Lead & Lag Indicators and the Podcast Industry

There have been some good discussions on the Hotpod paid members forum looking at all of the channels for revenue generation available to podcasters. Over the past year or so live shows seem to have really become a very interesting new mode and expression of fan engagement that also serves as a healthy and robust means of generating revenue for many shows. A fellow member @mijustin provided some great food for thought on high- and low-impact advertising

To this outsider it seems that advertising via podcasts (when done right of course) could also highlight a third potential categorization: hyper-purchase intent. I would define this sort of advertising as that which targets those high-intent listeners with products or services that are both relatively novel and obviously within the semiosphere of the subject or topic of the podcast (episode) at hand, but not something that was directly searched for ahead of time. Case in point, these days I've taken a keen interest in several podcasts like 'Epicenter Bitcoin' and 'The Bitcoin Show' that discuss cryptocurrencies (e.g. bitcoin, ethereum). People curious about cryptocurrencies will find these shows. And when they do they will hear ads hyper-directed towards them about digital wallets to put any funds they purchase in like the jaxx wallet (jaxx.io) or digital currency escrow services like escrowmybits.com and others that they may have not have thought about before, but upon hearing will be (more) apt to check out and maybe consume.

Over and above the discussion of advertising though, I was reminded of terms that are popular with Q-HSE experts in the construction industry and how they may be applied and used by podcasters. Of course - but of course - I am talking about lead and lag indicators. Lag indicators, when used on infrastructure projects, are things like manhours without an accident, or simply the number of fatalities or injuries. They are retrospective metrics that are important yesterday. Their assumed importance for tomorrow's decision making cannot be understated either, however, their actual predictive value is quite low. Thus if decision making is made based largely on such lag indicators things can get obfuscated pretty quickly. For example, after someone dies on a project there is usually a push to highlight every potential hazard on-site, so every single near-miss (incident) is recorded. As a result, from one day to the next you go from what looked like a relatively safe site to a death trap without any clarity on where "the real" trouble areas are. Rankings, CPM-rates and clarity on other podcast metrics that I and most others have been calling for fall into the lagging indicator category. Since these measurements are still in the process of being standardized as they relate to the audio on-demand sector, I think most of us have felt it sufficient to chase the rabbit down the fly trap so to speak as it relates to forecasting how we think things will settle for these indicators.

But don't we already know how things will turn out if we only focus on lag indicators? A few powers will settle (if they haven't settled already) on standardized metrics and we will have top-50 or top-100 list of shows that will take a large portion of the pie. The flip side of lag indicators are what's called 'lead indicators' or positive performance indicators. In construction these indicators manifest themselves in things like educations and trainings. Interestingly enough they also seem to have already appeared in podcasting in the form of live shows. A more developed - but still directly related - form is the traveling tour version of these live shows. Direct support via Patreon campaigns or simple fan to producer payments using bitcoin/ethereum are additional examples of lead indicators that are simply unaccounted for in traditional lag indicators. What is incredibly interesting is that lead indicators in podcasting, in addition to being great signals of a shows continued future success based on direct audience support, is that they clearly demonstrate a direct relation with bottom line growth.

Heading forward it would behoove those involved with producing on-demand audio to develop and standardize more leading indicators, sharing best practices along the way. This way content creators and owners of content can better understand that their active role is integral to the success of their work - their role simply doesn't stop after producing a show - while pulling on the availability of useful lag indicators to help keep everyone honest and on their toes while innovating forward, without being beholden to such metrics as the ultimate measure of what defines a shows success and profit or failure.

Essential Albums

It's been awhile. Too long since i felt this sick. Sick of the daily grind. That is to say; that which I felt lacking from this existence of ours: boss suede.

A few bands evoke such grown-up dapperness: The Black Keys (selections), Jay-Z (most, but not every song), Quasimoto, 빈지노 and a few others... but I digress. The Arctic Monkey's new album AM is sickly legit listening for what those living in this stop-gap between Summer and Autumn (or Winter to Spring for the mates down South of the equator) need and should want. That boulavard fresh swagger inducing beat shaken - not stirred - with speed-ball tempo and manic-depressive melodies; no more words can suffice to describe this simply devine concoction of pure distilled emotion of the enlightened human-spirit.

Seemingly sampling from the Gods of rock (QOTSA) to perennial R&B makers of mass taste like Usher and new-gen cultural fusionists like Drake (among others - forgive the short-term memory ganj influenced state of this writer) The Arctic Monkeys have managed to perfectly enframe not only the essence, but the best of what at least the American-spirit (and unfortunately without an oppurtunity to experience the Euro music world as it is by others closer in geographical proximity I personally would venture to include that part of the world's spirit) has to offer at this particular juncture in time. And that is to say; this album be of the kind that deserves a place above the hearth's mantle of any household to be put on display for suceeding generations as that which is worthy of admiration and also as what should serve as a bearing towards - or rather upon the path of - further emotional and human refinement.

One for the Road; Why'd you Only Call me When You're High; I Wanna be Yours are this particular writer's favorite tracks off of the current album. More should be said - more must be said - about each different song's unique emotion invoking tenor and character, but alas time is limited for such musings at this moment. However, sometimes brevity is what is required when something so necessary prefaces speaking of that which must be essentially experienced. So go forth and feel my good Sirs and Madams!

Glittering Gold Glints of Fall

Walking down this imperial boulevard, ears wrapped dapperly in supple leather melodics, the crisp early winter winds flutter the last yellow glint of fall overhead.  Squinting, I cock my head to one side while looking up in awe at man's engineering might, erect in it's full glory, hard off the beauty of the heavens outstretched above.  Exuding confidence in quantities normally reserved for those many years my senior, I'm groovin' in the path of the flickering rays of light laid down ahead of me.  But then, as I observe the passing glances of souls heading away forever, I become filled with an indescribable melancholy.  Why can't we all simply chill out just a little; slow down this speed at which we live.  From infinity, we have been brought together, but only for the most fleeting of instants, whence forth we embark upon trajectories exactly the same in their polar oppositeness creating the greatest distance away from fate; all but extinguishing it.  We appreciate not, it seems... The depthless profundity and potential of fate.  A fate that is constantly and forever enveloping and piercing our individual and collective orbits.  We live not, it seems... We are simply racing ahead, mechanically in a single direction every waking moment of our existence; an existence that loses more and more meaning the more we seek to quicken the pace of our pursuit of progress.    Fate for progress; progress over fate.  Sureness as security; no fears and no cares.... anymore.   But where the danger lies, so too does the saving force.  So, what then, is dangerous anymore?  Shall we feign an attempt at pointing it out? Yes! 

살아 있는 유리

겨울이 다 되어버렸다. 하지만 이 살아 있는 유리 안에서 가을의 색다른 영혼이 보장되어 있다.

Summa Summer

A waft of stale, summer tinged air sails around my standing figure as the subway abruptly pulls into Sangsu station. My ears are enveloped in supple cow skin, mellow melodics invade my nervous system and guide me through the open safety gate into my seat. Before I sit i'm jilted to my right as the cars lurch forward. I look around at the other 30 or some other folks who managed to catch their last chance home; yawns escape the tired expression of one forlorn lovers disappointed lips, a group of young girls whose dreams haven't been raped by their future team captains are chattering esoteric gossips about some handsome boy who...

Dead November

Today marks the death of November. Those reds, golds, oranges and chinese yellows flutter no more. Under ones foot, walking by oblivious they lie. Tears run out their vains till they breath their last; left as brown castes of their former glory. All that is left is the heartless trampling. Oblittering all memory of their beauty is how we will survive these impending months of colorlessness... Foolish thoughts all ye philistines bear. You may drudge through in the grayness of ye mire buy not I...not I this time. For I have saved life in my portable heart. When your death comes round but a flick flick of my thumb on it's living glass and saved am I. That's right, this winter will be one of life; one of color; one of perpetual beauty.