After a week of jury duty, I’m back in the blogging seat. It was an interesting experience, but it brought several hectic days of playing catch up. Now where was I?
In my last post, I talked about the importance of carefully choosing which format was best for your podcast–audio or video–rather than submitting to any hype or false assumptions. Now I’d like to take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each format.
Advantages of Audio
1. Audio is a background media. Video is a foreground media.
I borrowed that statement from a comment made by Karin Høgh on my last post. In other words, it’s much easier for people to consume audio on the go or during “down time”. You can listen to a podcast while mowing the lawn. You can’t watch a video podcast while mowing.
2. Audio generally takes less production time
This is not a hard fast rule, but in general an audio podcast will take less time to produce than a video podcast. A half-hour show could be done in a few hours while a five-minute video clip could take all day.
3. Audio requires less bandwidth
Audio produces smaller files than video. Smaller files don’t require as much data transfer to send from your web site to your audience. Bandwidth is one of the primary costs of podcasting.
4. Audio podcasts can contain more info
Typically, podcasts consumers are willing to consume much longer audio content at a time. A listener might consume a half-hour podcast at once, whereas they usually would only sit through video clips that are less than five minutes. This allows you to convey more information at one time.
5. Audio formats and compression are easier to understand and use
If you have ever used Quicktime to export a video, you’ve probably noticed that it can be hard to choose just the right video compression settings and codec. Audio compression is usually much easier.
The MP3 audio format is universal. You can depend on the vast majority of your audience being able to consume it. Choosing a video format is trickier. You may find you need to support multiple formats such as MP4 and WMV in order for most people to be able to consume your media.
Advantages of Video
1. The visual aspect allows for a more powerful message
Having audio *and* visual elements at your disposal you can convey a more powerful message. The impression is stronger and can last longer. This is very useful when it comes to branding.
2. Some advertisers prefer video
This is related to the last point. You might find it easier to attract advertisers when you offer the opportunity for visual advertising.
3. Video can be viral
Most the examples of viral multimedia content that you hear about are video clips (e.g. OK Go, Coke and Mentos, etc.) There’s something about sharing short video clips that’s very appealing to people. You just don’t see that happening with audio.
Other Considerations and Points
- Do you really need a “talking head” to convey your message? You don’t have to watch many video podcasts to realize we have too many pointless “talking heads”.
- Is there a compelling reason to have the visuals? Rocketboom just wouldn’t be the same without the visual aspect (and I’m not talking about Joanne ;) ).
- If you’re podcasting tutorials, visuals could be very useful for clearly teaching concepts. Screencasting (recording your actions on a computer) is a great example of this.
- Who says you can’t use both audio and video. There’s no rule against that.
Both video and audio have their place. When choosing a format, don’t submit to hype. Think through your goals, define your target audience and decide what is best for you and them.
What did I miss? Please share your thoughts or feel free to disagree in the comments.
January 25th, 2007 at 12:51 am
Jason, great post as usual. And let’s be honest, you were talking about Joanne (and Amanda before her) heh ;)
I particularly like your point about using audio and video. At Podcast Spot you can upload a video and it will automatically be converted to a bunch of video formats. You can also check a box to have it converted to audio as well.
To see this in action, check out Neofight at http://neofight.podcastspot.com. It works well for them because you don’t always need the video, but at the same time, it’s more than a talking head so the video IS valuable.
As always, it depends on the podcast. I think there’s room for both audio and video though!
January 25th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Excellent tips, Jason. Personally, I don’t think anyone should do “talking head” except for Zefrank!
July 10th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
In planning my music podcast for The Rock and Roll Report I see audio as the primary weekly format with a video podcast as perhaps a monthly special highlighting bands or their videos. I intend to have one compliment the other but for music, IMHO audio is still the way to go, especially where budget (whether it be my own or a band’s) is lacking.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Great tips. I am thinking about doing podcasts as I’m just going to be talking, and am not very photogenic so I think I will definitely go the audio route.