of yours. I don't know if that'll work for sure, but in theory, everything I read seems like it will. So I'm really interested to test that theory out at some point in the future.

And then lastly, on the same article here, quote, with local capture, users can produce high quality recordings right from iPad with any video conferencing app. and easily share audio and video files once the call is over. Echo cancellation of other participants' audio keeps the user's voice front and center, allowing for a clear recording.

Of their side of the call. Or you could wear headphones. Just saying. Or you could wear headphones. And that's kind of similar to what I was just talking about. That's similar to... What I was saying, they have a way of doing local capture, which is kind of the same thing as I was saying, is having another app that's in that recording and running in the background while you have the other one. But again, a lot to unpack here with it once it comes out.

I'm looking forward to downloading it onto my now son's iPad Pro because he confiscated it for me when he was off of college because he was using the iPad Pro to do his notes. Oh, yeah, yeah. Of course. Because that's like the...

I need to get a new one and just give him the new one, I guess. And I'll go back to using the older one, but he, it really helped him at college. He was like one day, you know, he was like, dad, can you bring up the iPad pro? I think it would really help me taking notes. And I was like, absolutely. No brainer. Here you go. I was just watching videos on it anyway. I am a big fan of the iPad Pros. I love there's no fan. I love how it works. And now it's got so much more with iOS 26 or iPad OS 26.

So I'm looking forward to testing out the new features here this summer. I usually tell people, stay away from the first beta. And then I always want to do this reminder. beta equals bugs, beta equals bugs, beta equals bugs. So if you do upload one of the betas between now and September and install it, just remember, it's a beta.

Beta equals bugs. You're going to have some bugs. Don't put it on your device if you rely on it all the time. But this is good because usually even if you're wanting to do the beta for the iPad. Usually for most folks, the iPad isn't currently their main device for doing podcast related work. So it actually opens the possibility for you to be able to test some things out without losing some.

some bigger things. But alas, though, Rob, I think that the cool part about all of this also is I just saw Stephen Robles is at WWDC. He is over from Riverside and also. His podcast is one of the sort of more, not more famous, but he's had a lot of really great success with their podcast. And he's over there right now. And he took a video of... him doing exactly this with an iPhone. And that is thrilling.

Yes, because this is the year I was going to get one last year. So this will be the year I definitely get the new iPhone. I'm a little bit long in the tooth on getting the new iPhone. I'll be looking forward to the new iPhone and what it can do because it looks like a lot of the stuff. goes over to the iOS as well. Yeah, so it's really exciting. By the way, Stephen's podcast, I forgot the name, which is why I didn't mention it. It's called Primary Tech.

just to give him a shout out. But what was really neat is to be able to see, you guys can see a link in the show notes. I'll put a link to his social post on this. I don't know if I'll do the threads or the Instagram post because it's the same video. But he kind of walks you through how he's actually obviously using Riverside on the phone. And as he's using Riverside on the phone, the app in there, he is able to choose.

The audio input, which is an external microphone in there. And then you are also able to use the headphone or the out. You can choose that. So you could actually be wearing. Your AirPods and have the audio be captured by your microphone, not in the AirPods, the external microphone. Right. So the two different sources. That's it. Two different sources. And so I'm I am so happy about that because it's probably one of the most frustrating things that I find, obviously, with the AirPods.

is that I, especially when I'm on a call, mostly when I have to be on a call where my voice is important. And I want people to hear what I'm saying in a nice, not in a nice way, but, you know, like clearly, succinctly. And I can't choose. And sometimes. The audio from the AirPods is just really bad. So here's what I say to folks. If you are doing a call and you're going to wind up recording the call.

Make sure the version that's going to get recorded that you're going to use as the primary recording is the one with the better microphone. So if that means the guest hears the secondary mic and it's not as good of audio quality for your guest, that's okay.

Because it's not about what the guest hears, it's about what the listener hears. So I used to do something, you know, when I did my recordings back in the day with a hardware setup, I would do something similar where I would have... my one microphone going to the digital recorder and the audio coming out going to that same recorder and I would be...

doing that recording. So the good mic went to my digital recorder and then I would take the mic from the laptop and that was what the person, the guest was hearing. So while they didn't get the best audio quality of the guest, it didn't matter because it was about the listener, not the guest. So when you do this, whichever audio you feel you're going to be using, make sure that's the better mic. And then the secondary mic, the lower quality mic, that would be the one that the guest hears.

I hope that makes sense. But again, lots of stuff to play around with. So much. I love it so much that this is happening because I do feel that this is, this is my hope. is that this allows the ease of not only podcast creation overall, but audio podcast creation to be a lot more accessible. and easier for more people because it is centering the same device that a lot of people already use to create video content, which is what I feel.

has been the reason why folks have taken to creating more video. Because they're already doing that in their everyday life, meaning their experience daily, especially if they use social media and are used to creating TikToks or on Instagram or Instagram stories. People are comfortable with the use of their video camera on device and are already creating content. And so this will, my hope.

is that this will be able to allow that same ease of comfort using something they're already using that is on device that they can just take the next step in and it can enhance just creating audio. Because it's a little challenging right now. Overall, you have to, you know, usually do other things. But this just makes it more accessible, at least to me. So, yay. And also, Rob, Rob, did you did you watch the keynote? Oh, yeah.

So I like gasped when I saw Alitu being featured. I'm sorry, but Alitu from Colin Gray, who is a friend of us, at least mine, podcasting person. Who's been around for a long time, has been working, you know, doing the thing, putting his hands in the podcasting space and building great stuff and writing good things. And his app was featured in the keynote. I know.

Congratulations, Colin. I feel famous now. I literally have hugged a person who was featured in an Apple keynote. I believe this is the closest I'm going to get. I remember Derek from Skepticality got featured in the keynote by Steve Jobs back in, was it September of 2005, 2006? And Derek got... Got featured in that. That was, it was cool. He was so stoked. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? So, and I believe it was a surprise to him as well. Like he didn't think he had been talking to.

them, but for different reasons, like just, you know, how does it work on Safari and all that kind of stuff? It's just basic conversation in terms of the app itself. But to get that, he wasn't thinking it was going to be like, hello. Here's the app in my face, so big. So yay, congratulations. And that is amazing. But now let's move to the other announcement, which is another thing that's made me so, so, so very happy.

which is all about the AirPods. So this is again from the apple.com slash newsroom. Quote, Apple today previewed studio quality audio recording and camera remote features for AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation and AirPods Pro 2 delivering new ways to capture. and improving how users communicate. Updates to audio recording enable creators to record studio quality vocals on the go and start or stop video recordings from a distance with a simple press of the air.

STEM. Building on the benefits of voice isolation, AirPods users will also enjoy even clearer calls with enhanced voice quality, end quote. How about that, Rob? I know. So, well, I'm looking forward to testing that. I need to actually get the new AirPods Pros because the ones I have right now have some issues. Like I, well, blew out one of them.

Oh, oops. Do you have AirPods to the latest one? I don't. So I need to get the new ones. So I was I was already thinking of getting them. So this drives me even further to make that decision. Go ahead. pull the trigger and get some. Yeah. But I would say wait. I think there's another one coming. So I would wait. I know. It's a big, it's like, okay, do I want to wait until October, November when they come out? The new ones will come out. Probably they'll announce it probably.

In September. In this, either a September, the September event, or they may have an extra October event, but they're most likely to get announced at the September event. So, yeah, that'd just be a lot of... equipment on upgrading you're upgrading all at the same yeah i mean that's yeah yeah yeah but here's more stuff about these so quote creating content gets even better with studio quality era audio recording

Interviewers, podcasters, singers, and other creators can record their content with greater sound quality and even record while on the go or in noisy environments with voice isolation. With the H2 chip. Beam-forming microphones and computational audio, users will also enjoy more natural vocal texture and clarity across iPhone calls, FaceTime, and call kit-enabled apps.

Key right there. Studio quality audio recording and improved call quality work across iPhone, iPad and Mac, while also supporting the camera app, voice memos, dictation in messages, video conferring apps like WebEx and compatible.

third-party camera apps. So this is overall going to be providing better audio regardless of where you are capturing it, which again expands the ability to be able to If you happen to be having to get a video of something and you're not really actually thinking of using the audio for anything specific, the audio could be... Powerful enough to be able to have it be what you use for the finished product or repurposing audio memos, hopefully, you know, because I have found myself.

recording, every time I will record an audio memo or if I'm going to be using another sort of third-party app where my voice is important, I sometimes take my AirPods off. and put them back in the case and then just record off of the microphone and the phone because I don't like the quality of the AirPods. Sometimes I think that sometimes the voice isolation. can be a little too much. And it really degradates the sound of my voice. Not that I want it to be beautiful voice all the time.

It's actually making it sound really awful. You can barely understand what I'm saying because it's trying to shudder the loud noises around me, shut them off. But if also, if you guys want to check out the firmware, it seems like Apple has made the AirPods beta firmware easier to get now with iOS 26.

So there's going to be a link in our show notes too, in case you guys want to test that out. I believe, I'm assuming. You do have to have iOS 26 installed to do that. I'm assuming that you, that's what I was going to say, that you probably have to have it on the phone. So there's that component also. Now, we've been talking about producer side. There's also the other side, the listener side. Yes. And you put in this note here, which is...

The biggest thing that I saw as a listener, which I was excited about, is that we're even speeding up to 3X now. Oh, my God. Yes, I so love that. I love that because I listen to some things at 2X and I'm just trying to get through them. And now I can hear 3X. Oh, good Lord, Rob. I know. And also I believe it all, it goes down. I don't know if it, does it go down right now? I haven't even checked. It's half X to two X right now. And I think now it's going to go half X to three X. Okay.

Yeah, so that's going to be, please correct me if I'm wrong, people. I could have just very easily checked it out. It's 0.75. Is it 0.75? I never go low, so I wouldn't really know. Yeah, I think it's 0.75 for low, but I don't know if it's an existing thing. Alas, though, 3X is amazing. And there's also the other thing that has come to Apple Podcasts. So we're talking about Apple Podcasts now. They do have new enhanced dialogue.

for Apple Podcast in the same way that Overcast has had it forever. And then all the other apps kind of copied Marco. So now Apple Podcast also has enhanced dialogue there to kind of boost.

the audio for some of these for Apple Podcasts. So when I saw this enhanced dialogue, I was curious if it's only going to be... for the podcast apps and the only reason that i say that not because i want my music not to be enhanced but the again look going back to meetings virtual meetings and having to talk to people

virtually if it's going or even phone calls to be able to have that enhanced. I know that there is obviously the voice cancellation so your personal sound can be heard better. But what about on the end user side? Is that going to be a thing as well? Is it going to translate for them to be able to hear you better? I mean, I took the enhanced dialogue to be an Apple podcast specific item. Yeah, it could be.

So there's that. And also there has been some, I guess, the browse feature has now become new. And there is now whenever you go to the episode artwork. Like whenever you're playing a podcast and you see that they have the episode has episode artwork, it is now cropped and shown edge to edge. So it looks to me that it's.

slightly more leaning towards instead of a complete square am i wrong about this rob or is it just because it's got like little fuzzy things on the outside that looks like we'll see but as near as i can tell from all the everything that Dimensions still request a square artwork. Yeah, no, I'm not saying that that's not true. I think that that is correct. It is going to be a square.

But the way that it's presented there, there's a slight cropping on the outside. So I guess if I were to be advising anybody right now. To prepare for this and or think through this, it would be to make sure that the key components of your artwork are more towards the center. part of the image right on the edges right not right on the edges correct if there's anything specific on the edges especially the right and left edges and the top ledge edge it seems like there's a little either

fuzziness or blurriness on the top part and on the sides, it looks like it's a slight crop. A little bit more kind of leaning towards the shape of, I don't know if you have noticed anybody out there. that Instagram has changed their sizes for the grid, which is a little bit more, it's less square and it's a little more like rectangular. It's not necessarily Instagram story size, which is a really top.

really long vertical image it's a slightly cropped to four by is it four by five now it used to be three by five then they extended it even more to four by five so it's it's a little a little tiny Little tiny bit longer. It's not going to not be square. Anyway, and then one last Apple item, Rob. So we mentioned on the last episode that we, you know, it said.

Apple Podcasts for Creators, and we were like, did Apple change this? And we did hear back from Apple, and they clarified they did not change naming or anything like that, and even sent a link to the Wayback Machine that shows Apple using the term Apple Podcasts. for creators back in 2021. Look at that. And so Spotify copied Apple. Yes. Yes. So we are sorry, Apple folks.

having suggested it the other way around. I can't believe it. Apologies. Clarification. Absolutely. Oh, my God. Look at that. Spotify copied out. Anyway. All right. So we have some Libsyn news.

Yes. Oh, my God. What are the news, Rob? Well, the big one is we opened up our auto ads. That's our programmatic advertising to shows of any size. So 100 downloads episode you want.

Auto ads, you can have it. So previously we had a limit of 2,000 downloads in a month. Now we've taken that limit off. So that means a lot of... questions from people coming in because that's the majority of podcasts are below that 2000 a month so we put out some faqs and you will go through here some of these questions and gives

We'll have a link to it so you can read it in much more detail. But the first one up is, what is the difference between programmatic podcast advertising and Libsyn's automatic ads? Programmatic advertising and Libsyn automatic ads, it's really the same thing. There are some phrases in when it comes to getting ads into your podcast that are kind of industry terms. There's baked in, there's faked in.

Faked in uses dynamic ad insertion. There's run of show, which also uses dynamic ad insertion. And then there's programmatic. And the best way to look at this baked in is what it sounds like. Record the ad while you're doing the episode. Right now, break into a Harry's campaign. I would, except my wife really does not like the new blue. I don't know what Harry's was thinking. But faked in is where it's the host reading it.

And you stitch it in to a specific episode. So it sounds like it's baked in, but it's really through dynamic edit. And dynamic means it goes in and later on it can come out. And then run of show is also host read, but it runs across. all your episodes or a group of your episodes could be all your episodes for a week. It gets dynamically inserted. It could be all your episodes ever, all the episodes downloads that happen in that week, all, you know, ad slot one, all the whole show gets that.

that ad with the host read. And then there's programmatic, which is what our auto ads is. And that's pre-produced ads that get stitched in, usually based on where the listener is coming from, but other things. So that, a quick. breakdown on that one. And those terms, again, baked in, faked in, run a show, programmatic. All right. What's up next on the question list? Okay. The next one is...

Oh, my gosh. How are programmatic ads different from dynamic ads? And a lot of that I just answered with the previous question. But it's host read versus pre-produced. So that's the big difference. Programmatic ads are stranger, right? It's not the host. Someone the listener isn't familiar with or could be a celebrity, but it's not the host.

So it's stranger voiced ad or non-host voiced ad versus dynamic ads, which typically in the industry, when we say DAI, it means that the host red ad is being inserted into the episode. That said, programmatic ads are dynamically inserted, but that's not what we mean when we say DAI, dynamic ad insertion. Really, in the industry, it means host red ad being inserted in.

All right. So I know that this is a big question that comes up for a lot of people. And this is the next one. Can I choose the audio ads that I want? So longer answers are going to be at the link in the show notes. So we're trying to, I'm going to do for brevity here just to get it down. Not specific ads, but general groups of categories. So you can't say I want Ford, but not Chevy.

For example, if you pick one of the categories as automotive, you may get a Ford ad, you may get a Tesla ad, you may get a Chevy ad. It could be anybody in the automotive group. It could be O'Reilly. It could be Tires Plus. It could be... Anything in the automotive category. But you don't get to say, I want this and not that. Not in the auto ads programmatic. Okay. And we have how much money?

How much money can they make, Rob? All right. It really depends on multiple factors. How many downloads are you getting? How many ad slots are you putting in for an episode? And then what categories did you pick? Geographically, where your download's coming from, right? That matters too, because the U.S. is where the majority of the revenue is coming from. So if...

almost all of your downloads are from Albania, chances are you're not going to make as much money if all your downloads are from the U.S. So it really does depend on multiple factors.

But the more downloads you have from the US and the more ad slots you have and the wider the category group you pick, the more revenue you will generate. And then the other part of this question was, then there was also, what about my older episodes? Yep, this is for every... episode that you have that you allow ads into.

And our tools make it really easy in bulk to select how many pre-rolls and post-rolls you want. And then we have a nice ad selection tool for the mid-rolls, which you use gray matter on a per episode basis to put in ad slots where you want them, not... right after, like we saw with the Shay Shay interview, not having it automatically put in ad slots so that an ad pops up right after Shay Shay talks about being a prostate cancer survivor and then pops in his DAI ad for...

SeatGeek, which really was awkward in that Shea Shea Kamala Harris interview. Yeah. And on the revenue side of things. So is it based on the download or the number of episodes? Yes. It's based on how many downloads overall you get, but the number of episodes you have? That's going to increase it because you have a bigger catalog, so you're going to have more things. So again, it's going across the whole category. Multiple factors. Again, the tiers that you pick.

Tier A, B, and C. Pick A, you're going to get more ads. And C, you're going to get less ads. So C may get half the revenue that you got from the A. Where those downloads come from. how many ad slots you put in, what ad slots you put in, right? If you have three ad slots in an episode and they're all post-roll, you're going to get less revenue than if you had three ad slots and they were mid-roll.

So where ad slots go, it really has a big impact, too, on revenue. So there's multiple factors in there, not just one simple thing. But more downloads tends to mean more revenue. And in terms of the audio placement, what are the recommended number of ads per episode for episode length and all that stuff? And where do they put them? All right. So this is kind of what I send out as the recommended.

to producers who have asked this question. If your episodes are less than 30 minutes in length, go with one pre-roll, two mid-rolls, three post-rolls ads. And if it's 30 to 60 in length, go two pre, four mid, two post-roll ads. If it's 60 to 90, go 2 pre, 6 mid, 2 post. And then if it's 90 minutes or greater, I recommend 2 pre, 8 mid, 2 post. And when I always say 8 mid, it doesn't mean 8 individual slots. You can have...

four slots with two ads per. You could have one slot with three and another with three and another with two. So you can do on the mid rolls, you can do up to four ads. You could do two slots with four ads, but I would recommend you split them out. So those are kind of based more on like every 20 minutes or so having two ads go in.

So two, two, two, two, two, the getting to that eight on the mid. And I had a show that emailed me yesterday questioning the amount of ads and wondering if it was too much. So I had sent this. And they have a one hour and 45 minute episode typically. And I told them that 12 ads is basically six minutes of ads, 30 seconds per ad for 105 minutes of content.

On radio, it's typically 16 minutes of ads for 44 minutes of content, or if you convert that, that's 38 minutes of ads for an hour and 45 minutes of content. As such, six minutes of ads for that long a piece of content is not much. Actually, just 15% of what is in radio for the same amount of content. And they replied back and said, oh, can we actually add more then?

What you're recommending? And I said, yes, you can add more than what I recommend. This is just a recommendation. By the way, these are recommendations. This is not like you have to do this or you're not going to be part of it. This is a recommendation. You want to do less? I mean, I had one guy freak out on me.

for this recommendation because he's got this person also had about an hour and a half worth of content and and they felt anything more than two mid-rolls in an hour and a half was too much that's your audience that's your that's your choice i'm just Equating the fact that six minutes of ads for 105 minutes of content versus 38 minutes of ads in radio for 105 minutes of content is quite a bit different.

It's not onerous on your audience if you're looking at that. So Rob, I actually was just asked this question. Can somebody just do pre-rolls or just post-rolls or just mid-rolls or do they have to do all? Absolutely. You can do any of those. You can select. We have some people that do zero pre-rolls and three post-rolls, and that's all they do. Oh. That's it. Zero pre-rolls, three post-rolls, and that's it.

I have another person that does three mid-rolls, no pre and no post. Again, the person with three mid-rolls is going to make significantly more than the person with three post-rolls. So you will make different revenue. The mid-roll ad slots get the most on the CPM basis. Post-rolls get the least. It's just the way it works. In terms of the producer side of it all, and if we get very...

precious about our audience, which we should. And if you prioritize being less intrusive and yet still would like to make some money, if you want to test the waters. you could do your post roles and leave it at that, you know, and allow for that to happen because that is obviously less intrusive.

There's a lot of people who don't make it to the end of the show. So obviously you're not going to get that much money. But if you want to test it out and still sign up, because that's the whole point here, you can still sign up, add a couple post rolls, see what the vibe's like, and then take it from there. And the best advice for mid-rolls is when you're editing your episodes, just write down on a piece of paper some time codes where you think...

This is a good transition from one subject to another. This would be a perfect place for an ad. Write down the time code. And then you come into the system and then you go in and you pick that spot. And if you're going to do mid-rolls and you have 500 episodes, you don't have to pick mid-rolls for it.

every episode. You may only pick the last 10 or 20. If your content is about iOS, like I did today in iOS, going back more than five episodes wouldn't make any sense because the content's not evergreen. Now, if your podcast is...

History of Rome, going back and putting mid-rolls in all your episodes makes a lot more sense because the content, all of it's evergreen, right? And someone that comes into that podcast is likely to listen all the way through. But the less evergreen your content is, the... fewer episodes back, if any, that you need to go. Again, if you have a very newsy podcast that's about fantasy football, something like that, where the content gets out of date really quick.

You don't need to go back that far, if at all, and pick minerals. But you want to make sure you have them as you're going forward with new episodes that get released. Different shows, different ways to look at it. Yes. I think that the other thing that obviously, what is the other thing that people would like to know about this whole thing is how I get paid. How do people get paid for these ad campaigns and brands? PayPal is the standard method.

What'll happen is if you have campaigns that run in, say, January, at the end of February, we will send you a report saying here's how much... Revenue you made in January, we have to aggregate our reports from multiple sources. And then 60 days after we do that, then we would pay out. So then, you know, 60 days from the end of February, you'd go to the end of...

April, and you get paid then via PayPal for the campaigns that had run in January. And there is a minimum, y'all, for $20. It's kind of like whenever people are using your Amazon affiliate link. You will randomly magically get a gift card for $21.56. Right. So if you're getting 100 downloads a month, you will not see payment for quite a few cycles.

If you're getting 1,000 downloads a month, it might be a couple cycles. If you're getting 5,000 downloads a month, more than likely you're going to get paid every month. So it just depends on how many downloads you have about how often you're going to get paid. Okay, so now we've sold you. We've sold you on this. Now you're going to sign up. So what do you need to know? How do you get signed up for this for Libsyn's automatic podcast ads? Well, first and foremost, you have to host on Libsyn.

So if you're not hosting on Lipson, you've got to move your show over. That's just a requirement. We can't insert it in if you're hosting on XYZ hosting company. But then after that, you're hosting Lipson. Really, it's about clicking a button, and you'll see it in your UI. If you go in... the UI and then messages and the Lipson 5 UI. There'll be a place where you can click and go and get more information and then sign up. But I think you can also go to Lipson.com slash autoads.

And if you go to that URL, if you scroll down, there's a place where you can click to sign up. And, you know, the last couple of questions we have here is, you know, what if you have a really small show? Can you still join if it's like small, small? Baby. This isn't a dating app. We're not saying you have to be six foot two to get a date. You can join at any size. And lastly, what happens after I apply for automatic podcast ads?

Rainbows and unicorns. Rainbows and unicorns. But there is a process though, Rob, right? There's a process to... Absolutely. to vetting and or like looking at things, make sure that everything's in alignment and from both sides of the equation there. Oh, and you know what? I do actually have a question about this. So there's a couple of things of content that aren't.

going to we advertisers don't aren't willing to accept some of that is content aimed at children under 13 so content under if your content is aimed at children under 13 it's the Bible read podcast for kids, that's not going to be eligible, unfortunately. Advertisers won't work that. There's also sexually explicit content isn't.

And you go, what does sexually explicit mean? Well, if you say penis or vagina, that's okay. But if you talk about them coming together, that's not okay. So that's kind of the line where if you're talking about really sexually explicit stuff. Not making crude jokes, that's okay. But talking about those things coming together, that unfortunately for right now, advertisers just don't want to touch that. So that's something that we'll also get.

And then if you have artificially inflated downloads, if you're paying someone a marketing service to artificially raise your numbers, one, it's against our terms of service overall on Libsyn. But two, for auto ads, that's... If you know it, that's fraud. And we monitor for that. And if you get an email from me that says, hey, I'd like to have a call to talk about your numbers, that's usually what that's about. And I'll have a little mini rant to talk about that at the end of the episode.

Yeah, no artificial, no paying some service to artificially inflate your numbers. So I have a couple of clarifying questions, and I don't know if... Okay, so let's say there is an entire podcast that is dedicated to the sexual health of women in midlife. That's fine. If you don't get explicit, you start talking.

You know, what's the old saying from the Supreme Court? I can't explain what porn is, but I know it when I see it. I can't explain it really in deep detail. I mean, again, the simplest analogy is if you talk about. the penis and vagina coming together or the penis and penis coming together or the vagina and vagina coming together, that crosses that line. Okay. So now I'm just asking you, Rob, just because we have to hear like some ideas. So let's say you are a...

True crime podcast or reporting on the news of whatever, you know, like there's a lot of pop culture court cases. You know what's going down right now with Diddy. You know the conversations that's going down with Diddy. They cover Diddy. What happens? Yeah, that's OK. I understand the baby oil stuff that comes up. Oh, there's more. There's so much. There's so much way beyond the baby oil. Yes. Rotten mango has gotten into detail with that. And again, that's a different.

There you're reporting on news that came up. And again, that's that, you know what, if you see it type thing. I know it's a tough scenario, but there are some podcasts that are... just about sex and explicitly about sex and which are fine and there's nothing wrong with that

then we'd love to host you. But unfortunately, the advertisers we're working with have rules. And that is one of the rules. It's sex and kids under 13. So sorry, Boy Scout leaders. You're just not going to have your podcast in there. Here's another one. What about a podcast that centers on the history and safety of gun use and talks about using guns?

And the history of guns. I haven't seen any pushback on guns. Now, obviously, if you're promoting violence, it's a different story. But if you have a podcast about shooting and talking about target and ranges, that should be fine. We haven't heard any pushback on that. So, I mean, we have a few we have actually a few gun shows that are in there and running. We haven't had any pushback on that. All right. You guys definitely check it out.

What I think about this sometimes is like, if you have a bad catalog, just why not? Why not, people? Give it a go. That'll make you sound like you are one of the fancy people with all of them. dynamically inserted ads into your into your shell yeah and if we ever get where we can have a red light district for some of this content we'll work on that but again right now

We've got partners and they've got rules and we have to abide by some of those rules. All right. Well, so if you have any questions about podcast. of automatic podcast ads, folks, anything else that came into your head when we were talking about this, please head over to the blog post. Read it. It is such a good... blog post. So helpful, so informative. It has all the things in it. If after reading all of the words on that, you still have questions, please email thefeedatlibson.com.

And leave your voice feedback. Anything that comes up after you finish the blog post. Because I'm going to call you all out. If you send in a message or a question and you ask me a question that is answered on the blog post. I might just have to call you out on the show. Okay? Are you ready for that? I'm telling you now. Okay. Anyway, now moving from that to this kind of hurt my heart a little bit. WTF with Marc Maron is coming to an end.

After 15 years. After over 15 years. Yeah, so they're going to be closing down in the fall. So it'll be a 16-year run. They started in September 1st, his first episode in 2009. I remember reaching out to Mark and Brendan, the producer, about two weeks after they started the show to offer them advertising. And our premium offering also was greatly designed around the needs for Mark, where he at one point had...

40,000 active paid subscribers. And that was over 10 years ago. And his episode with President Obama was the first podcast episode generated content to have. a million downloads in less than 24 hours. Mark's a great guy, and he helped the podcasting space a lot. I personally had the honor of introducing him when he was inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame. He asked me to do that for him. And I really...

Enjoy his podcast and we'll be sad when it finally ends in the fall. Lock the gates will forever be a phrase I equate to Mark. And Mark and Brendan, I just want to say thank you for all you did for the podcasting space. And I understand Mark's gotten very busy. This is like kind of the MASH moment. The last episode, there was a last episode of MASH and there's going to be a last episode of WTF. And we'll miss WTF. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Brendan.

Brendan's the unsung hero on the show to help out all the production work. He is to Mark what Jamie is to Joe. You know what's lovely about, I think, the Marc Maron catalog, his legacy, is that it is very... It continues to be very relevant, although he does address his, you know, current events. The conversations that he has and even his monologues are. universal and very human. They're not time-based. They might be time-based in his life.

and experience as he was experiencing them. And maybe, you know, that might come into the point of view within a context of a podcast interview that he's doing with someone. But the humanity that he brings to his podcast is transcendent. And so the value of his back catalog, I don't think will lose value. In fact, I believe.

It will be more valuable after he's done. If you haven't listened to his podcast, go find the President Obama interview. Also find the Robin Williams interview. Yeah. You know, this was... obviously a couple of years before Robin killed himself and listen to that interview and listen to the demons. And it's a great, great interview. And unfortunately, you know, we lost one of the greatest talents of all time.

Just go listen to that interview. Mark's a great interviewer. I'll just say that. He has many great episodes, but if I had to pick two for you to go listen to, President Obama and Robin Williams.

And another sad exit, not to the point of WTF. And Marc Maron, is the fact that the ATR2100X, one of the starter microphones that everyone uses and that we often... have led folks to purchase because it is a USB XLR microphone. It's a dynamic microphone and is very much sub. $100. Sometimes you can find them for $50, $60, $70. They are being discontinued. No more ATR 2100X. Maybe something else is coming up from the...

team at Audio Technica, I do not know. But we are doubling down on the Samsung Q2U. Right. We've mentioned also many times on the show the Samsung Q2U. It is not discontinued. In my opinion, it does a better job with hand noise than the 2100 did. And hand noise is when you're holding the microphone, just as your hand just adjusts, the ATR 2100 picks up those noises.

A lot more so. Now, the Samsung QTU isn't as good as, say, the short SM58 when it comes to hand noise, but it's still better than the ATR2100. So... Anyway, Samsung Q2U is still out there. So if you were someone that had been recommending to your clients or guests to get the ATR2100, you can point them over to the Samsung Q2U instead. Yep, yep, yep. All right. Let us move on to a little bit of a soapbox rant. Rob Walsh, take your soapbox. I hinted at this earlier in the episode.

In the last two weeks, I've dealt with multiple people that had artificial downloads. Two of them really had no idea. One was paying $500 a month, the other was paying $600 a month for this artificial traffic. And when they turned off their marketing efforts after I pointed it out to them, their audiences limited. One show was averaging between 4K and 8K downloads a day with fake promotion. It dropped to 30.

per day when turned off. Right back to where it was a year ago before the promotion started. One of these was a show that legit he really thought he had over 100k downloads a month. And only to then realize it's actually less than 1k. One thing that is true in podcasting is all podcasters want to grow their audience. Sadly, there are many, many people taking advantage of this desire.

offering up snake oil solutions for, quote, audience growth, unquote, only to deliver fake downloads. And I feel sorry for those that fall prey to snake oil salesmen. If a promotion method gets turned on and you... instantly see a big increase in your downloads 5x 10x 20x 200x or more it is to put it simply bs these are not real listeners and once these services are turned off

The podcasters see their numbers plummet back to where they were before wasting all that money. There is no silver bullet, no light switch offering that you can flip it and grow your audience instantly. It's not a real audience. takes time and you need to work on it constantly and organically and you need to get your audience involved in promoting your show. Cross promote or pay to promote on other podcasts in your genre. That's a good way.

Look at banner ads on Overcast for your genre and communicate and interact with your audience by all means. Per the folks I dealt with, I do feel sorry for them. I mean, one looked like he was going to cry when I explained and showed him in his stats.

what was going on and the truth hit him he realized he didn't have an audience he thought he had and he wasn't he had been doing it for a year and and wasn't looking for advertising i actually reached out to him and then had to tell him the bad news He sent me the info the promoter was, quote unquote, promoter was claiming to offer. And it did say organic growth and real audience, to which I said, I would try to club back any money you can for this person. This is not new.

by the way, and only will be getting worse. If it seems too good to be true, well, guess what? It's not true. Okay, that's my mini rant this week. It's really sad to see people getting ripped off like this. You know, the joke I would say is it's not just telling people that their baby's ugly. It's telling them it's not their baby. It's a Maury Povich moment and not fun.

It really irks me each time I talk to someone. And these people are spending significant money to get nothing. All right. There. All right. It's done. Step off that and maybe we should play a promo with something about real. Let's get some real in here. Yeah, I'm like it breaks my heart a little bit because obviously I think I don't think I've ever heard the metaphor.

About the whole, like, it's not your baby. Can you, because that really hit home. There's so much time, care, investment, like money investment on your podcast. And you think it's. you're doing a good thing. And then it, yeah, it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking.

You have to take your time and set right expectations for yourself. In fact, why don't we just go ahead from this conversation into our promo so that you can actually get into the stats, mean, and median. Here we go. This is our second promo of the episode. This is Real Talk with Reginald D. This is Reginald D, the host of Real Talk with Reginald D podcast.

On Real Talk with Regina D, you will hear powerful motivational speeches and inspirational interviews with dynamic guests sharing their personal journeys of triumphs, purpose, and perseverance that will inspire you. We talk purpose, pain, healing, faith, and legacy. Every episode is a wiggle call for your soul. So if you're ready to stop surviving and start winning, Thank you. Good to get something real there. All right. This is the median and mean numbers. And.

We're going to start here. This is based on all episodes released on Libsyn and Libsyn Pro in the month of April with downloads measured until the end of May. On average, each file is about 45 days old. This is, again, for all shows hosted on Libsyn and Libsyn Pro. The median number for April was 116, which is down a bunch from the 124 in March. This was a big enough change that caused me to go back and rerun numbers a couple of times. But no, that was legit.

The adjusted mean average where I throw out the top half a percent and any files with three or less downloads, the adjusted mean for April was 1144. That's up a little for March when it was 1111. 5.5% of all downloads for episodes released in April were in the 5K range or greater for downloads. This was the same as February and March.

And then here are some numbers to measure up against. And to put things in perspective, if you are getting over 116 downloads after 30 days, you are better than half the shows. If you are getting 500 downloads, you are better than 72.8% of the shows, and you're in the top 27.2%. If you're getting more than 900, you're in the top 20%, so you're better than 80% of the shows.

More than 2,600, you're better than 90% of the shows. More than 5,500, you're better than 95% of the shows. More than 15,000, you're better than 98% of the shows. And more than 27,000, you're better than 99% of the shows. April's numbers were, for the most part, either up a little or down a bunch. So there's no real pattern. Strange month on numbers. We'll see where things come in next month. But that is the update.

for median and mean. Next episode, we'll go over user agent information. Now, where have we been? Any place you've been?

Just working hard. I know. I'm just finishing up my e-league, the e-league experience that I have, my mentorship experience, or closing up this week. Or actually, it's going to be kind of closed. Oh, you know what? I am going to be... I forgot. I'm going to mention this. Oh, this is for where are we going, but... Part of the process is doing one last sort of check-in on how the mid-year is going, the middle of the year.

being a time to kind of check in on the goals, your intentions, your production, things like that, to have a meeting with your podcast. And I call that Podcast Kaigi. And that's coming up actually on... The weekend on the 20th or the 21st. I can't remember. Let me see. 19th, 20th, the 21st. So on the first day of summer. And you can sign up for that. You can actually.

Sign up for that. Two hours with me, which is really great. It's just kind of like I said before, it's a time for you to meet with your podcast and make sure that you're finishing. You're looking at the second half of the year with clarity and that's coming up. And where should they email you on that? I will put a link in the show notes. I hope to get that stuff in there so that you guys can see and what's going on with that and you can sign up and all of that.

Good stuff. But alas, have you been anywhere? Fancy pants? No, I did another interview, but it's not up. I'm waiting for links. So, but once they send me links, I will. Put it in here. And folks, we are going to be headed over to Podcast Movement over in Dallas in August. So we're going to be seeing some of you guys there soon.

I'm going to have to leave on early that Thursday or late that Wednesday on that show because Friday I have to drive up to Purdue early. Oh, okay. Yes, to take my son to college. So I'm going to go right from Podcast Movement, home, and... pack the car and the cars and drive them up. And he's going to have his car with him this year. So that'll be interesting. Oh, my. OK. Is it a whole like family affair? You and your wife going to go and.

The other child? Most likely it'll be me and my wife will drive up with my son and then we'll just turn around and come right back that same day. So it'll be a quicker drop off than like last year. Because he'll have his car. So if there's things that he's missing, he can drive around and go get him on his own. So we'll see. But that's the current plan. And then that way we're only leaving our, then at that time, new senior in high school alone for a few hours.

How much damage could he do in a few hours? I don't know. Yeah. So, yeah, we're not going to be leaving Camel. All right. Well, he'll be himself, and you're going to be like, okay. Now I see what you're capable of. Oh, my God. That really wraps it up. Folks, if you're looking to start a podcast or switch up your podcast home, you can use the code THEFEED. One word, THEFEED.

for a free month plus with us. And then finally, don't forget to send in your feedback for anything we did or did not mention in this episode. You can record that feedback and email it to us, thefeed at libsyn.com, or you can call us, 412-573-1934. And then finally, you can use SpeakPipe at speakpipe.com slash thefeed. Woo-hoo! Right on, folks. And we will chat with y'all in a couple of weeks. And that is it. Bye-bye. Ciao.