Hope you all had an amazing weekend. I don’t have any podcast ideas right this moment, however I did see the Roundabout Theater’s gender-reversed 1776 and it completely slapped. As my buddy Olivia mentioned, 1776 was made as propaganda and has no enterprise being pretty much as good as it’s (it’s additionally extra clear-eyed about American politics than Hamilton, however I digress). Plus, the film model has Mr. Feeny as John Adams, what a present.
Anywho, on the docket right this moment: Apple makes it simpler for podcasters to ship the products to their subscribers, Microsoft is making leaps within the text-to-speech AI area, and we’ve some thrilling Sizzling Pod Summit information!
Saying Sizzling Pod Summit Brooklyn 
It’s that point of yr once more, gang: Sizzling Pod Summit is coming again to the Wythe Resort in Brooklyn on February twenty third. We can have extra particulars quickly, however we can be switching it up a bit this time round. Along with panels with specialists from throughout the business, the Summit will characteristic new interactive programming, so keep tuned!
As at all times, the occasion can be invitation-only. Friends will obtain invitations by electronic mail with the ticket buy code by the top of the week. And if you don’t get an invitation immediately, don’t despair! You may apply for an invite by our ticket lottery on the On Air Fest web site.
On that observe, Sizzling Pod Summit Brooklyn is being held in affiliation with On Air Fest 2023, which is able to happen Feb 23-25. On Air Fest has some cool programming lined up, that includes On Being with Krista Tippett, Individuals’s Social gathering with Talib Kweli, a reside podcast penthouse, networking breakfasts, events, and extra. The occasion can even characteristic On Air: The Podcast Expertise, an immersive podcast exhibition from the world of My Favourite Homicide and the Precisely Proper Community, On Being Venture, The Coronary heart, and extra. The exhibit will run from Feb 23-26, and tickets can be found at experiencepodcasts.com.
Apple (lastly) makes it simpler to distribute subscription podcasts
Final Could, Apple introduced that it will launch delegated supply for subscription podcasts within the fall. It missed that purpose by a number of weeks, however delegated supply is now reside for a number of podcast internet hosting platforms, with extra to return.
The characteristic permits creators with subscription reveals to distribute episodes straight from their host dashboards, as a substitute of getting to manually add the content material by Apple Podcast Join. Collaborating hosts for now embody Libsyn, Blubrry, Omny Studio, and RSS.com, with different standard platforms like Buzzsprout and Acast to be added later. Anchor, the largest distributor of podcasts (and a subsidiary of Spotify), is just not a part of the preliminary batch of internet hosting suppliers.
What are subscribers prepared to pay for?
Talking of podcast subscriptions, Cumulus and Sign Hill launched a report that offers some perception into what (if something) will compel listeners to pay for podcasts. Unsurprisingly, the reply is extra content material (at all times extra content material! Feed the beast!).
Amongst weekly podcast listeners, 36 p.c mentioned they’d pay a month-to-month charge for bonus episodes of considered one of their reveals. Different perks that ranked effectively had been entry to prolonged episodes (32 p.c), early entry to episodes (30 p.c), and behind-the-scenes content material (28 p.c). What do they not care about? Unique merch (22 p.c) and transcripts (13 p.c).
Whereas that’s nonetheless a fraction of standard podcast listeners who’re prepared to pay something in any respect, it does present that there’s some validity to the methods creators are utilizing to shore up subscriptions. Patreon creators use bonus episodes because the cornerstone of their memberships, whereas Wondery has leaned closely into the early-release mannequin for reveals like My Favourite Homicide and Smartless.
Microsoft makes some (barely alarming?) advances in text-to-speech AI
Final week, I wrote about how Apple is utilizing fairly superior text-to-speech know-how to facilitate the manufacturing and distribution of audiobooks. To this point, that characteristic consists of 4 AI voices. Microsoft, in the meantime, introduced a text-to-speech mannequin known as VALL-E that may allegedly simulate anybody’s voice with only a three-second pattern.
If it really works, that might have large implications for the audio business. There are positively upsides – improved text-to-speech may vastly enhance accessibility for individuals with visible impairment, and, like within the Apple Books case, make audio content material creation simpler total. However it is usually simple to think about how issues may go off the rails in a giant means, with podcasts that includes “visitors” who aren’t actually there and deep fakes which might be laborious to fight. That might particularly be an issue whereas the business figures out how one can average content material.
That’s all for now! See you subsequent week.
