Month: November 2020

Vurbl Disrupts Audio Industry with Creator-First Audio Streaming Platform

~ jen

Consumer audio streaming behavior has shifted this year due to the coronavirus. While we continue to navigate the waters of uncertainty, one thing remains clear: consumers are spending more time at home and on the go with their connected devices and streaming all types of audio than ever. However, audio is scattered across the internet in hard to find places, much of it costs money, discoverability continues to be a challenge, and cohesive playback across audio types is not easy. Until Vurbl, there was no one-stop-shop for audio content.

Vurbl breaks ground in the audio ecosystem with the launch of its revolutionary online platform bringing the world of audio to one place, with over 20 million curated audio files at launch, content creators can add to the audio library by creating their own stations to grow their audience and monetize their audio creations.

Vurbl is a home to audio of all types, including user generated audio, like YouTube is for video. The platform gives audio creators a place to host, build an audience, and earn ad revenue from their content. For listeners, it’s a one-stop-shop for free learning and entertainment in the form of audio and is a mix of user created and Vurbl Expert curated content by Vurbl’s staff in the form of playlists and stations. Users can listen to all types of great audio across 40+ categories, thousands of playlists and millions of audio files, all in one place.

Vurbl’s platform offers over 20 million audio files in a streamlined user experience with both human curated and algorithmically generated audio recommendations and playlists. Vurbl follows the YouTube framework – it is a centralized place any user can upload any content they own, Vurbl streams it, supports embeds and facilitates audience building and monetization via real-time programmatic ads.

For listeners, Vurbl saves users valuable time instead of spending tireless hours searching the internet for audio. Vurbl’s library offers over 40+ audio categories, thousands of playlists and millions of audio files, all in one place.

Creators can stream, aggregate audiences, access critical data, gain awareness and monetize short clips with ads and earn revenue any time their audio file is played. For podcasters and YouTubers that already have lots of audio content, Vurbl can automatically port YouTube channels to a Vurbl audio station. Vurbl has also published nearly 500k English language podcasts that can be “claimed” by their creators.

Advertisers can use Vurbl to target audio listeners with real-time programmatic audio advertising. Advertisers can target by category, behavior, or demos and buy against any vertical in real-time. Currently, other podcast platforms offer dynamic insert which is a poor way to buy/sell and has held the audio industry back. Additionally, advertisers can measure audio buys in completely new ways.

Podcast Movement has a Black Friday Sale

~ jen

Podcast Movement 2021 has a Black Friday Sale happening now. It will end on Monday night at midnight. During the sale, you can purchase a variety of main conference tickets for a lower price. Black Friday registrants get a free Podcast Movement shirt with every order!

Main Conference Tickets

Standard Pass – Black Friday Special ($175.00)

Each Standard Registration includes:

  • Access to all 100+ keynote and breakout sessions and all-star panels
  • Entry to the expo hall with 70+ industry exhibitors
  • Entry to all other public parties and events
  • Free PM Shirt at the event (Black Friday Sale Only)

Plus Pass – Black Friday Special ($275.00)

Each Plus Registration includes:

  • Everything included in the Standard registration
  • The Virtual Ticket, featuring on-demand recordings of every session (after the event ends)
  • Free PM Shirt at the event (Black Friday Sale Only)

Pro Pass – Black Friday Special ($475.00)

Each Pro Pass registration includes:

  • Everything included in the Standard registration
  • The Virtual Ticket, featuring on-demand recordings of every session (after the event ends)
  • Access to the Pro Networking Lounge with drinks, and morning & afternoon snacks, all three event days
  • Speedy badge pickup
  • Free PM shirt at the event (Black Friday Sale Only)
  • and more!

Virtual Only Pass – Black Friday Special ($175.00)

Each Virtual Registration includes:

  • Live stream access to keynote talks, and a select number of breakout and panel stages
  • The Virtual Ticket, featuring on-demand recordings of every session (after the event ends)

Luminary Expands Service to the Nordic Region

~ jen

Luminary, a subscription podcast network, announced that it is expanding service to four new countries, bringing its original content to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland listeners for the first time. This move will substantially grow the number of international locations where Luminary is offered (currently CA, UK, AU, SA, IE, and NZ) and expand its reach to 27 million residents in the Nordic region.

“We are proud to offer Luminary’s original content from our talented creators to the Nordics, where podcast listenership continues to rapidly grow and ranks among the highest in the world,” said Luminary CEO Simon Sutton.

The Nordic region is among the top 15 countries of podcast consumers according to Reuters Digital News Report – 35% of Sweden residents listen to podcasts (ranked #4 and tied with the U.S.), as do 31% of residents in Norway, 26% in Finland, and 24% in Denmark. According to Forbes, Sweden actually has more podcast listeners per capita than the U.S., and The Digital News Report indicates that more than 50% of Sweden residents under the age of 35 have listened to a podcast.

Since launching in April of 2019, Luminary’s podcast content has had a strong positive reaction from critics and listeners, as Luminary creators were honored with 2019 Podcast of the Year Awards from AdWeek and named in 2019 “best podcasts” and “best podcast episodes” lists by The Atlantic, Time, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Marie Claire, IndieWire, O The Oprah Magazine, Esquire, Vulture, The AV Club and Good Housekeeping.

These moves are also part of Luminary’s continued growth and evolution in the dynamic podcast market, where in the United States, 90 million Americans have listened to a podcast in the last 30 days according to Edison Research and Triton Digital.

Advertising For Any Sized Podcast on Podomatic

~ jen

Podomatic is now making it possible for all podcasters, no matter your audience size or experience level, two new ways to make real money with your podcast.

With two unique new partnerships, all podcasters can now easily find high-paying Advertisers and create Free Merch Stores while Podomatic forwards all company commissions back to the podcaster. That means zero upfront cost ever, zero risk, 100% of your profits, 100% ownership of your brand, products, and pricing, and all podomatic commissions. A better deal isn’t out there.

Podcast monetization has become a huge industry in recent years, with many experts predicting over $1 Billion in podcast revenue in 2021. These advertisers and that money however, have only been available to a very small percentage of podcasters.

Podomatic and our two new partners, Podcorn and WhatFor? Apparel, have created a monetization option that will change that forever. As it says in our Podcaster Bill of Rights, you own what you create on Podomatic and you are free to monetize what you own any way you see fit. That is why Podomatic is forwarding all commissions made from these new partnerships, directly to the podcaster. The money you earn from your content is yours, Podomatic is just here to support you.

Podcorn is a podcast advertising company that knows a small engaged audience can be just as valuable to advertisers as a large one. With Podomatic and Podcorn’s new integration, podcasters will easily be able to find the perfect sponsors for their podcast, set their own rates, ad placements, create custom ads that fit their content and get paid upon hire. Ensuring the highest rates and fastest payouts.

Co-Founder of Podcorn David Kierzkowski added, “Monetization plays a critical role in the health of the podcast ecosystem and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with Podomatic as they share our goals to support independent voices of all sizes to improve podcasters’ access to monetization opportunities, while giving advertisers easier access and discovery of amazing podcast talent.”

Completing Podomatic’s new monetization suite is WhatFor? Apparel, a Print-On-Demand solution for custom podcast merchandise. Podomatic podcasters are now easily able to create their own custom merch stores, upload or design hundreds of custom branded products, set their own prices, and keep 100% of their profits!

“From the outset of WhatFor? Apparel, we knew that we wanted to be able to partner with influencers and content creators to provide them a platform to monetize their work without having to spend lots of money. That is why we are so excited to be partnering with Podomatic. With our no upfront cost merch program, combined with the suite of tools and technology offered by Podomatic, we genuinely believe that podcasters will have everything they need to be successful!” – Josiah Sifuentes, Chief Operations Officer at What For? Apparel.

Visit Podomatic today to create a PRO Podcast for only $2.49/month and start earning real money with Podcorn and WhatFor? Apparel.

Bitcast Partnered with Podcast Notes

~ jen

Los Angeles based social podcasting platform Bitcast has announced that they have partnered with Podcast Notes for the launch of a new iOS app that lets listeners “Magically Clip, Collect, and Share the best moments in Podcasts”.

Positioned as a new paradigm in social audio, Bitcast combines podcast clips with user generated audio in order to create a new and novel listening experience.

“Unlike the recent wave of live audio startups, Bitcast was designed to capitalize on the potential of asynchronous audio” explains founder Marcus Sonoma, “by allowing podcast fans and podcasters to seamlessly clip and share specific moments in podcasts. We have already begun to see podcast clips emerge as an incredibly new medium; one that consistently spurs on numerous important discussions on the platform.”

Beyond serving as conversation starters, podcast clips have proven to be a killer solution to the well known podcast discovery problem. “The most interesting application of podcast clips, however, is what happens when you organize them into playlists, i.e. ‘the best clips about x…’ this format of passively consumed content is something we’re keenly exploring, especially with the recent proliferation of smart speakers.”

Notably, when asked about Bitcast’s partnership with Podcast Notes, Marcus said it was a “no brainer” for both companies. As the overlap was “too obvious to ignore.” “Podcast Notes has grown a loyal audience by expertly summarizing key takeaways from the world’s best podcasts. We hope to take that one step further by creating an entire social ecosystem for those summaries to be shared and gain lives of their own.”

“We were compelled by Marcus’ vision for where clipping can go and are thrilled to partner with Bitcast as a perfect complement to what we’ve done over the past 5 years capturing and sharing podcast knowledge” – Cyd Falkson, CMO of Podcast Notes.

Buzzsprout Added the Soundbites Tag

~ jen

Buzzsprout continues to charge forward with support for the new “podcast” namespace. They announced support for the Soundbite tag. The tag itself is very simple, but the opportunities for its use are very exciting.

Buzzsprout is the first podcast hosting application to push this new tag and we’re excited to see how other podcasting apps start using it.

The first podcast listening app that Buzzsprout has seen using the Soundbite tag is Podverse. They have added Clips, which lets listeners see and play all of the Soundbites from an episode or even all the Soundbites from the entire podcast. You can check out Buzzcast to see (and hear) an example.

Buzzsprout has long offered the ability to see a Visual Soundbite for your podcast episodes. The process has not changed; you create Soundbites in Buzzsprout the same as before.

What has changed is how Soundbites are distributed. Previously, you were fully responsible for sharing your Soundbites across the internet, typically on social sites.

Now Buzzsprout is adding all Soundbites created in BuzzSprout to your RSS feed as well. This allows any podcast app or directory to easily identify points of interest within your episodes and highlight them in various ways.

Riverside.fm Raises $2.5M in Funding

~ jen

Riverside.fm, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based video podcasting platform, emerged from stealth mode with $2.5M in funding. The round was led by Silicon Valley investor Oren Zeev.

Led by Nadav Keyson, CEO and co-founder, Riverside.fm is a platform that enables local recording of lossless audio and 4K video tracks independent of internet connection speed. It enables anyone, from individual podcasters to enterprise brands and media companies, to record studio-quality interviews from anywhere with no loss in recording quality.

In addition to its ability to record lossless audio and 4K video tracks independent of connection speeds, users can:

  • Download separate audio and video tracks perfectly in sync
  • Use Riverside.fm on any browser with no software installation required
  • Achieve fast uploads that start upon recording and continue in the background throughout the session
  • Automatically back up all recordings, which means no lost files, ever

Riverside.fm is currently supporting video podcasting for globally recognized media companies and celebrities including Hillary Clinton, BBC, Bloomberg, Spotify, Marvel and Verizon Media. Many media brands and celebrities use the platform to record studio-quality interviews from anywhere, with no loss in recording quality.

iHeartMedia and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Partner for Hall of Fame Vault

~ jen

iHeartMedia announced an exclusive podcast partnership with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The first episode of the iHeartRadio Original series Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault debuted on November 6, 2020, the day before the 35th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony airing on November 7 on HBO. Fans can listen now to the iHeartRadio App and everywhere podcasts are heard.

The series, which covers iconic induction speeches, from artists ranging from Rock, Hip Hop, Country and Pop, launched with The Beatles inducted by Mick Jagger, N.W.A. inducted by Kendrick Lamar, The Eagles inducted by Jimmy Buffet, and Stevie Nicks inducted by Harry Styles. New episodes will premiere every Friday through the end of the year. A 2nd season will premiere in early 2021.

“Each year, rock’s highest honor, Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, is bestowed upon a handful of artists, cementing their legacy for eternity. That night, they are celebrated by their peers and contemporary artists they have influenced. All share mutual admiration for these legends, who have dedicated their lives to rock & roll,” said Greg Harris, President & CEO, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

“Over the past 35 years, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies have become renowned for their impassioned and sometimes outrageous acceptance speeches,” said Conal Byrne, President of the iHeartPodcast Network for iHeartMedia. “We’re thrilled to bring the most iconic moments of past and present music infamy to fans around the world and continue to share what’s made the event special in the past and for years to come.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault podcast series will include speeches from the following presenters and inductees:

  • Stevie Nicks & Harry Styles
  • The Beatles & Mick Jagger
  • N.W.A. & Kendrick Lamar
  • The Eagles & Jimmy Buffet
  • Queen & Dave Grohl & Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters
  • Prince & Alicia Keys & Outcast
  • Stevie Wonder & Paul Simon
  • Joan Jett & The Blackhearts & Miley Cyrus
  • Janet Jackson & Janelle Monae
  • Bruce Springsteen & Bono
  • Tupac Shakur & Snoop Dog
  • Jackson 5 & Diana Ross
  • The Cure & Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails
  • Bonnie Raitt & Melissa Etheridge
  • The Staple Singers & Lauryn Hill
  • Pearl Jam & David Letterman
  • Joan Baez & Jackson Browne
  • Metallica & Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Gladys Knight & The Pips & Mariah Carey
  • The Moody Blues & Ann Wilson of Heart

Whooshkaa Introduced the Wooshkaa Cloud Studio

~ jen

Whooshkaa has introduced Whooshkaa Cloud Studio. Their Cloud Studio provides podcasters with an easy-to-use recording and editing solution that requires nothing more than a web browser. It was launched earlier this month.

There are two parts to Whooshkaa Cloud Studio: Cloud Recorder, and Cloud Editor.

Cloud Recorder:

    • Cloud Recorder allows you to capture audio directly into Whooshkaa.
    • You will now see a “Record” button option both in the Whooshkaa Media Library and when you create Episodes.
    • The recording wizard leads you through the steps of selecting your microphone, checking your audio level and recording your audio.
    • Any audio capture device you have connected will work – whether it’s a built-in microphone, USB microphone or audio interface like mixers and preamps.
    • Cloud Recorder works in all modern browsers on desktop computers, laptops and smartphones.
    • You can use Cloud Recorder for full episodes or short clips – like announcements, pickups and ad reads.
    • When your audio is recorded, Whooshkaa will automatically optimize the audio and get it ready for delivery to your audience.

Cloud Editor: Most podcast editing comprises of a few key tasks. Cloud Editor provides you with the tools to achieve all of these in the browser.

  • Adding Audio – for example intro/outro music
  • Removing Audio – removing segments like old ‘baked-in’ ads
  • Splicing audio – replacing mistakes or adding in additional audio
  • Volume adjustments

Podcast Movement “Home for the Holidays” Virtual Meetup

~ jen

The Podcast Movement team is hosting the “Home for the Holidays” virtual community meetup. It will take place on Wednesday, December 9, 2020 from 2PM to 4PM EST. Those who are interested in attending can RSVP and register now.

We plan to deck the halls by having an open forum with virtual rooms for general discussion as well as the option to split into small groups to discuss niche podcast-related topics. We hope that you and your family are having a great holiday season. We look forward to seeing you at the holiday meetup!

To register for the event, use the RSVP button on the Podcast Movement website about the “Home for the Holidays” event. They will email you a link to log in to the portal and attend the virtual event.

What will this event entail?

Podcast Movement are providing an interactive discussion platform that will allow attendees to meander and mingle with one another either for general discussion and/or more focused discussion topics. It’s the closest thing that Podcast Movement has been able to find to being in the same room together and being able to rotate and chat/network with different folks freely.

Here are some specifics to know about:

You don’t have to download anything in order to participate. Use your browser to connect. Join via the provided event link at the event start time, and you will be able to hop in and out of different small groups to socialize with other attendees and groups.

You should join from a laptop or a desktop using either Chrome or Firefox browsers. Podcast Movement does not recommend joining from a mobile device as the platform works on a desktop/laptop experience. Podcast Movement asks that you do not use Safari or Microsoft Edge.

It is recommended that you use headphones during the event. You should also test your webcam and microphone in advance of the event. Details about how to look your best on a video call is provided via a link on the Podcast Movement website.