Month: June 2015

Academy of Podcasters Awards Nominees, Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

~ shawn

Academy of Podcasters logThe Academy of Podcasters has announced the nominees for its first ever “Academy Awards of podcasting.” The organization has also finalized the list of inductees into its Podcasters Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony and the awards ceremony will be held on Friday, July 31, the night before the first day of the Podcast Movement conference in Dallas.

The Podcasters Hall of Fame will honor six podcasters in its inaugural run of inductees:

  • Adam Curry (Adam is considered by many to have “invented” podcasting along with Dave Winer)
  • Danny Peña (host of Gamertag Radio)
  • Leo Laporte (founder of the TWiT podcasting network)
  • Mur Lafferty (host of I Should Be Writing)
  • Scott Sigler (bestselling author who built a large fandom thru podcasting)
  • Todd Cochrane (host of Geek News Central and founder of RawVoice)

The Academy of Podcasters has nominated ten shows in each of its fifteen award categories. The complete list of shows is too long to post here but the categories are:

  • Business
  • Comedy
  • Entertainment
  • Food & Drink
  • Games & Hobbies
  • Ideas & Education
  • Lifestyle & Health
  • Music & Commentary
  • News & Politics
  • Parenting, Family & Kids
  • Science & Medicine
  • Society & Culture
  • Spirituality & Religion
  • Sports
  • Technology

One nominee will win an award in each category. The categories have five nominees each that have been ranked as the top five in those respective categories on Stitcher, along with five more shows that were selected by “a combination of input from the Academy, the board, and from other podcast rating services.”

Congratulations to the inaugural Hall of Fame inductees and best of luck to all podcasters who’ve been nominated for a Podcasters Academy Award!

Gimlet Media is Hiring

~ shawn

Gimlet LogoGimlet Media, the company that was launched thru the success of its debut podcast Startup, is hiring. There are two different positions being offered. One is labeled as Development Producer and the other is simply listed as Host.

Some details from the listing for the Development Producer role:

Gimlet Media seeks a development producer to pilot and launch new podcasts. This is a unique opportunity to develop and produce exciting new audio programming.

And:

The ideal candidate will be creative and able to take a concept from idea to fully formed podcast. The development producer will take on multiple roles in the production process. They will bring ideas and enthusiasm to the table. They will work on multiple projects at once and be able to quickly shift gears depending on the needs of the team.

This looks like a good job for someone who’s interested in doing behind-the-scenes production work. Specific duties mentioned include brainstorming and pitching new podcast ides, pre-interviewing guests with some occasional on-air interviewing, writing scripts for show hosts, recording of audio in the studio and in the field, audio mixing/editing with ProTools, and more.

Here are some details for the Host position:

Gimlet Media seeks a host for a new podcast in development. The show will take a fresh look at big news stories from the past we thought we knew. It will be produced in collaboration with an existing media organization.

And:

The ideal host will have strong writing and interviewing skills. They should be an avid news consumer and a reporter at heart- the type of interviewer who draws people out and gets them to tell stories and surface emotions. They should be comfortable reporting personal stories as well as larger national and international ones. They should have a strong narrative sense which allows them to comfortably identify the right structure when working with a large amount of source material. They should be confident and professional, but conversational and approachable. They will work closely with a small, collaborative team.

Some key functions in this role will including having the ability to interviewing “both experts and regular folks,” providing feedback on episode editing, pitching ideas for show topics, and being able to travel as needed for interviews and/or gathering field audio, and more.

For more information on these jobs and what Gimlet Media has to offer, click the link at the top of this article.

Vimeo Launches Monthly Subscription Service

~ shawn ~ 1 Comment

Vimeo logoVideo distribution platform Vimeo has become a leader in providing monetization options for media producers. A few years ago, Vimeo began offering an on-demand paid service that has seen wide adoption by independent film and video directors. This on-demand service is based on a 90/10 revenue split between producers who use the service and Vimeo. This has proven to be a successful strategy for Vimeo and it’s seen by many as the only real monetization alternative to typical channels like YouTube which mostly rely on low paying preroll or overlay ads.

Vimeo is stepping up its paid services game as now the platform has added monthly subscriptions to its on-demand offerings. This new service will see the same 90/10 revenue split in favor of producers. Users who’d like to create their own subscription-based video channels can set their own monthly fees for access and then add as much (or as little) new content as they’d like. This could be an extremely useful development for podcasters who produce a lot of premium videos that they’d like to keep behind a paywall. Also, the monthly subscription model falls more in line with how podcasters operate, as opposed to the one-off system previously offered by Vimeo On Demand.

Accessing Vimeo’s on-demand services requires a Vimeo Pro account at a cost of $199/year. So, the service might be a bit pricey for producers who haven’t yet built up a decent-sized catalog. But if this new subscription service sounds right for you, head over to Vimeo and get signed up.

SoundCloud Updates Stat Tracking for Podcasters

~ shawn ~ 1 Comment

SoundCloud LogoI’m somewhat less skeptical than I used to be about SoundCloud as a reliable platform for podcasting. Now that the company’s years-long beta program for podcasting has finally matured into a real product, it looked like SoundCloud was headed in the right direction. Of course, maturation never comes without some growing pains. And it turns out some SoundCloud users may be affected by a recent change to the company’s stats system.

Yesterday, Michael Wolf, host of the NextMarket podcast and curator of the Technology.fm podcast directory, posted this tweet about an e-mail exchange he’d had with SoundCloud support:

Wolf sent the e-mail to SoundCloud asking why he was seeing a noticeable change in his stats. SoundCloud’s response states that the company had recently reconfigured its metrics because their system had been tracking downloads made thru RSS feeds in the same manner as plays thru embedded SoundCloud web players:

As part of our podcasting service coming out of beta, there have been some changes in how data will appear.

We’ve started tracking RSS downloads as their own unique, private metric to help you more clearly understand how your audience is engaging with your content.

Previously, RSS downloads and SoundCloud plays were tracked together under the same ‘plays’ metric. Now, podcasters can clearly see RSS download activity and the country, city and top app data associated with those downloads.

Since you were using SoundCloud to distribute your sounds via RSS before April 28th 2015, play counts may appear higher on older episodes and lower on newer episodes, but the difference in displayed play count is not due to any loss of listenership. Rather, the play count displayed publicly on newer tracks may appear lower because the public play count now only reflects SoundCloud plays and excludes RSS activity.

Before the change, SoundCloud players that displayed the total number of plays for a podcast episode were showing play counts based on web listens and RSS feed downloads together. Now, those players will only display numbers based on listens made thru SoundCloud players. Downloads that happen thru RSS feeds will be tracked separately and those numbers will be available only thru the SoundCloud dashboard.

It’s unclear as to why SoundCloud made this change. Overall, it seems like a smart move, as it’ll allow podcasters to have a better understanding of how listeners are engaging with their episodes. Still, this move could make some producers unhappy as those numbers publicly displayed on SoundCloud players will probably go down. The only solution SoundCloud offers is to simply turn off the public play count that’s shown on embedded media players.

Probably not the favored option for podcasters who felt a sense of pride over big numbers being shown on their public players. But in podcasting, as in life, change is inevitable. Over time, I think most producers will appreciate having these two types of separate statistics.

Dan Benjamin Added to List of Podcast Movement Speakers

~ shawn

Podcast Movement logoPodcast Movement is gearing up for its next go around, which will take place during the weekend of July 31st in Texas. Today, the conference announced that it’s added four new speakers to its lineup. Principal among them is Dan Benjamin, founder of the popular 5by5 podcasting network.

Benjamin began his technology career as a programmer and in 2006, he began podcasting on the side. After a few years of building successful shows and a loyal audience, he launched the 5by5 network and took to podcasting full-time. In 2014, Benjamin launched The Podcast Method, a website and podcast devoted to the craft of podcast production. Not stopping there, Dan also launched the Dan Benjamin Hour earlier this year. That show is described as, “…a live daily talk show exploring the latest in geek and pop culture, technology, gear, and entertainment, catching emerging stories before they become headlines and skirting the mainstream with wide-ranging topics, unorthodox opinions, an offbeat in-studio crew, an expansive guest list, and calls from live listeners.”

Along with Benjamin, three other speakers were also announced:

Discounted Early Bird tickets for Podcast Movement are available now thru June 9th.

Women in Podcasting: Interview With Janet Blair

~ jen

Two Girls and a Bottle of WineJanet Blair is the host of the Two Girls and a Bottle of Wine podcast. She is joined by an alternating group of co-host guests (some of whom make repeat appearances). Her show is an opportunity for girlfriends to chat about whatever they would like to over a glass of wine.

When did you start podcasting?  What’s your experience in podcasting from then to now?

I started Two Girls and a Bottle of Wine about two and half years ago with my girlfriend, Ashley. When we started we were doing a video podcast in a studio in downtown Denver. When the studio closed, we wanted to continue the podcast so, with the help of my boyfriend, we set up a studio in our basement and continued the podcast in our basement. We found that working outside of a studio and outside of the supervision of others allowed us to have so much more fun and reach a larger audience. As life does, it got busy and Ashley and I found it difficult to make time to record each week. About a year ago, I opened the podcast up to other females in the area that wanted to sit and chat with me each week for the podcast. Surprisingly I had several Facebook friends that were interested. For the last year I have been alternating co-hosts each week and the variety has helped grow the audience and I think each woman has a special story to share. I believe that women feed off each other and sharing our experience can help us each grow and learn as women. A couple of months ago I started having co-hosts that were from outside of the Denver area. I have now recorded two podcasts via Skype and that has opened up our reach.

What inspired you to become a podcaster?

My boyfriend, Steve McGrew, had a career in radio for over ten years. When he left radio he started his own podcast, Remasculate. I had dabbled in radio and worked part time at a few stations. I would sit in on his podcast as his news girls but I decided I wanted more. I think that podcasting is a fun hobby that allows me to step outside of my cubicle job each week and tap into the creative parts of who I am. I also love the opportunity to sit down with my girlfriends and chat about whatever over a glass of wine.

How do you do interviews for Two Girls and a Bottle of Wine?  What types of wine do you enjoy?

I refer to each of my guests as co-hosts. Many of them are re-occurring. Most of my co-hosts come to my house and record with me. Skype has opened up the possibility of me having co-hosts that aren’t in the area. I have had Petra from Hillbilly Nerd Talk on as a co-host and Kim Eden, the Tornado Queen from Oklahoma, on as my co-hosts via Skype. I was able to participate in a panel interview Amy Schumer recently and that was a lot of fun. I brought my computer and a travel microphone with me and recorded the entire interview. I am still working on the sound to make it podcast quality.

Wine – I prefer wines that are less than $15 a bottle. Some of my favs are Relax Wines (Riesling, Pinot Grigio) and Cupcake Wines (Moscato and Red Velvet).

What words of wisdom do you have for women who are thinking of starting their own podcast?

Have fun with it. It’s so easy with technology now to just stop and record a podcast. Each of us are experts about different things. There is likely to be someone that is interested in the knowledge you have, so when starting share the expertise that you have about whatever your passion may be and build on that. Passion can be infectious. Also, consistency is key. If you want to build an audience, record new podcasts regularly.