Like a lot of people, I’ve become a bit addicted to playing around with AI tools recently.

Since the launch of ChatGPT, an extremely sophisticated AI tool that is the closest we’ve come to HAL 9000 so far, I’ve found myself logging in to ask the chatbot all kinds of questions. Just, you know, to hear what it has to say. 

So when I heard about Dubb Media – an AI marketing tool specifically for podcasters – I was naturally keen to test it out. 

The TL;DR is that Dubb is no ChatGPT (…yet), but it’s still very new to the market. It’s also absolutely worth trying out for your podcast to see the kind of content it generates.

What is Dubb Media?

Dubb is an AI marketing tool that can autogenerate a podcast media kit for individual new episodes. It does this just by using an audio file (MP3 or WAV) or URL if the episode is already live on Google Podcasts or YouTube.

Dubb uses a combination of GPT-3 (the same AI technology that ChatGPT uses) and Stable Diffusion to pull together social media content, SEO content and podcast metadata like title suggestions, descriptions and keyword suggestions for you to use. 

The tool was built by Sam Plank, an ex-Data Scientist for Facebook and Quora. You can hear him talk a bit more about his ideas and plans with Dubb on this podcast episode. 

You can use the tool for free, but there are also two paid tiers you can upgrade to (Creator and Pro, $24.99/month and $59.99/month, respectively).

At the moment, the paid subscriptions don’t seem to offer much more than the free options except for the hours of content you can upload. From what I can see, you’re able to generate content for up to 10 hours of podcasts per month for free. 

How to Use Dubb to Generate a Podcast Media Kit

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Go to https://www.dubb.media/ and click the button to log in. A window will appear asking you to log in using a Google/Gmail account. This is the only option, so if you don’t have a Gmail account, you’ll need to create one.

Step 2: Either upload an MP3 or WAV version of your podcast episode OR link to the episode if it’s already published live. Again, this will only work with a Google Podcasts or YouTube link as Dubb seems to work exclusively with Google products.

Step 3: Fill out the rest of the web-based form. The form asks for the podcast presenter and guest names and asks you to select which adjectives best describe the editorial and animation style you’re looking for.

Screenshot of Dubb Media’s web form

So if you run a horror podcast, you’re in luck – the ‘spooky’ and ‘creepy’ options will speak to you. If you run any other type of podcast… take your pick.

Step 4: You’ll get a ‘we’re working on your results!’ browser message. 

Step 5: 15 mins later, an email arrives with the results. This will likely land in your spam folder, so you’ll need to mark the email as safe in Gmail before it makes the links clickable.

The Results: Does Dubb Really Work?

To test the tool, I used an episode of the Podcraft Podcast called ‘Why All The Hype Around Video Podcasting? Will Video Kill The Audio Star?’

Here’s a run-through of the results:

Podcast Metadata and SEO content

Dubb provides AI-generated suggestions for your title, description and keywords. Overall, I would say that the metadata content was a bit oversimplified and not that helpful. 

The keywords were really basic and brought nothing to the table that wasn’t obvious (e.g. #podcast #videopodcast). 

Interestingly, the title and description suggestions also missed the mark a bit on what the podcast was actually about. 

The titles it suggested were:

Using Video to Grow Your Podcast

Leveraging Video for Podcasting: Tips on Growing Your Show and Adding Value

Video Podcasting: Understanding How to Leverage Video to Grow Your Show

These titles suggest the podcast is a how-to guide, as does the suggested description too:

“You will get a deep dive into the world of video podcasting, explore what it takes to create successful video podcast content, and learn about the newest tools available for creating video podcasts.“

But in reality, the podcast wasn’t really about the how-to of video podcasting. It was a discussion about the why of whether you should bring video into their podcasting process. 

Even from the transcript, you can see that Colin says:

“What I want to jump into is whether people should do it, why you should do it, and how you might use it if you do, because I think we all know how we can do a video podcast.”

Colin Gray

So if I blindly jumped in and used that title and description for this episode, it would be misleading to potential listeners. It also wouldn’t emphasize the real selling points of what makes this episode interesting and different from other content that’s already out there.

The blog post Dubb created, on the other hand, was really pretty good. Yes, it was dry and robotic, but the blog focused much more on the ‘why’ of video podcasting. It was more reflective of what the episode was actually about:

“Are video podcasts the future of podcasting? It’s a complicated question that has been debated for years, but it looks like it’s time to accept that video podcasting is here to stay.“

Social Media Content

The social media content that the tool generated was a real mixed bag. The longer-form status for Linkedin or Facebook was excellent, but the Twitter thread was kind of chaotic – though entertaining!

“1. Have you heard about podcasting? It’s an amazing way to reach new audiences and grow your show. But there are things to consider before diving into podcasting, like the effect of eating a large meal before recording!“

Dubb also generates six videos that it says can be used for promoting your podcast on TikTok or on Instagram reels. This includes three video clips with subtitles and three video clips without.

Using the information it pulls from your podcast alongside the animation ‘type’ you selected (so whether it’s ‘spooky’, ‘blocky’ or ‘painterly’), it generates a very distinctly AI-generated style video. 

Here’s one it came up with for this podcast on assessing the hype around video podcasting:

While the video is weird and kind of unusable, it’s interesting that the tool was able to generate this based on an audio file.

If you were to use a video like this in your social media feed, it would be instantly recognisable as AI-generated. So you’d need to decide if that’s something you’d be comfortable with before sharing with your followers. 

Should You Use AI to Create Your Podcast Media Kit?

Like every discussion we have about using AI in podcasting, it’s a tale of two ‘hands’.

On the one hand, using an AI tool to generate your marketing content for new podcast episodes can save you a lot of time and effort. But the tool is nowhere near sophisticated enough to create content that’s not obviously made by an algorithm.

What it can do, however, is provide a good starting point that will get the ball rolling. Sometimes, a page of half-nonsense is better than being faced with a blank page.

On the other hand, using AI tools for your marketing takes away an element of control, can lead to bad/lazy habits and doesn’t help you build on your podcasting skills. 

As an independent podcaster, creating your marketing content is part of the creative process. Thinking carefully about why you chose to run an episode on a particular topic and what the selling points are helps you get into the mind of your listeners. If you’re never getting into that mindset, how will your podcast brand grow and evolve? You might not necessarily enjoy the process, but it is an important part of creating podcast content.

Let AI create your titles, descriptions and social media content for you, you could start to lose touch with your brand.

If you’re looking for some support with creating a media kit that really sells your podcast to listeners and sponsors, take a look at this guide on how to create a podcast media kit.

Originally posted on January 25, 2023 @ 12:24 am