I would be remiss if I did not mention yesterday’s debut of Wolfpop, the new popular culture podcast network from Earwolf that is curated by actor/comedian/podcaster Paul Scheer. I also must point out that I work for Earwolf/Wolfpop parent company Midroll Media, and specifically worked on the promotional campaign.

That said, I do think it’s notable that the network launched with thirteen shows, nine of which are brand new productions, featuring some impressive hosts like film critic Leonard Maltin, author and journalist Susan Orlean and comedian W. Kamau Bell, all of whom are new to podcasting. You can read more about it in articles at the Wall Street Journal, LA Magazine and Splitsider. Also, Scheer discusses the launch with Earwolf Podcast Developer Matt Gourley and Midroll CEO Adam Sachs on the new episode of the Wolf Den podcast.

A Year of Podcast Survivor: More than Surviving, Thriving

These days pretty much every week there’s a few more “podcasting is back/profitable” stories. (In fact, it’s getting to the point that I’m not sure I need to write about every one as often as I did even six months ago.)

Although many podcasting veterans chafe at them–arguing, correctly,that podcasting never went away–on balance I think these stories are good. I’m convinced that the attention paid to new efforts like This American Life’s Serial and Alex Blumberg’s Startup bring in new listeners who, after they finish one or two hours of these shows each week will be on the lookout for more great podcasts to fill their queue.

I have to admit it’s a dramatic change from just one year ago when I inaugurated Podcast Survivor as a weekly feature. In that first post I wrapped up a number of then-recent articles about podcasting’s re-entry into mainstream consciousness. I closed by arguing, “This sort of reporting and documenting is critical if podcasting is going to mature as a medium.” Even I didn’t expect that much growth and maturation in just twelve months.

I’ve been a fan of podcasting since I had to use a dedicated “pod catcher” app on my Windows XP PC (iTunes support was still a year or two away) to download shows, which I then transferred to my minidisc player (!) to take on my commute. Those were definitely the early adopter days, when you wither had to be utterly dedicated to some particular shows, or otherwise entranced–like I was–by the prospect of taking on-demand radio shows on the go.

For reasons I can’t explain, I didn’t really start writing about podcasting here until about two years into Radio Survivor’s life, even though I had been a regular consumer since the first feeds hit the web in 2004. But choosing to write regularly about any subject really forces you to think about it critically and put it in perspective, in part just to be sure that it’s worth the effort. So March 2011 really marks the time when my interest in podcasting as a unique medium was once again piqued.

The more I researched and considered podcasting, I became convinced that it has a key role to play in the future of radio. It’s not the case that I ever doubted it, or forgot about podcasting. More mundanely, I took podcasting for granted.

That’s why I don’t scoff at the rising tide of news articles about podcasting’s renaissance nor growing profitability. I agree with the premise that podcasting never went away, but I completely understand the perception that somehow it did. Compared to today, even in 2011 podcasts were more of a pain to listen to anywhere but on a computer. For most people listening to podcasts away from their desks meant downloading shows by old fashioned USB cable to their MP3 player or smartphone–one step too many for a lot of folks.

Today, iOS has a native app and there’s a variety of iOS and Android apps that let you subscribe and listen to shows without ever touching a computer. Listening to podcasts has become more like using Facebook or YouTube, which certainly makes them seem a lot more like they’re back.

Whether or not we use the word “renaissance,” there’s no denying that podcasting is stronger than it has ever been before. It is a growing business where an increasing number of producers and hosts are making money and making a living. It’s a parallel medium to public broadcasting where thousands of supporters are willing to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep their favorite shows in production.

At the same time it’s still a medium that is simple and inexpensive enough to master that there is no end to the opportunities for new producers with fresh ideas, but no radio background–like the Welcome to Nightvale crew–to develop passionate, loyal and large audiences.

One year ago I never would have thought that something as simple as staring a weekly feature on podcasting would have been as much of a fun adventure as it turned out to be. I mean, [I ended up working in podcasting[(https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2014/02/19/podcast-survivor-this-weeks-podcasting-news–2/) because I write about it every week.

I am grateful for my luck that writing Podcast Survivor coincided with a real revival in interest along with an influx of talent and funding.

I’m so looking forward to this next year.

The post A Year of Podcast Survivor: More than Surviving; Thriving appeared first on Radio Survivor.

First off, if you didn’t catch the big news that streaming music platform Deezer is acquiring Stitcher be sure to read my take on what it means for podcasting.

I should also note that former WFMU host Tom Scharpling has announced that he is bringing back The Best Show “sometime in November.” This coincides with the announcement of a 16-CD box set release of “The Best of The Best Show” from Chicago’s consistently great Numbero Group label. Pre-orders of that behemoth set begin shipping in March 2015.

Community Radio Must Podcast

Last week I wrote about how the business of podcasting is booming, and I ended by promising to dig deeper into how community radio can use podcasting. Actually, I should clarify: I’m going to discuss why community radio must use podcasting.

Escape the Grid

Podcasting is a perfect technology for community radio because it liberates stations from the tyranny of the schedule and the clock. Community radio, in particular, had suffered from digital disruption because most stations are so very eclectic and therefore have schedules that often look like a clashing patchwork quilt. While the strategy is good for embracing diversity and potentially exposing listeners to unfamiliar voices and sounds, it’s also hell for continuity, keeping listeners tuned in or for just discovering programs in the first place.

But this isn’t about the schedule, or arguments to change the schedule. I truly recognize that community radio program schedules are living organisms with their own individual histories, built by sweat, struggle, sacrifice and compromise. It’s that reality that makes podcasting so ideal.

Podcasting frees programs from the grid, opening them up to listeners who might not encounter them on the live broadcast, listeners who can’t tune in at their scheduled time, or who won’t listen on the radio or live stream at all. Podcasting lets a station provide the Netflix or Hulu of radio to its audience, giving them the power to choose when and where to listen.

Take The Best Show as an example. It’s a program that I argue would not have found its audience if it has not been available on demand and as a podcast on the WFMU website. I don’t doubt that new fans would have been brought in by word of mouth like, “Hey, you’ve got to listen to this amazing show on Tuesdays at 10 PM on WFMU!” But how many potential new listeners would still have missed it, because the time conflicts with their schedule or they just don’t listen to the radio (or internet stream) at that time?

Be More Shareable

A podcast makes a radio program shareable. It’s dead simple to email or tweet a link to a podcast and have someone listening to it almost immediately. Sure, you can tweet out, “Listen to this show at 3 PM Saturday!” but there are many more steps before someone is listening. Even if you post or tweet when the show is on the air, if folks don’t see it until several hours later then they’ve missed out.

Expand the Grid

Podcasting lets stations expand the program grid. There are many community stations with stuffed schedules and many more potential hosts and producers than slots available. That may seem like a good thing, but given the glacial rate of turnover in community radio, it also means stations miss out on innovative ideas, or are unable to give promising new shows a good enough time slot to build and audience and be sustainable.

The solution is to give promising new producers and programs a podcast on your station. Let them use production facilities and help them get it online, then put it on your station’s site. Insist on a regular schedule and the same level of quality as your on-air shows and your station is well on its way to creating a digital channel.

Then, you can start scheduling your best podcasts on the air as time slots become available. Instead of taking chances on a green host where quality might be rough for a while, you potentially have a talented and more polished farm team of shows ready for air when you need them. Another great idea is to create a show that highlights and rotates in whole podcasts or segments, helping expose them to your broadcast listeners, too.

That is essentially how programs like 99% Invisible and Freakonomics got their start. They were digital-first, and now both are also heard on the radio.

Of course, you might wonder why a new producer would podcast for your station when she could just do it all herself. The reason is access to your station’s audience and resources, and the more intangible value of being associated with your station. As your podcast roster grows you’re essentially creating your own podcast network, which provides a leg-up to each new show that joins.

Podcasting Is Cheaper & Easier Than You Think

Finally, podcasting is cheap, in terms of both time and effort. Yes, it does require a little more of both compared to not podcasting, but it can be surprising how little that is.

At its simplest, a podcast is nothing more than an air check that you make into an MP3 and put online. Since most stations already have a website, that means you already have a place to upload and post that MP3. Blog platforms and content management systems like WordPress and Squarespace have easy-to-use tools to create the RSS feed and submit it to iTunes, and then you’re good to go.

As long as your focus is just distributing your podcasts widely and simply to your audience it doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. While there are dedicated podcast hosts like Libsyn and Soundcloud, they do cost a little bit of money. Unless you anticipate needing more comprehensive listening data or think you might sell ads on your podcasts, you really don’t need to use a dedicated host right away.

Again, I’ll call your attention to WFMU, which has been taking the simple but effective approach to putting shows online way before the word “podcasting” ever existed. The archives are in the plainest html, but they work. Click on a show and it plays, or you can go to each show’s archive page and subscribe to the feed.

The on demand versions of WFMU’s broadcast show are created automatically, so they’re not even trimmed to start exactly when the show does–there’s often a minute or so of the previous show at the beginning. But, so what? Better to have a slightly imperfect podcast or archive than none at all. If you’re posting born-digital podcasts, then this isn’t even an issue.

My only caveat is that music podcasting is a little more complex than talk programs. Because a podcast is fundamentally a downloadable and shareable MP3, you probably shouldn’t use music in a podcast without permission. While I know that there are music podcasts out there that rely on an interpretation of Fair Use that emphasizes their noncommercial nature, because this is not settled law I still wouldn’t advise it.

Luckily, there are workarounds. First, if you have shows featuring in-studio performances or local music, getting permission should be easy. Also, the Mixcloud platform lets you upload and share music shows legally. While that gives your listener the on-demand experience both on computers and mobile devices, they’re not podcasts that can be downloaded for listening offline. Still, it’s a great service for your music shows where getting artist/label permission is not practical.

There’s no reason not to start today. Pick some of your locally-produced talk programs, start recording them and put them on the website. BOOM! Podcast network.

Is your station podcasting? Have you tried to podcast and run into trouble? Do you agree or disagree with my argument? Please let me know in the comments.

The post Podcast Survivor: Community Radio Must Podcast appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The business of podcasting continues to attract serious coverage, which I report here each week. This week coverage comes from the Columbia Journalism Review and PBS’s MediaShift. There’s good reason for this attention: the business of podcasting is booming. This is a good thing for listeners, producers, and even stations

The CJR piece focuses exclusively on Alex Blumberg’s podcasting startup, now named Gimlet, and how he integrates the ads on his show, Startup, as short story breaks done in his own voice. As I’ve noted, this style of ad read is consistent with the dominant podcasting practice, although Blumberg puts his own unique stamp on it.

At MediaShift the business of podcasting is the topic for the most recent episode of the MediaTwits podcast. Mike Pesca, host of Slate’s The Gist, Kerri Hoffman from PRX and American University Professor Andrew Lih are the guests for a discussion that touches on the relationship between podcasting and broadcast public radio and funding models.

Speaking of funding, PRX’s Radiotopia is running a Kickstarter that has already surpassed its $250,000 goal with 23 days still left to go. It certainly doesn’t hurt that 99% Invisible producer Roman Mars–himself a veteran of wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns–is the curator and principal public face of Radiotopia. The campaign for season 4 of his show racked up 11,693 backers contributing a total of $375,193.

Nevertheless, Radiotopia garnering 6,407 backers–with weeks left to bring in more–is no mere fluke. There is serious support for the kind of story-driven podcasting Radiotopia producers like Mars are creating. That fact is also evident in Blumberg’s fundraising performance starting up Gimlet. But, really, there is strong support and growing audiences for all forms of consistent and well-produced podcasts, from patron-funded shows like Tom Meritt’s Daily Tech News Show to the ad-supported ’casts from Slate, Nerdist and Earwolf, and independent shows, such as WTF with Marc Maron.

This doesn’t mean that starting a podcast is a license to print money. What it does mean is that listenership and funding for the medium are growing hand-in-hand, across a few different of funding models.

While I am a whole-hearted supporter of podcasting as an amateur or hobby medium, it is also vitally important for there to be opportunities for talented and dedicated producers to be compensated for their efforts, and perhaps make a living.

By breaking free of the shackles of broadcast podcasting opens up opportunities for new producers, new voices and for experiments in narrative form, as well as paying the bills. The strict definitions and structural constraints of commercial and noncommercial radio as practiced don’t leave most stations or producers much leeway for raising money creatively.

One particularly critical aspect is that podcasters don’t need radio stations, which are capital-intensive enterprises, no matter their size. For most listener-supported community stations, any funding that can be allocated to producing programming is over and above the most significant burden of properly operating a transmitter and studio. And, frankly, most commercial stations don’t spend much on production either, relying primarily on syndicated programming and automated music.

The $260,000 raised so far by Radiotopia is equivalent to the annual operating budget for a mid-market community station with a few employees, a lot of volunteers, and very little money allocated to program production. With podcasting that kind of money can go very far, unburdened from maintaining a physical plant and all kinds of regulatory compliance.

What if a community station could add that extra quarter-million to its operating budget to fund program production? Even a half or a quarter of that could enable quite a bit of innovative community service.

One of podcasting’s persistent problems with its perception in the press is that even a crowd-funding blockbuster of hundreds of thousands of dollars seems pale in comparison to the tens or hundreds of millions shelled out by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, or paid out by Facebook or Yahoo to acquire companies like Whatsapp or Tumblr. What gets lost in the comparison is that many podcast ventures are finding sustainability and profitability without these kinds of massive investments or buyouts.

That’s why the increasing press coverage of the medium’s business successes is refreshing, and a positive thing for podcasting as a whole. Like it or not, the press helps to inform public perception, which, in turn, introduces more listeners, and potentially more funding. This makes for an expanding opportunity for both new and veteran producers.

I think it also creates an enormous opportunity for noncommercial radio stations. Unfortunately, the biggest barrier is not creating podcasts–that part is easy. The biggest barriers are the stations themselves, and entrenched ways of thinking and operating that sees investing resources in something like podcasting as a too-challenging adjunct to broadcasting, rather than a potentially rejuvenating chance for growth.

In the spirit of Ann Alquist’s recent post on how community radio can adapt to digital disruption, I will next address ways in which community stations can use podcasting to both serve new audiences and broaden their funding base.

The post Podcast Survivor: The Business of Podcasting is Booming appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In podcasting news this week: from Sweden “the Spotify of Podcasting”; Carolla’s Mike August opens up about podcast troll; Blumberg’s podcasting startup hits $1 million.

From Sweden, “the Spotify of Podcasting”

The Swedish podcast listening app Acast just launched in the UK, promising to be “the Spotify of podcasting.” At least the comparison point is refreshing, since otherwise in the US we typically hear about the “Pandora of podcasting.” But given that Spotify is based in Sweden and some Acast developers were involved in Spotify, that comparison seems quite natural (though I’m not sure what really makes one app the “Pandora” and another “Spotify”). It’s not officially launched in the US, but I was able to download it free from the iTunes store.

Acast home screen (left); Supplemental podcast content (right).

In some ways what Acast brings to the party are the enhanced podcast features that Apple used to support with Garageband. Acast lets podcasters add supporting content like images, music, video and web links to accompany their shows in the app.

It also touts the ability to add advertisements into “clean breaks” during the actual podcast. An advantage of such an approach is the ability to target ads dynamically to the listener based on region, listening preferences or other data. This is different than the predominant editorial ad format, where hosts do live reads of ads that are baked-in to an episode.

Ad insertion is how ads work with many online radio streams. Of course, the disadvantage is that it makes podcasts sound more like radio, possibly turning off listeners who like podcasts specifically because they don’t sound like commercial radio. Also, for the podcaster, it means their ads only run on Acast, not any other platform or app.

I’ve only given Acast a cursory try-out. It’s a relatively slick app that focuses on showing you popular shows first thing, with decent search abilities. Instead of subscribing to podcasts you “follow” them, which seems like the same thing. When you select a show it begins playing nearly immediately, though you can also download shows for when you’re offline. At first glance it’s nothing special, but works perfectly well.

I only found one podcast that had any supplemental content, Värvet International, which is the English version of a Swedish interview show. When listening to the program I could scroll through pictures that link to related websites. At least with this show it was like an integrated set of show notes that otherwise lives on the podcast’s website. It’s a nice convenience, though hardly earth-shattering. Also, it’s unclear how podcasters add that extra information to accompany their shows.

More on Carolla’s Podcast Troll Victory

Last week I reported that Adam Carolla broke his silence on the dismissal of the patent troll suit against him and his company. Carolla Digital’s business manager Mike August orchestrated the company’s crowd-funded defense and recently explained more about the circumstances in an interview for Above the Law.

August confirms that the company is still $200,000 in the hole for its legal defense, and will continue to crowd-fund to fill that gap, acknowledging that it will be more difficult now that the suit is dismissed. He reinforces his belief that their “porcupine strategy,” helped them push Personal Audio to settle, explaining,

“our belief was that nobody in the biz of patent litigation wants to be called a patent troll… It just doesn’t help their credibility particularly with the ability of digital media to penetrate every nook and cranny of the potential jury pool they need to support them at trial…We were validated by the fact that they offered to dismiss the case with a 45 day gag on us that corresponded to the anticipated amount of time they were putting their trials on against CBS, NBC and FBC”

He also says that the trial lawyers are the real winners, noting that the American Trial Lawyers Association lobbied to kill a patent reform bill because it had a “loser pays” provision. That would be, “absolutely abhorrent to trial lawyers whose lawsuit biz would be greatly curtailed if they were on the hook for the legal bills of those they sued in the event they lost the case.”

Blumberg’s Startup Raises a Cool Million

Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber’s American Podcasting Company has raised a little more than $1 million, according to Technical.ly Brooklyn. Blumberg is a This American Life producer and the co-creator of NPR’s Planet Money. He and Lieber are raising funds for a podcasting start-up focused on journalism and storytelling. He’s also documenting the journey in podcast form.

From a Silicon Valley perspective $1 million doesn’t seem like a lot, while from a more grassroots radio or podcasting perspective it’s a good chunk of change, and a good starting point.

The post Podcasting News: The “Spotify of Podcasting,” Carolla’s Victory Strategy appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news: KQED spends an hour exploring podcasting; Serial brings long-form journalism to podcasting; Adam Carolla discusses the podcast patent troll dismissal.

Podcasting continues to enjoy traction in at least a segment of the popular consciousness this week. On Friday San Francisco public radio station KQED dedicated an hour of its Forum talk show to the medium, with guests Roman Mars of 99% Invisible, Lea Thau of Strangers, and former This American Life producer Alex Blumberg, who recently launched the Startup podcast.

The program pursues a distinctly public radio perspective on the topic, which isn’t surprising given that the guests come from a public radio background. While the show expectedly dedicates some time to introducing podcasting for listeners who are less well acquainted, each guest is given a fair amount of time to explain his or her own trajectory and why they’ve invested themselves in podcasts.

In response to a question from host Judy Campbell about podcasting’s effect on radio, Blumberg explains that the effect will grow over time and will be similar to how on-demand video services like Hulu and Netflix have affected television. While there will continue to be people who turn on the radio for a live, passive listening experience–just as some people turn on the TV to see what’s on–more people are becoming directed in their listening, choosing specific programs to listen to, and also choosing when to listen. Particularly with smartphones, podcasting enables that kind of selective, on-demand listening, which is becoming easier to extend into the car.

One caller turned out to be the host of a podcast-focused program on San Francisco’s other public radio station, KALW. Ashleyanne Krigbaum presents The Spot, which features podcast programs from within the public radio system that don’t quite fit into the regular schedule because of varying lengths or release schedules.

This is the first such podcast-specific program I’ve heard of–especially on public radio–though I’ve often thought it would be a good idea. I’m glad to see someone actually pulling it off.

Serial Brings Long-Form Journalism to Podcasting

This American Life debuted a new podcast-only series called Serial. It’s dedicated to the kind of narrative storytelling that TAL is known for, but with a focus on a single story for the duration of twelve episodes. This first season of the program digs into a 1999 murder of a high school student in Baltimore County, Maryland, and the circumstances surrounding the young man who was convicted of the crime.

This serialized long-form documentary approach is relatively unique in podcasting, particularly if you exclude shows that originated on broadcast first. Although the show has advertising support from Mailchimp, the Nieman Lab reports that the show is primarily dependent upon the parent program and host station WBEZ.

Listening to the first episodes, Serial seems even to break from the This American Life mold by permitting the investigator and narrator Sarah Koenig to express even more of her own subjectivity and experience in uncovering the story. It feels like a sort of long-form narrative journalism that one is more likely to encounter in The New Yorker or Harper’s than on radio or a podcast.

The approach is well suited to podcasting, because the medium is free of the constraints of the broadcast schedule and the restrictions on topic and language rooted in the FCC regulations and audience sensitivities. The reason why we’ve seen few programs of this sort outside of those that originate in broadcast is because investigative journalism is expensive. I certainly hope that a show like Serial can find its footing podcasting, and become sustainable.

Carolla Discusses Patent Troll Dismissal

In August podcaster Adam Carolla settled the suit against him being pursued by the so-called podcast patent troll Personal Audio. The company dropped its suit, without prejudice–meaning Personal Audio could choose to bring suit again–but without any payment from Carolla.

Both partied agreed to remain silent until September 30. Then, on October 1 Carolla dedicated a portion of his daily podcast to the story of this lawsuit. A YouTube user has uploaded and shared a clip of this specific segment.

There are not many revelations to be learned, except that Personal Audio does not come off as terrifically well researched and prepared. Carolla and his team also confirm that their half-million of crowd funding didn’t keep up with the costs of their legal defense, explaining that they settled in part to cap the total outlay at about $675,000, and also because Personal Audio promised not to also go after fellow podcasters like Nerdist and Marc Maron.

They also claim that their strategy of being loud and drawing attention to the case helped push Personal Audio to throw in the towel. Certainly Carolla brought much more attention to the issue than the much bigger companies also being sued by Personal Audio. It’s hard to imagine that wasn’t helpful to his cause.

Here’s the entire segment:

The post Podcasting News: Carolla Breaks Silence on Podcasting Troll appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s been a busy week in podcasting news. Late last week saw two articles in major publications about the profitability of podcasting, and then the weekend brought the Los Angeles Podcast Festival. Finally, Tuesday, September 30, was National Podcast Day. Did you listen to your favorite podcasts?

LA Podfest Recap

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend the LA Podfest, which was anchored by some great live podcasts from the likes of Who Charted?, Never Not Funny, Superego and WTF, along with featuring panels tackling the business and practice of podcasting.

This was my first time attending any live podcast recording. Though podcasting is, obviously, an auditory medium, there is an undeniable energy in the room of a live performance. That’s probably why live events have become very common with comedy podcasts, in particular, as well as other discussion-driven shows.

On Sunday, Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo upped the visual quotient a bit with an from Bruce Springsteen Puppet, courtesy of frequent guest Pat Francis. It was also great to watch Marc Maron and Aisha Tyler interact in person on the Friday recording of her Girl on Guy show, and to see the man behind the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, Tom Kenny, do a guest turn on The Dana Gould Hour.

I attended quite a few panels on the business and practical side of podcasting, which were quite well attended. Podfest co-organizer Chris Mancini told me that there had been many requests to add the How To Get a Job in Podcasting panel, which was added to the program for the first time this year. I wrote a blog post about the Sponsor Relations panel for the Midroll’s blog, and will be posting another about the podcasting jobs panel soon.

I also had the distinct pleasure of meeting some influential folks in the podcasting community, including Slate’s podcast chief Andy Bowers, Rob Greenlee, former content manager for podcasts on Windows Phone and Zune at Microsoft and current PodcastOne CTO, and Roddy Swearngin and Shawn Marek from the Sideshow network.

The only problem with Podfest is that I couldn’t make it to everything I wanted to see. It’s not the organizers’ fault–there are only so many ways you can divide up one weekend. It was definitely full of good fun and energy. My sides definitely hurt from all the laughing. It’s also great how most of the podcasters hang out for the whole fest, getting a chance to be fans themselves, watching their favorite hosts in action, mingling with all other attendees.

If you missed it, I believe you can still buy access for on-demand access to the live webcast archive for the next three weeks.

Northwest Podcast Fest This Weekend

Although the LA Podfest is the biggest fan-focused podcast event in North America, other festivals are taking root. I just learned about the Northwest Podcast Fest, happening this Thursday through Sunday in Vancouver, BC. The live recordings are spread out over a few different venues, and many are already sold out.

Unlike the LA fest, the Northwest one doesn’t have any panels. The podcast lineup is focused on shows based in the Pacific Northwest and includes Savage Lovecast, Stop Podcasting Yourself and Stuff You Should Know.

WashPo and FastCo Cover Podcast Profits

Last week both the Washington Post and Fast Company published articles about the podcast business’ rising fortunes within a day of each other. The Post’s piece went live on Thursday, written by Cecilia Kang, focusing on shows like 99% Invisible and Alex Blumberg’s Startup.

Blumberg and his new podcasting startup is also the principal subject of Rebecca Greenfield’s Fast Company article, which published last Friday. Together these two articles give a good overview of how and why podcasters are making a living at their craft.

Destination DIY Joins Maximum Fun

Finally, I want to congratulate Julie Sabatier because her Destination DIY podcast was just picked up by the Maximum Fun Network. The show had been part of the Mule Radio Syndicate, which downsized this past Summer, suddenly making most of that network’s shows independent again.

Another show dropped from Mule, The Shakes, resulted in the launch of the Misfit Radio network back in July. That network now has 12 shows.

The post Podcasting News: LA Podfest Recap, WashPo & FastCo on Podcast Profits appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Last week Edison Research highlighted some data from its Share of Ear study which indicates that “podcasting is bigger than you think.”

Although the Share of Ear study shows that podcasting only represents 2% of all audio listening in the US, those who do consume podcasts are “super listeners” who listen to more audio overall. These listeners also dedicate more than a quarter of their listening time to podcasts, which is only slightly less than they listen to AM or FM radio.

Podcast fans understand first hand how once you start listening to these shows they quickly absorb much more of your audio listening time, often taking time away from television, web surfing or listening to music. Of course, podcasting can only grow from here.

The Movie that Started as a Podcast

With IFC’s Maron we have a TV show where the main protagonist is a podcaster. Now Kevin Smith has released what is arguably the first feature film about a podcaster, only he happens to be surgically turned into a walrus. Tusk, which opened this past weekend, is based upon an extended riff from an episode of Smith’s Smodcast, that itself was based upon a strange apartment listing someone sent him. Smith asked his audience if he should turn the story into a movie, and they said, “yes.” It’s almost a film made on a dare.

I have to admit that I have not seen it yet. The film opened at #14 at the box office and received mixed reviews. My sense is that if you’re willing to go with the premise it’s a fun ride.

Have you seen Tusk? Please share your capsule review in the comments.

The post Podcasting News: Report Says Podcasting Is Bigger than You Think appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On Monday the so-called podcast patent troll, Personal Audio, won in court against CBS. A Marshall, Texas jury found that the television network had infringed on Personal Audio’s podcasting patent, rejecting CBS’s argument that the patent was not valid to begin with. The jury awarded damages of $1.3 million to Personal Audio.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Daniel Nazier notes that the amount awarded is likely less than CBS spent on its defense. It’s also probably not the windfall the patent holder was hoping for. Nevertheless, the verdict is disappointing for podcasters and others who doubt the applicability of Personal Audio’s 1996 patent to episodic audio and video content now available online.

Nazier also points out that this is not the end of the road. First, the EFF is continuing to pursue its challenge to the patent at the US Trademark and Patent Office. He also reports that a previous patent troll challenge that was in lost in Texas courts was later victorious when it was appealed to Federal Circuit court.

Personal Audio recently settled with Adam Carolla and said it doesn’t intend to go after other independent podcasters. However its suits against FOX and NBC are still going forward.

In happier news, podcaster Marc Maron’s semi-autobiographical and eponymously titled IFC television show has been renewed for a third season. Production begins in the fall for episodes that will debut in spring 2015.

We cover podcasting news every Wednesday in our Podcast Survivor feature.

The post Podcasting News: CBS Loses to Podcast Troll in Texas Court appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Alex Blumberg is trying to launch a podcasting start-up. Appropriately, he is podcasting his journey in his new show, also appropriately named StartUp. Blumberg is not just any podcaster. His resume includes a 15-year stint as a producer on This American Life and co-founding NPR’s Planet Money.

That means he takes a well-produced, narrative approach in his StartUp podcast. The first episode documents how he pitched billionaire angel investor Chris Sacca, but ended up being schooled by Sacca on how to do it better. Yet, even before heading to Los Angeles for the meeting, Blumberg records a discussion with his wife about the shoes he’s going to wear. It’s the sort of “life is in the details” storytelling that is the hallmark of his public radio work.

In that way StartUp stands apart from most podcasts, which are typically dominated by roundtable discussion or short-form monologue. Those that have more intricately produced narratives tend to be the download versions of shows that are broadcast-first.

Blumberg’s willingness to be bluntly honest and vulnerable in documenting his journey is both instructive and admirable. He’s even completely upfront about how he obtained the show’s first sponsor. During an read break in episode two he asks one of the employees of the sponsor, whom he’s visiting with, if sponsoring his show is a “wise investment” for her company. Her clearly off-the-cuff response: “Unclear, we’ll have to do a post-mortem.”

This series should be fascinating for any podcast fan, but especially for would-be entrepreneurs of any stripe. I’m already looking forward to episode 3.

National Podcast Day Is Coming

Podcasting now has its own day. A group of podcasters and sponsors have declared September 30 to be National Podcast Day.

In a press release, co-organizer Steve Lee said, “We need a day that we can educate the world about the wonders of podcasting.”

I can’t really disagree with the impulse, and I guess the best way to celebrate will be to listen to podcasts, make podcasts, or bug your friends and family about podcasts. Of course, there’s a hashtag: #podcastday

You have 20 days to get ready.

The post Podcasting News: Alex Blumberg Documents His Podcasting Start Up appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A holiday weekend means it’s been quiet here in Podcast Survivor land. However, this week’s episode of The New Disruptors podcast features a a nice interview with public radio broadcaster, podcaster and menswear enthusiast, Jesse Thorn. He is the founder of the Maximum Fun podcast network, and the host/producer of its flagship Bullseye podcast and public radio program, which began life at UC Santa Cruz’s KZSC.

In the first half of the show Thorn and host Glenn Fleishman have an informative discussion about the differences and relationship between radio and podcasting that manages to be substantive enough for the hardcore podcast enthusiast without having too much inside baseball for a listener with more interest in the content than the medium. He admits to Fleishman that despite his obvious investment in podcasting, when people ask him what he does he still says “radio,” since that’s what folks are most likely to know.

Thorn also relates an anecdote about a listener survey that he ran on Bullseye, which airs on several major market public stations in addition to being a podcast. While the broadcast version of the show has many more listeners than the podcast, he found that nearly all of the survey respondents were podcast listeners. That’s yet another indicator for how podcasting tends to be more engaging than the so-called “lean back” experience of listening to the radio.

The New Disruptors consistently features entertaining conversations with guests engaged in impressive and independent ventures. This episode is no exception.

I also want to quickly highlight an interview with Erik Diehn, my colleague at Midroll Media, conducted by PRX CEO Joel Shapiro. Erik recently joined the company as V.P. of Business Development after a tenure at New York Public Radio, which has made prominent investments in podcasts. In this interview he talks about why podcasting is having its “moment” now, gives advice for podcast producers, and shares his perspective on some of the challenges and advantages that the on-demand audio world of podcasting offered public radio.

The post Podcast Survivor: Why Jesse Thorn Says He Works in Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news: Ars Technica on a decade of podcasting; LA Podfest schedule; Philadelphia Podfest; Public radio producer on the advantages of podcasting.

The Ten Year History of Podcasting

Because I dedicated last week’s Podcast Survivor to the dismissal of the podcast patent troll suit, I failed to mention a recent Ars Technica article recounting the decade-long history of podcasting. Writer Cyrus Farivar focuses quite a bit on the medium’s formative years. He talked with former MTV VJ Adam Curry who played a key role in encouraging developer Dave Winer to add file enclosures to his RSS feed standard, permitting MP3 files to be automatically downloaded as soon as they are published, instead of a user having to manually check for updates.

Farivar does a nice job of telling the story, showing how the technology behind podcasting and the first podcasts actually predated the emergence of the term by a number of years. Even if today it’s hard to find any podcaster who actually likes the term.

Los Angeles Podcast Festival

The schedule for this year’s Los Angeles Podcast Festival is out. It’s happening September 26-28 at the Sofitel Hotel in Beverly Hills. Like the previous two fests, the podcasters in attendance this year weigh heavily towards comedy, which is to be expected since L.A. is the de facto comedy podcast capital.

Popular shows like WTF, Girl on Guy and Mohr Stories will be there recording live episodes, while the Squarespace Podcast Lab is available for any podcaster in attendance to use for recording. There is also a “Standup Podsmash” comedy show on Saturday night.

A number of panels and workshops are aimed at current and aspiring podcasters, like one focused on making money in podcasting. I will be attending and will participate in a Sunday panel on getting started in podcasting. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ll note that my employer is a sponsor of the festival.

Philadelphia Podfest

Speaking of podcast festivals, last weekend was the 2nd annual Philadelphia Podfest. While Philly isn’t yet a nationally known podcast town like Los Angeles–and really, what other city is?–the City of Brotherly Love is home to enough shows to have filled five nights of live podcasting.

Festival co-founders Teagan Keating and Nathan Kuruna told Philly.com that the event’s goals are, “to give podcasters a chance to perform live; to get out the word, in a podcast world dominated by New York and Los Angeles, that Philly produces really great stuff; and to connect podcasters with their listeners.”

I’m just sorry that I didn’t learn about the fest until it was over. If you’re a podcast fan in the Philadelphia area it looks like something worth looking out for next year.

Death, Sex and Money Producer on the Advantages of Podcasting

Capital New York published an interview with Anna Sale, producer of the New York Public Radio podcast Death, Sex and Money, which debuted this past May. Media reporter Nicole Levy asked Sale to compare the pros and cons of podcasting versus producing a broadcast program.

Sale said that one advantage is that,

“You don’t have to warn listeners about upcoming edgy or uncomfortable content the way you do on the radio. The other great advantage of podcasting is the shows can be as long as they need to be. Their length isn’t determined by a broadcast clock but rather by how much space a conversation needs, and that’s been really creatively liberating.”

It is interesting that the lack of content restrictions in podcasting would also be a boon for edgier public radio content, especially considering the service’s otherwise not-entirely-justifiable reputation for being staid. Shows like The Moth and This American Life certainly tackle mature topics with enough savvy to keep most program directors out of hot water. But podcasts offer producers a chance to deal with challenging ideas and stories without stirring up the ire of sensitive listeners or risking indecency fines.
Of course, that sort just begs the question about how relevant indecency regulations are, when even public radio producers are interested in skirting them via podcasting. But that, however, is a topic for another day.

The post Podcasting News: LA Podfest Schedule; a Decade of Podcast History appeared first on Radio Survivor.

One chapter in the podcast patent troll story has closed. On Friday popular podcaster Adam Carolla and patent company Personal Audio filed a joint motion to dismiss Personal Audio’s suit against Carolla [PDF].

At the end of July news surfaced that Personal Audio said it offered to drop its suit, but that Carolla’s company rejected the offer. It’s unclear what changed in the last few weeks, since the details of the settlement haven’t been revealed and both parties have agreed to remain silent until September 30.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation breaks down the implications of the settlement on its blog. The group credits Carolla’s team and his supporters for fighting Personal Audio when many other targets of patent troll lawsuits simply settle in order to avoid both the expense and hassle of a court defense. “The podcasting community showed that it would not be shaken down,” writes EFF blogger Daniel Nazer.

As I noted in my post last month, Personal Audio discovered that even the biggest podcasters don’t make the kind of big network money the company apparently believed they do. Thus, it decided the cost of court trial with Carolla wouldn’t likely be worth the possible spoils of winning.

In a press release dated Tuesday, Personal Audio more clearly states that “it has no intention of suing podcasters that are making modest amounts of money from podcasting.” The company then specifically names six podcasters it will not sue: Nerdist, PodcastOne, Joe Rogan, Marc Maron and Jay Mohr.

As I also noted before, “modest amounts of money,” is a very relative term. Podcasting certainly is modest compared to the $23.7 billion in revenue that NBCUniversal had in 2013. To me this backhanded assuaging of podcasters only highlights the predatory instincts of patent trolls.

Despite the relief for most of the podcasting community, there are downsides for podcasting with this dismissal. Personal Audio cannot be forced by a court to compensate Carolla for legal fees. Ars Technica reports that Carolla’s CFO said that even the $500,000 raised through the Save Our Podcasts Legal Defense fund was insufficient, requiring Carolla to kick in additional money out-of-pocket.

More importantly, lost is the chance to have Personal Audio’s patent ruled invalid in court. Such an outcome would have protected all podcasters from future suits.

Even though Carolla is out of the hot seat now, Personal Audio still retains the right to refile a suit against him or any other podcaster. While the company has emphasized it has no plans to sue, it could still surface as a threat as the medium grows in popularity and profits. Personal Audio’s suits against the NBC, CBS and FOX television networks are still going forward, schedule for trial in September.

Nevertheless, the EFF hopes that Carolla set an example that “will protect smaller podcasters from further attacks from this troll.” Furthermore, the EFF is still pursuing its own challenge to Personal Audio’s patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The post Podcasting News: Carolla Settles with Podcast Patent Troll appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Generally speaking I don’t cover the debut of many new podcasts, or new podcast networks, for that matter. In part it’s due to practicality–it’s tough to keep up. More importantly, it’s because I’m interested in the underlying structure of podcasting. When I do write about a new show or network it’s spurred by an interesting or unique aspect in that enterprise that says something about the progress of the medium.

This week there was an announcement of a new tech podcast network. The reason why this particular new network is notable is that its debut comes on the heels of a debate in the technology podcast community about the value of networks, and because of the personalities behind it.

The new network is called Relay FM, co-founded by podcasters Myke Hurley and Stephen Hackett. One might call Hurley a podcast network veteran. He founded the 70Decibels network in 2011, which he then merged with the bigger, more established 5by5 network in 2013.

Thirteen months after that merger Hurley has moved on from 5by5 to Relay FM, which will release the first episodes of its five shows this coming Monday, August 18. Hurley explains on his blog that leaving 5by5 is motivated by the fact that, “I have new goals that I want to tackle, and to be able to do this I need to be independent again.” There’s no indication that the parting is anything but amicable. Only Hurley’s Pen Addict podcast seems to be making the jump with him to Relay FM. His other 5by5 shows appear to have ended.

In announcing his new network Hurley references the podcast network debate. One of the new shows on Relay, Analog(ue) is even co-hosted by Casey Liss, one of the hosts of the Accidental Tech Podcast with Marco Arment, the guy who touched off that network debate in the first place.

Hurley says that his principal reason for starting network is,

“I host six shows. Working on one show is a simple enough affair, but once you start to grow from there, it becomes a lot more tricky to scale. I don’t want to set up separate webpages for all of the shows that I do. For me, it makes most sense to put all my shows in one place that I can point people too. It’s as simple as that.”

Even though it has only one established podcast, Relay FM should benefit from the reputation and fan base of its hosts and principals within the tech community–a fan base that was built up on other networks, one must note. That arguably gives it a head start compared to a network started by comparative unknowns.

Of course, we’ll have to see how the network fairs in the longer run. However Relay FM works out in the next year or two, it’s important to keep in mind that the fortunes of any one podcast network don’t easily generalize to all podcast networks.

Let’s not forget that television and radio networks come and go, as do movie studios, publishing houses and record labels. Yet today there are more of each of those entities than there were twenty years ago, despite grand proclamations that the days of the network, studio, label or publisher are over. That’s not a statement of philosophy or teleology, just a simple observation of historical fact.

Sustaining any media making enterprise is hard work, and success often requires luck as much it does good strategy and perspiration. Success is also relative. While one podcaster might be happy getting by on a trickle of donations from grateful listeners, others want to create prosperous businesses that let them quit their day jobs or employ a team. That means failure, too, is relative. Like Mule, a network might decide to downsize or shut down when it becomes less fun and more hassle, while another podcaster might decide to call it a day on even a popular show simply because its run its course.

I certainly wish Relay FM success, by their own standards.

As I said before: networked and unaffiliated, may a billion podcasts bloom.

The post Podcast Survivor: Podcast Networks, Part Trois appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Podcasts are really just on-demand audio. However, the medium debuted in the period before nearly-ubiquitous wireless data and wifi. That’s the historical reason why it still relies heavily on downloading, rather than simply streaming programs from the internet like video platforms, such as YouTube, Hulu and Netflix. Of course, it’s also because audio files are much smaller than video, making them easier and more economical to download rather than stream.

Because of the growing availability of bandwidth nearly anywhere streaming is slowly taking over podcasting. This is being driven by smartphone apps that are designed to make podcasts easier to browse and listen to on the go, rather than having to download them at home, in advance.

NPR One is the newest entry in this category, providing a simple-to-use on-demand stream of public radio programming. Unlike many other apps, NPR One isn’t designed around browsing and searching. Rather, when you start it up and press play it just starts delivering stories. The interactive features are minimalist–you can pause, skip forward and mark stories as “interesting,” which is basically indicating that you’d like to hear more stuff like that.

You can swipe left to go back and re-listen to a story, or swipe forward to see what is coming up, with the option of jumping directly to a queued story. If you sign in to the app then NPR One keeps track of what you’ve heard to both select stories you might like, and also make sure you don’t hear the same story twice.

There is a search function, but it’s relatively limited. When you select the search icon the app shows recommendations before you even enter anything. You can search on keywords or show names, but don’t expect to do any binge listening to deep archives of your favorite shows. At most a search on a particular show will deliver only a few segments or episodes, biased toward newer content.

It’s almost a cliché to say that NPR One is the Pandora of public radio, but I’d argue that it’s more true for this app than any I’ve used before. That’s because it focuses on streaming individual stories and segments instead of full shows or podcasts. The segments range from a couple of minutes up to a quarter-hour or more. But in my short time using the app, most of the stories streamed by NPR One averaged around 5 minutes each–about the same length as a segment on All Things Considered or Morning Edition. That length isn’t too different from a rock or pop song that one might stream on Pandora.

NPR One really is a Pandora / public radio mashup, especially since it customizes your content feed based upon your likes (there is no “uninteresting” or thumbs-down option). It’s best suited for someone who wants to listen to some public radio talk content, but isn’t interested in a picking a particular program. It’s like turning on the radio, but without any schedule, yet with a limited degree of control.

The app also has you select your local NPR affiliate station so that local stories and shows can be mixed in with national content. I’m sure it’s also a feature designed to allay the fears of local stations that they might be replaced by a national program stream independent of their own expensive broadcast and internet infrastructure.

Now, I am covering this in my weekly podcast update, but only some of the content streamed in NPR One is generally considered a podcast. While many of the national news segments can be played and downloaded individually online, they generally aren’t available in most podcast apps. But that formality is beside the point.

NPR One presents an interesting and potentially promising model for podcasting as a medium, though in its current form it is most well-suited to a single network of content that can be segmented easily. While many podcasts across genres are broken up into individual stories or segments, they’re most often only available for download as whole, unbroken programs. Segmenting them without cooperation from the producers would likely be a labor-intensive endeavor.

One of the things I love about podcasting is the access to thoughtful, engaging long-form content that doesn’t have to conform to the broadcast clock or short attention spans. At the same time, it’s also nice not to have to commit to a 60 or 90-minute show. It would be great to have an app like this dedicated to comedy, tech or other genres of podcasts for those times when I’m not in the mood to decide. That’s no different than the times I listen to Pandora (or the radio) instead of picking an album or playlist stored on my iPhone.

The timing of NPR One’s release is interesting, since it came during the same week that the previous “Pandora for podcasts” app, Swell, was acquired by Apple and taken off-line. NPR was a Swell partner. Not to advance any conspiracy theories, but did they have any advanced knowledge, or was it just luck? Given the amount of design and development time needed, I’m pretty certain it’s luck.

NPR One is available for Android and iOS, and also in your browser.

The post NPR One App Represents a Possible Future for Podcasting appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s been a busy week in podcasting news: Apple buys and closes Swell; The podcast patent troll says it offered to dismiss lawsuit against Adam Carolla; The new Misfit Radio network debuts in the wake of the Mule Radio downsizing.

Apple Buys and Closes Swell

On Monday Liz Gannes of Re/Code broke the news that Apple is acquiring the Swell podcast app for $30 million. This is seen as good news for podcasting on two counts. First, it’s an indicator that Apple intends to replace or greatly improve its own flawed iOS Podcasts app. Second, it’s a vote of confidence in podcasting as a medium.

Right now the Podcasts app is a free download from Apple, but not part of the base iOS that ships with iPhones, iPads and iPods. Reports on the beta of the newest version of iOS say that the app will be included in the OS. That would likely introduce thousands more listeners to podcasting by making them that much more accessible.

Swell is podcast listening and discovery app for iOS, often dubbed “the Pandora of radio.” NPR and American Public Media are both partners with Swell’s parent company Concept.io, and programming from both networks is highlighted in the app. Last year entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis made news when he announced an investment of $250,000 in the company.

Yesterday Swell became no longer available for download, and the website only offers a message saying,

Thank you for using Swell over the past year. We wanted to let you know that the Swell service is no longer available. We’ve been inspired by the opportunity to create quality products that positively impact users’ lives, and we are grateful to all our listeners. Thank you everyone for your support!

On the app itself, navigating to Top Charts results in a similar message saying that Swell is no longer available. Searches for any content come back with no results.

Of course, the problem with this strategy is the potential loss of current Swell users, who may migrate to other apps. However, Apple’s calculation may be that it’s a small price to pay in exchange for offering a much improved listening experience to all iOS listeners. The question is: can Apple integrate Swell quickly enough for the anticipated fall release of iOS 8?

Podcast Patent Troll Says It Offered To Drop Carolla Lawsuit

In a curious turn of events, Ars Technica reports that the podcast patent troll, Personal Audio, is saying that it has offered to drop its patent infringement lawsuit against Adam Carolla. The only problem is, according to a statement from the company [PDF], Carolla has rejected that offer.

Personal Audio says that it dismissed other similar suits against podcast companies Togi Net and How Stuff Works. It is still pursuing suits against NBC, CBS and ABC, but over their episodic video content.

In the statement, Brad Liddle, CEO of Personal Audio, LLC takes jabs at Carolla, saying,
“We are quite surprised that Carolla has turned down the offer that was accepted by his
peers. Perhaps this is because he feels he can simply get his fans to fund his future, and
now unnecessary, legal expenses. Or perhaps it relates to how he uses the case as material
for his show."

However, reality is not quite so clear-cut, since Personal Audio could choose to refile the lawsuit at a later date, or choose to pursue another podcaster at any time.

In its sharpest cut against Carolla, Personal Audio says that it is dismissing the suit because it discovered that he and other podcasters were not making enough to make it worthwhile “to litigate over the smaller amounts of money at issue.”

I am not surprised at this, since podcasting is a young industry. Of course, “smaller amounts of money” is relative–it shouldn’t suprise anyone that the major TV networks have significantly more resources than a 5 year-old podcast network. The sheer cost of mounting a patent infringement lawsuit would necessitate being able to collect tens of millions in royalties. While I don’t doubt that the targeted podcast companies are lucrative, they are essentially small businesses simply not on the scale of an NBC or CBS.

On the surface it might appear that podcasting has dodged bullet, since there seems to be a clear message that Personal Audio doesn’t intend to go after any more podcasters any time soon. However, the ball is still in that company’s court. Its strategy could change depending on how its suits against the TV networks turn out.

Carolla has not made any statements about the suit or his company’s decision to continue its defense. Based on his earlier statements, he is likely invested in seeing the podcasting patent weakened or invalidated, which would truly clear the way, rather than just leave the medium still under the looming threat of a future patent lawsuit.

At the same time the Electronic Frontier Foundation is still challenging Personal Audio’s patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office. That process is ongoing.

New Misfit Radio Network Debuts In the Wake of Mule Radio Downsizing

It’s the cycle of life: from death comes new life.

In June Mule Radio Syndicate honcho Mike Monteiro announced that his podcast network would be greatly downsizing. He revealed the plan in a post at Medium titled, “Everything dies. Sometimes they die well.”

One podcast left without a network was The Shakes. A co-host of that show, Jeremy Fuksa, announced a new network to fill the void, Misfit Radio, which launched on July 1.

He posted his own piece to Medium, explaining why he decided to start his own podcast network.

“We could have certainly continued to produce episodes of The Shakes independently and that would have been that,” he wrote. “The one thing that made me want to start a network and rally a group of shows together was the one thing I found at Mule Radio that would never be true as an independent: community.”

He said that he wants to bring together, “shows and voices that were a bit off the beaten path or unknown to many of podcasting’s more ardent fans.”

Fuksa makes a good point that easily gets left out when discussion focuses on issues like publicity and monetization. A good podcast network–like a good independent record label–can appeal to listeners based upon its taste in the shows that it welcomes into the fold. An important aspect of this, as Fuksa observes, is that the artists joined together in the network benefit by being in good company. It’s something that’s difficult to quantify, but is nevertheless real.

The post Podcasting News: Apple Buys and Closes Podcast App Swell, and more appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news: Connecticut’s WNPR-FM dedicates an hour to “the culture and design of podcasts”; the anticipated Overcast app is released.

WNPR-FM Explores the “Culture and Design of Podcasts.”

Public station WNPR-FM dedicated the Tuesday edition of its morning talk show Where We Live to the topic of podcasts this week. Host John Dankosky was joined by 99% Invisible producer Sam Greenspan, former NPR correspondent and current Slate podcast host Mike Pesca and Connecticut-area podcaster Julia Pistell, co-host of the Literary Disco podcast.

The show mercifully spends a minimum amount of time introducing listeners to podcasts, then Dankovsky dives into some of the meaningful differences between broadcast radio and podcasting. He asked Pistell and Greenspan how podcasters deal with the lack of time constraints that are so elemental to broadcast. Pistell acknowledged that it is a challenge for podcasters to know “when to stop talking,” but that the close relationship with the audience means that the listeners don’t hesitate to let them know when they’re going on too long. Greenspan responded with the question about how long should a song or novel be?

Pesca–who only recently migrated from radio–said he thinks of a podcast as an “on demand radio show,” but without the restrictions of radio. For instance, he said they can be very niche, citing a recent guest on his show who produces an Archie comics podcast.

Dankovsky asked Pesca what it’s like to be freer to give his opinion on The Gist than on mainstream NPR shows. Pesca responded that at NPR he had more freedom as a sports correspondent than a Middle East correspondent might have, and that a listener to The Gist is likely also an NPR listener. He said that his listeners don’t want a FOX News level of commentary, or even something like MSNBC. But at the same time they want to know the host, and that when you get to know a host, you also learn how they think about things.

The show is an entertaining and informative listen for someone relatively new to podcasts as well as the hardcore podcast addict.

Overcast Podcast App Is Released

There are many smartphone podcast apps out there, but one much anticipated app finally hit the store last week. Podcaster and developer Marco Arment announced his Overcast app at last year’s XOXO Festival in September.

The reason for the anticipation is because of Arment’s reputation for success as the lead developer for Tumblr and for building the popular Instapaper app and service, which pretty much defined the “read later” category. He’s also the guy who recently opined that “podcast networks are the wrong model,” to which I responded a few weeks ago.

At this point I must admit that I’ve tried out very few podcast apps. So far I’ve used Stitcher, Swell and Apple’s own Podcasts app for iOS. Swell and Stitcher are fine apps that are oriented towards discovery. However, as nice as that can be, I generally have more podcasts in my queue than I can keep up with. I’m finding new shows every day that I want to listen to; discover isn’t so important to me. Therefore, as just a plain old podcast apps, neither Stitcher nor Swell quite does it for me.

So, iOS Podcasts has been my primary podcast listening app, though I actually really don’t like it. It crashes more than it ought to, and it’s overall functionality feels clunky and unfinished. Sometimes shows don’t download or start playing, and I just don’t know why. It’s only virtue is integration with iTunes, which is truly faint praise.

But, then, for no good reason except laziness, I haven’t migrated to any other podcast app.

I have now tried out Overcast, and I’m pretty convinced. Fundamentally, it’s pretty intuitive, and lets me control the basic settings, like how many shows to download and keep, right in the app. Searching for podcasts and subscribing to them works more quickly than iOS Podcasts. Browsing through your podcast subscriptions and playing shows is quick and painless. By and large the app doesn’t get in your way and just works.

The basic Overcast app is free, and it works as fine replacement for (if not upgrade from) Apple’s Podcasts app. For $4.99 you can unlock additional features. The big one for me is the ability to download podcasts using cellular data; the free app only downloads over wifi. This may not be as desirable for others, but I have an unlimited data plan, and it’s when I’m away from home and off wifi that often I want to find and download new shows.

The other paid feature that attracted me is the sleep timer. iOS 7 does have a sleep timer built in that is supposed to shut off the Podcasts app, but I’ve had that feature inexplicably fail on me. Overcast has yet to fail to shut off properly.

The most interesting paid feature is one that Arment put a lot of development into: Smart Speed. As he tells TechCrunch, he thought, “‘What if we could do this dynamic shifting of the speed based on silence, and speed up the silence more than the rest of it,’ because I wanted to pick up extra speed, but I didn’t want to distort the sound too badly.”

I know that many hardcore podcast and audiobook listeners like to speed up programs since we can often comprehend speech at a rate faster than people actually talk, though it’s rarely had much appeal for me. I tried out Overcast’s Smart Speed, and I must say that it works very well.

You have the option on activate Smart Speed on its own, which basically abbreviates the silence without speeding up any of the speech. For most podcasts where there isn’t much background noise or a music bed it’s nearly undetectable, while speeding things up anywhere from 5% to 20%.

You can use a slider to speed things up more, which abbreviates the speech as well. This, of course, is audible, but introduces a bare minimum of distortion–less than other apps.

There is also a Voice Boost feature that equalizes the audio to enhance speech, along with doing some compression to keep the sound level even. It works as advertised, and can be good for noisy environments, like the car, or when listening on a smartphone’s tiny built-in speakers. I don’t like it so much when using headphones, since it does also boost some background noise, too, which becomes more noticeable. It is a nice feature for podcasts where not all the speakers are at the same level, as sometimes happens with shows recorded outside of a studio.

One feature I haven’t really taken for a ride yet is playlists, which is good for commuting, road trips, or any time that you want podcasts to queue up without having to mess with your phone. With the free version of Overcast you get one playlist, and the paid version is unlimited. You can add individual episodes or add a whole ’cast, with episodes added as they’re released. A priority feature puts designated shows to the top of the queue.

A final thing I want to commend is that Overcast lets you export your podcast subscriptions in a standard OPML format so that if you may migrate to another app if you like.

While I haven’t tried out most of Overcast’s other iOS competitors, I also don’t see much of a need to. I didn’t move from Apple’s Podcasts app because it worked well enough most of the time, and Overcast works that much better. I want a podcast app that just works and doesn’t get in my way. It’s not faint praise to say Overcast does that and convinced me to part with five clams for the paid version without complaint.

We cover podcasting news and analysis every Wednesday in our Podcast Survivor feature.

The post Podcasting News: Anticipated Overcast App Drops appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week’s podcasting news is mostly just light and fun. Though I’ll start with the very serious business of sound, which is pretty essential to podcasting.

Though not expressly about podcasting, per se, public radio producer and journalism professor Adam Ragusea just published a well-researched commentary piece for Current all about audio levels, and why you’re doing them wrong, and why it matters.

The problem is that listening to public radio terrestrial broadcasts, online broadcasts and podcasts exposes many listeners to an inconvenient to aggravating amount of volume changes. Those variances can cause some content to become nearly inaudible, especially in noisier environments like a car, forcing the listener to up the volume, only to be blasted out when a louder segment follows. It’s also a problem for people listening to podcasts in a playlist or with an app like Stitcher or Swell, where one show might be much quieter or louder than the one preceding it.

Even though there are some baseline standards on the books for the public radio satellite distribution system, these really don’t address the perceived loudness. As Ragusea explains, perceived loudness is different than the actual numerical loudness, as expressed in decibels, because we perceive different frequencies differently.

That’s why experienced radio producers with a background in music production still rely on their ears to adjust levels in the final mix, rather than trusting the visual waveforms and level indicators they see on the mixing board or editing app. He talks with Dylan Keefe–formerly of the alt rock band Marcy Playground–who is technical director for Radiolab, and Rob Byers, technical coordinator for American Public Media, who are both working on ways to standardize audio levels in public broadcasting (which, of course, is increasingly becoming public podcasting).

Any current or aspiring podcast or radio producer should read Ragusea’s whole article, and listen to his full audio interview with Keefe and Byers.

Podcast Tour Documentary To Release in Fall, Promoted by Podcast Tour

The “I got fired” tour movie is close to becoming its own genre. First, in 2011 there was the release of Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, documenting his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour that followed his firing from the Tonight Show in 2010.

This year’s SXSW saw the premiere of the documentary Harmontown, which follows the podcast tour that Dan Harmon embarked on after he was fired from the NBC sitcom Community, which he created. Now that film is set for theatrical and video-on-demand release this fall. Harmon will go on another podcast tour to promote it.

Maron vs. Radio

Because I no longer have cable TV, I’ve unfortunately missed most of this season of Maron on IFC. However, choice bits and scenes do get posted to YouTube.

A colleague called my attention to this recent clip where Maron defends podcasting to a pair of morning show DJs live on the air. I only wish that these TV-world DJs’ tired schtick and sound effects weren’t so close to reality.

The post Podcasting News: Sound Levels are Important, Maron vs. Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Last week the New York Times published a feature article on Ira Glass and This American Life. Ostensibly it covers the show’s departure from distributor Public Radio International to join the more independent-minded Public Radio Exchange. However, the piece also follows Glass’s multi-tasking forays into other endeavors, like leading an off-Broadway dance show.

Relevant to podcasting, the article reports that advertising and sales income from the show’s podcasts and smartphone apps totaled enough to contribute $180,000 towards the recent This American Life live stage show. While there was a bidding war reaching seven figures to win rights to distribute TAL, Glass also reveals that podcast revenues were not part of the negotiations.

While the success of This American Life is hardly overnight–the program has been on the air for nearly 19 years–it blazed a trail for a new generation of public radio programming. The move to PRX and online distribution legitimates an independent path for public radio producers, that may or may not have direct ties to actual radio stations.

As Glass acknowledges, the independent path carries risks along with the potential rewards. But the avenues for distribution and income generation that podcasting and internet distribution bring offer an opportunity to create new well-produced news and storytelling program of the type that public radio is known for, but free of the constraints and bureaucracy of the actual public radio establishment.

That’s something Glass’s colleague Alex Blumberg is setting out to do himself. As he tells Current, Blumberg is launching a for-profit podcast network to produce shows based on a public radio style narrative journalism model, but outside a station or distributor. He’s seeking funding from Silicon Valley venture capital to launch three shows in the first year.

He told Current, “There’s a viable business model here where we can do great work, create awesome programming, and have it pay for itself. I don’t see why a company like that should be a nonprofit.”

Blumberg also discussed his plans on the Wolf Den podcast (which I produce) in May, telling host Jeff Ullrich, “The most successful version of this is that in 5 years we have 5 to 10 Planet Moneys, This American Lifes or Radiolabs. [Shows] like that, that have that number of listeners, and are that sort of successful. But, then, each of the brands by itself has to be a thing.”

Based on his experience running a Kickstarter with NPR’s Planet Money, Blumberg expects that audiences will voluntarily support quality programs that connect with them. If anything, that is perhaps the overarching lesson of the internet-distribution era: it is easier now than ever before to find an audience willing to support good work. On the other hand, this is neither easy, nor guaranteed.

As I noted in my last Podcast Survivor, I think the notion that good content will necessarily find its audience is simplistic and too often used as a justification for success for failure that is complicated by many other factors. That said, the ability to reach thousands or millions of people over the internet is not trivial when compared to the structural barriers imposed by the centralized gatekeepers of broadcast which ruled the roost for some eight decades, and still wield considerable power.

The emergence of podcasts that are self-sustaining alongside or outside the broadcast establishment is perhaps the biggest kick in the pants to mainstream public radio since the modern era began in the early 70s. And it’s needed.

The post Podcasts: a Kick in the Pants of the Public Radio Establishment appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Remember three weeks ago, when I reported on the Mule Radio podcast network downsizing? In that post I also argued that podcast networks are still relevant, largely responding to a short blog post by podcaster and app developer Marco Arment, who concluded, “The glory days of podcast networks are behind us.”

Afterwards, online discussion on the issue seemed to die down (not as a result of my post). I thought, that was that.

The Kerfuffle Resumes

But, apparently, that was not that. In the interim Arment fielded a lot of questions and arguments about his statement. So this Sunday he expanded on his position with a post titled, “Podcast networks are the wrong model.” His position is clear and reasonable enough–he says that there are enough good hosting and ad services, along with recording tools available such that a podcaster does not necessarily need the services of a podcast network. And, for a very specific segment of podcasts and podcasters, I think his assertion holds water. I’m less convinced that it applies to all podcasts. But more on that in a moment.

Arment’s Sunday post touched off enough more debate on Twitter and other blogs that he weighed in again on Monday to address “The Elephant in the Podcast Studio.” In that post he responds to arguments that his ability to have a financially sustainable independent podcast–The Accidental Tech Podcast–is based upon the success he first built as the host of a show with the 5by5 network. Arment says that his first podcast after leaving 5by5, Neutral, was actually not a success, and that ATP has performed better because it happens to be a better show. He writes,

Having a “built-in audience” from two 5by5 shows didn’t sustain Neutral. It peaked at about 1,000 listeners — when we ended Neutral, the audience for the weeks-old ATP was already 15 times larger and skyrocketing.

This all serves his primary argument, which is that having a successful podcast with a sizable listenership that is financially sustainable is mostly due to making a good podcast. Podcast networks, he contends, don’t help much or add much value if a show is already good.

As I wrote before, I fully support independent podcasting, and agree that the available tools and services are more than sufficient for someone to go it alone. Where I depart is with the argument that good content necessarily will be discovered and supported.

This is a kind of reasoning that is all to prevalent in tech and media circles, that easily justifies success and provides a ready excuse for failure, without having to examine other factors that may have to do with economics or privilege. Criticizing this reasoning does not mean I’m criticizing Arment’s podcasting success, or saying that is either unearned or undeserved. Rather, his show’s relative success, like the success of many media ventures, is idiosyncratic, and much less generalizable than he argues. This isn’t because Arment has a ready fan base or is otherwise special. It’s because there are too many other aspects, besides the quality of the show, that he hasn’t taken account of.

Not All Podcasts Are The Same

Arment’s argument is applicable in much more specific circumstances than he acknowledges. He’s not arguing against podcast networks per se, so much as saying that if you have the will and expertise to launch a good podcast on your own, then many networks offer very little more.

I don’t find much fault with that argument. But the reality is that not every potential podcast host has the “10–12 person-hours” that he estimates go into his podcast each week. In fact, I would say that estimate is on the low side compared to what many other podcasters might need to invest. Arment and his co-hosts are experienced, tech-savvy podcasters who are likely more efficient than someone new to the field.

It’s also important to note the kind of podcast Arment does. It’s essentially a 60 – 90 minute chat show between two or more hosts and guests, with minimal editing. While it takes skill and practice to do this consistently well, this is amongst the easiest kinds of audio programs to produce. Podcasters who want to create a magazine program like Bulleye, do more structured storytelling like This American Life, have more sophisticated productions like 99% Invisible, or have a wider variety of guest interviews like Nerdist or WTF will require more time, effort and support. 10–12 person-hours an episode will not cut it.

That’s where the resources of a network can really make a difference for a producer.

A network may be of limited utility to a podcast featuring two or three guys chatting around a table, or on Skype. But the need for additional support grows when you want to experiment with the medium, and produce programming that might take 40 or 80 man-hours to produce.

Other Responses

One of the more thoughtful and thorough responses to Arment’s two posts comes from podcaster, writer and publisher Glenn Fleishman. He wrote a relatively long piece trying to tease out many of the assumptions and trajectories embedded in this debate. After weighing the pros and cons, he concludes that there are benefits from being on a podcast network, but that the best model is one where there is “loose affiliation and general independence (a federation of anarchies) rather than from strong affiliation and lack of ownership.” Fleishman does speak from experience, as his own excellent podcast, The New Disruptors, has been affiliated with two different networks, and is now independent again.

But, again, I think that Fleishman is still viewing things from the standpoint of someone who has the time, expertise and assistance to do or coordinate most of the heavy lifting himself, even though his show featured different guests every week. As he acknowledges, the only real outside help he needs is with selling ads, though he does some of that himself, too. I don’t think Fleishman’s proposed model is wrong. It’s just that I don’t think it’s sufficient for all of podcasting.

Earwolf founder Jeff Ullrich weighed in to support networks like the one he started, as well as ad networks, which don’t generally provide production or promotional support. Most Earwolf shows are produced at the company’s own studios, facilitated by house engineers. Hosts are responsible for showing up prepared and booking their guests. Earwolf staff take care of the rest, from editing, publishing and hosting, to promotion and arranging advertisers.

Jeff says the argument for this model is based on the premise that a podcast host has better things to do. He goes on to explain,

“Some people mow their own lawn, others hire a landscaper. Some people buy used home exercise equipment off of Craigslist, others hire personal trainers. Some people make their own dinner, others go to a restaurant. It’s about opportunity cost. All of us are capable of doing things ourselves, including podcasting. That does not mean we should. Or want to.”

Now, it’s important to make it clear that I work for Midroll, and Jeff is the one who hired me. But I don’t support podcast networks because I work for one. I work for one because I think there is value in podcast networks. That said, I agree with Jeff. This model is valuable for podcasters who don’t have the time or inclination to assemble all the tools themselves. He’s not arguing this is the best model, only that it is a model that works.

May a Million Models Bloom

Moreover, the Earwolf model is not the only model, either. PRX’s Radiotopia is trying to support and promote innovative storytelling in podcasting by providing a wide array of assistance and training in things like production, fundraising and promotion. It’s a network that is attempting to both incubate new shows and equip producers with the skills and resources to grow them. Radiotopia provides real material help, alongside the benefits of being on a roster of well-respected shows under a recognizable brand.

As podcasting evolves, so will podcast networks. Some of the best networks will provide financial, technical and creative assistance to new podcasters to help them launch shows that would be more difficult to create and sustain on their own. I hope that there will be other networks will be able to provide the kind of “loose affiliation” support that Fleishman speaks of, helping independently viable podcasts benefit from ties to other similar shows.

PRX Executive Director Jake Shapiro calls Radiotopia an “indie label” for podcasting, acting as both a curator and supporter. I like that analogy especially because there is not just one model of indie label. Some indie labels provide a full slate of services to bands, from recording and promotion to merchandise and touring, like small versions of major labels. Others, like the renowned Dischord label, are more hands off, helping bands records and distribute records, but leaving artist free to manage other aspects of their careers.

As the podcasting medium progresses I hope that some new network models emerge, too.

I concluded my post three weeks ago by saying, “A diverse podcasting ecosystem will be healthiest.” I still think that’s the case.

It’s great that a podcaster who wants to go DIY has more tools available to her than ever before. It’s also great when a podcaster with an idea bigger than she can pull off on her own might find support from a network. Sustainable podcasting is not only about promotion and ads, any more than sustainable filmmaking is only about having cameras and theaters.

Networked and unaffiliated, may a billion podcasts bloom.

The post Podcast Survivor: A Diversity of Podcasts Demands a Diversity of Models appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news: Apple bundles Podcasts app into iOS 8; New York Public Radio launches an ad campaign to promote binging on its podcasts; Earwolf CEO Jeff Ullrich announces that he is stepping aside.

Apple Bundles Podcasts in iOS 8

The second beta of Apple’s iOS 8 is out to developers, and one of the surprises is that the company’s Podcasts app has become bundled with the OS. At the moment the free Podcasts app is one you have to download and install on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. While having it included in the next version OS is a relatively small change, this does put podcasts in front of many more people who might never have otherwise installed that or another podcast listening app.

Maybe Apple will make it a better app, too.

WNYC Encourages Listners to “SmartBinge”

Last month I reported on New York Public Radio’s WNYC expanding its podcast roster with three new shows. Now the public broadcaster has launched a new promotional campaign it calls “SmartBinge,” urging audiences to “engage immersively” in “extended listening to addictively thought-provoking and entertaining shows from WNYC.”

The station’s vice president of integrated marketing Noreen O’Laughlin told the New York Times that many podcast listeners weren’t aware that WNYC is responsible for popular shows like Radiolab and Freakonomics Radio. So, she says that “One of the goals of this campaign is to really align the relationship between WNYC as the producer[.]”

The campaign also promotes the station’s new smartphone app, funded by a $10 million grant from the Jerome L. Greene Foundation.

Very few producers–whether they’re independents or larger companies–publicize their podcasts outside of their own websites and podcasts. So, the fact that WNYC is spending $200,000 on this campaign is noteworthy in itself. It would be great if this brings more attention to podcasting, in general.

Earwolf CEO Jeff Ullrich Steps Aside, Succeeded by COO Adam Sachs

When I announced that I began working for Earwolf parent Midroll Media I also promised that this weekly feature wouldn’t cover these companies more than any other. However, this week there was a big announcement that is worthy of note. Earwolf and Midroll Media founding CEO Jeff Ullrich is stepping aside from his position to become the company’s Chairman. Succeeding him is COO Adam Sachs.

Jeff explains that the transition is a result of the company having grown so quickly that it’s “at a stage where founder’s intuition isn’t enough to realize our ambitions.” Midroll Media will also be filling new positions for a creative director and a head of business development. As Jeff puts it, “I am going to be replaced by three people who will all be better at their jobs than I was. How exciting is that?”

Within the podcasting community Jeff is known for his candor, and so he posted his own longer announcement in the Earwolf listener forums. He assures everyone that, “None of the important stuff is changing and the rest is only going to get better.” He continues,

“What will change for the better? We have set a budget that is 50% higher for the next 12 months than it had been for the previous 12. We are really investing heavily back into the business. More staff, new shows, new technology, new projects of all kinds. I wish I could say more! The bottom line: we are trying even harder to make things great.”

Speaking honestly, I can say that it’s been a privilege working for Jeff these last 4 months. While I’m sad that I’ll be working with him less as he moves into his new role, I am very confident in Adam, our new CEO, and excited for new projects.

I’m also sanguine about what this means for podcasting in general. This comes at the same time that organizations like Slate, WNYC, Public Radio Exchange, PodcastOne and Public Radio International are all increasing their investments in podcasting. These are not loss-leader efforts. They are all efforts to bring new, often innovative programming to audiences outside of the constraints of broadcast. And they all intend to succeed.

Half way in, 2014 is shaping up to be a very good year for podcasting.

The post Podcasting News: SmartBinge, iOS 8 & Earwolf CEO Change appeared first on Radio Survivor.

There are a couple of nice recent articles focusing on podcasting. One takes a long look at Mike Pesca and his new Slate podcast, the other has Kevin Smith let loose about his podcasting career.

Current Profiles Slate’s The Gist

Public radio journalist Adam Ragusea wrote a nice profile of Slate’s The Gist with Mike Pesca for the public media journal Current. Ragusea explores how the more personality-driven Gist departs–even just a little–from the dominant NPR model. That’s something I commented on in my review of the show from its debut week.

Ragusea observes,

Indeed, hosts across the public radio system (myself included) are constantly struggling to satisfy two irreconcilable directives from our superiors: Sound like a normal human with personality, but don’t let your opinions show.

Pesca expands on the point, saying,

“If you have reported things out, and if you are really informed on this, you know, you could certainly give what would be called an opinion, but it’s an earned opinion,” Pesca defined it.

Ragusea also includes audio of his full hour-plus interview with Pesca, Gist producer Andrea Silenzi and Slate’s executive producer Andy Bowers.

Kevin Smith is the “Spielberg” of Podcasting

I thoroughly enjoyed a recent interview with filmmaker Kevin Smith in the Guardian. Smith is actually promoting a UK tour of his podcast Jay and Silent Bob Get Old, teamed with the animated film Jay & Silent Bob’s Groovy Cartoon Movie! The key revelation from Smith is how much he enjoys podcasting, perhaps more than filmmaking. He says, “If podcasts were movies, I’d be up there with Spielberg, dude.”

He even says that if he were coming of age now, Smith would have “definitely” gone into podcasting instead of filmmaking.

The film that made me want to make movies was Richard Linklater’s Slacker. If it was now, I would have seen Slacker and written a blog about it or recorded a podcast. That would have been enough. The entire message of my career is that if you want to do it, you should try. I am a chimp and I built a career out of making films. And I don’t even consider myself a film-maker! Oh yeah, and PS: neither do the critics.

Podcasting sure as heck doesn’t require you to max out credit cards to buy film stock and hire actors.

The post Podcasting News: Pesca has “Earned Opinions” & the “Spielberg” of Podcasts appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Late last week Mule Radio Syndicate head Mike Monteiro announced, with a short piece at Medium, that the podcasting network is downsizing. As Monteiro explains, the network was a “side project” outgrowth of his main business, Mule Design Studio. However,

“As Mule Radio grew it needed more of our resources. We needed to sell ads, take care of our hosts, find new shows, gather payments from sponsors, negotiate deals for hosting, pay hosts, file W–2s. In short, what started as fun became a business, and I was already running a business. Therefore, I couldn’t provide this business the level of attention needed to run at the level of quality I wanted it to run.”

He adds that this decision was also precipitated by the departure of one of Mule’s most popular podacasts, John Gruber’s “The Talk Show,” to become independent. (As an aside,“The Talk Show” started out at the 5by5 network in July 2010, and then departed for Mule in May 2012, sparking some degree of online debate about the reasons why.)

Mule will continue producing four podcasts that are hosted by Mule Design employees. Monteiro says that in this new stage, “we will go back to doing it for fun. We will not sell sponsorships.”

As both an observer of the podcasting world, and an employee of another network, I found the decision to downsize a little curious. It seemed like quite a bit of effort had been expended to grow the Mule Radio Syndicate over the last couple of years, adding some great shows like “Destination DIY” and “The Broad Experience,” that might benefit from the additional exposure that comes from being on a network. However, I can also understand how a project can grow large enough to be a distraction, without being sufficiently successful to merit spinning off into its own entity.

Podcaster and app developer Marco Arment briefly commented on Mule’s announcement, saying that “it increasingly makes sense for people to go independent. The glory days of podcast networks are behind us.” He compares them to blog networks, which he implies are no longer particularly necessary.

Although I don’t think Arment is entirely incorrect, I do also disagree with his conclusion. Obviously, as someone who works for a podcasting company, I do have skin in this game. But the question of the utility of podcast networks is more complex than this binary.

In a foot note Arment says that “Great shows usually get discovered.” I mostly agree with that point. One of the things that I love about podcasting is that the barrier to entry is very low, and that the field is not yet dominated by the same media conglomerates that dominate broadcast, and much online media. At the same time, the process of getting discovered is not simple, and being great is not necessarily sufficient.

Being discovered requires good networking, good promotion and a bit of luck, along with being great. This is an area where a podcast network can help. Of course, just as dozens of new network TV shows are cancelled every year, being on a network is also no guarantee of gaining audience. But I do think it can provide a boost.

It’s also not necessarily enough just to have your podcast discovered.

Not all podcast networks do the same thing. Some are more like loose affiliations, while others take a more active role in production, promotion, development and monetization. There are some things, like monetization, that really do benefit from aggregation; a network can sell ads for dozens of shows more efficiently than one show can sell its own ads.

Now, this may not be a concern for all shows. Not every podcast wants to run ads. Some podcasts have strong, focused niches that attract enough advertisers or funders without too much additional work. Many podcasters are satisfied with whatever amount of money they’re able to make on their own. This is as true for podcasting as it has been for music, publishing and, yes, blogging.

However, other podcasters find that time spent in ad sales takes away from the time available to make a great podcast. Kind of like a great record label, some podcast networks have their own fan base, such that listeners will want to check out any new show added to the network. And there are podcasts that exist only because the network provides the production resources to busy, in-demand hosts.

In the end, I don’t think Mule’s downsizing is a sign that podcast networks are going away. Just like blog networks they will change. You see, blog networks do still exist. Whether they’re big consolidated ventures like Gawker Media or the looser combination of The Awl Network of blogs, these networks give the individual sites and bloggers increased exposure through cross-promotion, and a little more money by aggregating ad sales.

But I do agree that blog networks are just one aspect of the overall ecosystem, and are by no means required for an individual blog to succeed.

I do have one last point in the blog comparison. One big reason why blog networks are perhaps less necessary than a decade ago is because the tools for publishing blogs and supporting them financially have become more flexible, powerful and available. There are plenty of ad networks, from the ubiquitous Ad Words to more curated networks like Federated Media, as well as lots of donation and subscription systems, too.

These tools are making their way into podcasting, as well. Plenty of independent podcasts work with ad networks while otherwise retaining full control over their productions.

As a podcast enthusiast I am not happy to see Mule downsize, and I hope that the shows leavening the network are able to keep up production. For a little more background on Mule’s history, see a blog post by my colleague Lex Friedman.

I am still sanguine about the future of podcasting. There will be independent podcasts, and there will be podcast networks. I hope there will be more experimentation with what a podcast network can be. I also look forward to more bold independent podcast ventures that push the boundaries and assumptions about what a podcast has to be.

A diverse podcasting ecosystem will be healthiest.

The post Podcast Survivor: Mule Radio Downsizes, but Podcast Networks Are Still Needed appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news updates there are two new podcasting networks. One comes from the mainstream public radio world, while the other comes from the universe of local commercial morning shows.

PRI Launches SoundWorks

Public Radio International is catching up with NPR and PRX by starting its own podcast network. According to the network SoundWorks is “a set of PRI personalities who will expose and explore issues that are shaping both daily life and global trends.”

At launch the network has four shows: One with Farai, hosted by journalist Farai Chideya; Sideshow hosted by Studio 360’s Sean Rameswaram; Radio Ambulante Unscripted, which is an English-language offshoot of novelist/journalist Daniel Alarcón’s Spanish-languageRadio Ambulante show; and The World in Words, hosted by Patrick Cox, who runs the “language desk” for PRI’s daily news magazine, The World.

Similar to PRX’s Radiotopia, PRI is using SoundWorks as a platform to develop new shows that might move to broadcast, as well as create born-digital shows–like The World in Words–that complement existing programs. The project is funded by PRI’s New Voice Fund, supported by grants from the Sara and Evan Williams Foundation, and Maureen and Michael Ruettgers.

The cost of production combined with signing up affiliates has long been a significant factor in slowing down the development of new, innovative public radio programming. It’s nice to see that podcasting is giving networks and distributors both a means and rationale to try out new shows and approaches, ostensibly with lower risk. What remains to be seen is how much influence these new public radio podcast networks will have on the mainstream broadcast offerings.

Twin Cities Morning Host Hopes To Join Podcast Big Leagues

Tom Barnard is a popular long-standing morning show host in Minneapolis who has also started his own podcast network. Unlike Adam Carolla or Tom Leykis, who left broadcast before starting their online shows, Barnard added podcasting to his portfolio alongside his broadcast endeavors.

Tech journalist Julio Ojeda-Zapada profiled Barnard’s podcast operation for the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, comparing its approach to more established podcast networks, like Leo Laporte’s TWiT. Barnard estimates he’s invested $250,000 to start the network, which has a staff of six. The flagship Tom Barnard Show is supported by advertisements that sound more like traditional radio spots than the kind of free-form host-read ads on shows like WTF. Most of the advertisers seem to be local to the Minneapolis area rather than national, which is similar to Leykis’ Southern California-centric show.

Network manager–and Barnard’s nephew–Sean Barnard says that the Tom Barnard Show sees 200,000 downloads a month. Given that it’s a daily program, that works out to about 10,000 downloads per episode, which is respectable start, but pales in comparison to more nationally-known podcasts.

It’s interesting to see commercial talk hosts like Barndard move to podcasting, though it seems that very little changes in their format, even if the podcasts are a little looser and aren’t restricted by FCC indecency regs. I can see the appeal of these shows for local listeners who can’t or won’t listen live, but I’m skeptical about how popular they might become outside their home markets.

The post Podcasting News: From Broadcast to Podcast appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news: Podcasting received a fair amount of press recently, primarily focused on the comedy side of things. It looks like rising podcast host Soundcloud almost got bought, and Stitcher debuts a new feature that isn’t quite the “Instapaper of audio.”

Comedy Podcasters in the News

Rolling Stone revealed its “20 Best Comedy Podcasts Right Now.” Not unexpectedly, many of the usual suspects are on the list (and just because they are well known doesn’t mean they still aren’t good). However, the appearance of StarTalk Radio is a bit of a surprise, though astrophysicist host Neil deGrasse Tyson does have many funny guests and co-hosts, like comedian Eugene Mirman.

This week’s Billboard Magazine is dedicated to comedy, and it features a short profile of successful comedy podcasters Jimmy Pardo (Never Not Funny), Aisha Tyler (Girl on Guy) and Marc Maron (WTF).

Maron seems to be everywhere, no doubt due to the recent premiere of season two of his eponymously titled IFC television show (as I mentioned last week). AP television columnist Frazier Moore published an interview with the WTF host who reveals that he doesn’t really write his material in advance, so much as “write down little fragments.”

[H]e produces a pocket notebook and shares a sample entry: “Glad it’s over, ’cause I wanted to stay.” Another: “Nobody is honest because everybody lies to themselves.”

Soundcloud Almost Got Bought

Along with becoming the “YouTube of audio,” Soundcloud has been solidifying itself as a podcast host, too. On Monday Re/code’s Peter Kafka reported that Twitter was in talks to acquire the Germany-based audio host. But late Tuesday afternoon there were reports that Twitter backed out of the deal.

Last year Soundcloud raised $60 million of funding based on a valuation of $700 million and has 250 million users worldwide. Those are pretty significant numbers for a site based on sharing audio, and are strong indications of internet audio’s popularity. Tools that make it easier to upload and share audio, like Soundcloud, are likely to help further popularize podcasting by helping break the medium out of iTunes’ golden handcuffs.

That said, my opinion is that an acquisition of Soundcloud by Twitter or another social media platform would threaten to hamper that growth in the same way that services like flickr haven’t exactly thrived under the ownership of bigger owners, like Yahoo.

Stitcher Debuts “Listen Later” Feature

One of the common refrains explaining why podcasting has yet to break truly mainstream is that subscribing and listening to them can still be an arcane operation for many people. Stitcher aims to attack that problem with the debut of its “Listen Later” feature. Fast Company contributor Stan Alcorn <a href=“http://www.fastcompany.com/3030236/most-innovative-companies/listen-later-introducing-stitchers-instapaper-for-audio
target=”_blank“>dubbed it ”Instapaper for Audio,” referring to the web app that lets users clip articles on different sites to read later on their computers or mobile devices.

When I first read that headline I was excited, since I often happen upon a new podcast that I would like to check out later, but find it’s not convenient or possible to immediately jump into iTunes or start up my smartphone’s podcast app to subscribe. What’s happens next is that I usually forget about the show until I encounter it again.

Unfortunately, Stitcher’s “Listen Later” isn’t nearly as universal as Instapaper. Right now the feature is only available with a select number of partners, including public radio shows Science Friday and StoryCorps, Fox News Radio and the Heritage Radio Network. Film director Kevin Smith’s Smodcast network was also listed as a partner, but when I first tried the feature on the Smodcast site it didn’t work. When I went to test it again the “Listen Later” button had disappeared.

When I tried out “Listen Later” on the other sites it worked as promised, adding the selected episode to my Stitcher queue, letting me listen to it later. Of course, what I really want is to be able to queue up any podcast I encounter. Having the feature on only four partner sites means it really isn’t that useful, at least to me.

However, there are two other services that do provide this kind of functionality, Huffduffer and Later.fm. They differ from Stitcher, because unlike that platform they don’t actually store the audio on their servers or deliver it via an app. Instead they aggregate the links on their sites, and let you subscribe to a custom RSS feed of all your saved episodes. It’s a system that works provided your shows continue to be available from their producers.

I have to admit that when my friend and podcast co-host Jenny Benevento brought Huffduffer to my attention a number of months ago I didn’t take it seriously, thinking of it as more of a “Stitcher-lite” service. But after giving it another shot using the “Huffduff it” bookmark tool I see the light of its utility.

We cover podcasting news every Wednesday in our Podcast Survivor feature.

The post Podcasting News: Podcasters in the Press; SoundCloud & Twitter appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news: WNYC launches and acquires new podcasts; MLB and Apple accidentally black out baseball podcasts; Podcast-originated Comedy Bang! Bang! and Maron return to IFC.

WNYC Acquires Two Podcasts, Launches a Third

Further expanding the public radio podcast roster, New York’s WNYC announced three new shows. Two of the podcasts are hosted by women and supported by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for gender diversity in programming.

WNYC just launched “Death, Sex & Money,” hosted by political reporter Anna Sale. The show features “intimate chats with both boldface names and everyday people about issues often left out of ‘polite’ conversation.”

The other two shows were independently produced and have now completed deals to be co-produced by WNYC. Host/producer Hillary Frank launched her parenting podcast “The Longest Shortest Time” in 2010. “The Sporkful”, also launched in 2010, is a podcast about eating hosted by food blogger and TV host Dan Pashman.

It’s interesting, and another sign of podcasting’s growth, that a public radio station is choosing to become co-producer of two existing podcasts rather than launching its own. It’s more than a podcast joining a network or becoming syndicated, since WNYC is essentially taking a stake in the shows. This seems to be an indication that born-digital podcasts are being treated more on a par with broadcast programs, with audiences and name-recognition that’s at least as valuable as ones that are born on broadcast.

Now, I don’t typically cover podcast launches every week. In part this is a practical concern. Way too many podcasts hit the ’net every week for me to cover them fairly.

More importantly, I’m primarily concerned with news and trends that chart the growth of podcasting as a medium in its own right. That’s why I wrote about the debut of Slate’s The Gist last week, and why I’m covering WNYC’s new podcasts this week. If you know of a podcast or network that marks something unique or pivotal in podcasting please do drop me a line and let me know about it.

Baseball Podcasts Accidentally Blacked Out

Baseball podcasts experienced an unexpected blackout last week as a result of an apparent miscommunication between Major League Baseball and Apple. According to NBC Sports’ Hardball Talk blog MLB sent a notice to Apple regarding fan podcasts that use trademarked team logos and names in their titles, requesting that Apple “have these trademarks removed from the podcast titles and thumbnails.”

But what actually happened is that Apple removed the podcasts entirely from the iTunes directory. MLB says this isn’t what it wanted, and that the removal must have been an “oversight.” Of course, MLB also received quite a few outraged emails and messages from fans. As of this week it looks like the podcasts have returned to iTunes.

Comedy Bang! Bang! and Maron Return for New Seasons

Last week I failed to mention that the new seasons of two podcast-originated shows debuted on IFC, Maron and Comedy Bang! Bang! Luckily, if you’re like me and don’t have cable, IFC has them available to stream online.

And if that isn’t enough Marc Maron for you, he stars in an episode of Pitchfork TV’s short animated series Frames. In this video Maron recounts his interviews with famous musicians, zooming in to focus on his encounter with a shirtless Iggy Pop.

We cover podcasting news every Wednesday in our Podcast Survivor feature.

The post Podcasting News: WNYC Acquires New ‘Casts, Baseball Shows Blacked Out appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Before I dive in, I’d like to mention a short piece that comes from The Fizzle Show podcast, which is “for people building their thing online.” The show recently had its first anniversary, and on the 52nd episode the hosts shared “24 lessons learned in a year of podcasting.” It’s both a lighthearted and useful list that goes beyond the typical podcasting advice that I see repeated over and over. In particular, this: “Podcasting is getting crowded. You’ll be better off having started now.”

Slate Debuts The Gist, with Former NPR Correspondent Mike Pesca

Former NPR correspondent Mike Pesca started his new podcast for Slate on Monday, called The Gist. Another new podcast, Money, hosted by former Reuters financial blogger Felix Salmon, will premiere next Monday, May 10.

It’s a great sign for podcasting that Slate has decided to increase its investment in the medium. The New York Times covered this expansion in Sunday’s Media Decoder.

I listened to the first two episodes of The Gist and it sounds a lot like an NPR magazine show, only one where it’s OK to use the f-word. I was just a little surprised to hear FCC-unfriendly language crop up already in episode one, during a feature segment that had Radiolab host Jad Abumrad interviewing Pesca about what the plans are for this new show.

The tone and flow of that interview was much looser than just about anything normally heard on public radio, even counting the less stiff and mannered storytelling heard on shows like This American Life. Quite sensibly, the segment sounded more like a podcast.

Now, I doubt The Gist is going to become as profanity-laden as Marc Maron’s WTF. The appearance of the f-bomb in this segment was neither gratuitous nor giddy. Rather, it came out naturally in what seemed like a very comfortable conversation between two old friends and colleagues. Which, again, compared to typical public radio, is refreshing.

I use public radio as a point of reference because that’s where Pesca comes from, and also that’s where American radio listeners are otherwise most likely to encounter a daily audio news magazine. In terms of its magazine format, then, The Gist breaks no new ground. What’s different is how much the show is built around Pesca.

On The Gist he’s more John Stewart than Robert Siegel, sprinkling jokes and snarky asides throughout, and ending each show with an unabashed editorial called “The Spiel.” It’s clear that Pesca has a point of view, which he isn’t going to hide. Given the limited data from just two episodes it doesn’t seem like he’s going to let his own opinion skew coverage, but it’s too early to draw a conclusion.

If anything, The Gist owes a debt to Jesse Thorn’s Bullseye, which originated as a public radio show, grew its audience as a podcast, and was recently picked up by NPR for wider distribution. Bullseye focuses on arts and culture rather than hard news. But Bullseye’s magazine format, featuring a couple of interview segments as well as the show-ending “Outshot” wherein the host gives a short editorial monologue, is undoubtedly a template for The Gist. Like Bulleye, The Gist even uses hip hop beats for bumpers and music beds, just like Bulleye.

In fact, Pesca filled in for Thorn as host back in December. So, we definitely know that Pesca has heard the show.

At around 20 minutes an episode, The Gist makes no pretense to being a comprehensive run-down of the day’s news. There are no news headlines, which makes sense in the podcast format, even if it is daily. A listener can find news headlines more quickly and easily elsewhere. Plus, nobody’s listening to hear Pesca read 5 minutes of headlines, they’re listening to hear him do interviews and give his “spiel.”

While not revolutionary, I do think that The Gist marks an evolution, drawing together aspects of both public radio and podcasting to create an interesting hybrid that isn’t quite like anything else on either medium.

The post Lessons from a Year of Podcasting, Mike Pesca’s The Gist Debuts appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news we have the Webby Award winners; Rogue Ameoba CEO discusses his software’s role in the prehistory of podcasting; and Freakonomics host Stephen Dubner looks forward to the medium’s ubiquity.

Webby Award Winners Announced

Webby Award winners have been announced. The big winners in the podcasting world are Stitcher Radio, which won for the Mobile and Apps: Podcast category, and The New Yorker magazine’s podcasts, which won in the Radio & Podcasts category.

For the People’s Choice Awards, Discovery’s Stuff You Should know is the Podcast category winner, and Slate’s Gabfest podcasts win for Radio & Podcasts. The Webby Awards ceremony, hosted by Patton Oswalt, will be available for on demand viewing May 20.

Audio Hijack Software Let People Roll Their Own Podcasts

I’m a big fan of Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack Pro and Fission audio software for MacOS. I think they’re great tools for podcasters working in MacOS.

I’ve used Audio Hijack countless times to make quick recordings of Google Voice and Skype interview calls as well as grabbing short audio snippets from the web or air checks of internet stations. Then I use Fission to make fast edits that don’t require re-encoding files, which is particularly helpful when working with compressed audio like MP3s.

Rogue Amoeba co-founder and CEO Paul Kafasis was recently interviewed by the Disruptive Competition (DisCo) project. Writer SARAH LAI STIRLAND Sara Lai Stirland talks with Kafasis about how despiteAudio Hijack’s provocative title it’s an app designed to be “almost like an old tape deck on an old stereo. There are an infinite number of fair uses for it.”

Looking back to the early 2000s, before the idea of podcasts was mainstream, Kafasis says, “at the time, you actually needed a live Internet connection to listen to this stuff, so what people would do is make their own podcasts. It pointed the way to podcasts. It was a time where you had to sit down at your desk to listen to the audio, but people wanted to take it with them.”

Freakonomics Host Looks Forward to Podcasts in Cars

Journalist and podcaster Stephen J. Dubner is most well known as co-author of the book Freakonomics and as host of the radio show and podcast by the same name. In a recent interview at Digiday, Dubner told writer John McDermott that podcasting has become, “a huge niche.”

He said that the big move into the mainstream when “95 percent of the world” knows about podcasting will happen when, “it becomes as easy to find a podcast as it is to find a radio dial in your car, I think that’s the point at which radio and podcasting becomes almost indistinguishable.”

The post In This Week’s Podcasting News: Webby Award Winners Announced, and More appeared first on Radio Survivor.

While patent reform is still delayed in the Senate, there was some good news for podcasters fighting a patent troll’s claim. Last October the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a challenge to Personal Audio’s patent, issued in the mid 90s, that it says covers podcasting. The US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a ruling saying that the EFF has established a “reasonable likelihood” that its challenge will prevail.

The EFF argues that Personal Audio did not invent podcasting because online audio programs existed prior to the company’s patent, filed in 1996. That patent was actually for a service that delivered magazines on cassette tape, which the company claims covers any serialized audio program, whether delivered on tape or online, such as a podcast.

The EFF’s challenge is based on evidence of “prior art,” where serialized audio was distributed online prior to Personal Audio’s patent. These examples include the “Geek of the Week” online radio program founded March 1993, and online broadcasts by CNN and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The PTAB ruled that the CBC and CNN examples were valid, but rejected the arguments based on “Geek of the Week” because it said that the EFF failed to present documentation that the program was publicized in a sufficiently accessible “printed publication.” The reason why that is important is the EFF needs to demonstrate that Personal Audio could have, at the time, discovered the existence of these programs. The EFF plans to challenge this decision.

However, because the PTAB accepted the CBC and CNN examples the EFF’s challenge of the Personal Audio podcasting patent is moving forward. The proceedings begin July 3, the deadline for Personal Audio to submit its response, and then can go as long as another five months, if necessary.

That means there will be no immediate relief for podcasters like Adam Carolla who are fighting Personal Audio in court. Though, if the Patent Office finds that the patent does not cover podcasting, any court action should become moot.

The post Podcasting News: EFF Challenge to Patent Troll Moves Forward appeared first on Radio Survivor.

There’s good news for anyone who hasn’t yet heard the BBC’s radio documentary, Podcasting – The First Ten Years. Both parts are both now available for on-demand listening for the next year. The countdown timer threatening only a week of availability that I wrote about last week is gone. Curiously, however, the documentary is not itself available for downloading as a podcast.

Part 2 first broadcast last Friday. It starts with the relationship between podcasters and their audience, leading to how podcasters make money, from crowd funding to advertising.

Here’s the rest of this week’s podcasting news:

Podcasts Nominated for Webbys

The Internet’s very own award show, The Webbys, turns 18 this year. There’s no single podcast category, but there are podcasts and podcast apps nominated for awards in two categories.

In the Mobile & Apps: Podcasts category, nominees are Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud for Android, Stuff Your Should Know, PRX Remix and TED. For what it’s worth, amongst these five Stuff You Should Know and TED really aren’t apps so much as podcasts. However, I guess by definition podcasts count as mobile. Though lumping apps and podcasts together in a single category seems a bit disjunctive to me.

Podcasts nominees sit beside web radio stations in the Web: Radio & Podcasts category. Slate’s Gabfest podcasts and the New Yorker Magazine’s podcasts are nominated along side the BBC’s Playlister web app, NPR’s new responsive website and Monocle 24 streaming radio, from Monocle Magazine.

These nominees are up for the regular, juried Webbys as well as the People’s Voice awards. Voting for the People’s Voice is open until April 24. The awards show will be hosted by comedian and actor Patton Oswalt on May 20.

Macworld Covers How To Get Started in Podcasting

One of the reasons I’m such a podcast fan is that it is an accessible medium for creators, as well as listeners. There are plenty of resources online for folks who want to launch their own shows. But I do want to highlight a recent article series at Macworld that boils down both the organizational and technical how-to, with experienced podcasters weighing in with advice on topics like planning, recording your audio and distributing your show.

It’s not quite a step-by-step guide, so much as an informative overview that clearly lays out a number of different options to get you started and figure out the next steps to your podcast.

The post The Week in Podcasting News: Podcasts Nominated for Webbys, and more appeared first on Radio Survivor.

If you haven’t yet caught part 1 of the BBC’s radio documentary that I mentioned last week you only have until Thursday to listen. Veteran podcasters Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann put together an engaging half-hour that covers podcasting’s birth and early growth as a medium, talking with prominent hosts from both sides of the pond.

Unlike too many documentaries I’ve heard and seen, they don’t speak only to the converted. You don’t have to be a podcast nerd to enjoy the show.

Episode 2 of “Podcasting – The First Ten Years” airs Friday at 11 AM GMT (7 AM EDT) on BBC Radio 4. It will be available to stream afterwards, though I’d guess it will only be up for a week.

Here’s what else is going on in podcasting this week.

Listen to the Save Our Podcast Event

Adam Carolla’s still in fundraising mode for his fight against the podcasting patent troll. His Save Our Podcast Legal Defense Fund is now offering a recording of its fundraising event on March 27, asking for a donation of any size in exchange. The show featured fellow podcasters Marc Maron and Doug Benson, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and former Police guitarist Andy Summers.

Patent Reform Stalled in Senate

As for the much awaited patent reform that might help disarm patent trolls, a bill is waiting to be marked up in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Though, with Congress’s spring recess starting on Friday, the bill’s chances are looking more dire as Republicans, Democrats and lobbyists continue to fight over provisions.

Skype Announces Product for Podcasters and Broadcasters

At NAB this week Skype recognized the popularity of its platform with broadcasters and podcasters by announcing Skype TX. It’s combination hardware and software solution designed to bring Skype calls into a production workflow.

The company says this is a “studio grade” product, with high quality HD-SDI digital outputs. Although Skype says it will be “cost effective,” this probably means Skype TX will be priced out of the range for most DIY podcasters, though it may be in reach for bigger podcast networks. However, a big advantage to using Skype, compared to other digital communications technologies, is that the calls will remain free.

It will be interesting to learn more when the product gets closer to release.

How Mike Pesca Made the Jump from NPR to Slate

Back in February NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca left public broadcasting to start a new daily news podcast for Slate. On the newest episode of Earwolf’s The Wolf Den podcast Slate editor David Plotz recounts how they were able to bring Pesca aboard. He also reveals Slate’s plans to invest more in podcasting this year, which includes a show for the site’s most popular feature, the advice column Dear Prudence.

I should note–in the spirit of full disclosure–that, as previously announced, I am working for Midroll Media, which is Earwolf’s parent company. As part of my duties I now have taken over as producer for The Wolf Den, where host and Midroll Media CEO Jeff Ullrich is going to focus more sharply on the business and future of podcasting and digital media as a whole.

The David Plotz episode is the first one that I worked on. You can read a blog post I wrote about it if you want to jump right to the juicy stuff.

I promise that I won’t be using Podcast Survivor to write about Earwolf news any more than any other podcast network (and I will always disclose my interest when I do). I just thought that this discussion with Plotz was particularly revealing and therefore interesting for anyone who follows podcasting.

With that I should note that I’m always interested in your tips about what’s happening in the podcasting world. If there’s a cool podcast I should know about, a cutting-edge network or other podcasting news, please drop me a line.

The post The Week’s Podcasting News: Listen to BBC’s Doc & Carolla’s Save My Podcast Event, more appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Happy belated birthday to podcasting! According to a recent Guardian article written by the creators of UK podcast Answer Me This! the very term “podcast” was born on February 11, 2004, in a piece by journalist Ben Hammersley. That makes podcasting, as a thing, a little more than 10 years and 1 month old.

In their Guardian article producers Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann tick off some of the key moments in podcasting’s first decade. They include Apple adding a podcast directory to the iTunes store in June 2005 and This American Life adding a downloadable podcast feed of the show in October 2006.

Zaltzman and Mann also have produced a two-part documentary on podcasting for BBC Radio 4. The first episode airs this Friday, April 4 at 11:00 AM GMT. The live stream of BBC Radio 4 is generally available worldwide, and many shows are archived online. So there’s a good chance the doc will be available to listeners outside the UK.

This American Life Considers Self-Distribution

Speaking of This American Life, as I noted last week the show is parting ways from Public Radio International on July 1. This has sparked speculation about the tactic Ira Glass and colleagues will choose in distributing TAL, especially since the program has a significant podcast following in addition to its broadcast audience.

In an email to the New York Times last Friday Glass said "self-distribution continues to be an option, and we’ve been looking at what that would mean in a more serious way.” As Times writer Elizabeth Jensen notes, this would require the program’s staff to figure out how to handle billing affiliate stations, a service that PRI and other distributors typically provide.

The show has handled its own online streaming and podcast distribution. So, presumably it already has financial operations in place for online-only advertisements and listener donations. A distributor that can combine this with station relations might be attractive. However, bringing everything in-house might allow the show to keep more of its affiliates fees, otherwise shared with a distributor.

The American Life might have the opportunity to forge a new model for independent public radio production and distribution, bolstered by successful podcasts and online streams. The path Glass and company take will definitely have implications for the future of podcasting and its relationship to public radio.

The post Podcast Survivor: Podcasting’s 10th Birthday & More News appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s been kind of a quiet week on the podcasting news front this week. Adam Carolla continues to make the rounds in support of his Save Podcasts Legal Defense Fund and has set up a Soundcloud page with clips from shows discussing the patent troll case. The fund’s benefit event added comedian and podcaster Doug Benson to the lineup. It happens this Thursday at the Redondo Beach, CA Performing Arts Center.

Here’s a few more podcasting stories that crossed the transom.

The Public Radio Exchange blog profiles a recent episode of Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything podcast that exploits binaural recording to explore wearable technology using an immersive soundfield. The show is is part of the inagural line-up of PRX’s Radiotopia network.

boingboing’s Cory Doctorow reports on binge listening to the three-year run of the Oh No Ross and Carrie podcast. The show is “hosted by two former Evangelical Christians turned skeptics, who join cults and fringe religions, visit psychics and healers of varying degrees of woo-ness, and partake of quack remedies and other newage rituals.” It recently joined the Maximum Fun podcast network.

Finally, This American Life, which is a radio show as well as a podcast, announced that it is parting ways with long-time syndicator Public Radio International. The separation is effective June 1. In a short blog post host and producer Ira Glass assures listeners that “We’ll continue to make our radio show and podcast. The same public radio stations will continue to broadcast it.”

While PRI handled broadcast distribution, TAL took care of its own podcast and digital distribution. Thus there’s speculation that the show is looking for a distributor/syndicator that can take care of the whole package. PRX distributes Sound Opinions, which is also produced by Chicago Public Media’s WBEZ, and seems to be the oddsmaker’s favorite.

The post Podcast Survivor: The Week in Podcasting News and Stories appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In this week’s podcasting news: a look at Transom’s new “This Is Radio” video series, a comparison between digital magazines and podcasts, and a Kickstarter update.

• The online and IRL public radio workshop Transom.org just premiered the This Is Radio video interview series. The first installment profiles Roman Mars, producer of the podcast and radio show 99% Invisible. Mars shares some of his unique approach to creating the program, which–like many new generation shows–diverts from the mission-and-information-first approach of traditional public radio.He also observes that with podcasting, “people want it to be more personal. It doesn’t feel like broadcasting, it feels like a one-to-one connection.”

  And, although this is Radio Survivor, I appreciate that video producer Andrew Norton shares some of his process and technique for creating this piece in accompanying notes at its Transom page.

  The second episode in the series is already released, featuring Brooke Gladstone, who is co-host and managing editor for WNYC’s On the Media. And while that show started on broadcast, it’s also available as a podcast.

• In a piece with a less-than-optimistic tone, Forbes contributor Ewan Spence asks “Can the future of digital magazines be found in the history of podcasting?” He notes that Apple’s integration of podcast subscriptions into iTunes was a boon to the nascent medium. But it was also a curse because “Apple was in (benevolent) control of the podcasting scene.”The same has happened with digital magazines, Spence observes, leaving a somewhat neglectful Apple in control of its own format for the iTunes Store and iOS Newsstand. He concludes that “Just as podcasting will never be as cohesive as it once was, the moment when there could have been a universal solution,” for digital magazines, “appears to have been missed.”

  Ouch. I hope not, for either medium.

• Finally, a belated update on Ear Buds: The Podcasting Documentary that I wrote about last month. Its Kickstarter was successfully funded on February 24, raising $9,893 beyond its $135,000 goal. Producers Graham Elwood and Chris Mancini say they’re shooting for a late 2015 release.

The post Podcast Survivor: The Week in Podcasting News appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The fight against the Podcast Patent Troll continues on. Last week there was a small victory for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, while podcaster Adam Carolla starts a legal defense fund to fight the troll in court.

On Friday Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins struck down an attempt by Personal Audio to subpoena the names of donors who contributed to EFF’s Save Podcasting campaign. Personal Audio is the company that owns a patent filed in 1996 that it claims covers podcasting. The company is suing high profile podcasters for allegedly infringing on this patent.

Adam Carolla is one of these podcasters, and he has decided to lead the fight in opposing Personal Audio in court. He recently launched the Save Our Podcasts Legal Defense Fund to finance this battle.

Carolla made an appearance on the March 6 episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast to explain the campaign.

He told Maron that a patent suit “is the most expensive litigation to defend. It’s probably $1.5 million if you want to go to court.” Carolla said that Personal Audio originally demanded $3 million, and that he has already spent $50,000 to have the venue for the suit moved out of the Texas court in a “backwater town” where it was filed.

Explaining the stakes, Carolla said “If this works, if they successfully sue me and get me off the air, or shut down my business, or take a part of my business, the entire internet is up for grabs.” Then, anyone making a show for iTunes or YouTube, or producing a podcast or a streaming program would be “open to litigation.”

However, Carolla observed that “what they [Personal Audio] didn’t count on is the power of the pod.” Normally patent trolls are going after companies that have “a room full of lawyers” but “don’t have a microphone and a platform.” Appealing to fans and listeners, podcasters “can rally the troops,” he explained.

With regard to the legal defense fund, Carolla said that all the money donated will go directly to fighting the patent case. If there is any left over he said he might create a podcasting defense fund or donate it to charity. “I’m going to ask my fellow podcasters to put up a reward or incentive of some kind,” he told Maron.

There is also a fundraising event scheduled for March 27 at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, featuring talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, along with Adam Carolla, Marc Maron and former Police guitarist Andy Summers.

The troll-fighting Innovation Act passed the House in December but is still waiting for Senate action. The EFF is campaigning to urge the Senate to pass “quality patent reform.”

We cover podcasting news and analysis every Wednesday in our Podcast Survivor feature.

The post Podcast Survivor: Carolla Campaigns To Fight Podcast Patent Troll in Court appeared first on Radio Survivor.

South by Southwest starts this Friday, and the sprawling festival has something for lovers of just about every type of media, including all forms of audio and radio. Yesterday my colleague Jennifer outlined the radio related panels and meet-ups happening there this year.

Podcasting represents in Austin, too, from panels, to live recordings and screenings. I wish I were going, though I’ll catch up on some of the live podcast recordings after the fact. For those lucky enough to attend, here’s the events podcasters and podcast fans alike should not miss at SXSW.

Saturday, March 8

Live Recording: improv4humans
6:00 – 7:30 PM
Esther’s Follies, 525 E 6th St

Documentary Screening: Harmontown
9:30 – 11:05 PM
Vimeo Theater, 201 Trinity St

Sunday, March 9

Live Recording: Comedy Bang! Bang!
5:00 – 5:30 PM
Esther’s Follies, 525 E 6th St

Live Recording: The Smartest Man in the World with Greg Proops
6:00 – 7:30 PM
Esther’s Follies, 525 E 6th St

Monday, March 10

Live Recording: The Todd Barry Podcast
6:00 – 7:30 PM
Esther’s Follies, 525 E 6th St

Tuesday, March 11

Panel: How Crowdfunding Killed Hollywood w/ Adam Carolla
9:30 – 10:30 AM
Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon C, 500 E 4th St

Live Recording: You Made It Weird
6:00 – 7:30 PM
Esther’s Follies, 525 E 6th St

Thursday, March 13

Performance: Truth
12:00 –1:00 AM
Barcelona, 209 E 6th St

Panel: The Death of Music Podcasting Has Been Exaggerated
12:30 – 1:30 PM
Austin Convention Center, Room 10A, 500 E Cesar Chavez St

Friday, March 14

Live Recording: Who Charted?
6:00 – 7:30 PM
Esther’s Follies, 525 E 6th St

Saturday, March 15

Live Recording & Screening: The Doug Benson Movie Interruption
4:15 – 5:45 PM
Alamo Ritz 1, 320 E 6th St

The post Podcast Survivor: Podcasting at SXSW 2014 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Despite the title of this post, I don’t actually think there’s any attack on hobby podcasting from which the genre needs defending. Rather, I feel like much of my writing about podcasting for the last six months has been so focused on the questions of sustainability and funding that I don’t want to give the inadvertant impression that only popular, highly remunerative podcasts are worthy of my attention.

Here is where I return to first principles: I am such a fan and supporter of podcasting because it greatly democratizes the distribution of audio programs. Like blogging before it, podcasting allows a would-be radio host or producer to reach a global audience with very minimal cost.

I started out as a supporter of, and worker in college and community radio more than twenty years ago for very similar reasons. These grass-roots radio forms permit people who might never consider a career in commercial or public radio to present music, culture, news and ideas to an wide audience. Moreover, these outlets provide the opportunity for listeners to hear new perspectives, or listen to people who are more like them than the typical radio DJ, announcer or journalist.

Podcasting builds upon and broadens this opportunity because it is free from the scarcity of the broadcast spectrum, which then means there are fewer–if any–gatekeepers needed.

The impulse to create, communicate and share is a strong and vital one. For people whose interests and talents lie in areas like speaking, interviewing, music and audio design, podcasting is a natural medium for expression with minimal barriers to entry.

Of course, the ability to produce podcasts does not inherently result in listeners. While I don’t mean to dismiss this imbalance, this is truly no different than any mass medium. Just because you build it does not mean they will come.

At the same time, if you don’t build it, you can guarantee they won’t come.

I think it’s worth examining the drive to reach a large and ever-growing audience. Not that I think one shouldn’t have this goal, but it doesn’t have to be everyone’s goal. What often matters more is that media message is available for those people who may enjoy or benefit from it. That may be millions, thousands, hundreds or just a few people. But if you don’t ever put your podcast out there, you’ll never know.

Even if a podcaster’s audience is small, each one of those listeners is still important. It’s like the well-worn observation about the Velvet Underground: They didn’t sell a lot of records, but everyone who bought one went out and started a band (influenced by VU). Impact, influence and connection can and must be measured by more than downloads and CPMs.

In fact, hobby podcasts are critically important for the growth of podcasting as a medium. Several popular podcasts that brought fresh attention to the medium essentially started as hobbies. I’m thinking of shows like WTF or Grammar Girl. I think this also applies to one of the most talked about news podcasts, Welcome to Night Vale, which breaks with typical podcast conventions by interpreting the nearly forgotten genre of radio drama in an inventive and contemporary way.

Some of the next big podcasts may very well start out as hobbies. More to the point, I hope so. Because it’s an arena where we have a good shot of hearing new approaches, fresh voices and innovative storytelling.

No, it’s not necessary for a podcast to start out as a hobby in order to achieve these things. But it is important for there to be this sector of the medium, where experiments can happen unburdened by expectation, with minimal risk and maximum freedom.

As long as a new podcaster doesn’t need more than an idea and a computer, tablet or smartphone, plus a microphone and a site to upload her files to, then podcasting still has a future as a democratic medium with the potential to bring new voices and stories to a wider audience.

The post Podcast Survivor: In Defense of Hobby Podcasting appeared first on Radio Survivor.

There are a couple of interesting items about podcasting to review this week: NPR’s Mike Pesca is quitting to host a Slate Magazine podcast, and a look at different funding methods for ’casts.

Before I start, in the interest of full disclosure I want to let readers know that for the next month I will be working with the Mid Roll, a company that matches advertisers with podcasts. It’s the sister company to the Earwolf podcast network.

Here at Radio Survivor my goal is still to cover the whole wide world of podcasting and its future. While I intend to be fair in my coverage, it is best for you, the reader, to be informed of my professional relationships so that you may judge for yourself if and how I am biased.

NPR’s Mike Pesca Goes Free Agent

Online magazine Slate is increasing its investment in podcasting with the hire of NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca. According to Business Insider Pesca will host a daily podcast providing “opinions and context covering several of the day’s biggest news stories beginning this April.” Unlike most of his work at NPR his focus will not just be on sports.

BI writer Aaron Taube notes that the hire reflects Slate’s positive experience with podcasting. The company already publishes at least one podcast a day. Publisher Matt Turck says that listener engagement with podcasts are such that, “the mid-roll podcast ads, in which a host reads aloud a sponsored message before or during the show, are likely Slate’s most expensive advertising impressions.”

By my count Pesca’s move to Slate makes for the second high-profile NPR reporter to leave for podcasting. Former All Things Considered weekend host Andrea Seabrook left the network in 2012 to launch her DecodeDC podcast funded by a $100,000 Kickstarter. This past November the program was acquired by the E.W. Scripps Company.

Jim Romenesko shares Pesca’s often tongue-in-cheek farewell memo to his colleagues at NPR. In it he explains that “I have always wanted NPR to be a weeee bit more ambitious or daring, to be willing to take risks outside our comfort zone. So I’m leaving to do a daily podcast about things other than sports, though sometimes sports, because I like sports.”

While NPR and individual public stations are taking chances with podcasts and born-digital media content, there are relatively few reporters and producers for whom this is their primary responisbility. It begs the question of whether the migration of folks like Pesca and Seabrook will turn into a trend.

Writing in Forbes, business analyst Michael Wolf surveys some of the ways besides advertising that podcasts are being funded. There’s no way he couldn’t mention Kickstarter, but he also looks at a couple of patron funding models, in addition to the more traditional subscription model, used by programs like the Tom Leykis Show and Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak’s No Agenda Show.

I do have to note that Leykis’ show also contains advertisements, and its 24/7 stream is available for free. Subscription is only required to get the on demand podcast version.

The post Podcast Survivor: This week’s podcasting news appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Last week the Public Radio Exchange announced Radiotopia, a new podcast network dedicated to featuring “the best emerging and established talent” in the public radio mold.

Jake Shapiro, PRX

The Knight Foundation helped launch Radiotopia with a $200,000 grant. “PRX came to us with this idea,” said Chris Barr, Media Innovation Associate at Knight. They told him, “‘We’d like to create something that makes it easier for independent producers to get shows out into the world faster and cheaper, and reach some sustainability just with digital distribution.’”

Chris Barr, Knight Foundation

Shapiro said that Radiotopia will function like an “indie label” curating audio content and helping to connect with audiences. “It’s for a mission of informing the public and making sure great stories get out,” Shapiro said. Part of that is helping producers create shows. The other half is testing out and understanding different business models so that these programs are sustainable.

The Knight grant is for a one-year pilot to test the Radiotopia model. Barr said that PRX “has some assumptions about what it takes and how many audience members it takes” for a podcast to become sustainable. “This is about testing those assumptions, proving the model, (and) that this is, in fact, possible.”

Funding the Future of Public Podcasting

Mars found success crowd-funding two seasons of 99% Invisible, so Shapiro said that is certainly one model Radiotopia will explore. “Remapping the donation and pledge model into the podcast world is another avenue,” he said.

They will also look to philanthropic sources of revenue. Taking it a step further, Shapiro said “We may appeal to (philanthropic) funders who have a programmatic interest in educating the public about a topic and connect them with producers who are really good storytellers in that area.”

Radiotopia will likely seek corporate sponsors, but will not allow them to specify topics or dictate programming; there will be no native advertising. How those sponsorships are heard on programs is something the network will test.

“We know that listener loyalty and passion for (podcasts) is paramount because it’s a much more direct connection. So we’re even more listener-sensitive than we would have been before.”

But, he added, “that still leaves a lot of room for experimentation for how sponsors can be involved with the project.”

A Coherent Roster

Harkening again to the independent record label analogy, he said that Radiotopia will have a roster of programs where “there’s an affinity and coherence,” between them. As evidenced in the network’s starting linup, its focus is on “story-driven” programs like Radio Diaries and Fugitive Waves.

Shapiro said this initial roster was chosen because PRX already had a relationship with these producers. “They produce amazing shows,” he said. “They’ve taken a leap of faith and committed to developing a podcast, as opposed to other formats. In a sense, that is committing to being entrepreneurial.”

As Radiotopia develops and is ready to take on new shows, Shapiro said PRX will be looking for individual producers and groups. They want to wait a few months and “get the kinks worked out before we start adding more in.” But, he explained, “we also want to be opportunistic, when and where the right (podcast) comes along.”

Again, like a label, Radiotopia intends to treat these producers like independent artists who “control their own fate, inducing owning their own shows.”

One way they’ll build audiences for programs is through cross-promotion. He compared it to how Marvel comics introduces new superhero characters within existing franchises. The appearance of a new producer on an established podcast, or even having one podcast promote another, “acts an endorsement,” Shapiro said. “We need to make sure everyone feels good about each other. The audiences should appreciate the tip. Two more more podcasts might find a story to work on together.”

An Agile, Experimental Approach

Shapiro emphasized that with Radiotopia PRX is experimenting with different models for funding and distribution. He explained that “This is kind of the agile method of program production. The lean start-up methodology for software (development) gets to be applied to content development in an interesting way because you have a rapid feedback loop,” with your audience.

As Radiotopia grows he said “we want to make it sound noticeably different from what you get on the radio, to differentiate it from the news and information sound of core public radio formats. This is an opportunity to test the appetite for that, driven not just by topical interest. This may appeal to a different audience.”

I asked Shapiro why PRX wanted to focus on podcasts that don’t necessarily have a home on the air, and if that represents a tension with the organization’s core mission as a public radio program distributor. “There’s more of a conceptual tension than real tension,” he said. “We’ve been a web and online organization since we first began as an online marketplace. Even though the bulk of our programs are distributed for broadcast, we’re born digital.”

At the same time, “Our overall mission remains the same as an entrepreneurial non-profit,” Shapiro continued. “We have a role to play in pioneering and understanding these new opportunities–even if they include tensions–to share as much knowledge as we can.”

The post Podcast Survivor: PRX’s Radiotopia – an “indie label” for podcasting appeared first on Radio Survivor.