James Cridland: Podcasting in 2019 — What You Need to Know
James Cridland lives in Australia, but flies all around the world to speak on the current and future state of podcasting. He shares his latest insights on episode eight of Podcasting Step by Step. Photo by Xenica Ayling.
James Cridland, host of the daily podcast Podnews, has been an industry expert in both radio and podcasting for years. A veteran of Virgin Radio and the BBC, James is a self-described radio futurologist, a consultant, speaker, and writer, and I invited him onto Podcasting Step by Step to talk about the state of podcasting in 2019; the potential growth of the industry and opportunities for indie podcasters; and how he got into podcasting himself.
Listen to episode 8 of Podcasting Step by Step to hear all of James’ podcast insights. You’ll find highlights below, and can subscribe to Podcasting Step by Step for free.
Useful podcast tools
James uses his podcast and newsletter to tinker around and find what’s working and what’s not in the world of podcasting. He’s created a handy podcast badge generator to include on your website, which will automatically include the logos for Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
How to create podcast badges
Go to Podnews.net and search for your podcast in the search bar. Hopefully, your podcast comes up in the results.
Click on your podcast.
Scroll down to where it says, “Use our link generator” and click on that. This will take you to a page where you can grab the code to embed on your website. I use the code on my own Squarespace website, so you can see the example above.
How to share episode-specific ‘magic links’
James also created a tool to share specific podcast episodes with friends and fans of shows. When someone clicks on the ‘magic link’ you send, the episode will come up on Apple Podcasts (on iPhone), Google Podcasts (on Android), or a web player if they are on their computer.
Search for your podcast on Podnews
Click on your show then scroll down and click on ‘link direct to an episode,’ choosing whichever episode you want to share.
On the podcast, James talks about:
his proudest moment in radio so far;
what got him into podcasting and the first shows he ever listened to;
what motivated him to start his podcast and newsletter Podnews;
the findings in Edison Research’s annual Podcast Consumer report, which this year saw the biggest jump in year-over-year podcast listening;
advice on how to grow your podcast audience (it’s not posting your latest episode to podcast forums);
the latest Luminary debacle;
the future of podcast advertising;
what’s in his travel podcast kit;
and more.