This is so frustrating! I don’t like politics & I like science. I guess this combination of liking & disliking has suddenly put me in a very sad situation with my new podcast! What has been about happiness is bringing in so much of sadness – what a mess! But I support the cause and even though my podcasts on Spotify is losing audience, I am still very happy about it!
I was so hesitant to start in the first place. But with all the encouragement from friends I finally got onto it. I was just getting comfortable with my talks when Spotify decided to take Neil Young off its charts for protesting against Covid mis-information by Joe Rogan. With the tumbling stocks of Spotify that followed, came down my audience as well.
With Joni Mitchell also joining Neil Young in the protest, I would imagine more listeners continue jumping off the Spotify platform. The good thing about feeling happy about this is that I have seen an increase in my listeners on the website, iTunes, iHeartRadio & Stitcher. So I have a feeling that even though people may have liked to remain on Spotify they did not hesitate much to side with Neil & Joni & the others protesting the Covid misinformation to move onto other services.
The country is finding every reason & opportunity to divide herself. With the Republican party in a complete postal mode to eradicate democracy from America, and with no end in sight for this divide to close, American businesses are also having to make a choice. And in US, it hurts most when the Dollar pinches – the sad story of a country built on hardcode materialism & guns slowly raising the ugly tentacles of fascism.
I was very happy with the first few months of growth of my listeners. And even though I knew that the numbers would go up & down before it stabilizes, I was not expecting this avalanche due to Spotify. In the past, I used to help new bloggers with Effective Blogging Tips, especially teens who were looking for alternate ways to make money for school. And one of the biggest lessons I learnt (unfortunately, I did not learn the first time it happened!) was always to have a mitigated approach to technologies & platforms you use to build your readers & subscribers. In case any of these tools fail, you can still sustain your business with the others.
This saved numerous small businesses I advised on effective marketing for mom-and-pop businesses as well as the several times when my own websites were hacked, domains lost and email providers sold out. In those days we just had to think of mitigating the technical dependencies & risks. With the current socio political situation in the US now, I am having to put in another whole new strategy for small home businesses to monitor & plan for risks emerging from political unrest as well as the pandemic!
My podcasts have slowly started to recover. In case you are a listener & following my podcasts, thank you for supporting me (& numerous other new podcasters). If you have not had a chance to listen to Purposeful Happiness, give it a shot. The subject is relevant & I hope we can connect on this issue. I publish it weekly & it is available on all the major platforms (details here).