Google's new dubbing tool

• Google’s Area 120 has unveiled a product called Aloud, which automatically dubs videos into multiple languages (rather than the subtitles that happen on current YouTube clips). (It would work for audio, too, we guess; just add a blank video file).

• What’s an indie podcast? In The Ambies, Aftershock has been nominated in the Best Indie Podcast category. The show was announced in July last year as a co-production with the very un-indie iHeartMedia. Indie podcaster Maribel Quezada Smith is disappointed, saying “The intention behind creating an indie category is to amplify and celebrate the work of indie creators”.

  
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• Podnews will be at Podcast Movement, and, just announced, our Editor, James Cridland, will be giving the first keynote on March 24 at 8.30am - unveiling the results of the Podnews Report Card and how publishers see the big platforms. Come for the report card, stay for Will Ferrell.

• Libsyn quietly improved its monthly hosting plans in early February: more than trebling the available storage for its cheapest plan, and increasing most of its others. Blubrry announced similar changes yesterday. At 128kbps stereo, audio is roughly 1MB a minute.

  • Another way to make your storage space go further is to lower your bitrate. Our main podcast’s MP3 file is 48kbps, and if your system will play it, our Opus file is just 16kbps.

• SiriusXM has announced its latest exclusive distribution and sales agreement: this time with with reVolver Podcasts. SXM Media gets exclusive ad sales rights.

• Radiodays Europe has announced a Podcast Summit in Malmö, Sweden this May. James Cridland, Podnews’s Editor, will be moderating; among the speakers are Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Rob Greenlee from Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast, Julie Shapiro from PRX, and Bryan Barletta from Sounds Profitable.

• Barometer and Oxford Road have launched a tool to help advertisers understand what content is in the podcasts they’re considering advertising in. The tool allows advertisers to filter podcast shows and episodes that do not align with their brand values and safety requirements; and also monitors for positive messages, like tolerance.

• The Australian Podcast Ranker for February has been released. Casefile is still #1; the highest new entry is Last Podcast On The Left, which returned to open podcasting on Feb 4.

  • There’s a brand new #1 podcast publisher in Austra—only joking, it’s still ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia, which has improved its lead over rival SCA’s LiSTNR.

Kids Corner

Lots of movement in this space recently, like…

• Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group has announced a partnership with kids podcast company Pinna to adapt their podcasts into books. They’ll be launched in early 2023.

• Wonkybot, a narrative podcast company for kids and families, has announced an expansion of their Tara Tremendous franchise into the Tremendous Universe, and signed Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing from Dallas, though she’s done plenty of other things) as a voice actor.

• Penguin Workshop, iHeartMedia and Radio Point have announced a new kids’ comedy quiz show. The Who Was? Podcast is based on a Netflix show and book series of the same name. Every 13 seconds, a Who HQ book is sold, they say.

Spammer Corner

• Podcast host Acast is still spamming podcasters, even co-founders of rival podcast networks, or hosts of shows that ended three years ago. Libsyn’s Rob Walch correctly notes “Friends don’t send emails starting 'hello friend’ (as Acast’s do), and they don’t spam”. Hypocritically, Acast actually offers its customers a tool to obfuscate your email address in your RSS feed, so that it will “help our podcasters avoid unwanted spam”. It’s a problem the company is more than aware of, then. “Email marketing is one part of our marketing strategy”, said Ross Adams, the company’s CEO, when we last asked.

• RadioPublic, which was also sending out Acast promotional spam, has had its privacy page quietly restored again, after we reported it was missing. However, it dates from 2016, is authored by Jake Shapiro (who left RadioPublic to join Apple two years ago), and claims “If we merge with another company such that your information will become subject to a different privacy policy, we’ll notify you before the transfer. You can opt out of the new policy by deleting your account during the notice period”. The last email from RadioPublic to its users was a full year before Acast bought RadioPublic’s assets a year ago; we’ve asked Acast for details about how the promised notification happened.

Moves and hires

• Ryan Christians has been appointed SVP, Scripted Content at Campfire Studios. He was formerly with Marc Platt Productions, and will be helping expand Campfire’s scripted slate.

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Tips and tricks

• Why and how to design Immersive & Exciting Soundscapes  - a series from Mark Angly of Pacific Content.
• Less is more, argues Podcast Hall of Fame honoree Evo Terra.
• Buzzsprout tells us how to set up Audacity for recording and editing. (We would note that Audacity is owned by a company with Russian connections).

Podcast News

Fighting For Ukraine is new, and hosted by Yuriy Matsarsky, a Ukranian journalist turned civilian fighter against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He’ll bring daily updates from the frontlines of the Ukranian resistance. It’s reporting from a warzone like you’ve never heard.

Profoundly Pointless is celebrating a nomination in The Ambies. The press release starts: “They have celebrities, studios and a wide array of producers, marketers and engineers. Nick VinZant has an iPhone, a trial Canva subscription and a full-time job. But despite these massive differences, VinZant’s show Profoundly Pointless has just been nominated for an Ambie for Best Interview Podcast, alongside Jon Stewart (Apple), Jemele Hill (Spotify) and shows created and promoted by major podcast networks.”

Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine today features a chat with Pushkin Industries owner Malcolm Gladwell interviewed by Michele Cobb (who is publisher of AudioFile Magazine, and also Executive Director of The Podcast Academy). “Gladwell’s enthusiasm for the podcast format is one of the founding principles of Pushkin and this special episode explores what is beyond the boundaries of traditional audiobooks as a result of the explosion of the podcasting industry.”