Dispatches Presents... Spotify's earnings call, Descript's call for pitches, podcasts to explore

This newsletter contains dispatches from the Podcasting Community on Discord.

Welcome

Howdy, podcast discorders! You made it to Friday.

If you're new to this newsletter and/or to our Discord, welcome! Make sure to add yourself to our member directory. You can then peruse the directory.

We've got a Dispatch packed with events, information, resources, and more.

Top Stories from Discord

Thank you to everyone who shared stories, recommendations, links, and resources with us throughout the week.

• "What concerns me is how these giant influxes of capital into podcasting can destabilize the industry." That's Discord member @mijustin reacting to Spotify's Daniel Ek saying that he may have gotten a little carried away and overinvested relative to the uncertainty in the market. Read more from Spotify's Q4 earnings call.

• Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism pushed "Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2023." Read it. Thanks, Scott Miles, for sharing.

• Ashley Hamer of Descript and Taboo Science has joined our Discord. She let us know that Descript is always looking for pitches for their blog related to podcasting and/or video creation. Check out the blog here.

• Rights Back At You is a new podcast from Amnesty International (and Vocal Fry Studios) that examines police surveillance and anti-Black racism since the start of this decade. Listen.

Member News

The following news stories have been shared throughout the week with us in the #📢 | self-promo channel on Discord. To be included, make sure you're sharing with us!

• Episode 2 of Hard Know from Dan Felton is here. In it, Dan dives into the history of snake oil salesmen.

• Gary Arndt shares his January 2023 Podcast Download Report.

• Perry Carpenter, host of the new show Digital Folklore, is asking a favor. He needs some five-star ratings over on Apple Podcasts to combat some trolls.

• Feedback forums on Discord: We have a set of forums for feedback, including space to talk about podcast artwork and website functionality.

• Where the Stars Fell is crowdfunding for season 3. Learn more here.

• Tom Webster is looking at various research from across the podcast industry and putting it into actionable context for podcasters and the audio business. Read the latest from Sounds Profitable.

Podcast of the Week

Each week, Keelin selects one podcast from the links submitted in #self-promo.

This week, Hollywood Gold.

Hollywood Gold is a new talk show podcast that will pull back the curtain on the making of some of the industry’s most iconic movies, through interviews with notable producers and filmmakers.

Dispatcher of the Week

Welcome to our member spotlight section! To be featured in a future issue of the newsletter, DM us on Discord or reply to this email!

Meet Mackensie Freeman

Mackensie works in entertainment PR at BECK Media and Marketing and specializes in podcasts. Currently, she handles PR for Tenderfoot TV. She's also a huge fan of listening to podcasts in general!

Find Mackensie:

•  Twitter

•  LinkedIn

Events

These events are sourced from within Discord. Make sure to submit your events so we can feature them!

• Podcasting: Audience Before Anything - Ethan Lee invites us to learn how to reach our ideal listeners, predict audience behavior, and jumpstart a successful indie or business-related podcast. Free. Wednesday, February 8th, 2-3 pm ET.

• PodConf - A new festival coming to Portland, Oregon on April 29th.

• PodAtxFest - Coming to Austin, Texas in August.

• Meet the Mods - A Fireside Chat in the Discord on February 5th at 5:00 pm ET.

• Podcast Movement Evolutions - Taking place in Las Vegas - March 7-10.

That's it for this week! Let us know what you think of this email. Just hit reply!