I subscribe to a lot of podcast feeds, but don’t listen to that many. And I’m definitely pretty selective about which ones I support financially.
One of those is Changelog++ and including support from very early on in its existence. Adam and Jerod had a broad potpourri of feeds covering a wide range of topics and the Changelog News newsletter is entertaining.
Had.
So it is with a raised eyebrow that I note the recent announcement that Adam and Jerod are shutting down their production of secondary pods such as Practical AI, Ship It!, Go Time, etc. Apparently all of them will live on in some new form. Oddly, the core Changelog podcasts have become less attractive (personality driven, big time commitment), while the standout, must listen for me is Practical AI (fortyish minutes typically, technical area of recent interest).
The announcement feels pretty transparent about the reasons why. Even so I’m going to speculate on some of the drivers.
A significant factor is “pivoting to YouTube”, which I’ve seen happen on a few other podcasts I follow. Instead of pods being strictly audio, and closer to radio, the core is a YouTube channel with the audio episodes in RSS secondary. Yet another case of it’s where the audience, attention, and money seems to be, to my chagrin.
C. f. How YouTube Ate Podcasting
Another aspect is that media production is a grind. Editing is time consuming and not energizing from what I’ve heard from folks in the trenches. I’m sure the Changelog team was running out of gas doing production for others, on top of their shows, on top of their family commitments. Adding to the dilemma are the effects of outsourced production services and the incoming impact of AI on production.
Lastly, the ability to leverage network effects allows for some separation without abandonment, a.k.a. the Changelog Podcast Universe
CPU.fm (Changelog Podcast Universe) is our new home for spin-offs and collaborations. It’s a burgeoning network of developer pods with a big vision, but we’re just getting started.
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More friends: Through CPU.fm, we’ll define an index of developer pods worth your attention. Expect cross-posting and collaboration with our extended pod friends network.
Emphasis mine on index. I wouldn’t be surprised if that also meant some whizbang podcast search, taking advantage of the Changelog archives, with a heavy slather of AI all over.
Obviously as a paying customer I’ll be interested to see how things work out and if Changelog++ patrons get any kind of enticement for continuing support. Personally, I’m not really interested in dishing out strictly for core Changelog content, especially if all the upside is on YouTube, but we’ll see. In any event, I wish the guys the best.