Episode 120
Should You Take a Break from Podcasting Over the Holidays? Here's What the Data Says
As the festive season approaches, the question of whether to take a break from releasing podcast episodes over Christmas and New Year often looms large, especially for podcasters.
It's a time when many are eager to unwind, enjoy family time, and perhaps forget about their usual routines. But is a break the best move for your podcast? I’ve trawled through the data we collect from our own client roster and the podcasting industry more broadly to give you my take.
Podcasting is an evolving and growing medium, drawing people away from algorithm-driven platforms to more meaningful interactions with the content they love. By staying consistent, especially over the Christmas period, you'll be ready to leap into the New Year, taking advantage of the increased listener engagement.
I hope this gives you the clarity and confidence to keep those episodes rolling, even through the holiday season. I know it’s a lot of work, and I also appreciate that you simply might need a break.
It’s okay if you don’t take my advice and instead fall in a heap for a couple of weeks. I get it.
At the end of the day, it’s your show so you can do whatever you want. That’s the beauty of the medium. I’m just here to give you a bit of a push if you’re open to it.
Resources Mentioned:
Podcast Landscape 2024 - Sounds Profitable
The Podcast Election - Scott Galloway
BAMBY MEDIA LINKS:
GEAR WE USE HERE AT BAMBY MEDIA:
Aputure Amaran 200d LED Video Light
Pre-Amp/Mixers we recommend
Transcript
Should you take a break from
Speaker:releasing podcast episodes over
Speaker:the Christmas and New Year period?
Speaker:That is a question that I'm going
Speaker:to answer for you here today.
Speaker:Let's get stuck into what I
Speaker:want to discuss today, which
Speaker:is, should you take a break?
Speaker:And my short answer is no.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Turn it off.
Speaker:That's the end of the episode.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:For a little bit of context,
Speaker:so we have a lot of clients.
Speaker:We've been tracking the data on
Speaker:these clients for a long time.
Speaker:We track every month how they
Speaker:perform, so that we can get a feel
Speaker:for whether there's any particular
Speaker:months that outperform others or
Speaker:where things are a little low.
Speaker:And then at the end of the year, we
Speaker:send an email to our clients and say,
Speaker:Hey, this is what you should do based
Speaker:on the data that we've collected.
Speaker:Here we go.
Speaker:Number one, a lot of people
Speaker:take a break in December.
Speaker:Therefore, the data shows that
Speaker:listenership drops in December because
Speaker:Partly, a lot of people are taking a
Speaker:break in December, so there's physically
Speaker:less episodes, there's physically less
Speaker:videos coming out, therefore consumption
Speaker:is sometimes lower as a result of that.
Speaker:But that's kind of only one
Speaker:part of the story there.
Speaker:The other part is, yes, there
Speaker:is less people consuming at
Speaker:certain periods of December.
Speaker:And from my data that we have here, it's
Speaker:about a two week period from 16th ish of
Speaker:December through to the 30th of December.
Speaker:You've got a section there
Speaker:where December drops about 8
Speaker:percent in actual listenership.
Speaker:8 percent doesn't feel
Speaker:like a hell of a lot to me.
Speaker:Doesn't make me want to stop releasing
Speaker:over that period for a small drop of 8%.
Speaker:And especially because of what happens.
Speaker:In January, January has a increased
Speaker:listenership of around 20 to
Speaker:30 percent above the average.
Speaker:What that means is, is that if you
Speaker:haven't taken a break in December, if
Speaker:you've continued to release, although
Speaker:yes, you may have less listenership in
Speaker:December, they're going to binge it.
Speaker:in January.
Speaker:Because that's when they're actually
Speaker:having more time to themselves.
Speaker:They've done all the
Speaker:Christmas running around.
Speaker:Then it gets to January and
Speaker:maybe they're on holidays.
Speaker:Maybe they've got their kids in
Speaker:like some school camp things.
Speaker:They've got just a bit
Speaker:more time to themselves.
Speaker:They haven't started back at work
Speaker:yet and they're looking to consume.
Speaker:And we want to get these
Speaker:people off social media.
Speaker:We want to get them onto podcasts where
Speaker:they can engage in a much healthier
Speaker:way, where it's good for the soul.
Speaker:I think this is when
Speaker:people are listening a lot.
Speaker:And so if you've done your releases in
Speaker:December, they can binge them in January.
Speaker:It's fine to take a break in December and
Speaker:then just do your January releases, but
Speaker:you'll get the most reward bang for your
Speaker:buck from doing the December as well.
Speaker:Cause then you've got stack
Speaker:of December, uh, and January
Speaker:episodes and they can binge.
Speaker:So that's why I think that it
Speaker:is important to still release
Speaker:over that period so that you
Speaker:are catching the January hype.
Speaker:What that looks like though
Speaker:is batching your content.
Speaker:So you want to take a
Speaker:break, that makes sense.
Speaker:That's what I'm doing here right now.
Speaker:I'm batching content for the
Speaker:Bambi Media YouTube channel for
Speaker:our podcast, Pump Up Your Pod.
Speaker:It's important to have some structure
Speaker:around what you're thinking of recording
Speaker:and make it possible for yourself
Speaker:to take a break but still release.
Speaker:Batching is the way to do that.
Speaker:We can help you batch by providing
Speaker:you with a content planning calendar.
Speaker:This is where we listen to your show.
Speaker:We collect some data on your show.
Speaker:If you're a client, obviously it's
Speaker:a little bit easier because we
Speaker:have some data from you already.
Speaker:We look at what you've already released.
Speaker:We look at the data, we look at
Speaker:the research, we look at what's
Speaker:trending and we put together a plan.
Speaker:together 12 to 15 podcast episodes
Speaker:with titles and give you a bit
Speaker:of a plan as to what you could
Speaker:record moving into the next stage.
Speaker:So this can be done at any time.
Speaker:It doesn't need to be over the
Speaker:December and January period, but it
Speaker:is a content planning calendar that
Speaker:people seem to enjoy getting because
Speaker:it takes the guesswork out of it.
Speaker:And yeah, you can put that information
Speaker:into chat GPT, you know, ask chat
Speaker:GPT to give you a bunch of content
Speaker:ideas, but a lot of the time it gives
Speaker:you content you've already done.
Speaker:And it gives you really generic stuff,
Speaker:whereas with us, what we do is, yeah,
Speaker:we might use some AI tools to help
Speaker:us kind of get there a little bit,
Speaker:but we also have other tools that we
Speaker:look at that actually make it more
Speaker:possible for us to be really tailored
Speaker:and customized to what we think
Speaker:is actually going to work for us.
Speaker:For your show for your audience.
Speaker:So that's a good thing to do at any
Speaker:stage, certainly around this period.
Speaker:If you're struggling, that's something
Speaker:that you can get us to help you with.
Speaker:And there will be a link to
Speaker:book one of those in turnaround
Speaker:time on that is seven days.
Speaker:So that's what I think there.
Speaker:I think that it's important for you
Speaker:to know that you can batch that you
Speaker:should batch, that you need to get
Speaker:yourself organized, that you need to
Speaker:have a bit of a structured plan as
Speaker:to what you're wanting to release.
Speaker:In saying that, whoever's editing
Speaker:your show obviously also needs
Speaker:ample time to edit the show in time
Speaker:for those things to be released.
Speaker:For us here at Bambi Media, just
Speaker:to give you a little bit of an idea
Speaker:as to how it flows, at the end of
Speaker:October or very start of November,
Speaker:we actually send this email out where
Speaker:I give them all that information and
Speaker:I say, hey, our cutoff date is this.
Speaker:From a production point of view, you
Speaker:need to have all your episodes that
Speaker:you're going to release through.
Speaker:the next four to five weeks to us
Speaker:by x date so that we can have them
Speaker:done so that we also get to have
Speaker:a break as well because your poor
Speaker:producers also want to have time off.
Speaker:Oh, and it is important for
Speaker:everybody to have some time off,
Speaker:but batching is the way to do it.
Speaker:Why am I like harping on
Speaker:about the fact that I don't
Speaker:think you should take a break?
Speaker:Firstly, I've just mentioned, 8
Speaker:percent isn't a huge drop, 20 30
Speaker:percent that you're going to get in
Speaker:January, February is going to be good
Speaker:as well, makes it worthwhile to me
Speaker:personally, that makes the most sense.
Speaker:But more broadly, the podcasting
Speaker:industry is still exploding, okay?
Speaker:It has not hit the peak.
Speaker:It is still growing.
Speaker:We now have podcasting in
Speaker:the mainstream in the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:51 percent of people now listen
Speaker:to podcasts regularly in the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:That's huge and has never happened
Speaker:before, thanks to Sounds Profitable
Speaker:for actually providing that data
Speaker:in their podcasting state of
Speaker:the industry for 2024 as well.
Speaker:I'm going to link to that research
Speaker:so that you can look at it in full.
Speaker:There's so much good stuff in
Speaker:there that makes you just go.
Speaker:Yes, podcasting is growing.
Speaker:It's a very interesting amount of
Speaker:data that they've collected there.
Speaker:And I just love, I
Speaker:love that they do that.
Speaker:And then we've also got pod poll by
Speaker:dead set studios and insightfully,
Speaker:They collected information as well on
Speaker:how the Australian market is going.
Speaker:And we've got 8.
Speaker:2 million Australians now listening
Speaker:to podcasts regularly as well.
Speaker:This is all stuff that just
Speaker:has never happened before.
Speaker:This is a really exciting
Speaker:time to be in podcasting.
Speaker:And so if you can leverage this
Speaker:medium, because you're already there,
Speaker:you're already doing it, you're
Speaker:already creating really great content.
Speaker:Don't take a break.
Speaker:Batch.
Speaker:Get in on some trends, perhaps.
Speaker:Plan your content in advance,
Speaker:maybe get us to do a content
Speaker:planning schedule for you.
Speaker:And then if you also look at how things
Speaker:are growing, Spotify, even with the
Speaker:announcement just recently, where
Speaker:you can now upload video to Spotify,
Speaker:there's this like new Spotify content.
Speaker:Create a program that they're releasing,
Speaker:which is trying to rival YouTube,
Speaker:which I don't think really rivals it.
Speaker:And I'll do a separate video on why
Speaker:that's the case, why I think it kind of
Speaker:sucks, but Spotify is now outperforming
Speaker:Apple podcasts and YouTube is the
Speaker:number one way still in Australia
Speaker:that most people consume podcasts.
Speaker:It's huge in the U S.
Speaker:And even if you just zoom out a little
Speaker:bit and think about how many podcasts
Speaker:the presidential nominees went on
Speaker:during this most recent election,
Speaker:it's really proving that podcasting
Speaker:as a medium is not going anywhere.
Speaker:It's a medium that people trust.
Speaker:Joe Rogan had Donald Trump on his
Speaker:show for like over three hours.
Speaker:Cool Her Daddy had Kamala Harris on her
Speaker:show as well, which is, you know, one
Speaker:of the biggest female audiences as well.
Speaker:So it's just proving again, further,
Speaker:people are listening to podcasts,
Speaker:people want to consume podcasts,
Speaker:people are moving a little bit more
Speaker:away from the algorithmic social media
Speaker:kind of platform scrolling business.
Speaker:And they're wanting to consume
Speaker:more in depth stuff, more niche
Speaker:topics, more things that they go
Speaker:and source and find themselves on
Speaker:topics that they're interested in.
Speaker:Podcasting is where they do that.
Speaker:There is also a very interesting article
Speaker:that I will link to that Scott Galloway
Speaker:did, who's a fantastic podcaster has
Speaker:been in the space for a long time.
Speaker:And he was kind of referencing the
Speaker:fact that podcasting is still growing,
Speaker:that it is a huge mainstream industry.
Speaker:And he even referenced kind of
Speaker:how much money they're bringing
Speaker:in from the podcast as well.
Speaker:Although it's good to take a break.
Speaker:I don't think it's great to take
Speaker:a break right now in podcasting.
Speaker:I think that batching
Speaker:is the way to do it.
Speaker:I think that you can achieve it with
Speaker:a little bit of content planning,
Speaker:with a bit of a schedule, with a
Speaker:bit of an idea as to what you're
Speaker:going to do, who you're trying to
Speaker:reach, and you can see the rewards.
Speaker:You can reap the rewards of
Speaker:what happens in January from the
Speaker:work that you put into December.
Speaker:That is my wrap up of what I
Speaker:think you should do for your
Speaker:podcast for the Christmas period.
Speaker:If you want a consultation with us,
Speaker:you can absolutely book them in.
Speaker:There is a consultation link
Speaker:in the description below.
Speaker:So we have video
Speaker:troubleshooting consults.
Speaker:We have high level strategy consults.
Speaker:We have video.
Speaker:Business consults.
Speaker:If you are a podcast, professional
Speaker:podcast, industry person, yourself,
Speaker:you're looking to grow your agency
Speaker:similar to what I have done, then we
Speaker:have those kinds of consults as well.
Speaker:We've got consults out the wazoo.
Speaker:And then we also have our
Speaker:podcast production and video
Speaker:production services as well.
Speaker:If you're looking for something like
Speaker:that, so I hope that was helpful.
Speaker:Go forth.
Speaker:Bye.
Speaker:Batch some content.
Speaker:Please keep releasing.
Speaker:You're going to benefit from it.
Speaker:If you really need to take a break,
Speaker:just recast some old episodes, recast
Speaker:some episodes that went well for 2024,
Speaker:maybe, or even some older ones that
Speaker:you've got data on that you can see.
Speaker:These ones actually had a really
Speaker:good listenership at that point.
Speaker:You can recast them.
Speaker:That's also good.
Speaker:As long as you're releasing something
Speaker:on podcast channels, you'll still get
Speaker:a little bit of an up kick from that.
Speaker:Thanks for listening, like, subscribe,
Speaker:do the things that people want you to
Speaker:do on podcast and YouTube channels.
Speaker:Have a great day.
