Podcasts made with AI

• Someone took Elon Musk’s podcasts on Joe Rogan, put them into an artificial intelligence program, and made… more Elon Musk podcasts with Joe Rogan. Our favourite quote from “Elon Tusk”: “Traffic is terrible in general. It’s bad. But I’m an economist. I’m not trying to convince you it’s bad. It’s just bad-ass!”

• Nomono, a Norwegian company, has raised NOK 55m (US$6.4m) in funding. The company is building both hardware and software that “raises the bar on audio quality”, using technology like spatial audio.

• Did Apple Podcasts cancel their private briefings at Podcast Movement, like we claimed yesterday? Yes: but as part of a travel ban at the company. We’re told that the team are still chatting regularly to podcast hosting companies; and have corrected that part of our story yesterday.

• Android Auto, the in-car experience for Android owners, is beginning to recommend music, news and podcasts.

• Wanting 20% off a Blue microphone? FieldCast, a corporate podcast company, has posted a code as part of an announcement that the companies are working together.

• Castos, a podcast host, has added a Playlist Player for your website. (Here are embedded podcast players that everyone can use).

• Meadowlark Media, the podcast producer founded by Dan Le Batard and former ESPN boss John Skipper, has been commissioned to produce a show for the BBC.

• Another paper from Spotify’s R&D department describes “approaches for indexing and retrieving podcast content for ad hoc search” - to make better podcast search engine tools. This one, though, is behind a pay wall.

• The Melbourne Podcast Festival has been cancelled, due to COVID uncertainty.

Tips and tricks

• How to Build a Thriving Community Around Your Podcast includes advice to regularly ask listeners for their input.

• Four steps to a better sounding podcast, from Nomono, talks about microphone technique and a decent room.

Podcast News - with Podcast Fellows at Stony Brook University-Southampton

The final episode of WILD drops next week. Described in this piece as “Erick Galindo brings heart and laughter to a year dominated by an unrelenting pandemic”, the episode focuses on Erick and his family, who all contracted COVID while living under the same roof.
Sep 6 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

The Earth Moves, a dark apocalyptic comedy written by audio-fiction juggernaut and celebrated playwright Mac Rogers with acclaimed director Jordana Williams, premieres its first part today. It’s produced by Gideon Media.

Paranormal Activity with Yvette Fielding launched yesterday from Create; a weekly podcast containing real-life ghost stories, and hosted by the presenter, author and paranormal investigator.