Choose a topic, collect relevant information, find guests who are familiar with the topic, turn on the device to record, close, clip, upload. This is a relatively fixed production process for a podcast show. Usually one-hour programs, production cycles ranging from one day to a week, is a relatively static job, in the context of the pursuit of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, podcast producers for a long time, is a minority.
Since about 2012, China has begun to produce individually produced podcasts, with fewer and fewer listeners, and most of the first batch of podcasters chose to give up in the middle. Since 2018, Chinese podcasts have appeared more and more, some people attributed it to the aural economy brought about by knowledge paid audio, and some people believe that the bombardment of long video short videos has made people with aesthetic fatigue turn to "de-video" to find comfort.
2019 is a node of the Chinese podcast, the number of registrations and the number of plays have increased significantly, such as "Villain Film Review", "Left and Right", "Naturalist", "Unemployed Nomad", "No Jet Lag Institute", "Surplus Value" and other podcasts began to have fixed fans, but also began to explore the possibility of profitability. Even though podcasts are still a relatively niche area in the commercial market, listening to podcasts is now a whole new way of life for a growing audience.
1 Do not implant soft wide, the ears of the audience are very smart
The Museum is a podcast about museums and culture associated with them. The most common is to introduce the content of a domestic exhibition, teach the audience how to see the exhibition, or some museum-related news has happened, such as the fire of Notre Dame Cathedral, or guests go abroad to visit the museum and talk about the museum.
In 2015, Wan Ying was a graduate student in Montreal, Canada, she studied French at university, and chose museology with the mood of wanting to be a curator, and after going there, she found that museology is a discipline that studies museums, such as why museums exist, the surrounding facilities of museums, and the significance of museums to human civilization, which have nothing to do with curation.
The first episode was her chat with her friend Rhubarb in Germany about the museum's elevator. During that time Rhubarb and his son played in Italy, there are many museums in Italy, the collections are great, but they are all old buildings, there are no disabled ramps, no elevators, his son is very small, need to take a stroller, it is not convenient to visit. They talked about the importance of elevators in museums.
After returning to China, Wanying worked for a year in a commercial exhibition company in Hangzhou, then went to Nanjing, began to do podcasts full-time, could not make money, and most of the cost of life was responsible for her husband.
When she first returned to China, she looked at any Chinese museum and felt rotten, "China is not short of treasures, national treasures are everywhere, what do you want." But the museum, whether it is the working state presented by the exhibition or the operation behind it, is in a very old state. As far as I know, most of the museum staff are not trained in museology, and the salary is very low, especially the staff of museums in second- and third-tier cities, there is no professional knowledge, there is no motivation to work, you can't expect them to make good things. From this point of view, can you understand, why is the domestic museum store selling so disgusting? ”
Wanying, the anchor of "Naturalist".
In the early days, many people asked Wanying whether "Naturalist" was a collection treasure collection program, heard that Wanying was museological, thought she was engaged in cultural relics identification, and asked whether "Naturalist" was a tourism program. She had to tell the other party that museology is a science about museums.
Go to a place to see the exhibition, she only reports to the audience that the museum is good or bad, good where, bad where, introduce the collection, explain the toilet facilities, for example, she will tell the audience, a museum queue is a large square, very sunny, you can consider bringing a parasol, occasionally, she will say in the program what she ate, "The tourism program will have a consumerist orientation, must see the top ten museums, must eat the top ten restaurants, can not miss the xx hotel, I will not get this."
The Naturalist was listened to between 20,000 and 30,000 per issue, and hundreds of listeners bought their memberships for $50 a year. Members can listen to the program in advance, send a member newsletter every two weeks, mainly in the form of a graphic exhibition report, Wanying has a friend who is a photographer, take some photos related to the museum, they also send these photos to members. In addition, Wanying often receives tickets from the museum, and she says in the program, if you are a member of the city, please write me an email to collect the tickets, first come, first served. During the New Year's Festival, the "Naturalist" held a raffle, and the prize was a souvenir bought by the anchors from museums around the world, "If you win the prize, the annual fee will come back." ”
In addition to members, "Naturalist" also opened a micro-store, selling some peripheral products, such as T-shirts, bags, badges, stickers. T-shirts from the manufacturers who make T-shirts for Uniqlo, Wanying printed words on it, sewed the customized logo up, priced 199, "including intellectual property rights and my hard work", the most expensive sold is the bag, priced at 500, because all are made by Hand by Wanying, she feels that this price is very conscientious, and does not plan to go, and it is also very clear in the program, "Only sold to those who like "Naturalism" and have money. ”
Because of the program, Wanying, an important newly opened exhibition in China, had to go over and share the process and experience of the visit with the audience. The most visited is Shanghai. Most of the time, she chooses where she wants to travel according to her own interests, and stops by the city's museums. The year before, she went to Chongqing and recorded all the visits to the museum, and there was a car accident in the middle, which she also recorded and placed at the beginning of the program. Although she was the only narrator in that episode, it was interspersed with a lot of vibrant field recordings, which suddenly substituted the audience into the scene.
The biggest expense was to see the exhibition, the show was done for four years, only two exhibitions invited her, including accommodation and travel. "Some large-scale exhibitions will have sufficient budgets in this regard, and traditional museums, such as the Capital Museum or the Shanghai Museum, will never invite self-media."
There have been advertisers such as coffee, bags, online courses, find her, ask if you can implant soft wide in the program, did not talk about it, Wanying tends to hard wide, such as directly in the opening of the advertisement, "the audience can distinguish the soft wide, will immediately think you are very annoying, so it is better to do a hard wide today." ”
2 is a platform of opinion, not an output of individuals
In the podcast world, "Villain Film Review" is a very different existence. "Villain Film Review" is a film criticism program that began airing in April 2016, the anchor is Bomi, from the beginning of the program, it has been known for its solid professional ability and free style of daring to say and criticize. Wanying is also an audience for villain film reviews, many of her listeners often discuss "Villain Film Review" in the WeChat group, Wanying commented, "I like his (Bomi)'s expression, like this thing to hold the sky, do not like to step on the death, like him with a more distinct personality, it is easy to attract fans and blacks." However, since April 2019, Bomi has reduced the number of times he has been on the show, often replaced by guests, causing dissatisfaction among many old listeners, as if they listen to the "villain" is to listen to Pomi (the fact may be so), once saw such a message in the circle of friends, "Every time you click on the 'villain', think about whether Bomi can be listed as a missing person..." For the practice of reducing the frequency of their own appearance, Bomi believes that "Villain Film Review" should become a platform for more views after several years of development. Not just personal output.
At the end of 2019, "Villain Film Review" won the "New Voice of the Year" award from the One-Way Street Library, in which the award speech read, "... There is really no one who speaks like them, dares to express strong love and hatred, and evaluates a film openly and fairly, without being subject to any commercial interests or private feelings. It has always been outside the mainstream film industry, but it is more professional than many insiders, going deep into the details of every level of film language to read, disassemble and reproduce movies." Pomy did not go to the scene to receive the award, and recorded an audio thank you, which is his most accustomed public expression.
Pomey often wears a cap of AC Milan, the hat is a little old, AC Milan is not doing well now, and the fans who support them are more like sticking to a traditional aesthetic. Privately, Bomi is a little shy, not quite the same as in the show; doing things is very righteous, consistent with the show. Prior to his podcasting, he was a film journalist and wrote many film stories that are still valuable today. Through his work, he met a lot of directors and actors he liked, and he said that the reporter's experience satisfied his fan complex, and later did the show, but he lost the fan mentality (all that should be seen) and was able to look at their works from a relatively objective point of view. He has collected a lot of director's signature Blu-ray discs before, and after doing the show, the collection of Blu-ray discs has rarely had the director's signature, Bomi said, and it is difficult to get it now.
"Villain Film Review" talks about a movie every week, the duration is not limited, there are dozens of minutes and two hours, talking about new films, such as films that are being released in theaters, or films with new resources on the Internet. Including some films that are not in his personal taste, or even contrary to his taste, such as Wolf Warrior 2, because it is "the hard currency of mass communication". During the Spring Festival, he criticized Xu Zheng's new film "囧Mom" in the program, which not only had poor film quality, but also touched the bottom line of the industry. And the bottom line problem, he values the most, whether it is a movie or a movie.
The collection of "Villain Film Review" anchor Bomi.
Bomi hates cut movies, especially discouraging audiences from going to the cinema to see a cut out version of a movie, and later in the show he notes whether or not to cut each movie. If a movie is cut to more than five minutes, you choose to wait for the movie to go offline and talk about it after the key expires, even if the film is at the center of the topic at the time.
Before "Rebel Film Review", Bomi was a resident guest of "Movie Weathervane" and the three of them talked about movies. "MovieVane" is a podcast, but will talk about some more popular movies, such as "Little Times 3", at that time, Pomi held a very negative view of "Little Times 3" in the show, the other two did not like it, after the show was broadcast, encountered a lot of small times fans insults. Bomi said: "For me now, you fight with these fans, tell them what a good movie is, this kind of discussion does not make much sense, this is not my own person, watching movies for so many years, the understanding of movies is growing, the cynicism of "Little Times 3" is sincere, now at least "The Wandering Earth". ”
Later, "Movie Weathervane" stopped changing, Pomi himself opened a program, many viewers because of "Movie Weathervane" to know Bomi, at first the audience did not adapt, asked "Why is it only you, where did the other two people go?" We're going to listen to all three of you, and one less I think is flawed." The guests in the first few episodes of "Villain Film Review" were under a lot of pressure, and everyone instinctively felt that the new guests must not have a good chat as the original three. However, with the development of the program, the guests of the program have also become diverse and rich, and now, the appearance of some guests is a very specific expectation for the audience.
Bomi values the feedback of the audience, but does not adjust for it, "If you want to be kidnapped by this, then you don't have to do it, you don't have to do anything." This is a very normal thing, the audience is used to being the same, of course, you can say that, but you are really unchanged, when the audience feels tired of listening, they will not say that I am tired of listening, they will directly close, no longer listen. Bomi said.
"Villain Film Review" is about to enter its fourth year, for Chinese podcasts, this is not a short time, Bomi feels that the only change in the industry is Chinese podcasts are increasing, variety shows, that is, the ruler that requires our content self-examination should be stricter.
3 All podcasts look for friends as guests in their infancy
Cheng Yanliang used to be a journalist, in charge of cultural reporting, and for a while, to be precise, obituaries. Western media have a long tradition of obituaries, and obituary journalists often start early on to track down important people who may die, write their obituary, and constantly add information about them until one day they die. Obituary is an independent, stylized way of reporting abroad. But in China, the obituary appears to be limited to memorial services. Later, the obituary became a very stylized job, and every week someone died, he searched the deceased person's reports, interviews, similar literature reviews, and quickly wrote a thousand to two thousand words in two hours. Day after day, with no readers, no peers, I was in a very broken state.
He did not want to write obituaries, began to interview some writers and scholars, he found that many people expressed the emotions and information on the spot is particularly vivid, he can not just show the reader through words, he thinks that if there is a machine to record their voices, directly broadcast to the readers, the readers can understand. In April 2017, he left the interface because he didn't want to write every day anymore. He went to a company to do public relations, interviewed some programmers for the enterprise, programmers often said something he did not understand the professional knowledge, when writing articles he involuntarily filtered out some information he did not know, although this information may be useful to other programmers. He thought that if there was a show, he only needed to ask questions and let the programmer express it directly, was it a better way to communicate?
At the beginning of 2018, he and his friend Yang began to prepare for "Suddenly Left and Suddenly Right", which is a talk show. There are three people chatting in each issue, sometimes Cheng Yanliang and two guests, sometimes Cheng Yanliang and Yang Yi, and then invite a guest. It's a bit like "Threesomes". Most podcasts like the three-person chat format, not too serious, not too scattered. Three people just right.
They recorded four or five episodes of the program, designed the program logo, bought servers, registered accounts, and on February 3, 2018, "Suddenly Left and Suddenly Right" was launched, and "Suddenly Left and Suddenly Right" was also understood as a discussion of "no position".
Yang Yi, an editor of Shanghai Television and one of the earliest podcast listeners in China, is interested in the podcasting industry and has listened to most domestic and foreign podcasts, such as Cai Kangyong's paid programs or The Times literary programs. In 2015, Yang Yi also did a podcast, he was doing TV media, once a show was talking about Phoenix SATELLITE TV for a whole period, and did not do it for several periods. Cheng Yanliang and he were good friends, saying, "If we don't cooperate, I will be responsible for the content and guests of the show, and you will be responsible for the recording and post-production." Cheng Yanliang, who has been a cultural journalist, knows many friends in the cultural circle.
"Suddenly Left and SuddenLy Right" podcast anchors Cheng Yanliang (right) and Yang Yi (left), both of whom have previously worked in the media.
Cheng Yanliang is very young, wears a pair of glasses, and is a chat object that can easily make people feel trusted. His voice is not high or low, the speed of speech is not fast or slow, and he speaks fluent Mandarin, which is very suitable for voice performance. He was a lover of history and memoirs, and enjoyed studying Chinese, Japanese, Roman, Byzantine, and memoirs by Churchill and de Gaulle. When "Left and Right" first aired, he talked about several historical programs. For example, talk to the guests about the royalist organizations in Germany and Austria, talk about the monarchy in Central Europe, talk about the spy novels of the 20th century, and talk about what real agents looked like at that time. He also sought out a Ph.D. in foreign literature at the Shanghai Overseas Chinese College to talk about Victorian science fiction literature, and the guest of the program was the deputy director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Intelligence Office, who did intelligence research. The early program content of "Suddenly Left and Suddenly Right" was determined according to the personal tastes of Cheng Yanliang and Yang Yi and the tastes of friends around them.
It's difficult to invite guests. Almost all podcasts start by asking friends around to record programs. Friends are more familiar with each other, chat more naturally, there will be no cold field, and the most important thing is that friends do not want money. Anchors and their friends often lay the foundation for the very beginning of a show.
"What kind of guest I can find, what kind of topic this guest is suitable for, we will start recording." Therefore, it is established that "Suddenly Left and Suddenly Right" does not have a fixed field, and we will not only talk about literature, only about history, or only about social science. I think that hearing the audience of the 20th issue of "Left and Right" shows that this person must be a very curious person, and he is willing to touch different fields. Cheng Yanliang said. He found that people in different fields have very different evaluations of "Suddenly Left and Suddenly Right", and those who do investment think that they talk about investment is particularly shallow, but they think that they talk about literature well, "Everyone has a very low cognitive threshold for areas that they do not understand, this is our style, we are open." ”
The number of plays per issue of "Suddenly Left and Right" is between 20,000 and 30,000, and there has not been a 100,000 plus hit, and the overall situation is very average. One episode jumped to 32,000 views, and the title was "Chinese Women Can't Stand Stupid White Sweet Anymore." But they rarely follow hot spots, such as talking about "996", a topic that the public generally cared about for a period of time. This was discussed before the show, and they wanted to do something that was difficult to search for in the Chinese world through the Internet.
4 Chinese podcasts are still lagging behind in the world
Most podcasts are updated synchronously across the network, but "Villain Movie Review" stopped all podcast platforms and only updated on the WeChat public account. There was a platform that asked Bomi to sign an exclusive agreement and wanted to buy out the broadcast rights, but Bomi refused. He feels that the current domestic podcast platform does not have the ability to monetize the content, in fact, many podcast anchors are not willing to put the program on an exclusive platform, such as "Naturalist" feels that radio programs should be accompanied by text descriptions and links, so that listeners can immediately click on the link to query when they hear professional vocabulary, so they have made a website themselves, and explained on the website, hoping that listeners will go to podcast and other general-purpose podcast clients to listen to their programs. "Villain Film Review" WeChat public account, the audience needs to read the original text, in order to hear the complete program, long programs are often played in three segments in WeChat, need to click separately, in this user experience as the product standard of the Internet era, "Villain Film Review" has maintained a certain rebellion.
After doing the show, Bomi's social media also slowed down the update, he was reluctant to reveal more of his private life, some offline activities sent him invitations, he without exception refused, in his life, the movie is the only one that can be shared.
"Now everyone is the first to fry the anchor red, what about your show, I think that way, I have vanity, everyone has vanity, so I set a rule first, simply I hide behind, so that I can really talk about the movie, instead of coming up first for twenty minutes, where did I go to play these two days, what feelings, this has nothing to do with the movie." 」 We came up to the movie information introduction, advantages and disadvantages, don't talk about so many useless. Bomi said.
When Cheng Yanliang first started doing podcasts, he searched for information about podcasts on Google, and he wanted to know to what extent foreign podcasts had developed, and did they chat with a few people like this in China? How are the best foreign language podcasts produced? Will the agency produce podcasts? He searched for some reports on this and found a few representative podcasts to listen to. He found that the podcasting industry in the United States has undergone a change from individual podcasts to institutional podcasts. In 2014, there were two great podcasts in the United States, one was "Serial" produced by Thi American Life, the other was "Startup" produced by Gimlet, one was a crime story, like an American drama with eight episodes a season, and the other was a radio reality show, documenting the entrepreneurial process of an American. These two shows made him feel that the original podcast could be operated in a way comparable to TV series and documentaries.
A month after the launch of "SuddenLy Left and Suddenly Right", two foreign company customers found Cheng Yanliang, hoping that he would help customize a podcast program for the enterprise, corporate podcasting is a very common practice in foreign enterprises, no one in China has tried, the two talked about the possibility of cooperation, and also recognized "Suddenly Left and Suddenly Right", Cheng Yanliang registered a company and made money by customizing podcasts for enterprises.
"China's broadcasting industry is a very backward industry, two hosts are there to chat, the audience likes them on the line, there are ads to vote for them, but their production ability is very weak." That's why when commercial companies want to do Chinese podcasts, they find it a very poor market. Now there may be a hundred programs similar to "Threesomes", but a normal market should have many different programs, if the institution does not come out to promote, the initial investment, it is difficult to achieve by ordinary people. Cheng Yanliang said. He has talked to some media agencies, the other party is not very interested, or simply can't understand what he wants to do, think a podcast, let a few young people chat is not enough?
Most podcasts are home-made, and the biggest annoyance is the recording environment and inviting guests. Most of Wanying's shows are recorded off-site, with everyone wearing headphones, speaking to a voice recorder, and editing the three audio tracks together. If the voice of the guest is too noisy, or if you forget to open the recording, you can only cut it out. Cheng Yanliang once recorded in a board game room, the young people next door shouted from time to time, the guests were very rushed, and once in a very quiet tea room, the sound of bulldozers rumbling was heard from time to time outside the window. Pomey usually recorded in their respective homes, and every time they chatted for three or four hours, the family members were very angry and thought they were too noisy.
Compared with text and video, podcasts are a more free medium of communication, which is why some public figures appear more relaxed and humane in podcast programs. In addition, podcasts are prone to a sense of closeness, when you listen to a person's voice for a long time, there will be a sense of intimacy, when the home culture, anti-social has become a popular gesture of the younger generation, the voice in the podcast, more like the figurative companionship in life. Listeners don't need to know what the anchor looks like, they don't need strong interaction on social media, and when the sound of liking comes, people's lives have a wonderful connection.
5 We are still far from true commercialization
On March 1, 2020, The Villain Review updated the short program titled "Comfort Numbness", in which Pomey supported another podcast program that was suddenly removed from the shelves, "Residual Value". "Surplus Value" was launched in 2019, the content is mostly pan-cultural discussions, compared with the previous interest-driven podcasts, "Surplus Value" has more obvious media attributes, will directly intervene in public issues.
Bomi said in the program that all the tip income of the current program will be transferred to the anchor of "Residual Value", and three days later, he was informed in the WeChat public account that due to platform restrictions, the tip will be returned to the audience. Before "Surplus Value" was taken down, Pomey was not a listener to the podcast, and the tip was only based on support for peers, and the mood swings were in the range of material injuries.
The anchor section chief of the podcast "Unemployed Nomad" also pays attention to the news of "Surplus Value", and he feels that there is an inevitable helplessness here.
"Unemployed Homeless" is a very self-contained podcast, they value the privacy of the podcast content, most of the programs, are to share the anchor's own experience and mood, even if involved in public issues, the choice of angle is very soft. The section chief believes that in 2019 Chinese podcasts have shown a tendency to media, "many podcasts are made by media people, and it is inevitable that they will have this attribute." This is something he has been avoiding on the show.
The anchor of "Unemployed Nomad" is in Moxingling, Hong Kong, pictured in November 2019.
Including the section chief, "Unemployed Homeless" currently has four anchors. The program was born in Hong Kong, during that time, the three founder anchors did not have full-time jobs, in the state of "unemployed vagrants", three of the current four anchors were colleagues in a Hong Kong media before, due to the inertia of the profession, everyone still wants to express something, "everyone sometimes drinks and chats together, I think some topics are very interesting", the section chief said that the other anchor of the program Zhenyu is a senior podcast listener, since 2005 began to pay attention to podcast content, "he has always had the idea of doing podcasts, Everyone quit their jobs and didn't have a job, and there was a lot of time." The section chief, who joined halfway through, returned to Beijing from Hong Kong a few years ago, took a break for more than half a year last year, and is now back to work. He said that several other anchors have now ended their identities as unemployed homeless people, but the "Unemployed Homeless" program will continue.
If only from the style of the program, it is difficult to detect their former media identity, the section chief said that it is not worried that there is a potential risk of too strong media attributes, but that the media should leave the media to do, the podcast should be more free, he is also worried that some personal experience in the program will cause misunderstandings among the listeners, before they talked about the topic of "abandonment", some listeners left a message saying that they got courage from the program and finally offered to resign. That made him worry about the uncontrollability of the podcast spread, but when it came to the uncontrollable encounters of Surplus Value, the section chief said that it could be understood as the glory of a podcast.
With "Surplus Value" as the same female anchor, the podcast "No Jet Lag Institute" of pan-cultural content shows another state, and the anchor KeKe said that when he first started doing podcasts, he only liked to listen, so he did not frame the scope and expression of the topic, which is also the reason why the topic of the program is broader and more free. However, after the increase in podcasts in Chinese last year, listeners began to compare the programs on the same topic horizontally, she felt that liking to listen was the only criterion, the broadcaster's knowledge background was different, the interests were different, and the most important thing was to express them in their own way.
Two beautiful anchors of "Institute without Jet Lag".
"No Time Difference Institute" was founded by Ke Ke and Ai Who, both of whom are financial practitioners who have worked together for a financial management consulting firm in New York, and on the way to and from work, listening to Chinese podcasts is a common pastime for both of them. The two also had a podcaster who was chasing after each other, and gradually found that the podcaster had some repetitive content, and at that time, the number of Chinese podcasts was not much, and the two began to decide to make one themselves.
A year later, Coco returned to China to work and make investments in the primary market. "No Time Difference Institute" also broke through a hundred episodes of the program, Keke found a brand to make a number of souvenirs around, and some listeners questioned them becoming commercial. Ke Ke said that in fact, these peripherals did not make money, but in the hundred period of this node, want to leave something. In the investment community, her podcast identity is confidential, but she will talk to other investors about the podcast industry. In recent years, some podcasts have received investment and become part of the content entrepreneurship, and she has met with people who invest in podcasts and talked about industry prospects, but she does not intend to let her podcasts intervene in capital, even if she has a relatively optimistic attitude towards this emerging content market.
In the face of changes in the industry, the section chief of "Unemployed Homeless" believes that Chinese podcasts are likely to usher in an explosive growth like other entrepreneurial fields, and then quickly make waves. KeKe has analyzed the business model of podcasts, as well as the production model of podcasts that have received investment, and she feels that there is still a long way to go from real commercialization, but because of this, many Chinese podcasts have maintained their independence and purity in content, which is also the reason why podcast listeners are increasing, at least at this stage, podcasts are undoubtedly a new way of life.
Beijing News reporter Tang Bo (Chen Lingling also contributed to this article)
The images are courtesy of the interviewer
Edited by Donnie Wu
Proofread by Zhao Lin