Month: October 2018

Sound Up Bootcamp Australia Seeks Aboriginal Podcasters

~ jen

Spotify announced that Sound Up Bootcamp Australia is seeking aspiring podcasters who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander to apply for the SoundUp Bootcamp, a four-day residential podcasting workshop to be held in Sydney on November 26 – November 29, 2018.

Those who qualify and are interested in applying must submit an entry before midnight on October 29, 2018. To apply, fill out a form that is on the Sound Up Bootcamp website. The form requires people to answer questions. It also includes participation terms.

You don’t need to have any prior podcasting experience, just a voice (with something to say), a passion for the medium, and an eagerness to bring your idea to life. Ten people will be selected to attend, with expenses covered including travel and accommodation for those living outside Sydney.

The bootcamp will be facilitated by Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander radio producer Emily Nicol with workshops presented by Brooke Boney, Allan Clarke, Rudi Bremer, and more.

Sound Up Bootcamp Australia is supported by Audiocraft, a leading Australian audio organization who host events, run workshops, and make podcasts through their agency.

Underdog is a Podcast About the 2018 Texas Midterms

~ jen

Underdog is a podcast about the most-talked about political race of 2018: the Senate contest between Congressman Beto O’Rourke and Senator Ted Cruz. Underdog is by Texas Monthly and Pineapple Street Media. The focus of the podcast is Beto O’Rourke’s campaign.

Underdog was launched on October 12, 2018. Here is how Texas Monthly describes it:

In Underdog, a podcast produced in partnership with Pineapple Street Media, senior editor Eric Benson (who profiled O’Rourke for the magazine’s cover in January) will interview experts and volunteers, enthusiasts and skeptics as the congressman makes his way across the state.

The first episode is titled: “On the Road Again”. The main topic is: Can Beto change the future of Texas politics, or will Beto-mania turn out to be just another liberal fantasy?

The second episode was released on October 19, 2018. It is titled “Red State”. In this episode, Texas Monthly provides a political history of Texas. This is noteworthy because if Beto O’Rourke wins the Texas Senate race in November, he will be the first Democrat elected statewide in 24 years.

Google Introduced Google Podcasts Creator Program

~ jen

Google announced the Google Podcasts creator program in June. The program aims to support underrepresented voices in podcasting, and to make it easier to learn how to get into this growing medium. The application window is now open.

Google explained why they made the Google Podcasts creator program:

With the launch of Google Podcasts app in June, we’re working to make it easier for people around the world to find and access podcasts. While there are more podcasts than ever before, there continues to be an imbalance in who is creating them. Women and people of color are still underrepresented as hosts, and many of the world’s most popular podcasts hail from western, urban areas. In June, we announced the Google Podcasts creator program, which aims to support these underrepresented voices in podcasting, and make it easier for people to learn how to get into this growing medium.

The Google Podcasts creator program is focused on three main pillars:

  • Empowering and training underrepresented voices through an accelerator program
  • Education a global community with free tools
  • Showcasing participants’ work as a model for others

The application window is officially open globally through November 18, 2018, for the first round of the Google Podcasts creator program. Google has partnered with PRX, who will lead and manage the program. Applications will be accepted from around the globe. For more information on the program, and to apply, visit PRX’s Google Podcasts creator program website.

PRX, alongside a global advisory committee, will select teams to receive mentorship, seed funding, and an intensive 20-week training. For those who want to learn more about what it takes to create a podcast, but are not ready to apply to the program, PRX will draw on learnings from the program to develop a series of broadly accessible podcasting 101 videos in multiple languages.

Harvard University Holds Sound Education Conference

~ jen

Sound Education is a conference put on by educational podcasters, for educational podcasters and their listeners. It will take place at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on November 2 and 3, 2018. Tickets are still available.

Educational audio producers are using the power of sound to bring learning out of the classroom and onto the airwaves. Their shows reach tens of millions of listeners a year – listeners who know that learning is a lifelong pursuit and see producers offering an ever-expanding course catalog.

Early arrivals to Sound Education will get a chance to attend a workshop hosted by veteran producer and consultant Eric Nuzum at PRX’s Podcast Garage. This workshop will focus on storytelling, character, and voice in podcasting. To attend the Three Things Your Podcast Needs workshop, you must register at the workshop’s official page.

Sound Education has posted a Schedule that they are working on finalizing. The schedule has information about nearly 50 panelists from across the educational audio spectrum – from radio hosts, to academics, to DIY podcasters. The conference is designed for producers of educational audio. The Conference is hosted by Harvard Divinity School.

A List of Speakers has been released. It has a photo of each speaker and a description what they do. These speakers are part of the Festival, which is designed for the general public. It includes talks from the Speakers, and the opportunity for people to hang out with their favorite hosts, to meet their fellow fans, and to connect with educators and students from around the country.

2018 Parsec Award Finalists Announced

~ jen ~ 2 Comments

The Finalists for the 2018 Parsec Awards have been announced. Later in 2018, the winner will be revealed at a ceremony.

Here is a quick look at the podcasts that were nominated. You can find out more information on the Parsec Awards website. In this blog, I am only listing the podcasts are finalists (and leaving out additional details).

Best Speculative Fiction Story: Small Cast (Short Form)
PodCastle
Cast of Wonders
The Wicked Library
Gallery of Curiosities

Best Speculative Fiction Story: Small Cast (Long Form)
Sons of Macha (Shadowmagic 3) category SCL
The Aldergate Papers
Gone
Shadow Publications: Derelict Tomb
Nobilis Erotica

Best Speculative Fiction Story: Large Cast (Short Form)
The Grey Area
Liberty: Tales from the Tower
The Audio Epics Podcast

Best Speculative Fiction Audio Drama (Short Form)
All’s Fair
The Axe & Crown
Gen-Z Media
Inhale
The NoSleep Podcast

Best Speculative Fiction Audio Drama (Long Form)
Centauri Express
Uncanny County
Just Press Playhouse presents: Time Trip!
Ark City
Exoplanetary

Best Speculative Fiction Video Story
Grant’s Advent Calendar
Active Radioactive Radio
The Uncle Interloper Show

Best Speculative Magazine or Anthology Podcast
Seminar
Tall Tale TV
Escape Pod
Rude Alchemy

Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team
SHABAM!
The Amelia Project
The Phenomenon
Gone
Immunities

Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast (Specific)
Rebel Force Radio
To the Journey!
Lower Decks: A Star Trek Discovery Podcast
Aggressive Negotiations: A Star Wars Podcast

Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast (General)
Two Gay Geeks
The 602 Club
Kalandi

Best Podcast about Speculative Fiction Content Creation
Under the Puppet
Radio Drama Revival
Eating the Fantastic

Best Fact Behind the Fiction Podcast
Tale Foundry
Flash Forward
Astronomy Cast
Skeptoid
Decipher SciFi

Best Speculative Fiction Comedy/Parody Podcast
Kakos Industries
Audioblivious Productions
Robotz of the Company

2018 Discover Pods Awards Call for Nominations

~ jen

The nomination period for the 2018 Discover Pods Awards will end on October 26, 2018, at 6pm ET. There is still time for you to nominate your favorite podcast by filling out a form on the 2018 Discover Pods Awards website.

Last year, the inaugural Discover Pods Awards, we received over 4,000 nominations and over 6,000 voted on the finalists. S-Town was the big winner taking home four trophies including Best Overall Podcast, Best Podcast Episode, Best New Podcast, and Best True Crime Podcast.

This year, they are adding new categories and changing things up a bit.

Everyone is free to nominate podcasts and episodes. There’s no charge to do so. Ballot stuffing is not allowed. Each email address only gets one nomination form – multiples get automatically deleted. Also, total nominations, while important are only one variable that will determine the finalists.

The Finalists will be announced on November 16, 2018. Discover Pods explains: “Together with a small group of fans and advocates, we’ll sift through the nominations and ultimately determine the podcasts selected for the final round of voting”.

After the Finalists are determined, there will be a Final Voting period starting on November 16, 2018, and ending on December 7, 2018. The 2018 Discover Pods Award Winners will be announced on December 10, 2018.

Scripps to Acquire Triton

~ jen

The E.W. Scripps Company is acquiring Triton, the global leader in digital audio technology and measurement services, helping Scripps advance its strategies for near- and long-term value creation.

Triton serves the growing digital audio marketplace through a software-as-a-service (Saas) business-to-business revenue model. Triton powers or measures streaming music and podcasting for many of the biggest names in audio, including Pandora, Spotify, NPR, iHeart, Entercom, Cumulus, Prisa (Spain), Mediacorp (Singapore) and Karnaval (Turkey).

Triton’s infrastructure and ad-serving solutions deliver live and on-demand audio streams and insert advertisements into those streams. Triton’s data and measurement service is recognized as the currency by which publishers sell digital audio advertising.

Financial highlights include:

  • The purchase price is $150 million.
  • The transaction will be financed with cash on hand.
  • Triton will immediately be accretive to company margins.
  • Triton’s 2018 revenue is projected to be approximately $40 million, with EBITDA projected in the mid-teen millions.
  • Triton’s 2019 revenue is projected to grow in the low or mid-teens percent range over 2018.
  • The revenue multiple for the transaction is about 3.7x; the EBITDA multiple is about 9x.
  • This is a stock acquisition, and therefore there is no step-up in the assets for tax purposes.

Blubrry’s WordPress Plugin Added Skip-to-Position

~ jen

The latest update to the free WordPress plugin, PowerPress, created and maintained by podcasting provider, Blubrry, includes two new features: skip-to-position and emojis.

The skip-to-position feature, also known as a time-hack, allows podcast listeners to skip to a specified time set in the episode by the show host. When the link is clicked within the show notes it will go to that position in the player and start playing.

This feature, which benefits both the show host and listeners by spotlighting details that may go unnoticed, will also encourage new listeners and those looking for specific insights from a podcast.

“The Skip-to-Position enables podcasters to directly link and highlight show segments making it easier to promote a topic to their audience,” explained Todd Cochrane, RawVoice/Blubrry CEO. “I am excited to have this feature now, and we know our podcasters and their audiences will be, too.”

In a world of social media and digital communication, emojis are part of everyday life. Now, they’re also part of show notes or blog posts written on websites utilizing PowerPress. Emojis will show not only in the blog posts but also in the information displayed in the iOS Podcasts and Google Podcasts apps.

In August, Blubrry celebrated the 10 year anniversary of its PowerPress Plugin. Version 7.4 of PowerPress was released Monday, October 1st. The plugin can be downloaded on WordPress and additional information, including how to implement both new features, can be found on blubrry.com.

Audacity 2.3.0 Released with New Features

~ jen

Audacity 2.3.0 has been released. It replaces all previous versions for Windows and macOS. It includes many new features and over 90 bugs fixes (since 2.2.2).

The Audacity Team started their blog post about Audacity 2.3.0 by identifying some known issues and indicating what can be done about them:

We are still compiling Audacity as 32-bit. Whilst MacOSX works with 32-bit, it would prefer a 64-bit version of Audacity. We are working on a 64-bit version for Mac for 2.3.1. On Windows, you may find that recording is disabled until you change Windows permissions for the microphone! This affects all versions of Audacity, and many other programs.

New features of Audacity 2.3.0 include:

  • New feature – “Punch and Roll Recording”
  • Pinned-play-head can now be repositioned by dragging
  • Play-at-speed now can be adjusted whilst playing
  • Toolbars controlling volume and speed can now be resized for greater precision.
  • Macros (formerly ‘Chains’) substantially extended: New Macro palette; Macros can be bound to keyboard keys
  • New commands: New ‘Tools’ menu; New ‘Scriptable’ commands
  • Nyquist gains AUD-DO command
  • Nyquist effects are now translatable and translated
  • More dialogs have help buttons now
  • Increased legibility of trackname display
  • Half-wave option for controlled tracks
  • Sliding Stretch
  • Dialog (option) for entering labels.

For more information about these new features, visit the Audacity blog post and click on the link there that leads to that information. In addition, the blog post has information on the over 90 bugs that were in 2.2.2 that have been fixed.

Night Vale Presents: Adventures in New America

~ jen

There is a brand new podcast produced by Night Vale Presents called Adventures in New America. It is described as: “the first sci-fi, political satire, Afrofuturistic buddy comedy, serialized for New Americans in a new and desperate time.”

Set a few years in the future, Adventures in New America follows the escapades of two mismatched African-New-American best friends – fat, lonely curmudgeon IA and lesbian sneak-thief Simon Carr – who take on a series of increasingly high-stakes heists to get quick cash to pay for IA’s medical treatment while attempting to survive the wilds of New New York City… and a secret cabal of Tetchy Terrorist Vampire Zombies from outer space.

Adventures in New America stars Paige Gilbert, Bryan Webster, Pernell Walker (The Deuce), Starlee Kine (Mystery Show), Stephen Writer, and many more.

The first episode is called “The End”. It comes with an interesting, yet disturbing, description. “New American citizens are terrorized by supernatural beings. A man with cancer who has given up on life is saved by a younger sociopathic girl he meets outside of a poke bowl restaurant. Somebody’s baby is crying: is it yours?”

I highly recommend that you take the time to visit the Adventures in New America website. Underneath the player for the first episode, there is a list of all the characters and the people who played them. You can also find out who wrote and directed the episode, the theme song, other music included in the episode, and the people behind the scenes.