¶ Apple Podcasts Updates
So I'm sure by now you have heard about the apple podcast updates. Maybe this is brand new, like brand new news to you. That's really hard to say, brand new news to you. But there are some changes coming. And I want to dive into those today and talk about what you need to know, as a listener of podcast, but also a creator of podcast. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to
start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Okay, so like I said, we have had kind of like an industry like, whoo, what's going on what's happening in podcasting. And it's been an exciting last few days. I'm actually recording this right after the apple news information kind of happened a few days ago. And I still have more questions than answers. But I didn't want to sit on the information that I have, and the resources that I'm using to understand this information. And I wanted to go ahead and
¶ Where is YOUR Audience?
tell you why I think this information is important, personally, to me, but also to you, like for you to think about as a creator. So I want to go back to last year, when Spotify, you know, they released that things were gonna start being exclusive on their platform. And like all these other updates of you know, special shows that were only going to be available on Spotify. Personally, I wasn't really that disrupted by any of that, because I don't listen to podcasts on
Spotify. Like, that's not my app of choice. I've never really been a Spotify consumer or a user. And if I look at my stats, a very, very small percentage of people that listen to this podcast and my daily podcast, listen on Spotify. So I haven't been like keeping up with all the updates and everything that's happening simply because it hasn't related to this particular audience. Because y'all Listen, there's 70% of y'all that
listen on Apple podcast. So the Spotify news could probably be relevant for some of you, but not everybody. So that's why I am looking at Apple podcasts very differently, and the news that they're releasing, because I know that most of y'all use Apple podcast, or possibly one of the other players that they call them like, it's like a catcher, like they catch all of their podcast
information from Apple podcast. So if you listen on good pods, or one of those other players, they are pulling directly from Apple podcast, to get their information and to air their shows. So that's kind of like my disclaimer for all the information. And while I why I'm making it such a big deal, because in my opinion, it is a big deal. It is a really big deal because it affects a good
chunk of this audience. But also, I think that as podcasters we need to understand what's happening in the marketplace so we can make the best
¶ Apple Podcasts for Creators
decision for us and for our audience.
So with all that being said, if you do have an audience, like you sign into buzzsprout, and you see that 80% of your people are coming from Spotify, then maybe the information that I'm sharing here with you today won't affect you that much. I don't know like it's really like I'm there's a lot of theory, speculation and assumptions that are going into today's episode. Now, don't get me wrong. I have lots of facts and figures right here in front of
me. But I just want to make sure that you know that the information I'm sharing here with you today is information that I am thinking about as a consumer a podcast, but also a creator of podcast and kind of the different hats that we have to wear and also think about our audience. Okay, I know that was a huge, huge intro, but it's really a lot of the things that I've been thinking about
over the last few days. So if you got if you're part of our weekly email, then you saw what I put out this last week I linked to a Buzzcast episode. I'm gonna link to it in the show notes, so don't worry, it is KrystalProffitt.com/Episode249 That's where you're going to find all the news articles.
Everything that we're talking about today, the buzz cast episode, this is a podcast by the people over at buzzsprout. And they do a fantastic job in breaking down what happened, why it happened in kind of helping you understand, like, navigate the waters of this, but I'm giving you more of a high level. This is what I believe your questions are and what you need to know, as a creator in a consumer a podcast, but I will absolutely link to that episode in the shownotes
because it was so good. It was so good. It was about an hour. So be prepared. Get you walking shoes on or, you know, go go do something that's going to be like, Okay, I need to hear this information. But I can also kind of multitask or do something else while I'm listening to it. So Okay, there we go. There's all the disclaimers, all the information is out there.
The first thing that I want to talk about is the apple podcast for creators page. I'm actually looking at it while we're going through this so we can talk about it. I'm also gonna link to the original article that came out that Apple released it's like called their the apple newsroom. And that's where these like, one off articles are coming from. Like, I'm getting all this straight from Apple, right? I'm not like, Oh, so and so said this. And this is who
said this, this other news outlet? And like, No, I'm getting it straight from Apple. And their press release that they released on April 20 2021. Okay, so if you're listening to this in the future, like this just happened a few days ago. But it's important to, to kind of know, like, have some context for when we're talking about these updates coming up and what they're going to look
like. So when you're on the news room article, I clicked on the apple podcast for creators website, because this is where this is what y'all are, like your creators or pitch to potential creators of podcasts. So you're going to want to know what is actually happening. So what's really cool. I'm going to give you some pros and cons throughout this today. But what I already like is that Apple
is dedicating resources for creators. Previously, this was not the case, there was not a whole bunch of information out there around how to support yourself as a podcaster, or really be successful as a podcaster. And I think that you know, enough people have they've listened, I guess, to their audience, or they've seen other companies that have done other things that they're like, oh, maybe we should do that, too. So this platform is really cool. Like, I'm already liking the features
of it. But if you are looking or you're thinking about doing the apple podcast for creators program, I highly recommend going here to check it out. Because it's going to tell you what it is, what it means and all the things. So first and foremost, I'm scrolling down and I'm looking at like, well, what, what is this? What does this even mean? Right? Like, what is do I have to be on Apple podcast for creators? Can I not just do my
show? Like I've previously done, especially for those of you that already have a podcast, right? If you are a buzzsprout customer, you use another hosting site, you're asking, Do I still need them? Like how does this actually work. And from my perspective, and what I'm doing, I don't like the idea of having all of my content in one place, forever and ever. Amen. Like that makes me a little nervous makes me a little uncomfortable.
And that's actually something I've always enjoyed about having a podcast is knowing that it's being
¶ Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
distributed to all these different places, and that anyone with a device can figure out how to listen to a podcast on their phone on their, you know, whatever they're using to listen to podcasts. So with that being said, I personally am not just going all in on Apple podcast and gonna switch everything over. And that's all I'm going
to do. But you can do that. If you want to. If you want to just have all of your stuff exclusively on Apple, you could do that you could create an episode, upload it to Apple podcast connect and you can submit your show and have it only on
Apple. The thing that I don't like about this is that you are cutting off a large potential audience because even though I have the majority of my audience listening on Apple podcast, there's still other people out there listening on different players and maybe that is the only one that's offered like I know when I was listening to The buzz cast episode, they were talking about how, you know, if this is only on iOS, then a good chunk of the world doesn't have Apple, there's a
lot of Android users and you're cutting off. It's kind of like you're cutting off a limb like you're severing a limb of the market. Because if you're exclusive to Apple, you're just cutting off these other potential people that could listen to your show. And I don't like that. I don't like that
idea at all. But what I do like is it gives you the ability, we've had a few different different membership features that we've talked about here on the show, we had glow.fm, we had a Mira, she came on, and talks about having a podcast membership site, and what that looks like, I
talked about Halo audio recently. So there are absolutely platforms out here are out in the world that can give you the subscription model of I want to have my podcast behind a paywall, and have people pay me every month to listen to this exclusive content. That stuff's already out there.
But it's a different platform. What I like about Apple podcast and being able to subscribe, and we're gonna talk about that in a second is you don't have to deal with the messy middle part of transactions, what would happen is if someone subscribes to your podcast, you get a cut of the money, you don't get 100% because Apple is it's kind of like you're paying them to be your bookkeeper and to be your accountant, they're actually handling the processing fees, and they're doing all the other
stuff on the back end. So they're gonna take 30% of the 100% that you're charging, right, so let's I don't even want to do math, like I'm betting on, let me get on my calculator. Let me pull up my calculator here. Like I said, I'm at my desk my my
computer. So let's pretend that you had a $5 monthly access fee to certain content that you want to put behind a paywall for Apple podcasts, this doesn't have to be your main podcast, this is just podcast content that you want to put out there that is exclusive, that people can only get as a member of your podcast who is subscribed. So let's say it's $5 a month, then, if Apple were to take a cut of that, that is $1.50, that Apple would get as a transaction fee for people
subscribing to your show. Does that make sense? I hope that this is making sense. And I hope that I'm describing this in a way that is easy for you to understand. But basically, I feel like Apple has cut off like certain certain areas of the market that I don't know that we're still going to have membership sites, if everyone switches to Apple podcast, and I can just handle all my transactions right through apple. And it's just done that way. And I don't have to deal like that.
That sounds appealing to me. But let's go back to the subscriptions. So the vernacular with
¶ Free Content
podcasting is changing. And that means that you will no longer see a subscribe button when these features start rolling out. And what that means is it's going to say follow, so right like you follow someone on Instagram, you follow you know someone somewhere else, wherever you follow people on Facebook, whatever, you follow people so that is what people are used to seeing when it comes to
social media. subscribing is a term that Apple like they did all this research and they said that people feel that the term subscribe means you are paying. So the difference is you you know just watching cable TV versus subscribing to Netflix and paying them on a monthly basis to watch their content.
Starting a podcast can be super overwhelming. How do I know? Well, because I've been there I have been in your shoes. If you are just now in the creation stage of getting your podcast up and running. Then I invite you to check out Proffitt Podcasting. This is my digital program that teaches you all the ins and outs of how to start launch and market your podcast. I
¶ Apple Podcasts Channels
want you to go check it out and see if it's going to be the right fit for you if you're looking for a way to understand exactly how podcasting works. You want to know how to create content, how to launch your podcast how to get it on all the players but most importantly, how to tell people about it without feeling like you're alienating your friends, your family, your neighbor like, I
want you to go check out profit podcasting. So go to KrystalProffitt.com/course, to learn more about Proffitt Podcasting and to enroll today, KrystalProffitt.com/course, to check out more. Okay, let's get back to today's episode.
So it's going to be the same for podcast where you're going to have, you can follow podcast and listen to free content. Or someone could subscribe to your show pay that $5 monthly fee to listen to your podcast. And that content is exclusive to people that are paying for it. I like this. I also don't like this, and I think it's still confusing. So I am going to have so much more content coming out in the future when we see
these updates actually roll out. But I just wanted to get your brain thinking about how can I use this? Do I want to just have free content? Do I want to just have paid content? And what does it look like if I decide to not opt in to the Apple podcast creators program? Like what does that look like? Like Am I going to be penalised by not listening to this, like what's what's actually
going to happen? So in order to opt in, if that's something that you choose to do, I'm actually going to go back to this newsroom article again, because they have like kind of the terms and conditions of what's going to happen. And it's under pricing and availability. So if you go to the link in the show notes, you hop down to pricing and availability, it says it's going to be available for over 170 countries and regions starting in May.
And you're going to have Apple podcast subscriptions and channels and channels is another thing we haven't really touched on, because that's something that I feel like in theory could be kind of cool. But I also I don't understand how we could use it just yet as podcasters and creators, because most of us are creating our own shows, right? Like you're not collaborating with other people. You may have people guesting on your shows, but you're not saying hey, so and so let's promote our shows
together. We're all going to join this channel. And then we're going to say, Hey, this is everything you need to know about running an online business, or this is everything you need to know about interior design. This is the you know, the channel to go to for people who want to know about email marketing, I don't really know what what its gonna look like I really don't I'm kind of fascinated, and my brain is going wild, on all the ways that we could use it. But all of that is
theoretical, because I haven't done it right. This is why I've been kind of tiptoeing around what I was gonna share and not share, because so much of it is theory, it is theory, these updates haven't even happened, they haven't even rolled out all we have are the few website articles from Apple, and like some pictures of Chinese statistics that are like, Oh, this is gonna work, it's gonna change the face of podcasting. But we don't know, we
¶ Other Subscription Models
don't really know what all this is going to look like. So but let's keep going on. So it says pricing. So pricing for each subscription is set by the creators, like we were talking about if you want to do it $5 a month and billed monthly by default. So creators can additionally offer annual billing, which subscribers can manage from their Apple ID account. So everything again is handled
directly in Apple. I love this because it takes out you having to chase down customers who didn't pay, you know, it's like, oh, your credit card failed, but you don't have to deal with any of that. You don't have to deal with any of that. Like as far as I know. Again, going back to the speculation, it sounds like all of that will be handled on their end and if someone doesn't pay then they don't get access to your information anymore. Again, speculation and me assuming things
from reading the information here. Then they go on to talk about through family sharing up to six
family members can share of subscription. So here in our family and the profit household like we are Apple device people we have iPads, we have iPhones and we have an Apple TV, and my husband I want to say it was his last Christmas he he bought into Apple arcade I'd never heard of this and I don't really play video games like I played with the kids like from time to time but he like just got super obsessed with like understanding like how
the arcade stuff works. So they have we have family sharing with Apple Music and Apple arcade so we can download these games or buy these games. And then we can all share them across our devices for up to six people. So it would be the same concept with podcasts. So if I purchased a podcast, you know, or I subscribe to a podcast, it sounds like I can share it with my husband. Like, I could say, Hey, we're gonna subscribe to this incredible comedian podcast. And we can both
listen to it. So we're not both paying $5 we're each paying $5. I don't know, sorry, I said that wrong. We're only paying $5 for our family. And then we can share that subscription.
Much like with Netflix, you have you know, your profiles and your different logins. But you're not paying for each one of those. Are we on the same page? I hope that you're nodding along and you're saying yes, we get this Krystal keep going. I'm going to keep going, assuming that you don't have any questions about this. But again, I'm going to link to all of this in the show notes for you to look at it and research on your own KrystalProffitt.com/Episode249. That's where
you're gonna find all this information. Okay. So I'm gonna keep going. listeners will be able to access the enhanced search tab with top charts and categories, new show and episode pages, with the smart Play Button came on pause real fast, because
¶ Don't Connect Yet!
the smart Play Button was something that they talked about in the Buzzcast episode. And from my understanding, they were making it easier for people like listeners to navigate your show whether you have series, right, like if you have seasons of like, Okay, this is season one, this is season five. And people like you don't want them jumping into the middle of a season. It's almost like, and I'm going to use the example of bridgerton because I love the show, right? It's on
Netflix. But it's almost like you hopped into the middle of a bridgerton episode and you're like, wait, who's lady whistle down? I don't know who that is. If you haven't seen that show. You have to go watch it. It's so so good. So good. I love Shonda Rhimes, and everything that she does. Oh my gosh, y'all Did y'all hear that? It just lightning and thundered Scylla I know you can't hear lightning it thundered so loud here and it scared
the bejesus. Oh, we're gonna keep going, we're gonna make it through this, I have to finish talking about this, because I'm on fire right now. And if I stop, then it's just we're gonna lose the energy. We've got the momentum, we're gonna keep going. But yeah, that shook me up a little bit.
So, back to the smart play button. If you were to start in the middle of an episode, not a middle of episode, but a middle of a series, it's going to help you navigate like, hey, by the way, start this at the first of the season, because you're right in the middle of something. So I'm still trying to understand that better again, go listen to the Buzzcast episode where they talked about it. But now let's jump down to the Apple
podcasters program. They say this includes all the tools needed to offer premium subscriptions on Apple podcast. It's available to creators in over 170 countries and regions for 19.99 US dollars per year. So for $20 a year, you can enroll an apple podcasters Creators Program. This is done through Apple podcasts connect and it sounds like you'll just be able to go in and you know, your credit cards already connected to your Apple account. If you have the app like Apple iOS, and you're like
integrated with all that. It sounds like your card will just be charged.
I will say I went in to create my apple podcast Connect account the day that this was all released. And I still have like as we recording this, I still have, like, it's gonna take a few hours. I'm like, okay, it's been two days and nothing's happened. So, from the recommendation on Buzzcast there, were like, don't, don't connect yet. don't connect, yell, let them figure out the bugs, let them figure out what's going on. And then you can connect later
and all the things. So per the Buzzcast, like let's let's give it a few more days and let them Apple figure out what's going on behind the scenes. Let them deal with the influx of people who are trying to get connected to the Apple podcast Connect. You're not missing out on anything because nothing has been rolled out.
Nothing rolls out until May. Okay, and then the last thing that I wanted to talk about today is again, the episode or sorry, the show notes for today's episode is KrystalProffitt.com/Episode249. And that's where my link to everything but I wanted to talk about from a consumer standpoint, what I'm going to do. So I look at all the content that I've consumed over the last Gosh, when did I
start listening? I would say 2014 2015 is when I really started listening to podcast and of all of Those, I can tell you, I am a client or I am a consumer on some level, or I have purchased products, books, events from people that I've
listened to on podcast. So I have actually bought in to what they were creating on this free platform in some form or fashion in very, like very, very different ways, whether it was a movie that I went and saw of a comedian that I loved, or it was, you know, any event that I went to a book, a program that I bought, there are so many different ways that podcasters have touched my
¶ Thoughts on Podcast Monetization
life personally. And I love the idea of being able to give back to content creators, I think that it's really cool. But I also don't know that I would shell out a ton of money to listen to someone who's brand new and just coming on the scene. Even if they are like a hot shot, they're an expert in their topic, and they know all their things. I just don't know that it's gonna be easy for someone who is unknown or lesser known to start a subscription model podcast right out of
the gate and be very successful. So I say that with like, all the love in my heart to someone that's brand new, and they're like, Oh, I'm going to do this, I'm going to put my podcast behind a paywall, and I'm going to charge $10 a month and like, I'm just gonna have people flocking to my podcast, I don't think that's a great strategy. I
really don't. And while I love the idea of podcasters being able to monetize podcasters, being able to, you know, make money from the content that they're creating, like, that part excites me. But y'all, I've been doing this for a while. I've been doing this for three years already. So I have grown a following of loyal listeners, I have grown my podcast from five people, probably people I was related to that listened in the beginning to now I have a few 100
listeners. And I don't want to give you the thought that oh, well, I can just put it behind a paywall. I can charge for it, and people are just going to come in droves to listen to my show. That's not what happened for me. So just because now you can charge for it, I don't want you to get the impression that that is automatically the best
idea for a brand new podcaster. Maybe I'll change my mind, maybe things will change in six months, maybe things will be totally different when everything releases, and there's brand new things that like we had no idea like the features and the capabilities and all the fun things that were coming with it.
But I just wanted to give you my honest opinion, for those of you that are just now starting, because I talk to y'all all the time you are in our Facebook group, you email me you send me direct messages on Instagram, and you put stuff in the comments all the time on YouTube. I am constantly interacting with people in this community. And I know there are a lot of people
that have not launched your podcast. So while this seems like a really cool shiny object, a way to make money from the get go, I want you to kind of be cautious about your strategy of how you're going to use these new features of Apple podcasts because I don't want you cutting yourself off before you ever even get started. And I remember hearing Dave Jackson, he is one of the very first people to take on kind of an education role in podcasting. I met him at spark the spark Christian
podcast conference in 2020. And I remember hearing him talk about podcasting. He was talking about podcast monetization on stage. And he was talking about it's funny how you listen to all these people who immediately want to start making money with their podcast, but they haven't even really started. And he was saying when we started podcasting him and the other like they call them like the godfathers of podcasting. Basically, they were saying, you know, we weren't in it, to make
money. We were in it to share our message. And it was a lot of fun for us. And we truly enjoy that you didn't have to pay us anything. We were just having fun talking about what we were excited about. So I say that to remind you that it's not all about making money and monetizing your podcast. If it is you're going to be very frustrated when that doesn't happen from the get go. Because I can tell you right now, I've been doing this for three years. You don't see me with
fancy sponsorships. You don't see me with tons of ads on this podcast. It's because I haven't gotten to the level of having tons of fancy sponsorships and Geico and State Farm and all these big players that come And banging down my door because I don't have that kind of clout. I don't have that kind of growth on this podcast, it's slow and steady. And trust me, it is like aeons higher than what it was in the past when it comes to listeners and downloads and how many people are tuning in every
week. But I just want to be very frank with you and tell you that it is a long game. And I hope
¶ Outro
that you're encouraged to go on this journey. And I hope that you go on this journey with me and that you're interested in learning more about podcasting. If you want to know more about podcasting, I encourage you to check out we have a
course about it. If you didn't know that we have a digital course that will teach you everything you need to know from how to start a podcast, how to launch it, how to market it, how to do all the things that you need to know to get your podcast up and running in 30 days, I want you to go check it out. We're gonna have a link in the show notes. But my course profit podcasting is something that can absolutely help you get your podcast up off
the ground. So you can start thinking about ways that you can use these new updates, you can start thinking about how am I going to position myself now that there's more people like the spotlight is on it's on podcast, and I feel the heat. Like I feel the like not the pressure, but like I feel that everyone's eyes are turning to podcast right now. And I'd love to see you jump in the game.
Because the people that jump in now and figure out how to use audio to their advantage, all their stuff coming out with Facebook in the future with audio features. And I mean, I don't even know what all that looks like. I heard that in the Buzzcast episode. So go listen to that they have more insight on what's going on there. But I just think, y'all, it's about to blow up. Like we thought podcasting was getting bigger, it is about to blow up and I am here for the ride.
If you want to go on this journey with me, I encourage you to check out more about profit podcasting and look into it. I think that it would be a great solution if you need something to kick your butt into gear and get off the fence of I think I'm gonna start a podcast maybe maybe not. We'd love to have you in the program because we have some freakin go getters, some people that hit the ground running and get their podcast up and going in some there was a Amy got hers up and
running in three weeks. And it was so impressive. so incredible. And I know that she's having a blast with her show.
So that's all I have for y'all today. I hope that your heads aren't totally spinning off the rails with everything we shared today. But go to KrystalProffitt.com/Episode249 for all the links, all the things, all the information that you want, I'm gonna link to a YouTube video that I did last week and I'm gonna be putting out some more YouTube videos and resources for you to check out to see how this unfolds. I'm excited and I hope that you are too I hope that you're
encouraged with podcasting. And if you are feeling a little discouraged, then like reach out. Don't sit there and just be like, Oh, I don't understand this. I'm overwhelmed. please reach out to me, send me a DM on Instagram. Reach out in our Facebook group. But again, go to KrystalProffitt.com/Episode249. And if this is your first time tuning in, y'all I say this all the time, but what an episode to be listening in and just hearing some realness, y'all. I hope that
you appreciate the honesty that I share here. I'm always going to be honest with you and tell you what I'm actually doing on my end, to help podcasters but also what I'm doing as a podcast consumer, so go check out the show notes for today. Subscribe to the show. I'm still gonna say subscribe, because follow just sounds weird. It'll take time. It was a job to do that. But we're gonna say Subscribe For now, even though you're not paying for it. Check out the show notes. And
as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.