Welcome to Podcasting Tech, a podcast that equips busy
Speaker:entrepreneurs engaged in podcasting with proven and cost-effective
Speaker:solutions for achieving a professional sound and appearance.
Speaker:I'm Mathew Passy, your host and a 15 year veteran in the podcasting
Speaker:space. We'll help you cut through the noise and offer guidance on software and
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Speaker:us on this exciting journey to unlock the full potential of your
Speaker:podcast. It is not often that I get to
Speaker:interview somebody on this show who I'm actually a little bit
Speaker:of a fan and having a little bit of a moment of nervousness.
Speaker:Today, we are chatting with Lindsay Graham. And as he said in his bio no.
Speaker:Not that Lindsey Graham. He's a podcast creator, producer,
Speaker:and a host of a bunch of very good podcasts. And the
Speaker:one that I know him best for most notably is American scandal from Wondery.
Speaker:If you have not checked it out, I implore you to do so. It is
Speaker:fantastic, and he does a great job. And he is also the founder
Speaker:of Thrum, and that is a company that is providing
Speaker:really interesting audio services to help podcasters, and we'll talk about all those
Speaker:things and many, many more. Lindsay, thank you so much for joining us here on
Speaker:the show today. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Oh, it is such a
Speaker:joy to meet you, and I was I was so glad we got to meet
Speaker:in person over at podcast movement last month. Yeah. That was
Speaker:fun. So let's start right away with Throm because that's the the big exciting
Speaker:thing that I was first drawn to you. I mean, I had known of you
Speaker:from listening to the show, but then I think I saw on pod news that
Speaker:you were launching this service, and I saw you were attached to it. So I
Speaker:got really excited. Tell me, what does Throm do, and and how did it
Speaker:get started? Sure. So Throm, at its most
Speaker:basic, is a music library for podcasts
Speaker:and other similar endeavors. It's,
Speaker:it's music for storytellers for you know, really. And, it
Speaker:springs from my own experience, making these narrative
Speaker:history, you know, shows that I do. Way back when we
Speaker:started the the first one, American History Tellers, and then soon after
Speaker:American Scandal, I mean, I guess the reason I I got
Speaker:into podcast was because I was familiar with audio through music,
Speaker:and I had this little studio, you know, in my backyard that I'm talking to
Speaker:you from. And, and so, I composed all the
Speaker:music for those shows, way back when
Speaker:because, really finding finding music that fit,
Speaker:you know, exactly what I was looking for fit for my purpose was really,
Speaker:really difficult, given the production music libraries
Speaker:that are are out there. That's not saying that that the music is bad.
Speaker:In fact, a lot of it is really good, but it's built for a different
Speaker:purpose. If you are doing short form
Speaker:video, you've got, you know, the the world's your oyster
Speaker:because all of that music is built for that.
Speaker:It is not built for a 45 minute cinematically scored,
Speaker:narrative driven storytelling experience in which is, you know,
Speaker:what's really an underscore that that, that
Speaker:is, what I'm looking for. And, so I I
Speaker:had to compose it myself. And, as I became
Speaker:busier and busier being a podcaster, I just couldn't
Speaker:continue being a composer as well.
Speaker:So, I began to think, carefully
Speaker:about how we can reuse musical
Speaker:elements, how they can be composed to a certain purpose from the very
Speaker:beginning so that they're the most adaptable, they're the most
Speaker:useful, they're the most editable, they're the fastest things, you know, piece
Speaker:of equipment I, you know, I can have in the studio, and still
Speaker:achieve the goals of of bringing emotion, and storytelling
Speaker:chops to or or utility to to the
Speaker:story. So over, I don't know, a couple
Speaker:of years, I kind of developed this system of always
Speaker:composing in the same key, of always composing in the same
Speaker:tempo, of always kind of fitting things
Speaker:into certain types of cues because I found myself looking for something
Speaker:like, well, I need something that's kind of actiony right now, or I need something
Speaker:that's kind of suspensey right now, or I need to resolve that suspense right
Speaker:now, or I need something neutral just that's underneath
Speaker:as I, you know, exposit or just talk about facts.
Speaker:And so this system was built, that everything's in the same
Speaker:key, everything's in the same tempo, and everything's organized by narrative
Speaker:function, not musical genre or something like
Speaker:that. And having done that work, I hired a
Speaker:composer and, thought, you know, maybe other
Speaker:podcasters would would enjoy this too.
Speaker:So if I'm a first time podcaster or or first time
Speaker:narrative podcast producer, what is the experience
Speaker:like when I go to thrum versus, like you said, the
Speaker:EVVY of excellent royalty free music libraries out there
Speaker:for, you know, more generic intro, outro music? Like, what what is it that I'm
Speaker:gonna be doing to get the best content from the platform?
Speaker:Well, we organize everything by album. You know, we kind of still think,
Speaker:thematically and musically. So, in in
Speaker:inside every every album is a collection of 80 to a
Speaker:120 different tracks that are all thematically or aesthetically
Speaker:grouped. So, if you were trying to
Speaker:investigate, thrum, I would I would audition a few
Speaker:albums and find one that's, like, in your ballpark. We try to name them
Speaker:evocatively to get you to get you there, like, quirky in the
Speaker:dark is a pretty clear one. That that's, you know, it it might be a
Speaker:a kind of a madcap true crime sort of adventure if you're
Speaker:especially if you're into, oh, I don't know, Murders in the Building.
Speaker:You know, there this is the album for you. Right?
Speaker:And, so if you do find an aesthetic then, what
Speaker:you'll what you'll discover is that album is very rich,
Speaker:with, every track, has
Speaker:a, a regular mix, an alternate mix, a reduced mix to
Speaker:kind of spark you know, clean it up and make it even more sparse, but
Speaker:they're all the same. They're like variations on motifs. And then
Speaker:they're all organized by these these narrative functions so
Speaker:that when you get to that moment where you need to switch moods, you could
Speaker:stay within the same album and just find the different function.
Speaker:But because everything's in the same key and same tempo, you don't need to stay
Speaker:in the same album. Any any track across the 5,000 in the
Speaker:library, are are harmonically and rhythmically
Speaker:compatible. Excellent. Well, we encourage everyone to check that out at
Speaker:thrum. That's thrum.audio, and, of course, we'll have a
Speaker:link to it so you could see right there. I'm curious. You said you started
Speaker:as a musician, and if you're not watching the video, I implore you to go
Speaker:check it out and see some of the guitars that we have on the back
Speaker:wall behind Lindsay, including a portrait of George, Washington there.
Speaker:How did you discover that, you know, going
Speaker:from music production to narrative storytelling, like, how
Speaker:did you know that your skills
Speaker:translated or or what was it that made you say, I can compose
Speaker:music for storytelling versus just, you know, writing songs?
Speaker:Well, there I guess there are 2 questions there. You know? The first one is
Speaker:I never expected to be on this side of the mic. I never expected to
Speaker:be a voice over talent. You know, music and audio
Speaker:production, was always just a a hobby while I went
Speaker:to my 9 to 5, you know, job in marketing.
Speaker:A great accident happened, in about 2014,
Speaker:2015 in which I was fired from one of those jobs. And,
Speaker:and, I decided to try my hand at making something
Speaker:I love, also my career.
Speaker:I don't recommend this route for many people, but it
Speaker:worked out for me. I I started as a, an audiobook
Speaker:company that turned into kind of a podcast company that eventually
Speaker:I left. But one of those shows got the attention of Wondery, and then
Speaker:my career just took off from there. But how did I know
Speaker:the second question is how did I know, that I could compose
Speaker:for storytelling? I think I
Speaker:think I was doing that anyways. If you're a musician,
Speaker:or a a producer, bands are super super
Speaker:fun, and, I enjoy that a great
Speaker:deal. But you're also looking to to just find your next job.
Speaker:And a lot of that is in media production. You know, bands are by almost
Speaker:definition broke, and so they're not paying you much.
Speaker:But TV and film or documentaries or
Speaker:short short films, that's that's interesting and it's
Speaker:a it's a it's a job. So, I've been doing
Speaker:I had been doing composing for commercial and,
Speaker:and for image, for video for for a while,
Speaker:and and kind of knew how how it worked. So it wasn't
Speaker:too far a stretch really to to then say, okay, well, I've scored
Speaker:a a 10 minute industrial video. I can probably score
Speaker:a 45 minute history documentary.
Speaker:With 45 minute history documentary, for someone
Speaker:who's never done this type of work, you know, lots of podcasters are
Speaker:seeing the prospects of narrative podcasting, where they can go with
Speaker:it, how much fun they can have with it. It's definitely a growing field and
Speaker:certainly shows that are committing that kind
Speaker:of work and dedication and production to it,
Speaker:you know, are getting pretty good response out there in the podcasting space, whereas
Speaker:some of the more basic interview shows are not
Speaker:quite breaching, you know, through the noise that's out there.
Speaker:But how do you know where to
Speaker:put music or maybe even more importantly,
Speaker:where not to put music? Because I think there's often a urge
Speaker:to fill the entire thing with music,
Speaker:but I think that would honestly kind of be, you know, it
Speaker:would almost be detrimental to the project. Well, that's interesting
Speaker:because you know me from American Scandal, which has wall to wall music
Speaker:in it. There's not a point in which there's not music.
Speaker:But that does that does differ
Speaker:from American History Tellers, which is, kind of a a drier,
Speaker:more narration forward format.
Speaker:I think I think you can go either way.
Speaker:There is going to be a balance, or an aesthetic that you
Speaker:find, a a style. And,
Speaker:for history tellers, I'll I'll I'll focus on that because that's the one that that
Speaker:that has music in moderation.
Speaker:It is really, useful as punctuation.
Speaker:If you think of your your entire episode as
Speaker:maybe a a a a one paragraph short story
Speaker:in which there's a beginning, a middle, and an end, and things
Speaker:happen, and and you need to punctuate those
Speaker:sentences, that's probably where the music
Speaker:goes. Is it an exclamation point? Is it a question mark? Is
Speaker:it, you know, a colon or a semicolon, or is it a, you
Speaker:know, a section break indicating a big pause?
Speaker:Music does this, really well to
Speaker:indicate the starts and ends of things.
Speaker:We know something's coming up or we know that something's ending even
Speaker:if it's even if it's inconclusive. If I
Speaker:if I, tell you something,
Speaker:that is that has incomplete information,
Speaker:you may be, as a listener, left wondering, well, well, you didn't
Speaker:tell me everything. What's what's going on here? But if I put
Speaker:a a sting underneath it or or a bit of a rise,
Speaker:of underscore and that falls away,
Speaker:that's much more purposeful. I have told you through the music
Speaker:that I know that you know or you don't have all the
Speaker:information, and I will probably get to it later.
Speaker:There's all sorts of ways to manipulate, your story using
Speaker:music, but if it's interspersed, it's
Speaker:mostly and probably primarily as punctuation and signposting
Speaker:to to the audience. This is what's happening now, and I'm
Speaker:on I'm in control of it. That's
Speaker:interesting. You know, I'm you say this, and I'm gonna have to
Speaker:go back and relisten. I don't think I realized there's music throughout all of American
Speaker:scandal. I really thought that you know, I've always heard the
Speaker:music as a place for transition, right, or a
Speaker:place to, you know, accentuate a point or more
Speaker:importantly, a place to give the listener a
Speaker:chance to really absorb what you just said. Right? You said something really
Speaker:important. Here's a little of the music so that you really have to think about
Speaker:it now. Right? You're not just waiting for the next thing to be said or
Speaker:moving out to the next thought, but, I I mean, I guess that means the
Speaker:music is so effective that I don't even realize it's going on the entire time.
Speaker:Well, you've pointed out the the functional music, you know, the stuff that
Speaker:that is there to be listened to, that the the ins and outs, the beginnings
Speaker:and the ends, the conspicuous pauses.
Speaker:Probably what you're not hearing, at least consciously,
Speaker:is all the, manipulative music,
Speaker:the tonal stuff. Now American Scandal has a lot of
Speaker:very drony, dark music underneath it. It
Speaker:doesn't it's not doing a lot, you know, rhythmically or harmonically or
Speaker:melonically. It's just there as a as a vapor in the
Speaker:room. And, but it's setting a
Speaker:mood, and I I would I would be very interested for you to
Speaker:listen to your next American Scandal episode, you know,
Speaker:critically. And then and let me know what you think the
Speaker:music is doing, because it should be
Speaker:changing tensions, shifting moods,
Speaker:making you feel tense or relaxed.
Speaker:It I mean, it is there to manipulate you. I I
Speaker:can probably say with 95% certainty, I've
Speaker:never listened feeling relaxed. I'm always feeling
Speaker:tense or anger or something at the
Speaker:the amount of atrocities that have been committed in
Speaker:history and frankly, some of
Speaker:the amazing changes to society that have been made by people
Speaker:who are just trying to cover something up. I mean, it seems like almost most
Speaker:of these stories, right, there's an incident, and that's
Speaker:bad, but the cover up and the deception
Speaker:and, you know, the the lengths to which people will go to cover their
Speaker:own asses is what really creates the scandal.
Speaker:But, yes, I'm definitely gonna listen with a very different, ear next time and and
Speaker:pay attention to that. And, obviously, I'm fanboyning all over
Speaker:American Scandal. If you haven't listened truly, you have to check it out. There are
Speaker:just some amazing stories. It's a great education. It
Speaker:really will open your eyes up to the way the world works, unfortunately.
Speaker:Do you have, like, a signature
Speaker:in the music? You know, is there something that
Speaker:people will hear and immediately say, ah, that's a that's
Speaker:a Lindsey Graham. That's an airship thing. Is there something you always like to you
Speaker:know, almost like, filmmakers like to throw on, like, a Wilhelm scream in there.
Speaker:Right? Right. Yeah. No. I don't think we
Speaker:have, you know, an inside joke like that or
Speaker:or or, you know, an inside anything. I mean, I do think
Speaker:we have an anesthetic, and that that
Speaker:stems from, you know, originally, it was all me doing all the
Speaker:stuff. And so I only have my own taste to go by. But over
Speaker:the years, we've we've developed a a a process and a
Speaker:method. You know, the shows that the shows were successful.
Speaker:So, we we tried not to break
Speaker:what was what we tried not to fix what wasn't broken.
Speaker:And, and so, yeah, there's there's definitely some form
Speaker:formulas to to how we work. And I think if you listen to if you
Speaker:listen to American Criminal, which I don't host, but my
Speaker:my my company produces, and you listen to American
Speaker:Scandal, there will be probably a lot of
Speaker:similarities in in the the the infrastructure
Speaker:underneath. But, no. Nothing like a
Speaker:Wilhelm scream. I do I I will tell you I
Speaker:hate downbeats. I hate heavy downbeats.
Speaker:So if if you're ending a section or you're making a point,
Speaker:I hate ending on a bum, like
Speaker:12341. That's just so
Speaker:obvious to me. I would much rather end on something that
Speaker:just whiffs away into the atmosphere, a 123 and.
Speaker:I do notice that a lot of the things linger and
Speaker:not in a bad way, but just they're there and they slowly fade away until
Speaker:the next start be you know, the next piece begins or, you know, you move
Speaker:on to the next the the next portion of the show.
Speaker:I'm curious, what year were you approached by Wondery, and
Speaker:what was it like to go from, you know, a
Speaker:marketing person with a musical background to a, I'm
Speaker:gonna, you know, kinda try this podcasting thing to,
Speaker:you know, being approached and ultimately, I
Speaker:guess acquired might might not be the right word, but, you know, ultimately
Speaker:partnering with what is one of the most successful
Speaker:content production brands in the space today?
Speaker:Yeah. Well, I, in a, in a one word, it was fantastic.
Speaker:So, you know, I never really knew what I was gonna
Speaker:do when I grew up. I I much of
Speaker:my school career was just, doing what was
Speaker:expected of me next. I got my MBA
Speaker:for almost petty reasons because a a coworker of mine announced
Speaker:that they were going in to get theirs. And I was like, oh, I'll be
Speaker:damned if you're gonna get one and I'm not going to.
Speaker:And so, you know, I I I I I have no good internal
Speaker:personal reasons for for do doing these things, for making
Speaker:some career choices, other than, you know, you need
Speaker:the money to pay the rent. Right? And I think that's probably
Speaker:true for a great portion of of people out there. So,
Speaker:podcasting was this opportunity to
Speaker:kind of assemble many of the things that I I knew I liked
Speaker:doing, and put them in one place. You know, I I
Speaker:do have a, you know, a a business mind. I
Speaker:like spreadsheets and and I like running my company.
Speaker:I also like podcasts. I like audio. I I love music.
Speaker:I like storytelling. So this is just getting better and better the more things I
Speaker:get to to, you know, cobble together here. So it was transformative,
Speaker:and is. I'm the happiest, most content I've ever been in my
Speaker:life right now, and I hope next year is even better, you know? And I
Speaker:I know I know that that's a place of privilege,
Speaker:but, it's it's it's great great to be here.
Speaker:I, love that you say it that way. When I was
Speaker:consulting with people, I was always asked, you know, what makes for a successful podcast
Speaker:or, you know, why should I do this or or, you know, how do you
Speaker:know a show is gonna be good? And one of the things that
Speaker:I found was that most of the shows who found any level
Speaker:of success, right, whether they were, you know, Kelsey Brothers
Speaker:being acquired by Amazon or, you know, this guy being acquired
Speaker:by Spotify, or even just the person who, you know, does it and
Speaker:then finds that there's a few 1,000 people in their niche
Speaker:who love what they do and now gravitate to them,
Speaker:is that the person doing it, they
Speaker:are having fun. Like, they would wake up
Speaker:and wanna do this podcast even if nobody listened.
Speaker:And obviously, that's not a great business model, but it
Speaker:sounds like storytelling, narrative, music, right, this whole
Speaker:combination is just fun and
Speaker:joyful with a lot of work. Right? I'm not downplaying the fact that you
Speaker:guys put a lot of effort into this, but, you know, the fact that you
Speaker:love doing it probably makes it easier to be successful at it.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean, I think that's one of the the big ingredients. I mean, I
Speaker:couldn't do it as a job if it weren't successful. I mean, you've got a
Speaker:horrible catch 22 there. You know,
Speaker:I'm, I put in the work because I have the time and I have the
Speaker:time because it is successful and, you know, where the chicken and the egg
Speaker:is in that sentence, I don't, I don't really know. But,
Speaker:yeah, I, I think I am one of the lucky ones. Look,
Speaker:also, I don't really enjoy doing all the accounting
Speaker:every month or, you know, being the only IT person in
Speaker:my company, you know, etcetera, etcetera. There are things that
Speaker:you need to do, wheels that need to be greased and cogs that need to
Speaker:need to be cleaned so that this machine keeps going.
Speaker:But, Yeah. I mean, I I think I think I
Speaker:love it. And, it's it's not something I
Speaker:really ever dreamt of or or saw on the horizon, but,
Speaker:once it came close to me, man, I was I was really grabbing
Speaker:for it. Oh, I love that. And, yeah, I mean, obviously, that that's a
Speaker:cash 22, but I'm thinking one of my old clients was a guy. He's a
Speaker:chess teacher, and he enjoys teaching chess. He
Speaker:was teaching a couple of students here and there, and this was back
Speaker:in 2016 ish. So podcasting was, you know, gaining
Speaker:some traction, but wasn't a a huge deal the way it is today. And he
Speaker:approached me. He's like, you know, I really love listening to these podcasts over here
Speaker:in the finance space, but nobody's doing anything like this for chess. And I just
Speaker:love talking about chess, so I'm gonna do it. And he he did
Speaker:it, and he wasn't making a lot of money off of it.
Speaker:And but he loved it. He just got to talk to more and more
Speaker:people from the chess world, and then, you know, putting in that passion, putting in
Speaker:that time, having the patience. A a few years later, he
Speaker:was being approached by some of the biggest companies in
Speaker:chess. He was talking to these grandmasters and worldmasters in
Speaker:chess. His show became this
Speaker:this place where people
Speaker:wanted to be. Right? It was like it was like validating. Right? You're
Speaker:not you're not a superstar in chess unless you unless you've spoken to this guy
Speaker:and appeared on his show, and it just came out of his passion
Speaker:for it. So it yes. It takes work, and it's you
Speaker:know, success obviously breeds more success, but, you know,
Speaker:advice to those out there thinking about a podcast, if you
Speaker:don't love what you're doing, if you don't wake up and wanna do
Speaker:it, it's probably gonna be a bigger struggle. What what about what other
Speaker:advice would you give to someone, especially someone who's thinking about going down this
Speaker:more narrative, you know,
Speaker:produced podcast role Right. Road as opposed to just the, I'm just
Speaker:gonna talk to the folks in my industry like I get to do. Yeah.
Speaker:Well, it's a lot more work, obviously, the you know, on on the production
Speaker:side, you know, you you have to do many more
Speaker:things, because you're making a different product. I mean, we call it a podcast,
Speaker:but, it is really different from what we're doing right now
Speaker:to what I will go back to doing in a few minutes.
Speaker:It's it's the difference between, you know,
Speaker:reality TV and, a feature film,
Speaker:or it can be. So be prepared for the work. But,
Speaker:I think if if you
Speaker:if you have a passion for a for a subject
Speaker:and you have a passion for teaching, because that's really kind of what
Speaker:we're doing here. There are also investigative
Speaker:document documentary, narratives too.
Speaker:So you could either be a documentarian or you could be a a
Speaker:journalist by nature. You have a subject that you love and
Speaker:can't stop thinking about. And
Speaker:and then probably, you have to assess whether you
Speaker:are a storyteller. I don't
Speaker:know if it's nature or nurture, frankly. I think
Speaker:it's probably both. But, I would I
Speaker:would wonder when I'm at a party and I start telling a
Speaker:story, do people pay attention? Do they
Speaker:follow? Do they laugh? Do they, you know, gasp?
Speaker:When do you enjoy telling that story? Is, are the, is the audience
Speaker:reaction the one you want? And do you get it often?
Speaker:Because I, I think if, if you realize that you have
Speaker:that ability to tell a story at a cocktail party and be engaging,
Speaker:you probably have some native native ability to figure
Speaker:out what the the longer story is and and
Speaker:use those, those innate skills and hone
Speaker:them so that you can craft a story that,
Speaker:the twists and turns and keeps your audience on the hook.
Speaker:Love it. Love it. As a reminder, we are chatting
Speaker:with Lindsey Graham. He's the founder of thrum, and that is the
Speaker:platform for, production music library for podcasters
Speaker:and documentarians and those who really wanna tell a
Speaker:story. And he is also a podcast creator, producer,
Speaker:and a host of very, very good shows and, many
Speaker:well known ones including American Scandal, which we've talked about, History
Speaker:Daily, Business Movers, American History Tellers. One that I
Speaker:saw on your list that I'm gonna be checking out, 18/65 that I'm excited to
Speaker:check out. And so we'll have a we'll have a link
Speaker:to his link tree so you can find all this great stuff. We'll have a
Speaker:link to thrum, so you can go check out that platform, and
Speaker:also maybe check out airship.fm. That's the production company that,
Speaker:you founded. But, before we let you go, Lindsay, we have
Speaker:a couple of questions we like to ask everybody. And given
Speaker:your place in the podcasting world, I'd be very curious to
Speaker:hear, some of these answers. So first is, is
Speaker:there a place or is there something within the podcasting
Speaker:world that you would like to see improved?
Speaker:That can be hardware, software, it could be from
Speaker:the production side, from the listening side, like, is there just something that you think,
Speaker:gosh, I wish we could change this and make podcasting better for
Speaker:everybody? Oh, I'm sure there is.
Speaker:It it is probably, it is
Speaker:probably still discovery. You know, there's not a
Speaker:great search or or
Speaker:recommendation algorithm out there that that is,
Speaker:that works for everyone. You know, one of the
Speaker:great things about podcasting is it's this, you know, open ecosystem,
Speaker:and no single platform owns podcasting. But that also means
Speaker:that there's it's fragmented and hard to find. And, you
Speaker:know, I as an example, my podcast,
Speaker:American Criminal, which was launched just this year,
Speaker:had a little bit of of promotion or or, you know,
Speaker:in in Spotify. And, what
Speaker:was once about 5050 Apple Spotify is now, like, 95%
Speaker:Spotify in terms of audience breakdown. I
Speaker:can't get Apple users to find this show.
Speaker:But by example, Spotify, users found the show and
Speaker:enjoyed it because a lot more came along for the ride. So I know
Speaker:that there are people using Apple Podcasts that would like this show if they could
Speaker:just find it. And, that's that's
Speaker:really frustrating, especially when I have metrics that can demonstrate
Speaker:that this show could have a bigger audience if the platforms
Speaker:had an ability to really find the people who are looking for it.
Speaker:I'll make sure to put the Apple link to that show in particular
Speaker:so that people can find it. I know. Any because I wanna check that out.
Speaker:Every listener is a good listener. I don't mind at all. But, you know, I
Speaker:just know that I'm leaving listeners on the table on the Apple side of the
Speaker:equation. So, if there were some better,
Speaker:you know, and I don't think it's a single system, you know, like like YouTube's
Speaker:algorithm or something. I think it just takes a a
Speaker:maturation of the industry still that people say, hey,
Speaker:I I I need a new podcast, and, it's it's a lot easier
Speaker:to find, than than it is currently.
Speaker:I like that. Is there any piece
Speaker:of tech that is on your wish list?
Speaker:And by that, I mean, you know, something out there that you have always wanted
Speaker:that you wanna buy or maybe something that hasn't even been
Speaker:created that you would like to see made that would make your studio
Speaker:more enjoyable? And I say this knowing that you have a fantastic studio, and if
Speaker:you wanna just tell us about some of the basic equipment you're using for the
Speaker:podcast, we'd love it. Oh, sure. And this is stupid, stupid
Speaker:gear stuff, and a lot of it is, like, 10 times more expensive than it
Speaker:needs to be. So with that caveat,
Speaker:so over here, we'll we'll run down my signal chain.
Speaker:I start with a Neumann U 87 AI. So
Speaker:the the utmost broadcast NPR standard of microphones.
Speaker:I previously used a a AKG's,
Speaker:c 44 c 14 c 414.
Speaker:And that was fine. But, you know, I I got the Neumann, and I I
Speaker:stayed with it. That goes into a
Speaker:Rupert Neve Designs Shelford channel. That's
Speaker:my preamp, and EQ and compressor. And then
Speaker:that goes into an RME Fireface
Speaker:UCX 2. That's my, kind of multichannel,
Speaker:audio interface. And I like that because I've got, the
Speaker:remote, the USB remote, and it's got a lot of functionality, on
Speaker:it. That goes into my home built
Speaker:PC, and
Speaker:that, goes into Reaper,
Speaker:Kakkos' Reaper. That's my DAW of choice.
Speaker:And we do everything in Reaper. All my employees work
Speaker:in Reaper. It's it's lightweight, inexpensive, and really powerful.
Speaker:I I had a few, contractors I worked with who love and swore by
Speaker:Reaper, so I could definitely appreciate that. So is there anything out
Speaker:there that you would like to see made
Speaker:or, something out there that you don't have that you wanna pick
Speaker:up? I was thinking about this actually
Speaker:earlier this morning, and it's interesting. It's it's on the it's on the
Speaker:hosting side. I wish more,
Speaker:podcast hosts, and currently I use Art 19 and
Speaker:Megaphone. There are many, many others, and I don't have experience with
Speaker:them all. But I wish their dynamic insertion
Speaker:for ads, promos, and content were a was a little
Speaker:more robust. What what I mean by that is right now,
Speaker:oftentimes, I can insert I can
Speaker:mark insertion points for things that are promos or
Speaker:ads. And and sometimes the ads have
Speaker:differentiation of pre roll or mid roll or post roll.
Speaker:And sometimes the promo promo can be promo only or
Speaker:like bottom of the funnel, you know, sort of,
Speaker:if nothing else is in there. I would like a many
Speaker:many many more, opportunities to mark
Speaker:things so that, I can dynamically change
Speaker:my content as it's appropriate for for me, for
Speaker:marketing. The one thing I really don't wanna do is,
Speaker:what has been asked of me recently, go back to an old
Speaker:episode and change the the introduction to
Speaker:mention the new American History Tellers book.
Speaker:Right? And I I I'll be fine to do that, and it makes sense. I
Speaker:want the book to sell, but I don't want to change
Speaker:the episode audio to stuff in this
Speaker:marketing thing into what is, you know, the
Speaker:program. I would love instead to dynamically insert
Speaker:it,
Speaker:and let it be known that it's content. It's not a promo. It's not ad.
Speaker:You know, it's it's not a pre roll. It's not a post roll. I could
Speaker:should make it anything I want. I would love to, have,
Speaker:upload 4 different files that are is my colopen, my
Speaker:intro, act 1, act 2, and act 3, and my,
Speaker:outro and my credits, where that's 7 files, and have
Speaker:them dynamically assembled so that I could, eventually swap
Speaker:out any one of them. So,
Speaker:you know, and, you know, all all sorts of things I could do
Speaker:with, with dynamic content, you know,
Speaker:especially if I was more current events, that makes it even more
Speaker:important because maybe I can address things based on geolocation
Speaker:or, you know, time of day that a listener is listening
Speaker:to something. There's just a fascinating array of
Speaker:opportunities if hosting companies allow me more power in
Speaker:dynamic insertion. You are
Speaker:speaking my language. I would love,
Speaker:love to be able to truth, I'd love to develop it,
Speaker:but even use a platform that allowed you to
Speaker:have more geolocal and,
Speaker:like, time dynamic insertion. Right? I think that would open
Speaker:up huge opportunities in lots of different
Speaker:areas, and I could probably talk to you about that for another 33 minutes,
Speaker:but maybe I'll take that offline with you another day. But I oh, I love
Speaker:that answer. That's a great answer. Thank you. The last one, this is probably
Speaker:gonna be the hardest question you are asked, is
Speaker:is there a podcast out there right now that you are listening to
Speaker:that no matter what you're doing, when the new episode drops, you stop and you
Speaker:turn to it, like a favorite podcast that, just has
Speaker:your attention? The answer is no.
Speaker:I knew it was gonna be a hard one. I will expand I will expound.
Speaker:As you might imagine with with, 3 weekly,
Speaker:shows, a a a 3, one
Speaker:daily show, and then managing and producing about 3 others,
Speaker:I'm listening to a lot of audio a lot of the time.
Speaker:When when I clock out, at the end of the day, the last thing I
Speaker:wanna do is listen to something. So I drive
Speaker:home, with the radio off and just the
Speaker:sound of my own wheels driving me crazy. That's, that's
Speaker:kind of all I want. Now there are certain shows that
Speaker:that, when I, have an opportunity, a vacation along, you
Speaker:know, a road trip or something like that, I will get back into,
Speaker:Revisionist history has always been a favorite of mine.
Speaker:Malcolm Gladwell, just has a, a
Speaker:way about him, a humor and, a curiosity that I find
Speaker:really compelling. Smartless does, does it
Speaker:for pure entertainment. I really enjoy it.
Speaker:I I've listened to Smartless a lot for their ads because I
Speaker:get a lot of the same copy and, and I just wanna
Speaker:check-in on, you know, how they're doing it,
Speaker:and compared to maybe even take notes on how I can, you
Speaker:know, do the next ad. So
Speaker:there's 2 that I listen to, you know, recreationally, but I'm
Speaker:really not a a large or intrepid
Speaker:podcast consumer. I I understand that
Speaker:feeling when I was heavy into the production company and editing
Speaker:audio all day. When I finally was able to shut down the computer and not
Speaker:have to work anymore, I would just throw the headphones and be like, ah, I'm
Speaker:done with this and put on a screen. Right? Like, give me something other than,
Speaker:you know, audio to listen to so I I can understand and appreciate that,
Speaker:and I like I like hearing that you listen to shows for
Speaker:the research on how to do the commercials. I think that's a that's
Speaker:a unique perspective that I think other people could learn from because,
Speaker:you know, yes, the the audience might groan at the thought of commercials,
Speaker:but, man, when shows do them right and they could be entertaining
Speaker:and they can be useful and engaging and
Speaker:fun, I mean, that really is gonna go a long way to support your venture,
Speaker:your project, and your passion. So, you know, don't
Speaker:just don't just do it to get it done, but, you know, take the time
Speaker:to think about it, and it will really help your ability to keep supporting the
Speaker:project that you're working on. Lindsey Graham,
Speaker:this has been an absolute joy. As a reminder to everybody, he's the founder
Speaker:of thrum.audio, thrum.audio.
Speaker:It's a musical library for narrative documentary
Speaker:podcasters who wanna really turn up their game on how
Speaker:they add audio and music to their productions, and he
Speaker:is the host and creator of several chart
Speaker:topping shows, notably, obviously, American Scandal,
Speaker:which I've already said I've listened to many, American History Tellers,
Speaker:History Daily, a few others, American Criminal out
Speaker:there, and a few more that we'll try and have links to all of them
Speaker:here in the show notes and implore you to check them out. You will
Speaker:love Lindsay's dulcet tones, in your ears when you're listening to these
Speaker:shows. It is a real pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank
Speaker:you, Matthew. Thanks for joining us today on
Speaker:Podcasting Tech. There are links to all the hardware and software
Speaker:that help power our guest content and podcasting tech
Speaker:available in the show notes and on our website at podcastingtech.com.
Speaker:You can also subscribe to the show on your favorite platform, connect with us on
Speaker:social media, and even leave a rating and review while you're there. Thanks,
Speaker:and we'll see you next time on Podcasting Tech.