These last two weeks in podcasting...
Newsletter #2: Week of April 25, 2022
Hi everyone, let’s get right into it!
The Scoop: AFRICAN NEWS:
What’s happening at home:
SEMAbox has announced that their creators have been paid over 5.5M Kenyan Shillings as the creator network grew to over 200 in the last 18 months. HUGE. Congratulations to the team at SEMAbox and all the podcasters in their ecosystem. Get paid!
APVA Podcast & Voice Awards have opened for nominations. Nominate someone who is an African Podcaster or Voice Over Artist!
Afripods announced a partnership with TraceFM, First With the Hits.
Alibi Studios in South Africa announced their new partner podcast, Killing for Cash. Alibi Studios is now under Volume and will house their main podcast, partner podcasts (like the one above!) and their investigative podcast newsletter.
The Guardian released an article featuring some of the best African podcasts (or at least favorites of those who were asked). There are two on this list hosted on Afripods— Nipe Story & Case Number Zero!
The Inaugural AU Media Fellowship was announced! The AU is looking for 20 fellows from the continent who are focused on innovation, digitization and new media. Storytellers (podcasters) are encouraged to apply.
If you haven’t filled out the research survey for Africa Podfest about podcasting on the continent, please do so before they finish gathering data. They need you!
The Scoop: GLOBAL NEWS:
What's going on around the world?
Anchor announced video podcasts to users in select markets (not including Africa). Curious how this will compete with what YouTube announces as we get more information regarding their upcoming plans for podcasting, recently announced through PodNews. As well as the video podcast announcement, Anchor recently had press around their creator interface now being available in 35 languages. I noticed on the list there wasn’t one African specific language. Being that Swahili is the most spoken language on the continent with over 100M people, I’m disappointed I didn’t see it.
A few reports: The US Podcast Report for March from Triton Digital was released and shows the top 20 networks and 100 podcasts in the United States. The 2022 UK Podcast Survey from Ofcom in the UK has been released. According to this data 25% of British people listen to podcasts every month!
Regarding content moderation on podcasts, Brookings has released a paper with guidelines which has been making the rounds online. Definitely check it out if you haven’t yet.
ACast released an article on podcast advertising suggesting that radio advertising not be repurposed for podcasts. Their data shows that listeners form weaker connections with brands that repurpose their ad content which is incredibly important as podcast advertising remains one of the most effective and penetrable advertising tools in audio.
The application for Rooster Teeth Mentorship program , targeting historically underrepresented digital talent ends on May 9! If you are interested, make sure you submit an application.
To the disappointment of advertisers, Facebook is scaling back their podcasting efforts. This announcement comes less than a year after information of the company going after podcasting became public. Their current focus remains on the metaverse.
Initially announced as a Clubhouse competitor, Spotify Greenroom Creator Fund has been shut down to focus on live-in audio on the app. In an email sent to creators who applied, the company has shifted its focus to Spotify Live and has imminent plans to announce further tools to monetize creators.
DISCOVERABILITY:
Discoverability & searchability have been challenging for the entire industry. I want to do my part in sharing some of the great podcasts I hear from the continent (& within the diaspora) as the market continues to grow. It’s my belief that Africa will be the largest podcasting market in the world due to the fact that people are already comfortable with the audio format (ie. radio) and that we are the fastest growing digital market in the world. Every newsletter I will focus on a new country or region and a podcast (or two) I like from there. This week we are focusing on: West Africa.
From Nigeria, I’d like to highlight Afrobeats Intelligence by Joey Akan. His first episode dropped and got over 5k streams! Since then he’s been killing it with episodes. He recently teased and tweeted about an upcoming conversation with Zlatan.
Another podcast out of West Africa, I Said What I Said calls themselves “An Unsolited Opinions Podcast” hosted by FK & Jollz. These women have an incredibly engaged audience and do a segment called Agony Aunt. If you haven’t listened and are curious about the African millennial experience, check it out.
PODCASTING 101:
Every newsletter I will break down one of the fundamental basics of podcasting. Podcasting is still very much in it’s infancy on the continent and for those who are new to the space, don’t worry- I’ve got you too.
What does podcast hosting mean?
Where do you upload your podcast before it is distributed? That is your podcast host. Some common podcast hosts include Anchor, Podbean, Libsyn and of course my favorite, Afripods. All hosting platforms will allow you to upload your audio (podcast) and then route it to distribute across the platforms of your choosing, ie. Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, etc. Where you upload your podcast matters because that is where you will get all of your podcast statistics and be able to track the success of your podcasting content.
EVENTS:
Let's meet up! There are things to do and places to be. Note: these events may look the same week over week until they pass. If there is anything I am missing (or should be featured) please send me a note.
Podcast Movement : The largest community of podcasters and the largest annual event for podcasting. I will be there. Let me know if you are too and we can meet up!
RadioDays South Africa 2022 : The largest radio conference in Africa. Since radio is the largest player in the audio space (and form of media), it’s definitely worth keeping on your radar.
NAB Show Las Vegas 2022: There have been some announcements of exciting speakers for this year National Association of Broadcasters conference. Most recently Rob Greenlee of Libsyn will be speaking about podcast advertising.
The Podcast Show London: An international podcast show and Europe’s biggest podcast gathering.
BlkPodFestival: Two days of Black storytellers in Atlanta with 80 sessions and 120 speakers.
Podcasting Seriously, Live : Every week, a really cool Twitter conversation. Get in on it. It can get a little late with our time zones on the continent but if you’re ever up, it’s worth tuning in.
Want to talk? Got feedback?
Contact us! Please let me know if you have any information about Africa’s podcasting ecosystem.
You can reach me @mj_akosua or find me on LinkedIn. If you need my email address, shoot me a DM and I’ll get back to you.