David Chen is one of Seattle’s most prolific podcasters, having hosted or co-hosted nearly a dozen podcasts since 2007. The Seattle Times spoke to Chen about how he began his first show, The /Filmcast, and his plans to maintain the side gig.
With 4 ongoing weekly podcasts on top of a full-time job, Chen is busy but satisfied with his projects. The joy is in the work itself: “To a large degree, my dream has already come true, that I’m consuming work from people that I really admire, and they are speaking to me for the purpose of the podcast.”
“I don’t necessarily think that what I’m doing is a noble task,” Chen says. “But I like that people can find meaning out of the things I make, and if I can keep doing that in new and interesting ways, then that is enough for me.”
Variety reports that “Netflix has been testing variable playback speeds in its Android app, Android Police was first to report Friday. The new feature allows users to play movies and TV shows at a variety of speeds, ranging from 0.5x (half as fast) all the way to 1.5x.
The feature is being tested with a small subset of Android users; Netflix is regularly testing all kinds of new features this way, and only successful tests end up in actual product implementations.
Variable playback speeds are a bit of an uncommon feature for streaming video services, but widely used in the podcasting space, giving users a chance to listen to their favorite podcasts at a faster pace.”
Voxnest has released its September report of the Apple vs. Spotify listener battle. Since March, they’ve kept tabs on the audio giants’ territorial progress. “Unless Apple begins making some serious countermoves, we believe Spotify’s aggressive approach to be seen as the global leader will continue to work in their favor,” writes Ivey Amburgey.
“Each month we’ve seen the map continue to turn more and more green, and September was no different,” Amburgey explains. “Last month, Spotify claimed Norway, France, Romania, Tunisia, Morocco and Israel. With Android being the most popular smartphone worldwide (74% of the market) and Spotify’s ability to tap into that market […] it’s no surprise to us that Spotify continues to gain.”
France’s swift growth this year has attracted attention, making Spotify’s claim on French listeners “particularly significant.” Acast established an office there in March, and “French podcasting app Majelan launched with 13 million episodes and plans for original shows in June.”
Happy Monday, readers, especially those attending the Hot Docs Podcast Festival. Back for its 4th year, Hot Docs is bringing the biggest names in audio to Toronto from November 6-11. Over the span of six days, 12 live shows take the stage at the historic Hot Docs Cinema for engaging conversation and never-before-heard stories.
Headlining podcast performances include The Allusionist (last year’s sold-out show pictured above), Still Processing, and Mobituaries.
Learn more and register for the Creators Forum, November 6-8.
Cheers,
Team PM
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