Audio podcasting vs video podcasting

Speaker: 00:00:00

Two audio podcast or two video podcasts.

Speaker: 00:00:03

That is the question.

Speaker: 00:00:12

There is so much discussion about this topic of which is superior audio or video.

Speaker: 00:00:19

Can a video podcast even be called a video podcast?

Speaker: 00:00:23

Isn't it just a video for YouTube?

Speaker: 00:00:25

Why is it called a podcast?

Speaker: 00:00:27

You know, there's so much.

Speaker: 00:00:29

Debate, which I thought would be interesting for me to give my take on

Speaker: 00:00:34

because I've been doing this for over a decade and mostly in the audio space,

Speaker: 00:00:39

but more recently moving into the video space probably a couple of years ago now.

Speaker: 00:00:44

So let's get straight into it.

Speaker: 00:00:45

First of all, audio is easier.

Speaker: 00:00:48

Number one, audio is easier.

Speaker: 00:00:50

Okay?

Speaker: 00:00:51

If you are going to start a podcast and you are already overwhelmed with

Speaker: 00:00:55

the fact that you have to have a microphone and you have to record it

Speaker: 00:00:58

somehow, then adding video into that is a extra layer of complexity, which

Speaker: 00:01:04

is going to probably blow your brain.

Speaker: 00:01:06

If that's something that feels like it's a barrier for you to

Speaker: 00:01:09

get going because you feel like, oh man, video is an extra thing.

Speaker: 00:01:13

Now I need some sort of fancy webcam.

Speaker: 00:01:15

Am or I need a camera or like, I need all this extra stuff.

Speaker: 00:01:18

Don't do it then.

Speaker: 00:01:20

Okay.

Speaker: 00:01:21

Just start with audio.

Speaker: 00:01:22

Just have an audio podcast.

Speaker: 00:01:25

That is fine.

Speaker: 00:01:26

If the tech is overwhelming, just do audio.

Speaker: 00:01:29

The other benefit of.

Speaker: 00:01:31

Doing audio only, other than its simplicity, is the fact

Speaker: 00:01:35

that you can really then record whenever you want because you

Speaker: 00:01:39

don't have to look a certain way.

Speaker: 00:01:41

So what I'm saying here is you can be in your pajamas, it can be

: 00:01:44

00 PM and you can decide that you wanna record a podcast episode.

: 00:01:48

You don't have to be fancy, you don't have to look good.

: 00:01:51

You don't have to be camera ready.

: 00:01:53

You can just be in your pajamas, like in your bed.

: 00:01:57

And just recording.

: 00:01:58

Although, you know, Emma Chamberlain does that anyway and she does it with video.

: 00:02:01

You don't have to look super fancy to record a video version, but that is a

: 00:02:05

barrier for a lot of people, especially in podcasting in the B2B space, because you

: 00:02:10

know, they're wanting to present a certain way, they wanna look a certain way.

: 00:02:14

And if they are presenting themselves on video, then they

: 00:02:17

want to present that image.

: 00:02:18

They're building a personal brand.

: 00:02:20

If you are.

: 00:02:22

Audio only, no one can see what you look like.

: 00:02:25

So you could just have got outta the shower and looked like an absolute mess.

: 00:02:29

Won't matter.

: 00:02:30

Number three, why audio is really a nice option is that connection that

: 00:02:36

you can get and actually the way you speak is often different when you're

: 00:02:40

presenting in video versus audio.

: 00:02:42

Only when you are audio only.

: 00:02:45

There's something about it where you just put the headphones on and

: 00:02:48

you can even just close your eyes and you're just talking to yourself.

: 00:02:52

It feels really.

: 00:02:54

Cathartic to just be talking to yourself and be audio only and have

: 00:02:59

the lights off and just present.

: 00:03:02

You can just do that.

: 00:03:02

And so it feels like that connection is really nice.

: 00:03:05

And from a listener perspective, they can also sense that.

: 00:03:09

So depending on the content that you're delivering, it could be nice to just be

: 00:03:13

audio only because you want to build that.

: 00:03:16

Different sort of feeling into your show, which often only comes when

: 00:03:21

you don't have to also worry about how you're looking or how close

: 00:03:25

you are or whatever for your video.

: 00:03:27

So that's definitely something to think about.

: 00:03:30

Why else you might wanna just do audio only is it, again, is

: 00:03:34

cheaper because there's less going on from a production standpoint.

: 00:03:39

Let me caveat that first.

: 00:03:40

It depends on what kind of audio show you're doing.

: 00:03:43

If you're doing narrative style show where you've got, you know, multiple

: 00:03:48

different tracks and that you've been interviewing people on the street or

: 00:03:52

there's folly, there's all this stuff.

: 00:03:54

Obviously that's still going to take considerable time and budget.

: 00:03:57

But for a show where you don't have all that going on, where maybe it's just like

: 00:04:01

I am now, me in front of my microphone, uh, in my studio, the amount of money that

: 00:04:09

it takes to actually make that happen is.

: 00:04:11

Fairly limited.

: 00:04:12

You can just do, uh, one podcast microphone, one podcast, boom

: 00:04:17

arm, and a pair of headphones so that you can monitor yourself.

: 00:04:21

Maybe a budget of like $400.

: 00:04:24

You could get it done for that much.

: 00:04:26

And then in the editing side, the editing will cost you less because you

: 00:04:31

are not having the complexity of video.

: 00:04:33

As soon as you introduce video, even video snippets, that's going to cost you more.

: 00:04:38

The budget is often a constraint for people that we speak to as far

: 00:04:42

as you know, they're interested in, in our production packages.

: 00:04:46

If they can't afford the video, then that's a rate limiting step to do video.

: 00:04:51

It costs more to do a production like that.

: 00:04:54

Not only does video cost more from an editing perspective, but of course

: 00:04:58

it costs more in the actual setup.

: 00:05:00

Phase two, because you need lighting.

: 00:05:02

You need cameras, you need like a setup that makes sense for video,

: 00:05:07

that has good stuff in the background.

: 00:05:10

Maybe you have a couch or whatever.

: 00:05:11

You know, all this Lego in the background here is thousands of dollars that I

: 00:05:16

didn't buy it to have the backdrop like that I. I love building Lego, and

: 00:05:20

so that to me is like an added bonus that I can have this be part of my

: 00:05:24

setup, but whatever you do from a video perspective is going to cost you money.

: 00:05:29

More money than an audio only show would.

: 00:05:33

They're probably the main ones with audio being like a bonus.

: 00:05:38

If you really wanna start figuring out whether you are interested

: 00:05:41

in doing podcasting, then audio only is, is a simple way to do it.

: 00:05:45

It's also how the medium started.

: 00:05:48

And so there's kind of like a, a romantic feeling about that.

: 00:05:53

'cause that's where I started in audio production as well, where

: 00:05:56

everything feels simple and easy and beautiful in an audio-only space.

: 00:06:01

You don't have to think about the complexities of video and

: 00:06:04

that is a nice place to play

: 00:06:09

in saying that video has a lot of things that make it.

: 00:06:15

More appealing to me personally and to a lot of the clients that we work with.

: 00:06:20

I still think it's a podcast if it's video.

: 00:06:23

So I, you know, I might ruffle some feather feathers saying that if we

: 00:06:27

look at the huge ones like Chris Williamson for example, or diary of a

: 00:06:31

CEO, let's focus on Chris Williamson for a second, because I think he has

: 00:06:35

one of the best, uh, production value setups in podcasting that I've seen.

: 00:06:41

Chris Williamson has these beautiful shots.

: 00:06:44

It is like this cinematic experience sitting down to watch an episode of his.

: 00:06:50

The lighting is beautiful.

: 00:06:52

The sets are different.

: 00:06:53

He goes to different locations.

: 00:06:56

It's just like there's an experience in that.

: 00:06:59

Yes.

: 00:06:59

When you're listening to it, it's still an experience, but having the video version

: 00:07:03

of it when you're watching it is like.

: 00:07:05

This is next level.

: 00:07:06

This feels expensive.

: 00:07:09

This feels luxurious.

: 00:07:10

This feels like he's, he's so invested in the outcome of this podcast.

: 00:07:15

He's building a brand around this podcast.

: 00:07:18

This podcast would do really well on streaming channels, and I'm sure that's

: 00:07:22

coming next as far as like Netflix and, and I, in fact, I read an article that

: 00:07:26

was talking about that video podcasts are going to be available on streaming

: 00:07:31

services, so there's like another level.

: 00:07:35

That opens up when you allow yourself to spend money on the video production.

: 00:07:42

Chris Williamson is a really good example, even me here at Bamboo Media.

: 00:07:47

So I've obviously spent money to set this production.

: 00:07:52

Up, not a huge amount because again, it's a space that I'm not gonna be in forever.

: 00:07:57

This is a, a sort of transient space.

: 00:08:00

This is not the studio I will settle into for a long time, but this has

: 00:08:05

brought me into a different level.

: 00:08:07

When you look at other videos, other podcasts on YouTube, the

: 00:08:13

quality makes a difference.

: 00:08:16

To have someone actually stick around on a video, that's gonna be something

: 00:08:20

to think about that the production value, what it allows for you to do,

: 00:08:24

if you can spend money on video and have a video version of your podcast

: 00:08:28

on there, that is great quality.

: 00:08:30

You're getting a whole new audience that wants to experience

: 00:08:34

you in a whole new way.

: 00:08:37

It's really important to think about it like that.

: 00:08:40

The other thing I'll say on that is that I used to just have the

: 00:08:44

audio only version of the podcast on podcast platforms, and that was fine.

: 00:08:49

It was doing its job.

: 00:08:50

The whole show exists to talk about podcasting, to help fellow

: 00:08:53

podcasters get better at podcast production and podcast in general.

: 00:08:58

That was fine.

: 00:08:59

I was getting, you know, fine amount of downloads, not a huge amount.

: 00:09:03

It's a, it's a niche audience and I'm not big on other social media

: 00:09:06

channels and that was just trugging along and it was there for our

: 00:09:09

clients more than anything else to help educate them as they go along.

: 00:09:13

Then I.

: 00:09:15

Introduced video and I started putting video on YouTube and that made a

: 00:09:21

massive difference to the listenership, to the viewership of the show.

: 00:09:28

What used to be a small amount of downloads has turned into a large

: 00:09:32

amount of views, and then corresponding, you get actually more audio

: 00:09:38

downloads as well, because sometimes.

: 00:09:40

They come to you, they find you on YouTube, they engage with you there.

: 00:09:45

They start watching you on YouTube because the SEO, like the actual

: 00:09:49

search ability for them to be able to find you is so much easier on

: 00:09:52

YouTube, but they can't always watch.

: 00:09:55

So now they've become a fan because of YouTube, but they're also

: 00:09:59

listening to you on audio channels.

: 00:10:00

That is definitely a thing that happens if you present yourself well on YouTube, if

: 00:10:05

you have good quality audio, if you have.

: 00:10:07

Good quality video.

: 00:10:09

They find you there, they engage with you there, and then they engage with

: 00:10:13

you elsewhere with audio only shows, in my experience over the decade that

: 00:10:18

I've been doing this from my experience.

: 00:10:21

There is a little bit of a cap to the audio listenership.

: 00:10:26

Again, I'm, I'm talking mostly about B2B podcast, not so much about

: 00:10:30

shows that are, um, you know, more influencer based or like comedy shows,

: 00:10:35

or they're just trying to sell merch, like entertainment based podcast.

: 00:10:38

We're talking about things that are a little bit more niched.

: 00:10:41

There's kind of a ceiling with the audio because.

: 00:10:44

It can be reliant on from an audio perspective, the size of your

: 00:10:49

existing following elsewhere.

: 00:10:51

And how that feeds into your audio.

: 00:10:53

You don't get searched and found as often as easily on podcast

: 00:10:58

platforms as you do on YouTube.

: 00:11:02

So if you are trying to draw people in to your like funnel, which is

: 00:11:06

your podcast, the podcast is the top of your funnel, let's say.

: 00:11:10

You gotta get as many people in there.

: 00:11:12

You gotta get as many people to find you as possible.

: 00:11:14

The best way to do that, that I've found so far is.

: 00:11:17

With YouTube, with video versions of your podcast, if you can have that

: 00:11:22

high level of production to match.

: 00:11:26

What you don't wanna do is have the video version of your show be bad quality

: 00:11:32

video, bad lighting, just a webcam that comes with your laptop or with your

: 00:11:37

computer that diminishes your brand.

: 00:11:40

Almost immediately.

: 00:11:42

Maybe they listen to you on audio platforms, then they go over to video and

: 00:11:45

they're like, Ugh, this looks rubbish.

: 00:11:48

You know, that cheapens it.

: 00:11:50

It does.

: 00:11:51

It cheapens the experience of what they think of your brand, of working with

: 00:11:55

you, of how much you can charge based off of how you're presenting on video.

: 00:12:01

So really think about that.

: 00:12:02

If you wanna step into video, can you level up your

: 00:12:06

production so that you match?

: 00:12:09

The way you're presented elsewhere.

: 00:12:11

Getting back to that like audio and having a bit of a ceiling, you do kind

: 00:12:15

of spread yourself obviously across your, your social media following

: 00:12:20

followings and you're sharing about your show and you're putting it

: 00:12:22

out there on, on those platforms.

: 00:12:25

Unless you are guesting on a bunch of other shows and you're getting out

: 00:12:29

there and you're doing that for new people to find you with audio only is.

: 00:12:34

A lot harder if you're not doing the marketing around it, around

: 00:12:39

the audio show with video.

: 00:12:42

Using the fact as well, now that chat, GPT is indexing video.

: 00:12:46

I had someone reach out to me the other day on my YouTube channel

: 00:12:48

saying they searched for something and my video came up in chat, GPT.

: 00:12:53

So that's another level.

: 00:12:54

It's not just YouTube like.

: 00:12:57

Google.

: 00:12:58

We're also getting index indexed on AI chatbot things as well now.

: 00:13:02

So there's a whole audience that you are not currently.

: 00:13:07

Exposing yourself to, because you're not doing video.

: 00:13:10

Because it's harder.

: 00:13:11

Because it's more expensive.

: 00:13:13

I get it.

: 00:13:14

But also I've seen the benefits of doing it this way of having video.

: 00:13:21

The thing with video and audio from a sort of consumption rate point of

: 00:13:25

view, that's gonna be something else.

: 00:13:27

That's interesting because if you look at your consumption

: 00:13:29

rate on podcast platforms.

: 00:13:31

And you look at the backend and you look at per episode basis, you might be getting

: 00:13:35

like a consumption rate of 70, 80%.

: 00:13:38

That means that a person is listening to your show for at least

: 00:13:41

80% of the actual episode length.

: 00:13:44

So if you have a 20 minute episode, they're listening

: 00:13:48

to like 18 minutes of it.

: 00:13:51

So May, maybe it's just the last little sign off bit that they're

: 00:13:54

not really that interested in.

: 00:13:55

If you go to that same episode on YouTube, I bet you that you are not

: 00:14:01

getting an 80% consumption rate on your video for a 20 minute video.

: 00:14:06

Maybe you're getting like four minutes.

: 00:14:09

And that's pretty good, you know, so they're not staying with you

: 00:14:14

potentially for as long on video.

: 00:14:17

The reason for that being video has a lot more distractions.

: 00:14:21

Unless they're watching it on tv, then they're probably more likely

: 00:14:24

to watch through the whole thing.

: 00:14:25

But, you know, if they're on YouTube, they've got other tabs

: 00:14:27

open, they're checking the emails, they're, they're sort of watching

: 00:14:31

you as they're doing other things.

: 00:14:32

Maybe they're playing a game at the same time.

: 00:14:34

They're not consuming in the same way as they are with.

: 00:14:37

Audio, so it makes sense that the audio experience will be something

: 00:14:40

that has a higher consumption because they're doing the cleaning.

: 00:14:44

They're out for a walk, they're in their car, they consume, and they don't

: 00:14:48

really turn it off because oftentimes they can't even, you know, they've,

: 00:14:51

they've, they've got nothing to press on.

: 00:14:54

It's, it's, it's in a place where they can't get to, so they will listen all the

: 00:14:57

way through, or very close to the end.

: 00:15:00

In saying that, though.

: 00:15:02

Does that matter?

: 00:15:04

This is my other thing that I think about, especially with B2B.

: 00:15:08

If someone isn't viewing you all the way through, but they're getting

: 00:15:13

what they need, is that a problem?

: 00:15:15

I mean, I know it's annoying because you're like, I've just produced this

: 00:15:18

20 minute long video and I've paid an editor to produce the 20 minutes.

: 00:15:22

Of the video and they're only watching four minutes of it,

: 00:15:25

like, ah, what's the point?

: 00:15:27

The point is, they've come to you, they've listened to you, they've

: 00:15:31

watched you, they've engaged with you.

: 00:15:33

They've got a feeling for you.

: 00:15:34

They've got a feel for who you are from seeing the video.

: 00:15:37

They've found you happened across you, and they only need a couple minutes.

: 00:15:43

They can scrub through to the bit that they actually really wanna know, and then.

: 00:15:48

If your production value's good, then they're like, I like this person.

: 00:15:53

I will come back and watch four minutes of the next one.

: 00:15:57

That's okay.

: 00:15:58

You've also got links in the bottom of your YouTube video.

: 00:16:01

You've also got comments.

: 00:16:03

People are commenting that they aren't commenting in the same way,

: 00:16:06

even on Spotify for podcasters.

: 00:16:08

Now you can, you can leave comments.

: 00:16:11

They're not commenting in the same way.

: 00:16:12

YouTube people are.

: 00:16:13

I love you YouTube commenters.

: 00:16:15

I just appreciate that so much, and it feels like I'm building a

: 00:16:20

community here on YouTube that I'm not building on my audio platform.

: 00:16:26

I love the audio platform because I feel like I'm serving the person that

: 00:16:30

just really wants to engage with that audio, that just wants to listen to

: 00:16:34

me as they're doing something else.

: 00:16:36

That's, that's fantastic.

: 00:16:38

But the video person, the community on YouTube is a lot more engaged, so.

: 00:16:42

Even if you are not watching me all the way through to

: 00:16:45

the end, I'm okay with that.

: 00:16:46

You're getting what you need.

: 00:16:48

You're getting to know me in a format that makes sense for you in the

: 00:16:51

middle of all the other things that you're doing in your day, and maybe

: 00:16:54

you'll click through and you'll find out some other ways to work with us.

: 00:16:58

So whether that's our customer reviews of your edits, whether that's

: 00:17:01

consultations you can book, whether that's our production services, you

: 00:17:05

know, we get a lot more traffic to our website off the back of YouTube.

: 00:17:09

We have monetized our.

: 00:17:10

YouTube without being monetized yet.

: 00:17:14

Like when we were not monetized, we had made thousands of dollars off the back

: 00:17:18

of YouTube without being monetized.

: 00:17:20

In the traditional sense, doing that on audio only is a lot more

: 00:17:25

difficult and it takes a lot longer to do and it takes a lot longer

: 00:17:29

to build potentially an audience.

: 00:17:32

All that to say, although I flipping love.

: 00:17:37

The audio only experience and as an editor as well, like a, a podcast editor.

: 00:17:42

Oh my God.

: 00:17:43

I love it when I get.

: 00:17:45

A show that it's audio only that I'm editing, and it's just so simple.

: 00:17:50

It's so simple.

: 00:17:52

It's so calming, you know?

: 00:17:54

It's so nice.

: 00:17:55

I love that.

: 00:17:56

I love the audio only experience.

: 00:17:58

I will always love the audio in the experience, but if I'm thinking about

: 00:18:03

the B2B person or someone that's really trying to grab new audiences

: 00:18:08

and isn't guesting on a bunch of different shows, then YouTube.

: 00:18:11

Video podcasting.

: 00:18:13

It's so good.

: 00:18:15

I can't recommend it highly enough.

: 00:18:18

You won't be a purist.

: 00:18:20

This is my audio only podcast.

: 00:18:22

You know, you're gonna get kicked back from people being

: 00:18:24

like, that's not a podcast.

: 00:18:25

It's still a podcast.

: 00:18:26

Okay.

: 00:18:27

I. Let's just chill.

: 00:18:28

It's still a podcast.

: 00:18:30

It's just delivered in a different method.

: 00:18:33

And if you want to explore that a little bit more, go and watch

: 00:18:37

Modern Wisdom, which I spoke about at the top of this on YouTube.

: 00:18:41

You don't have to watch all the way through.

: 00:18:42

'cause these long episodes that he does go and watch like a couple

: 00:18:45

of minutes of a few different ones and see how he changes locations.

: 00:18:50

See the time and the effort and the money that he puts

: 00:18:53

into the video production side.

: 00:18:55

Then go listen to that same show in audio.

: 00:18:59

You will have a beautiful experience both ways.

: 00:19:02

You will have a lovely time listening to both aspects, to both

: 00:19:07

avenues, and they are both podcasts.

: 00:19:10

I would definitely still call both of those things.

: 00:19:14

Podcasts, it's a video version and there's an audio version of a podcast.

: 00:19:19

I hope that that has given you something to think about.

: 00:19:21

If you are a person that's trying to build your personal brand and you feel like

: 00:19:27

Podcasting's gonna be the way to do it, I would challenge you on what's your budget.

: 00:19:32

If you can increase that budget to include video and then have content that is good.

: 00:19:38

This is a match made in heaven for me.

: 00:19:40

As someone that comes to us and then they've got this stuff set, we can

: 00:19:45

go, boom, let's blow this thing up.

: 00:19:47

Like let's really.

: 00:19:48

Go for it and put it out on audio and video.

: 00:19:51

You're still gonna take a while.

: 00:19:53

You are not gonna get a bunch of subscribers all at once.

: 00:19:57

Okay?

: 00:19:57

Know that you still are starting from the base of anything

: 00:20:02

that you're doing and that.

: 00:20:03

Everything takes time to build in the way, but having the video version, I think is

: 00:20:10

a very smart move for podcasters for B2B podcasters that are trying to increase

: 00:20:18

the reach and increase the listenership and their overall market as well.

: 00:20:25

I hope you've enjoyed this.

: 00:20:26

I'm using a different microphone today, so if you've noticed the difference

: 00:20:29

there, then that would be cool.

: 00:20:30

I'm gonna be reviewing this one shortly.

: 00:20:32

This is the shore MV seven plus, and yet I am using it in the XLR format, and

: 00:20:39

there are links to things that you can click on if you want to under this video

: 00:20:43

and if you're on audio only as well.

: 00:20:46

Thank you so much.

: 00:20:47

Have a great day.