The Age Of Audio

Will Hood, Creative Director at The Academic Podcast Agency joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: I think the beauty of a podcast or radio is that it doesn't have to be that way. It has its own tricks of manipulating you, but at least it gives the impression that this is a real interaction between human beings being human I don't often pay for content because my life is so rampacked with digital content. I can't get through it all right. So the idea that I would pay for more stuff I'd have to, the perception would have to be that it was essential, listening and stuff that I really needed The best way to get information out of people is not to physically abuse them, but is to use the same kind of conversational techniques that any other powers would use.

Steve Pratt, Co-founder at Pacific Content joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: One of the most obvious things is, it is a voluntary subscription. You can't buy listens. It is not really about impressions. Like you have to get people interested enough in the concept of a show to try it, which is a big hurdle. And then it has to be so good that they want to subscribe and keep listening on an ongoing basis What's really interesting is I do think there is a job for everybody in the podcast industry. If they're working with clients to push them to be more and more creatively brave But the more that you make a show for an audience and the less you're making a piece of marketing about yourself, the better you're going to get, the better you're going to get it, finding success for your podcast, the better you're going to find success at building relationships, with potential customers at meeting your business goals and the better experience people are going to have in podcasting In audio we can paint pictures in people's minds. We can use sound design to make them feel things, and we can get a lot of time with them to explain complicated ideas or to tell really powerful, intricate stories. It's a phenomenal medium I would say thinking about the show itself is how you are differentiated and who are you trying to serve? And I think your point is very well taken that it's getting harder and harder to serve everybody, but podcasting is very effective at super serving niches.

Nathan Chan, CEO of Foundr Magazine joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: So we've actually found something you might find interesting is some of our biggest students or biggest customers that enroll in our programs or, become super fans of what we do, a lot of them all listened to the podcast quite heavily, which I also find very interesting We've got now over like almost 400 episodes, and some of these people we speak to don't give time to many people. Like their time is their greatest asset and we can get like half an hour, sometimes even 45 minutes on this person and, what they share their experiences, their lessons, like it's just gold man Recently, we've been going really hard, like the past six months on Pre-production. Our interviews are getting better and better and better, and we're seeing better growth from the podcast, which is amazing But one thing I can tell you is, I've definitely got better at asking better questions and it's definitely helped me find a way to tune my gut I believe that my time could be better spent helping more people grow the brand, creating cool stuff, doing that versus creating content and being on the tools, it's actually one of the last things that I'm on the tools on.

Rock Felder, Co-Founder & CFO of SquadCast joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: One of the disservices a lot of us folks in the podcasting industry might've done was, promoting podcasting for being accessible or a low barrier to entry The quality is rising to the top and so now that's becoming more and more common for regular indie podcasters to take their quality a lot more seriously A huge topic of discussion for us at squad cast was really educating and informing our guests and the hosts on why they should wear headphones. It wasn't really obvious to people that headphones would impact the quality of their podcast or their conversation We like to have a lot of data on what equipment podcasters are using and we are seeing that in the last couple of years more and more people are wearing headphones and not recording straight into their computer mic There is something really special about on-demand content that is produced and edited and much more professional than that something on clubhouse I'm really trying to be a good resource for our customers that when they do reach out and ask for advice, whether it's on, growing their show or how to get, how to monetize, like all the usual stuff that comes up, like I want to be a good resource for them to not just start podcasting, but again, continue to grow their show and stay in podcasting

Todd Cochrane, CEO of Blubrry Podcasting joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: Number one discovery vehicle of podcasts right now is Google We're really focused internally on helping independent podcasters grow their shows at the same time, there's going to be potentially more consolidation, which can be more acquisitions Private podcasting has become a bigger thing since the pandemic, because they want a secure way of communicating with their team members A lot of companies are trying to position themselves to be acquired in and  it's really building up bottom lines for us I think that until someone comes to us with a big enough cheque with enough zeros and the right attitudes, I think we're going to continue to be focused on helping content creators, but I think in the end, the space really has to start paying attention to these partners to grow their show Some of us did something similar, some of us did something well different, but we basically cross promoted each other to the point where our audiences really merged and there was just this tight cohesiveness and we had some people were listening two or three shows and network, some are listening to four, some people left my show to go to their show, but some people left their show to come to mine.

Mike Jensen, Chief Business Officer of Kast Media joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: I absolutely believe in having good writing skills and faith, but we still need to make that connection to people to understand some of the human elements around what is the decision-making. What concerns do you have about brand safety? What things are you listening to? Because we know that'll impact the decisions they make about what they want to buy I'm telling you that host endorsement and messaging in a podcast, which has no offense to broadcast radio, a little less ad load in it, has been the most impactful ROI vehicle that I've ever sold in my entire life One of the things that makes for a good sponsorship is an authentic read. And I think for the brand, you have to be honest with your brand, like who are you? We do benefit by being a network and we can promote our shows, but promoting shows to the wrong audience, certainly doesn't work very well it's not like the digital way where you could just go buy clicks. I hope it doesn't become that. I hope there isn't a way that you could go buy listens, but right now, you cannot. And so at least you've got this authenticity to the audience that's our building in podcasts.

David Bain, Founder of Casting Cred joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: I imagine the B2B sales cycle to be a lot longer than B2C. And I think that gives podcasting a wonderful opportunity From a business perspective, I'm imagining that a podcast is a content marketing opportunity They don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. Podcasts can be recorded, of course, at the same time as video. And you can have top of mind, the idea to collate a few episodes together in the end to create some longer product If you're doing a podcast, ideally as subject matter for a podcast, I advise that you're looking for the overarching category of content that your business sits under. So you're not talking about specifically what your products and services do, you're talking about certainly something that's of interest to the listener, but you're talking about the category of content that will end up being an interesting series of content The five step process that I tend to encourage B2B brands to go through is fairly common to other marketing models out there. It's attract, assure, connect, nurture and convince I would define B2B business opportunity and podcasting to be a content marketing opportunity. So an opportunity just to keep that brand top of mind.

Steve Stine, Founder & Host of Inside Asia Podcast joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: Point of leadership. Every great tale has a hero. And I'd say in our modern context, the hero is a leader, the corporate leader, the organizational leader, the political leader These are probably some people who have a natural ability when they tell a story, it could be just around a dinner table or it could be in front of an audience of a thousand. They just naturally lean into ideas or images or descriptions that they probably have come up with, which is why I think it's so essential for all of us, young people and all, to read and to listen and to not give up on the old tales, the old stories. They're repeatable and they're essential that they're repeatable because it perpetuates the reason for who we are and why we are. It's not just an old story That is probably one of the most powerful things you can do as a leader to say, "I'm investing my trust and belief in you at this moment in giving me a thoughtful response. Even if you don't have an answer, it's not like I'm going to punish you for that. But I really trust and believe that you have something to offer right now Once you ask, what do you think we should do? Or what would be your suggestions you empower. And that's the empowering process through this new leadership paradigm, which is the challenge for many traditional leaders who've been told to just hand down the marching orders and expect people to do it If you do not get an organization involved at all levels, frontline, middle management, and top leadership you cannot be a purpose-driven organization. 

Chloë Thomas, Podcast Host and Author of eCommerce MasterPlan joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: The thing no one tells you when you get into podcasting. It's not glamorous. It's all about organization The primary focus of my entire business now is on growing the two podcasts and growing the sponsorship income that comes from them. So we've now pivoted completely to a content company rather than a consultancy Our best sponsors are the ones who are just after brand-awareness and they want to be, if someone's thinking about e-commerce, they want to be there. And those are by far and away, the easiest sponsors to work with The reason I've not put a lot of money into advertising so far is because I haven't yet found a good way of tracking the impact of the advertising because to tie a Twitter ad to a play is incredibly difficult. So I've been trying to get my head around a way to do it. And I think I'm just gonna give up with tracking it through to podcasts and instead track it through to email signups on the websites I've spent the last almost 20 years looking at how Google play their algorithms, how Facebook, how everyone plays their algorithms and money comes into it sooner or later in every way possible. So yeah, it's going to be really fascinating to see how this space evolves in the next couple of years. 

Ollie Guillou, Founder & Podcast Producer at OG Podcasts joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: What's happened I think with podcasts a little bit too much is that people are looking for the next big guest to interview. And most of their episodes are very reliant on who they have on their show rather than who they are as people as individuals I think personality driven programming needs to be a bigger part of the podcasting space because you want to fall in love with who you're listening to. You don't want to have to fall in love with each and every guest because there's going to be guests and probably more often than not that you don't like, or you're not interested in. And that shouldn't be the determining factor on whether or not you choose to tune into that podcast There's this sort of illusion in podcasting because it's easily accessible that anybody can do it. And I don't necessarily think that is true. I don't think it is something that you can just, buy a microphone, set up and off you go, you're going to be the next big podcaster. And it takes a special kind of person, or it takes a lot of training experience and working hard at it before you can become that person, the likes of radio one presenters or any commercial station you can think of they've got that wow factor because they've been training at it for years and years I think what the big companies are doing at the moment in podcasting, this sort of big production company seem to be leaning more towards that really narrative feature led programming rather than just the strict head-to-head interview, because they've seen the value in making it a craft, making something really special out of the content You don't have to have a team of six doing immense levels of research to put out a good podcast, but you just have to make it a little bit unique. Do something which just breaks the mold a little, but doesn't reinvent the wheel so that you're not investing too much extra time in. And I know a lot of this comes down to time when it's amateur podcasts, but small tweaks to the standard format, I think can make all the difference Driving audience engagement is hard because it's really difficult to figure out what question people are going to want to bite on? Because no one's going to respond to a generic call to action. They want something very specific that they care about, that they're going to spend the time writing in about.

Olli Sulopuisto, Founder & CEO at Jaksomedia joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: Many of the most interesting podcasters are still coming from outside the traditional circles, Also that is something that the finished journalistic organizations, the bigger and the smaller ones are struggling with The means of production yet again, they have become way cheaper and basically now most middle-class, even working class people do have access to them Another thing that is interesting is that we see in Finland maybe the similar kind of thing that is happening in the U S but on a smaller scale that traditionally underrepresented voices seem to have found a good foothold in, in podcasting Whenever a new medium comes along or a new service that gets popular, a social media service, then that's the gold rush.

Neil Cowling, Founder of Fresh Air Production joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: Normally it's not where they end up because our job is to try and persuade them to create something that doesn't just serve their purpose, but obviously serves the listener's purpose  It doesn't really matter what you want to say to start with, we'll get to that. The point is who do you want to listen to and why do you want them to listen? Lots of organizations, and as you say, it might be a software company, it might be a shipping company, whatever, lots of the stories that are fascinating to people don't exist at the top level. They exist on the shop floor. They exist in the port that you operate in or the place where your customers are. And so taking your head out of the sand and looking for where those stories are and how you can tell them is the conversation that you need to have around what would make a great story. Good clients, the ones who stick with you are the ones who listen to that advice and then take it on We use case studies and we use case studies a lot in our podcast, because again, that's how to get from dry corporate conversation into storytelling.

Michael Bernsteiner, Audio Producer at burnstone AUDIO joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: It's really you have to do a lot more than it sounds like in the real world because you have just to over do everything that it sounds appropriate, that really people get the whole story of that. And like for a sound designer it really focused on the layers and every detail. So that you get this whole sound package I think with audio drama, it's the same. So a lot of stuff is done afterwards. So really creating this whole sound scene with every sound you need. And is it the footsteps or a siren that is far away or even close to you. It doesn't matter. So yeah, I think it's a lot of effort going into that I'm learning every day, about new podcasts and agencies and studios, but I really like this storytelling stuff nowadays. It's really sometimes great produced and you need a lot of time and people and everything. So it's not that easy, but like I said before, you can record it on the phone or somewhere else. So if you have this podcast with sound design and music and like a voice that is just guiding you through it, it's really professionally recorded And like I said, I think with food probably if you hear this sound effect, it's coming along with, doesn't matter what you're doing in the kitchen, then you probably could also smell it in some way, you have these memories, not just sound wise, you see it, you smell it. And this I think is great because all your senses just catch on your senses

Pascal Hughes, CEO of Noiser Podcasts joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: And yeah, sometimes it's like a challenge, like taking out the fiction and the myth and finding out what's true I think for us, our big thing is, do we think it's a cool story or an interesting story? And if everyone on the team says yes to it, we go for it. And that's our commissioning process If you can do it on your own I think go for it. The whole kind of like, commissions are fantastic, but equally the advertising industry is growing like wildfire and there's so many more brands coming into the industry now that it's much more viable now to have your own original with advertising in than it was two, three years ago, when I first started making shows 4The key is to have the waterfall advertising model, where you're always going for the highest possible CPM. But if for whatever reason you don't get that you have different backups in place

Ron Baetiong, Founder and CEO at Podcast Network Asia joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: In order for us to support a show, we need to be able to ROI on it. We want to monetize that show because if we don't monetize that show will also sink the whole boat. So we can't afford to do that  Podcasts are amazing in terms of persuasion and conversion, which you don't get in other digital media at the moment If you want to be popular overnight, then you have to go to TikTok, Instagram, or whatever, where you can be an overnight success, but in podcasts, it's hard to wing it because it's all about substance and education at the forefront. You can't just, throw random, stupid content out there. And this is an intellectual medium. So you have to be a gritty in a way to always refuel your tank, to put content that's valuable with your target audience There is a mighty skill gap in podcasting. I've seen people that are domain experts, but have challenges in terms of communicating how they want to do it, and that's where they really dropped the ball There's one common metric that people always forget to measure if your podcast is good, and if you're really resonating with their target market and for us, it's all about retention.

Sophie Hind, Managing Director at voiceworks.ai joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: A good podcast is not a tell situation, it's going to leave the listener with something valuable and information that's presented I think in a really clear, easy to understand way Another thing that's so key about audio is it's got to be conversational, what people love about podcasts is their authenticity Having the experience of creating content for the ear and not the eye is a massively different skill There's so much content out there. It's almost clogging. It's making it very hard for us to discover the great stuff  Podcasts should be offering something different to what's live and it's just like recording in the old days a video of a TV show and shoving it out there for the moment.

Rhys Waters, Co-Founder & Producer Company of Podstarter joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: Comedy is a great example because it is one of the most popular genres, one of the most competitive, and one of the hardest to kind of rise in The emphasis on launching a podcast, if you put that time and energy, because it does take a lot of time and a lot of effort to launch, to develop a show that is going to work first, then also to make it, and then also to promote it and get it to grow. But if you put all that time and effort into appearing on shows that already exist and approach them in a meaningful way where it's not kind of a mass email Don't just go on any podcast. You've got to make sure that you almost fit seamlessly with what they're doing as hosts and the energy they've got The quality of that engagement is a real indicator on how much of an impact it will have The most growth that we've made with some of the brands is thinking about the podcasts from the point of view of building a community around the podcast People will leave terrible reviews, but other people will leave very good reviews. And what you've got to do is focus on nurturing those people who are those really engaged listeners at the top of the listener pyramid I think opening a dialogue with your listeners and not seeing them as a mass of an audience, understanding that you need that two way conversation.

Traci DeForge, Founder of Produce Your Podcast joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: I really enjoy, love and feel very strongly about podcasting being not only just a content creation tool, but also a marketing tool for scalability and for the growth of businesses. In any industry of any type or any launch of any type, you're going to have a competitive landscape. That's just part of doing business, being in business and the saturation of marketing messaging in general is a competitive landscape. Podcasting is the one medium that is a pull medium versus a push medium. And that's why vertical niches and highly engaged, targeted audiences are beneficial in podcasting because they are choosing to show up and spend the time with you, they are making a conscious decision to choose, to listen to your podcast, watch your podcast, engage in your podcasts instead of someone else's. If you are doing a primarily guest oriented show, you can set your podcast up to at the beginning, maybe you talk through breaking news at that point then you evolve into the, really more in depth conversation with your guest on a specific topic, and then transition before you close into a segment that provides a very specific knowledgeable focused piece of content. The beautiful thing about podcasting is it's a low barrier entry. The challenge about podcasting is it's a lower barriered entry. The host that listens is often a better host and are better interviewer than a host that doesn't listen and is always trying to make it about their opinion.  It is consistency that is a critical factor in the quality of your podcast and building the audience growth. Podcasting has gained so much growth and inspiration and engagement because it is different from traditional radio and I think it's important to embrace that.  if you could be creating the most intriguing fascinating content there is, but if it hurts to listen to it, or it's hard to watch it, then people will not come back to it because it's human nature.

Jorge Gonzalez, Founder at Nodalab joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: We're seeing the emergence of networks with big budgets and so these networks can create high quality shows. Now you're seeing Spanish audiences, like a booming period where we're seeing a lot of new companies like podcast networks. Just New in the game and doing a lot of high quality shows. Now you're seeing that trend shift toward, people who are listening to podcasts in Spanish because they're getting that good, and that's had like a domino effect where now, we can see that more people like famous people are getting into it. You're seeing a lot of interview style podcasts, you're seeing a lot of cross-promotion so you can see the same guy being interviewed by all of the podcasters and definitely there's a scene where there are some key players that are cross-promoting between each other and comedians, you see a lot of comedians guys who were doing stand ups and who had their Netflix specials. They're very likely to have a podcast as well. I think podcasting can bring us a perspective into different areas of Mexico and the stories that you wouldn't otherwise listen to. Being an audio guy, I think that there is very rich sound design storytelling. That's what really excites me the most. And I think these mediums give you a limitless canvas of exploration. Like you can do anything to you. And that's one of the things I love the most.

Tony Skinner, Owner of Podcast My Business joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: The purpose of a podcast is that you record it once, and you can use it multiple times in multiple ways. So you've got the audio with the podcast and then you can convert it to text, or can use that in a blog on your website. So video is expensive, it's difficult to do, requires a lot of setup, one person can't, it's very difficult to talk straight to the camera and again, you still want to interview, and then you've got to do the post production. There's a lot more post production with the video than there is for the podcast. Yeah. So it's easier and quicker with a podcast. I got into podcasting a year and a half, two years ago because I was looking at the SEO landscape and I looked at voice search. And I believe voice search is the future of SEO and the internet. Podcasting is a way that you can benefit by providing the voice search capability on your website that Google will be looking for because Google is actually capable of analysing the podcast, understanding the words that are being spoken and matching that to a user's search. If you want to get involved in voice search, then you need to be producing content. That's using a voice.

Mark Asquith, Co-Founder of Captivate Audio Ltd joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights:  It's rare that I don't know someone in podcasting. And I'm talking 2013, 2014 when the podcast movement was like 500 people or 200 people I am not the talent in the team, these guys are the talent, the people that do the work every single day to build the things that I say, wouldn't it be cool.  There's no bad podcast hosting platform out there. There isn't, a lot of other people will say, we're better than XYZ like. I don't say that, we're not better. We're just, we think differently to others. And it's about finding the fit. I think intuition comes from two things. It comes from having produced that much of our own stuff, but also having the kind of balls in us to just say, screw that, let's just build this solution. Forget what everyone's saying. Let's just build it.   Unlike every other industry, podcasting believes it's open, thrives on control. So Spotify will make more money than anyone because they control their ecosystem.  I think it's interesting because things like the ability to do sentiment analysis, internal analysis, and you start to look at the way that people interpret things.  So increasingly that becomes less of a barrier to entry and therefore the kind of content people are producing even if you look in this mid-ground, like the Tik Tok of the world, it's sort of half content production, half communication.  It is very unfair for trolls to exist and that you see every level of creation, from the indie creator, right up to star wars. And the sad fact is it's the platforms that get brought to trial for that because they've allowed it

Marc Raco, Head of Audio for Linktree joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: What I've learned about storytelling as an actor or a salesperson, as a filmmaker has just organically infused itself into how I think about podcasting. I just really want to discover with the listener. So the places I go or the places the hosts that I'm producing for, go is almost the same place that the listeners organically going next to wherever their mind goes. Because if you think about a podcast, if someone on average, let's say subscribes to five podcasts and listens to three on a religious basis, that's valuable real estate in someone's life. To earn the right to hold that place week after week, you better be delivering some real value and entertainment is a big part of it.   If you look at advertising throughout the ages. It's always entertained. At first, it was to inform wasn't it, sort of like old-fashioned style, look at how white these shirts are, but then it realized that to win people's attention to hold it, you had to entertain people. I think that people just want to connect and the pandemic has amplified that realization inside us. I think that's evidenced by things like Clubhouse that are, certainly huge in America. So I think the future, not just podcasting, but the role that audio will have and the way we do business, the way we interact with each other is only going to grow exponentially. And I think a lot of that has to do with the way audio impacts our brain away. I think we are rediscovering audio because it engages in a more intimate way with us because we have a role in it.

Koos Tervooren, owner of Microphone Media joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.  Show Highlights: I think there's a conflict because I think every journalistic piece that, uses storytelling has some imagination in it. And some interpretation of facts. I think it's very important to keep telling news and journalistic things in a way of storytelling. I think that's very important because otherwise an audience is not going to listen to a story, not going to read a story, not going to watch a documentary. Radio survived by its ability to create a community. And in podcasting, a lot of people are just saying, oh, this is what I want to talk about. And hopefully, I'll create a community by getting the guests to share with their people. Doesn't create communities. It doesn't stick, doesn't convert. I think there are going to be more and more platforms facilitating ads for podcasters. So you'll see more ads, you see more sponsored deals in which companies buy yourself into podcasts. And you'll probably see more platforms facilitating all that. I would advise anyone trying to sell their podcasts, not starting with selling with numbers because then it comes down to two clicks, pretty fast and then that often answers conversation.  But I look at podcasts and think, hang on a second, companies are spending 150 billion a year on press releases and PR and communications and talking to journalists, these comms guys speaking to journalists. So I think a lot of people disagree with me because they only see advertising, but I see this huge piece, which is about communications and thought leadership. I'm one of the few people in the world right now thinking that, because I see video more and more, we're also using it more and more, but I'm still not a big fan, but maybe that's also because I don't really understand video. I'm not really like an image guy.

Josef Newton, founder of Brand is Demand joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: I think the way that you approach a B2B podcast is very different and it's, it should really be about building and kind of cultivating an audience of your target ideal customer profile. What I'm pitching clients on is like, look. Let's actually try and build a brand here and let's actually try and build an asset that is genuinely going to create demand for your service and products. Building the asset is key here. That's what's scalable. I think a lot of B2B companies are ties to like the interview format. That seems to be the only format. I think there's very few that have kind of pushed themselves out of that.  Approaching your podcasts and branded content more like a media company, first of all. But then also, be willing to experiment with different formats and different shows, particularly when you've got lots of different profiles that you're trying to get in front of them and lots of different audiences. I really feel that it's going to be, one podcast for every leader in the organization and that's the model we're going to evolve into overtime I'd say it's the mindset change that doesn't come with quantitative data. It comes with qualitative feedback.

JJ Thompson, Founder of Podcast Now joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: So a lot of people don't realize that because radio, especially now more than ever, is all programmed and everything needs to be exact. So when they break into a six minute commercial break, it needs to be exactly six minutes.  That's the essence of radio commercials ,is that writing, to be able to put all that information in a short amount of time is challenging. You always want to have what's called a bumper music. That's another big radio term as bumpers. You don't want to just go from talking straight into a commercial. You want to have that music that pads you in, transitions you out of the segment into a commercial. And then the back end of the commercial transitions you back into the next segment. If you're trying to promote your business through podcasting and within that networking while interviewing other people in your industry and you land a couple clients because of those people that you met. There's your monetary gain and the right people are getting it, and they're willing to throw some money at podcasting, even though you don't really have direct monetary gain from it. I have experienced this in the last two plus years now, three years now that I've been doing this, I've seen it firsthand. It's like a wildfire. You'd be amazed at how many people out there have budgets willing to spend for podcasting. It's remarkable. So there are some of these real independent artists that do manage to make it big, “make it big on their own”. That's the ultimate cause they own a hundred percent of their stuff where you have bands that still are in debt to their record labels after five albums.

Janne Aagaard, True Crime Writer & Podcast Producer joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: Whilst I enjoy interviewing some of the big names and names that people are familiar with. What I love are the unknown stories.  Almost as you said, sometimes I approach people and they say, why would anybody be interested in hearing my story? It's very ordinary. It's very boring, but it's the little details that you find in that, that you wouldn't get necessarily in a textbook or a mainstream documentary. I think that that's the other key thing about podcasting is you can really niche down on a subject that might not have a mainstream interest, but you can build a decent audience around that subject matter.  I remember things like bomb shelters. We don't think about those now, but even back then people talked about them. What I'm trying to get to is that what you're capturing now is stuff that we've easily committed to memory and forgotten about. She said to me later, I didn't know hardly any of that. He's talked to me a little bit about it, but you have just illuminated, a whole, a different part of the story and no idea what, what he'd experienced. I think the amazing part of all of this, is that there always was audiences. It's just that maybe they didn't have the platform or maybe it just wasn't mainstream enough for people to own up and admit that they're into this stuff. And now you're seeing people saying screw that, it's like, I'm into this now and I'm going to listen to this.

James Bishop, Founder of OneFinePlay joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: I think that we're going to start to see the rise of the audio first influencer, who builds a cross channel, cross-platform, cross-format brand. And I think that's something that people aren't expecting to happen in the way that I think that it will.  We had Facebook, Instagram took some of the attention from Facebook. Tik Toks come along, taken some of that attention and it's moved and young people tend to move faster than the older generations. In a way, there's a sense that's coming back. Isn't it? That with podcasts that they're creating this connection. That doesn't exist in our lives today. Look at where we are in the last couple of years, what's happened to us. One of the things that we're going to see moving forward that I think will disrupt the industry, the podcasting. Now I hate the word disrupt, and I don't mean that. The necessity for good content, good quality content in terms of storytelling is going to continue to rise for the reasons that you just said. The more that you speak on other podcasts, which is probably the best way to promote any podcast, another conversation, the more you realize that you need to explain your origin story in a few bullet points, that's totally relevant. A good quality podcast is a highlight reel of a conversation, not a conversation. 

Ian Sanders, Podcast Host & Producer of Cold War Conversations History Podcast joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: Whilst I enjoy interviewing some of the big names and names that people are familiar with. What I love are the unknown stories.  And, almost as you said, sometimes I approach people and they say, why would anybody be interested in hearing my story? It's very ordinary. It's very boring, but it's the little details that you find in that, that you wouldn't get necessarily in a textbook or a mainstream documentary. I think that that's the other key thing about podcasting is you can really niche down on a subject that might not have a mainstream interest, but you can build a decent audience around that subject matter. I remember things like bomb shelters. We don't think about those now, but even back then people talked about them. What I'm trying to get to is that what you're capturing now is stuff that we've easily committed to memory and forgotten about. She said to me later, I didn't know hardly any of that. He's talked to me a little bit about it, but you have just illuminated, a whole, a different part of the story and no idea what, what he'd experienced. I think the amazing part of all of this, is that there always was audiences. It's just that maybe they didn't have the platform or maybe it just wasn't mainstream enough for people to own up and admit that they're into this stuff. And now you're seeing people saying screw that, it's like, I'm into this now and I'm going to listen to this.

Georg Gfrerer, Podcast Producer & Founder of Audio-Funnel joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners.To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: When you're into storytelling, then you have your classic components. You need a protagonist if there's conflict and the resolve and all that kind of stuff, the stuff you normally like you wouldn't have in a newspaper article, or you would have that naturally, but just by the nature of the news or what the news is about. And as to the audience, we know the audio is probably one of the strongest relationships that you can have because when do you have the chance to get 20, 30, 40 minutes day or week, whatever it is with your audience and they'd totally immerse themselves in your content. And I think that's the way to go because especially in audio, if you're too much in your face, then I think it fires back on the advertiser. But I love the title that you chose Age of Audio because we're now transitioning from the age of screen and to the age of audio. You're now competing against kids and that's a losing game because they are in their bedrooms and they've got hours to throw at this stuff and they can get millions of subscribers and that's tough. Clicks that create some sort of emotional connection is almost like going back to old-fashioned journalism and the old-fashioned media where people felt some kind of strong connection with titles and magazines and publications. Which has gone really

Gareth Evans, Founder of 18Sixty Podcasts joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: You should never set out to make a podcast with the idea of, I've got this thing to say, I need everyone to know about it. It should be how is what I've got to say, going to be useful and beneficial and interesting to that audience and how can I deliver it in a way that they're going to enjoy it?  And I guess if you're an independent podcaster who wants to set up a podcast again, think about who it is that you want to reach and what's lacking for them. The great thing about podcasts, and as everyone says is it's a low barrier to entry and everyone can try it out. But I think a podcast can really benefit from, experience Audio has this very unfakeable element that you can't fake a human conversation.  But what I think the BBC has a huge organization and it's like turning a ship around to try and sort of change the way that they do anything but they've taken what they do really well in making radio.

Elaine Grant, Co-Founder of Podcast Allies joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS: So it was interesting because he taught me how to think about being a reader and that reader could not have been more different than me. So I had to think about things from that perspective. I wouldn't have done a lot of public speaking. You stand on stage and the first few years just trying to get through without dying, like driving the car the first time, as long as I can come out of this alive.  Performing means being vulnerable in a way. It means stepping out of your armor in somebody else's shoes. And I think often I'm not always the best at it as a host because I spent a lot of years in public radio and it's hard to turn off that news announcer persona. You just fall into it automatically, it can be hard to turn off. I know there are podcasts out there that do this, but I have often thought that I really want to start a podcast that dissects pieces of other podcasts, like great scenes, good at interviews, even wonderful introductions, moments in time and pulls them apart. So if you don't have good interviewing skills, you're not going to have a good story because you don't have the details that you need.  And if now people are expecting different things that people talk about authenticity, talk about empathy. These are all born of a place where we have to sort of adopt a different identity, that's hard.

Dylan Pugh, Managing Director ​of Sport Industry Group joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.

Derrick Michaud, CEO & Founder of Shelby Row Productions joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS: So a lot of people don't realize that because radio, especially now more than ever, is all programmed and everything needs to be exact. So when they break into a six minute commercial break, it needs to be exactly six minutes.  That's the essence of radio commercials ,is that writing, to be able to put all that information in a short amount of time is challenging. You always want to have what's called a bumper music. That's another big radio term as bumpers. You don't want to just go from talking straight into a commercial. You want to have that music that pads you in, transitions you out of the segment into a commercial. And then the back end of the commercial transitions you back into the next segment. If you're trying to promote your business through podcasting and within that networking while interviewing other people in your industry and you land a couple clients because of those people that you met. There's your monetary gain and the right people are getting it, and they're willing to throw some money at podcasting, even though you don't really have direct monetary gain from it. I have experienced this in the last two plus years now, three years now that I've been doing this, I've seen it firsthand. It's like a wildfire. You'd be amazed at how many people out there have budgets willing to spend for podcasting. It's remarkable. So there are some of these real independent artists that do manage to make it big, “make it big on their own”. That's the ultimate cause they own a hundred percent of their stuff where you have bands that still are in debt to their record labels after five albums.

Darcy Milne, Founder of Pro Podcast Production joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.SHOW HIGHLIGHTS: Often I worked in comedy radio shows and it really looks at how to reach them in the best way. So that started off as just traditional radio frequencies and reaching them that way and then that progressed into the digital space and connecting video and social media to radio shows.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Chemistry's the reason people will tune in. You have to have a show that is enjoyable to listen to as a fly-on-the-wall listener. You have to be a team player first and foremost, you have to bring a unique experience. So in that case, there was a comedian, there was an actor and a radio person, all of them had a unique experience, but all of them were happy to be team players. And that's so important because where it doesn't work is if you want to be front and center if it's about you.                                                                                               That radio speaks to the audience, it speaks to you as the audience. Whereas podcasts seem to be a conversation, which I'm almost like looking through the glass window.                                                                                                                                                                                  I mean, these are all the things that radio does so well and I don't think it's hard to achieve that in a podcast space if you meet the right people and what is exciting, what I love about podcasts, it's now giving people the opportunity.                                                                            So something we did with Ikea, is build the sleep podcast. This podcast is 30 minutes, guided, almost like meditation. And it's got an Ikea employee reading the Ikea magazine in a very slow, relaxing voice and there's music.                                                                                              Thousands of people every night, still go to sleep with that Ikea 20 20 sleep podcast and the new one that has just come out. And so, it's having fun with it, it doesn't have to have a corporate look and feel just because you're a business or an organization doing that.                      And I think podcasting is just getting more exciting because suddenly there's a way for those opinions and views and experiences to come to life through this audio medium.

Carl Javier, CEO of Puma Podcast joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.SHOW HIGHLIGHTS: There's a viscerality to audio that is like it's undeniable. Like you hear it and your body is reacting to it. And that's sort of my starting point with playing audio is trying to approximate things that people will respond to, even if they don't understand it yet. It's almost like trying to make music with a podcast.  I think all stories are about conflict. There's no story without a good conflict. And it's the idea of how each form can introduce elements that the other doesn't. I think that when we're talking about narratives and teaching people how to place things within a narrative again it's like trying to set up boxes that we fill in and the beauty of storytelling and structure is that they're defined boxes. Like the three-act structure. There's a three-part story arc and everyone uses the same structure and the beauty of it is trying to tell that story and then make it so that people don't see the structure. And they only enjoy the details of the story that you're telling. The beauty of audio right now is if I slow down my voice, it emphasizes and the listener's forced to slow down with me. But the older meaning of performance is, to come true. So that's really interesting. Isn't it, to bring about, to produce, to make something come true.  The podcast is a potential performance of their brand and their brand values and what they represent.

Bijay Goutaum, Co-Founder of WYN Studio joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.SHOW HIGHLIGHTS: Spotify is spending a lot to commission original shows here in India, and they are getting Bollywood celebrities. They are getting YouTubers to do the shows.                                                                                                                                                                                                               Podcasting has really grown during the pandemic because a lot of people got into it as a listener. A lot of them got into it as a creator. So I must say it's been a great year for podcasting here in India.                                                                                                                                          Storytelling is a really great genre. That's working really well. And as I said, devotional and spiritual content that's doing really well as well. And personal transformation is another thing that works really well in India.                                                                                                               But now the next growth that's going to come on the podcasting, that's going to be from the reasonable languages, local languages, where, you know, from the smallest cities, because these are, this is where people are gonna relate to the content much better when, you get to hear the content in your mother tongue, then that's when you relate to the content much better.                                                                I don't remember the exact number, but I think it was more than 10 languages that Tik-Tok was available in India and that the way it has grown and exploded in India, I think the largest number of people using Tik-Tok was in India.                                                                                     With the tools like Anchor coming in and making it easier for a lot of people to create podcasts and even Indian podcasting apps that are trying really hard to get more and more creators on board to come and share their stories, share their poems and literature.                              I think they must be one of the highest spenders when it comes to creating new shows that are commissioning a lot of shows almost every week.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Brands are paying attention because when everybody's talking about the podcast, then brands obviously want to be where, audience's attention is, right?                                                                                                                                                                                                              We are helping brands to share their message with the world, helping them share their vision, mission maybe where what's happening and building thought leadership is something that's going to really push a lot of brands.                                                                                                  And I think a lot of Bollywood celebrities and stuff like that, people with a massive fan following and that's what Spotify is trying to do, tapping into these people and trying them to create an exclusive show on their platform so that they can get these people on the, on Spotify to consume the podcast and then maybe, discover other shows as well. 

Ben Whitmarsh, founder of Awesome Panda Production, joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com.Show Highlights: • I didn't know what I wanted to do at all. I just knew I wanted to be involved in radio. And I wonder if that's what comes with an awful lot of podcasters now.  Maybe they hear podcasts, they just get inspired and they want to get involved.• It was at the point where radio in the UK was starting to go downhill, trouble seemed ahead. And that's another interesting thing. You could potentially argue that podcasting seized the baton there and the renaissance of engagement through rich audio storytelling, (which is one of the things that we are going to be talking about) could be directly linked to this.• There's so much talk about bringing your authentic self, how you've got to inform, you've got to educate and all of those things are absolutely right. But if you don't bring entertainment, then you can be authentic as you like but nobody will want to listen to it.                                                                                                                                             • It's interesting that you mentioned being a musician there because I'm very much an amateur musician, but I do play in bands and have played solo over many years. I used to busk in Sydney. I did that for an awfully long time. It was terrific.                                    • My dad was a musician as well. And when I first started playing, he said the one thing you've got to remember is you've got to go onto that stage and you've got to make the audience feel that you've got everything under control. You've got to be in charge up there.                                                                                                                                                                                                              • I just feel that it's like, yeah, that's it's performance, isn't it it's storytelling. The best teachers were also the best storytellers, the best performers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      • And the people who are doing the podcasts I think are invariably incredibly passionate about what they're doing. Certainly, the ones that I listen to, they're incredibly passionate and they're very well researched.                                                                                                                                                  • Performance really means putting yourself out there. Like if you were a musician. You don't leave anything on the table, do you? When you perform, you go live, you give everything and that takes everything out of you.

Andrew Menczel, Founder of Piccolo Podcasts joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: I came up from a fan's perspective as well so that sort of brought that side to it where I wasn't trying to be a journalist as much as a fan.        So I just thought, well, if you're an Australian cricket fan and especially if you were traveling or overseas and you wanted to keep in touch with the cricket action from back home, there's nothing better than a podcast for that.                                                                                           I don't like that notion of a podcast where people can just get on and chat about their week and people are gonna listen to that. So I always wanted to get straight into the news and make it worth someone's time.                                                                                                                    Because I feel that with podcasts, audiences want that a little bit, they would want to get behind and understand a bit more about the man behind the mask, if you like.                                                                                                                                                                                             But when you get them in a podcast, it's just you and them. Hopefully, if you're lucky and you're speaking to them for longer, it's actually harder for someone to keep up their guard for that sort of length of time. So if you spend a bit of time and slowly sort of try and unpack stuff and lead them to a place, you can get some pretty great stuff.                                                                                                                           In Podcasting, one of the real strengths is this idea of narrowcasting as opposed to broadcasting, in which you can target a specific group of people and not dilute the message down for a wider reach because its small, but the concentrated fan base is a lot more powerful than a very broad and thin fan base as you would in traditional broadcast media.                                                                                                                I've had a, I guess a classical kind of podcast journey where you start as an amateur in your living room and I've progressed to a more professional environment.                                                                                                                                                                                                Data has become so easy for anybody to step up to the mic. Has meant this sort of flood of podcasts, which is great. The flip side of that is it's easier to produce, but harder to promote.                                                                                                                                                                Now, everyone gets good people on their podcast. And if they're not getting them on their podcasts, those people are doing podcasts themselves.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       And I wonder as well, moving forward, the challenge that what's going to happen in the stores is that over time you're going to see this polarization just as you see in any media landscape.                                                                                                                                                    It's still one of those industries where there are no rules and you should just have a fucking crack.

Alex Graham, Founder of Audio Coast joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio, and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: I think podcasting is brilliant because it allows you to create these niche communities really easily around niche subjects, whatever it might be, and talking to your audience in that way as a radio presenter would do. I think that would only help them massively. In university, studying radio, you're taught how to address your audience and create that level of intimacy between you and the listener. Working in radio is just practiced without thought. And then eventually as you start to develop your producer skills, and then you start working with younger talent or up-and-coming talent. I guess you're always having to think about what your audience wants and who they are always and how that is changing and also how the station is looking to approach new audiences I guess it's just thinking outside of the box, thinking about the resources you've got available to you and the topics and who your audience are, and then trying to combine those in a way that makes something compelling to listen to on the radio or supplementary podcast, I suppose, in some cases. I don't think podcasters quite realize the deep knowledge or at least claimed knowledge that radio stations think they have through various studies and things of that listener. But yeah, it does go quite granular, into their interests, their likes, their dislikes, and who they are as people. I'm thinking that allows you to talk to them in a much more personable way. And that's what makes a good presenter or a bad presenter is knowing who you're talking to and how to talk to them. The listener changes throughout the day. But often their key interests are the same, they're all united by their love of perhaps the music or the topic of the station. Each show has its own audience and a good presenter will know who that audience is and how to talk to them in my opinion. I love narrative, sort of longer form, maybe journalistic style content. That's kind of what I really enjoy listening to. I think it's really interesting that the oldest form of media (newspaper) in the world is leaning really heavily on what could be considered one of the newest forms of storytelling. I mean, radio, was in many ways, a sunset industry in the eyes of so many critics for so long, but it outstayed digital and a big part of it was it had all of that. It had great talent and it had a connection with the community, didn't it?                                                                                      A journalist should be a great storyteller in theory and that's a craft, isn't it? If you read a good journalist and read their writing, they write really well.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          You've got these middle-aged guys just doing a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. I think it's awesome. And the fact is that people are willing to pay for that and support it.

Alex Sanfilippo, SaaS Founder of PodMatch joins Graham Brown in this episode of The Age of Audio. The Age of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and changemakers in the world of audio. Podcasts, Radio, Social Audio and Data are converging to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for Age of Audio, go to theageofaudio.com. Show Highlights: The upper 70 percentile of people who listen to podcasts, listen to learn something new. So, they listen with a purpose.  What I'm realizing about podcasts is I think it's quickly becoming the primary way that people are starting to learn new things and it's their choice, their content consumption of choice, which I think is a very interesting thing for us to be paying attention to. People have been moving their internal conversation from HR departments onto internal company podcasts. So their employees can listen to it on a drive into work or when they wake up in the morning, quickly listening to a daily or weekly podcast for that company specifically.  We've got to learn to be able to say, "Okay, how can I break down what I'm trying to say into something bite size that somebody can take something from this that I'm saying here and I can give the host a chance to ask me something else on the same topic or a clarifying question." Everyone always talks about how podcasters, like mine included, our babies are our podcasts. Really, our baby is the audience. Actually referencing the audience. That's the real baby. That's like what we're trying to protect. My podcast is pointless if none of my listeners ever tune in again. That's what I really try to protect. The best guest I find is the person that specifically really knows what you're looking for. So, getting very focused, getting very niche for a specific episode and finding that person that you just have great synergy with. Don't pretend to be somebody you're not is what it comes down to and do your best to when you know your true self and you're really in tune with that, do your best to improve yourself and the way that you can actually speak. I think that the future of guesting is like what we're doing here. We're not going to talk for two hours today. We're talking for half an hour or less. That's all that we're going to be doing here. And that's what people can actually consume because on one topic or if it's kind of multiple topics, that's all people can really hang on for. I think that the future is getting shorter and turning into just better pointed questions that people can really learn something from.