Audible UK announces audio drama production grant

We started on 30 May 2017, and have been (almost) daily ever since. On our second birthday, thank you to the many people and companies who have supported us on our journey - and to those who might be considering it for the future. Anyway, it’s our birthday, but we’re giving you the present: see below.

• EXCLUSIVE: Audible UK has announced an Audio Drama Production Grant for audio drama producers. Winners will be awarded a £5,000 grant and will get free access to Audible’s state-of-the-art studios in Barbican, London to develop one of their own productions. It’s open to both established teams and emerging newcomers: the entry form includes script excerpts.

• Expect to see podcast consumption data for a new country soon - Edison Research’s Infinite Dial will be coming to South Africa with Triton Digital and NAB South Africa, the company has announced.

• Podcast Movement has announced that Scholarship Applications are now open, for “brand new, or yet-to-launch, podcasters who LOVE podcasting , APPRECIATE this community, and have never been to Podcast Movement before”. The event organisers have also announced 29 new speakers (including many Podnews readers). We’ll be there.

• Sharing clips of podcasts to social media has got easier and prettier:

  • Easier: Acast has integrated Headliner directly inside its creator dashboard. Headliner has previously partnered with Pinecast and Omny Studio.
  • Prettier: Audiogram has launched a set of templates to make the posts fit podcasters’ branding better.

• Podcast host Spreaker has launched a new tool - one-click distribution, making it easier to get a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts and Castbox.

• Dan Misener from Pacific Content digs deep into podcast colour schemes.

• Manchester-based Podcast·co have opened their second podcast studio - in downtown Manhattan NY, US.

• 凌晨四点 is a new “podcast culture community” for popular Chinese podcasts.

  
  Aug 13 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• The total (US) ad revenue for podcasting is projected to be $600m this year: but only 15% of podcasts monetise their content, says Anna Ratala from zvook: “If half of the remaining podcasts were monetizing at the current rates, that would mean an additional $1.7B of ad revenue that could be generated by podcasts.” Zvook is, unsurprisingly, “a tech-enabled platform to help monetize the long tail of the podcasting industry by matching brands with podcasts”.

• Microphone company Heil Sound has announced new distributors in South Korea, Italy, Greece and Dubai.

• We’ve added links to iHeartRadio in our podcast pages. Just search for your podcast and if you’re listed in iHeartRadio, we’ll now link straight to it. Voluminous was the first one we tested.

Podcasts

Back for a new season, Somebody Somewhere follows former prosecutor David Payne and former CNN producer Jody Gottlieb as they investigate a double homicide in a homeless encampment in Seattle. It’s the first podcast from WarnerMedia Podcast Network that isn’t associated with an existing TV, video or digital brand. (WarnerMedia Podcast Network / RainStream Media / knit)

A new season of By Association started today. A narrative show about soccer/football and the human connection behind the beautiful game, the first episode tells the story of refugee footballer Hakeem al-Araibi, and the global campaign that saved his life. (Omny Studio)

Rock guitarist David Gilmour has announced a podcast, called The David Gilmour Podcast. According to the announcement, each episode will focus on specific guitars played by Gilmour on some of the most well-known Pink Floyd songs ever written. Each podcast will also be slightly too long, contain relaxed rock guitar playing while Clare Torry adlibs a wordless tune over the top of it, and if you listen while watching The Wizard of Oz, man, it’s, like, amazing. None of this is true. (Libsyn)

Robert Plant has announced a podcast too. Called Digging Deep with Robert Plant it’s a series of personal reminiscences, and debuts June 3rd. (Libsyn)

More tedious birthday information

Our first update had six pieces of news, including why we can’t play music on podcasts, a new development from Whooshkaa, and an update for Castro: so the podcast industry sure has changed. The first to have been captured by the Internet Wayback Machine shows a garishly bright, and super-simple, website.

To celebrate our second birthday, we’ve laptop stickers for everyone. Send your postal address to (no, wait, you’re too late. Sorry.) Support us for more of this stuff in the future.