Why Podcast Metrics Doesn't Tell The Whole Story w/Barry Luijbregts

So that is exactly the target audience that you want , because those people opt into your content .

My guest today is Barry low blood Thanks for coming and talking to us . And tools of the podcast trade , barry .

And then I also love podcasts , listening to podcasts , learning from podcasts about all sorts of topics , including technology , health , spirituality , even you name it , and I want to learn about it . So I , you know , I combined the two passions really software development and podcasts into podcast hosting company .

So you have it in your ear and the use case for podcasting is usually for me at least , and I think for most people that is , you're doing stuff like you're cleaning your house , you're running around , you're traveling or something , and you listening to a conversation to somebody in your ear , and there's something very intimate to Listening to somebody , right ?

That sparks your imagination . Maybe you don't even know what person looks like , so you have , like this image in your head and after listening to Somebody for a couple hours or many hours , you you form a relationship with that person . It's like a one-sided friendship , right ? So you're your friends with that person .

You know this person , you know what , what they think , what they talk about . You can even imagine them saying something completely different that they've never said in their own voice , because you know their voice so well .

So this whole relationship then ingrains into your life as as a habit , like , hey , I listen every Friday to this podcast , for instance , because it comes out every Friday , and like listening to it , even though the topic might not interest me , and so that special bond with voices and the fact that there are so many podcasts on all sorts of topics that you want

to , that I can learn from , be entertained by , be inspired by , is really what attracts me to to the medium of podcasting , and it's it's super easy to Consume , right ? I don't have to sit down and watch a video or something , I can just do stuff . I Awesome learning .

So , for instance , if I listen to Joe Rogan podcast or something I have Spotify on on my computer , I just turn on the video . I'm not watching the video constantly . Yeah sometimes , when they say something , I just like what , what did he just say ? And then I can see the reactions on their face or something , and it provides more context .

And you know , at first glance you think , well , podcast is dying out , but it's not because you mentioned connection , that bond you you build as a host with , with the person who is listening and that's why they listen , because they have that connection with you , right .

And I think that all comes from what I call the podcast industrial complex , which is the big platforms , right , so Spotify , apple , google with YouTube , because it is very difficult to monetize a podcast , so just get money for the podcast that you're doing , and they all thought that you could do that .

So that's why , for instance , spotify poured a billion dollars into it . Turns out that's not the case . Maybe if you're Joe Rogan , but then not even not really , because where's the money coming from ? From ads .

So I don't they call it a podcast winter because advertisers are pulling back because they , they , you know , they see it and they're like well , this is not really the space for us because we don't really have the intricate data as well as they have in other markets , which I think is a very good thing for consumers , because we don't want ourselves to be

tracked . But from a creators and a listeners point of view , I think we're doing awesome because listening is up . People are listening to podcasts more and more in all age groups , which is great , and people are still creating podcasts as well . Yes , the people that thought that they would just make money with podcasts and that's why they created the podcast .

They might fade away , but that's , that's just how it goes . That's fine . Yeah , because they didn't add much value anyways .

And I said I was saying to Alex and Philippa of Podmatch that you know , this just shows that podcasting belongs to us , the independent podcaster , and I think it's time we embrace podcasting as our media , as our way to connect with our audience . Right .

You're the product If you use YouTube or Facebook or any of those platforms . Yeah , this just goes to show that you know , podcasting is our thing , it's ours and I , you know , I don't want to call ourselves indie podcasters , because we are just podcasters , not indie , because we're we don't have a big platform , or are not the Joe Rogans .

But creation is important . It's important to create and to add value . If you do that , then value will return and comes back to you .

You can host unlimited shows , episodes , unlimited uploads and unlimited downloads , all for one simple price of $50.99 per month , and for that you get all features . So that's one thing .

And the second thing is that we try to make it as easy as possible for a podcaster to create their podcasts and to create all the metadata around that , so titles , show notes , all that type of stuff . We do that with podhomeai and I know that sounds very gimmicky , but what that means is when you upload your episode , you flip a switch .

You say , hey , generate for me a transcript , chapters , clips to text some people and suggest some title ideas and some show notes as well , and we do that for you . And also , that is unlimited .

So if you have a million episodes , you can use that a million times if you want , and that just takes some work out of your hands and just makes it easier , because that's the type of stuff that takes time . Right , you need to go through your whole episode to create chapters , for instance .

It's difficult and it's easier when that's already done and that also improves the listening experience , because then in a modern podcast app you can see all those chapters and you can see what's being talked about and you can skip to whatever topic you like , for instance , or you can see the clip , listen to the clip .

So that's the two special things that Pothome provides .

What makes your platform different , apart from because I do like the pricing and I like the unlimited , because you can only host one podcast per account with Buzzsprout . So I see that difference what else makes it different stand out ?

Plus , with Buzzsprout you're tied , limited by the number of hours that you can upload and that you can use your AI feature and also your magic mastering . So the audio enhancement feature , yes . Now we also have an audio enhancement feature and that is a pay-per-use thing , so it is unlimited in the way that you can use it .

You can use it for 100 hours if you want , but then you pay for those 100 hours as well , in addition to your subscription . We're working on making that free . That will be later this year . That's tricky to make the technology work fast enough .

There was a limited podcast of 52 episodes that a couple years back , where I interviewed leaders in the field of technology about their specific thing , and then after that and that's still running I created a podcast called Improving Barry , where I try to , or I tried to , interview doctors and medical people in all sorts of areas just to learn from them so that

I can improve my own health right . And just go in there open and question ask , questions about what they do and what they think about certain things health related .

I might not always have this type of stuff with noise cancellation in , of course .

So audio quality is very , very important and that's also why we have the audio enhance feature , so that you can just flip a switch and it gets normalized and we do some noise reduction stuff like that just to make that easier , because previously I then needed to upload something to my editing software and then do all that audio enhancement there to make the audio

great . So that's very important , and the metadata around it I find very important . So , especially chapters , because I want people to be able to see what we are actually talking about and when , so that they can skip things that they're not interested in and or go back to certain things that they might have missed , because I do that myself , basically .

So those are really other things .

. So if you have a podcast and you look at your download numbers in your host analytics or wherever you look at those , you see , well , maybe I got 10 downloads for this episode , or 100 for this episode , and you might be discouraged because you hear that Joe Rogan gets 300 million downloads or something , or your friend might get 10,000 downloads .

You'll be discouraged because you're making huge impact in the world . Like , if you have 100 downloads on one episode , right , that doesn't sound much , but try to invite 100 people and put them in your living room , for instance . That's a lot of people , and all of those people chose on purpose to listen to your thing , to listen to your episode .

So that is exactly the target audience that you want , because those people opt into your content . They didn't just hear that on the radio or something and that's a lot of people that you just touched there , that you impacted with that . So that's all I want to say .

Even if your numbers seem low , you're still making a huge impact because this is a very targeted medium . So keep going .