Goodbye Stitcher, Twitter Rebrands - a podcast by JAG (Jon Gay)

I know it's been a minute, but we've got to talk about two things today - Stitcher and Twitter.  For both, it comes down to the same old adage- fish where the fish are.

Stitcher, one of the original podcast listening apps, has decided to shut down.  Now, for hardcore fans of the app, there's definitely going to be a "who moved my cheese" moment as they go elsewhere, likely to Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.  Bottom line, those three places are where the vast majority of podcast consumption via app is happening.   Apps like Stitcher, iHeart, Pandora, and others generally account for 2% or less each.

Now, Stitcher is owned by SiriusXM, which also owns Pandora, Stitcher Studios, and Simplecast, the platform I host podcasts on.  They company's going to focus on the SiriusXM umbrella, largely on the production side.  I doubt Stitcher users will go to the Sirius app to stream, but it will be an option.  What does all this mean for you as a podcaster?   While it doesn't hurt to be on all the apps, the holy trinity still remains Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.   (And yes, you can put an audio-only podcast up on YouTube).

The other big news as of late involves world's richest man and troll-in-chief Elon Musk, who is trying to rebrand Twitter as "X."  I don't know why he's throwing away the branding of one of the world's most important communication platforms.   (Remember, when you're that rich, you're not "crazy," you're "mercurial.")  But there's some question over copyright around X.  Does Microsoft own it from XBox?  Do Facebook/Meta/Instagram/Zuckerberg own it?   And speaking of the latter, great move to let everyone on Instagram enroll in "Threads" with just two clicks.  Privacy issues aside, you've now got a huge user base and an alternative to Twit...I mean, X.   I'll be curious to see how it does in time.   

But again, fish where the fish are.  Where is your audience going online?   Do they skew older and more on Facebook?  Is it a more professional set who are on LinkedIn?  Do they Tweet? Do they Thread?  Do they do it all for The Gram?    Now your podcast metrics aren't going to tell you this.   How do you find out? ASK THEM.  A quick listener survey, via Google Forms, is easy to set up.  And if you need to provice some motivation, like a $50 Amazon Gift Card, that information is well worth the investment.   Throw the link in your show notes and promote it in your podcast.  Lata!

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