Author: Shawn Thorpe

Stream Con NYC is Happening this Weekend

~ Shawn Thorpe

Stream Con NYCIf you’re in the New York area, it’s not too late to attend Stream Con NYC, which takes place Friday October 30th thru Sunday, November 1st at the Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. Stream Con NYC describes itself as:

…a three-day digital content and creator convention celebrating and connecting digital content fans, creators, brands, and the industries around them in the biggest city in America and media capital of the world!
Stream Con NYC gives fans access to their favorite online personalities across entertainment, comedy, music, beauty, fashion, and style and builds the business of original digital media, bringing together creators, thought leaders, and licensing, branding, advertising, and publishing decision makers.

Stream Con NYC is different in that it hopes to be more than just a gathering for those who participate in the digital media industry. While there will be some typical “industry conference” components at Stream Con, the event is also open to consumers who’d like to attend meet and greets where they just might get a chance to hang out with their favorite “celebrity” creators.

Tickets for Stream Con NYC range in price from $35.00 for a one-day “Fan Ticket” up to $495 to attend the conference’s “Creator Table.” The Stream Con NYC website doesn’t indicate if any of the event’s presentations will be streamed or recorded for later broadcast.

cast.market Aims to ‘Streamline Podcast Sponsorship’

~ Shawn Thorpe

cast.market logoThe podcast advertising vertical is definitely in a growth period. Over the last couple years, more and more players have stepped into the space to try and make it easier for potential advertisers and podcasters to find each other. Of course, this process is nothing new. Services like Blubrry and Podtrac have been doing this since the early days of podcasting. But the recent surge of interest in the medium as an economic engine is drawing a lot of newcomers.

cast.market is a relatively new service that carries the tagline, “We’re creating tools to streamline podcast sponsorship.” cast.market allows both podcasters and those who’d like to advertise on podcasts to sign up for accounts. From there, advertisers can create campaigns. Podcasters can opt-in to the campaigns they like. cast.market then handles the financial transactions to ensure podcast producers get paid:

Our campaign creator makes it easy to get up and running. Craft your message and target your audience. Select a budget and maximum CPM—we’ll take it from there.

And:

We’ll use our analytics engine to offer your sponsorship opportunity to a variety of relevant shows at a competitive price. Podcasters who accept your offer will read your message on the air.

And:

As episodes are recorded, campaign reports provide a high-level overview of your campaign’s success. Listen to delivered messages, view your total impressions, track your budget, and more.

cast.market goes on to bill itself as an “open marketplace” as opposed to “an exclusive network” for sponsorship. The service is already working with an impressive list of shows in all of the usual podcast categories. If you’d like to learn more about cast.market you can register for a free account and sign up as either a podcast producer or an advertiser.

Podcasts Officially Coming to Google Play

~ Shawn Thorpe ~ 2 Comments

Google Play logoIt’s the message we’ve been waiting to hear… forever. Google has made an official announcement that the company will add podcasts to its Google Play service. I guess the years of incessant nagging on behalf of the podcasting community, or the undeniable push of the so-called “podcast resurgence” were finally too much for the search engine giant to continue to ignore our happy medium.

Full implementation of podcasting in Google Play is still a few months away. Following the path of another noteworthy service that recently got into podcasting, Google Play is already working with a handful of content providers:

  • 5by5
  • Dan Carlin
  • Dave Ramsey
  • Earwolf
  • Feral Audio
  • Gimlet Media
  • HBO
  • Head Gum
  • HowStuffWorks
  • Loud Speakers Network
  • Nerdist/Legendary
  • Public Radio International
  • Radiotopia/PRX
  • Sideshow Network
  • Slate/Panoply
  • StarTalk Radio
  • This Week in Tech
  • Tim Ferriss

But unlike that other service, Google is accepting submissions from any and all podcasters thru its Podcast Portal. In order to submit a show, you’ll need a working RSS 2.0 feed that also contains valid iTunes tags. (The submission form suggests either <itunes> OR <googleplay> tags for a few specific fields. If your podcast feed was accepted and is working with iTunes now, you should be fine.)

I submitted my podcast feed earlier today and it was accepted without issue. Now the feed awaits approval by the Google gods. Some podcasters have reported errors while submitting feeds. There’s no official support information yet for the submission process so it’s hard to say what’s causing those errors. Regardless, many users have found that waiting a few minutes and trying again has resulted in a successful submission.

 

Overcast 2.0 is Free for Everyone

~ Shawn Thorpe

Overcast logoWhen Marco Arment released the first version of his podcast-consumption app, Overcast, it worked on a freemium model where users could pay a one-time fee of $4.99 to unlock all of the app’s features. Today, Arment announced the release of Overcast 2.0. This version will be completely free, with all features immediately available to all users.

Arment explained the reasons for this change on his website:

Overcast 1.0 locked the best features behind an in-app purchase, which about 20% of customers bought. This made enough money, but it had a huge downside:

80% of my customers were using an inferior app. The limited, locked version of Overcast without the purchase sure wasn’t the version I used, it wasn’t a great experience, and it wasn’t my best work.

With Overcast 2.0, I’ve changed that by unlocking everything, for everyone, for free. I’d rather have you using Overcast for free than not using it at all, and I want everyone to be using the good version of Overcast.

Arment is now asking Overcast users to instead sign up for a voluntary monthly subscription to help cover the costs of upkeep and development:

If you can pay, I’m trying to make up the revenue difference by offering a simple $1 monthly patronage. It’s completely optional, it doesn’t get you any additional features, and it doesn’t even auto-renew — it’s just a direct way to support Overcast’s ongoing development and hosting without having to make the app terrible for 80% of its users.

If only 5% of customers become monthly patrons, Overcast will match its previous revenue.

The Overcast developer may offer special incentives for subscribers in the future. For now, he’s seeing these voluntary subscriptions as a true “patronage model,” where users are paying for the app itself and its continued development.

Overcast is available as a free download from the App Store.

Adam Carolla to Speak at DASH Conference

~ Shawn Thorpe

Adam Carolla Show LogoAt first look, the DASH Conference might look like an event devoted mostly to broadcast media. But the conference has been busy adding names from the digital side of the media fence. Recently, DASH announced it would be bringing Adam Carolla, PodcastOne CEO Norm Pattiz, and iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman to its upcoming conference.

This year’s DASH Conference is billed as “DASH 3.0: Radio & The Connected Car – A Survival Guide For Broadcasters.” The list of topics is heavily geared towards the changing nature of mobile media consumption with a focus on the connected car.

Some presentations that’ll take place during the DASH Conference include:

  • Breaking Down the Technology Divide: The Drive and the Dash
  • Keynote Interview With Norm Pattiz and Adam Carolla
  • Fasten Your Seat Belts: Here Come Apple and Android
  • Digital Marketing: Its Rapid Growth and How It’s Transforming the Way We Go to Market
  • The State of American In-Car Audio
  • In the Car/On Demand

The 2015 DASH Conference will be held on November 4-5, 2015, at the Westin Hotel at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport. Registration is currently open.

PodCon is a ‘Popup Conference’ on October 8

~ Shawn Thorpe

Blab logoPodCon, an online only event that describes itself as a “pop up conference for podcasters and podcast junkies” is happening in less than 24 hours. The conference will take place via Blab, the online video conferencing platform that has become very popular with podcasters.

PodCon will host a “handful” of speakers:

  • John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire
  • Veronica Belmont of Sword and Laser
  • Rob Cesternino of Rob Has a Podcast
  • Helen Zaltsman of Answer Me This!
  • Brett Terpstra of Systematic Podcast
  • Elsie Escobar of She Podcasts
  • Ray Ortega of The Podcasters Studio
  • Espree Devora of We Are L.A. Tech
  • Chris Brogan, social media maven
  • Jessica Kupferman of She Podcasts
  • Darren Rowse of Problogger

The conference starts as 12PM PDT and will consist of a series of 30-minute sessions, ending at 4PM PDT. PodCon is free to attend. If you’d like to participate, the PodCon website asks that you RSVP. You can do so by following the link at the top of this post.

Info From Patreon Hack Posted Online

~ Shawn Thorpe ~ 1 Comment

Patreon LogoIt initially looked like last week’s news of Patreon being hacked was just another run-of-the-mill story about a cybersecurity breach. But it turns out there may be more to it.

Ars Technica is reporting that the information acquired by hackers has been posted online in the form of a “data dump.” The information was analyzed by a security researcher, who concluded that it appears to be authentic data from Patreon’s servers. The researcher was eventually able to restore a database from the hacked files and search it, where he found his own e-mail address, as well as the e-mail addresses of other Patreon users.

Account passwords that were extracted during the hack were protected using an encryption scheme called bcrypt. This is good news, as bcrypt requires a lot of computational power to crack. However, hackers were able to acquire some additional source code during the attack. They may be able to use that code to more easily defeat the bcrypt encryption. That’s what happened during the recent high-profile Ashley Madison hack.

Patreon hasn’t released an updated statement to its original security notice. It’s still highly recommended that users reset their passwords, as well as passwords to other accounts that might’ve used the same password.

‘Podcasts Are The Best’ Blog Takes on Reviews, Interviews

~ Shawn Thorpe ~ 1 Comment

Blogger LogoWhether it’s for promotional purposes or just to get some honest feedback, podcasters are always looking for reviews of their shows. Sometimes, these reviews come in the form of ratings and comments left on directories like iTunes. And sometimes, those reviews may come from trusted friends or audience members who can provide a critical perspective. In other cases, there may just be kind-hearted souls out there who really like podcasts and want to talk about them.

I’m pretty sure it’s the third category that describes the Podcasts Are The Best blog. The site was launched in February, 2015. Since then, it’s  produced over 150 posts made up of podcast reviews as well as podcaster interviews.

Podcasts Are The Best is maintained by Andrew Jacobs. There’s no “about” section on the site, and Andrew’s Google+ profile is pretty much empty. So, I can only speculate as to why Andrew decided to start the blog. Regardless, Podcasts Are The Best is very focused on independent podcasters as opposed to the latest and greatest from the usual big-media outlets.

It’s unclear as to how a podcast is considered for coverage on Podcasts Are The Best. But if you’re a podcast producer or just a fan of the medium, Podcasts Are The Best is worth checking out. You may learn something useful from one of the interviews or discover a new show to add to your podcast aggregator.

Product Hunt Launches Podcast Channel

~ Shawn Thorpe

Product Hunt logoProduct Hunt, a discussion-board style website similar to Digg and Reddit, recently launched a channel dedicated strictly to podcasts. Product Hunt works on an upvote/downvote system that allows users to push “products” they like to the top of each day’s product list. Thus, gaining more exposure for the stuff that’s got the most positive votes.

Product Hunt launched strictly as a tech-focused service. It eventually expanded into books and other media before adding podcasts. Product Hunt itself has an established history with podcasting, having launched its own Product Hunt Radio podcast over a year ago.

I looked at Product Hunt’s podcast channel for the first time today. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the most upvoted shows weren’t the typical selection of NPR/celebrity/comedy shows that are usually found at the top of the iTunes charts. It also looks like Product Hunt users are adding specific episodes of different podcasts to the site, as opposed to just overall podcast feeds.

But despite Product Hunt’s podcast channel not looking like the front page of iTunes, what is represented there is still fairly limited in scope. Most of the episodes added today are from either technology or business-focused podcasts. Hopefully, this’ll change over time as more users join the Product Hunt site and contribute to the podcast channel.

‘Serial’ Crossing Over to TV

~ Shawn Thorpe

Serial logoThere’s no question that Serial has proven to be podcasting’s first true breakout hit. The show has been referenced in numerous places far outside the confines of the podcasting space. That continual notoriety is about to pay off for Serial in a brand new way. It was announced this week that a new TV show is being produced about the podcast.

The TV series won’t be a dramatization of the story covered in Serial’s first season. It will be a documentary-style look at Serial’s upcoming second season.

The series is being produced by Christopher Miller and Phillip Lord. The duo have past credits with films like The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street. Global distribution rights for the Serial TV show have been optioned by Fox 21 Television Studios. The program will most likely air on a cable network but Fox 21 is still in the process of finding a home for the show.

The second season of the Serial podcast is currently in production. Rumors have circulated that the series will focus on the case of former military officer Bowe Bergdahl. Representatives of the show have not confirmed these rumors.