Month: August 2021

Professional Podcasting Available for Blubrry Podcasters

~ jen

Blubrry has been leading the way in advanced features for podcasters since 2005 and has provided professional hosting for close to a decade. Now, it is available for direct purchase online, without assistance from a team member.

Professional Hosting is designed for commercial podcasters, business shows that require significant amounts of storage, and those looking for professional dynamic advertising insertion and a network showcasing tool for shows in and out of your network. All of Blubrry’s services and features integrate smoothly with any publishing platform to include WordPress with an optional managed website available for each individual hosted show in the account.

Blubrry’s Professional Podcasting plan is highly competitive in the podcasting space offering everything a growing show or network will need to sustain continued growth. The Network showcasing tool as an example allows a podcast network to feature all shows and the latest content available. Ad insertion to run promotions and or advertising dynamically scheduled and inserted.

“We’ve created a faster, more efficient way for podcasters to get started with their professional plan, including easier management for adding and deleting shows and add-ons,” said Todd Cochrane. “For those with special circumstances, we are continuing to offer personalized plans, not limited to the online signup.”

Pro Hosting is available to any podcaster, upgrade or purchase on Blubrry.com. Click here to learn more or purchase.

Shure Announced as Headline Partner for IWPA

~ jen

The Skylark Collective are pleased to announce Shure, a leading global manufacturer of premium audio equipment, as Headline Partners for this year’s inaugural International Women’s Podcast Awards. The IWPA is a unique event celebrating female-led moments in podcasting of the last year, where recognition will be given to women in podcasting, both behind the mic and behind the scenes, who have created incredible audio moments and intimate listening experiences.

Naomi Mellor, founder of the International Women’s Podcast Awards, said: “I am so excited to announce Shure as our Headline Partners for the awards. Their passion for creating great microphones and audio electronics has been recognised by podcasters the world over, making them a staple of the podcasting community. Their support for women and non-binary podcasters at the International Women’s Podcast Awards helps us provide an opportunity for women from all over the world to showcase their work, and we can’t wait to bring the event to life.”

“We are extremely proud to partner with The Skylark Collective for the first ever International Women’s Podcast Awards, championing inspirational voices from around the world. In supporting the podcasting community since the beginning, we’ve witnessed the importance of diversity to leverage creativity in the industry. For this reason, we are sponsoring the Award for Changing the World One Moment at a Time, which we believe will give women and non-binary podcasters the visibility and recognition to continue their impressive work, while inspiring the podcasters of tomorrow” said Paul Crognale, Senior Manager, Global Marketing at Shure.

The International Women’s Podcast Awards will be hosted at the Allbright in London on 23rd September 2021 by acclaimed presenter, author and journalist Vick Hope of BBC Radio 1, with additional support from Acast, Blubrry, Captivate FM and Redhead PR. Entries are open to podcasters worldwide until Friday 13th August 2021, and the ceremony will be live-streamed internationally.

The International Women’s Podcast Awards aims to help level the playing field for women in this exciting and evolving industry, by rewarding and elevating the unsung podcast hosts, editors, producers and writers out there whose work deserves recognition.
To many, the joy of podcasting lies in its intimacy, in the atmosphere created between the host, guest and listener, and in the moments of incredible sensitivity, humour or honesty that keep people engrossed.

The International Women’s Podcast Awards celebrate these intimate moments of podcasting brilliance, and the women that make them happen. It doesn’t matter if they’ve had 100 downloads or 100 million, the awards are open to everyone in podcasting that identifies as a woman or non-binary.

Nominations are now open and will be accepted in eight categories of wonderful “Moments”, which are:

  • Moment of Comedy Gold
  • Moment of Raw Emotion
  • Moment of Cliffhanging Drama
  • Moment of Touching Honesty
  • Moment of Behind-the-Scenes Brilliance
  • Moment of Entrepreneurship Inspiration
  • Moment of Badass Business Advice
  • Award for Changing The World One Moment At A Time

The awards ceremony will be held at Allbright, Mayfair on Thursday 23rd September.

Audio Production Awards Back to In-Person Event for 2021

~ jen

AudioUK has announced that this year’s Audio Production Awards (APAs), sponsored by Audible, will once again be an in-person event to be held on Wednesday 24th November.

The awards will be held at the BFI on London’s South Bank, as in the preceding 2020, when the awards were held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The APAs, organized by Audio UK, and sponsored by Audible, celebrate the craft skills behind all forms of Audio production – podcasts, radio, audiobooks, and more.

The Awards are open to all Audio producers, from podcasters, to audiobooks, to BBC and commercial radio and community stations, to sound designers, as well as production companies working across all forms of Audio.

There will be awards for the best Audio producer in comedy, arts, factual entertainment, sports, news and more, as well as a range of best presenter and narrator awards, plus the Production Company of the Year award. Once again, the Grassroots Production award will celebrate producers, teams and organizations working close to their communities, and this category will be free to enter, recognizing the particular challenges faced in that part of the sector.

In addition, there will be a new award for Best Gaming Sound Producer, recognizing the importance of audio in computer games and gaming apps. There will also be the new AudioUK Award given to a truly outstanding individual, collective or moment.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, every category is open to all forms of Audio, which includes podcasts, radio (on-air or online), audiobooks and all other non-broadcast audio. Productions of any budget range are eligible, and AudioUK’s panel of experienced judges will take into account the differing circumstances of production across the qualifying period.

Entry fees have been capped for the fourth year in a row, reflecting the challenging circumstances many still find themselves in. We have also introduced a number of pay what you can entry places for freelances, who would otherwise find the entry fee prohibitive.

The APAs, which will accept entries from noon on the 18th of August, until noon on Friday 24th September, are open to production talent from across the whole of the UK, with the entry fee frozen at £35+VAT for AudioUK members and £45+VAT for non-members. AudioUK will also be providing a limited number of ‘pay what you can’ entries for freelancers, for how the entry fee would mean they could not enter otherwise.

Blubrry Podcasting Releases Easy Onboard for Podcasters

~ jen

As part of an upcoming series of UI/UX updates, Blubrry has released new onboarding to simplify the process for starting a new show, and/or for an existing podcaster to initiate or migrate a show.

The significantly improved process for getting a show started on the Blubrry platform enables even the most inexperienced podcasters to have their new account set up and ready to start their podcast within minutes.

The new onboarding process serves Blubrry’s entire user base, whether the podcaster needs a simple podcast page or is looking for a more robust platform in using WordPress with PowerPress, Blubrry’s podcasting plugin for WordPress.

While podcasters can still choose to use a free Blubrry WordPress website, they can also opt to have a landing page for their show within the Blubrry podcasting platform. Podcasters that already have their own WordPress website are guided in setting up their hosting account.

“We were focused on helping podcasters get to their first episode, so we needed to make it easier for them to get started in the first place,” said Todd Cochrane, CEO of Blubrry. “Our tools have always made it simple to publish episodes, and now we’ve streamlined the process for any user to get started.”

Over the past two years, the Blubrry team has worked to redesign the forward-facing website, design a new onboarding system, and will be rolling out a brand new dashboard and a host of other features that will transform the Blubrry experience for new and existing customers.

Resonate Launches an iOS App

~ jen

Resonate is a podcast production company that also builds simple software to make podcasting easier. Now you can download Resonate on iOS to manage your podcast production faster, easier, and from everywhere.

The iOS app brings the features of Resonate’s web app that Resonate has been building for years into the palm of your hand so you can record, create, and publish your podcast in the go.

Resonate continues to expand its services to offer clients a more seamless all-in-one experience for creating their podcast. You can now record remote interviews, get professional mixing, and host your podcast all from one app (on the web or iOS).

Features:

Record remote interviews of your podcast

Edit episode submissions (update your episode title, description, publish date, etc)

Comment on episodes and request revisions

Get push notifications when your episode has been mixed and is ready for review

Review and approve final episode masters

Publish your final episode to the world with Resonate hosting

Benefits:

Save time commenting on episodes in production

Get notified as soon as your podcast has been edited, mixed, and mastered

Publish episodes of your podcast no matter where you are

Get access to a podcast production team everywhere you go

Melbourne Podcast Festival Will Not Go On

~ jen

Frontier Touring, Mushroom Group, Acast and Schwartz Media regret to advise that due to the current COVID outbreaks in New South Wales and Victoria and subsequent border closures, the Melbourne Podcast Festival 2021 will not go ahead as planned.

This is a proactive decision appreciating the uncertainty of the pandemic in Australia and the necessary precautions taken by State Governments to minimize the spread of Covid-19. It’s highly likely capacity limits, travel restrictions and other health measures will remain too restrictive to hold an indoor festival come September.

The Melbourne Podcast Festival organizers would like to apologize to all those affected by the cancellation and thank everyone for their understanding.

Courtney Carthy, Melbourne Podcast Festival’s Curator and Creative Director, said:

“It’s not ideal but we wanted to give everyone certainty about the Festival this year. The Delta strain has brought an new level of unpredictability and with some shows coming from states other than Victoria we couldn’t guarantee fans that it would all go ahead.

“Over the past months, we have worked with the incredible local podcasting community and fans to create a new event that celebrates the unique medium in a fitting way. The enthusiasm for a live podcast festival was immediately felt in the willingness of shows to participate and listeners to purchase tickets.

The program includes some of Australia’s best shows across a range of genres representing the ecosystem here in Australia, along with the support form Acast, Schwartz Media and the public.

“It’s safe to say that when the climate is a little more stable, the Melbourne Podcast Festival will return for its inaugural year, and we can’t wait to unveil those details as they are solidified.

Ticketholders do not need to take any action; Ticketmaster will refund back to the original credit card used to purchase tickets. Please be patient, as it can take some time for the funds to appear in your account, depending on where you bank.

Only the original credit card holder will receive a refund. If you received your ticket(s) any other way, including via “Ticket Forward”, you will need to contact the original credit card holder for your refund.

Edison Research Announced U.S. Top 50 Podcasts

~ jen

Edison Research announced the comprehensive U.S. Top 50 Podcast chart for Q2 2021. This list ranks the 50 biggest podcasts by audience size, based on the Podcast Consumer Tracking Report, the only podcast measurement service that measures the relative audience size and demographics of all podcast networks. The Podcast Consumer Tracking Report is the only measurement based on actual listening, not downloads.

The top three podcasts, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Daily, and Crime Junkie, also ranked in 1-2-3 order in the Top 50 Podcasts of 2020.

“This is the second anniversary of the Podcast Consumer Tracker, and the top shows have been fairly consistent over that time. Because our research covers the entire space, regardless of publisher or listening application, we have been able to report that stability even as the space continues to evolve,” said Edison Research SVP Tom Webster.

The Edison Research Top 50 Podcasts of 2021 list is derived from data collected continuously from Q3 2020 – Q2 2021, from surveying weekly podcast consumers ages 18 and older in the U.S. Participants indicate which podcasts they listened to in the past week along with a variety of demographic, psychographic, and purchase behavior information.

The results are then coded and analyzed to ascertain the genre, network, and sales representation for each podcast. The relative audience size of each podcast network is then calculated and expressed as the percentage of weekly podcast listeners reach by that network. Surveys of over 8,000 podcast listeners were conducted Q3 2020 through Q2 2021.

“What is fascinating about these data is that we are seeing some marked differences between people who primarily get their podcasts through Apple Podcasts, those who primarily use Spotify, and those who mainly use YouTube. The character of the shows–and of the audiences–differs by platform,” added Webster.

Current subscribers to the Podcast Consumer Tracker include the top networks in podcasting as well as leading technology platforms, and is growing quarterly. Subscribers include SXM Media, Google, NPR, Wondery, ESPN/ABC/Disney, WarnerMedia, and more.

The top ten podcasts are:

The Joe Rogan Experience – Joe Rogan (Libsyn)
The Daily – The New York Times (Simplecast)
Crime Junkie – audiochuck (Megaphone)
This American Life – This American Life (Simplecast)
Stuff You Should Know – iHeartRadio (Megaphone)
My Favorite Murder – Exactly Right (Omny Studio)
Pod Save America – Crooked Media (Megaphone)
Office Ladies – Earwolf & Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey (Omny Studio)
Serial – Serial Productions (Simplecast)
The Ben Shapiro Show – The Daily Wire (Megaphone)

The full list of the top 50 podcasts can be found here.

iHeartMedia Partners with NRJ Group

~ jen

iHeartMedia and the French multimedia group NRJ announced a strategic partnership to develop, translate, distribute, and monetize a specially curated slate of iHeartRadio Original podcasts for French listeners. The first translated podcasts will be available on the iHeartRadio app, in France on NRJ Group’s platforms and everywhere podcasts are heard from the last quarter of 2021, with regular new additions thereafter.

Podcasts to be translated include the iconic Stuff You Should Know, the first-ever podcast to surpass one billion downloads. Launched in April 2008, the podcast has continuously educated listeners on a variety of topics in science, history, pop culture, urban legends, conspiracy theories and more. With thousands of episodes, a number of sold-out live events, a television season and a book deal, the show and its riveting hosts have garnered a loyal following across the globe.

Additional shows in the curated slate are set to include other popular curiosity podcasts including Stuff You Missed in History Class, Brain Stuff, Unobscured with Aaron Mahnke, and Cabinet of Curiosities, music podcast Rivals as well as some of the most riveting true-crime podcasts like Piketon Massacre, Missing in Alaska, Murder in Oregon, and Paper Ghosts with more to come.

“NRJ Group is proud to work with the world’s leading podcast publisher, sharing the same mission: making high-quality entertainment podcasts available to the widest audience. This deal enables us to significantly enrich our offer to French listeners while clearly positioning NRJ Global as the top reference in France for the monetization of podcast,” said Cécile Chambaudrie, NRJ Global President & CEO of NRJ Group digital activities.

In addition, the partnership will also include a slate of co-produced podcasts featuring top French talent with more details to be announced in the future.

As part of the deal, NRJ Group will distribute iHeartRadio Original English-language podcasts across their apps and websites; and will lead the monetization efforts in France with exclusive monetization rights for the French translation versions, and the co-produced slate of new podcasts from existing and emerging French talent. And to drive revenue faster, NRJ Global will leverage Triton Digital’s (recently acquired by iHeartMedia) industry-leading supply side platform Yield-Op and its programmatic audio marketplace.

“As podcast audiences continue to explode in the United States, the medium is also going global, beginning to grow meaningful fanbases around the world,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group. “iHeartMedia is in a unique position to partner with the best audio companies from each territory – like NRJ in France – offering them deep archives of existing hits for translation, co-production of new shows to better support the French podcast creator community, and ad technology from Triton to build sustainable podcast revenue fast as part of the premiere worldwide audio marketplace.”

Audioburst Introduces Finder

~ jen

Audioburst, The Audio Search and Delivery Platform, released a beta version of Audioburst Finder, the world’s first embeddable web search widget for podcasts and conferences. The solution was unveiled in partnership with the largest gathering of podcasters, Podcast Movement 2021, with exclusive early sign-up available during the event. It has also been deployed by The Voicebot Podcast and VOICE Global 2021 conference.

Audioburst Finder enables podcasters to transform their websites into powerful podcast distribution and discovery platforms. A keyword search across episodes allows visitors to find and listen to engaging audio “bursts” (bite-sized clips), sampling content before subscribing. An integrated social sharing feature enables listeners to share their favorite bursts directly to social media, thereby distributing the podcast to entirely new audiences.

“The Audioburst Finder brings us one step closer to solving the challenge of discovery,” said Amir Hirsh, Co-founder and CEO of Audioburst. “It opens a window through which listeners can search and sample creators’ content before subscribing. Additionally, as brands build out audio strategies and produce high-quality content, Audioburst Finder gives them a new way to repurpose the content and engage consumers right from their corporate website.”

As online and hybrid events continue to grow, The Audioburst Finder for Conferences provides a way to search conference sessions online. This empowers organizers to engage virtual participants, leverage content to drive ticket sales, and boost sponsorship revenue.

London Podcast Festival Takes Place in September

~ jen

The sixth annual London Podcast Festival will take place starting on September 2, and running through September 12. Most of it will be at Kings Place London, in front of a live audience. There will also be some online streaming events.

…With podcasting reaching an even bigger audience than before during the last eighteen months, this is a chance for the podcasting community – both the creators and the listeners – to come together and celebrate this unique event. Taking place at Kings Place London in front of a live audience, the London Podcast Festival offers listeners the chance to be in the crowd for special live editions of the shows that have got them through this difficult time, meet the hosts and discover their next favorites.

The first batch of events have gone on sale. You can book tickets through the London Podcast Festival website. Some of the events have already been sold out. Unlike other podcasting festivals, the London Podcast Festival requires you to purchase a ticket to each of the presentations that you find interesting.

Here are a few of the events that have been scheduled that are both live and streamed:

September 4: The Allusionist – hosted by Helen Zaltzman
The Allusionist returns to the London Podcast Festival with a brand new entertainment extravaganza about how our world shapes language and how language shapes our world.

September 4: The Guilty Feminist – hosted by comedian Deborah Frances-White
Join comedian Deborah Frances-White for her comedy podcast. Each episode, Deborah and her guests discuss their noble goals as 21st century feminists and the paradoxes and insecurities which undermine them.

September 5: Wooden Overcoats – Wooden Overcoats is a sitcom, a British Podcast Awards winner, and a multiple winner of the Audioverse Awards, a Prix Europa nominee, Best of Tunes, and guaranteed to make you spin in your grave.

Here are a few of the events that will be streamed (but not live):

August 31: The Collectors – In this special Jewish Quarterly conversation presented by Jewish Book Week, authors Edmund de Waal, James McAuley, and Anne Sebba discuss extraordinary stories of art and life.

September 2: Stop Podcasting Yourself – hosted by comedians Graham Clark and Dave Shumka, who started their loose comedy chat-show in 2008. 13 years later, the podcast has racked up over 25 million downloads, won three Canadian Comedy Awards, and featured guests.

September 5: FANTI – Every week on FANTI, journalists Tre’vell Anderson and Jarrett Hill bring their pop culture and expertise to things we must stan and stand up against.

September 11: Beef and Dairy Network Podcast – This award-winning comedy podcast by Benjamin Partridge comes to Kings Place with a brand new live edition.

For full details, including the events that will be live, visit the London Podcast Festival website.