Podcasting's Elephant In The Evergreens Conundrum [S3E80]

Will the future be kind to your podcast? A good amount of us are making timeless podcast episodes that are fine to listen to 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, or even 3 years in the future. 

But… will they be in 19 years?

In 2040, how will we listen to podcasts? It’s 2021. In 19 years, it’ll be 2040. Deal with that for a minute, and then think about sound quality advancements. Yes, there’s a limit on the range of sound frequencies our human ears can perceive. And by and large, we’ve been able to create speakers and sound transmitters that produced rich and immersive sounds within that range for decades. 

But podcasting, at least as practiced today, sends “lossy” files to our listeners. Lossy means what it says: some information is “lost” on the copy that reaches our listeners’ devices. And from there, depending on what or how they listen, additional signal will be lost before it reaches their ears. 

Will that be “fixed” in the future? Will bandwidth and storage considerations be so vastly different in 19 years that “lossless” audio files can be sent to listeners? 

Can podcasters prepare for the future? My friend and exceptional audio engineer Marcus dePaula recently said that marginal video is forgivable. But low-quality audio is not. He’s right, and I have to assume that at some point in the future, podcast episodes that are “acceptable” today will be painful to listen to.

Obviously, we should all be preserving the source files and masters. We can also lobby our hosting providers to help us stay current. Rather than uploading lossy .mp3 files, we could be uploading lossless files, letting the hosting provider make some on-the-fly decisions about the quality of files to distribute based on a variety of factors.

But that won’t help us too much if the promise of binaural or spatial audio becomes dominant. Yes, I assume that, just like letterboxing on our current TVs, the headphones or speakers that are capable of reproducing 3D sound will also handle non-optimized content. It’ll just sound… dated.

Beyond that, I’ve nothing much for you other than questions. These are questions worthy of the other people in your podcasting peer group. I’m betting one person—perhaps you—is way more persnickety than others when it comes to sound quality. Share this article with them and see how the conversation shakes out. Even if there are no definitive next-steps, it’s always good to be thinking about the future. 

Because if we don’t, our evergreen and timeless episodes are all too quickly going to start showing some browning around the edges.

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Read the full article and share with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/podcastings-elephant-in-the-evergreens-conundrum

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

Buy him a virtual coffee to show your support.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is designed to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right...

Will the future be kind to your podcast? A good amount of us are making timeless podcast episodes that are fine to listen to 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, or even 3 years in the future. 

But… will they be in 19 years?

In 2040, how will we listen to podcasts? It’s 2021. In 19 years, it’ll be 2040. Deal with that for a minute, and then think about sound quality advancements. Yes, there’s a limit on the range of sound frequencies our human ears can perceive. And by and large, we’ve been able to create speakers and sound transmitters that produced rich and immersive sounds within that range for decades. 

But podcasting, at least as practiced today, sends “lossy” files to our listeners. Lossy means what it says: some information is “lost” on the copy that reaches our listeners’ devices. And from there, depending on what or how they listen, additional signal will be lost before it reaches their ears. 

Will that be “fixed” in the future? Will bandwidth and storage considerations be so vastly different in 19 years that “lossless” audio files can be sent to listeners? 

Can podcasters prepare for the future? My friend and exceptional audio engineer Marcus dePaula recently said that marginal video is forgivable. But low-quality audio is not. He’s right, and I have to assume that at some point in the future, podcast episodes that are “acceptable” today will be painful to listen to.

Obviously, we should all be preserving the source files and masters. We can also lobby our hosting providers to help us stay current. Rather than uploading lossy .mp3 files, we could be uploading lossless files, letting the hosting provider make some on-the-fly decisions about the quality of files to distribute based on a variety of factors.

But that won’t help us too much if the promise of binaural or spatial audio becomes dominant. Yes, I assume that, just like letterboxing on our current TVs, the headphones or speakers that are capable of reproducing 3D sound will also handle non-optimized content. It’ll just sound… dated.

Beyond that, I’ve nothing much for you other than questions. These are questions worthy of the other people in your podcasting peer group. I’m betting one person—perhaps you—is way more persnickety than others when it comes to sound quality. Share this article with them and see how the conversation shakes out. Even if there are no definitive next-steps, it’s always good to be thinking about the future. 

Because if we don’t, our evergreen and timeless episodes are all too quickly going to start showing some browning around the edges.

-----

Read the full article and share with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/podcastings-elephant-in-the-evergreens-conundrum

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

Buy him a virtual coffee to show your support.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is designed to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions.

Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few.

You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com.

If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources:

1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion.
2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions.
3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics.
4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet.
5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more.

We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy