Jason SnellNew Upgrade: We revisit the Ultra and Neo names, consider the future of Apple's processor manufacturing strategy, and try to imagine why possible use case there could be for AirPods with built-in cameras.
Steve Abrahamson@jsnell Apologies for the correction, but I believe the official name is “AirPods With Frikkin Lase… [er, I mean] Cameras Strapped On To Them”.
@jsnell OK but seriously, cameras need to be pointed in - even vaguely - the right direction. Have you ever looked at the dizzying variety of directions and angles people wear their AirPods? Sound still goes in the earholes, sure, but stems are all over the place. No matter where the cameras are attached, unless they’re capturing over 180° on each side, there’s a human chaos factor here. It’ll be interesting to see what they do.
@abrahamson I don't know quite who you're ranting to but I pretty much made this point
acidfast@jsnell About your video podcast discussion: to what extent do you think your experience producing audio-first podcasts is shaping your perspective? You’ve clearly been successful making an audio-first shows, but Upgrade’s video presence is clearly a second-tier product compared to the audio version. I think the podcasts that are successful video podcasts leverage the video portion, and are creating a different product.
@acidfast Appreciate the feedback. The audio podcast is our priority because probably 95% of our audience is on audio. It would be the entirely wrong decision to prioritize video. If you were creating a video-first podcast, things would be different. But at 95% audio, it doesn't even make sense to consider changing the production workflow at all. And "leveraging video" would be disrespectful to our loyal audio audience.
(Also FWIW our video podcast looks identical to many HUGE podcasts.)
@acidfast making video "first tier" would not make our video audience larger than our audio audience, other than maybe driving people away from the audio version. Content creation wise it would be a colossal mistake to "pivot to video." Part of being a creator is understanding who your audience is.
We're basically throwing money away to exist on YouTube. I don't think it makes sense financially, but I want to try it. To rip up our production process on top of that? Seems like a mistake.
@acidfast so to answer your original quesiton, my experience producing an audio-first podcast absolutely 100% informs my perspective when I am making content decisions about an audio podcast. If I lost sight of what the product was, it would be a huge mistake.
As an aside: Most video podcasts are also mostly just audio experiences. Very few people are focusing on talking heads. So even then the audio experience matters and you shouldn't over-focus on video. That's my take.
@jsnell Thanks Jason. I recognize that most of your audience is audio now. But extrapolating from a half-hearted attempt to be on YouTube to potential growth is tricky. You could easily make a much better video product: you could show financial graphs when talking about Apple's earnings, or show rumored Apple products in Rumor Roundup. On the most recent episode you discussed at length the color of your door, which would have been very easy to show on a screen for people who are watching.
@jsnell I am not saying that Upgrade should be a video podcast, but I don't think you can take the current numbers from the Upgrade video podcast and assume they will always stay this way if you did make it a better experience. It feels a bit like judging demand for a proposed bridge by how many people are swimming across the pond.
@acidfast I just disagree. I think what we produce is perfectly acceptable and like I said, many enormously successful podcasts have video versions of that quality. I don't think the upside in making a somewhat nicer video version of Upgrade is that high. We are limited by our format and niche topics, not our video production. If you disagree, fair enough, but I've thought about this a lot.
@acidfast if you think a few photo inserts are going to take us from 3k to 50k viewers every week.... I'm sorry, I think you're mistaken. We talk about Apple for two hours. It's a format that works for a podcast because it was made for a podcast. Dressing it up a tiny bit will have little to no impact, because the structure is designed for talk. You're talking about putting lipstick on a pig. Adding charts isn't gonna do it.
@acidfast I think what you are really saying is, "I'd like you to dress up the YouTube video more because it could be more interesting." I don't disagree (but it would cost us even more, and like I said, I'm not sure it makes sense now) -- but i don't think it would actually increase our YouTube audience at all. Because the content of the show (designed for a niche podcast audience) is what determines that. Conan O'Brien doesn't do more than we do, really.