PodMov Daily: Thursday, January 30

Episode 132: Your Thursday Podthoughts

Spotify Launches Podcast Creation Series “Gimlet Academy”

Gimlet Academy, a five-episode Spotify for Podcasters series that teaches the craft of audio storytelling, has launched. Gimlet Media co-founder Alex Blumberg hosts the show, which was originally developed for Gimlet employees. Per a company post, the series will now “deliver all the important details behind the world of podcasting to listeners.”

“Gimlet Academy walks wannabe podcasters through the process of creating a show, including how to pitch an idea, identifying and capturing ‘good tape,’ and putting a full story together,” writes Ashley Carman for The Verge. “[…] it makes sense Spotify would release a creator-centric show, given that it’s made the creation of new shows a focus.”

Blumberg aims to share “many decades” of podcasting biz wisdom. The goal is to teach listeners, like the podcasters behind hit shows like Reply All, Crimetown, and Heavyweight, to “work their butts off to keep that audience engaged, informed, and entertained.”

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Analytics Startup Podsights Announces $1.5m Funding Round

The podcast analytics startup Podsights has announced new features, a rebrand, new hires, and a $1.5 million funding round. Per a company post, “funds with deep expertise in the space” have contributed, including Greycroft (an investor in Wondery, Glow.fm, and Chartable) and Betaworks (an investor in Gimlet, Breaker, and Anchor).

“Central to Podsights’ efforts is the notion of cross-platform attribution — that is, being able to ascertain whether a specific podcast ad led to a desired outcome,” explains Nick Quah in Hot Pod. Two distinct products, Analytics and Research, are being merged into one offering that provides detailed data on how listeners react to a campaign.

The announcement post includes details on new features, like “the ability for brands to contact publishers directly through research.” If a podcast publisher opts in, interested brands can answer preliminary questions to have Podsights “shoot [their] information to the publisher.”

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The Spectacular Sound Effects of Fool & Scholar

Portland, Oregon podcasters Travis Vengroff and Kaitlin Statz take the “audio” in “audio drama” very seriously. The pair make up Fool and Scholar Productions, an outfit with 14 Audio Verse Awards to its name.

“The precision with which the couple communicates on audio ideas could be a show in itself,” writes Chance Solem-Pfeifer in Willamette Week. Solem-Pfeifer spoke to the creators about how their trademark “obsessive attention to detail” enhances Fool and Scholar’s podcasts.

Sci-fi series Vast Horizon and horror mystery The White Vault may be fictional, but their aural atmospheres are true-to-life. In one case, an episode called for polar bear growls, unavailable due to rarity from National Geographic or the BBC.

Determined to avoid substituting the song of the grizzly, Vengroff snagged the clip from Polar Bears International. “You can hear the difference between the grizzly and the real polar bear!” Vengroff reasoned. “It’s about 700 or 800 pounds of difference.”

#FictionPodcast creators, somebody should give you the full Film Festival treatment … Hey – we're "somebody"! 😉 The world's best #webseries creators + the world's best #audiofiction creators = a WEBfest extravaganza! #NJWebFest

Learn more & submit at https://t.co/VloHSKeteD pic.twitter.com/4h2gGJ8yum

— New Jersey Web Festival • Submissions Open! (@NJWebFest) January 27, 2020

Happy Thursday, readers, and here’s to the NJ Web Fest for including fiction podcasts this year. Per the event site, “serialized fiction, stand-alone fictional stories, anthologies, pilots, and trailers” will be accepted from all over the world.

Cheers,
Team PM

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Here's what else is going on:

• Always on: Podnews reports that the London-based Podcast Radio will launch on February 11. Described by its founders as the UK’s first 24-hour radio station devoted exclusively to podcasts, it “will broadcast on DAB+ to a potential audience of 12 million.”
• Open mind: Peter Wells of The Brisbane Times speaks to Dr. Hunter Mulcare and Amy Donaldson, psychologists and hosts of Two Shrinks Pod. Their popular conversations dig deep into personality disorders and theory beyond mainstream media.
• Better together: The New Jersey Web Festival has announced expansion to include fiction podcasts. Founder and director Neem Basha looks forward to engaging with the creators of some of “the most exciting fiction content on the web.”
• Full circuit: Two years after initial release, Apple’s Siri-powered smart speaker, Homepod, has launched in India. Users can seamlessly play audio from Apple Podcasts, and the device’s AirPlay support gives access to Spotify, Calm, and other audio apps.