138 Comments

I've been publishing a podcast episode for nearly a year now in my Substack - Centered on Christ. Being able to interact with my readers through audio as well as the written word, gives me another way to connect with them. It had certainly benefited my subscribers - and it's helped me as well!

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So have I, except mine is more sarcastic, blunt, and R rated, with cocktail recipes, lol.

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Do you have co-hosts or interviews? My main barrier to entry is that it would likely be just me spouting into a microphone, which does not sound appealing lol.

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No it's just me - I tend to keep the episodes short. Most fall in the 10-20 minutes range.

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Interesting! I've always flirted with the idea but struggled to figure out an avenue. Mine is news without opinions, so really the only pathway I see is basically NPR haha, but that doesn't sound appealing. Will continue to brainstorm.

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I follow William Spaniel on YouTube. He's a Pittsburg university professor and has a wry, dry, arid sense of humour, which you need when you vlog on the Russo-Ukrainian War. His voice sounds like AI. I'm convinced it isn't, because even AI isn't that wry and dry. He does occasionally voice an opinion, however.

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Thanks for the invite?

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I would LOVE to hear these Podcasts but (as I keep saying) I am deaf.

Either use subtitles or make sure there is a transcript!

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Substack has a new automated transcription feature that hopefully more writers can use: https://on.substack.com/p/transcription#details

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I’ve started podcasting using YouTube with captions and sharing the audio here with a transcript... if that’s the case which way would you choose to listen? It’s really important my work is accessible!

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Substack app goes absolutely haywire for me while listening to any audio file - dies without saving progress, plays after removing headphones, etc.

Among other reasons, that's why when I started a podcast I opted to just stick to more traditional Anchor/Spotify/YouTube route.

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Thanks for letting us know. We'll investigate this.

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Let' hope they fix that problem in the near future!

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Agree and maybe the solution is just a better integrated "download and play locally right away" feature. I'm really not sure, but as a year old app I would have hoped they'd have tackled this fairly common feature set

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Well I have notice that "subscribe with a caption" is still not working correct, yet. And I told them about it over a month ago.

So I guess things will take time.

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Agreed, I think it could use some up-tuning. But it would be a fantastic system once fully integrated.

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That's interesting. But you can also host it here and play it on Apple and Spotify (at least) from what I understand, right?

Curious because I'm thinking of migrating my hosting from podbean to here.

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Crazy to see Substack evolve. It could turn into a *better* social media that the internet needs!

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“We wanted to create a space where writers don’t need to play games to reach, cultivate, and grow audiences” - THIS is why I love Substack!

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I have started podcasting as an experiment with Substack features. One year later, I am officially calling my publication a podcast and audio is now my main medium.

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I adore making my podcasts right here. I just dial in and speak. After I published my latest and most personal podcast here a couple of days ago I received a number of direct messages through other DM’s saying how much they were touched by this and adding to the conversation.

I was really surprised because this was the first podcast I published without first writing a script.

In the end ( for me ) it is all about those conversations. How wonderful they are.

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While it's another option for podcasters, the lack of meaningful data does limit how podcasters can analyze their show, what's working, what isn't, etc. In its current iteration, it feels more like another podcast distribution platform (like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc) than a dedicated place to upload and publish podcasts.

Curious as to what's coming down the line for analytics and data.

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Would love to know what specific data is most important to you!

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- Listener drop-off

- Consumption percentage

- Trending episodes

- Month on month / year on year comparison

- Unique listeners versus downloads

- State/region, city/town breakdown

- Episode performance comparison

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Starts & Streems. How many times someone has started the podcast and how many time they have kept listening more then one minute.

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Yep, that would fall under the first two data points.

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I’m going to re-release my entire Twin Peaks podcast on Substack with transcripts.

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That’s settled then. TMWWD podcast coming to Substack!

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Fiction podcast?

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The Man Who Wouldn't Die Podcast.

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I question the historicity of "audioblog" attesting to the 1980s. The word "blog" doesn't show up until 1998 in its modern sense. Citation needed to sate my etymological curiosity, please.

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Thanks. We made an error there and have now updated the post.

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Awesome! Have a great day!

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Yes. I too saw that - I tracked it down to them confusing a sentence in either Wikipedia or its source The Gaurdian that says ------ "Podcasts, previously known as "audioblogs", had its roots dating back to the 1980s. With the advent of broadband Internet access and portable digital audio playback devices such as the iPod, podcasting began to catch hold in late 2004.[" ---------Now one could read that to mean "Audioblogs" date back to the 80's, because it's a bad sentence, but it's this podcasting concept that [allegedly-very weak support for it talking about MIDI files and music] goes back to the 80's. While they may have been briefly known as audioblogs, the roots go back before that term is used, and the sentence refers to roots.

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Well sleuthed. The roots of digital audio playback are in the 1980s, not the term "audioblog" per your citation. Thanks for putting in the leg work.

It would have been quite a feat of causality to coin a compound word before one of the single words was coined.

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Thanks. I get a kick out of it, almost glad they wrote it. The only way we'll fight AI [not that this is - but it could be, GPT would pull like that] and or plain old human overwriting/content marketing.

Gosh to get very technical if audioblog was 80's it would be before even the root of the single word: "web" was in use: web to web log - to 'blog."

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"Web" in the Internet sense is traceable back to 1992, perhaps even as early as 1990 when used with other words ("web browser" .e.g.)

The author hasn't updated their piece yet. Everyone's tolerance is different, but man, if I had an error like that on a blog post, I'd be tripping over mea culpas by now.

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In your opinion, what would those roots be, exactly? Audio files on bulletin boards? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm just trying to recollect the chain of events and visualize the connection. I was there but memory is a bit faded.

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I was somewhat there. I see two roots - one is "internet radio" using RealMedia, where the real [.rlm?] files are embedded and the person downloaded a player to listen - which I did quite a bit of in say 1999. And you could totally do "episodes" if you had good website skills. Radio stations started using Real. I didn't so I just erased page and created a new HTML index page for new episode. But that didn't have the syndication/delivery factor that's just 'browsed' by a user who has to know to come back every week, etc.

so, then I'd say it's weblogs with hyperlinked audio files and then RSS to deliver that in a syndicated fashion. This podcast interviews Adam Curry who many call the Podfather - he doesn't claim to have invented it - he puts it at about 2000. https://www.parthenonpodcast.com/eyewitness-history/podcasting-inventor-adam-curry-discusses-mtv-steve-jobs-and-spilling-tea-on-paul-mccartneys-carpet

If you go way back 80's and such. two telephone modems talking... I'm certain there was audio files on bulliten boards and then AOL certainly. But the upload time!!! it couldn't have been a long show! I have trouble calling these podcasts but some people might have made them manual episodic. I see it as an unconnected family tree.

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Wow, thanks for refreshing those memories! Can you believe I had totally forgotten that Real ever existed. Sure, I had the plugin installed on Netscape like everyone had at the time. I guess it failed to leave nostalgic marks on my soul, even though now I remember listening to some foreign radio stations on the Real player, which was such a novel experience at the time. Thanks, the timeline is looking a lot clearer now!

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apparently the guy - Rob [something, Glasser maybe] had an ego that would make Jobs or Musk look small, he would yell at all the employees and a random hallway meet could be 'career-ending' Two legacies of Real Networks are - Patricia Cantwell, the Senator made her initial money to finance a race on Real stock and is still a Senator. Rob G was one of the funders of Air America radio.

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I didn't know any of that. Thanks for the side stories!

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I came here to say the same thing. I believe the author got the decades mixed up.

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I feel like there is actually a place where freedom of speech and thought is valued and nurtured. Let this always be our sanctuary - Substack: a place where one can really listen to what others think and a place where everyone can share what they really feel.

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It’s not just News current affairs and stuff. I have a Pottery podcast called The Potscast, Substack has helped it grow

Https://keramikslu.substack.com/

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Someone who has moved their podcast to Substack want to break down their pros and cons and lessons learned?

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I have not moved, but I learned that podcasts generate more subscribers than written stuff. Also - compared to YouTube - you have a five times higher reach of your audience. And the paid versions drive paid subs.

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Waaa, to me it is the opposite. Written text generates more subscribers than the podcast. I suppose, when people read they keep their eyes on the page and see verious prompts to subscribe. But when they listen, they just put the phone in their pockets. What do you think?

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It’s so easy to produce a podcast. So easy, in fact, that even I managed it! You can hear me reading it here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/rosygee/p/double-trouble?r=faoyr&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

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And sometimes a podcast is a serialised audiobook.

As in Writ Large which is going out on Rand Research

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