Buzzcast
Buzzcast is a roundtable discussion about podcasting from the people at Buzzsprout. We'll cover current events and news, podcast strategy, tools we are using, and dip into the Customer Support mailbag to test our podcasting knowledge. If you want to stay up-to-date on what's working in podcasting, Buzzcast is the show for you.
Buzzcast
Top Podcasters Aren't Bothering With Video—And Neither Should You
Everywhere we turn, someone’s saying that video is essential for podcast growth. But most of the top podcasters in the world aren’t bothering with video. So why are others being pressured to?
In this episode, we break down the reality behind the video podcasting hype, why platforms and marketers are so desperate to push it, and the reason you shouldn't feel guilty about staying audio-only.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- r/Buzzsprout unique marketing ideas thread
- Spotify music podcast takedowns
- Spotify's Push into Video is Missing Some of the Biggest Podcasts
- Joe Rogan Isn't A Podcast (Unpopular Thoughts about Video and Podcasting)
Sound-Off Question: What keeps you motivated to keep podcasting?
Contact Buzzcast
- Send us a text message
- Tweet us at @buzzcastpodcast, @albanbrooke, @kfinn, and @JordanPods
Thanks for listening and Keep Podcasting!
Hey, guess what? The White House had its first podcaster in the press briefing room.
Jordan:Was it you?
Kevin:Wasn't us.
Jordan:Did we get our pass though?
Kevin:Not yet. I think there must be something wrong with my email. It hasn't shown up yet.
Jordan:Some crossed wires, because surely we would have gotten a press pass.
Alban:Yeah, they're like there's the guy who always asks about Amazon Music they're adding podcasts, now they're not adding. Oh, there's the guy who always asks about Amazon Music they're adding podcasts, now they're not adding podcasts. What's the plan? Can the White House look into this? They're like sir Mr Finn. One question per briefing, please.
Kevin:I'm sure I could come up with something that would lead to an executive order. It doesn't seem to be that hard. They're cranking out like 20 a day. Sure, I could do something.
Alban:You need to ask about tariffs for Spotify. Oh, that would be a good one.
Kevin:What country are they from? Again Sweden, sweden, I think yeah.
Alban:And we've got Apple Music. Tim Apple runs Apple Music over here.
Kevin:Yeah, let's just put 25% on. Until they support open podcasting, let's bring them to the negotiation table. Jordan, you found an article on this.
Alban:The White House has received 7,400 requests for new media passes in the first 24 hours. Yeah, did yours make it in the first 24 hours? I think so, yeah.
Jordan:I think we made it in the first 24 hours. We were part of that 7,400.
Kevin:Yeah, I would have been the terrible headline if we hadn't submitted. Then it would have had to say like 7 399 requests yeah, that's lame glad you pushed over the edge, kevin.
Jordan:Yeah welcome back to buzzcast podcast about all things podcasting from the people at buzzsprout. I'm gonna kick things off here with a little bit of housekeeping because we are still getting. This is great, this is really good. But we are still getting submissions for the unique marketing ideas episode that we did a while back, and so if you feel like you missed the boat on that, you can absolutely go to our Buzzsprout subreddit and we have a post in there. I will link to it in the show notes a thread where you can comment about your podcast, and we will give you unique marketing ideas. So it will be coming from us, it will be coming from other members in the Reddit group, but go ahead and join that and then we can get that conversation going for you.
Alban:And I'd encourage other people to jump in there and help come up with ideas, Cause we all have feelings. Everybody who's works in podcasting and listens to podcasts like you've seen good marketing ideas that don't apply to your show and go through the list and read a handful. I went and did a bunch today and just wrote back to people and it's a blast, it's so much fun. I wrote one and the person wrote back right away and was like oh, I've implemented this like 80%, but now I'm seeing that something you have in there will make it so much better. Oh, I just updated it and it was like you know, took me 20 seconds to write it and she went and made the change and now they have a big update. So I'd love for more people to come in there and share their ideas and we'll come up with new marketing ideas together.
Jordan:Have you been seeing that Spotify is doing these super duper extensive takedowns of podcasts?
Alban:Only because you've been posting it to us and sending us your experience.
Jordan:So I vented a little bit in the company chat.
Alban:So you had a bunch of shows taken down.
Jordan:I had 50. I had 50 episodes taken down at like 3 am a couple weeks ago. A few weeks ago.
Kevin:Well, Jordan, maybe you should stop stealing music. Yeah, that's what.
Alban:I was about to say.
Jordan:No, I pay for my licensing. I pay hundreds of dollars a year in licensing so this stings pretty bad and I actually had a lot of other podcasters reaching out to me saying that same is happening with them. And what all these podcasts have in common is that they have music bedding in their podcast. So it might be like an audio drama or an audio fiction, and so just having music in your podcast, like integrated in your podcast, seems to be kind of triggering a bot to remove it.
Kevin:And is there a place inside of your Spotify dashboard, Jordan, that you can say that you have a music license?
Jordan:I don't think so. I haven't been able to find that at all.
Alban:That was going to be my question as well, because when we upload a video to YouTube, you can upload the music license with it, so that if YouTube gets a copyright infringement claim against that video, they can right then adjudicate it. Oh no, looks like there actually is a purchase license for it.
Alban:And if you buy music through something like Epidemic Sound, you can put in this is our YouTube channel, because this is what we do. We get music from them and we say this is the YouTube channel and they go okay, we will never issue a claim against this channel because you've licensed it with us and we see that you're paying it. This just feels like a pretty bad experience. A lot of people probably had music podcasts when Spotify was creating music podcasts. They ended up putting that away and they're not pursuing that anymore. But now it seems like everybody kind of got caught up in this National Music Publishers Association bunch of takedowns and Spotify just started taking all sorts of stuff down.
Jordan:Yeah, I think that they were feeling a lot of heat from the lawsuit, you know, and it was something to do with. They were like bundling audiobooks with music, with podcasts, sort of thing, and so the music industry didn't like that because they're having to share income or something. I didn't fully understand it, but they have issued 2500,500 podcast takedowns, so that's the reasoning for it. But I really think that Spotify, even though they were kind of having a little bit of a bravado about it in the media and, you know, just feeling it was a little bit ridiculous, I feel like their actions of just kind of like mass deleting episodes that could potentially infringe upon this seems to say that they care deeply.
Alban:Okay, this makes a lot more sense now the way you said that Spotify has to pay the music holders. They pay them for all the streams. So Spotify wants podcasts and audio books and other stuff to be more popular because then they don't have to pay all the music holders rights and so they're like their costs will go down. And it's why Spotify has gone so heavy in podcasting and why now they've gotten into audio books and I bet the music rights holders were okay with it back when they were still getting paid. With all the music in podcasts they're like it doesn't really affect us. People are on Spotify, we still make money. Until Spotify started saying, well, we don't pay you for any podcast stuff. And then they go well, screw that, we're going to go find any podcast we can that has any music, and we're going to say it's a violation unless proven otherwise. And so that probably kicked off. Everything got way way more strict in Spotify and I think that is fair.
Jordan:I mean, there are a lot of podcasts out there that just make playlists, not through the Spotify thing, because they have. They have that like music DJ thing that they know they killed that.
Alban:They killed that Well yeah, I bet that is part of what's kicked off all these strikes that makes sense.
Jordan:Yeah, but I mean other than that. I mean there are a lot of podcasters that do have music like they try to treat it like a radio station in their podcast and Spotify is going nah, we're not messing with that. But in the meantime the algorithm is also saying like. In my email it said videos with little or no audible talking can be removed by our automatic review process.
Alban:Oh, so you're getting caught even more because of your soft bedtime story voice.
Jordan:Yeah, and I just don't think the bot can like distinguish between me talking over ambient music and like an actual song.
Kevin:I mean, Spotify needs to do a better job.
Kevin:They need to allow you to, at a minimum, say that you have licensed content in there so that when stuff gets flagged, they could reach out to you or something or give you a different appeal process that maybe gets a closer look by a human.
Kevin:But then, like beyond that, I think they should do something like YouTube, like offer APIs on both sides where you can put in your Spotify listing at the place that you license the music, so that they won't even file a claim to begin with. Youtube is kind of crazy the way that they do it. When you Alban I'm sure you've seen these emails If you forget to upload your license to your music, you'll get a email that says a copyright infringement has been filed against this video and therefore we are now monetizing it. But we're paying them instead of you and so the copyright holder for the music, like if any revenue is generated from that content that you uploaded, they get it, not you, and so you're highly incented, especially if you're trying to make any money off of that content that you uploaded to YouTube to get your licenses squared away.
Jordan:That feels like a very positive consequence, though it's not just like nope, it's gone, it's erased.
Kevin:Yeah, it's kind of smart, right, because the copyright holder. They're like yeah, you can take it down, ok, but nobody's going to get any benefit if you just take it down. So the deal that YouTube is struck with these license holders is how about we leave it up, but we pay you instead of the person who did it? And it seems to be working like everyone is motivated in the right way. Yeah, I like that idea. You're motivated to make sure your licenses are squared away, and if you don't, then they're going to still get something, something you mentioned.
Jordan:There was Spotify having like a better appeal process, and so if you do end up getting one of these takedown emails, you have to click the appeal link that is in the episode specific email to fill out an appeal form. It's not like a huge process.
Alban:So when you get 50 of these, when you get 50, you have to click.
Jordan:And I tried kind of playing hardball with them and I wrote one appeal and I said you took 50 out, put them back. And they were like yep, sounds good, we'll have them back in the next 24 hours. And, like now, I have a couple episodes back, but some are still missing. And then I have these weird blank episodes kind of hanging out in my list that have a published date of like December 31st 1969. And I don't, I don't know what's going on. It's a mess. So I actually wish that I just copy and pasted every single appeal instead of trying to play hardball with them and make them do it.
Alban:Jordan, you did a very nice episode for your podcast. For anyone who doesn't know, jordan has a podcast where she tells bedtime stories in a very, very calm Jordan voice with music in the background. And then you had one and it was like I didn't put all these behind a paywall. I actually they were all taken down by Spotify and I'm working with their appeals process and like you're trying to say, okay, someone was actually asleep while they listened to it, but it was a very calming appeal to Spotify to please put my music back up.
Jordan:It was really funny because I was just like, okay, how do I not stress my listeners out while letting them know that there was like a huge takedown? And so I did that whole thing where it's just like I am going to get this resolved and, in the meantime, just go back to another episode and pick out another bedtime story, have sweet dreams, bye. And Priscilla actually wrote me and she's like, oh my gosh, your dreamful voice explaining the Spotify takedown is killing me. But yeah, I think that's the other thing is just like having communication with your listeners too, and it was really cool because I got a bunch of fan mail from listeners, I got comments on my Spotify episode explain the takedown. And there was a whole bunch of love and support from listeners. So, yeah, I definitely think if you have anything like that, just communicate that, all right.
Jordan:So in Bloomberg, in the soundbite newsletter, ashley Carmen posted a another article about Spotify's push into video podcasting and I feel like there has been just such a big pressure for podcasters to move into video podcasting and I think that Ashley Carmen actually calls out the fact that the people who are doing this push into video podcasting kind of have skin in the game, like. It's on them to make it popular. It's on them to make it the next big thing, so that their companies can benefit from it.
Alban:All right. So the main takeaway from this article is everyone's talking about how video is so great and Ashley Carmen goes through the top 50 podcasts in the world and goes how many of them actually doing video. Yeah, and she finds, of the top 50 shows, these are the shows with the biggest budgets, the biggest teams, the most successful ads, the best monetization, the best content. 37 of them of the top 50 are doing video on YouTube and eight of them are doing video on Spotify. The only thing I can take away from this is like the joke has got to be over now. It's got to be done.
Alban:We've done this so many times. We've done on this show. We've talked about it endlessly. We talk about you've got to do video, You've got to do video. It's over. Like, well, not us. We're not saying you got to do video, I know, but everyone's saying it and we keep saying is that really right? There's so many downsides to video. Is that really right? Maybe not, and I sat here since I've read this and I've been trying to put this together into words with some kind of analogy, and I think I have it.
Jordan:Okay.
Alban:Imagine you want to start a coffee house. You have a coffee shop and you go online and everyone on LinkedIn, everyone in the blog posts, everyone who's supposedly done good coffee shops in the past, say number one thing you've got to have is an Instagram. The number one thing to start a coffee shop is an Instagram.
Kevin:I thought you were going to say scones.
Alban:Everyone's saying you've got to have an Instagram and you've got to have cool latte art and you have to have influencers and you need to be doing short form video, and you're getting overwhelmed with all these ideas about Instagram or else your coffee shop will fail. But then the Ashley Carmen of coffee shops does a report and says actually, the top 50 coffee shops in Jacksonville, 37 of them have Instagram and only eight of them are really going anywhere else besides Instagram. You know and doing any other social media, and you're like whoa, whoa, whoa I've been hearing this whole time the only way I'll ever make any money is if I go and do all of the social media platforms. And you spent all this time and this effort and stress learning how to do latte art instead of figuring out how to grind coffee beans and serve people at a counter. And we would say, of course, that's ridiculous. You're a coffee shop. Focus on the coffee shop part. And then, once that's solved and you've got a second employee, then maybe we look at what new marketing channels do we want to open up for this coffee shop. Once we see we're not getting enough people in the door, we go let's solve that problem. Now we have the coffee roasting part and we have the cups and we have everything else sorted. And with podcasting, we have not even sorted out. Do we have coffee cups for our coffee yet? Do we have scones? None of that's been solved and people are hearing you've got to be doing latte art videos.
Alban:These are the biggest budgeted podcasts in the world. They have the team. They've got 10, 15 people. They could hire the smartest video editor, the smartest script writer, the best people to do makeup for the podcast. They're coming up with sets. They've got everybody there and 13 of the 50 go not even worth it, not even worth the hassle.
Alban:And then 42 of the 50 say even if it is worth it, we're not going to go upload it to multiple platforms, we'll just throw it on the big one, youtube. So if that's the case, we're done. I feel like we should feel no more stress, no more pressure to go do video, figure out the podcast part, figure out the storytelling and get some content and make things. And if you in yourself go I will enjoy this and I want to do it then you can consider it later on. But until that moment happens inside of you, you want to do it, then you can consider it later on. But until that moment happens inside of you, you want to do the video. You never have to do it Like I feel, like we should all just feel complete freedom that this is open.
Jordan:Well, and I think that people need to keep in mind that we're hearing this stuff from those who are in the industry. They're set to make money from this. It's the platform, it's the advertisers, it's all these different people And're set to make money from this. It's the platform, it's the advertisers, it's all these different people, and you have to keep that in mind, like where you're getting this information. So in Spotify's annual revenue report or whatever, they said that they had like 6 million podcasts on Spotify, 330,000 video podcasts on the platform and 140% jump in video podcast consumption among the top US shows. It's just like wild to me that we had discussed on the last episode, second to last episode, that there's only like 400,000 active podcasts.
Alban:There's like 440,000 active podcasts and yet we're hearing from Spotify. 330,000 video podcasts exist on the platform.
Kevin:I think the word podcast is being loosely interpreted.
Jordan:Exactly.
Kevin:For a nice fluffy press release. That's probably episodes. They probably have had 330,000 episodes uploaded, I'm guessing.
Jordan:I was thinking the exact same thing. I was like, okay, it's gotta be this. But the way that they worded it, they later said episodes like specified episodes. So I think that they mean video podcasts. However, I know for a fact that my daughter will be watching like YouTube videos like Unspeakable or Mr Beast on Spotify, and I feel like those must be uploaded as like podcasts in some way. It's just. It's like that article that was in pod news this morning talking about how Joe Rogan is in a podcast and how he's actually just a successful video interview series. That also translates well to podcasts and there's, there's gotta be some sort of like differentiation here.
Kevin:I liked that article a lot. I did. I did read that article that you're referencing, jordan buzzy. You know clickbaity headline with the Joe Rogan not being a podcast, but the subtitle of that article is like unpopular thoughts about video and podcasting, which is obviously a much more accurate title for what the article is talking about. That article does a really good job of explaining the situation around a video-first show, an audio-first show, a multi-platform what do they call it? Multi-platform strategy is what they call it.
Kevin:There's a lot of good stuff in thinking about the content that you're creating as a multi-platform strategy and for most people who probably listen to this show, who probably podcast on Buzzsprout or a similar podcast hosting service, the chances that you're creating content that will easily translate to a compelling video show are probably very, very low. We'll just talk about our show. For example, we're sitting right now in Riverside, all separate places around the country talking to each other. We've got three talking heads on a screen. We could record this for sure. I think Riverside is probably recording the video aspect of it. We could upload that to video sharing services like YouTube, like Spotify, like X, whatever, and we've experimented with that in the past. We've tried it in the past Didn't get any traction, didn't help the show because it's not engaging video. One of the quotes I like the most from this article is he says something about like if I could entice you with an hour or so of your time to sit in on somebody's Zoom call, would that be interesting to you?
Alban:No, that's exactly what this show is yeah, that's what you're doing. Yeah, and it's okay when Jordan edits it down to be a tighter Zoom call that you listen to while you're doing something else. The first comment we ever got or maybe not the first, the one that sticks out to me when we put these on YouTube was why does Alban look so mad? It's because I'm not trying to show emotion for the camera the full time that I'm on there. That's just how my face looks when it sits there. That's just my face. But everyone's used to video. Where you're doing video first content, Everyone's got like highly emotive and they're interacting with each other. But we're on a Zoom call pretty much right now and that's what it looks like. And our talking heads aren't at the same. They're not in the same size. Mine's right near the top of the screen, Kevin's got a kind of a downward angle. It's just all different. It would not translate well to video. We'd have to start doing video first things even to make it like a decent talking head zoom call. Yeah, Right.
Kevin:Now, oftentimes, when you do a video first production and you take into account things that will make a compelling video. So you have multiple cameras, you've got really good lighting, you've got sets, you have most likely you have people in the same room as each other.
Jordan:Yeah.
Kevin:You have like a producer who's running camera switches and stuff like that to flip back and forth between this camera or that camera or whatever. I could go on Like. You have microphones that don't obscure the people's faces, you have a sound treated room, lots of stuff that just makes it right for multiple people together in the same room and you're recording a video first production. Oftentimes if you make that level of investment, it translates really well to an audio only experience also.
Jordan:Yeah.
Kevin:Now I'm not saying it's one-to-one like. There might be some certain things that you have to do. You might produce it a little bit differently, you might cut it a little bit differently. There could be times when you're referencing something visual that you then have to either cut out of the audio or something because people would get confused. You might put different bumpers on it, but for the most part it's doable. It's doable if you have this video first production and your content is mostly about the audio portion of what you're saying. To translate that to audio.
Kevin:Going the other way, going from an audio first production to compelling video is very difficult. It's a huge leap and oftentimes what it results in is just really bad video content, content that's not engaging. And then here's, I think, the compounding problem. On top of that, youtube is by far the largest distributor of online video content. I believe that's a factual statement, right by like orders of magnitude, orders of magnitude, right. And their whole business model is we want people to stay on YouTube. We don't care which video they're watching. So even if you get to the point of somebody got onto YouTube and found your video and clicked on it and started watching for a few seconds, as soon as they get bored, youtube is there with something hopefully more compelling. They have a finely tuned algorithm to make sure that the person, when they get bored, doesn't leave YouTube, they just click something else. Yeah, right, to make sure that the person, when they get bored, doesn't leave YouTube, they just click something else.
Kevin:There's videos all around your video and I'm pretty sure YouTube is really good at figuring out. Okay, this person's getting a little bored. Now what else can we show them? How do I get them to stay on YouTube? I don't care if you keep watching this video or not, just don't leave. And so you're not only fighting. I have to produce good content. It has to be highly visually engaging, but it also has to be so good that all the distractions all around this video are not tempting enough for me to click onto something that might look even more engaging. Right, there's all these really cool thumbnails and stuff all around and they're changing, and these are the trending videos. And doesn't this look hilarious? And it's all going on all around your content.
Kevin:Audio podcasting doesn't have any of that, and Spotify is just going to get more like. If they really want to compete with YouTube, they're going to have to get more and more into that space. Right now, they're not doing, I don't think, a really great job of making sure you stay like on platform, like YouTube is, but they will be. I mean their whole model. Why are they pushing video? But they will be, I mean their whole model. Why are they pushing video? Because it's easier for them to monetize with ads and so if they're making money through ads, they want, they're going to want you to stay on that platform longer and longer and longer, which means again, if you find this at all a little boring, if you're thinking about turning off your phone, we can't have that. We've got to show you something else.
Alban:So TikTok discovered the most addictive type of content that could be created are those visual, those short form videos that you can swipe up and you get a next one, next one, next one. That is the most addictive content format we've ever discovered. Tiktok found it and now everybody else is just copied it and sticking it into their platforms because they realize it's so sticky that it's really great for us to have it over here on Instagram, and now it's infiltrated Facebook. It's infiltrated X. It's everywhere, and as somebody who really loved Twitter because it was primarily text-based, or YouTube because it was long form videos, or Facebook, I guess I liked it for Facebook marketplace.
Alban:Like, they've all now just become infiltrated with this like highly addictive video content, and it really degrades the experience for me, because the things I used to like about each one have become like hidden so that they can all just compete for the same exact type of highly addictive short form video. I think maybe part of this is I just don't want us to be part of encouraging more creators who are doing something different, even if ours is not as highly addicting it's not. Let's keep doing our thing, though, because, like, we don't want to also like everyone go and just only create the most highly addictive short form video until we find actually doing something else is even more addicting, and then everyone moves to that. Let's be excited. We have something really, really good audio content where you're not demanding someone's full attention. They can still do it with family members and everyone's listening to the same podcast on a road trip.
Alban:We have something good here and we don't have to tell people. The only way this will ever really be successful is if you translate it into video. If you translate it into short form video and you have a multi-platform strategy. It's like you're telling someone how to be a fortune 500 company before they've opened the coffee shop. Let's chill out and just say like, let's focus on running good little coffee shops, little corner stands for a bit before we tell everybody the business strategy on how to become Starbucks.
Jordan:Yeah.
Kevin:I brought a clip. The sentiment that you're touching on, Alban, was discussed by James and Sam on the Pod News Weekly Review. They did at the end of 2024. I think they dropped this episode at the beginning of January, but they did like lowlights and James's lowlight for the year of 2024, he had a take on video podcasting, so lowlights are the bad thing from the year.
Alban:The bad things yeah.
Podnews Weekly Review:Now, james, let's get on to your lowlights of 2024. Right, Well, lowlight number one for me is the rush to video. I just think it's such a short-sighted thing for the podcast industry to be doing, to rushing away from the very thing that we have in our favour, which is that podcasts are there entertainment for your ears or while your eyes are busy. That's the fundamental thing that podcasting offers and that radio offers. By the way, if you turn it into television or, in podcasting's case, if you turn it into cheap television, I fail to understand where the benefit is over all of the other myriad of media out there. So I just think that the rush to video is possibly the biggest low light, not just for last year, but the biggest low light in the last five years of the industry. It's just such a short-sighted move, if you'll pardon the pun, and I just think it's wholly and truly the wrong thing.
Alban:That makes me so happy. I was nervous, kevin, that James Cridland was going to have the opposite take, and so I was like I'm going to hate arguing with James about this. But yeah, why are we taking our audio content and saying, oh, the only way this is valid is if it goes toe to toe with the Bachelor or something like all this low quality video content that's out there. I have to make something just like that and I have to turn it into something else where it will not do as well and it will not be optimized for that format. The world is full of possibilities, and why are we not excited that we have a different possibility than 90 Day Fiance? It's like we don't have to be in the same world.
Jordan:Well, the other thing that I think was mentioned is that podcast listening. It happens when people are busy doing other things, they're not watching a video. There's that one podcast. It's really a YouTube channel, but they made it an audio format. The ninjas are butterflies. I forget they have that company Sunday. Cool right, yep, yeah, super cool podcast. Super cool. People love it. It's very fun. But the thing is is like I found them on instagram, I went to listen to them and I was busy doing something and they have long periods where they're watching like viral, weird videos and they're just silently watching it and I'm like what is going on? Because it's not translating to audio and so it's. It's frustrating for me as a listener that I have to like stop what I'm doing and then like change the thing because it's not appropriate for washing dishes or driving the car.
Kevin:Yeah, james, he said it so succinctly and I'm going to adopt this phrase, but he said entertainment for your ears while your eyes are busy.
Jordan:Yeah.
Kevin:That's so good. That is the secret sauce of audio podcasting, and I shouldn't even call it audio podcast, I just should just call it podcasting. I think he's also trying to make that clear too.
Alban:And audio radio, kevin.
Kevin:Yeah, audio radio. Right, Podcasting is primarily audio. So, like, when we say podcasting, that should be what people think of, is something that you listen to, not something that you watch. There's already plenty of words for things that we watch, like TV, and a lot of people just say, like I mean, youtube has basically become like the bandaid of bandages, like everyone knows what YouTube is. It's something that you watch. Now Spotify might want to start become you know, to become something that you watch as well. Fine, you can all have your own words for things that you watch. But, like, leave podcasting alone.
Kevin:Podcasting is not really. I mean, video podcasting has been around for a long time and we called it video podcasting and when we just said podcasting, that kind of meant listening and that's it's just so much clearer. Anyway, I really like this idea of it's entertainment for your ears while your eyes are busy. That is the magic and part of the beauty, part of what we love about podcasting. I hope that resonates with people who listen to this show, that you enjoy podcasts that you listen to, because it's a respectful form of media consumption and entertainment and education and all the things that you go to podcasts for. But video is different and the complexity around doing the video is high. We've talked about that plenty. I don't want this to sound like I'm really slamming on people, people who are trying to give video a go.
Jordan:Yeah.
Kevin:But the idea that you would do low quality video content and then stick it on a platform with somewhere in the ballpark of 50 million channels, right, and tons of distractions all around you, and that is going to be the unlock for you in your creator journey that that is what you know. The algorithm is going to find my content, it's going to promote me, it's going to take me to the next level. I'm going to start having you know like sponsorship opportunities flood my inbox and I'm going to finally make it as an online content creator.
Kevin:It's false hopes, it's not fair, it's not a good message and, beyond just the fact that it's not reality, I really feel like it's unfortunate in that the side effect that comes along with that is that it will rob you of a ton of your money. You're going to invest a ton of money in it. It's going to rob you of a lot of your time. It's going to ultimately probably lead to a lot burnout for a lot of people, because it's not about creating content anymore. It's about buying a $500 light and getting a $2,000 camera and getting a new laptop and soundproofing your studio and if I have guests on, we got to be in the same room and editing takes a lot longer and yeah, yeah, yeah, all that stuff that goes into it is going to lead to you being two months in this journey and just being like this is like a job and I don't have an extra 40 hours a week to put into my hobby.
Alban:Yeah, it's a job, except that you pay to do the job. You pay a lot. I think what I'm noticing, kevin, is it's not YouTube that I'm against, because I really love YouTube. I truly love watching videos on YouTube. What I don't like is somebody who's doing something else podcasting saying for me to be successful, I have to be on YouTube. And now YouTube is only the path for you to make it to this hypothetical success, which turns out it's not likely. It's also not necessary. We now learned because a lot of these top podcasters aren't doing it. It's not likely or necessary. And so now you're going to be doing bad YouTube and bad podcasting for the benefit of probably just burnout, where you could just have been doing a cool YouTube video. I watched a video the other day I thought was excellent and all it was was this kid talking straight to a camera from his iPhone with no editing at all, and it still can be good, but because he wasn't trying to build some media empire, he's just trying to share a specific message, and you can do that in any number of formats, but it's when you constrain.
Alban:We do this a lot at work. When we pick projects, we try to tighten the scope of what the project is to what's absolutely necessary, and I think with content creation, what's often absolutely necessary is I share this particular thing that's important to me. For us today was to record an episode about video podcasts, and we wanted to share our opinions. But if we added in and it has to reach 10,000 people and we have to do video, we have to do all the other things it would make it so daunting we would never do it. And so I'm saying tighten it down. What is the important piece of your podcast and then let's nail that and rather than adding on all these superfluous things that will not help you nail the thing you're trying to do.
Alban:Kevin met somebody at PodFest who did a show about the 1% in recovery, about people who are recovering from addiction. That's the type of podcast I love, because they will tell you if we're impacting a handful of people, it's worth it because we're changing their lives. That's a powerful podcast, it's a powerful message, and I think that's true for a lot of podcasters. We're trying to reach a handful of people in an important, powerful way, and that's what we're trying to do. But, as soon as we say, the only way it's valuable is if it reaches a million plus people.
Alban:Well, now you've really constrained the types of messages you can share and you're probably going to share something like what's on all reality TV. It's kind of a bunch of junk. That's highly enjoyable for a period, but it's not deep because it's broad appeal, and I think James is right. I think like this whole idea of taking audio content which allows us to have certain types of conversations and certain topics, I don't know, come to the forefront. A lot of those disappear once you go. Now it's got to also be on video, that's the argument.
Kevin:I love it, but I don't want the keystone to that argument and I don't want the deciding factor of whether that argument is true or not to be how many video shows are live on Spotify at any given moment. I say that because I do believe that Spotify is going to continue to invest in this area. I do believe they're going to continue to reach out to anybody who's doing a podcast type video show on YouTube and do whatever they have to do to entice them to get their video content uploaded to Spotify as well. The lift is not huge. You're already producing a high quality video show and uploading it to YouTube. What's the extra 30, 40 minutes to make sure that you get it on Spotify as well? I think that Spotify as a video platform is going to continue to grow. So, when we look back, if Ashley writes an update to an article at the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026.
Alban:And nine of them are uploading video, or 20 or nine or 10 or all of them, maybe it's even all of them.
Kevin:Maybe Spotify goes all out and says we're going to actually just like pay these people to do it. I mean, the majority of people who are posting content to YouTube do not have a YouTube exclusivity license agreement in place, so they might also start putting it like what if X jumps on board and says, hey, we want to get more video content on our platform as well? It makes sense for the platforms. Again, a lot of monetization happens around video content, and so they're all incented in a way to get as much of it as they can. But the popularity of certain shows that are video first productions, getting on different platforms, should not be an indicator that audio first content needs to go video as well. Yes, what?
Alban:happened for me today was the last of the arguments for why you need to be doing video went away. All the other ones I already knew were kind of a joke, Like you've got to be doing video because it's more important than audio, and I went no, really Audio has a special place. The other argument was well, it helps you grow, and I'm like it can help you grow, but look at even the top shows. Not all of them are doing video.
Alban:And oh well it's the best way to monetize is the best way to like. There were all these arguments and the last one was everybody's doing it, yeah, and I'm like. And even the top shows with the biggest budgets, with the biggest team, with the most experience, even they're not all doing it. It'd be like a publishing house telling you the only way for your book to ever be successful is if you do a world book tour and you're an author stressing over the world book tour and then all of a sudden you found out the top 50 biggest books on the New York Times bestsellers, only 35 of them did a book tour. You go well, forget that. Then I've been hearing over and over and over from the guy who schedules book tours. You got to do book tours and then you found out that it was a lie the whole time. Anyway, good riddance, no more book tours unless you want to do it.
Kevin:I will say you know, a lot of the, a lot of the podcasts that I listened to are video first productions. I don't find it compelling to watch them in their video format. And maybe I'm unique, maybe I'm special, but I can't, I'm not. I know everyone in my life tells me the opposite. They tell me I'm not unique and I'm not special.
Jordan:You're special to us though.
Kevin:There's some wisdom in that and I do think I'm not crazy unique in the way that I enjoy listening to podcasts while I'm doing other things, and oftentimes, like Alban mentioned earlier, I will find a podcast on YouTube that has a clip or something like that, and then I'll be like, oh, that sounds like an interesting conversation. I have no interest in being tied to a screen and watching that for an hour hour and a half two hours. I am very much inclined to go flip over to my podcast app, queue up that episode and listen to it on when I'm walking the dog tonight. That sounds wonderful. But what does not sound wonderful is to sit in front of my phone for an hour and a half and ignore my kids and ignore the things I've got to do around the house. That just feels like awful to me, and that's nothing against anybody who does enjoy taking some of their leisure time and doing that. But you can see what the point I'm trying to make here is that they're very different. You know the state of mind that you're in and I just don't think it's going away.
Kevin:Podcasting has been around for more than 20 years. I think. Whatever happens in the video space, it will continue to be around. There might be technologies that disrupt and provide different ways to listen to things, like what happened with radio. Radio is still around Now. A lot of people are starting to consume radio in different ways. Some people are listening to like radio podcasts. Some people are tuning into radio through XM satellite. Some people are tuning into radio by streaming a radio station through their phone when they're driving in a car, because they want to listen to the same station regardless of what state they're driving in a car, because they want to listen to the same station regardless of what state they're driving through, yeah, but it's still going to be around.
Kevin:And I think the same is true for podcasts. Podcasts are going to be around. Are there going to be as many? Are there going to be less? Are there going to be tenfold more? I don't know. I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that there'll always be people who are walking dogs. There are always going to be people who are exercising. There are always going to be people who just want to go out and sit on their back porch and listen to something while they're enjoying nature and looking at the trees instead of looking at a screen. I don't think that's going to change in 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, and so you might actually you know, queue it up on your Apple ring and it just streams to the microchip in your head. That might happen, but and it just streams to the microchip in your head. That might happen, but I still think we're going to want to consume audio without the visual component.
Alban:Yeah, and we've got to vote for the things we want to see in the world. If the future you want is the future of everything's kind of like long form video like you can, just you can vote for that and that's what you should be creating. And if the future you want is YouTube style world, then, like, create that stuff. But if what you want is more of what podcasting affords, we should be voting for that. Podcasting and blogs are what I really really love, and then I really enjoy YouTube. Those are the things I should be voting for, and I should not be apologizing for like oh sorry, we didn't also make this a video, sorry, we didn't put this on TikTok as well. I just don't think those are valuable. I don't think they're very healthy, especially for me, so I should just be really comfortable in saying no, that's not the thing we're voting for.
Jordan:And we're not saying that video is just bad. I know it sounds like we're dunking on it pretty tough here.
Alban:I am, I'm just bad. I know it sounds like we're dunking on it pretty tough.
Jordan:I am, I'm over it, I'm really like you also said that you love consuming YouTube videos. Yeah, give me long form video. Yeah, I would ban Tik TOK and I would ban all short form video. They tried and it didn't work. You got to get in that white house press room.
Alban:Like if I could just encourage my daughter to never watch a short form video in her entire life, I would do that. Oh yeah, like I'm just gonna say this isn't healthy, it's not good.
Jordan:No.
Alban:And there's better ways to spend your life.
Kevin:Just like I said, I think consuming audio first content is going to be around for generations. I do think short form video has a life cycle and I don't think it's going to be around for generations. Ooh, I think we're going to start to find out that it's actually way worse for you and I think it's going to like go the way of smoking. I mean, kids are already calling it brain rot and they do like brain rock quizzes and stuff like that. It's very concerning that. My 15 year old is actually really good at these brain rock quizzes. What's brain rock quiz? Google it is actually really good at these brain rot quizzes. What's brain rot quiz? Google it.
Kevin:Brain rot, it's. It's what they call it. When you sit there and scroll all day, you just start learning and consuming all this just garbage and it's it's funny words and silly memes and all that kind of stuff. And then they quiz each other on. You know, do you know about this one? Do you know about this one?
Kevin:And I think the younger generation is already starting to see it's not cool. Like it's not cool. Like it's not cool to sit on your phone and scroll all day. That's not good for you. Like they have. This one of the brain rot things is like you need to go touch grass, like get outside and do something, and so like if you're already starting to see pushback in really young kids around this stuff, I think as they mature up it's going to be not cool anymore. Now there will be something else that follows, but like nobody calls listening to a podcast or listening to the radio or something they don't call it brain rot. Snl is about to. Oh yeah, anyway, I think we've made the point and it feels good to talk about it. It feels good to push back a little bit.
Kevin:You know, I think this stuff is all sourcing from the big video platforms. I think they're doing a good job of getting their creators and their PR teams and stuff out there, spreading this message of if you want to be a creator online, the key to success is getting onto our platforms and the video content. And then a lot of you know pro-Sumer type coaches. You know podcast coaches. They make some of their income by saying, hey, we're going to help you do that, we're going to show you the right strategy and the right equipment that you need and we're going to set up our own YouTube channel showing all the cameras you need and how to set up your home studio, and there's a lot of people who generate a lot of their livelihood around pushing whatever the current narrative is that usually starts at like big corporations big video.
Kevin:Yeah, and so it's good to come out is? You know? I guess we have our own corporate message and that is no. Audio podcasting is cool too and it's good for a lot of reasons and we don't want to forget that. But I think overall, our messages for podcasters who are interested in doing audio only content like relieve yourself of the pressure.
Jordan:Yeah.
Kevin:And if you do want to do video, great, go out and do video. But recognize that just taking your audio first production and sticking it on a video platform is not going to be a magic unlock for success.
Jordan:All right, so let's get into sound off. So our first fan mail message is from Michigan Murders and Music. I love your better fans idea. Thank you, that's to you, Alban, talking about in our second last episode how we just need better fans we need to be better fans idea. Thank you, that's to you, Alban, talking about in our second last episode how we just need better fans, we need to be better fans.
Alban:Well, Michigan Murders and Music. Thanks for being one of our best fans and writing in on the fan mail. Uh, somebody wrote in from Soldotna, Alaska, and said I thought the SNL skit was a dig at guys and podcasts place in current culture, not podcasting itself. Yeah, You're probably right.
Kevin:A hundred percent Right. I'm just overly sensitive.
Alban:Uh, number two listening to your podcast keeps me engaged and encouraged to keep putting one podcast foot in front of the other. Thank you. Well, thank you, and a good point about SNL.
Kevin:Another fan mail came in from Alaska. This time Anchorage says I have to agree with Jordan. Saturday Night Live is not funny, never been funny. It's been occasionally mildly amusing. But the best thing to ever come out of Saturday Night Live was the Blues Brothers. That's their take. I would say I would put Hans and Franz up against the Blues Brothers. That's their take. I would say I would put Hans and Franz up against the Blues Brothers, but only maybe because Blues Brothers were a little bit before my time and so I grew up the recurring skit. That was hilarious to me.
Jordan:We are here to pump you up? Yes, what about Wayne's World, too? That's a classic as well.
Kevin:I like the Wayne's World stuff, but I don't know, I would still put Hans and Franz. I just thought they were hilarious. I feel the Wayne's World stuff, but I don't know, I would still put Hans and Franz. I just thought they were hilarious.
Alban:I feel like old Will Ferrell. Tina Fey was like prime SNL years for me.
Kevin:Oh yeah, that was really good.
Alban:There's so much good stuff.
Jordan:I also want to point out that maybe I need to go visit Alaska because they think like me.
Kevin:Yeah, but if you think about the amount of content that Saturday Night Live cranks out for the handful of memorable skits, it's like their batting average is probably really low.
Alban:Oh, I can't believe this is an SNL show now.
Jordan:I just can't let it go.
Alban:Go watch some of the weekend updates and they are so funny, like I've watched some recently, but it's like an hour and a half of content for like yeah, you got to skip 45 seconds, a minute and a half of laugh.
Kevin:That's pretty low Like I don't think you'd make it in the MLB.
Jordan:All right, so we're going to move on to our sound off question from last episode what does your creator journey look like? So, first off, we got a message from Steph from Geopats, and Steph said that she had an expat blog back in 2003, 2004, took a decade long content break and then started a podcast and YouTube channel in 2017. And now she's got podcast, youtube channel, newsletter and three social media channels and she said she dialed back from running too many socials, which is shocking to me. I don't know how many she must've been running.
Alban:That's a lot yeah.
Jordan:Yeah.
Alban:Damien the DM, which is a dungeon master. I think, like D&D, started as a listener of actual play podcasts and then, after enjoying other people's Dungeon and Dragons games and stories, decided to become a dungeon master themselves and do his own podcast. So very cool story, Damien. Yeah.
Kevin:Sparkling D wrote in and said that she started with in-person holistic health education classes, then she moved to Zoom webinars, then she started moving those webinars into YouTube recordings and uploading to YouTube and then, when YouTube started getting podcasts, she looked into audio podcasts and then she got started with Buzzsprout's how to Start a Podcast YouTube series.
Jordan:Solid series.
Kevin:That's a really encouraging story. Somebody who started on YouTube first and then came to audio podcast. Yeah, it's because.
Alban:Dee's into holistic health and she noticed the brain rot of all the video platforms.
Jordan:Terry from the Int eating and body positivity podcast says that they started in podcasting first and they said I'm very all or nothing, and so on a complete whim. One day I said I'm going to start a podcast and I did that day.
Alban:Yes.
Jordan:Yeah, and now Terry generates blogs, social captions, emails and everything from the podcast content. I love that. Repurposing, recycling the content work smarter, not harder.
Alban:Barnabas from the Kids Code podcast I used to come up with designs and ideas every morning decided in 2021 to do a podcast about secret messages, and the Kids Code podcast was born.
Alban:It's amazing how many details were in place the moment I had the idea and I went forward and created it. Unlike many ideas, there's still notes in a folder somewhere now, nearing the end of season five, almost four years later, I really feel like this is like the theme we've come back to over and over. There's a lot of ideas that end up in a folder and die, and lots of the things that die, they died for a good reason, because they weren't really a great idea, but a lot of things I'm noticing now die because we put a lot of expectations on them. It has to be a massively successful show, it has to be done in a certain way with five different social media platforms, and I just want to make a few more things live and get to see the light of day, and so I love that. Barnabas, you had this idea and this was one of your ideas that made it all the way to a podcast, and now it's five years later, four seasons, still going strong All right, jordan, is it my turn?
Kevin:Yeah, sound off. Question from Kevin. Here's what I'm interested in what are you using as a podcaster to stay motivated? One of the sayings that we always sign off this show with and it's like the official tagline of Buzzsprout is keep podcasting, and that requires motivation. So what are you doing to keep yourself motivated to keep podcasting? Does that make sense? Yes, Alban Jordan, like, do you have some ideas? Like, what are some strategies you guys have heard of or you use to keep podcasting?
Alban:For two months I've been running on just feeling like we did a really good episode in December on all these marketing ideas and then we heard from people in person. They said man, that episode really stood out to me and I probably prepped two full days for that episode like 16 hours of work prepping for it and that got me so motivated to do a lot more shows and do more prep for shows. I haven't had the opportunity to do it, but just those few interactions has been like multiple months of going. Oh man, we can do really good stuff. I'm excited to keep growing with this show. So does that answer the question?
Kevin:right. Yeah, that's a great example. What about you, Jordan?
Jordan:I think for me, one that just kind of spring to mind immediately when I think about like what makes me most motivated and like proud of my podcast, is when my daughters create like dreamful artwork and they give it to me, or they come downstairs and they're like mom, I'm wearing my dreamful shirt today, biggest fan, and it just warms my heart so much. I'm like I'm never giving this up. So I think that's mine. What about you, kevin?
Kevin:Yeah, I love it. One of the things that keeps me motivated is interactions with our listeners, which is why I really love the sound off segment that we do, because that's where we drive the majority of the feedback from our listeners, and so I'm hoping that this doesn't come back to bite me here, but I'm hoping we get a lot of people who answer this question. I find it highly motivational to connect with people who listen to our show. Numbers are great, like I like to see big numbers, but at the end of the day, I would give up half those numbers for, you know, more interactions with real people, especially the way they come in. Good gosh, like it's so cool. Oftentimes I'm doing something completely unrelated to podcasting. I'll just be working in the garage or something, for example, and we'll get a fan mail message and I'll tap on it and be like, oh, how cool is that. Like we recorded that a week and a half ago. Somebody just listened to it, somebody wrote in that and keeps me coming back to the mic.
Jordan:I love it. All right, so to let us know what keeps you motivated to keep podcasting, go ahead and tap the link in the show notes to send us a text message and keep podcasting. Did you guys watch the Super Bowl on Sunday?
Alban:Heck, yeah, I did. Apparently they had some podcaster they allowed to go play tight end for the Chiefs. Yes, that's true.
Kevin:And he actually this year, unlike last year, he actually looked like a podcaster playing football. Oh no, that's brutal yeah it was not the best performance by the chiefs, but everyone knows that already I mean, I watched the super bowl as well.
Alban:It was free on tubi, and so I was like the super bowl is free.
Jordan:I'm like everything I don't know where you get sports, I don't know, but there was like an ad to be apparently the antenna, the bunny ears yeah.
Alban:I just kind of, I get it anyway.
Jordan:Yeah. So I was like well, you have to watch it for commercials and obviously for like the halftime show.
Kevin:I think it's so smart. But the NFL has done for the Super Bowl, is that made it? You know it's. It's obviously it's grown into a cultural phenomenon, but like they've done a great job of attracting people to watch it who don't even care about football, not saying I know, jordan, you are now getting into football, I'm trying, I'm trying but even if you don't, like you said, you have to watch it for the commercials, or you might want to watch it for the halftime show, or they just give you so many different reasons to watch it.
Kevin:Just being an American, I have to watch it. I will say so. We had a fun event here at the house. My wife was out of town, so it was just me and my two high school boys and they both wanted to have a group of friends over each. So I had 11 boys over here and I got to have fun making Superbowl food for them and setting them up to watch the game. The younger son was out on the back porch with his friends, older son in the living room with his friends and I was just doing my best to make sure that one the dog didn't get all the Buffalo chicken wings and die and that for the inside group, that they didn't spill anything and stay in the couch because then I would die. But yeah, that's what I did during the Super Bowl. I didn't watch a lot of game, I just managed teenage boys and food and dogs.
Alban:Yeah, I watched mine in a bar and so when you're watching a bar, I saw that Kendrick Lamar was on TV and I heard. I kind of guessed which songs were being played at each time but totally missed out on the experience. So everyone's like commentary about oh remember when they said this and this happened, I was like I definitely saw him dancing and there's some choreography. That was really impressive, but I missed out on a lot of it.
Jordan:I don't listen to Kendrick Lamar, but I knew that Kendrick is a Pulitzer Prize winning lyricist. He's obviously incredibly intelligent, incredibly talented. I mean he wouldn't be playing Super Bowl halftime if he wasn't. But I feel like I'm aging so much like Josh and I were watching TV so intensely, both of us just staring at the TV, trying to understand like the lyrics for it, because I don't, I can't understand like quick talking that much, and so we're both just like laser focused and I was like, okay, I can see that like the dance is incredible, like everything's beautiful and amazing, but I don't know what's happening. And then later I went onto social media and I'm seeing all these like analyses of the whole performance and I was like, wow, this was like really deep, which I expected. I just didn't understand in the moment.
Alban:That's the exact same experience I had with Severance. Oh yeah, this Apple TV show. I'm like, oh, it's like pretty and it's interesting, but it feels kind of random. And then I went on the Severance subreddit and they are like I've never seen people dissect 28 minutes of TV, like more closely, and they're like, oh, did you see this scene? It lines up with this scene and that's what this means. And I'm like, oh, there's a lot more here than I noticed.
Kevin:Yeah. Yeah, I did feel a little aged out of this year's halftime show, but I think that's all right, like I recognize that it wasn't for me, so I reserved any judgment on it. I agree with you, it was visually cool. I did not know a lot of the songs. Some of them sounded slightly familiar, like I've heard them before. But yeah, not for me and that's cool. But it makes me wonder this. This is what I wondered like if I had to rank, like what do I think, the best super bowl halftime performances that I can recall, what would I, what I put at the top, like maybe?
Alban:top black eyed peas easily yeah, and I want to hear you guys she knows the answer I got my one and two jordan.
Kevin:That's what you're going with.
Jordan:No, no. It's known as like one of the worst in history.
Kevin:No, lock it in, kevin. I feel like you. Yeah, you already finaled answered, so we're going to have to put that as your number one. What would be your number two, jordan?
Jordan:Oh God, I don't even know. I feel Bruno Mars did really good. I haven't watched that many Super Bowls or that many halftime shows, but I remember Bruno Mars performing and I was like whoa, this guy is like mega talented, and I didn't listen to him before that.
Kevin:So yeah, what about you?
Alban:Alban, first one I remember was 1993.
Kevin:Wait, that's not the question you always don't answer the question.
Alban:It's the first one I remember and it was the best.
Jordan:And it was the best and it was 1993 and it was michael jackson.
Alban:Yeah, oh what. My answer is so lame. Now it's the first halftime show where the halftime show had more viewers than the super bowl, so more people got on to start watching tv to see michael jackson perform, and I re-watched part of it in the last couple of days and it really like I know Michael Jackson's one of the greatest performers of all time, if not like the greatest performer. But then you watch it and it's like so impressive. Every single bit of it is like perfect.
Kevin:I will tell you. I think the only negative thing in that whole performance was that for some reason it was, it must've been on California or something, Cause it was daylight. I think it would have been so much better if it was dark.
Alban:Yeah, I don't know where, uh, where that one was from, where that happened.
Kevin:But you're right, yeah, it's, it's gotta be California Cause it's really bright, yeah, and he has like lots of fireworks and stuff going off around the show and I'm like, ah, if it was dark it would look so much cooler.
Alban:All right, Number two for me, okay, 2001.
Kevin:Creed. I don't even remember this what.
Jordan:What.
Kevin:They played the Super Bowl. If somebody gave me like 10,000 to one odds on did Creed ever play the Super Bowl? I'd be like I'll take that. No, they didn't Give me the money.
Jordan:No, I don't believe this.
Alban:I'm sure in 2001,. I thought it was really stupid because I think I was more in the group of like ah, creed, it's like so urgent and like try hard that it's bad. But now, like everything is ironic, everything's a joke. And then I went and like I watched part of that is a joke. And then I went and like I watched part of that and there's like a guy they're singing the song, like can you take me higher? There's guys like flying around on like ribbons and I was like this is actually pretty sweet, this is cool, and they are trying so hard to be cool. But everybody else tries hard to not look like they're trying, but Creed is they're trying as hard as they can to try to look cool and there's something awesome about it and so I did not.
Kevin:I'm all in. I totally missed that I didn't. Maybe I must have watched it. Surely I watched it, but it must have just blocked it out.
Jordan:Well, so I'm looking this up, because I of course I had to look it up. So they played at the Thanksgiving halftime show, so that might be why you missed it.
Alban:No, I thought that was the Super Bowl.
Jordan:Well, I mean, you just asked halftime show, right, or did you specify Super Bowl?
Alban:Oh, that was part of the 9-11, post 9-11 halftime show.
Jordan:They were like what's?
Alban:the most American band. Yeah, actually that even makes it better.
Jordan:I mean it says here remember Creed's epic NFL halftime, thanksgiving Day performance All right.
Kevin:well, we'll put that in the honorable mention, since it's not actually official Super Bowl halftime show. For my answers. I would agree with you, Alban. I put Michael Jackson at the top or very close to it. Again, I just want it at nighttime, but other than that it was spectacular across the board. And then I've got a couple that I think might be a little bit less popular, and I'll start off with Coldplay. I thought they did a great performance.
Jordan:I really love when, back before, they started producing bad music or yeah, yeah.
Alban:That's just in their prime Such haters in this group.
Jordan:I love them. Pre-2015.
Kevin:Well, here's the thing. I do believe that maybe this isn't true for Michael Jackson, but for the most part, I think artists say no to the Super Bowl until they've kind of like peaked. They've already peaked and they're starting their decline, and then they hope to get the Super Bowl gig.
Jordan:Yeah.
Kevin:But I think it's a little bit of a. You've had this huge journey like story career. You've had tons of hit albums and stuff. Now come play all of them. But it also kind of signifies that you're a little bit done. I've heard rumors anyway, that Taylor Swift's been off of the Super Bowl multiple times, but she keeps saying no and I think it's because she's like I'm not peaked, I got plenty ahead of me.
Kevin:It's just my theory, I don't know if it's true, so anyway I would say Coldplay. I thought their show was awesome. Like I love it when bands bring in younger kids high school bands, dance groups and all that kind of stuff. I remember them doing that and I thought that that's super cool to get them to all be a part of the show. I can't remember who played the one of the Tampa Super Bowls, but I remember all the local local high schools got, like their bands, on the field and stuff, to be part of the halftime show. So it's super cool.
Kevin:Now here's the one that no one references except me. I like this performance a lot and I'm not a big fan of this performer, but I think Lady Gaga did a great halftime show.
Jordan:Yeah.
Kevin:I think again. I'm not a huge fan of Lady Gaga's music. I don't know much about her like as a celebrity or a person or whatever.
Jordan:She's pretty awesome.
Kevin:Okay, I'll take your word for it. I just watched the halftime performance and the performance that she put on I thought was pretty amazing. It was pretty epic. So yeah, I put her like probably number three.
Alban:Okay, what about um a few years ago, when Dr Dre did it? And then and Mary J blige and kendrick lamar and eminem and 50 cent and that was really good that was like everybody just keeps coming out and you're like, whoa this would? That was like that must have been in la. Actually, there must have been the super bowl in la, because they just kept like getting more and more people to show up on stage and the like star power of it just kept getting better and better yeah that was amazing.
Kevin:Speaking of star power sorry for this random segue the uh the bud light commercial. Did you see like the number of stars and celebrities in that? But like that must have cost them a fortune was that the like backyard, the subdivision?
Alban:yeah the cul-de-sac that was so good. Um that was so good.
Kevin:But like Shane Gillis, post Malone, peyton Manning tons of celebrities in that commercial and they were licensing what was the song that they were playing? I don't know. I watched it from a bar. It was a super popular song that they use as the background track. Like I'm just sitting there like dollar signs are flashing in front of my eyes of how much Bud Light spent on this commercial. Now I know they had a rough year PR-wise and so they're trying to get through that, but good Lord, they went big.
Jordan:I feel like Dunkin' went bigger.
Kevin:Dunkin'.
Jordan:That Dunkin' Donuts commercial was like insane.
Kevin:Yeah, and I didn't like it.
Jordan:I didn't either. Oh, oh, oh Okay, we have to talk about the longest post show ever.
Kevin:Jordan's excited.
Jordan:It's fine it's totally fine, we're going for it. Okay, we have to talk about the most awkward moment in the entirety of the Super Bowl.
Kevin:Wait, wait, wait. Alban loves guessing. I do love guessing Dealing people's thunder.
Alban:Man, I've got two. One is the second time. There's a flying facial hair commercial. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Oh, my gosh, all right, sorry, jordan, I tried to steal it.
Jordan:Okay. So it was just this like awkward moment where we watched this like Little Caesars commercial and Eugene Levy's eyebrows go off fluttering around. We took a bite of a crazy puff and we're like, okay, that was a little goofy, but whatever. And then, like I don't know, half an hour later or something, we see another commercial and it's for Pringles and this guy blows into a Pringles can and all these mustaches go flying off of people's faces and fly through the air and we were just like that's awkward.
Alban:Imagine working at the Pringles like ad agency and you're like we got gold this time, oh yeah, and we're running like a couple. We're in the second quarter, but the first quarter you're all about watching. You're like get ready for dad's big commercial, and then Eugene Levy's eyebrows fly off and you're like, oh no, yeah, oh no, they stole it.
Podnews Weekly Review:They stole our thunder.
Jordan:And now we look like the copycat even though we did our thing totally on our own, yeah, and so they're dreading their commercial coming up in like the third quarter or whatever it was so awkward.
Kevin:Oh my gosh, I'm with you. That was. That's a bummer. Think about the poor media buyer who maybe had the choice of do you want to go early in the Superbowl or a little bit later? Same price. I'll go a little later, I'll go a little. I think it's a good choice.
Jordan:Yeah, it was really funny because I saw I looked online and people were saying like didn't have flying facial hair on my Superbowl bingo card, but here we are. It was so weird.
Kevin:All right Craziest, like most hilarious commercial. For me is that a seal one.
Jordan:Oh, that was so funny, it was stupid.
Kevin:It was so stupid, but just the fact that seal agreed to let them put his head on a seal and saying I mean, it's fantastic he actually posted some like behind the scenes stuff of that on his Instagram too.
Jordan:It was really funny.
Alban:Yeah, my wife watched it and looks at me and goes why did he do that? And I was like because they paid him millions of dollars.
Kevin:Right, he probably hasn't had a paycheck in a while. That sounded good.
Alban:And I bet he just was like yeah, it's a bunch of money, it's kind of dumb, who cares? Sure, go for it and got a big payday. Yeah, I liked it.
Jordan:There was a lot of I cried at like three, which was kind of weird. I cried. There was like three that made me cry, even though there was like 15 that were trying to make me cry, and then there was like four or five funny ones.
Alban:So which ones did?
Kevin:you cry in.
Alban:Yeah.
Jordan:Oh, I don't even remember there was one and it was like a daughter. I don't even remember because it was just too sad and I like blocked it from my memory, but it was like a dad and a daughter and he's like taking care of her as she like grows up and then she like is going off to college but she stops and like leans in the car and gives him a hug, but then it's her as a four-year-old giving him a hug and I was just like that would have made me cry.
Alban:Yeah, it was. Yeah, I didn't see that one oh good, because kevin too kevin just had a daughter go off to college a couple years ago, yeah it was.
Jordan:Don't watch it. It was um unbearable. It was so sad.
Kevin:I think the most emotional for me was the Harrison Ford Jeep commercial that was epic.
Alban:I have no idea what he said but, I, saw it was Harrison Ford and Jeep and I was like I like both of those things. So I texted my sister. I liked that one. She goes, that was a terrible commercial and I was like but it's Harrison.
Podnews Weekly Review:Ford and.
Alban:Jeep I like, but it's Harrison Ford and Jeep I like. Why was it terrible? I don't know. I didn't see, I didn't hear it. All I saw was him.
Kevin:Oh, I thought it was good. I mean, I thought it did a good job of like encapsulating the spirit of Jeep and resonating with people who buy Jeeps. Now, Alban, I know your sister is this the sister that drives the Jeep? Yes, oh, and she didn't like it. So maybe I'm completely off, maybe I'm wrong, maybe it doesn't encapsulate people who drive Jeeps, but I thought it was very kind of like salt of the earth, like these are the things that matter and bring us together. And, uh, you know, we wave to each other when we pass each other on the road, even like, regardless of our differences, this is something that unites us, our spirit of adventure and all that kind of stuff. And then I like the zinger at the end and he said and this is what I drive, even though my name is ford which was, I thought that was cool yeah somebody wrote that line and went man, if we get harrison, I got into this.
