PJ - thanks for your poignant insights on the podcasting industry, particularly in light of the Spotify/Gimlet news from this week. I feel like you strike such a good balance between transparency and discretion when addressing this stuff.
A couple of thoughts on this (very good!) ep:
1) Not Millie Bobby Brown catching strays with Maya’s comment on actors “starting skin care companies”! 👀😆
2) Loved the nod to Stranger Things in the scoring of this episode. Very synth-y and totally 80s!
3) Maya’s character Robin is one of THEE BEST parts of Stranger Things season 4. So hopeful for an equitable conclusion to the strikes soon so we can collectively cry our eyes out with Season 5!
Yes.. someone should write that book. If only there was someone with the experience of the industry at that time who also happened to be a skilled investigative reporter with access to contacts that would be willing to help paint a picture of what it was like. 👀
Love this pod already! The "submit a question" link wasn't working, so I'm posting a question that has haunted me for years here in the hopes it gets through:
What's going on with the art email scam? Every artist knows The One I'm talking about: "Hello, my name is [insert generic American name] from [insert random American city] and I have actually observed my wife viewing your website. I guess she likes your works, you are doing a great job!" The person proceeds to inquire about specific paintings. The scam eventually involves a shipping overpayment and a bounced check. The scam itself isn't the mystery. What I want to know is why, after so many years, this email scam is still going around? Who is behind it? How many people are sending the emails? Does it actually work on anyone? If so, how much money do they make from it?
I really hope you guys do an episode on this one. The entire artistic community would love to know.
Hello! Wasn’t sure how to submit a question that might be interesting to answer on the show, so figured I’d just do it here. My question is, what is the bare minimum variety of foods that a person can be healthy on? I read about this crazy story of a 17 year old British boy who went blind after years of only eating fries, potato chips, and white bread. I was curious if he’d only eaten a couple other random food items he’d have been able to thrive just fine.
I'm amazed you made it though this entire episode without mentioning Bo Burnham's "inside". I feel like that's the best summary of the situation with streamers and content creators.
I was selected to be a Nielsen home in 2021. They measured my streaming data by monitoring when streamers were sending data to my router combined with capturing audio samples from the shows and movies I was watching. Is there any reason that data isn't sufficient to maintain the status quo for viewership numbers?
I want to comment on something you said at the very end. How you love when people write in, and how they’re your favorite thing to get on your phone.
I used to do a heavily-Reply All-inspired internet mystery channel called Nothing Is Revealed (it’s dead now but check out a vid https://youtu.be/tcsq-s0Msdw?si=MGL3AfMoGxolQ24A). At its height, I had a handful of patrons and got occasional emails.
And I LOVED IT.
No one ever talks about how amazing it feels to get that engagement from those who consume your art or storytelling. Or to hear someone say, “I love your storytelling, please tell my story!”
What’s a definition of “watch”? Is it one episode, is it a whole season, is it 5 minutes? Same for podcasts! What about music? A whole album, a song, last 10s of the song? I always wonder how these kinds of stats wash out!
Oh! I know this, kind of. Well, I know the answer from a YouTube perspective and a Spotify perspective. On those platforms, you get a myriad of retention rates. Some relevant to the % of the video / song actually played per user in a session, some related to the % of viewers and listeners that watch / listen to more of your content one after another, and a % of users who watch / listen to more than just one of your videos (ie, they come back and engage with your content over time).
I imagine Netflix does something similar with % of users who actually finish an episode, watch one right after the other, and those who have finished whole seasons. I’m sure they even break it down by episode and, if they’re anything like TilkTok, they have some sort of AI figuring out what could be causing said retention rates. Maybe a certain actor, a certain tone the episode took, or even the director. You can get really granular with data and Netflix no doubt has a ton of it.
Surely you can leave the number of listeners in a comment though? :D
PJ - thanks for your poignant insights on the podcasting industry, particularly in light of the Spotify/Gimlet news from this week. I feel like you strike such a good balance between transparency and discretion when addressing this stuff.
A couple of thoughts on this (very good!) ep:
1) Not Millie Bobby Brown catching strays with Maya’s comment on actors “starting skin care companies”! 👀😆
2) Loved the nod to Stranger Things in the scoring of this episode. Very synth-y and totally 80s!
3) Maya’s character Robin is one of THEE BEST parts of Stranger Things season 4. So hopeful for an equitable conclusion to the strikes soon so we can collectively cry our eyes out with Season 5!
I was telling my youngest child about this episode, and said "It also had Maya Hawke - do you know her? She played Robin."
The look I got was peak "You are so very out of touch, dad." Apparently Maya Hawke is extremely well-liked amongst "the youth."
Not really related to the episode, other than it brought me a very amusing bonding moment with my kiddo. ;)
Yes.. someone should write that book. If only there was someone with the experience of the industry at that time who also happened to be a skilled investigative reporter with access to contacts that would be willing to help paint a picture of what it was like. 👀
Love this pod already! The "submit a question" link wasn't working, so I'm posting a question that has haunted me for years here in the hopes it gets through:
What's going on with the art email scam? Every artist knows The One I'm talking about: "Hello, my name is [insert generic American name] from [insert random American city] and I have actually observed my wife viewing your website. I guess she likes your works, you are doing a great job!" The person proceeds to inquire about specific paintings. The scam eventually involves a shipping overpayment and a bounced check. The scam itself isn't the mystery. What I want to know is why, after so many years, this email scam is still going around? Who is behind it? How many people are sending the emails? Does it actually work on anyone? If so, how much money do they make from it?
I really hope you guys do an episode on this one. The entire artistic community would love to know.
Hello! Wasn’t sure how to submit a question that might be interesting to answer on the show, so figured I’d just do it here. My question is, what is the bare minimum variety of foods that a person can be healthy on? I read about this crazy story of a 17 year old British boy who went blind after years of only eating fries, potato chips, and white bread. I was curious if he’d only eaten a couple other random food items he’d have been able to thrive just fine.
I'm amazed you made it though this entire episode without mentioning Bo Burnham's "inside". I feel like that's the best summary of the situation with streamers and content creators.
I was selected to be a Nielsen home in 2021. They measured my streaming data by monitoring when streamers were sending data to my router combined with capturing audio samples from the shows and movies I was watching. Is there any reason that data isn't sufficient to maintain the status quo for viewership numbers?
Amazing episode as always!
I want to comment on something you said at the very end. How you love when people write in, and how they’re your favorite thing to get on your phone.
I used to do a heavily-Reply All-inspired internet mystery channel called Nothing Is Revealed (it’s dead now but check out a vid https://youtu.be/tcsq-s0Msdw?si=MGL3AfMoGxolQ24A). At its height, I had a handful of patrons and got occasional emails.
And I LOVED IT.
No one ever talks about how amazing it feels to get that engagement from those who consume your art or storytelling. Or to hear someone say, “I love your storytelling, please tell my story!”
So yeah, appreciate you ❤️
What’s a definition of “watch”? Is it one episode, is it a whole season, is it 5 minutes? Same for podcasts! What about music? A whole album, a song, last 10s of the song? I always wonder how these kinds of stats wash out!
Oh! I know this, kind of. Well, I know the answer from a YouTube perspective and a Spotify perspective. On those platforms, you get a myriad of retention rates. Some relevant to the % of the video / song actually played per user in a session, some related to the % of viewers and listeners that watch / listen to more of your content one after another, and a % of users who watch / listen to more than just one of your videos (ie, they come back and engage with your content over time).
I imagine Netflix does something similar with % of users who actually finish an episode, watch one right after the other, and those who have finished whole seasons. I’m sure they even break it down by episode and, if they’re anything like TilkTok, they have some sort of AI figuring out what could be causing said retention rates. Maybe a certain actor, a certain tone the episode took, or even the director. You can get really granular with data and Netflix no doubt has a ton of it.