"Unifying Networks: The Merger of IACAST and Unmute Presents"

Hey, all, marty here. And today we are doing the first episode of State of the Union, and this is going to be all things behind the scenes, give you updates and all of that good stuff of what's going on behind the scenes of Unmute Presents, as well as Iacast. And we actually have some huge news to talk about today. But first, let me introduce you to Michael Doyce. Hey, Michael, how's it going?

Hi, everyone.

And with us, we also have Michael Babcock.

So with this news, who's editing this?

I'll do it.

So to kick us off with some news events and some of the announcements that we got going on here, let's have Michael Joyce give us the first announcement.

All right, well, I've been very excited about this. We've talked about this a few weeks ago, and we've been kicking around a bunch of ideas for a long time because brainstorming is always a wonderful thing. And I don't mean that sarcastically. I mean that completely genuinely, because there's always ways to improve, right? There's always ways to make things better and to give a more streamlined experience. And so a conversation was had, and we've had this little thing called the IA Cast since 2015. And we've built a network on IA cast. And it's included things like democasts. It's included things like gamecast. It's included things like Unbox casts. Those are always fun. I always enjoy the Unbox cast, even if I'm on them, even if I'm not unboxing, I enjoy them because of the cool audio that we different. We have hands on safety. We have programmatic, we have all these things. And then there's also this little thing you may have heard of called Unmute Presents. And they have such great podcasts like Friday Finds, the ACB Community Call, the Thursday Episodes, the Shell Phone Show. They have what am I missing?

Learning. We teach you something.

Technically working the Sunday episodes.

Yeah, teach you something. So we do a quick little tip or trick or something that's just five to seven, eight minutes once a week.

So we have these big networks of all this content. And we, you know, we already cast has been around for a little while, and we have a lot of infrastructure for Iacast, for the network and the show. So why don't we just combine all of our efforts, since I'm working with Michael and Marty on Unmute, and they're working with us at Iacast on all of the projects we have, so it makes just better sense to combine them into one network. And so our big announcement that I've been just there's two things this weekend I've been waiting for. Okay. Just really excited about. I'm honest with you all. I don't know which one's bigger to me. The one is getting the keys to my new apartment.

There you go.

And the other that happens tomorrow. And the other is this announcement that we're bringing everything together into one podcast network. So we've had Iacasts and Unmute Presents content on the radio for quite some time. And I love the radio station who put stuff on the radio. I listen to it. It's great content. You could put it on before bed and listen to it as you sleep if you really like tech that much. Not everybody does. I do. But either a good audiobook or Iacast radio. We have our skill on the echo devices, the Iacast Live. I wish I could change it, I really do. But we have so many different podcasts and different things, we thought it would just be great to bring them all together. And if you've listened to Unmute Presents, you may have noticed a few things falling out of the podcast feeds. And that's because we've been making these changes and nobody has really known. Surprise. Yes. So you can now subscribe to more of the shows that you've been listening to on Unmute Presents. So technically working you could find them on their own feed. Shellphone show is its own feed. Friday Finds is about to be on its own feed, and Unmute Presents will still do their Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday shows on the Unmute feed. But even more, what's really cool though, is there is a bigger feed. The mothership of all feeds, the Iacast network feed, where you can get all of the content from all of our shows. This feed may even update multiple times a day. So just be warned there. Oh, and I kind of forgot about the Vo Starter Weekly that's in the feed as well. So every piece of content that Unmute and Iacast and everything on the network will provide will be on the Iacast network feed. Marty or Michael, do you guys want to talk about what kind of this means to you guys and where you guys see us going from?

Well, I mean, there's so many first of know we can all be in one place and we can all work together, so that's really great. We've already been kind of doing that, but now we're really doing that. Like you said, working back and forth. I think that the live radio is super awesome. But even more than those things, a lot of people want to be able to either listen to an individual show, which they will be able to, or they can get all of the shows in one feed like they used to be able to. So I think that that will solve a lot of problems for people. Maybe someone just wants to hear a particular show. They can do that now. We are no longer going to just have one feed that feeds everything for Unmute. We're going to start giving things its own feed and stuff like that. And by the way, we have some new shows coming too, so stay tuned for that as well. And Michael, you want to say anything here?

I'm all about mostly transparency. I like how I worded that. And I'm going to be transparent with listeners because I think there might need some qualification, some explanation where this came from, because a lot of you might be saying, well, this is out of the blue. What do you mean? You guys are starting a podcast network or joining a podcast network? There was discussion with Marty Demasi and myself a couple of months ago about making an unmute podcast network and you can't go buy it right now. So I'm going to mention it. We did buy unmute am. We're going to put that all together and have Unmute be a podcast network. And then I was thinking and talking to Marty, I'm like, Marty, we're doing all these things with Iacast that's already a podcast network. Why do we need to reinvent the wheel? Why not just bring a lot of our content, well, all of our content over to Iacast and publish under that network, which I think is a good move because Michael, we're really appreciative of the fact that he already has a lot of the infrastructure in place so that doesn't have to get built up. That also frees me up to do some audio edit, to do more audio editing for both the podcast network and for Payomedia, which is the small business that I run, where I do audio editing for people and coaching. We've got some interesting things coming down the road that are still related to media and content, but aren't necessarily called podcasts. I'll leave it at that because I hinted at one of those on Technically Working. So if you haven't heard this week's episode, go check out episode 24, Technically Working. I don't know what the name is yet because we're pre recording this and it just makes a lot more sense to bring everything in line. So thank you, Michael, for allowing that to happen. And I am also super excited about the radio. I've talked about going in and taking a look at it and helping Michael with configuring it and stuff. So never done that. But him and I were talking earlier today about some new advertisements to go up there and promotions to go up there. So we'll get making some different changes too. That'll just improve everything else, too.

Yep. Also, I will say that another thing we've been kind of working on and revamping is the website. So you can find everything now. Actually, Michael, D, do you want to talk about all this and how that's going to work and everything?

Sure. So we now have a Revamped Iacast net website that has I'm still adding all of the shows and different things kind of a long process because some things got out of order in different places. So we're kind of bringing everything under the Iacast website. So I think there's something like seven shows in the menu right now and it's going to balloon out even more in the future. But everything imports to the Iacast website. We can see good stats on each podcast, so it's not going to different feeds and this is going there and there is going to this. So a lot of the confusion will be taken out of the process here. I'm really excited about that because that has not been the case for the network for a while. So the website is being revamped. Each podcast will have their own personality on the website. In fact, they can even have their own dedicated websites if they'd like. So for example, you could go to Unmute Show and get the actual unmute website so that's pretty know programmatic has its own website, hands on safety, all these other websites, and each podcast is its own self as part of the network. We don't want to say, okay, well, you're on the Iacast network, so you have to obey the laws of Iacast land. We've taken inspiration from other networks that have done the same thing. And so each podcast has its own personality and I think that's really important. And so each podcast can monetize and get support from its listeners or viewers however it is promoted. And so we even want to feature that on the Iacast website. So if you go to Iacast net slash plus, you can contribute to your favorite podcast at the Iacast website without going anywhere else. So we want it to kind of be the centralized place where you can listen to episodes, support your favorite podcasts and view their websites and leave feedback. So we're trying to build kind of that community around great content.

So on the next big update, I would say, and a lot of people have been asking about this and sort of waiting for this, but we now have the Iacast app. Now we have said in the past we were working on building an unmute app. We're no longer doing that because now that we're all together, we're just going to have one app that gives you everything. So Michael, do you want to talk about the app and let people know what they can get once they download the app?

Sure. So the I Accessibility app, which has been, well, twice in the App Store, this is the second time, has all of our content and it will be getting updates soon to show where you could pick all of the shows and different things. We're going to look at really adding community and different features into the app. So the I Accessibility app will be your one stop hub for everything Iacast, but also for the Iaccessibility report blog and things like that. So there will be a lot of content in the app moving and it also is a great place to listen to Iacast radio. So you can go to the app and we will have an Android version coming out soon that has, well, we have an Android version, but we will have a better Android version that has properly working links.

Yeah, that's going to be really great. I'm sure a lot of people will be excited to have all the things in one place right on their device. So that's going to be great. What else do we got?

So one thing I do want to mention, if you are unmasked on or other social media, there's a very easy way you can mention us in. Each of our hosts can find your comments. So whether you're listening to Friday Finds or Unmute Presents or the Iacast podcast, hands on, safety, anything, and you want to leave us feedback, of course, we always give our feedback email addresses at the end of our podcasts, but if you're on Mastodon or other social networks, use the hashtag cast and everybody can see those. And so we can cross post and talk about those between podcasts. And I really like that. Let me just backtrack and tell people the reason why I created the Iacast podcast was I want to build community around technology. And I think that's what we're doing right, we're building community around technology and a discussion where people can get enthusiastic, not negative, but enthusiastic and positive around the concept of new technology. And I think that's what we're doing. All of us have that goal and I think if we can build that community, that's what this is all about. And I started the podcast of Iacast because I eventually wanted there to be so many people interested in what we're doing that one day I could tune into a podcast I started like the Iacast, and say, wow, so and so was hosting the show. I didn't have to be there this time. And I'm getting content, interesting information from others on the podcast. That's been my goal. And I think we're finally realizing that now that we have such a plethora of content on the network, there's always something new to listen to, always something, always one podcast that I contribute to. And it takes a lot for me to contribute to a podcast and that's technically working. I really enjoy what Michael and Damasi do for technically working, so I contribute to their tip jar through Pinecast and I really enjoy the content. So I like to give back even to the network know, since we're all on the same network, I like to contribute to my own network. So that's why this is all very special to me and I hope it's very special to our listeners as well.

I want to say something to the unmute present listeners and these are people that maybe come to our regular live calls and or if you're subscribed and you get the show after in a podcast form, after we go off the air in a podcast form. So you will not have to do anything at all. If you're subscribed and you're getting the Tuesday live call after we go off the air, you won't need to do anything, nothing will change for you on your end. You just continue doing what you're doing and you'll still continue to get the show once we go off the air. And along with that, you will get the Thursday shows and the Sunday shows. The only thing that will be changing is all the rest of the shows that we had in those feeds. For example, Friday Fines friday Fines is now going to be on its own feed. So you can find it that way if you want or if you really just want to get everything that Iacast and Unmute Presents has to offer. You can go to the main feed on the Iacast network feed and just get everything. So don't worry, you're not going to have to go try to find a new feed or anything like that. If you're subscribed, just don't change anything and you'll just be seamless for you guys.

So let's just recap. So it's Iacast all one word, network feed. If you subscribe to that feed, you'll get all of the content throughout the network. Unmute Presents feed will give you, as Marty said, the ACB community call on Tuesdays, the Thursday, I don't know if you guys have a term for that one. Just the Thursday discussion and then the Sunday Learn Something episodes and all of those will be on the Unmute Presents feed. Then Friday Finds now has its own feed and Lynn is so awesome and she's been getting really popular. So you want to go definitely subscribe to her there. Then we have the technically working, has its own feed, so you want to subscribe to that and the Shellphone show as a feed as well. So you want to go subscribe to that if you watch that show. So am I missing anything, guys? Is that pretty much everything that you guys had on the Unmute feed?

Yes, it sounds like that's everything.

Yeah, that's it right now. Because there may be some other changes, additions and stuff like that coming down the road. So you want to stay tuned.

Definitely. And just so you know, for those of you who maybe are new to Iacast, in the background, there's a lot of people doing a lot of different things and there's maybe shows that you haven't heard of. Sometimes we do one off things like Unboxings. Sometimes Michael D will have some sort of thing that he goes, oh, I got a podcast about this right now and he wants to get on Talk, know something he did programming or some other piece of equipment maybe that he picked up. I mean there's all kinds of stuff. So you could be getting more than just what we're saying right now to each show. You could be getting some random feeds here and there or some random content, I should say here or there on different topics. Sometimes you may get something more than once a day, which could be a possibility. So yeah, there's going to be a lot going on. It's going to be really cool. We're excited about it.

And we have feeds for those too. There's a democast feed from the network. There is a unboxcast feed. So you can actually, when we get all of those up and going, you'll be able to view all of those and they're all categorized on the Iacast website as well. So you can easily go through and figure out instead of looking at, okay, when do they unbox the second generation HomePod? You could just go to the podcast feed or the category on the website or the show and listen to those there. I believe, last I checked, not all the content is there, by the way. Iacast.net has over 400 episodes of content. It's a lot of stuff and we're just going to have more. So we hope that you continue to listen to all of our content and join the conversation. We love to hear from you. And we do this because we enjoy tech, we enjoy podcasting, and we want to help people learn more. So join the discussion.

Definitely. I would say lastly, we have a few new shows that we're working on that are going to be coming out in the next few weeks. So stay tuned. And here we go. Blast off.

And don't forget, every month we will do one of these State of the Union episodes so you all are kept aware of what is going on behind the scenes at the Iacast network. And we'll publish it in the unmute feed and it'll be on the Iacast network. So keep that in mind and keep us honest, keep sending us feedback. Let us know what you want us to change, what is working, what's not working, and how we can be a better podcast network for you.

You want to drop an email so.

People know how to get a hold of us [email protected]?

Yeah. So if you want to email us, [email protected] is the feedback email for the network. And I can send emails or we can set that up however we want where all of our hosts can get this feedback. So let us know what your thoughts are and we will see you on the next State of the Union.