228: Here's What’s Changed in Podcasting in the Last Decade

Now, I want to start with the obvious one, and that's the tech.

Here is what I want to push back on a little bit, because there is a belief out there that you can just record on your phone, run it through an AI tool, and publish.

And technically, yes, that's possible, but I don't think it's actually accurate to describe how well this works.

What technology has really done is made it simple to create content and get it out into the world.

And that ease, unfortunately, is what's diluted the industry.

More content means more noise, which means more shows competing for the same attention than ever before.

And unfortunately, that barrier to entry being reduced, like there's a lot of power in it, and it's really great that we have this access to creating a piece of content like this.

But It's allowing people to treat it with less thought and less intention.

I'm a true believer in the power of really great gear.

I still believe in understanding that the process is important and actually doing your research before you hit record is powerful.

Those things have not gone away just because the barrier dropped.

Now, if you have spent any time in podcasting groups online or even on threads, you'll see, because I see this at least once a week when I log into threads, someone saying, y'all, I had an idea last night.

I decided I wanted to start a podcast.

So I sat down, I recorded my first episode and it's already on Spotify.

Same day.

Okay.

No plan, no strategy, no thought put into it.

And I think it's really cool that we live in a world where that's even possible.

But I don't think that that makes for a podcast that lasts.

Now at Gaffin Creative, when we launch a show, that process happens over the course of a week.

sometimes longer, but there is a lot that actually goes into doing what we do well.

We've really dialed in what's needed from a host, what we can take off the host plate, and what we're able to accomplish over the course of a week.

But in almost every single podcast launch that we work on, the host has been thinking about their podcast for more than a day.

In launching a podcast with a production team, it comes with an investment and a cost and an idea.

And we walk through what that looks like.