What does Audible’s controversial “Captions” feature have to do with the future of podcasting? Hot Pod’s Caroline Crampton traces recent and decade-old court cases involving publishers’ rights to a likely issue on the horizon.
In a nutshell, ebook publishers have strongly opposed audiobook services that offer read-along text. “A decade on, it’ll be fascinating to see if the courts come to a similar conclusion for the opposite situation: audio-becoming-text instead of text-becoming-audio,” writes Crampton.
Transcription has become more common to aid in podcast discoverability. What happens if, or when, those auto-generated files become public? A key consideration: “In that instance, who owns the text version of a podcast’s audio?” Song lyrics have raised “another of those brave new digital world problems.”
As the popularity of podcasting has soared, so has its recognition as a legitimate changemaking force. Frederick Melo for The Bemidji Pioneer writes about a show that embodies a powerful example: American Public Media’s In the Dark.
The show’s five-person team “spent a year in the deep south, unraveling the case of a black man who had been convicted six times by mostly white juries for the same triple murder.” A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision reversed the conviction of Curtis Flowers, capturing the rapt attention of a growing audience.
The initial story “seemed like it would inevitably point to some larger issues and truths about the criminal justice system, and prosecutorial accountability, and power,” says senior producer Samara Freemark. According to producers, In the Dark has been “taking the medium in a new direction,” toward new audiences, subject matter, and investigative weight.
Determining the success of your podcast can be a tricky, multi-variable process. To quantify ROI (return on investment), podcast success metrics aren’t the only tools at your disposal. Limited data can reveal more than face-value insights.
Jonathan Crowl at ContentStandard identifies alternative benchmarks for a clearer picture of audience reception. “Consider promo codes or special access codes to distribute solely through your podcast content,” Crowl suggests. “This way, you can pinpoint which leads came from listeners and which came from somewhere else entirely.”
Social mentions provide a “channel for gathering evidence of audience relationships,” and not just for marketing or branded shows. Whether you’re interested in your own podcast’s ROI or that of your company, knowledge is power.
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