VidCon founder opens crowdfunding for podcast-centric PodCon

You may or may not know Hank Green. And if you don’t, one easy association is his famous brother/author John Green. The duo make up the YouTube channel vlogbrothers. Hank has also started other famous YouTube channels like SciShow and Crash Course. He also created VidCon, an annual gathering of big YouTube and Vine personalities and other online video fans and enthusiasts. Now, he’s taking a stab at creating a same convention but for podcasts and aptly calling it PodCon.

The event is now being crowdfunded on Indieogogo and has raised US$30,456 of its $300,000 goal. If it gets the funding it needs, PodCon will be held in Seattle, Washington this December and will have things like workshops, panels, and live podcast recordings. Obviously, there aren’t that many concrete plans for the event yet. But Green partnered with Welcome to Nightvale’s Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor as well as Travis McElroy, who is best known for co-hosting advice show My Brother, My Brother and Me. There are a number of tiers to back so you can choose which one works for you. If you donate $90 or more, you get admission to the convention. 

Source: The Verge

Google gets into the original podcast game

Following in the footsteps of Apple and Spotify, Google now has its own audio podcast. Called City Soundtracks, it focuses on conversations between musical acts as they delve into the places, moments, and songs that influence both their work and lives. It’s hosted by West Wing Weekly’s Hrishikesh Hirway. There are currently three episodes of the “pod” with one focusing on Grammy-nominated R&B artist Kehlani, another on “Queen of Bounce” Big Freedia, and the third is a tour of Austin’s music culture with Britt Daniel and Jim Eno. It isn’t known yet what Google plans for this podcast or if we can expect more new original content from them but having exclusive content is one way to differentiate themselves from the competition. City Soundtracks is available on iTunes and Google Play Music.

Source: The Next Web

Spotify gets into original podcast game

Building on its own original content, Spotify is getting into the podcast game with three new podcasts series. The first one, which is already up, is called Showstopper. It’s hosted by The Fader’s Editor-in-Chief Naomi Zeichner and it tackles “pop culture analysis of our favorite music moments in TV.” Coming this March 14 is Unpacked. It’s co-hosted by Matt FX, music supervisor for Comedy Central’s Broad City, and Michele Santucci of Spotify Studios. It revolves around festivals and the people who are a part of it—everyone from musicmakers, filmmakers, to any time of creative people. They’re aptly starting at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

The last original podcast is currently called The Chris Lighty Story. Coming in April, it’ll chronicle how Chris Lighty, music industry executive, was able to shape the careers of some of the biggest names in hip hop (50 Cent, LL Cool J, Missy Elliot, Puff Daddy, and Foxy Brown).  There will be direct commentary from the likes of Russell Simmons, Fat Joe, and many more.  Spotify promises there will be more originals heading our way later this year.

iTunes may soon read the news to you

A new feature coming to iTunes got leaked earlier (and has since been pulled) that will allow the service to read the news to you. Called Spoken Editions, this podcasts-branded feature has short programs reading written news items from select publications such as Wired, TechCrunch, Forbes, and Time. According to the descriptions of the audio files, this feature is powered by SpokenLayer, which is a service that creates and distributes audio versions of the written word. This feature when it officially launches will come in handy when you want to listen to the latest news from these publications while you’re off doing something else.

According to TechCrunch’s interview with SpokenLayer’s CEO Will Mayo, the company specializes in making each publication sound distinct—so Wired will sound like Wired. Also, SpokenLayer and the publications split whatever is made from the audio ads attached to the podcasts. There isn’t that long a wait for this new feature to come early next month.