It’s been fairly sluggish within the audio world for the previous few weeks — besides relating to AI, which appears to be progressing at a clip.
In the present day, ChatGPT involves radio, NPR staff put together for layoffs, and Spotify expands its audiobook enterprise.
Widespread layoffs anticipated this week at NPR
Final month, NPR CEO John Lansing introduced that the community would lay off 10 p.c of its workforce to cowl an anticipated $30 million funds shortfall this 12 months. That is the week last selections are anticipated to return down, and staff are bracing for the cuts. Many have taken to Twitter to garner support for their colleagues, whereas others implored public radio followers to donate to their local stations.
“This week is heavy right here @NPR,” tweeted Morning Edition host Leila Fadel. “The layoffs turn into actual and we are going to lose colleagues who work so arduous to placed on our programming on a regular basis. We don’t know who will go however we all know that everybody who’s right here now… we want them. Powerful days forward.”
NPR didn’t reply to Scorching Pod’s request on the timing of the layoffs. I’ll have extra for Insiders later this week on the extent of the cuts.
RadioGPT makes it straightforward to exchange human DJs with bots
That’s very reassuring, given the state of radio. Axios Cleveland studies that native enterprise Futuri has launched a product referred to as RadioGPT, which may theoretically do a lot of the work of manning a radio station with out human labor.
Based on the web site, it makes use of GPT-4-powered bots that may carry out interstitial chats in regards to the music lineup, native climate, and information and even area listener feedback and questions. RadioGPT may also do duties that may in any other case be the area of interns and entry-level staffers, like creating complimentary weblog posts, changing dwell reveals into podcasts, and social media.
Not like the deeply wonky AI Radio, which I reported on final month, this isn’t only a enjoyable thought experiment. Based on Axios, the product will debut subsequent month with Alpha Media and Rogers Sports activities & Media, which characterize greater than 250 stations mixed throughout the US and Canada.
Futuri CEO Daniel Anstandig informed Axios that the product was meant to “save radio, not compete with it” by filling hours that stations can’t man anyway. “What we’re trying to do is increase a station’s capacity to fill its programming with extra dwell and native content material,” he mentioned.
The best way Anstandig positions it’s that for a lot of radio stations, it’s AI or it’s nothing. That could be true in some circumstances, however the firms which have signed up thus far aren’t precisely indies. It appears extra possible that radio firms may have the chance to make use of this instrument (or others prefer it) as a way to chop their labor pressure and scale back the already diminishing audio business pipeline.
Most Enjoyable podcast community converts to a worker-owned cooperative
Most Enjoyable, the podcast community based by Bullseye host Jesse Thorn, is transitioning from a extra conventional company construction to a worker-owned cooperative (in the identical vein as Defector). Most Enjoyable’s two dozen staff will share possession of and decision-making energy over the corporate, which produces comedy and popular culture reveals like The Journey Zone and My Brother, My Brother and Me.
“I didn’t construct this firm to be offered off to the very best bidder,” Thorn mentioned in a press release. “I constructed it to make nice stuff. I don’t belief large tech firms to steward this operation. I do belief the individuals who’ve constructed it with me.”
It’s an uncommon transfer in a time when studios appear to be consolidated underneath giant firms. However Defector, with its megahit Regular Gossip and extremely revered sports activities and tradition journalism, has proven that such preparations can produce good work (and even be profitable!). With so many individuals laid off from the massive audio firms and creators’ elevated consciousness of the worth of proudly owning their work, I’d not be stunned if we noticed extra smaller audio firms transfer on this path. Although, that may in all probability look extra like Defector, which was based that solution to start with, than Most Enjoyable, during which the proprietor willingly provides up most of his stake.
Spotify expands audiobook vertical to Canada
Spotify should still be determining the way forward for its audiobook enterprise, however within the meantime, the corporate is increasing the vertical’s footprint. In the present day, the corporate introduced that audiobooks will now be out there for buy in Canada. Spotify’s catalog consists of greater than 350,000 titles thus far and was beforehand solely out there within the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
That’s all for now. See you subsequent week.
