The Podcast Pedant

A simple thread about cheap microphones on the Alley disintegrated into a multi-front debate about elitism, personal finance, and exactly what price range for recommendations constitutes an unacceptable barrier for starting podcasters. It’s all too tedious for me to trouble you with.

But from the flames emerged this old bugbear, with a throaty growl and singed fur:

Michel: I know you mention content a few lines later, so don’t think I’m ignoring that, but content is so much more important that sound quality. Good job if you have fantastic sound quality and a boring show. It’s the best sounding crap out there.

Sigh. You know what? I’m getting tired of that whole argument. People keep bringing it up as an excuse to ignore the technical aspects of their craft. It’s like arguing that roots are more important to a tree than leaves. Yes, you need to start with content. No content, no show. But if you don’t eventually open up and sprout some production quality on the outside, that tree is gonna die.

The ideal podcaster is constructively dissatisfied with everything. We should all want better content next week than we’ve got this week. And we should want better sound quality, too. That doesn’t mean spending a lot of money. I’ve given lectures on how to get better sound out of free tools. Eventually you do hit a threshold where you need to scale up to better equipment — but not for a while. That’s fine. In fact it’s probably better than starting expensive, because getting good sound out of cheap gear will give you the skills to use the good gear properly.

But you need to care. You need to listen to your show, pay attention to what’s good and bad about it, and strive to make the whole thing better. If you’re apathetic about any part of the experience you present to your audience, your audience will be apathetic too.

All right. It’s about time this blog started putting out some productive advice and opinions. This post is an extension of today’s warning about bad bandwidth plans, and is meant to answer the question, “Okay then, smartass, what should I do for hosting?”

Here’s what you should do.

First, look at cheap unlimited hosting. As of today, the end of February 2006, you’ve got four practical choices in this category that I know about:

• Liberated Syndication: Starting at $5/month. Full-featured, excellent service, and a unique “rolling archives” feature that ensures you’ll never have to delete your old files for space. A large percentage of the podcast world is hosted at Libsyn, which makes for a mighty uproar when they suffer one of their occasional downtimes.
• Podlot: Also starting at $5/month. No frills, and a Web site that almost seems calculated to make you think the company is deceased. For that matter, they have a habit of closing to new customers every so often, to ensure they don’t outgrow their service capacity. But if you can get past those hurdles, they are rock solid reliable in my experience.¹ If you don’t need much hand-holding, just a place to put your files, Podlot will give you that.
• The Internet Archive: Unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, no cost. The site’s run as a public service. ² The catch? There’s an approval delay before each file’s available, so if you’re podcasting on a schedule you can’t rely on timely updates. Also, transfer speeds can be erratic. But it’s a hell of a deal, and when combined with a free blog provider or the community front-end OurMedia it’s one of the best ways to publish a podcast for free.
• Gcast: A relatively new player on the scene. I know that they’re free, and they don’t seem to have any restrictive limits, but to be honest I don’t know that much about them. I do know that they’re a service of GarageBand Records, and that there are buttons and levers inside it to help promote GB’s music, but it isn’t compulsory. Rob Walch recommends them to many people, and he’s a smarter podcasting guru than I am, so that ought to carry some weight.

Those are the major options. If you have other recommendations, please let me know and I’ll update this. The only other free-and-cheap plans I know about are either poorly supported or stick ads into your podcast as a tradeoff for the hosting. I consider that a bad trade.

So what if you don’t like any of the above options? Hey, that’s fine. You may prefer having everything on your own domain. Managing your own content gives you flexibility. It gives you peace of mind, and possibly service level guarantees. And it means everything that goes out is under your own URL, which looks professional and keeps your branding consistent. These are all good reasons. They may or may not override “Free or cheap unlimited” for you, but it’s at least worth thinking about.

If you do decide to serve your own files, shop around carefully for a hosting provider. Pay close attention to their usage agreement: some ultra-cheap shops have language in their contracts that restricts your use of adult language or content, or says you can’t serve MP3 files, or other such nonsense.³ And check on their reputation, too. My favorite place to research providers is WebHostingTalk.com. A bad host will probably have dozens of posts trashing them in the forum archives there. A good host will only have one or two.

As I mentioned earlier, pay close attention to the bandwidth offered in the plan. Don’t even think about a host offering less than 100 GB a month — you’ll be sweating bullets if your podcast gets popular all of a sudden. Fortunately you can get good plans meeting or exceeding that for less than $10/month. The host that handles my Web sites, Dreamhost,⁴ recently upped its bandwidth from 120 GB to a ridiculous 1 Terabyte for $7.95 a month. That’s a deal that would cover all but the top tier of podcasts. They’ve got some quirks in how they do things, and I did have some technical issues with them last year (eventually resolved), but they’re feature-rich and I never had a problem with actually getting the files served.

I want to emphasize again, however: check the host’s reputation online. Every shared hosting plan sells more bandwidth than it has. Usually this is not a problem, because very few users are capable of getting close to the limits. But podcasters can, and a bad host with a shoddy network can easily buckle under the strain once your new episode hits the feed and you’re serving several dozen large media files all at once. Don’t agree to anything that will lock you in if your host turns out to be a bad one.

Beyond $10-and-under shared hosting, things start to get pricy. If you’re really serious about your content, you could look at dedicated servers. Your very own machine in a rack in some high-tech bunker, serving only what you tell it to. You need to be technically savvy to even consider this option, and it’s probably not economically wise for a podcast alone. Plans start at around $70/month, and you can start to find unmetered bandwidth plans (where what matters isn’t how much you serve a month, but how “wide” the pipe is, i.e. how many bits per second) for about $120/month. That could be smart if you’re running a whole online business, but if you’re thinking about that just for some MP3 files, I’d go back and look at Libsyn and Podlot again in the list above. Similar benefits, but for $5/month. Both services have served very popular podcasts. If you think you’re too big for them, you’re probably not reading this blog for advice.

So those are your “good” options. Pay $0 to $5 for unlimited bandwidth managed by someone else; or take matters into your own hands and pay $5 to $10 for large finite bandwidth (100 GB or above) managed by yourself. Both are respectable choices, although people in both camps tend come up with reasons for thinking the other camp is crazy. Seeing the options laid out like that, you’ve probably got an instinctive sense for which one you’re comfortable with.

Do your homework, take your pick, and good luck. Meanwhile, don’t forget to record something to host!

1. Disclaimer: Yes, my own MP3 files are hosted at Podlot. You should evaluate all advice for bias, including mine. ↩
2. And someday I hope Brewster Kahle wins the Nobel Peace Prize. ↩
3. Some hosts do this for fear of copyright infringement suits. Some do it for fear that you’ll eat too much of their bandwidth. Either way, you don’t need them. ↩
4. Yes, that’s a referral link. Don’t like it? Chop off everything after the slash. ↩

Via Podcasting News: another hosting service for the mathematically challenged. This one’s called PodshowCreator.com.

The name is a striking example of audacity — or perhaps the scarcity of podcast-related domains now. I’m no fan of Podshow, but I suspect they’d be entirely justified in nailing these guys to protect their trademark. I hope they won’t have to, however, as I sincerely hope there aren’t too many people who’d sign onto a podcasting plan offering 2 GB of transfer for $14.95 a month.

I’m saying this not specifically to embarrass PodshowCreator.com (they don’t need my help there) but because they’re exemplary of an entire class of hosting providers that consider themselves “podcast friendly.” The main problems with these providers needs to be made obvious and conspicuous, for the benefit of newbies Googling for a podcast host.

In PSC.c’s case, the long division is easy. At their cheapest level you get 200 MB of disk space and 2 GB of bandwidth. Let’s say you run a twice weekly music podcast, and your files are all 20 MB each. 2000 MB / 20 MB = 100 downloads. If you’ve posted ten shows in a month, you can afford a maximum of ten subscribers before you get hit for extra bandwidth charges. At $14.95 a month you’re paying a buck fifty per subscriber. And you’d best hope no one ever downloads twice, and your MP3s don’t get crawled by engines like Podscope, Podzinger, etc.

“Ah, but you can upgrade!” the provider would probably say. That’s just shoveling money into the fire. Their highest level, at $97/month for 20 GB, boggles the mind. You could get a dedicated server with unmetered transfer for just a bit more than that.¹

So what should you do? I’ll have a post about that shortly. For now, the significant takeaway is that any hosting plan you ever consider for podcasting should be measured at least in the hundreds of gigabytes, if not unlimited. That will give you room to grow. High-bandwidth and unlimited plans are available for much cheaper than $14.95 a month — they’re even available for free. That doesn’t mean that “free unlimited” is the right answer for everyone, but getting less than you need for more than you need to pay isn’t the right answer for anyone.

1. Believe me, I’ve thought about it. ↩

Huzzah! It looks like at least one of my goals with this site is already in motion — we’re initiating dialogue and getting responses and ideas back from the people making news in podcasting.

In this case, Gretchen from Mommycast read and commented on my post on their deal with Dixie. First off, thanks very much for coming by and taking the time. My wife and I have both listened to your show before. You’ve got an engaging style, and the topics you hit on are real ones. I can see why your show is popular.

Now. You said:

This is actually going to be a partnership. MommyCast is going to be included in their print and television advertising throughout all of the campaigns this year. Hmmm…millions of dollars of advertising with MommyCast included….millions of potential listeners being introduced to MommyCast….I’ll let you do that math!

Congratulations! That sounds like a terrific opportunity, and I wish you the best with it. However, I think this only reinforces my point that your compensation is undervalued. Millions of dollars invested in messages connected to your show… Exposure to a potential audience of millions… And you guys only get $40,000 at the bottom end of that deal?

What you’re saying is that Dixie recognizes that your show matters. You’re worth a lot to them. And you’re clearly worth a lot to Podshow. You should be worth more to yourselves, too. You deserve a lot more than you’re getting from this. A flat-rate year-long deal means that even if you get those millions of listeners, the payoff to you doesn’t change. It’s too low now, and if you’re superstars in eleven months then it’s really too low.

Perhaps it will pay off for you in secondary advertising, or in new deals after the year is over, and I sincerely hope it does. But as “a standard for others to follow,” I think this dilutes the perceived value of podcast content. Dixie and Podshow are getting far more from your hard work than you are. And as another hardworking podcaster, that bothers me quite a bit, even if it doesn’t bother you.

Finally:

Now, as for the comment that we don’t have day jobs…KaPOW! On behalf of all of the moms around the world…shame on you!

I think you misunderstood me here. My wife and I have an eleven-month-old son. I’d never insult moms — I prefer to keep breathing, thanks. That wasn’t a dig at you, that was a dig at Curry and Podshow’s “Quit Your Day Job” campaign. And the irony in the footnote was meant to be sympathetic irony.

Moms? Big fan. Podshow? Not so much. My mom did get exclusivity from me for a very long time, it’s true — but she never asked me for 60%.

Patrick (from Nobody Likes Onions) and I have had our differences in the past. I cannot elaborate, or I risk collapsing under the weight of euphemism.

Disregarding all that, however, he has written a fairly kickass tool that will check your podcast’s RSS feed for errors that could break clients, common mistakes that could confuse people, and missing elements that it simply thinks you should have. And he’s just updated it to bring it more in line with current iTunes specs and to be more thorough in its RSS syntax checking. Find it here:

http://www.nobodylikesonions.com/feedcheck/

John Federico, Senior Director of Business Development for podcasting at Audible, has consented to an interview with the Pedant. I can say already from my e-mail exchange with him that he’s a great guy, very open to ideas and to honest debate, and he strikes me as genuinely passionate about the value he intends Audible to bring to the podcast community. I have a lot of respect for that. I also think there’s a lot of confusion floating around about exactly what Audible is offering and how it works both technically and as a business model, and a clearer public picture of their service can only be good for everyone.

One thing I want to say right now, and say loudly: Audible is real podcasting. Real RSS feed, real enclosures, standalone files. I was greatly mistaken on that point earlier, and I spoke out of turn. Thanks to both Federico and Russell Holliman for setting me straight.

The interview’s going to be conducted by e-mail, and should be up within a week or two. So if you have questions you’d like me to ask Mr. Federico, leave them in the comments thread. I did promise him fair questions — so cheese like “Why does Audible hate indie podcasters?” or “Has Audible stopped beating its wife?” will be met with scorn.

…Which they describe as “combination producer and editor.” It sounds like they want an audio/video podcast Da Vinci.

Damn damn damn. Writing, producing and editing is already what I do for Escape Pod. And video? Piffle, that’s just stage magic. I could totally nail this thing. But I’m not in Los Angeles, so I may as well tell you folks about it instead.

Good luck!

(REVISED: Wednesday, February 22, 12:05 AM. I initially had a much stronger indictment of Audible here, but it was pointed out to me that my technical understanding of Audible’s distribution model was completely incorrect. For those who read my earlier mistake, my sincere apologies.)

I heard the news yesterday, but I was skeptical about it until I saw confirmation outside Audible’s site: the world’s #1 podcast, The Ricky Gervais Show, is being moved over to Audible on a pay model of $1.95 per show. ¹

For Gervais, of course, this seems like a great short-term move. His podcast’s 12-week run averaged out to 250,000 an episode. If 20% of his audience follows him, he’s pulling $50K to $100K per week. That’s a pretty decent return for a half hour of two guys making fun of a third guy. Of course there’s got to be other staff involved, and a chain of middlemen taking their cuts, but at the end of the day Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington have got to be smiling.²

And frankly, although it pains me to say this, they probably could not have done as well giving their show away for free. Not in the short run, anyway. In theory a quarter-million listeners should mean incredible ad money, but in practice the infrastructure just isn’t there yet for podcasting. They’d be spending more time trying to set up deals than they spent in the studio, and I can’t blame them at all for signing onto an easy pre-built solution. The payment barrier and the distribution barrier are going to knock their audience down to a fraction, but I have the impression from listening that they’re doing it for a lark anyway. They probably don’t care about long term growth limits; they’ll keep doing it until there’s a better opportunity or until it’s not fun anymore, and then they’ll stop. Cash in the meantime? Good for them.

What does it mean for podcasting as a whole? Very little. Because once they move over to Audible, they’re going to be identified more as an “Audible show” rather than a podcast. For Audible that branding is sort of a mixed blessing: they’d love to be synonymous with podcasting, but even with an RSS-based distribution model they’ve still got their site as a highly opaque gateway between the content and the listener. That’s completely unavoidable. Somebody’s got to take the credit cards, and everyone who approaches that gateway is going to look at the cost and the hassle and make a value judgment for themselves whether the ride is worth it.

For Gervais, even if a fairly small percentage of the people say yes, he wins. Because a few percent of 250,000 is still a lot, and because his content has created a genuine pop culture wave. You and me? I don’t think we can afford to cut our audiences by 90%.

So what Gervais does doesn’t matter to the rest of us, I believe. If you have a successful podcast and you think you can follow him down that path, and maintain long-term audience and/or revenue growth, you’re probably making a mistake. You’re placing technical and monetary barriers between yourself and your audience; and by divorcing yourself from the common one-click path to podcasting, just as audiences are beginning to grok that “Subscribe” button, you’re removing yourself from the surface of the excitement bubble that’s still building.

All this is true for Gervais too, of course. Two years from now, if his show’s still going at all, you won’t know about it unless you’re one of his hardcore fans. The only reason I don’t call this a mistake is because I doubt he cares. He’s got The Office, and Pilkington will probably land a million-dollar book deal for his diary.

1. Or $6.95 for “the season,” but it sounds like this is a season in the BBC sense, where I believe the number of episodes is determined by rolling two dice on a craps table. ↩
2. Or whatever Pilkington does instead of smile. ↩

Mr. Nice Guy, on the Yahoo! list:

‘Seems like, much too often, the most analytical comments coming about the medium from within are, more or less, “Oh wow, man, that’s so cool.”

Amen, brother! I’m all for patting each other on the back, but let’s make sure there was a clear reason for patting, and stop before the point where the hand lingers just a moment too long and then gets taken away while both people look away from the other in an embarrassing silence.

(What? I can’t be the only person that happens to!)

Catching up even further on week-old news, I was interviewed by Joseph Nilo for the third episode of Podcaster Confessions. The structure of this one is much like Podcast 411, in that it centers around an interview, but Nilo loads the front and back with information directly targeted at beginning podcasters. I think the podcast is still trying to find its feet, and it’s got a little ways to go before the presentation feels entirely natural, but it’s still within the first few episodes so that’s always true. One it hits its stride I think it has the potential to be one of the most recommended learning resources. Nilo also runs the very polished Mac Pro Podcast,¹ so he conforms to the Rule of Qualification: if you’re going to make a podcast about podcasting, know what you’re talking about first.

Anyway. Good interview. I’m not happy with my own audio quality; I was using a brand new USB headset I’d bought specifically for Skype and nothing else, and should have done more tests with it. But the stuff I said didn’t sound as dumb on subsequent listening as it did when I was saying it. That is the mark of a talented interview producer.

And I didn’t confess! Not even after they shone that bright light in my eyes.

1. Which also interviewed me very briefly in their PodcasterCon video special. I’m the guy with the hat. ↩