Podcasting Observations

by Dave Jackson

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Well This Looks Weird

One thing I’ve learned this week is to think before opening your mouth. You might even do a hint of research. We’ve all heard about Inception Point. This is the company that has AI make 3000 episodes a week and if they get more than 20 downloads it’s profitable.
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I heard the Jeanine Wright on the Podnews Weekly Review very boldly explain why her polluting the podcasting space is perfectly fine. I personally think she can go… well, away. They are using Spreaker (so get ready for reports on how big Spreaker is growing. You think? 3000 episodes a week? DUH).

I heard some other respected people talk about there was an uptick in downloads in September (which at first I started to panic) but then I noticed that there were five Mondays in that month (so for me, that’s one episode more than usual, so my monthly stats should be up.

Wait, What?

But then the stat went weird. There was a rise in listen on the web. Almost always (as in 99.999% of the time) Apple is the top app, and in September 2025 web browsers were #1. In my case by 22% (that’s quite a lead).
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Typically web based downloads are often bots. Sure people listen on a website, but when there is a noticeable uprise, it’s often bots. So this means….

Masterbotion

We have a company making AI Slop at the pace of 12,000 episodes a month. For them to make money they need 20 downloads an episode. We know there are companies that can inflate your numbers (often with players that preload, or you put a player in some video game, etc). So we have AI Slop Out, and AI Tools eating it up. Seems dumb, but who cares. Let the robots have their fun. Well, there is an innocent bystander here: advertisers.

As much as I say advertising isn’t the best way to monetize, I want advertisers to stay with podcasting. There is a portion of podcasters who make a living with advertisers. I just don’t want 33% of my episodes to be ads. But the advertisers are paying to get in front of PEOPLE not ROBOTS. ROBOTS don’t buy anything.

So when Jeanine Wright puts out slop, and potentially uses “gray” marketing tactics (I have no idea if she is or isn’t, I’m just pointing out anyone doing this could do that) they would make money at the detriment of podcasting as a whole.

I hate when we make decisions based on the advertiser (I prefer to make decisions based on the podcaster, or even better the audience).

If less people hear the ads, they perform worse.

If they perform worse, advertisers will not be willing to pay more.

If podcasters get paid less for ads, well, we’re back to being radio where the content is 33% ads because we need so many ads to make a trickle of income.

Well done Jeanine.

For me, if I stumble across an AI Show from Inception Point, I will be leaving reviews to alert people they are listening to AI Slop. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

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DAVE'S KITCHEN THIS WEEK

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Go Podcasting!

Dave Jackson ​
2018 Podcaster Hall of Fame Inductee
Podcast Consultant, Speaker, Author
​www.schoolofpodcasting.com
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