I did enjoy this episode very much. It was very interesting to hear Marco Arment’s view on podcasting, app development and what not. It helps and it is interesting to learn about his take on things. I have my own opinion on Overcast, but it still is interesting to hear Marco Arment’s point of view, no matter if I share it or not. It was a nice conversation.
MPU’s strength is that it is a personal podcast that is enjoyable to listen to and interesting most of the time. All those conversations are always honest and based on personal experience. Others may have different experiences and different opinions. That is just normal. There are developers that are quite vocal and open on Podcasts (sometimes they are podcasters themselves) and other developers do not care to be on Podcasts (which also may be one of the reasons why they are not “featured”). I never expect an app to be the “best” because it is a topic in the show. And I never had the impression that something that has been said on the show was not a honest conversation based on personal experiences. Those conversations are a good starting point for me to look into things (or not). And that is all I want them to be.
I am very happy that it is exactly like that. There is enough “The 10 best things of X” stuff on YouTube and at other places that is completely useless for me. The strength of podcasting to me is this laid-back approach without time pressure and on a personal level. That is why I am listening to podcasts and why I have been a listener since episode 1.
Well, none of this is true at all. MPU has never paid a guest or been paid by a guest. We pay our bills through ads and membership. It’s hurtful that you think so little of us.
And you typically go out of your way to say things like “previous sponsor” or something like that when talking favorably about any software/person/etc. that’s given you money in the past.
I don’t get all the whining by all of these “power users”. If you don’t like the app, the dev, or the direction the app is moving, here’s an idea…stop using it and move to something’s else that better suits you. To level accusations that you have no proof of because a couple of guys are friends is not a good look. I don’t always agree with all of podcasters I listen to, but I respect their opinions about the things I’m interested in. This show (and the others on Relay) and this forum provide so much value to us, why are we personally attacking the character of hosts and guest? Because we don’t like some features of their new app update, c’mon now!
Most of the show discussed changes in the podcast industry and how it is easy to write a podcast app because not much has changed. The rest discussed the benefits of rewriting the app in Swift vs. the pain in the a** that it was before.
This was not a feature dog and pony show, so the claim is pretty silly.
Separately, someone commented that it degrades the show when you invite podcast friends to be on it. In defense of Stephen and David, with 760 shows, you probably make friends. It would probably be harder to find people you don’t know.
Agree. A different way to think about it would be that we get the benefit of Stephen & David’s friend network to get guests that we otherwise wouldn’t get.
While true, as many are podcasters, and Relay podcasters, you get a bit of an echo chamber effect.
Some of my favorite episodes are where they get out of their comfort zones and invite guests from outside this sphere. Three that come to mind were a jazz musician and someone from Billy Joel’s band and a astrophotographer, all Mac ‘Power’ users, all having a different, and to me interesting, way of using Apple technology.
I thought when David ended his law practice and went full time at this he’d have more time to source such guests. Surely there are folks outside the podcasting/productivity sphere using Apple gear in creative and interesting ways.
One thing I’ve found, as somebody who used to run a podcast trying to get those exact type of people rather than all the “superstar” guests, is that a lot of them either don’t have the equipment to do a decent job of it, or they don’t want to be guests on podcasts.
You almost need somebody with a unique spin that’s interested in being a guest, but not so interested that they’ve already gone out and found places to be a guest and/or started their own podcast.
We love those, too! But it’s very hard to find someone doing interesting things who can/wants to be on a podcast, and is good on a show. We do a lot of combing through folks to make those the best episodes we can.
I can imagine it is a big challenge to secure the right sort of guest on a podcast.
I was interested that @ismh86 said MPU has never paid for a guest. I honestly thought that paying for guests would have been standard in the podcast industry (not that I have any experience or knowledge). Just seems that if you are asking for a couple of hours of someone’s time, essentially so you can make money, that they would be compensated. Perhaps that is something to consider in the future?
Money changing hands is not common in the podcast industry (except for advertising, of course) but if someone gets paid, it’s typically the host, not the guest.
I do not see why. This podcast is pretty transparent when it comes to sponsorship and the like. But it is good to know that others are not so above board.
Not disclosing that the guest has paid for the appearance on the show would be an instant unsubscribe for me. At that point it is basically an infomercial.
Again, as someone who has had a podcast and interviewed some pretty significant people within a particular niche, I can confirm that guests are typically not paid.
That said, that doesn’t mean the guests don’t get anything out of it. Typically the more famous guests will go on a podcast in the same way that most of them would go on, for example, an evening news segment as a guest expert if they were invited. It is marketing and PR.
The accepted quid pro quo is that if the guest has a website, social media, some current product to sell, etc. that they will have a short period of time to mention it at the end.
Thank you for the informed comments regarding payment of guests (or not as the case seems to be).
I do wonder if this is something that should be reconsidered. I understand the quid pro quo where content creators, or app developers or similar can gain publicity through appearances, but perhaps for a show like MPU offering a small payment to guests would open up a new source of interesting episodes. We could learn about the power use of Apple tech in corporate life, by sports people, by medics, by students and so on. I appreciate that there have been some guests like this in past, but I imagine many more who could contribute but at the moment probably don’t see any benefit.
