PodMov Daily: Thursday, May 20

Episode 434: Your Thursday Podthoughts

Podcasting on Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2021

Sage Levene contributed a terrific piece on digital accessibility in podcasting last summer. In honor of the 10th Global Accessibility Awareness Day, she’s refreshed her work with updates and professional learnings from the past year. The author is the Broadcast Manager for the New York-based Morey Creative Studios.

“Our entire audience should be able to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with podcasts,” Levene writes. “It’s that simple.” Those four verbs come straight from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which she applies to podcast artwork, scripting, social media, hosting software, and more.

The subscription podcasting boom raises an important point. “Accessible features should not be held ransom behind a paywall,” Levene asserts. “If an accessible version is being made, it needs to be widely available.” Fortunately for podcasters and their audiences, inclusive solutions are more available than ever.

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Spotify to Roll Out Copyright Education for Podcasters

Spotify has begun an education initiative around podcasts and copyrighted content. According to a quick-guide blog post, the company is “building some helpful tools that will become available later this year.” Its subscription podcasting model will be expanding at the same time, as will the volume of violations.

Subscriptions don’t support easily shared private RSS feeds, but exclusive shows will always be copied. The warning may also be related to this week’s rollout of new accessibility features. Once the company begins to auto-transcribe all podcasts on its platform, duplicate clips will be much easier to detect.

“Ever-evolving” music use regulations are emphasized in the post, as are solutions offered by Anchor’s ‘Music + Talk’ shows. According to Spotify, “We believe all creators should be fairly compensated for their work and control its use.” When the sentiment applies to employees of Gimlet Media, it may ring true.

Dynamic Content: A Powerful New Tool from Buzzsprout

With Buzzsprout, it’s faster than ever to keep your podcast fresh — and your listeners up-to-date. The new Dynamic Content tool lets you easily add and remove short pre-roll (intro) and post-roll (outro) content to your episodes. It's the perfect solution for timely messaging.

Whether you’re promoting a virtual event or giving a special shout-out, Dynamic Content makes it simple to swap, automatically add content to new episodes, or apply it to your existing catalog with a click. Old files are removed and replaced, so there’s no clean-up.

For podcasters, this new tool offers more than flexibility. It benefits your audience in more ways than one: Buzzsprout respects your listeners’ privacy. Unlike most Dynamic Ad Insertion, the Dynamic Content tool includes no tracking or targeting. Ready to make the switch?

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Here's what else is going on:

• Pushing back: Misleading buttons and terrible unsubscribe processes are rampant in podcasting (and everywhere else). Consumer Reports has launched a new Dark Patterns Tip Line that lets you report “evil tech company menus” and design tactics, reports Mitchell Clark of The Verge.

• Group chat: On June 3 at 12:00 CT, Acast will host “Aclass: Black Voices.” Creators including DeRay Mckesson (Pod Save the People) and Noleca Radway (Raising Rebels) will lead panels on Black experiences in podcast creation, storytelling, and navigating industry careers. Free RSVP.

• Lone Star: Marfa Public Radio School: Podcasting 101 is coming up June 25-29. Free for 10 accepted participants, the online workshop will be led by acclaimed producer Ruxandra Guidi. Priority will be given to BIPOC, bilingual, and West Texan storytellers. Applications are due on May 31. 

• Memo board: Spokn, a corporate podcast company, recognizes that not every boss is a natural storyteller. Danny Crichton of TechCrunch agrees: “Of course, companies can screw up podcasting just as much as they have screwed up every other medium to communicate like humans.”