Eric Nuzum wrote a piece arguing that podcasting's pivot to video is going to end in a charred mess of garbage fire wreckage, and I think he's mostly right — though not for the reason most people assume. This is a reaction to that article and a follow-up to last week's "is video worth it" question: video isn't a magic wand, and adding it to solve your download problem instead of your audience's problem is exactly the rushed, mistargeted move he's warning about. I get into video's three jobs, why 90% of podcast consumption is still audio, and why serving your audience has to come first.
Resources & Links
- "Podcasting's Pivot to Video Will End Up in a Charred Mess of Garbage Fire Wreckage" by Eric Nuzum — audioinsurgent.substack.com
- Sounds Profitable — where I expect we'll get real data on this after Podcast Movement
- Nielsen — the 90%-of-consumption-is-still-audio figure
- Join the newsletter for solo ops and conscientious AI tips: streamlined.fm/join
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Today, I want to do a little reaction piece.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:09 A couple of weeks ago, Eric Nuzam? I have never
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 said his last name out loud. Writer of The Audio
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 Insurgent wrote an article called, Podcasting's
00:00:14 --> 00:00:19 pivot to video will end up in a charred mess
00:00:19 --> 00:00:24 of garbage fire wreckage. Now, last week I covered
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 Is video worth it? I kind of gave you three questions
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 there. Is it going to add a lot to your process?
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 Is it going to add more to your process than
00:00:32 --> 00:00:34 it's worth? And what is the goal of your podcast?
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 You know, if it's if if your goal is more views
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 and it doesn't add a lot to your process, it's
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 probably worth it. If it's newsletter signups
00:00:43 --> 00:00:45 and nobody's signing up to your newsletter on
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 the audio version, maybe it's worth the test.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 If it adds a lot, maybe not. But also, are you
00:00:49 --> 00:00:53 going to play the YouTube game? And so I came
00:00:53 --> 00:00:57 across this article and I thought it was a really
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 interesting approach. A podcast's, podcasting's
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 pivot to video. And so he opens up this article
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 by saying, you know, if you are around long enough,
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 you start to know how stories are going to end.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:13 And then he, he pivots this towards podcasting's
00:01:13 --> 00:01:17 current obsession. with video. So he says, quote,
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 the industry convinces itself that video isn't
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 just an opportunity, but the future, the only
00:01:21 --> 00:01:25 future. And suddenly every podcast needs cameras,
00:01:25 --> 00:01:29 lighting, a studio, video editors, shorts, clips,
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 and a YouTube strategy. And then he says, OK,
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 admittedly, this part has already happened. All
00:01:35 --> 00:01:36 of this costs a lot of money. He's absolutely
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 true. I'm not going to read the article verbatim,
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 but he he basically talked about how this is
00:01:41 --> 00:01:46 transforming the audience, right? Video isn't
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 allowed to steadily find an audience, develop
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 its own creative language. It's transforming
00:01:50 --> 00:01:56 everything quickly. Everything is rushing. And
00:01:56 --> 00:02:00 then conclusions are jumped to too quickly. The
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 show is blamed. Video didn't work. Budgets get
00:02:03 --> 00:02:07 cut. Teams disappear. Everything, everyone rushes
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 towards the next bright, shiny object. But then
00:02:09 --> 00:02:13 he says this. A perfectly real opportunity ends
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 up buried beneath the charred wreckage of an
00:02:15 --> 00:02:19 entirely preventable, rushed, and mistargeted
00:02:19 --> 00:02:23 pivot to video. And that's the part that I like
00:02:23 --> 00:02:29 about this, right? Is we are so reactionary as
00:02:29 --> 00:02:33 a people, right? A year ago, if you weren't using
00:02:33 --> 00:02:38 AI, you are falling behind. And now I feel at
00:02:38 --> 00:02:42 least more people are listening to the beat of
00:02:42 --> 00:02:48 my drum, which is AI is good for certain things.
00:02:48 --> 00:02:52 Now you do have what I'm calling AI blue -pilled
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 people who think that AI is is everything in
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 the future. And if you're not using it to do
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 literally all of your work, then you're a fool.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 Those people are fools, but. We're seeing the
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 same thing in video, right? Oh, Apple Podcasts
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 supports video. You need to have video. Netflix
00:03:08 --> 00:03:12 is calling the Pete Davidson show a podcast,
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 even though it's only on Netflix and only available
00:03:15 --> 00:03:19 on video. And I am not one of those people who
00:03:19 --> 00:03:23 says video is not really a podcast, right? I
00:03:23 --> 00:03:29 think the idea of a podcast is that it is ubiquitous,
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 right? It's you can... your audience can consume
00:03:32 --> 00:03:36 it where and when they want. And if that's Netflix,
00:03:36 --> 00:03:40 then great. But if I can only get the Pete Davidson
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 show on Netflix, then it's a Netflix show. It's
00:03:42 --> 00:03:47 not a podcast, right? You wouldn't call a House
00:03:47 --> 00:03:51 of Cards or something more recent than Bridgerton
00:03:51 --> 00:03:55 a podcast. That would be crazy, right? So I think
00:03:55 --> 00:04:00 that like there is this rush and I agree with
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 Eric's assessment here that people are rushing,
00:04:02 --> 00:04:09 but also there is a perfectly good opportunity,
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 right? So he says a couple of other things in
00:04:11 --> 00:04:15 this article that I just want to highlight. Any
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 time media starts making decisions to solve their
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 problems, instead of the audience problems, things
00:04:20 --> 00:04:24 start to go off. This is such an important point,
00:04:24 --> 00:04:28 right? Because your content should be in the
00:04:28 --> 00:04:34 service of your audience. Nobody is going to
00:04:34 --> 00:04:38 watch or listen or read something that sucks.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 And we know we have such limited time and there
00:04:42 --> 00:04:48 are so many avenues for content now that you
00:04:48 --> 00:04:52 need to do something good. And I don't buy into
00:04:52 --> 00:04:56 the fact that or to the idea that attention spans
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 are getting shorter. Christopher Nolan just had
00:04:59 --> 00:05:03 his biggest grossing movie ever, and it's three
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 hours. And we routinely see this, right? Long
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 movies are killing it at the box office. People
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 aren't saying, oh, it's too long. As long as
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 it's good and compelling content, people will
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 consume it. So the first thing you need to do
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 is serve your audience. And if your audience
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 is begging for video, then by all means do video,
00:05:23 --> 00:05:27 right? But if you are degrading the experience
00:05:27 --> 00:05:31 by adding video by making, you know, I made a
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 mistake in last week's episode. I haven't edited
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 it yet. So you'll know before me at this point
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 if I took it out. But like I reference something
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 on the screen and I try really hard not to do
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 that because it makes the listening experience
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 worse. Right. And so this is a really important
00:05:46 --> 00:05:50 thing. Right. I think people see, oh, I don't
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 have a lot of downloads. YouTube has an algorithm.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 I should add video to solve my problems. But
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 that's that's not going to solve your problems.
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 You still need to make something that serves
00:05:59 --> 00:06:03 the audience. So that's number one. And we see,
00:06:03 --> 00:06:04 I see this all the time, right? I want to start
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 a podcast and get sponsors and make money. Okay,
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 that's a little bit like the underpants gnomes
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 from from South Park, right? We steal underpants
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 question marks profit. The question marks in
00:06:14 --> 00:06:18 this case is who were you serving? And are you
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 going to get sponsors? Maybe. I'm a sponsorship
00:06:20 --> 00:06:24 coach. I should say yes, definitely. But you
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 need to solve an audience's problems before any
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 of that. And video is not going to magically
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 solve your audience's problems. So, the other
00:06:33 --> 00:06:37 thing that is mentioned in this article is if
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 video were replacing audio as the preferred podcast
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 experience, we would expect to see established
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 audio audiences migrate to video once it becomes
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 available. And he says this isn't what he is
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 seeing. Talking to producers across a lot of
00:06:50 --> 00:06:54 shows, video results are largely Modest. This
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 is something that I found last week. I know this
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 is anecdotal for me. I haven't done the legwork.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:05 I assume as I record, well, as this episode comes
00:07:05 --> 00:07:09 out, podcast movement is next week and I suspect
00:07:09 --> 00:07:13 we'll get some data from Sounds Profitable about
00:07:13 --> 00:07:18 this very thing. So we'll see. But according
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 to Nielsen, 90 % of all podcast consumption is
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 still audio. Right? So again, serve your audience.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:29 And then he breaks down a few things that video
00:07:29 --> 00:07:33 podcasting has three jobs. And so again, I like
00:07:33 --> 00:07:34 this a lot. I'm going to read this. I'm going
00:07:34 --> 00:07:35 to link the article in the show notes because
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 I'm not reading the whole thing. I'm giving you
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 the highlights. I strongly recommend you read
00:07:40 --> 00:07:44 this. Video's first job is discovery. Absolutely
00:07:44 --> 00:07:47 true. Video's second job is expansion. Everyone
00:07:47 --> 00:07:51 assumes that new audience will be just more people
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 who demographically and psychographically resemble
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 the current audience, and that is rarely true.
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 I'm reading directly from the article now. Video
00:07:58 --> 00:08:02 podcast reviewers are different people who come
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 to the show with different needs. Really good
00:08:05 --> 00:08:09 and important. There are podcasts where I will
00:08:09 --> 00:08:13 switch between listening via audio or video.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 And I really so Seth Meyers Lonely Island podcast
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 is one of them or the lonely Island Seth Meyers
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 podcast is one of them I will listen basically
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 up into the point where I start where they start
00:08:23 --> 00:08:27 watching the short Then I will watch or I'll
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 stop listening and watch the short because I
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 think that's important context I was doing this
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 with John Boy media podcast for a while because
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 they would show a video They do the thing right?
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 Like if you're only listening, I recommend you
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 go over to the YouTube channel. I don't think
00:08:42 --> 00:08:46 that is good podcast content, but they are and
00:08:46 --> 00:08:50 have always been a YouTube first media company.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:55 Like they they live stream their shows on YouTube
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 a lot of the time. And so that's just part of
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 their DNA. And then video's third job is monetization.
00:09:01 --> 00:09:05 Even though podcasting has priorities, bass ackwards,
00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 he says, monetization is still a priority, just
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 not the primary one. So, again, I would agree
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 with this, right? if you can launch a show. And
00:09:13 --> 00:09:17 you know, YouTube has just made it harder to
00:09:17 --> 00:09:21 monetize. They have increased, doubled, in fact,
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 the number of watch hours and subscribers. So
00:09:24 --> 00:09:29 they're making it harder. And that's why I suspect
00:09:29 --> 00:09:35 he made this third, because you need good content
00:09:35 --> 00:09:40 that serves an audience. that can get discovered
00:09:40 --> 00:09:45 and expanded via video. So maybe this is like
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 the second part of last week's episode where
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 I kind of talked about is podcasting worth it?
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 But is video podcasting worth it? I should say.
00:09:54 --> 00:09:58 But this is really important. You need to align
00:09:58 --> 00:10:03 with your audience. Video is not some magic wand
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 that is going to solve your podcasting problems.
00:10:07 --> 00:10:11 You can only do that by focusing on your audience.
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 And that means talking to them, solving their
00:10:14 --> 00:10:18 problems, not asking AI what their problems are,
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 or just assuming, I want to talk about this.
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 It's going to be a casual show. You should solve
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 problems for most people. I mean, and if you're
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 an entertainment show, you are solving someone's
00:10:28 --> 00:10:31 problem, right? It's boredom. It's curiosity.
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 Right. There's there's some problem there that
00:10:34 --> 00:10:35 you're trying to solve, even if you're not a
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 business focused podcast, which is mostly who
00:10:38 --> 00:10:42 I help. Right. So if you do want more tips for
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 how to improve your process to build what I'm
00:10:45 --> 00:10:49 calling solo ops for conscientious AI usage.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 Right. So it's doing the tasks and not the craft.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 Head over to streamlines .fm slash join to join
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 my newsletter. You'll get lots of goodies, but
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 mostly regular tips on. how to build systems,
00:11:00 --> 00:11:01 how to focus on your audience, how to do the
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 important work, and take the grunt work off of
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 your plate. But that's it for this episode of
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 The Streamlined Podcaster. Definitely check out
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 that article. It's over at audioinsurgent .substack
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 .com. I will link it in the show notes as well.
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 And until next time, I hope you find some space
00:11:18 --> 00:11:19 in your week.