PodMov Daily: Thursday, March 10

Episode 605: Your Thursday Podthoughts

Google Introduces Multilingual Video Dubbing

Aloud, a new product from Google’s in-house incubator for experimental projects, will bring English-language podcasts to much more of the world. Creators will be able to dub their content into other languages with just a video file and a transcript. (Really just a video, if they choose to use Google’s auto-generated text.)

Buddhika Kottahachchi and Sasakthi Abeysinghe, co-founders of Aloud, introduced the technology in a blog post yesterday. Similar to Descript, creators review their transcript in a text editor before the content is translated. Spanish and Portuguese are now running, with Hindi and other languages “coming soon.”

The product is free to use, and creators can now request early access from Area 120. The founders plan to focus on “informational content” first before branching out. They’re “also working with YouTube to let creators add multiple audio tracks to their videos,” a feature in small-group testing since late last year.

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A $0.00 Podcast Can’t Be Made for Free

While it’s certainly possible to make a podcast for next to nothing, should you? Producer and consultant Nick Hilton recently considered what podcasting is pressured to believe about itself — that “people can rock up with a dream and no experience” and succeed. Monetary or not, there’s always a cost to the creator.

“Whether you make a podcast for $0.00 or $1,000,000, you are going to end up making a similar investment from your reserves of endeavour and optimism,” Hilton says. A few hundred dollars can realistically improve one’s chances if spent wisely. If your starting budget is just an idea, the odds may not be worth the labor. 

Money boosts those odds in a crowded field. If it’s possible to save up, Hilton suggests focusing on development in the meantime. However, opportunity is still “the drug that fires podcasting’s imagination.” Just take the leap if free is what’s affordable: “A thousand to one might be a shot in the dark, but it’s still a shot.”

Keep Episodes Fresh with Dynamic Content

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Here’s what else is going on:

• Group chat: Next Thursday, March 17 is “She Podcasts: The State of Podcasting,” an all-women panel hosted by Libsyn. Elsie Escobar will moderate a future-focused discussion on discovery and measurement, listener engagement, and shaping a podcast career to fit your life. Free registration.

• It’s complicated: The Trojan Horse Affair co-host Hamza Syed has some regrets. The hit podcast from Serial Productions has been highly controversial since it launched last month. Syed spoke with Slate’s Aymann Ismail about criticism, reflection, and ‘impaling himself’ for the sake of the story.

• Collect call: Building on its themed podcast hubs, Spotify has added “podcast editorial communities” that continuously showcase Black and Latinx podcasters. The Dinner Table is curated by Black Culture Editor Bianca Garwood, and PRESENTE is curated by U.S. Latinx Culture Editor Barbara Gonzalez.

• On repeat: Acast is the first audio partner of the Unstereotype Alliance, an organization that aims to reduce harmful stereotypes in media and advertising. Their work together will focus on increasing positive portrayals of women, girls, and marginalized groups in podcast advertising specifically.