Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hello, everybody. Hello. Hello, everyone. Let's see. I'm going to have to figure out if I'm going to be seeing you guys down in the chat there. Hi, I'm Elsie Escobar, creator success and community manager here at Captivate. And I'm joined today by my co-host and VP of podcaster relations at Captivate and Dax Rob Wal. Yay. >> Hello, Elsie. Hello, everyone. >> Hello. Hello. Yes. Yes. And we do have Ben is going to be in the chat. So, he's going to be helping us out a little bit here as we kind of look look around and do all of these things. And so, here's what I want. Before we continue on and while we're waiting for folks to come on and all of the stuff, I want you to write in the chat if you would like to say hey. Of course, say hello in there and let us know where you're from. But also, I want to know if you are currently recording video for Oh my gosh, Rob, you are typing and I can hear you. Sorry, >> you can't do that. You can mute yourself though. That would be okay. You could type and mute. Okay. Are you currently recording video for your podcast? If you are currently recording video for your podcast, type a Y for yes or an N for no or m M H if you're, you know, not into doing that while we wait a little bit and sort of catch up to see what's going on. So, let us know. Let us know in the chat. Now today we are doing a deep dive into Apple podcasts video and how we have built this integration directly into Captivate to make your video workflow seamless which is what we all want. Now if you probably heard us using the term HLS quite a bit. So HLS stands for HTTPS live streaming. It's a video delivery method originally developed by Apple and today it's widely used to stream video online. Now, it's not a new thing. It's actually been around since 2009, but it's now being rolled out to support video on Apple Podcasts, which is why everyone's talking about it right now. We're going to show you what that looks like inside of Captivate, walk you through like a live upload, and explain how HLS handles distribution so that you don't have to. Okay, so again, Ben is backstage today. He's going to be handling the chat for us today. And we have other, I'm sure, awesome Captivate team members in the chat if they want to say hey. So that they're can you're welcome for you to to communicate with them if they show up there. We have a lot to show you. So we'll do a demo first and then we'll move into some questions that we have already received. Now Rob, you've seen a lot of big updates in the industry over the years. Where does this one rank for you? >> Middle of the I mean the fact is Apple has always supported video. So this is just a different way to get video out there through Apple. So I mean iTunes going back to 2005 uh video has been available in in iTunes. So this if it was the first time video was being available to Apple Podcasts or iTunes, it would be much bigger. This is just a different way of doing it. So um that's why I can't give it, you know, it's not huge. Uh not not a top tier item. It's >> not a top tier item for him, but I know we do have a lot of people down there that are very excited about Look at this. Look at this. Listen, >> this isn't like iOS 8 when the Apple podcast app became native and people are like, "What is this purple app and how come I can't delete it?" Um, >> type that was the biggest item. >> Oh my goodness. Look at this. So, we have a lot of like woohoo. I I love to see so many great folks in the chat over there from all all kinds of our friends. All kinds of folks. Hello. Hello, everybody. So great to see you. Yay! Carrie's here. Okay. And look, Mr. Colligan is here. Dave Jackson, Harry Duran, Robert, Tammy, Mor to Wonder, I am Seattle 7759. So, it's so good to see you all. So, now, okay, so I'm not going to waste time here saying hello to all the people in the chat, but we are going to walk do a little bit of a walkthrough. So, let's show everyone how to get the API situation settled with uh Captivate. So, we're you're going to uh pause here for a moment while I do start to share my screen so I can show you as to all the things that are going on. Give me one moment. All right. Okay. So, we are going to we're here like literally at you guys know this website I'm sure Apple podcast for creators. It's like one of the easiest ways for you to sign into Apple Podcast Connect and you can sign into your account over on the top right hand side to get into Apple Podcast Connect. I'm already signed in here so that you guys are able to see this. So, this is podcastconnect.apple.com. Usually, um, you don't exactly come into the screen when you lock in log in here, but there's like a lot of stuff in here that I don't want you to see about my personal account. Usually, you end up in this tab that says podcasts on it, but where I am right now is in the account tab. So, you have to make sure you go into the account tab. When you go to the account tab, there are other three tabs on that left hand side and one of them is keys. So you go into that section and you tap on that and this is what you see. Now in order to generate your API key, as you can see, there's literally just one button that you need to tap in here. if you haven't generated one yet. If you have generated, there will be a list of your previous keys. So, after you generate this key and you come back, you'll see the key and that's where you can get the key ID. >> Okay. So, let's say what Rob mentioned to me is that because there's a lot of folks that have oh my that have a lot of um separate podcasts or other types of podcasts that you might have into your Apple Podcast Connect account. One thing that you can name this is maybe name this as your um what do you call it? Name it as your podcast. So then if it let's say we're doing this and it's Elsie's, you know, Elsie's new fancy podcast. Okay, that's I was I want to name that that. And then once you name it so that you it's very recognizable for you here. You go ahead and download that key. Now, as you can see, it says it that you can only download it one time. So, you need to be ready to make sure that you put that download into somewhere that you can keep for yourself and you know where you put it. So, you have to be very like clear about that. Now, when you also download the key, you're going to see what is it called again, Rob? The um the uh API key ID, is that what? Yes, that's what it's called. And so, you'll also have that and you'll have you'll be able to copy that as in like just highlight, copy, and paste because you'll see where we're going to go with that next. Okay, so that's the first part of this whole thing here. Oh, and I forgot to say to you guys this. We are going to be um answering some questions after we finish this walk through. We'll deal with some questions first and then go see what's going on with the rest of the questions as we move um as we move forward. Okay. So, let's say so you already I've already walked you through to the API. You've got the API downloaded. You've named the API. you'll have your API um ID and or you can also have your podcast uh connect account open next to you so that you're able to reference back and forth. So now let's go ahead and go into your um Captivate account and we're going to go here. So first of all, let's go into the dashboard because this is kind of how you would log in. You're going to log into your Captivate dashboard. This is what you're gonna see, right? It's your podcast or podcasts. And what you have to go where you have to go next is you have to go on the top right hand side, which is your little profile icon situation in there, and you tap on that little guy, and then you go into your account, my account. You tap onto that. On that left hand side, underneath my account, there's a list of all kinds of integrations. So, you're going to go over to the Apple integration, which has a little Apple on it, and you tap onto that. Then you'll see here that it says all of the stuff, right? So, Apple integration, setting up your account on Apple Podcast, and there is a really lovely guide already linked in here if you have any questions that h is already there for you. that is something that you can have as a reference that you're able to like read step by step especially if you haven't understood anything. Um that is a great guide that's already in there. You already have your Apple key ID which you just got and then this is where you upload that API key that you just downloaded. So you upload it very easily here. I think we've all done this sort of um workflow with any of this uh anytime that you are integrating things. Um so you that's basically the first step, but you have to do that before you start to do anything else. So we've done all of this. Let's go ahead and go back to my podcasts. So now that you've integrated your API key, I'm just going to go ahead and upload a little video. So very easy. same way that you would actually upload anything else on Captivate. Really super super simple. So, I'm just going to go over here and I'm going to grab a uh video file and I'm just going to drop it in here. And it's uploading that little video. By the way, it's just like it's literally 90 seconds. It's a little baby 90second video. So, that's why it went so fast. Um, so you can see that here's a little 90-second video um, of me there and it's you're going to already see the preview and you're welcome to check it out to see how it all looks out in there. And then we have this lovely little other choice where that it says, you know, need different RSS audio. And so if you don't upload an RSS like an audio specifically audio for your video, right, that maybe you would like to edit specifically for the audio experience, you don't have to click this. You don't have to do that if you want. Because if you don't do that, it's just going to pull the audio and the video from the video that you got here and that's what's going to go out into all the different places. But if you do want to have a v an audio specific that goes out into all of the rest of the podcast apps that do not support video, this is a really great place for you to do it. So you can click that in there. Go ahead, Rob. This is where a lot of people who are audio first and are doing heavy editing, taking out the ums, the uh the you know, cleaning up, doing all the cleanup on the audio, you're you're more than likely still going to want to have that separate audio file. Um you are not going to be able to edit as deeply with video as you can with audio to have, you know, if you take out every um uh you know, your video is going to look really choppy. Um, so if you are one that has always been heavy on the editing on the audio side and you want to continue to have that version available via RSS, this is where you would upload that secondary video. Um, especially if you also want to have a different intro, the audio, sorry, especially if you want to have a different uh intro and outro for your audio file versus your video. >> So that that's where this comes in. heavy editors and slightly different uh intro outro. >> And one thing that it's a little bit different here too that has been added so that um you guys can um check this out on your own here is that there are there is an audio library which is already available through your Captivate account if you do have a Captivate account. But now there's going to be a video library as well. So, you're able to, let's say you have been batch producing your shows and you want to have all those videos already up there um for you and then just slowly start to publish them or choose the however you want to work that. You can absolutely do that now and have a little video uh library in there and a little audio library as well. So, you don't have to do it all at once the way that I'm showing you here. And um you're when you see here in terms of the audio file that you could upload there when you want to replace or you need a different RSS feed file, you're going to be able to choose um the how to replace the audio here. So you're able to do all of those things while you're um publishing it. Um and then everything else goes exactly like you are used to. So, let's say we're going to title we're going to title this video really quickly. And we have we're going to put this here description. And um then you go ahead and you do what you've always done and you go ahead and you publish your podcast. And there it is. It's going to be going live. And yay. That's it. So, it's pretty simple. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and show you what it looks like. Oh, and where did Rob go? >> I'm still here. >> No, but I don't see you on the screen. You disappeared. You disappeared on me. And I don't know why you're not here. Okay, so I'm going to show you this. Here we go. So, this is um what it looks like. This is the same podcast. So, you're able to see what your video is going to look like on Apple Podcasts. And when you look at the podcast itself right at the bottom, you see that there's a tiny little video down there that just shows you that you have that this podcast has video in it. And we're going to go ahead and tap on that. And you see the not the latest episode that I just up uploaded here, but this is Danny's la the last episode that he had in there. And you can just see it playing right from the top there. I think that you can't hear that because I can't hear that either, but that's okay. Um, and you can turn the video off if you want to not see the video. And you can turn the video on and have it come back up here if you want to do that. So, it's super nice to be able to have that video go straight inside of the Apple Podcasts app. Now, what was really interesting when I was even prepping for this, I I kept forgetting one of the first things that I did while Rob and I were kind of planning all of this stuff, I was like, how come? Like, the first place I went to was Apple Podcasts on the computer cuz I wanted to see it there, but it's not available as of now >> on the computer. So, you're only able to get this through iOS 24.4. >> Yeah. >> Or or more recent, right? Yeah. 26.4 or more recent. >> Yeah. Um, and I Yeah, go ahead. >> If you're on an iPhone that's iOS 26.3, you will not have the option to play the video. Um, and when you do click manually to play on 26.4, for the default setting if you're on Wi-Fi and a good connection is going to be video. Um, however, the downloads that happen in the background are still going to be defaulted to audio. So, we'll talk more Q&A later. >> Yeah. Yeah, totally. So, that was basically the whole of it all there. So, I think the the interesting or the unusual part about starting this process is that you have to have you have to go get an API key before you do that within your account and add it into your account and do all of those things. So, that's the part that's a little like, okay, that's a little different. But outside of that, you know, when you're publishing stuff, we've all done this. So you can very easily just grab a video and publish it out to your account and it'll just go out into your RSS feed and boom, there you have it. So all of that stuff is pretty simple. But now we're going to be get started into some of the Q&A. And I do know that you guys have questions already in the in our Q&A here so that we can walk through all of those things. I'm not sure if we're going to get to every single one of the questions that are already in the live stream, but we are going to answer a ton of questions already and yours might be one that's going to get answered. So, we're going to start with publishing and workflow. So, go ahead, Rob, and take the first question that we have there. um >> and so that is what is the relationship between the YouTube URL that we can drop in the episode details versus what's coming with HLS uh best practice for episodes that have video. So again we had some questions that came in ahead of time. We'll get to the ones that are coming in the chat as well. Um u so the answer on this is you can use both the YouTube link um which is more for apps that is support um for the alter alternate enclosure tag and let users of that app listen to audio or watch the YouTube video. HLS is a direct video to Apple podcast thing which is just for Apple podcasts. So this new HLS and YouTube URL there's in short there's no relationship between them. Yeah. >> Right. >> And and at Humans with AI podcast, my wife got me that poster 20 years ago. So it I hope you didn't lose it 20 years ago. >> Oh my god. It's crazy. It's crazy. All right. Take question number two also there, Rob. >> All right. Um, how can Captivate help me create a slick workflow where we can publish video across all platforms easily? Uh, answer. At the moment, HLS is just rappled podcast video. We'll be releasing Spotify support soon, so stay tuned and we'll have other info in the near future. Here's a good recommendation. um subscribe to the In andar around podcast um podcast with Elsie and I and we'll be talking about that in the near future as well. >> Great. And we have another question here. Well, we do have just a question about video versus audio best practices here. So, some of the suggestions that we have here is to record the video for Apple. So you're in terms of of recording the video that you're going to be putting up here. And since they'll use the video audio and then you can upload the separate audio file for other apps that can be different, more polished like we talked about before because you do have the option to do both. Now, if you are somebody who just wants to record and publish and you just want to be done with it, you I know that you are there's a lot of you who are incredibly talented at being able to be who like creators and and you are spot-on and you are incredibly professional about how you run your show. So being able to do something that is audio conscious and you're just doing it one take with your audio and video and you know exactly what you're doing then I don't feel that you necessarily need to do another you know audio side of it. But if you really do want to make sure that your audio podcast is on point um and and is for the ear then you can always add that extra um audio file there. So we've already talked about this. How do we upload it and where do we put the API key and when will it go live? So again, we've seen that that you upload the video file uh to Captivate. You get your API key from Apple Podcast Connect and that's part of that integration that we're using within Captivate's backend. We're all there for you and it's all under my account within Captivate and we are aiming for this feature to go live in early May. Okay, so early May is where this feature is. Uh we're aiming towards that goal and so keep an eye out on all of that stuff. Here's another question. Will I be uploading one or two files, audio and video? And again, that is up to you, right? So, we'll send the audio from the video to all of the podcast apps, unless you upload a separate audio file for these apps and just send the video over to that video over to Apple Podcasts. Again, if you are someone that has been a heavy editor like myself and you clean up all the ums, the younoss, you probably want to continue to do that and have that separate audio file. That would be personally what I would do. >> So, yeah, we have all of that stuff. All right, Rob, your turn. You have a couple of other questions here. >> Okay. Uh question. Right now, you can switch out your audio file. No problem. But a video on YouTube can't be switched. It requires another upload. How does that work on Apple? Does it create a new separate episode if I switch out the file or does it remain the same episode with an updated file? So answer is you change the file as you normally would on Captivate. you update and that will update it for Apple podcast because unlike with YouTube where the file is getting uploaded to YouTube. Um in this case Apple podcast isn't the file really isn't getting uploaded to Apple podcast it's remaining with Captivate and we're creating multiple versions. So you just upload the replacement file into your Captivate account and that will replace the original one in the Captivate so that new requests for that file will come from Captivate. >> All right. All right. >> Um next one is how does submitting the video work if the RSS feed is connected to YouTube music? Will videos start showing there as well? And the answer is no. Um the RSS feed ingestion of YouTube is still just audio. That is a by the way a YouTube also um limitation or however you want to say it but you YouTube doesn't ingest video from the RSS feed. They will only take the uh audio file and convert it to a video with a static image. That's how YouTube works on their RSS ingestion. So um the answer was again no. Um, and it just remains the RSS and and again what we're doing here is we're making the audio version available in the RSS feed. So, in this case, if you're uploading the video to us, we're going to pull the for HLS, we're going to pull the HLS audio version out uh for Apple, but we're also going to create, if you're not uploading an audio anymore, we're also going to create then an MP3 version, which will then be on your RSS feed, which if you're connected to YouTube would go. If you want the video now to be in YouTube, you would have to go and at this point manually upload that video to YouTube. >> Yeah. And a lot of this workflow for everybody is, you know, of course we're saying this to you now. This is true now. And then I think the industry and the platforms are all going to also continue to iterate and expand and support and communicate better and all of those things. And it's not all going to happen at once. part of it is going to continue happening when people start to use it. And then you'll start to see where there's friction points, when there's things aren't, you know, as as seamless as we would want to. And everybody will collectively work together and we'll figure it all this out. But at once, it's not all just going to be woohoo, everything's perfect, right? We all have a lot of different questions. So now moving into some more technical specs here. Okay, so the question is format and file size limits and is Apple keeping HD or reducing videos to SD? So the answer to that is to manage costs and maintain quality. Captivate will be capping video at 720p and a max of 90inut durations. you can upload 1080p, but for actual distribution via HLS, it'll be 720p uploads and the upload will be an MP3 uh excuse me, MP4, excuse me, MP4 as you do that. and and that one I know is going to have multiple questions and just contact us at support on on that for additional questions because I I would imagine people will will be will ask more about that like why can't I upload my 4K video um we'll we'll have more answers on that in the future >> for sure. All right. So, uh, next one. Does my podcast have to be in that HLS format to be in Apple's ecosystem? So, so HLS, and we haven't even I don't know if we've talked about it yet. HLS stands for HTT HTTPS live streaming. So, H from HTTPS, L from live, S from streaming. It is not live. It is not really streaming. Um, but there is the HTTPS part. So, two, one out of three ain't bad. uh but it's not a format of the video file. I it is a it is how it's kind of delivered and you're still uploading an MP4 file. We are then converting the file to multiple formats. We're you know we're going to create um 720p. If you upload a 1080p, we're going to create a 720p which will be the max version that we deliver out right now. 480p uh 360p, maybe 240p. Then there's going to be an AAC version. Those are all what gets delivered to Apple. And then not not to mention if you're not uploading an audio, we'll also have the MP3 for your RSS. But from the HLS point of view, we're creating multiple versions and they're all staying inside the Captivate ecosystem and it's just the links and calls from via the API from listeners when they want to listen. And and it it's possible that a a viewer listener for one episode may get pieces bite ranges from multiple different versions. Like the example to give is they start listening in the kitchen at home on Wi-Fi on their device and they start getting the video the the 720p because they got a really good connection and then they put the phone in their pocket and they listen as they're walking down to the tube and to go to work and now you got the audio version coming in. Then they get into the tube and they sit down on on the train and now the connection's not as good, but they're watching and now it's a 360p version. So in that case, that one user is getting bite ranges for that one episode from three different formats. So long answer to that short question. >> Okay, here's another one. Do I have to render different versions of the video? Which Rob sort of answered also? No. That's the beauty of HLS. Captivate will transcode your file for you and Apple will display based on the listener's connection, right? Which is something that you have to also think about. Uh 720p is a default, but that will auto render 480p or 240p if the user's connection drops or becomes less stable. So even though there are some of us who would like to have a you know fancy 4K video out there because we care about the work we're putting out there. There might be somebody who is in a low bandwidth area where they need to consume and they want to consume your content, but they simply cannot be streaming uh 4K video. So, we're it's able to adjust based on all of that for you because it's about the end user. It's about the end user. It's about the people who love your work versus them you. So, here's another question. Are there any changes that have to be made to current Apple audio podcasts or will they just upgrade? No. Everything on Apple podcasts as it stands remains the same. You just need to connect your podcast connect account, add your API and then send the video to Apple podcast when you publishing on Captivate. If you want to if you want to do the video part, you don't have to do the video part. Okay, moving into strategy and features. >> Before we get to this one, yes, I saw one of the comments pop through that someone was saying they wanted 1080p and they wanted longer than 90 minutes. >> Uh, email me rob.walchglobal.com. um we'll look at having some options for special case scenarios but for standard pricing that we're talking about standard offering we are we do have those limits so if you need something more than the 90 minutes you need something more than 720p email me and we'll we'll talk all right uh strategy and features okay so this question here uh will there be video ad spots how Will Amy work? Well, at launch, there won't be Amy or dynamic content options. Instead, you hard bake, you bake in your ads into the video file at launch. Um, we'll have more on this shortly about the options um coming. Yeah. So, listen to in and around Podcasting for updates on that. And uh this is a big question that comes up all the time. As a platform, do you recommend adding video or do you urge caution? So overall, you know, obviously video is a great option addition, but it shouldn't be at the expense of your audio show or add additional workloads that you might not have the bandwidth for. So consider what extra you need to do and if that you know and any additional costs is worthwhile for you then you do it. So for me what I say too is that for video podcasters this is really a nobrainer right with the caveat that as they move forward with even more focus for for your audio. So you have to be very clear that the audio and I'm sure all video podcasters that have done this for a while really do focus on really great audio. So you keep on doing that. Um you know in the past video folks tended to publish video to YouTube and then edit the audio from the video to optimize the audio files for the podcast apps and you can still do that. So now it would mean to do the audio edit for the video basically in that one take form that I mentioned before. Now, for audio podcasters only that have not gotten into video first, this is my advice to you is to really, you know, I would keep the audio production and start testing your video process and only publish to YouTube. Weigh the lift. assess your own capacity to be able to produce the video portion and make an educated decision based on that. And I would say to you if you're just starting out, produce at least 10 episodes with video and audio. And with your new workflow and urging caution, what we say is it depends on your goals which are informed by your personal bandwidth, resources, and your why. This is what I don't I want you to listen to this. Do not add video to your podcast because of FOMO. That's not No. >> Yeah. We don't want people to pod fade because they start getting into video when they felt the pressure to do it and they didn't really want to do it. If if you're sitting there thinking right now, I really don't want to do video, don't do video. It's really that simple. There's more time in the day to consume audio than there is any other form of content. So, if you want to stick with audio, by all means, stick with audio. >> All right. >> So, there's another question. Will you provide any SEO type assistance? Um, if you use the free captivate site option, uh, or our WordPress plug-in sync, we offer SEO options for those. It's already sort of built in there. Otherwise, it's more of a matter of optimizing your titles and episode show notes to tie in with what potential listeners and viewers would search for and or be attracted to. All right, we are gonna talk about the cost and analytics, Rob. >> Right. So, yeah, I know questions came up. Why won't we talk about pricing? Well, that's because we just haven't gotten to that question yet. So, here is that question. How will this affect pricing? And and the answer is to enable Apple Video Podcasting, HLS video. Um, uh, it will be $12 per show. So, uh, that's per show, not per account. $12 per show. If you have multiple shows in your account, it'll be $12 for each. That will give that show a,000 HLS downloads per month and then a bandwidth fee based on usage. Uh users will only be charged on the HLS bandwidth used um if the if if the contents delivered via HLS on Apple. So again, it'll be $12 per show with a,000 HLS downloads per month. then a bandwidth fee on usage thereafter. All right. >> And the last question that we have here pre >> pre-asked, >> right? Uh question, how will video impact my download totals? Will people switching between audio and video count as two different downloads? Um video and audio analytics will be combined. Um audio always plays uh while video only plays if selected by the listener viewer. Downloads will continue to be measured by IB certification, which is a minimum of 60 seconds per per playback or downloaded enough data to be able to be listened to based on a unique IP address user agent combo in a 24-hour window. So, here's how this works a little bit. Um, if someone downloads has a file that's downloaded in HLS audio and let's say your episode comes out on Saturday and that is automatically going to download the audio from us and that will show up in your downloads from that Saturday. Then that person goes to listen to that episode um on Monday. If they are only listening and it's already downloaded, it won't be an additional listen. However, if on Monday they start playing video and some video bite ranges are delivered and enough 60 seconds of bite ranges are delivered on that Monday, it will show up as a second download because in most like most cases in in that scenario, the person's going to be watching the video probably from a different IP address than where it was originally downloaded. And that's going to and and this is true for all podcast hosts. We talked about this in the IAB committee on this for everybody. It's really going to show up as a second listen. So, it will count as two um in that scenario again where the download happened on Monday for the audio but or on Sun Saturday for the audio, but then they start playing back some video on Monday because it's outside that 24-hour window. So, will it cause some of the stats to come up a little bit if people are watching the video after the initial download? Yes. >> All right. Um, we I'm going to be I think those are the previous questions that we had in here. We answered a ton of questions already. Um, let's see. Yeah, I'm just looking in here and to see if >> questions going back if there's any questions in here what Apple is is charging. >> Um, again that the the answer on the HLS, Apple's not charging on that there, but there's some other parts that Apple will um that we're not allowed to talk about. Um, let's see. Uh >> there's a question on the screen there where does that relate to12 pounds please the pricing? >> Yeah, we were talking US dollars. So 12 whatever the conversion is to the pound and we'll we'll have pricing up on the site before um uh we go live. Um so this will all be out there uh for you to see at Captivate um before this all goes live. So all of this will be documented and you'll have the pricing structure in place and the bandwidth pricing and all of that information will be available uh for you and we'll have that in in the UI. >> Yeah. And >> want okay question want to confirm uh we can upload 1080p right now. You'll stream at 720p. Yes, that is correct. And just to be really clear with Harry there, the question is, if we manage multiple shows, can we create one key or is it recommended to create one per show? And it's per show. Um, I believe with those keys, correct, Rob, >> I will check on that. Um, I'm not 100% sure. >> Okay. >> So, we'll have that one to check on. But I I believe I I just don't want to say 100% on that. Scrolling through the questions here. >> And there's there's another one about And then uh from Hela Mela, >> I love to see all these names. Hela smela one. What if you manage multiple podcasts within Captivate? H how do you have the Apple ID for each of the shows? And so you have an Apple I you have so there's an Apple ID and then there's an API key ID. >> Mhm. >> And so those are two separate things. Your Apple ID has all your shows in it which is one of the reasons why I didn't show you all of my account because it has all of my podcasts in there and then it has everybody that's in each one of these shows because you can get different access to different people. And so when you get an API key, it's a separate area there. It doesn't have to do with your Apple ID. Your Apple ID stays your Apple ID that manages multiple shows within it. >> And and there was a comment that right now we only allowed a single key per account. Um and I Yes, I realize that. That's why I'm saying I believe that that will work, but we have I'm going to confirm that with Apple. >> Yeah, that's really good clarification. And so is what I showed on Captivate live on Captivate right now? No. That's the thing that's going to be live in early May. >> All right. So the question here is I'd like to better understand the why of going with Apple video. Um, again, if you are someone who's already doing video and it's just in YouTube and you want to open up and allow the folks in in Apple Podcast ecosystem to get access to that video, this will allow you to do that. So, the why is to expand the reach of your video. If you are only doing audio and you have no intention of doing video and you weren't even up on YouTube with video, you're probably this is not the webinar for you and you can get some of your life back and go and move on. Um I mean but yeah, I mean again don't go don't be doing this for FOMO. Do this because you really are committed to doing video and you want to do video and you feel video is going to help your show and help your audience grow. Um but um that that's true for putting your video up on YouTube or Apple or soon Spotify. We I want to clarify this question here and if we have captivate team members and please help me u make sure that I get this correctly or correct me. So the question this is from the content creators accountant and they asked how is the separate audio file going to work if the listener wants to switch between audio and video. Now my in my understanding from this is that if you upload a video into the video you using HLS that's what's going to go into Apple podcasts >> and it's going to use the audio from your video. Correct. >> The extra audio that you would like to upload separately is going to go to all of the other apps that support audio >> via RSS >> via RSS for the podcast app. So, it's not going to like if you upload a separate edit of your audio, it that is not going to go into Apple podcasts. It's going to pull the audio from the video and then the special audio is going to go everywhere else. >> Right? And we should point this out. Apple podcast iOS 26.4 or more recent. So if someone is on Apple Podcast on iOS 26.3 or 26.2, they will be getting your audio via the RSS feed. So, if you did upload the special audio um separate and you have a different length audio, let's say you edit out the ums, the nos, you edit it down and you had originally your video was 45 minutes, but after editing and taking out all the pregnant pauses and coughs and other stuff, you got it down to 41 minutes. If someone's on iOS 26.3, they're going to get the 41 minute version rather than the 45minute version because they don't have access to the HLS in iOS 26.3. That's where it gets confusing. Well, it's one of the places this gets confusing >> because it's a lot. So, um Rob, I think I have a question here. Um, in terms of the dynamic ads if you are for the will there still be dynamic ads for the audio? There will be if you upload the special audio um or or or using again they'll be for the RSS audio the MP3 if you have Amy those will work with the RSS. >> All right. So that doesn't change. It's just that for the video stuff we don't have Amy for that as of now. >> So someone question here. So to clarify, anyone listening to just audio on Apple will get video audio if listening on Apple and you've uploaded video even if you upload separate audio to Mars. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So again, if you upload the video file and which is 45 minutes long and you upload the audio which is heavily edited, it's 41 minutes long. So two different versions. Um, if it's iOS 26.4 or later or or more recent, um, it will get the 45minute version for the video and the audio. The 41 minute will go out on the RSS feed to everybody, Overcast, Pocketcast, Castbox, all the others, plus iOS 26.3.2.1 or or older. Yep. And sorry. Yeah. >> So, Apple podcast audience will be split for some time on what they get seeing depending on what device and and how what version that device is at. So, does that mean that if someone has updated their iPhone to 26.4 but their iPad is at 26.3, they'll have two different versions? Yes. Yes, it does. >> Oh my gosh. >> Mhm. Oh, and John John is in the house. He asked how many podcast players actually use this. Well, you have to remember that H this is this is for Apple podcast. So the HLS video that we're talking about right now is for Apple podcasts. Period. That is it. So >> that's your answer. Apple podcast support says uh everybody else is um some other podcast apps out there do support video but they support video via RSS and there are some that support it via HLS >> via the alternate enclosure and and we'll see what we do there in the future on that front. >> Yeah. >> All right. And let's see if we have >> so the question is the HLS supports 4K HEVAC. Why have you guys limited to 720p? As a filmmaker that's not good enough. It's about making the cost to the masses of users, podcasters affordable. Uh that 4K video is extremely expensive to deliver. It's getting delivered to a mobile device that's this big and 720p and 4K look just as good on this device. Sorry, they do. Um, so why would we you have that that extra cost? It the cost trade-off. That said, if you are someone that feels you have to have the higher version available, email me rob.walch with a c rob.walch walglobal.com and we can talk about doing something special for you. But for the standard offering, we're doing that to keep the pricing as low as we can for the users. >> Yeah. And you know what? And again, it um this isn't supported in Apple TV nor on a computer, which are the bigger screens. And so the majority of folks are going to be >> Yeah. using the smaller the smaller screens. Um and I I know that I have an iPhone 13 mini so my screen is very very tiny and um most of the times yes I do actually watch video podcasts here and there but most of the time it's you know with me and in my pocket and I will occasionally bring them out and all of that stuff and so um I I'm not looking for that quality. Again, it's to me the priority is for the ears because it's a mobile device and that's how I'm consuming the content there. I could see in the future maybe supporting something like that and seeing like what works out if you're using it to watch video podcasts on your Apple TV or a larger screen. Um, but at this time it is a smaller it's a smaller >> again as we mentioned earlier on the pricing part of the pricing is a bandwidth fee. We're limiting it to 720p so that people aren't getting hit with a higher bandwidth fee. If you want to be hit with a higher bandwidth fee and you do want to have that higher file, email me and we can talk. But we're trying we're trying to keep it so that people aren't hit with too big a bill doing this to start with. Um, we'll see where things go and we may adjust in the future, but right now we're trying to do this where we're not going to negatively impact financially the large number of users that don't have a need for that. >> So Jeffrey answers there, how much control is provided over the look of the video for an audio only podcast? audiograms, background images, can images change with chapter markers? And I think Jeffrey, this is um with the HLS, it really is just a video on your end. So when when you are uploading any kind of video uh to, you know, to to put out it is on your end. You're the one that's doing a lot of that visual look. Even if it is like let's say you're not doing any kind of talking head, you're not doing any actual film and you want to do all overlays and and all pictures and things like that, you can do that on your own and upload that video and that's what's going to be shown out. Now, as it pertains to any kind of the look of an audio only podcast as a video, um you know, the transcoding of that, if you are publishing it out to something like YouTube, it really is just a static image. Um, there's really no extra stuff that we do on the podcast hosting side to make that be more nicer on the other end. So, but you can act do that yourself and you can create a visually appealing thing that is nice uh on the on with a lot of different platforms. At this time, Captivate is really focusing on the podcast delivering, being a podcast host. So, we get your finished product and we push that stuff out. Um, all right folks, we are at like five minutes, excuse me, going here. And, um, are there anything anything? There's a lot of There's still a lot of questions in here. We're going to look through a lot of stuff and we are going to be having >> a lot more Q&A like this and answering questions. Go ahead, >> Rob. >> Adrian said he doesn't want any bandwidth from Captivate want to place. The reality is that's not going to be supported by anybody. Um Apple I mean there's only a few partners that are supporting the HLS and its API calls and all that. So this is the situation where how it is right now. Yeah. And again, things will continue to shift and change and iterate and all of the platforms are working together to be able to serve the needs of the creators out there. And in order for us to do that, people have to use it. People have to consume it. People have to get their hands dirty. we have to see where the friction points are just like I mentioned before so that things can get updated and um sorted out in a way that's going to be beneficial for the majority of you. But again, we're just at the starting point and there's like some a lot of podcast hosting platforms are starting to get in the game. A lot of you are also starting to create video for maybe the very first time or maybe you've already done things one way and you have to ch uh change your workflow. So there's a lot of learning that I think collectively we all have to do together and we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. We'll be able to make the best decisions that we can individually for each one of you. And part of it is that we can't just create one solution for one producer because as you know podcasters are very diverse and they are very opinionated and they want things the way that they want things. And so being able to serve the majority of you as best as possible and then you I mean all of us are incredibly creative in being able to find solutions to the problems that we have technically and for our audiences and we we're still yet to see like how many people are actually going to be consuming the content with video. I mean re reality is this for 20 years >> Apple has made video available via iTunes and Apple podcast >> and when a podcast launched a few years ago a big name um podcast and he did video on one feed and audio on the other and only promoted the video and we're talking Bill Maher here um after about eight or nine months of just promoting the video feed the audio audio feed had 10 to 12 times more downloads per episode than the video. Um, so the consumption habits and choices in Apple podcast and iTunes for the last 20 years have skewed towards audio with video being consumed over at YouTube. And that's a reality of the situation. This the way that Apple's doing it now is saying, "Hey, you don't have to choose. We're going to give you audio and video on one feed. And depending on how someone's consuming, whether they have a chance to watch video or or listen, you can do that with one file and that may get some consumption up. It may not. People may still be putting their phone in their pocket, consuming it through Apple CarPlay, which will not support video. Not in any future version. I hope not. Um, but there is still a lot of more time to consume audio than video. And then someone else had asked, you know, how many people are going to do this? Here's what I'm going to say. There's going to be a spike of people that come in and do this and try it out. And a certain number, a probably a large percentage of that group that tried it out will decide, it's not for me. Um, didn't pick up my audience. And then they'll go back to just being audio only. U, but there will be some that will find a new audience when they do this. and those few that find that new audience will inspire others to keep trying this. So, um and and that's just the way it is. Again, I I don't want people to get into this thinking it's going to grow their audience. Um and and they have to do this. It may grow your audience and you don't have to do it. If you don't want to do it, please don't do it >> because I don't want you quitting podcasting. The last thing I want to hear is someone said, >> "I loved doing my podcast for years and then I tried the video and then I got burned out and I don't do the podcast anymore." >> I don't want to hear that story. I'm afraid I'm going to. Um but I I hope not. Um if you are on the fence, don't be the first. Sit back, wait four months, five months, wait until December and see what people are saying about this. Um this isn't something where you have to be the first one out the gate. Um, so >> and it's you're Yeah. A lot of the time Rob and I often, you know, we we're constantly covering the updates, the iOS updates and the computer updates and all the OS updates. And most of the time our advice is for you to just hold out. Hold out until all the bugs are cleared so that you are able to use it in the way that it really best benefits you. And you know, there's some of us who are hardcore beta beta users and we love to be beta testers for a lot of apps and we understand that we're going to break things. We understand that sometimes we won't be able to load the app. We understand that we're the ones that are going to help steer this if that's you and you're like really really super into being able to get your hands dirty and have things break and have things not work and it's not working out the way you want because you really love to move things forward, go for it. But if you're the type of person that that does that just wants it to be seamless, I would do exactly what Rob said, which is like kind of step back and then see what's going on and like what I mentioned before, start the process of production for your video podcast if you want to do that and do at least 10 episodes on YouTube and figure it out and see what that feels like for you because editing and production is going to feel more and we just want to keep you podcasting. It's like the mo the most important thing for us here. So, I don't want to keep you guys any longer here. I'm going to um be able to do a little followup situation. Maybe we're going to have a Q&A somewhere to be able to um continue everybody on board here. But before we head out, we want to make sure that you know exactly where to go if you need more help. So for technical or account questions specifically for Captivate, if you're having trouble with your API or you have specific Captivate account questions, please reach out to our human-led support team at supportcaptivate.fm. They are ready to help you get unstuck in there and help sort any questions you have out for workflow or HLS questions. If you have thoughts on how you want to use video or you have specific questions about the HLS workflow we showed today or maybe something we didn't answer, please email those to community captivate.fm. We want to hear from you so we can continue to build out the best resources and content to help you succeed with video or not so that we are able to help you make the best choices for yourself and your podcast because your voice is absolutely necessary and we need you to keep podcasting. Keep an eye out for our launch in early May and stay tuned for more live streams like this one. Thank you so much for being part of the Captivate community y'all. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for being just full of patience. and understanding for all of these things and we will see you the next time everybody. Thank you so much and uh I'll look forward to hearing from you guys. That's it. Anything else, Rob, before we call it a day? >> Just one thing I want to point out. We'll have an HLS calculator on the site um soon. We'll have all the pricing information. There was some questions about is it per show or per episode show, not episode. Seinfeld's a show, Bubble Boy, Puffy Shirt or episodes. It's $12 per show per month. uh for this and that covers the first thousand hls downloads uh in there. Um and then there's additional bandwidth after that. Uh all of this pricing, all of it will be up on the site prior to this going live um before you opt in so you'll know exactly what it is for you. We're working out those there'll be an HLS calculator and all this other stuff. Uh we're working on the exact pricing. We're trying to get the bandwidth pricing down as low as we can and we'll have that finalized before this launches. Great. Thank you everybody so much and we'll see you next time. Thanks for showing up. Bye bye. And now we have