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The Future IS Audio
Josh Liston | @joshuacliston
Recent Episodes
The Future IS Audio newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-ways-make-your-audio-podcast-sound-dated-josh-liston-yypjc
4 Ways to Make Your Audio Podcast Sound Dated (Potentially).
- Cliffhanger-Openers to every episode of your show. These can be great, but most often are not.
- Adding Background Music to every segment of the production. The emotionality in the melody of the music can enhance the mood of your Podcast (when it's perfectly chosen or composed to suit the episode), but it can also distort the intended delivery and tone of the dialogue. It's also a poor substitute for putting real emotion and intention into the voice recording itself.
- Using Music and Sound Design Elements straight out of a 2014 Tim Ferriss YouTube Video.
- Overloading your production with audio clips from film and TV from the 70's, 80's and 90's. I love this stuff personally (in moderation), but too much of this can feel like, 'HEY! I've got a new toy with heaps of buttons on it, and here's a bunch of now 30 year old noises I like."
What makes a Podcast sound dated to you?
Happy Podcasting!
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Episode Production Chain: Rode Wireless Micro >> Rode Capture App for iOS >> Auphonic Desktop App for Levelling and Noise Reduction >> Adobe Audition for Compression, Reverb and Click Reduction, Editing, and Export.
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Email me your thoughts to josh@jcaldigital.org or DM me here on LinkedIn or comment below on this post.
Get the Audio Podcast: https://www.jcaldigital.org/the-future-is-audio
The Future IS Audio newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/podcast-growth-straightforward-just-guest-other-shows-josh-liston-5bwbc/
TL;DR: Guesting on other Podcasts is amazing and you should definitely jump on the majority of opportunities to do so, but don't let your success or lack thereof getting booked define your value as a Podcaster.
No single piece of Podcast Growth Advice bothers me quite as much as "just be a guest on other shows" does, like it's so easy to do. As the great Alban Brooke (Head of Marketing at BuzzSprout) said recently on X, "If it (Guesting) was super easy then we’d all be doing it constantly", and I couldn't have said it better myself.
I've been living and breathing Podcasting and the Podcast Medium since 2012, and I've never met a single person (outside of domain experts, famous folks, and subculture superstars) that find getting booked on Podcasts as a Guest, easy. In fact, it's rare, it's difficult, and is often outpaced by the sheer rejection of trying to get booked.
My advice would be to Share the H out of the shows you CARE most about, and instead of thinking, "how can I get on that show so they can help me grow?", start by thinking, "what can I do (over the long-term) to help them grow?" Good things come most often from a good place.
The other short-long of it: Although I believe that being a Guest on other shows is incredibly valuable for growing your own show, anyone out there pushing "Guesting" as an easy to implement solve-all for growing your Podcast, is leaving out a great chunk of the process and the negative impact of continued-rejection in the Arts, and in business.
Happy Podcasting!
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Episode Production Chain: Rode Wireless Micro >> Rode Capture App for iOS >> Auphonic Website for Levelling, EQ, Compression, Reverb and Noise Reduction >> Adobe Audition for Editing and Export.
Email Josh your thoughts to josh@jcaldigital.org or DM him on LinkedIn.
Get the Audio Podcast: https://www.jcaldigital.org/the-future-is-audio
The Future IS Audio newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-places-start-your-podcast-edit-josh-liston-6jvic
TL;DR: I'm an Audio Podcast Super Fan and a Video Podcast Dabbler.
Today's Newsletter is purely anecdotal, and I'm not sure what it really means, but I feel like it means something. I asked myself what format of Podcasting (audio or video) has held my interest the longest and/or which format I burn out on the fastest, and I came to the following numbers.
Note: I'm most often Subscribed to 40-50 programs at a time in both Overcast (audio) and YouTube (video).
Format vs Fandom (the Questions):
- How many audio Podcasts do I still listen to that I started Listening to 2 or more years ago? = 20-25 episodes per week (to completion of each episode).
- How many YouTube Channels do I still consume (that don't also offer an audio version) that I started watching 2+ years ago? = 1 (Bandrew Scott's Podcastage main channel).
Video has been and continues to be a useful tool for finding and sampling new shows that I might like, and if I do like them and they do offer audio Subscription (some don't which PMTHO), I'll then move them over to my long-term consumption app, Overcast for iOS.
One last note, I still miss the shows that for whatever reason stopped producing their Audio Podcast ('Crash Course in Awesome' and 'CD Baby's DIY Musician Podcast'), yet I can't name a single YT Channel that has stopped making their show that makes me feel that way.
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Episode Production Chain: Rode Wireless Micro >> Rode Capture App for iOS >> Auphonic Website for Levelling, EQ, Compression and Noise Reduction >> Adobe Audition for Editing and Export.
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Email Josh your thoughts to josh@jcaldigital.org or DM him on LinkedIn.
Get the Audio Podcast: https://www.jcaldigital.org/the-future-is-audio
The Future IS Audio newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-places-start-your-podcast-edit-josh-liston-6jvic
TL;DR: Start by cutting some (or all) of the things that would really really really annoy you as Podcast Listener.
Not everyone can afford Professional Podcast Editing, nor do they need it. In fact, I’d encourage you TO edit your own show at least for a little while, as the lessons you’ll learn around your own speech patterns, pacing, word choices and verbal disfluencies (read: crutch words and verbal tics) are absolutely invaluable to you as a communicator.
A 3-part primer on Podcast Editing:
- Low-hanging Fruit. (Cut stand-alone ums, ahs, likes, you know(s), coughs, sniffs, desk knocks, off-air conversations with people in the room, and clearings-of-the-throat).
- Any (non-entertaining) Parts. (Unless it's really funny or fun, cut out technical issues, connection issues, drop-outs and glitches, looking up names, fact-checking, confirming URLs, and saying hello to endless people in the chatroom or on the stream. Don’t make your on-demand Audience(s) feel like a second class citizens).
- The Promise of your Podcast. (Cut standalone segments that work against the intention/promise of your show. Profanity if your show is Clean. Silly if your show is serious. Overly serious if your show is meant to be light and bright. Political if you’re not).
If you start your Podcast Edit with those three elements in mind, you might not need to ever get more granular with your editing, a light edit might be all you need.
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Email Josh your thoughts to josh@jcaldigital.org or DM him on LinkedIn.
Get the Audio Podcast: https://www.jcaldigital.org/the-future-is-audio
Subscribe to The Future IS Audio Newsletter on LinkedIn.
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Microphone: Rode Wireless Micro USB-C Lav Mic.
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The Mute Function Is More Useful Than AI (In Podcasting).
I’ve found myself more than a little down-in-the-mouth of late, reading and listening to all the discussions around AI in Podcasting, and its potential impact on our medium. With prominent voices in the space even going as far as to suggest that the human element of Podcasting may soon be superseded by AI and ASI Agents.
Now, whether or not you fell that that particular line of thinking is correct, is actually not the point of today’s post, I’m simply here to remind you that the thoughts of a singular Technologist (or a group of Technologists) can only affect a Podcaster to the extent that we allow it to. You have the option to simply disengage in conversations that suggest that the days of human connection are numbered Podcasting, and if you’re not willing to give at least part of your Craft over to AI then you’re going to fall so far behind that failure is inevitable. You can just shut all that stuff out.
TL;DR: Save all the energy that you might otherwise spend on arguing with people on Reddit, Discord, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. about AI, and just go make more cool sh*t!
The other Short-long of it: It’s often easier to unleash your creative flair onto the world in the form of a well-constructed rebuttal to the prognosticators in your medium, but just try to redirect that momentary frustration into ongoing fuel for making.
I need to keep telling myself this!
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Email me your thoughts to josh@jcaldigital.org or DM me here on LinkedIn or comment below on this post.
Get the Audio Podcast: https://www.jcaldigital.org/the-future-is-audio