Hubhopper Podcast Awards 2021/ Empower2Empower Workshop/ Spotify's new interactive features/ YouTube's first custom podcast series
Dear Readers,
As we celebrated International Podcast Day, we pondered upon questions like - what makes podcasts so impactful? What is powering the podcast industry? How is audio perennial? And we ended up with one answer, one word actually - Voices.
Our voice is a powerful tool. It is a tool that commemorates the past, celebrates the present, and envisages the future. A tool that we use to stand up for what’s right rather than what’s easy. A voice, OUR voice, YOUR voice - is something that deserves to be heard.
No two voices are ever the same. Each carries its own story. A voice is a powerful tool that has allowed people to speak up ideas and dreams, protest against injustice, sing for freedom or simply speak the truth.
September was all about celebrating these voices and the power of podcasts. The last two pandemic years have been really testing and podcasts have helped people in more ways than one can imagine. As a part of the podcast industry, every creator has used audio as a medium to help listeners reduce their stress, feel a sense of belongingness and become more centered and happier.
“I have always believed that when you have a voice, you have an obligation to use that voice to empower others.” - Diane von Furstenberg
Kudos to you for using your voice to bring this change. We all admire your passion and hard work. Let’s keep voicing our dreams and ideas and make this world a better place.
Now let’s have a look at a few exciting things that happened this week!
What’s New!
According to Westwood One 2021 Audioscape, “The podcast audience is young, employed, educated and upscale.”
YouTube has announced its first ever custom podcast series titled The Upload: The Rise of the Creator Economy. The show features interviews with creators who have pushed the boundaries of the craft and transformed what it means to be content creators today.
Indian American comedian Hasan Minaj will be voicing the character of Riddler in the ‘Batman Unburied’ podcast.
Spotify has announced a slate of new Spotify-commissioned Originals, narrated by Bollywood actors. The first to go live is the Hindi-audio thriller Virus 2062 with Ali Fazal and Richa Chadha.
A new podcast audio checking service, Vib3s, has been launched. The free service checks your podcast’s audio quality and scores it accordingly.
Interesting reads!
Here’s how you can sound design your podcast to make it more accessible for hearing-impaired listeners or those with auditory processing disorder.
What’s new at Hubhopper!
The wait is finally over! After weeks of bustling excitement and anticipation in the community, we are ecstatic to announce the winners of the Hubhopper Studio Awards 2021. Congratulations to all the winners and a big thanks to our astounding jury.
The participation of all the creators and the staggering support from the community has been just marvelous. We are so happy to be building the podcasting space in India with all of you and hope to continue doing so in the coming years.
In the spirit of the International Podcast Day, Hubhopper and the American Center New Delhi banded together to facilitate the Empower2Empower workshop. In this 3-days workshop, we talked about everything podcasting, how audio has empowered many lives and how podcasting is evolving in the Indo-Pacific podcast community.
Our exceptional set of mentors included Christina MacGillivray - host of Women in Labor podcast, Jenny Kaplan - CEO and founder of Wonder Media Network, Nikesh Murali - host of Indian Noir podcast, and Normal Chella - host of Podlovers Asia, Tempered Fables and many other shows, and Avirup Kanjilal - Head of Marketing, Hubhopper!
The participants came from 8 different Indo-Pacific countries with diverse professions, stories, and ideas. The workshop enabled us all to explore podcasts together and the freedom the medium offers to an artist. We hope to keep getting inspired by this incredible community and see many more audio artists rising to new heights.
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That’s it for this week guys! We’ll see you next week with some more interesting reads! You can always write back to us. We’d love to hear from you. Until then, we hope you stay safe, stay happy and stay creative!
Happy Podcasting!
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