Should my podcast have seasons? It's a common question, and honestly, I think there's a lot more nuance than people realize. That's certain true of me...at least until the last time I was asked.
My answer was “yes, probably.” There are a lot of reasons to have seasons. However, a friend of mine, Doc Rock, has a more tempered answer. He said that seasons should serve a purpose.
That’s when I realized he and I were using the term “Season” differently. While Doc was differentiating between seasons and breaks, I was not.
Let’s take a look at when seasons make sense, the difference between seasons and breaks, and the importance of planning for the long-term success of your podcast.
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another episode of Podcast Workflows. The podcast that helps you save 12 hours per week in your podcast processes, so you can focus on making better content, finding sponsors or frankly spending your time, however you'd like.
[00:00:18] My name is Joe Casabona, I am a podcast systems coach and today I want to answer a question that I got during a talk I was giving for E.K. M. Lives or E.K. M's leap into tools and tactics which by the way big fan of E.K.M they were recently a sponsor of podcastworkflows.com and I am currently using them to record this episode.
[00:00:45] I'm doing the video so if I add any video elements which I might not for this but I definitely do for my three things in podcasting all of that's done through E.K. M. Lives you can learn more about them at podcastworkflows.com slash E.K. M. And so anyway, this question that I got was should my podcast have seasons and my answer to this was yes probably there are a lot of reasons to have seasons.
[00:01:15] But the MC of the session, Doc Rock who works at E.K.M he was more temperate and I think gave a better answer. He said that seasons should serve a purpose and that's when I realized that he and I were using the term season quote unquote differently and the person asking the question may have as well.
[00:01:42] And so I think that Doc was differentiating between what a season is and what a break is and I was not. I think there's a lot of nuance around this topic and so I want to dive into it today in today's episode.
[00:02:05] We'll take a look at when seasons make sense the difference between seasons and breaks and the importance of planning for long term success of your podcast.
[00:02:17] Now before we get into that I do want to mention that I did a live stream on this a few weeks ago as I record this I guess you could be listening to it and I did it years ago.
[00:02:28] But the newsletter my newsletter gets kind of first dibs on all of these topics so if you want to hear my initial thoughts on them or join a live stream and ask questions about them.
[00:02:41] You should head over to podcastworkflows.com slash join to join the mailing list you will get emails two to three times a week all around tips for improving your podcast process and workflows that's over at podcastworkflows.com slash join okay.
[00:03:01] What are podcasts seasons I would define a podcast season as a group of episodes that are released under a common theme or storyline. Each season typically has a pre determined number of episodes and maybe separated by a break in publishing.
[00:03:22] So you can think of this as like a you know a TV show right that is going to have seasons are like serial is a really good example of a podcast with. Honestly, honest to goodness seasons because each season covers a different topic.
[00:03:37] Now technically speaking when you publish an episode to your podcast feed you can choose to assign a season number. But it's not always obvious how and when this information is used.
[00:03:50] It's an experience that changes app to app there are a few places where podcasts seasons definitely makes sense. And I should say like it changes app to app this is this is becoming more uniform right like most apps will display the season number.
[00:04:10] Some apps will organize the episodes based on season and so if you if you're going to be consistent and you season numbers then you should definitely use season numbers right so. It may not just be organized based on episode number I guess is what I'm saying.
[00:04:28] I think that I do it the way I would probably recommend doing it right is if you're going to do seasons do a season number and then.
[00:04:39] Well, the way that I do it for my podcasts is I have the season number and I have the episode number and they kind of work.
[00:04:47] Discreetly from each other and that's that's a place where seasons don't make sense right like my podcast doesn't have seasons it has breaks and I'll talk about that in a minute.
[00:04:59] That that like the episode number doesn't matter for the season means I probably don't need a season number right because you're probably want to do season number and then episode number and then the episode number resets when you start a new season.
[00:05:14] But TV shows don't always do that either right so I guess you know like see you know you can have like season five episode 24 but then also canonically that's like. Episode 200 something right or 100 something right so.
[00:05:31] It depends on how you want to organize your episodes I guess is what I'm saying and this is again where seasons may not make sense for you right if you're like why do you wouldn't even talking about you probably don't need seasons but if you're like oh yes that's how we're going to have my episodes maybe seasons are good for you so.
[00:05:48] Where seasons make the most sense the first is serial podcasts with multiple stories if your podcast tells a different story each season using the seasonal format can help listeners understand the shift and focus.
[00:06:04] This is particularly common in narrative or investigative podcasts like I said earlier where the season come covers a new case or topic crime town slow burn serial. These are all seasonal podcasts and serial podcasts serial being small as in this case.
[00:06:20] Where the seasons important because you can't just jump from like season one episode three to season four episode two you're going to be completely lost right. The the other place where seasons might make sense is episodic podcasts with clear topic arcs.
[00:06:38] So if your podcasts is strictly serialized as in you don't need to listen to episode three to understand what's going on in episode four. seasons can be useful if you tend to cover specific themes or topics for a set number of episodes.
[00:06:53] This helps listeners follow along and understand the progression of your content and I should say like don't overthink this. If. seasons might not like especially on in the technical sense seasons might not matter. Right just keep numbering your episodes incrementally by one each time.
[00:07:14] I must take that I made was I thought like oh well bonus episode shouldn't have an episode number. And so by the time I got to episode properly numbered episode 365 or something. I was actually on episode 400 and so I had like a big.
[00:07:31] Episode number reset at the beginning of this year where I just started an episode 400 because I was. It worked out that way right like it was. The last episode of 20 23 was the 3199th episode in the podcast feed even though it was numbered whatever 365 or whatever it was.
[00:07:52] So I just did like a big old episode reset okay so. If you want to help your listeners follow along and understand the progression of your content maybe in season one you talk about I don't know.
[00:08:03] Starting a business or how to write a bike and then season two you talk about how to fix it like. Maybe that's a good way to organize your episodes otherwise you probably don't need seasons.
[00:08:16] You probably want and this is how I've referred to as seasons for a long time before like really thinking about. What season means writ large. But you probably want to break so it's important to distinguish between taking a break and actually doing a season of a show.
[00:08:33] A break is simply a period of time where you don't publish new episodes. This could be do a personal circumstances need to recharge or a desire to plan future content.
[00:08:44] A seasonal break on the other hand is planned and communicated to listeners in advance as part of your podcast structures. It, your structure it usually does. To note a change in the content though it doesn't always have to.
[00:08:59] So as a solo per newer or a solo podcaster and independent podcaster taking breaks is crucial for preventing burnout maintaining creativity and ensuring the long term sustainability of your show.
[00:09:13] And even if you don't use seasons incorporating breaks into your podcast schedule can give you the breathing room needed to plan ahead and stay. So either way you should communicate your your intention to take a break but. You know if I know cereal is always 10 episodes.
[00:09:32] Then I know starting at season one I have a break like I have 10 weeks of content before a break right. With a show like streamlines oh my other show streamlines all over the new air. I always take a break in July and in December.
[00:09:53] But new listeners or listeners maybe in general aren't really going to know that unless they've been listening for years right. And so I still need to communicate hey I'll be going away for a little bit but don't worry I'll be back right.
[00:10:08] So taking breaks is important either way. Whether you call them seasons or not is up to you and there's some organizational aspect to it so. Let's talk about managing a user or lists I should say listener expectations right if you do take a break.
[00:10:28] Be sure to communicate with your listeners. I always give my listeners ahead up in the last episode that a break is coming and how long it will be like how long they can expect there to be a break.
[00:10:42] And in the meantime even if you are not publishing new episodes you can always run older episodes or bonus content right so sometimes.
[00:10:52] In my breaks I will do like a bonus kind of outside the normal format of something I'm thinking about or I'll rerun an old episode that I think is particularly useful at this point in time.
[00:11:07] As long as you're predictable and communicative a break should not adversely affect your audience engagement. In fact usually I'll see a bump when I come back from a break because I'm not producing new episodes but I can still publish or promote old episodes and I'm still gaining listeners.
[00:11:27] And again I've let them know that the break is coming. So you know as long as you don't just like disappear from months on end that you know I think that people will be fine also. I should say that. Mot Lego.
[00:11:43] My assumption here this is mostly anecdotal it's mostly based on vibes but. I get the feeling that most people don't clear out their RSS are there their. Podcast app as often as they say clean out their inbox right it's not like most people are going.
[00:12:07] It's not like people are going. Well they haven't published an episode in two weeks so they're out right though they'll. Well those people will stay subscribed for a very long time unless you say like hey this is over unsubscribe it's never coming back right.
[00:12:23] And last thing I'll say here is like TV shows don't usually lose viewers when they take breaks right like. As I record this we are two weeks into season two of House of the Dragon. And that show.
[00:12:36] Like season one of that show ended what two years ago or something. And I still like I knew it was coming back I waited I couldn't watch it the day came out but like I watched it as soon as I could I was really excited.
[00:12:50] So just keep that in mind right as long as you communicate if people know. You're you're not going to lose listeners okay. So let's go with how to choose you know whether you decide to use seasons or simply take breaks. The key to success is planning.
[00:13:08] Using a tool like my podcast planner which you can find over at podcast where flows dot com slash planner. Can help you stay organized track upcoming episodes and ensure you always have content ready to publish right what we what we're trying to avoid here is.
[00:13:27] Unexpected breaks because you don't have content in the tank right. We know why you need to take a three week break because you just couldn't get episodes to the finish line.
[00:13:38] We want these breaks to be scheduled and ready and those breaks can give you wiggle room in your schedule so using a plan is really important. While planning your podcast and if you've already launched then just think about it now consider the type of content you're creating.
[00:13:56] If you're telling a story over multiple episodes covering specific topics in depth or something like that you have these story arcs. Season to might make sense. However, if you have an episodic so I'm in I'm not sure what talking today.
[00:14:12] However, if you have an episodic format without clear story arcs then regular breaks like just announced breaks may be sufficient. You don't need to necessarily say season one season two. Ultimately the decision to use podcast seasons depend on your shows format content and goals.
[00:14:34] While seasons can be a great tool for organizing your content and engaging listeners they're not necessarily for every podcast. And depending on your listeners podcast app it might not even matter at all. But prioritizing breaks and planning ahead is essential for maintaining consistency and avoiding burnout.
[00:14:55] By communicating with your audience and using tools to say organized you can create a sustainable podcasting schedule. That works for you or your listeners. So that's it for this episode. What do you think? Right. Let me know on Twitter or via email, Joe at Casabona.org.
[00:15:15] seasons breaks neither. I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can find the show notes for this episode including a written to be read article in the description wherever you're listening to this. You can also find everything over at show.podcastworkflows.com. But that's it for this episode.
[00:15:36] Thanks so much for listening. I really appreciate it. Check out podcastworkflows.com slash join to join my mailing list and until next time. I can't wait to see what you make. Hey, before you go, I want to tell you about a free resource.
[00:15:54] I have called my podcast process templates. They are a set of notion documents that give you a full podcast planner, a show planner and even some AI prompts to help you get the creative juices flowing. You obviously want to improve your podcast workflows in save time.
[00:16:17] And these templates will give you a basis for all of your other processes through my notion and air table templates. I am able to automate a number of things as well as stay organized so that I'm using my podcasting time more efficiently.
[00:16:35] If you want to get your hands on these templates completely for free, you can head over to podcastworkflows.com slash templates that podcastworkflows.com slash templates to get your free podcast process templates today.