Spotify: take my data, give me wrapped
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We want to see your Spotify Wrapped.
I know, I know. Spotify takes SO much of our data. Tech companies have not shown themselves to be responsible with people’s sensitive information.
But those little animations and the round ups at the end of the year are VERY fun.
And when they did the podcast round ups? And said I’m actually a bit of a pro?
I thought to myself, you know what? I AM a pro, actually.
Amongst the Vocal Fry producers, You’re Wrong About and Maintenance Phase showed up for a few of us — but what was REALLY cool was to see that there’s now Spotify Wrapped… FOR PODCASTERS.
Seeing some of those numbers — this podcast was downloaded in x amount of countries, 15 people listened to that podcast on their birthdays — made me realize that I don’t think about the fact that after a podcast goes out into the world, people actually listen to it. It was a good reminder that when we’re sending stuff out into the ether, we’re not actually sending stuff out into the ether. There are people on the other end!
There are many, many issues with Spotify. We know that streaming doesn’t pay anywhere near fair. And the data they take, which allows them to make these fun little year-end lists, might be a cause for concern. Putting out cute year-end lists doesn’t cancel that out.
However, putting out year-end lists does put a little smile on my face, for like… an hour.
One more thing — my friend Stevie Weisz is a finalist in an iHeartRadio podcast pitching contest, The Next Great Podcast. Take a listen to the pilot for her show, Life Salad (think: Maintenance Phase — skip ahead to 2 minutes in to get past the ads) and then vote for them!
Antica Productions is hiring for a few positions: associate producer, producer, senior/executive producer, production assistant, and researcher.
Edit Audio is hiring an audio producer/editor.
Broadview Magazine is hiring an associate editor.
CBC is hiring a permanent, full-time producer, radio current affairs to work on CBC Yellowknife’s morning news program, the Trailbreaker. Apply by EOD December 8.
CBC Podcasts is hiring a digital producer for an 18-month contract starting December 2021. Apply by EOD December 6.
CBC Halifax is hiring a permanent, full-time multi-platform reporter/editor. Apply by EOD December 10.
Wudan Yan, a freelance journalist and co-host of the Writer’s Co-op, wrote a story for Poynter that I think we can all benefit from reading: Journalism isn’t who you are. It’s what you do. While we love what we do, maintaining that separation between who we are and what we do is crucial, especially in an industry that loves to lay people off!
My toxic trait is that I love gossip. I love petty gossip, benign gossip, historical gossip… I will drop everything for anything told with a cheeky grin and a whisper. Which is why I’ve been binge listening to Once Upon A Time… At Bennington College. It’s about the literary brat-pack at Bennington College in the mid-80s: Bret Easton-Ellis, Jonathan Lethem, and Donna Tartt.
It’s based on the oral history she wrote for Esquire in 2019, and it is good gossip. Whether it’s good journalism is a bit iffy — Ellis is a pretty unreliable narrator, and we hear from him a lot. But it’s just so dishy that I can’t resist. I’m on episode five — 13 have been released so far — and we’re just getting into Donna Tartt’s story. Tartt is the only one out of the three authors who didn’t participate in the podcast, and has had her lawyers send a warning to the show not to broadcast any kind of “false, misleading or otherwise inaccurate statement” about her. Which, to be fair, you’d hope they wouldn’t do anyway.
Sabrina Brathwaite wrote about how to get the best quality audio for the Vocal Fry blog. In 2022, we are doing away with the idea that we can fix bad audio in post production. A good podcast starts with good sound. Read Sabrina’s tips for what to do before and during a recording session to get the best quality audio.
Other than that, just trying to finish everything up for 2021 and then… sharing our Spotify Wrapped screenshots, honestly.
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 10. Until then, here’s an update from producer Max Collins’ cat, Cynthia.
Yours in friends and fries,
Michal
