A Little Bit of Inside Baseball
Jan 29, 2013 16:04:25 GMT -8
Post by Stu Venable on Jan 29, 2013 16:04:25 GMT -8
So I have a conundrum. This is long and complicated, but I want some input from the listeners about this because it affects you and your listening experience.
I want an iPhone/Android app that will ping the show's RSS feed and act as a media player. Apparently almost a majority of people consume online media with mobile devices now, so having our own app would help us reach more people.
Solution 1 - Libsyn
The easiest solution I've found is to get an account with Libsyn (which is a podcast media hosting company). Libsyn just rolled out their own customizable iphone/android app.
Unfortunately, if I include the weekly show and the actual play, I'm look at am additional $20 per month, minimum. They have a weird, expanding web space pricing scheme, which allows me to upload 400 mb per month (400mb a month actually might not be enough).
Unfortunately, I have a 3-1/2 year backlog of media files that take up 14 gigs.
Moving these files to Libsyn (and thus making the entire backlog available through an online app) will cost me a one-time fee of about $650.
My wife would kill me in the face if I spent $650 on the podcast that takes up two nights a week and doesn't make any money (not to mention the additional $20/month the hosting would cost).
"But honey, you don't understand -- now we have a mobile app!" will be met with -- best case scenario -- a serious attempt on my life.
Solution 2 - Libsyn again
The other possibility is to leave the backlog where it is. I host a lot of other pages on that server, so I can't really get rid of it (and the monthly expense) anyway.
This means that only the episodes that were produced and uploaded since establishing my Libsyn account would be available on the app.
Not terrible, and on those occasions when I have an extra upload allowance with Libsyn, I could sneak an episode or two from the backlog onto the Libsyn server as well. So it would only take me, oh, 175 months to get the entire catalog moved.
Sidebar - Listener numbers
Just as an interesting side note, and to illustrate my next point, I took our download stats from October.
happyjacks06-13.mp3 2,741
happyjacks06-16.mp3 2,556
happyjacks08-15.mp3 2,118
happyjacks08-16.mp3 1,470
happyjacks08-14.mp3 913
happyjacks08-12.mp3 663
happyjacks08-13.mp3 652
happyjacks08-10.mp3 600
happyjacks08-09.mp3 565
happyjacks08-11.mp3 556
happyjacks08-08.mp3 543
happyjacks08-07.mp3 390
happyjacks08-06a.mp3 192
happyjacks06-18.mp3 165
happyjacks01-04.mp3 160
happyjacks01-21.mp3 144
happyjacks01-03.mp3 124
happyjacks07-05.mp3 120
happyjacks01-02.mp3 117
For reference, only two episodes were released in October: 08-16 and 08-15 (I was very sick that month).
But here's the important part:As you can tell from the numbers, there are a FUCKTON of people working their way through our tasty backlog.
Not having that backlog on a smartphone app would suck.
Solution 3 - Libsyn, again, but with ads.
The third solution that involves Libsyn would be to take advantage of their ad program. With the amount of listenership we have, running an ad or two in the show might -- MIGHT -- offset the additional cost of hosting. Who knows, it might offset it a lot, but I doubt it.
This is a roll of the dice for me, because I don't know what ad revenue would bring (and how many listeners ads might run off).
Solution 4 - our own app?
This is the solution I can't do anything about. The last time I wrote computer code, it was in BASIC on a TI99-4A computer in the 1970s. We used line numbers then. I didn't have to shave yet. It was a long time ago, and I'm going to guess that coding has changed a lot since then.
Now for this solution (assuming I can find someone to do it), I'm at the mercy of whoever codes the app. If (for some unforeseen reason) I have to change my RSS feed again (yes, I had to do it once before), I would have no ability to fix this in the app.
The one thing I know for sure is that mobile media is the way it's going to be, and if we're going to grow and prosper as a show, we need to get on that shit sooner rather than later.
I'm leaning toward some Libsyn solution. Apart from the option of advertisements, it provides better stats, and those guys are a pretty forward-thinking bunch. Every time I realize some sort of trend in podcasting, Libsyn has already developed a solution.
Do you guys have an opinion?
What do you think about ads?
How do you listen? Mobile app like stitcher? In front of your PC? Synching w/ iTunes?
I want an iPhone/Android app that will ping the show's RSS feed and act as a media player. Apparently almost a majority of people consume online media with mobile devices now, so having our own app would help us reach more people.
Solution 1 - Libsyn
The easiest solution I've found is to get an account with Libsyn (which is a podcast media hosting company). Libsyn just rolled out their own customizable iphone/android app.
Unfortunately, if I include the weekly show and the actual play, I'm look at am additional $20 per month, minimum. They have a weird, expanding web space pricing scheme, which allows me to upload 400 mb per month (400mb a month actually might not be enough).
Unfortunately, I have a 3-1/2 year backlog of media files that take up 14 gigs.
Moving these files to Libsyn (and thus making the entire backlog available through an online app) will cost me a one-time fee of about $650.
My wife would kill me in the face if I spent $650 on the podcast that takes up two nights a week and doesn't make any money (not to mention the additional $20/month the hosting would cost).
"But honey, you don't understand -- now we have a mobile app!" will be met with -- best case scenario -- a serious attempt on my life.
Solution 2 - Libsyn again
The other possibility is to leave the backlog where it is. I host a lot of other pages on that server, so I can't really get rid of it (and the monthly expense) anyway.
This means that only the episodes that were produced and uploaded since establishing my Libsyn account would be available on the app.
Not terrible, and on those occasions when I have an extra upload allowance with Libsyn, I could sneak an episode or two from the backlog onto the Libsyn server as well. So it would only take me, oh, 175 months to get the entire catalog moved.
Sidebar - Listener numbers
Just as an interesting side note, and to illustrate my next point, I took our download stats from October.
happyjacks06-13.mp3 2,741
happyjacks06-16.mp3 2,556
happyjacks08-15.mp3 2,118
happyjacks08-16.mp3 1,470
happyjacks08-14.mp3 913
happyjacks08-12.mp3 663
happyjacks08-13.mp3 652
happyjacks08-10.mp3 600
happyjacks08-09.mp3 565
happyjacks08-11.mp3 556
happyjacks08-08.mp3 543
happyjacks08-07.mp3 390
happyjacks08-06a.mp3 192
happyjacks06-18.mp3 165
happyjacks01-04.mp3 160
happyjacks01-21.mp3 144
happyjacks01-03.mp3 124
happyjacks07-05.mp3 120
happyjacks01-02.mp3 117
For reference, only two episodes were released in October: 08-16 and 08-15 (I was very sick that month).
But here's the important part:As you can tell from the numbers, there are a FUCKTON of people working their way through our tasty backlog.
Not having that backlog on a smartphone app would suck.
Solution 3 - Libsyn, again, but with ads.
The third solution that involves Libsyn would be to take advantage of their ad program. With the amount of listenership we have, running an ad or two in the show might -- MIGHT -- offset the additional cost of hosting. Who knows, it might offset it a lot, but I doubt it.
This is a roll of the dice for me, because I don't know what ad revenue would bring (and how many listeners ads might run off).
Solution 4 - our own app?
This is the solution I can't do anything about. The last time I wrote computer code, it was in BASIC on a TI99-4A computer in the 1970s. We used line numbers then. I didn't have to shave yet. It was a long time ago, and I'm going to guess that coding has changed a lot since then.
Now for this solution (assuming I can find someone to do it), I'm at the mercy of whoever codes the app. If (for some unforeseen reason) I have to change my RSS feed again (yes, I had to do it once before), I would have no ability to fix this in the app.
The one thing I know for sure is that mobile media is the way it's going to be, and if we're going to grow and prosper as a show, we need to get on that shit sooner rather than later.
I'm leaning toward some Libsyn solution. Apart from the option of advertisements, it provides better stats, and those guys are a pretty forward-thinking bunch. Every time I realize some sort of trend in podcasting, Libsyn has already developed a solution.
Do you guys have an opinion?
What do you think about ads?
How do you listen? Mobile app like stitcher? In front of your PC? Synching w/ iTunes?