Nobody Knows Anything

🔑 The Unlock

Stop Waiting to Be Picked. Build Your Own Momentum.

So if great work isn’t enough…what actually moves the needle?

• Find Your Smallest Meaningful Audience – Forget mass appeal. Find what Kevin Kelly calls 1,000 true fans who actually care. They will do an enormous amount of heavy lifting, marketing for you.

• Treat Sharing Your Work & Publishing Like a Muscle, Not a Lottery – Creators often fail because they take one big swing and hope for a home run. Swing constantly. Adjust the scope of your work if needed, or carve it up an deliver it in chunks. More at-bats = more chances to connect.

• Make It Easier for People to Find You – Great work with broken distribution is invisible. Get in front of the right people, repeatedly, in packaging that suits them, and in an environment and meets them where they are.

• Leverage Momentum – When your work sparks interest, even from an unexpected area, lean into it. Your art resonates with elementary school educators? Explore that, learn more, and be aware that having momentum in any area is an asset. Be open to letting it lead you to new places. You may just end up in a less crowded place, where you’re the one-of-a-kind.

📌 Take Action: This week, shift your thinking from “How do I make my work better?” to “How do I make more of the right people care about my work?”

💡 Creative Edge

Leadership as a Marketing Strategy

Old playbook: Yell louder. Buy more ads. Chase and steal attention.
New playbook: Lead a tribe. Create connection. Build belonging.

The biggest brands, creators, and platforms aren’t just selling—they’re leading. They don’t fight for attention; they earn loyalty by giving people a place to belong.

• Serve the Few, Not the Masses – A small, passionate audience beats a million indifferent ones.

• Connect, Don’t Just Broadcast – People don’t just want products—they want to be part of something.

• Make Them the Hero – The best brands don’t talk at their audience; they empower them, and make it easy for them to be the star, or the hero of their own personal story.

📌 Try This: Instead of asking, “How do I get more people to notice me?” ask, “How do I create a space where they connect with each other?”

📡 Industry Pulse

• The 3 Most Important Stats About News Podcast Consumers – News is the second most popular podcast genre, attracting 31% of podcast listeners monthly. The average news podcast listener is 47 years old—two decades younger than the audiences of cable news networks like MSNBC (70), FOX News (69), and CNN (67). This shift signals a major generational divide in news consumption, with podcasts becoming the go-to source for younger, engaged audiences seeking both daily updates and long-form analysis. Read More

• Spotify Cracks Down on Pirated Premium Access – Recent enforcement actions by Spotify have disrupted unauthorized apps providing free access to Premium features, affecting users relying on these pirated services. Read More

• Podcasting’s Biggest Brands Offer Free Masterclasses – Eight hours of marketing insights from NPR, iHeart, and SXM Media. Read more

• YouTube + Podcasting = The Future? – The lines between podcasting and YouTube are blurring. Video-first strategies are becoming essential. Read more

• Four Ways Audience Surveys Unlock Growth – Smart creators use surveys to refine content, target the right audience, and measure brand impact—turning insights into stronger engagement and revenue. Read more

• YouTube Music Surges to 125M Paid Subscribers – Adding 2M subscribers per month, closing the gap with Spotify and Apple Music. Read more

• Notorious B.I.G’s Estate Nears $100M Catalog Sale – Primary Wave is finalizing a deal for Biggie’s catalog, highlighting the ongoing demand for legacy music rights. Read more

• Spotify’s Video Podcast Pivot Is Costing Creators – Early data from the Spotify Partner Program (SPP) shows that some podcasters are losing revenue by opting into video podcasting. One creator saw a 53% drop in ad earnings, with video monetization failing to make up for the loss. The shift from downloads to streams in Spotify’s model is limiting reach and ad potential. Read more

📈 By The Numbers

What it says: Podcast Listening by location, Q4 2024

What it means: Podcasting’s lag in the car continues to be a hardware problem, not a software problem. When the day comes that you car radio has five big present buttons that play your favorite daily news/sports/comedy/etc podcast without even looking, that gap will shrink.

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• Findaway Voices by Spotify - Create AI audiobooks and publish to Spotify

• Copilot - Microsoft’s AI assistant, now available via MacOS

• Ideogram 2a - Fast image generation AI, optimized for graphics and text

• GPT 4.5 - OpenAI’s latest model with advanced emotional intelligence

• Pika 2.2 - Upgraded video AI with transition and transformation capabilities

💼 Open Opportunities 

In Podcasting:

• Systems Administrator at SoundStack

• Executive Producer, Twin Cities at City Cast

• Executive Producer, City Cast Seattle

• Principal Product Manager-Technical, Compliance, PubTech Ad Request - Amazon

• Staff Accountant at Backyard Ventures

In Music:

• Believe - Head Of International Artist Services (US, EU)

• F-THAT - Designer & Animator (UK)

• Burwood Media – Production Coordinator/Production Manager (US)

• Kobalt – Manager, Brand & Creative (US)

• Epitaph Records – Associate Art Director (US)

📌 Know someone looking? Forward this their way!

⚡ Final Note

You’ve got an idea. A message. A story worth telling. The only thing standing between you and your own podcast? Getting started.

That’s why I put together The 7-Day Podcast Challenge—a simple, step-by-step guide to getting your podcast live in a week. No fluff, no wasted motion. Just a clear path from idea to launch.

📥 Grab your free copy here.

And thank you for spending time with Red Threads this week. I’m glad you’re here.

~ Jaime

📌 If this issue sparked something for you, forward it to a friend.