Month: October 2016

Uncover Studios Launches as a Podcast Network

~ jen

uncover-studios-logoTMPG is an award winning, independent marketing company. They specialize in non-traditional and traditional radio, digital development, planning and buying, shopper marketing, multicultural promotions, and celebrity-driven experiential events. TMPG has launched its own podcasting division, Uncover Studios to bring its unique perspective on podcasts to the public.

Uncover Studios is headquartered in New York. It is a podcast network consisting of celebrity influencers with unique perspectives and followings. Uncover aims to work in tandem with these influencers to produce, represent and integrate custom content into high-quality podcasts.

Uncover is led by President/CEO Michael Valentino and Creative Director Dave Keine. Together, they combine astute audio marketing experience with production and creative expertise to unleash the potential of the podcasting platform. Uncover consists of in-house producers, copywriters, programmers, designers, media buyers, sales, and account teams.

Uncover has four podcasts that are launching soon:

* Life Well Spent with Jean Chatzky – Hosted by TODAY Show’s financial editor

* We The Kings – A platinum-selling American rock band

* Barry Lewis’ Dark History “Death, Sex, and Secret Societies” – Hosted by Barry Lewis

* Unmapped – A travel related podcast

Those who want to get in touch with Uncover Studios can do so on their website. It appears they are looking for people who want to have their podcast on the Uncover Network.

Periscope Introduced Periscope Producer

~ jen

periscope-producerPeriscope makes it easy for people to explore the world in real time through someone else’s eyes. Podcasters can use it to do a live show and share it with the world as the show is being recorded. Periscope has introduced Periscope Producer, which is designed for broadcasters.

Periscope Producer is a way for brands, media organizations, and other live video creators to broadcast high quality streams from devices beyond a phone or tablet.

With Producer, you can stream high-quality live video from external sources, including streaming software, hardware encoders, and professional cameras, on Periscope and Twitter. Just like any other broadcast on Periscope, viewers can send comments and hearts, and watch live in the Periscope and Twitter apps as well as on the web at Periscope.tv.

Periscope Producer has been used by news organizations to extend the reach of their network broadcasts and added timely, relevant content to breaking news events and the conversation that surrounds them.

Additionally, media organizations have streamed award shows, conferences and other noteworthy events with Producer. Previously, experiencing events like these required a physical presence or more traditional way to tune in. With Producer, broadcasters can bring these events to Periscope, allowing their audience to watch them together.

Broadcasters who are interested in creating live video with Periscope Producer can apply for access at t.co/periscopeproducer. Periscope Producer is only available on iOS at this time. Part of the application asks what kind of software or hardware encoder you are planning on using (such as OBS, Teradek, Wirecast, or others).

Omny Studio Introduces Visualized Audio Feature

~ jen

omny-studio-logoOmny Studio offers simple hosting and a powerful suite of tools for radio and podcasters. They recently introduced their new Visualized Audio feature. It was created to be eye-catching and to attract people to your podcast.

Omny Studio customers can now generate beautiful looking, customizable videos with animated waveforms to share on social media. Visualized Audio is intended to help podcasters promote their shows by sharing short snippits on social media.

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter serve content to their users based on algorithms. These algorithms prioritize native content or content that doesn’t link out of the platform. This is one of the reasons why sharing our visualized audio videos on these platforms is the best way to share your clip. By uploading the video natively, you are ensuring that platforms like Facebook are putting your video in front of as many people as possible.

Omny Studio customers who are on the Professional $9 USD per month plan or higher can use the Visualized Studio feature for free.

WordPress Founder Calls Out Wix Over Software Theft

~ Shawn Thorpe ~ 1 Comment

WordPress logoThe WordPress web publishing platform has been used by podcasters since it began to receive widespread adoption about a decade ago. WordPress began as an open source project and it has remained that way. This has allowed the platform to cater to a variety of plugins and extensions that have made WordPress one of the most powerful and popular content management systems in the world.

Most open source software is released under licenses that encourage developers who use it in their own projects to, at the very least, credit the original developers who created the software. It’s a tradition that’s at the heart of the open source movement. And while theres no legal body that governs the use of open source code, the communities that thrive on it have done a good job of respecting this tradition. That’s why it can be problematic when a developer decides to crib a bunch of open source code and treat it as their own.

In an open letter recently published to his blog, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg called out web design service Wix for “borrowing” some open source WordPress code for the latest Wix mobile web-editor app:

If I were being charitable, I’d say, ‘The app’s editor is based on the WordPress mobile app’s editor.’ If I were being honest, I’d say that Wix copied WordPress without attribution, credit, or following the license. The custom icons, the class names, even the bugs. You can see the forked repositories on GitHub complete with original commits from Alex and Maxime, two developers on Automattic’s mobile team. Wix has always borrowed liberally from WordPress — including their company name, which used to be Wixpress Ltd. — but this blatant rip-off and code theft is beyond anything I’ve seen before from a competitor.

Mullenweg goes on to explain that Wix released its editor without any attribution to  WordPress developers. He implores Wix to fall in line with the terms and spirit of the open source license. He’d like Wix to give the proper attribution to the WordPress dev team and also for Wix to make its own code open source and release it to the community.

It’s obvious that Wix is a competitor to Automattic, the company headed by Mullenweg that runs the fully managed WordPress services at www.wordpress.com. Business aside, Mullenweg’s assertion that Wix is into some shady business here seems reasonable. Hopefully, Wix will make things right and follow the rules set forth in the open source license.

Two Scientists Walk Into a Bar

~ jen

two-scientists-walk-into-a-bar-logoGenentech is a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious or life-threatening medical conditions. They are considered to be the founder of the industry, and have been delivering on on the promise of biotechnology for over 40 years. Genentech just launched a podcast.

Genentech’s podcast is called Two Scientists Walk Into a Bar. It is hosted by interviewer Jane Grogan, principle scientist of cancer immunology at Genentech. She is also a former Australian science radio show host. Every two weeks, she will host a new guest and topic.

Topics can include anything from research on cancer vaccines to why we feel pain. Two Scientists Walk Into a Bar will cover what scientists who are tackling some of the biggest challenges in human biology are working on. There will be a total of eight episodes. The podcast is on Soundcloud.

Right now, there is a two-minute teaser episode available in which Jane Grogan talks about her background in radio and her thoughts about the Two Scientists Walk Into a Bar series.

Episode one is called “Cancer and Your Immune System”. In it, Jane Grogan interviews Ira Mellman, one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of cancer immunotherapy. They discuss the “a-ha” moments that could mean the next breakthrough, from checkpoint inhibitors to cancer vaccines. Ira also waxes poetic about transitioning from a life of music to a life of science.

FiercePharma reports that the Two Scientists Walk Into a Bar podcast is part of Genentech’s content strategy. The goal is to “bring understanding of science and scientific inquiry into the mainstream”.

OnMilwaukee Has a Podcast Now

~ jen

onmilwaukee-logoOnMilwaukee is an award-winning daily lifestyle magazine that focuses on news and events that are in and around the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It has been independently owned for more than 18 years, and is a digital only publication. OnMilwaukee recently started a podcast.

Interestingly, this new podcast is not OnMilwaukee’s first podcast. The first one was launched in 2008. Nearly 800 episodes were produced before they retired the podcast in 2014. Their new podcast does not yet have an official name, but it appears they are going with the name OnMilwaukee (for now).

The first episode of OnMilwaukee’s yet-to-be-named podcast is available on Soundcloud.

In the first episode, staff writers Jimmy Carlton and Matt Mueller introduce their podcast and discuss whether to let the public submit ideas for a name. They also recap the Milwaukee Film Festival and the Brewers’ season, preview the Bucks, Badgers, and Marquette, and wonder whether the Packers are still a good team. They also discuss soliciting a sausage company to sponsor the podcast.

The first episode was published on October 13, 2016. It appears that it might be a podcast that is released monthly (although we won’t know that for certain until at least one more episode is produced). Upcoming episodes will focus on pop culture, sports, locally relevant news, arts, dining, and the lifestyle stuff that the OldMilwaukee website features. There may also be interviews with guests.

Shortcut App Makes it Easy to Share Podcast Clips

~ jen

shortcut-logoHave you ever listened to a podcast, and wished you could easily share one, short, clip from it with someone? This American Life from WBEZ has created a solution. It is called Shortcut.

Shortcut is a new app that you can use to turn your favorite podcast moments into videos that you can post onto social media. It’s kind of like making a .gif, but for audio. You can access the app on your desktop or on your phone.

Shortcut is currently in beta. Shortcut will work on any This American Life episode. Use Shortcut to quickly and easily turn your favorite podcast moments into personalized, animated, and transcribed videos that can be easily shared to social media with just one click.

The Shortcut About Page includes the Shortcut Team’s reason for creating it. They had a desire to make creating and sharing audio content as easy as sharing visual content.

Most people discover video and print online by way of small segments that are easy to share on social media: gifs, reaction images, highlighted and screencapped sections of text. We believe the fact that podcasts can’t easily be snipped and shared online is inhibiting the growth of the podcast industry, and Shortcut is a prototype that explores how we can make that process intuitive, easy, and fun.

Shortcut was conceived at This American Life’s Audio Hackathon 2015. The prototype of Shortcut is based around the archives of This American Life.

The Shortcut Team includes:

  • Stephanie Foo – Project Lead
  • Courtney Stanton – Project Manager
  • Darius Kazemi – Developer
  • Jason Sigal – Developer
  • Jane Friedhoff – UX Designer
  • Dalit Shalom – UI Designer
  • Eve Weinberg – Motion Graphics.

The codebase for Shortcut will be open-sourced, meaning that any podcast creator can set it up for their own archives and allow their fans a new avenue to express their fandom.

Spreaker’s Content Management System Offers New Features

~ jen

spreaker-cms-system-logoSpreaker has introduced its new Content Management System (CMS). It is a powerful new tool that makes general podcast and content management a cinch, so that you can make quick changes as needed. Spreaker has taken care of the tech so that podcasters can focus on podcasting.

The CMS is a full control board where you can view the entirety of your account’s content. It’s like a backstage area for your podcast production where you can access your podcast’s settings. The CMS gives you a full view of your operation and output at a glance. Use it to customize your embedded player, manage multiple episodes at once, adjust cover image sizes, and more.

Podcasters can use Spreaker’s CMS to upload a bunch of episodes at once. It is also possible to delete a bunch of content in bulk. Select the episodes you want to get rid of and then hit delete. You can even move episodes around to different shows if organizing may have gotten the best of you.

Another cool thing about Spreaker’s Content Management System is that it will allow you to change the dates of your published episodes to match your desired timeline, even if that means backdating them. And, you can edit the permalinks of your shows and episodes.

Gimlet Ended the Sampler Podcast

~ jen

sampler-podcast-logoSampler was a podcast about podcasts. It was part of Gimlet Media. Gimlet has ended the Sampler podcast.

A sampler is one of two things. It describes a piece of embroidery that was created to demonstrate that someone has mastered a variety of skills in needlework. A sampler is also a box of assorted chocolates.

The Sampler podcast was a collection of the best moments from the world of podcasting. It included hand-picked “stuff that you just have to hear”, and “bite size tastes from the podcast world”. Episodes featured regular conversations with podcasters to find out why they do what they do.

Sampler was hosted by Brittany Luse. Previous to joining Gimlet, Brittany Luse created her own podcast with her best friend Eric. The podcast was called For Colored Nerds. Brittany Luse and her boss, Gimlet Founder Alex Blumberg, put together a “Sampler Goodbye” that you can listen to on Soundcloud. In it, they say goodbye to the Sampler show. In short, they are ready for the next thing.

The good news is that Brittany Luse is staying with Gimlet. Those of you who were subscribed to Sampler should stay subscribed because Brittany’s next show will use the same RSS and iTunes feeds as Sampler did.

Patreon has Partnered with Podomatic

~ jen

patreon-and-podomadic-partner-logoPatreon provides a simple way for podcasters to monetize their podcasts. Podomatic helps podcasters reach an audience with free podcasts, customizable embedded players, and promotional tools. The two companies have partnered – and the outcome could benefit podcasters.

Patreon is integrating with Podomatic so that podcasters can easily monetize their business and build a closer network with their fans. If you want to make use of this integration you need to have a Patreon for your podcast and have your podcast on Podomatic.

After that, all you need to do is put a Patreon button on your Podomatic profile that links directly to your Patreon page. You can do this by clicking on the “funding” tab in your Podomatic settings and adding the link to your Patreon page.

The purpose of this integration is to make it easy for your followers on Podomatic to see how they can contribute more to your work. A listener who is already looking at your podcast’s page on Podomatic can click a button and go right to you Patreon. That’s quicker and easier than if they had to go searching for your Patreon themselves.

It should be noted that podcasters can use Patreon without using Podomatic, and can use Podomatic without using Patreon. The partnership between the two companies could be beneficial for podcasters who are already using both services, or who are using one and were considering using the other as well.