Episode 36 of the Richard Dally podcast where I bring you a UK perspective on the latest news and developments from the world of podcasting and Internet Radio.
Is your podcast boring or bold and how do you differentiate yourself? Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour start their own podcasts. iPhone podcast listening app Castro now supports creating and sharing podcast clips. Audible UK announces an Audio Drama Production Competition. Radionomy shuts its U.S Streaming Service, Musicians making podcasts and has Soundcloud got past its financial troubles?
Websites and articles mentioned in the show:
3 Reasons To Make A Bold Podcast In 2019 – https://podcastbusinessjournal.com/3-reasons-to-make-a-bold-podcast-in-2019/
How Do I Prevent My Podcast From Being Boring? – https://www.thepodcasthost.com/presenting-your-podcast/how-do-i-prevent-my-podcast-from-being-boring/
Jon Guant – https://www.jongaunt.com/
Castro podcast player for iOS adds support for creating and sharing podcast clips – https://9to5mac.com/2019/05/30/castro-podcast-player-for-ios-adds-support-for-creating-and-sharing-podcast-clips/
Audible UK announces audio drama production grant – https://podnews.net/update/audible-grant
Radionomy plans U.S. streaming shutdown, offers free migration to Shoutcast for Business = https://rainnews.com/radionomy-plans-u-s-streaming-shutdown-offers-free-migration-to-shoutcast-for-business/
Transcript
Is your podcast boring or bold? Radionomy shuts its U.S Streaming Service, Musicians making podcasts and has Soundcloud got past its financial troubles?
Welcome to episode 36. I’m your host Richard Dally. Each week I curate and discuss the latest news in podcasting and Internet Radio with a focus on the smaller podcaster, radio host and DJ.
You know, one of the reasons for my inconsistent production of this podcast is that I’ve been concerned about whether I was adding any value to the conversations around podcasting and online radio. I guess I mean is – what differentiates me from the other commentators, sites and newsletters that are out there for you to consume?
A couple of interesting articles have been published this week that have helped me so I thought I would share them with you.
Firstly, Evo Terra of Podcastlaunch.pro writes in the Podcast Business Journal on 3 Reasons To Make A Bold Podcast In 2019. Evo discusses why many businesses and podcasters just getting started with podcasting tend to take a conservative approach, where they follow-the-pack instead of trying to do something bold and different.
As podcasting grows differentiation becomes more important, with more shows covering the same topics. They are probably also using similar formats and maybe even interviewing the same guests.
So how do you stand out? Evo suggests experimenting with different formats and styles and notes that the lower cost of podcasting, over say TV production, means this kind of experimentation is probably going to be much cheaper to try.
The second article I saw this week is about how to prevent your podcast from being boring. This piece from thepodcasthost.com by Lindsay Harris Friel looks at how to use engagement and empathy to prevent listener boredom. The article goes on to talk about the intimacy of audio and how sound can be used to draw listeners into the action or topic. In my mind, this is similar to the often talked about way that podcasters can talk directly to listeners because most podcasts are listened to through headphones.
Over the last couple of years we have been seeing a growing number of radio presenters leaving that industry for one reason, or another, and taking up podcasting. In the UK Jon Gaunt is a great example and there have been several high profile American presenters who have made the switch.
A new trend seems to be starting now and that is for high profile musicians to start their own podcasts.
Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour have both recently done this.
The Robert Plant podcast is called Digging Deep and looks back on his songs and recording sessions., as well as talking about some of the people and places that have inspired his music.
Gilmour’s podcast features discussions on some of the many guitars he has used over the years. This is tied to a charity auction of his collection of over 120 guitars which is happening soon. It looks like this will be a short season of just three podcasts.
It will be interesting to see whether either of these musicians choose to stick with podcasting longer term. I can see how they could drive some strong engagement from their existing fanbase and possibly bring some new listeners to podcasting given that their demographic is likely a bit older.
My favourite podcast listening app for the iPhone, Castro, has had an update and now support creating and sharing podcast clips. From the player record a clip of up to one minute in length and then use a built-in audio editor to clean up the recording.
Once you are happy with the clip you can share it to various social platforms, including Twitter, Instragram and Snapchat. There are options square, landscape, and portrait video orientations for the podcast clips to suit the different formats of each platform.
James Cridland of Podnews looked at similar functionality in the Overcast app and noted that a Twitter search for this type of clip shows that they are generating quite a large number of impressions and could well be a useful tool to spread the word about a podcast. It’s worth asking your listeners to share a clip of your show if they are using one of the players that provides this functionality – and I am sure we will see most of the apps adding this capability. Of course, this also provides a simple way to share clips of your own show as well!
Talking of James Cridland, he writes that Audible UK has announced an Audio Drama Production Grant for audio drama producers. Audible is inviting both established teams and new producers – to enter their Audio Drama Production Competition.
The winners of the competition will be awarded a £5,000 grant and get free access to Audible’s recording studios in London to develop one of their own productions.
The competition involves writing a two-page proposal showing how entrants would produce a dramatisation of a pre-selected fifteen minute script extract provided by Audible, in one of four categories – crime, classic, historical or sci-fi.
Proposals must be submitted Friday 28th June 2019. I’ll put a link in the show-notes to the competition details – you can find the show-notes at https://www.richarddally.com/36
The options for legal music-based internet radio stations continue to reduce with some bad news for U.S. users of Radionomy this week. Rain News reports that Radionomy has announced that it is shutting down its U.S. streaming service. It seems like this is a result of the recent increases in U.S. music licensing rates which have made the service unsustainable. The company is offering its users free migration of their stations to Shoutcast for Business, which is owned by the same parent company. The big problem for station owners of course is that they will now become responsible for paying their own music royalties, as Shoutcast does not offer that service.
Finally this week, lets end on some more positive news. It seems like Soundcloud has got over the financial issues it seems to be facing last year. It has just acquired Repost Network, a rights management and distribution company. Repost Network bring functionality that could enhance Soundcloud services in areas such as analytics dashboards and content protection. These could well be attractive to musicians.
Nick Quah of the HotPod Insider Newsletter notes that Soundcloud is still quite a popular podcast hosting platform as well as being the host of choice for many musicians and DJs. Soundcloud claims to have 20 million “audio creators” using their platform, and 175 million people listening each month.
