The National Association of Broadcasters is coming up soon, April 9-12 in Las Vegas, and this year a Podcasting Pavilion has been included; expect to see the Blubrry team and Chris Curran there. He's made a name for himself with his audio engineering skills, and Blubrry has stood out in the podcasting industry being not only one of the first but, one of the most utilized companies out there for podcasters.
This year the new Podcasting Pavilion will be featuring an Ask the Expert booth that includes an area not only to test out 10 different microphones, but the opportunity to Chris Curran and his team any podcasting question you'd like.
Chris Curran:
Founder and lead instructor for the Podcast Engineering School, has an extensive history of working in audio, including loads of album credits. Founder of Fractal Recording he has been working in the podcasting industry for the past six years.
Radio executives, video creators, etc, stop by the Blubrry booth to talk with veterans in the field, and find out how you can get your podcast started, or take it to the next level with our help. We'll see you there!
Thanks for listening to this episode and please subscribe. If you'd like to be on the show, email MacKenzie@Blubrry.com.
Fan of PowerPress? Leave us a review here.
Show notes:
NAB: April 9-12 exhibit area
Podcast Engineering School: Graduate from this school and become a full-time podcast producer.
Ask the Expert and Podcasting Pavilion: Check in with Chris.
Blubrry at NAB: Stop by or email to make an appointment to speak with us.
The yearly Infinite Dial report from Edison Research and Triton Digital is out, after their 2018 presentation recently. Podcasts hosting with Blubrry are now starting to show up in Spotify. Enjoy this slightly manic, nicotine-free new episode of Your Podcast.
Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.
We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review.
News:
Edison / Triton Infinite Dial
Blubrry hosted podcasts are starting to show on Spotify.
Join the Blubrry Team at NAB Show
Topics:
Podcast discovery: Is there really a problem that needs to be solved?
Echo, Google assistant, Apple Home Pod and Cortana are not perfect. Finding your podcast on them can be a challenge if the name is hard to pronounce, or is too long, or…. or… Your hosting provider (us) has no control over whether your show isn’t easy to find.
Caching, what it is? And why you should care?
– Website caching (Cloudflare, WP plugins, server caching)
– CDN caching (content delivery)
– Browser caching (web history on most browsers now)
– Feed caching (FeedBurner, PodcastMirror, others)
– Podcast directory (just another website) caching
Support:
MP3 encoding. We have been getting lots of questions about file formats. The best format for an audio podcast is MP3, 44.1khz (44100hz) sample rate, 128kbps stereo bit rate (or 96kbps mono) -16LUFS (loudness) for stereo and -21LUFS for mono. .Wav files WILL NOT WORK! We recommend Auphonic for final processing of the loudness. It used to be that the lame MP3 encoder was bad, but improvements have made it just as good as Fraunhofer (which is included with Audition, iTunes desktop, and other software). AAC files (m4a) from GarageBand do work 90 percent of the time. BUT, not 100 percent. Mp3 is currently the best way to go.
Video is a whole other ball of worms! (.mov, .flv do not work) Only mp4 and m4v work. Make sure they are optimized for the web or they will not play right away.
Paid consultations: If you are not a hosting customer but still need help or guidance with your podcast, you can hire Blubrry to rectify the issue. See: blubrry.com/contact/ for prices and options.
To ask questions or to comment on the show, contact Todd and Mike here: yourpodcast@blubrry.com.
Podcast listeners enjoy a variety of content categories, and someone was able to track the most popular ones in Apple for a year. The data and trends were not surprising, but it's how a podcaster uses that data for their own show that matters. The guest this week was, John Wilkerson, of the show The Wired Homeschool. He noted the importance of including additional content on your website, besides your podcast. This way, podcasters are increasing their search engine optimization and getting a higher number of potential listeners and downloads. NPR shared some wisdom on starting a roundtable podcast. An unfamiliar format for many, there are some dos and don'ts podcasters can learn now before they make them.
If you'd like to be a guest on the show, or recommend someone, please reach out and let MacKenzie know why you think it would be a good fit.
Fan of PowerPress? Leave us a review.
Show notes:
Tracking Apple's Top 200: Learn the trends of the most popular podcasts in Apple, graphs included.
The Wired Homeschool: Tech, Tools, & Tips for Homeschooling a Digital Generation.
Roundtable Podcasting Best Practices: Getting the most out of this format, for the listener.
Email MacKenzie: Questions or comments about the show.
The Blubrry Alexa Amazon Skill is out, named MyCast. Podcast listeners are able to listen to podcasts in the Blubrry directory by using MyCast. The well-known podcast, Nerdist Podcast has been renamed ID10T, a change that came in early February. Long-time listeners, no worries, more of name change than anything else. Speaking of changes, there is a new writer at PodcasterNews.com – head on over to the site to look out for new content. Lastly, Squarespace has been causing some issues for Blubrry podcasters, which Blubrry is attempting to remedy as soon as possible.
Thanks for listening to the show and please subscribe at PowerPressPodcast.com.
We love our PowerPress users, please leave us a review.
News:
Blubrry “MyCast” Amazon Echo skill: Read our blog post on it to learn more about how to use it.
Nerdist Podcast now called ID10T with Chris Hardwick: Article from Jen at PodcasterNews.
Mike Wilkerson joins the PodcasterNews.com team. He has a couple of good articles over there now, one about Mic Booms and another called “Content Stagecoach: The Booth Junkie” where he talks about a podcast/YouTube series about voiceover and microphones.
MacKenzie had Mike and Shawn on the last PowerPress Podcast to talk about network setup in PowerPress and the Podfest conference.
Angelo and MacKenzie attended the NRB Proclaim conference in Nashville last week.
Topics:
Squarespace has been causing some issues with Blubrry statistics. We have reached out to the Squarespace team to try to get resolved, stay tuned. If you are using Squarespace and are having a problem with stats at Blubrry, please contact Squarespace support and Blubrry support.
Again, own your stack! Do not promote anything you do not own as your primary point of presence for your brand. Don’t let others control your RSS feed and your connection to your audience, that you work VERY hard to collect and grow. Always send them back to the Mothership (your own domain).
Support:
Do not cut and paste from Word docs or processors or Google Docs directly into WordPress. In WordPress there is a new setting that puts that visual editor into “Paste as TextMode.”
Learn to check your RSS feed when you publish a new post, add a plugin, change your theme or move your website to another web host.
1. Download FIREFOX for a quick look. Load your feed in the address bar of FireFox and it will be much more readable.
2. Use castfeedvalidator.com and/or podba.se.
3. What is listed in the feed will be what people see in the directories.
4. ONLY if you know what you are doing, you can use some of the blog feed validators (w3 or feevalidator.org) to find specific errors. Ignore most of the warnings.
PLEASE BE CAREFUL – These “old school” validators know nothing about SSL links (https) or any of the newer podcasting tags or namespaces.
Stats – What Blubrry stats do and do not track.
Mike personal note: Heil customer service is top notch! I have a PR40 (I’m a Ham Radio Operator and that mic is good for HF radio) with the shock mount and the bands for the shock mount got loose. I contacted support over there and even though my setup was over 7 years old, they shipped out a new set of bands to me, free of charge, and priority mail. (I was just asking where to buy them). Very good Bob Heil, you have a great team over there! Todd had the same experience with Blue Mics.
To ask questions or to comment on the show, contact Todd and Mike here: yourpodcast@blubrry.com.
