š® POD FUTURE - January 22, 2019
Patreon and the online culture wars // Digital minimalism // #iHeartPodcastAwards
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Patreon has officially entered the culture wars. In December, the crowdfunding platform banned controversial antifeminist YouTuber Sargon of Akkad (real name Carl Benjamin) for using racist slurs in a video. In response, Sam Harris, the āWaking Upā podcast creator and card-carrying Intellectual Dark Web member, announced he would voluntarily close his own Patreon, which was ranked among the platformās most popular. Harris explained his decision in a tweet:Ā
Fellow IDW members Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin, both of whom also ranked among Patreonās top creators, soon joined the fray and announced they would close their own accounts on January 15th. Last week, they followed through on that promise. Hereās what happened next:
Graphtreon, the Patreon activity tracker, recorded a massive dip in Patreonās earnings. Estimated monthly payouts dropped almost 10% (!) overnight. Iām no statistician, but the cause/effect seems clear. (Curiously, the million dollar loss appears to be magically recouped the next day? š¤) Assuming this downturn can be attributed to Peterson and Rubin, it reinforces the notion that the platform has a top heaviness issue, as previously reported in this great piece from The Outline. In anticipation of their exit. Peterson and Rubin announced plans to launch a āfree speechā Patreon competitor. The team behind the āSword and Scaleā podcast, which is the fifth most popular Patreon project, tweeted their intentions to join the new venture in solidarity, marking another major creator loss for Patreon. āFree speechā crowdfunding tools have been attempted before (see: MakerSupport, Hatreon, SubscribeStar, Gab), but all have faced the same existential dilemma: In extreme/fringe circles, the promise of āfree speechā is interpreted as a dog whistle for āpermission to be racistā and payment processors wonāt do business with platforms that permit hate speech. (Non consumer-facing infrastructure providers are relatively immune from the type of backlash Patreon faces.) So can the Intellectual Dark Duo keep their promise of providing a safe haven for speech without running afoul of payment processors? No. They underestimate the challenges inherent to a āfree speechā content moderation policy as it relates to bank eligibility, hosting, software licenses, app store access, and user acquisition. (In before the cryptofreaks: Bitcoin isnāt a solution if the goal is to build a viable consumer product.) And what about Patreon? How does it weather the storm of backlash from the right and prevent further attrition? Hard to say. Patreon is different from other platforms in that it ātakes a highly personal approach to policing speech. While Google and Facebook use algorithms as a first line of defense for questionable content, Patreon has human moderators. They give warnings and reach out to talk to offenders, presenting options for āeducationā and āreform.āā (NYT) This personal touch, while superficially preferable to the frustrating faceless algorithms of Facebook and YouTube, introduces ambiguity, subjectivity, and inconsistency into the rules enforcement process, which gives critics a pretext to claim liberal bias. Was Patreon right to ban Sargon? Probably. Would they take it back if they could? Iād bet yes. As the culture wars rage on, all platforms will be forced to confront this issue eventually. Probably many times over. While Facebook and Twitter are large enough to absorb the blows, Patreon, with only about 100K creators, appears to be more vulnerable to the whims of its community. Time will tell. Iāll continue to follow this story as it develops.
In the New Statesman, Ian Leslie makes the case for turning off that podcast and embracing boredom. āā¦the biggest costā¦is that Iām listening to myself less. When Iām riveted by the narrative of a real-life murder mystery, my thoughts donāt wander, and itās only when thoughts are allowed to wander that they become interesting.ā Of course, podcasting isnāt the only medium guilty of hijacking mindshare. The contemporary media ecosystem is utterly saturated with #Content vying for our collective attention: Instagram, Xbox, Netflix, Twitter, Spotify, cable newsā¦the list goes on. From an evolutionary perspective, this level of audiovisual stimulation is completely new to usāour minds just arenāt evolved to process a constant stream of inputs with minimal rest. This is supported by new science demonstrating the health benefits of an at-rest mind. Cal Newport touched on a lot of these topics in his recent interview with Ezra Klein, which I highly recommend. Newportās forthcoming book āDigital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy Worldā will be worth your time if this is an area of interest for you. Donāt let the polemical title throw you; Newport is a leading scholar in the personal productivity field and you can count on his reporting to be well-researched and pragmatic. // New Statesman
KPCC, the awesome NPR station covering LA, debuted an exceptional new series last week called āThe Big One,ā about the massive impending earthquake predicted at the San Andreas Fault. āāThe Big Oneā aims to prepare the listener by explaining the likely destruction that such an earthquake would cause, its ripple effects, and its science. Itās the stuff of nightmares. Butāeven though it inspires a strong urge to avoid living in Californiaāitās also strangely reassuring.ā What makes this podcast even more interesting is the clever brand integration of LA-based emergency preparedness supplier Preppi, which is the presenting sponsor. Great marriage of content and commerce! Or so I thought. Preppi, which brands itself as the distaster prep brand for millennials, is basically an IRL Portlandia sketch. Their $5000 (!) premium offering includes, and I kid you not, a bottle of champagne in a branded koozie, a Malin + Goetz tobacco-scented candle, andā¦a caviar cooler?! Based on this brutal review from survivalist pub Recoil, it sounds like the Fyre Festival of prep kits: long on millennial-friendly flash, short on actual substance. Soggy cheese sandwich not included. (Sorryā¦had to get a Fyre reference in this week!) // The New YorkerĀ
The iHeart Radio Podcast Awards took place Friday night with Leon Neyfakhās āSlow Burnā (Slate) taking home the well-deserved top prize. Neyfakh, who wasnāt present to accept the award, announced in November that he and some of his team were leaving Slate for greener pastures, where theyāll be working on a new show titled Fiasco, which āwill be about the pastāwhy the history we half-remember played out the way it did, and what marks it left on the world we live in.ā In other Podcast Awards news, āThe Ben Shapiro Showā beat out both āThe Dailyā (NYT) and āCaliphateā (NYT) for the top news prize. Shapiroās win over these two Pulitzer-worthy standard-bearers is yet another sign of our looming apocalypseā¦so get those Preppi bags while you still can! // iHeart Radio
ā” QUICK NEWS
Amazon updated Alexa to deliver the news in a ānewscaster voice.ā Says one exec: āThe ability to teach Alexa to adapt her speaking style based on the context of the customerās request opens the possibility to deliver new and delightful experiences that were previously unthinkable.ā Appreciate the sentiment, but the result is less than impressive. One day, some company will crack solve natural-sounding text-to-speech, but based on Amazonās best effort here, weāre a long way off. // TechCrunch
āWait Waitā¦Donāt Tell Meā introduced an interactive news quiz game for smart speakers. Havenāt tried it out yet, but on paper this is a neat brand extension for WWDTM. Gary Vaynerchukās Vaynersmart partnered to build the app. // VarietyĀ
Apple may finally be releasing its long overdue wireless charging product, plus new compatible AirPods. // The Verge
āSerialā host Sarah Koenig talks to The Cut about getting things done. // The CutĀ
Steve Pratt of Pacific Content shares insights about content marketing with podcasts through the lens of his experience working with Facebook on its new series āThree and a Half Degrees.ā Thereās some excellent advice here for anyone interested in learning about audio content marketing. The fact that this blog post about content marketing is itself content marketing for Pacific Content is not lost on me. Itās content marketing Inception and Iām here for it. // Pacific Content
More content marketing fun, this time from an unexpected place. Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) has thrown its hat in the podcasting ring, with a new show hosted by airport CEO Chellie Cameron. After resisting the urge to snark, I was actually charmed by this super local deep dive from the Philly Inquirer. // The Inquirer
Listen App, a new, gesture-based podcast app, launches on Product Hunt to positive reviews. // Product Hunt
Weāre living in the āGolden Ageā of podcasts, according to CBS News. // CBS NewsĀ
Also from CBS: results from its recent poll on podcast popularity. āPodcast listening has increased in all age categories, but it has increased the most among younger adults. Now, 29% of Americans between the ages of 18-34 listen to podcasts at least a few times a week (up from 16% in December 2017).Ā A year ago, 47% of adults between 18 and 34 said they never listened to podcasts, compared to 18% today.ā Good news! // CBS News
Fast Company looks at the promise and challenge of monetization in the podcast biz. // Fast Company
š¼ COOL JOBS
Work with Lebron š UNINTERRUPTED seeks a podcast producer.Ā
Harper Collins is looking for a new audio VP.Ā
Crooked Media wants a marketing manager.Ā
Vox needs a podcast marketing coordinator.Ā
LA Times needs a senior podcast producer.Ā
Acast has an opening for a new account director.Ā