Don’t Put All Your Eggs in THEIR Basket

A week ago yesterday I came back from Los Angeles where I was a speaker at the Outlier Podcast Festival.  Over the course of the event one of the speakers was talking about controlling your RSS feed.  He was essentially saying that as long as you have your podcast on your website, even if it got taken down from other platforms and/or your (podcasting) hosting service went out of business, there would still be someplace you could always count on for people to go listen to your show.

And that’s an example for this week’s blog of why you shouldn’t “bet it all on red.”

There are so many apps, so many platforms, so much social media out there these days that there’s no reason you should be hedging everything you do on just one place for it all to reside.

Your music is for sale on iTunes.  That’s great.  But only there?  I hope not.

You list all of your upcoming performances on ReverbNation.  But only there?  I hope not.

You’ve got a lot of subscribers on your YouTube channel.  But that’s the only place people can watch your videos?  I hope not.

On Episode 274 and Episode 58 of “Now Hear This Entertainment” you heard Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player Aubryn (pictured above) talk about her weekly webconcert series that she has been hosting for more than six years.  If you follow her you know that she recently reported that ConcertWindow.com is shutting down.  That’s too bad – both for them and for indie artists who’ve been performing online thanks to their website.

However, to her credit, Aubryn never put all her eggs in the ConcertWindow basket, so the show will go on.  (She also streams it live every Wednesday night on Periscope, YouTube, and Facebook.)

In the podcasting world the news this week is that Podcoin is also shutting down.  While the app seemed like it gained a lot of momentum – a lot of users/listeners – it also wasn’t the only game in town.  So, as happy as I was that “Now Hear This Entertainment” was available on there, I rest easy knowing that the show is also available on countless other apps.

I once wrote a blog on this site (and I believe I might’ve even mentioned this in one of my “Bruce’s Bonus Books”), urging people (musicians) not to put all their eggs in the Facebook basket.  Heck, a few more voices are starting to say that nowadays for reasons related to the perceived decline in Facebook’s popularity and thus usage.

The bottom line here, folks, is that you have to leverage the platforms – plural – that are going to get you the most mileage.  There’s the expression “you can’t be all things to all people,” and in the context of the above, no, you can’t be everywhere, on all platforms.  However, to limit yourself to just one could come with dire consequences.

Own your virtual real estate.  Be diverse.  Get seen.

Talk about this blog with other readers, past NHTE guests, and listeners of that podcast in our Facebook group!