Month: November 2016

Podomatic Partners with AdvertiseCast

~ jen

podomatic-and-advertisecastPodomatic helps podcasters to reach an audience with free podcasts, customizable embedded players, and promotional tools. Podomatic has partnered with AdvertiseCast, which makes it easier for advertisers to buy ad spots from podcasters online in one centralized marketplace.

AdvertiseCast is the premiere online advertising marketplace that connects advertisers with podcasters. Their system makes it easy for you to get sponsored, and they take care of everything from finding advertisers, ad buying, payouts, and more.

Here’s how this partnership works. First, “dig deep inside your soul and make a podcast” (says Podomatic). Next, join Podomatic and add your podcast listing to the AdvertiseCast marketplace for free. Choose the ad campaigns that best fit your podcast.

Describe your podcast and select which ad products you are willing to sell. AdvertiseCast splits the revenue between themselves and the podcast. Podcasts keep 80% from every sale. Advertisers can order your ad spots – and podcasters have the right of refusal by approving or disproving the order. AdvertiseCast wants to make sure that advertisers are a good fit for your show. Fulfill the ad order as requested and get paid.

Podomatic PRO Podcasters have the additional functionality of Stats Verification, which provides potential advertisers with additional information to make ad buying decisions easier. With a Podomatic PRO membership, you get the exclusive option to have your stats in AdvertiseCast validated by Podomatic, increasing your chance of connecting and creating campaigns with advertisers.

Pod Hive Matches Smaller Podcasts with Advertisers

~ jen

pod-hive-logoOne of the problems that podcasters face is that advertisers typically want to work with podcasts that have tens of thousands of downloads. Pod Hive wants to bring together advertisers and “boutique-sized podcasts”.

Pod Hive was founded in 2016 by Blaire Postman and Allen Henderson. Together, these two podcasters have a combined 20+ years in advertising and media experience.

In early 2010, Blaire Postman joined Raycom Media, selling all manner of digital, social media, broadcast TV advertising, and event sponsorships. Allen Henderson is the founder of Wilmington Area Media Inc., which continues to provide corporate communication and business-to-business marketing services to large and small companies. Wilmington Area Media hs partnered with Pod Hive to provide operational and strategic support for the business.

Pod Hive has podcast eligibility requirements:

Your podcast must have at least 400 monthly downloads. Pod Hive notes that’s 100+ downloads per show if you produce four shows a month.

Your podcast needs to have basic stats (showing total downloads), but advanced stats showing a breakdown by state are gladly accepted and will garner more sponsorship opportunities. Pod Hive currently accepts verified statistics from Blubrry, Libsyn (Advanced Stats), or Soundcloud (Pro Unlimited Stats).

Your podcast needs to have an active production schedule, producing at least one new show per month.

Pod Hive will connect advertisers to podcasts that sign up with Pod Hive and that have between 400 and 20,000 downloads a month. They are able to match advertisers with podcasts based on podcast subject matter, type and geographic download information.

Two New Hires at iHeartMedia

~ jen

iheartmedia-logoEarlier this month, iHeartMedia hired two people to fill important positions at iHeartRadio. They now have a new senior VP of Marketing and a new VP of Podcasting.

Beth Murphy has been hired as Senior Vice President of Marketing.  Previously, she was the the chief marketing officer at Deezer, a Paris-based music service, from August of 2014 through February of 2016, and the CMO at Stitcher (which was acquired by Deezer in October of 2014). She managed international marketing and B2B efforts for both streaming services.

Chris Peterson has been hired as Senior Vice President of Podcasting. He will oversee iHeartRadio’s overall podcast strategy and grow its profile in the community. Chris Peterson was previously at TuneIn, which is a competitor to iHeartRadio in the radio aggregation business. He was Content Partnership Manager at TuneIn. Chris Peterson was also the Director of Operations for Glenn Beck’s The Blaze network.

 

Win a Free Year of Podcast Hosting from Libsyn

~ jen

libsyn-promote-the-tar-out-of-yourself-contestLibsyn is holding a contest where three lucky podcasters will each win one free year of hosting at Libsyn.com. The contest is called “Promote the Tar Out of Yourself on Friday”.

The Libsyn Team wants to give 3 podcasters a free year of hosting in the easiest way possible: by promoting your podcast. That is all you have to do. They picked Friday as the day of the week to do it because, according to their blog post, Fridays are meant to be community building as well as giving podcasters the opportunity to “promote, promote, promote!”

They also understand that the holiday season is busy, and they wanted to make a contest that would not require podcasters who entered to have to do even more than they already have planned at this hectic time of year.

In addition, this contest will motivate podcasters who enter to continue podcasting through the end of the year. We all know that many podcasts end up taking a long break during the holidays because they just can’t fit everything into their lives.

Here’s what you have to do if you want to enter the contest

  • Comment on the Promote The Tar Out of Yourself on Friday (PTTOOYF) post on Facebook or reply to the PTTOOYF post on Twitter on one or all of the following Fridays: 11/25, 12/2, 12/9, 12/16, and/or 12/23. NOTE: You can participate on both Twitter and Facebook, but you will only be entered once per week.
  • Share your latest episode. The episode must be published within the week of the PTTOOYF post.
  • Follow all directions to posting: (a) you must share a name and/or description of what your podcast episode is about, (b) a link to how people can find and listen to the podcast, and (c) a link to your podcast’s contact, about page, or social media profile so that Libsyn can easily contact you.

If you post a comment on the PTTOOYF post on Facebook or Twitter after 11:59 p.m. PST on the corresponding Friday, your entry will be disqualified. Entries only count on Friday.

Libsyn will have a grand random drawing of qualified entries placed on Fridays from 11/25 through 12/23. Three lucky podcasters will be announced on Friday, December 30, 2016. For more details, please read the Libsyn blog post about the contest.

 

Podcasters’ Week in Guatemala – July 2017

~ jen

podcasters-week-in-guatemalaWant to help make a difference in the lives of others? There is an opportunity for podcasters coming up in July of 2017. Spend Podcasters’ Week in Guatemala helping children and families who are in extreme poverty.

Podcasters’ Week is a week-long Mission trip to Guatemala, hosted by NowIsTheTimeForMissions.com.  It is especially designed for podcasters and their families, friends, and audience members of all ages and skill levels, where as a community everyone can come together and make a real difference in the lives of children and their families in Guatemala who are living in extreme poverty.

Podcasters’ Week takes place July 16-23, 2017. It was organized by Podcasters’ Hangout family member and contributor Shawn Smith and his wife who have done their Mission work in villages in Guatemala. He is also the founder of TheMobilePro.net. John Dennis, the Founder of The Podcaster’s Hangout Facebook Group, also organized Podcasters’ Week.

The home base for those participating in Podcasters’ Week will be in Antigua, Guatemala. Everyone who attends Podcasters’ Week will receive a copy of Shawn Smith’s acclaimed “5 Ways to Record Podcast Interviews with an iPhone” eBook and video guide ($150 value). There will also be a workshop on one of the evenings were participating podcasters can learn how to record pro, studio-sounding podcast episodes from anywhere in the world – with equipment that will fit inside your backpack.

Those who are interested in participating in this unique experience should visit the Podcasters’ Week website and click the “Yes, I Want to Learn More” button. This is a first-come, first-serve opportunity that can accommodate 40 people.

Wondery Launches “Terms” – A Political Audio Drama

~ jen

terms-logoSpoke Media, a Dallas-based audio production company, announced the launch of an innovative new political thriller and serialized audio drama called Terms. It is being released on Wondery. Terms will be Wondery’s third “Wondery Original” to be released.

Terms begins on election night. President Oliver Pierce (voiced by veteran Dallas stage actor and director Jeffery Schmidt), watches in disbelief from the White House as an incredibly controversial figure, Charles Dunwalke (voiced by Brandon Potter, fresh off his lauded performance as LBJ at the Dallas Theater Center), wins an Electoral College victory to the shock and dismay of a majority of Americans.

Fearing the worst is about to come, Pierce must now make the most difficult decision of his career, a decision that sets in motion a series of events that will have historic and possibly catastrophic consequences. The future of the country hangs in the balance between Election Night and Inauguration Day as America teeters on the edge of salvation and destruction.

One would be hard pressed to find a more relevant topic for a political drama, considering the things going on in the real world, right now, in regards to the 2016 presidential election. Surprisingly, the idea for Terms was based on an idea that Lindsay Graham (executive producer of Terms) had a decade earlier.

Terms has three co-producers: Keith Reynolds (three-time AudioFile Audie Award winner), Robert McCollum (veteran voice actor), and Michael Federico (Legendary Digital Studios).

The first episode of Terms was released in the feed of Wondery’s Secrets, Crimes & Audiotape podcast. There will be a total of 13 episodes, two of which have already been released on the Terms website.

 

Facebook Updates Metrics and Reporting

~ shawn

Facebook logoThe ever-increasing reach of Facebook is undeniable. The social networking site has added many new features over the years to extend its ability to connect people and deliver different forms of content. One of Facebook’s latest endeavors, Facebook Live, has already been used by many podcasters as either a broadcasting tool or a way to provide supplemental content. And while Facebook Live may prove to be useful to independent producers, it’s also being used by large brands. This interest is likely what led Facebook to review some of its metrics and reporting practices. The company recently published a blog post on its Facebook Business site addressing changes it has made to these systems.

The one item that may be most interesting to podcasters is Facebook’s new policy for measuring video completion. Video completion is Facebook’s stat for showing that a video has been watched all the way to the end:

When partners upload their videos to Facebook, the full video length is recorded, but when the video delivers to people’s devices, the length of the video can sometimes be a fraction of a second shorter or longer. This occasionally happens when the audio and video track don’t line up, owing to differences between video players and devices. While someone may watch a video to completion on their device, the audio may continue to play for a bit longer. This particular issue caused us to undercount the metric ‘video watches at 100%’ (previously named ‘video views to 100%’). Moat found this and reported it to us. We are now updating how we read the video length to address this issue. This may result in roughly a 35% increase in the count of ‘video watches at 100%.’ For example, if ‘video watches at 100%’ were 1%, they would now be 1.35%.

(Note: Moat is one of Facebook’s third-party measurement partners.) According to the above paragraph, Facebook will be tweaking its “views to 100” metric retroactively, so producers may see a noticeable increase in this category when viewing their stats.

A different Facebook feature that probably isn’t used by many podcasters yet, but might be used more in the future, is Instant Articles. There are also changes coming to how Facebook measures interaction with Instant Articles:

Instant Articles is a way for any publisher to create fast, interactive mobile content on Facebook. We also provide publishers with insights to help them understand how their content is consumed. We’ve determined that the average time spent per article had been over-reported by 7-8% on average since August of last year. This was caused by a calculation error: we were calculating the average across a histogram of time spent, instead of reflecting the total time spent reading an article divided by its total views. We have now fixed this issue.

Here we have a case that’s the opposite of what happened with the video metrics. If you’re already using Instant Articles and saw the “average time spent” metric go down, that happened as a result of the changes covered in the above paragraph.

These two examples just barely crack the surface of all of the changes Facebook is making to its metrics and reporting system. Click the link above if you’d like to learn what else Facebook is working on in this area.

iTunes Announces Winter Content Submission and Holiday Support Schedules

~ shawn ~ 5 Comments

iTunes logoEvery year, things slow down a bit at Apple during the holiday season. And 2016 is no different. Last week, Apple sent an e-mail to all registered iTunes Store content providers to let them know what Apple is planning for the rest of the year.

The e-mail has two sections that will be useful to podcasters. The first section is titled Winter Content Submission Schedules. These schedules are the dates that Apple staff will be available to review new submissions to the iTunes Store. Apple provided a handy chart that shows when you should submit a new podcast, depending on your projected launch date:

iTunes 2016 Winter Submission Dates

Note that this chart applies to the submission of new podcasts only. It has no impact on shows that are already listed in the iTunes Store. The e-mail from Apple also states, “If you plan on launching any Podcasts during this time, we recommend submitting your podcast for approval as early as possible.”

The second section of the e-mail that’s relevant to podcasters is the Holiday Support Schedules:

If you have questions or need support, you can always reach out to our Podcasts Support team. However, keep in mind that they won’t be available on the below dates, and Podcast approvals and response times on or around these dates may be delayed:

November 24 to November 25, 2016

December 24, 2016 to January 2, 2017

Make sure you keep these dates in mind if you’re planning on launching a new podcast before the end of the year or if you find you need help with an existing iTunes Store listing.

Cast Away Podcast Awards Promotes Australian Podcasters

~ jen

cast-away-podcast-awardsThe Cast Away Podcast Awards are an Australian first. It was founded by Dave Gertler. The purpose is to bring the Australian podcasting community together, to support, reward, promote the work Australian podcasters are doing, and provide alternative platforms of discovery to podcast listeners.

Australian podcasters can register their show with Cast Away. Registration is free and comes with no obligation on your part. The registration form asks for your Podcast’s name, your name, and a link to your latest episode (among other things).

On November 17, 2016, the Cast Away Awards had 130 podcasts registered. The winners will be honored at an awards event in Sydney on March 25, 2017.

The Cast Away Awards podcast categories :

  • Comedy & Entertainment
  • Film & TV
  • Sport
  • Tech, Science & Gaming
  • Arts, Literature & Music
  • Industry Focus
  • Lifestyle, Health & Wellness
  • Business, Marketing & Entrepreneurship
  • Political, Social & Cultural Affairs
  • Documentary & Storytelling

The judges of the Cast Away Awards are:

  • Robert Loewenthal – founder of the Whooshkaa Podcasting Platfoorm
  • Matt Saraceni – Head of Content at Omny Studio
  • Cat Colman – Production Manager at Music Feeds Studio
  • Adela Mizrachi – Founder of Podcast Brunch Club (PBC)
  • Dave Lee – Co-Founder of International Podcast Day
  • Jarod Pickford – Founder of Podmatcher
  • Josh Butt – Content producer at MediaCom Beyond Advertising
  • Sara DaSilva – Writer/Editor of Audible Feast podcast review website

Wondery Launches “Wait Wait Don’t Kill Me” Musical

~ jen ~ 1 Comment

Secrets, Crimes & Audiotape logoWondery, a network of storytellers, has announced the launch of “Wait Wait Don’t Kill Me”. It is the first-ever musical produced as a serialized podcast. The musical is the newest story that is being presented in the Secrets, Crimes & Audiotape podcast.

Secrets, Crimes & Audiotape features dramas and comedies about love, mystery and conspiracy. Each story plays out over multiple half-hour long episodes that are available as free podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher, Wondery.com, and other platforms.

“Wait Wait Don’t Kill Me” was written by Dave Holstein (from the TV show Weeds) with music and lyrics by Alan Schmuckler (from the upcoming Diary of a Wimpy Kid musical). “Wait Wait Don’t Kill Me” is a darkly comedic five-part musical satire that follows Serial host Sarah Koenig as she investigates the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee. The story explores the controversial thesis: What if Sarah Koening did it?

Sarah Koening is played by Leslie Kritzer (Broadway’s Something Rotten). In 1998, Sarah is working as a struggling beat reporter for the Baltimore Sun. She desperately needs a scoop or she will be out of a job. A few miles away, Hae Min Lee (played by Renée Albulario from Here Lies Love) celebrates her prom night with her prom prince boyfriend Adnan Syed (played by Zachary Infante from Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream).

When Sarah’s and Hae’s paths cross, voices in Sarah’s head suggest that Hae’s salacious murder could solve all of her problems. Fifteen years later, Ira Glass (played by Jessie Cannizzario) suggests that Sarah turn the story of Hae’s murder into a podcast. Drama intensifies when as Ira starts to suspect that Sarah was involved in Hae’s death.

In short, “Wait Wait Don’t Kill Me” takes the Serial podcast, and Sarah Koening, and puts them into an alternative universe that involves music and singing. The first episode of “Wait Wait Don’t Kill Me” is available now, and more episodes will follow.