Things are on sale but you shouldn’t buy everything
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You know how when Michael Barbaro segues into the final part of The Daily, he says, “here’s what else you need to know today,” but it sounds like “here’s what else you need tanod’day?”
(I will be honest: I just made myself laugh with that spelling.)
Well, today feels like a lot of “here’s what else you need to know today” content. There’s a lot you need to know!
Like Shawn Cole’s Pacific Content blog post about how bad sound can ruin your podcast. He does a comparison between different audio recording platforms and microphone combinations (i.e. wired headphones with Riverside.fm, airpods with Riverside.fm, dynamic mic on Zoom, etc.) and it’s the best argument for ensuring guests use the right equipment. Like Cole, I, too, am baffled by the fact that 18+ months into a pandemic that has people working from home, many guests brought onto podcasts still don’t even have the most basic wired headphones. And these are people who tend to be guests on a lot of shows! Baffled!!!!
Or the fact that Spotify has recently introduced Q&A and polls options for podcasts. It looks like they’re trying to make podcasts more interactive—which rival app Shuffle has already been doing for a while now.
Also, blog juggernaut Medium has just acquired Knowable in its third acquisition of 2021. Knowable is a subscription-based audio learning platform (Masterclass, but make it podcasts?) featuring experts like Mark Bittman, who has appeared on the Vocal Fry-produced podcast Well Said. Another player in the increasingly-saturated subscription-based content field!
Alban Brooke, Buzzsprout’s head of marketing, rounded up 30 tips to launching a successful podcast based on responses from 350 podcasters. It’s a good thread!
And finally, Anthony Bourdain’s celebrated series Parts Unknown is now a podcast from CNN Audio. My question: is the spectre of Bourdain enough to give the podcast some sex appeal? We shall find out.
Canada’s National Observer is hiring a chase producer/researcher for their show, Interviews with Linda Solomon. If you’re passionate about climate projects, apply by December 8. They’re also hiring a Toronto-based climate reporter.
Maisonneuve is hiring part-time research interns for winter/spring 2022! Apply by 5 p.m. Monday, November 29.
I don’t post a lot of US-based jobs without knowing for sure that they’re also open to non-US citizens/people who don’t already have the legal ability to work in the US. But this NPR job does not say that it is only open to people already eligible to work in the US, and it looks too fun not to share. Short Wave, NPR’s science journalism show, is hiring an editor. I’m late to this posting—it’s been up since November 10—so apply ASAP if you’re into it.
CBC Calgary is hiring a temporary, full-time associate producer for supper hour and late-night news programming. Apply by EOD December 2.
CBC Arts is hiring a permanent, full-time senior producer. Apply by December 1.
I am hesitant to tell people to spend money just because things are on sale.
However!
There is some wisdom to buying things for your freelance business before the end of the year so you can write it off against your taxes in the spring.
And Avid has put ProTools on sale for 33% off a year subscription, which is actually a good deal. So, if you were already thinking about jumping on the ProTools train (I am still loyal to Adobe Audition) now is a good time to do it.
This is the one time a year that plugins are actually affordable — you can get Izotope bundles for literally $1,000 off.
You can also get Hindenburg Pro for as low as $8/month until Sunday.
My favourite planner from Rifle Paper Company is also on sale at Indigo* right now. When people ask me how I keep track of all the different projects I work on, this planner is the answer! The stickers especially help. I take pride in converting people to this planner, so please do let me know if I’ve successfully influenced you. If you do freelance work, this is an office supply and you can write it off on your taxes. Can you tell I’m thinking a lot about taxes?
Also, we are now less than one month away from Christmas, when everything effectively shuts down. I’m planning to take advantage of the world going quiet to take time off work—if you are, too, this is your reminder to tell your clients when you’ll be offline! I did that this week and wrote BOOKS CLOSED FOR 2021 in big letters in my aforementioned planner, and reader, I gotta say, that felt pretty nice.
*Indigo is one of our clients, but this newsletter does not use affiliate links and we don’t make a commission if you click!
Pop Chat from CBC has officially replaced Crooked’s Keep It as my go-to pop culture podcast. Host Elamin Abdelmahmoud and panelists Amil Niazi and Kevin Fallon keep the show to a tight hour (ish) and even though they’re mostly talking about American pop culture, because it’s a Canadian show, they generally talk about things that we can watch/listen to in Canada. That’s usually the most frustrating thing for me as a Canadian who listens to American shows. The reason I absolutely have to recommend it this week is because Niazi makes a great argument in defence of watching Hallmark Christmas movies, which are the perfect cure for the December blahs/blues.
This week I watched an INCREDIBLE one about an arborist who helps a Christmas tree farmer save his trees? Or something?
Did you see Mindy Kaling and Emily Nussbaum shout out Sort Of on Twitter last week? Listen to the most recent episode of Wider Lens from DGC Ontario for a conversation with the show’s creators, Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo.
We want to hear from you! What are you looking for in your podcast news? Let us know on Twitter, Instagram, or by email at info@vocalfrystudios.com.
Thanks to Emily Latimer for editing this newsletter, and to Katie Jensen for designing it.
We’ll see you again on December 3. Until then, here’s an update from the sheep that producers Max Collins and Ren Bangert saw when they went to visit a farm.
Yours in friends and fries,
Michal
