To Cuss or Not To Cuss

To Cuss or Not To Cuss

Someone had asked for my opinion on their podcast, and some other technical questions. I went to listen to their podcast and heard something I had never heard. It was cussing that had been bleeped out. Now I’ve heard that in the past. You have a guest who lets an F-bomb fly, and later you go back and edit out the offensive word and insert a bleep (we have a tutorial on how to generate the bleep tone, and how to edit the word). This was not the case. This was a case where the hosts just let the swear words fly, and then later edited all of them out. This to me seemed like a way to add LOTS of post editing to your production (to a show that was already scaling back their publishing schedule).

This is my opinion, but it sounded like the all male group was trying to be “Howard Stern” in that they were being edgy.

Now I’m not saying they don’t have a right to be over the top, say sh*t, F*ck,  and all the other fun words that would get your mouth washed out if Mom heard you. Go right ahead and say them, but don’t complain when Howard Stern is famous and you’re not. It takes more than seven dirty words.

Howard Stern was one of the first to understand that it was about creating a relationship with the audience. By letting them into to content they couldn’t get anywhere else (his life, behind the scenes of the radio business). Howard started before the words “reality tv” even existed. Throw on top of that, Howard was not creating things in his life to have content for the show (see Gene Simmons family Jewels). Most of today’s reality shows are fake. While many people think Howard is just about penis jokes, Howard chose not to judge. Instead of judging the prostitute he interviewed her and asked her all the questions that you want to ask a prostitute, (but you typically don’t find yourself in the position to interview a prostitute). It was content you couldn’t get anywhere else.

Does Howard ask every guest when they lost their virginity? It seems that way, but talk to any guest after their interview and they will talk about the relationship they feel with Howard during the Interview. How he makes them feel calm, and that it is just the two of them talking (when in reality its millions). So here again – it’s all about the relationship.

On his first day at satellite radio where he was free of FCC regulations, everyone thought he would be cussing his face off. Instead he put in a ban on those words just to prove people wrong. The FCC had choked his creativity, and he wanted to prove you could be entertaining without relying on the “F word.” (He has since lifted this ban). It was FASCINATING CONTENT. So again, it’s not about the 7 dirty words.

Other things to consider. If you are looking for sponsors, you are limiting the number of potential clients by “working blue.” In the case of the podcast I listened to, you also added editing time to your show.

Joomla as a Podcasting Client

I go to eat at a restaurant in Akron called Louigi’s pizza. It’s one of my favorite restaurants. I have gone there many times and except for two times, I’ve ordered the same thing. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.

I recently was giving some advise to someone who had decided to use Joomla as the content management system for their podcast. Joomla is a powerful platform (I use to use it on my church’s website until it got hacked). It’s great for membership sites, and more. However, when I tried to use it (probably two years ago) as a podcasting platform it was painful.

WordPress is easy. WordPress is free. WordPress has plugins specifically designed to help you podcast. When I say WordPress, I don’t mean wordpress.com I mean hosting your own website using an inexpensive hosting account ($5-%10 a month). You control every aspect of your website. It’s easy. It works. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

CD Baby Affiliate Program Returns

I just wanted to let anyone who plays indie music on their podcast that CDBaby,com has relaunched their affiliate program at cdbaby.biz

If you were an affiliate before, your old username and password still work.Maybe I missed something (as I'm not sure when it came back online, it's been gone for quite a while), but it has returned. As an affiliate, if someone clicks on your affiliate link to the artist you played on your podcast and buys their music, you earn a commission.

If you are a music podcasters between CDBaby (indie) and Amazon.com, and Linkshare (iTunes) you can put links to just about any artists in your show notes that will result in commission sales. In reality your commissions won't be another to retire on, but it will put some gas in your tank.

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