Podcasting Licensed Music – It’s Time by Tom Webster.
Last week Tom Webster spoke at the Country Radio Seminar held each year in Nashville, Tennessee. In his talk, Webster spoke to the Country-shaped hole in podcasting and how it’s time for both industries to take each other seriously and break down the hurdles that would enable a new flood of creativity and revenue. On platforms like YouTube, music-based content thrives. Cover songs, reaction videos, in-depth analysis, it all regularly earns millions of views that benefit the creators, original artists, and audiences. That interplay between music and content creation is all but nonexistent in podcasting, save for some edge cases (whose success further proves the existence of an audience for that style of content in podcasting). [Source]
Alice Levine & Dino Sofos Behind Crossed Wires Podcast Festival by Max Goldbart
A new British podcast festival is coming to Sheffield late this Spring. My Dad Wrote a Porno co-host Alice Levine and The News Agents’ Dino Sofos have teamed up with James O’Hara, co-founder of the Sheffield-based Tramlines music festival. Crossed Wires sells itself as “podcasting’s biggest party” with two days of live events spread across multiple venues throughout the city. Another vote of confidence in the power of live podcasting events and the medium’s power to mobilize audiences. [Source]
Rooster Teeth Is Shutting Down After 21 Years by Todd Spangler
Texas-based media production house Rooster Teeth is closing down. According to RT general manager Jordan Levin’s memo, the company is to close due to “fundamental shifts” in consumer behavior, monetization, and advertising. Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is currently in talks to sell parts of Rooster Teeth’s content backlog and IP, such as the unreleased final season of the machinima comedy Red vs. Blue, cult favorite anime-styled action series RWBY, and Michael B. Jordan’s animated mecha series Gen:Lock. A silver lining of the announcement is the company’s affiliated podcast network The Roost will continue content production and signs point to WBD seeking a buyer. A testament to The Roost’s success and continued profitability in the podcast space. [Source]
First as Tragedy, Second as Podcasts by Daniel Eales
Activist Daniel Eales calls attention to a recurring trend in UK politics: bipartisan podcasting, and the illusion of public discourse. According to Eales, it’s becoming a common occurrence for current and former politicians to announce a podcast centered around the concept of them pairing up with a member of the diametrically-opposed party, such as Electoral Dysfunction, which pits a Labour parliament member against a Tory peer with a journalist co-host acting as moderator. A core issue with the popularization of such a format is politicians effectively have the tools to simulate town hall-style public political discourse. All created in an environment where there is zero chance of public intervention via questions that challenge established narratives, or protests. The parasocial nature of podcasting can be a powerful tool, one Eales aims to make readers aware of so they can both recognize the political impact of platforms like podcasting and leverage that tool themselves. [Source]
