This Week In The Podverse — March 25, 2022

From Award ceremonies to product launches, grant opportunities, new episodes and more, this has been a packed week of activities in the Podverse.

Here are the best-curated pod experiences to explore.

Sorotiti Studios says it’s looking for Nigerian Podcast Creators to partner with and create quality and captivating audio content. The Podcast grant is open to Nigerian podcast creators over 18 years of age, who have been active for about 2 years and are physically resident in Nigeria [ends March 30, 2022].
Jason Knight, a podcast host, had a chat with Princess Akari, product manager at Brass, a Nigerian fintech. They talked about PeopleInProduct, the community she founded to help support local product managers and give them somewhere to vent but also share successes, advice & tips. She also spoke about the struggles to prove the value of product management in Nigeria, and some of the barriers she’s faced.
Applications for the Google Podcast Creator Program Accelerator program will open on March 29th! Apply here. The program is a free multi-week podcast accelerator program that provides indie podcasters from around the world with the creative development and business strategies their podcasts need to level up.
Spotify rebrands Greenroom as Spotify Live. Bloomberg reports that changes are expected to take place in the second quarter of this year.
The future of UK Audio seems bright as Elsa Maria Cockburn took home the Best Podcast with Acast Award at this year’s Young Audio Awards 2022. The awards showcased the finest young audio talents in the UK.
Check out this year’s winners at The Ambies by The Podcast Academy. The Awards celebrate excellence in podcasting and elevate awareness and status of podcasts as a unique and personal medium for entertainment, information, storytelling and expression.
Starting in April, Apple Podcasts will add follower numbers to Apple Podcasts Connect. This lets podcasters view followers per show and easily measure followers across shows. Arielle Nissenblatt reacts to this bit of news in a tweet.
James Mulvany’s Cue and Podcast.co have been nominated at this year’s Quill Podcast Awards. The categories are Best New Podcast Company, Best Podcast Agency for Cue and Best Podcast Tech, Best Podcast Publisher for podcast.co. Winners will be announced on March 30th, 2022.
With Chartable now a part of Spotify, they will be shifting focus to building world-class publisher tools as part of the Megaphone platform. For their advertiser customers, that means that they will soon be deprecating the SmartAds product and will no longer be supporting advertiser campaigns on the Chartable platform.
Aircheck, a podcast about radio personalities [similar to The Tony Doe Podcast] hosted by Rich De Siston and Paul Kelly, is accepting guests for future sessions/seasons. For more information, email: AirCheckMe@gmail.com
Matt Deegan says, “If you’re making a podcast now, I’d get ready to produce that video version. Whether you like the idea of doing it or not.” Here’s why.
Research shows that outside the U.S., listeners in Indonesia, India, and the United Arab Emirates, are most receptive to paying for podcasts.
Meghan Markle’s Podcast on Spotify is reportedly coming in the summer and the Daily Mail, Variety and Engagdet have stories on this development. The Duchess of Sussex finally agreed to record her $25 million podcasts, 2 years after signing the deal.
Captivate’s new features include episode planning, research links and Chrome extension.
3play Media extends its transcription services to podcasting.
Financial education charity, MyBnk, partners with Global Academy, a school for 14–19-year-olds that prepares students for careers in the media industry, to create a new podcast series on money management for young adults.
Squadcast relaunches Youtube Channel and is working with the amazingly talented Maribel Quezada Smith to bring weekly educational videos to teeming viewers.
Earbuds Collective is joining the Podnews Network as announced by James Cridland at Podcast Movement Evolutions 2022 and by this tweet.

Helen Zeltzman says total downloads are not the same as total listeners then goes on to give us an equation to figure it out with — total downloads ÷ no. of episodes=total listeners, (and that na if de podcaster dey tok true).
Edison Research SVP Tom Webster says that advertisers are passing over indie shows. “It is hard, and getting harder, to be an independent podcaster. If indie podcasters don’t find a way to organize and consolidate their buying power, some monetization options are just not going to be available for them.”
Romeen Sheth shares valuable lessons from interviews with guests on his podcast.
Studio Steve of Pod Sound School does not want you to Use Audacity to Edit Your Podcast. Here’s why. Stephen Carter notes in the comment section though, “Regarding Audacity, with the release of version 3.1 a few months ago, it is now non-destructive.”

PodMatch is a podcast booking service that pairs up suitable podcast guests with hosts to record high-quality audio interviews. But is it worth it? Reddit Users weigh in.
Buzzsprout says this is the easiest app for Podcast Editing.
Vizzy lets creators enrich their episodes with visuals and interactive features. A demo app is available now, and a portal for publishers.
Apple’s latest Bluetooth headphones have the potential to significantly improve the quality of bidirectional speech.
Studio Steve suggests Reaper as a better alternative to Audacity. You can grab the eBook here.
Descript also says it’s improved its transcription accuracy.

How do podcasters deal with burnout? This indie podcast community on Twitter gave the best answers.
Learn How to craft great podcast episode descriptions, and why they’re important — straight from writers at Spotify.
“All the TOP Podcasts have the strongest communities.” In this Free 5-Part Training, Alec Drew Kassan reveals the best secrets to starting (and even growing) a community of followers for your show.
Arielle Nissenblatt shares these awesome strategies for promoting your podcast before it launches. There’s more here.
“The barrier to publication for podcasts is low (you can have a show, up & running in a matter of days), but the barrier for creating great, resonant content that’ll further you/your business is much, much higher.” Ari drops a list of hard-hitting questions you must ask yourself before you start a podcast.
Rachel Corbett shares different ways to share your podcast episodes in this week’s tip.
In this Quora post, Gary Vaynerchuk explains how he creates the GaryVee Audio Experience, sharing some vital practices for starting a podcast.
This video will show you how to get the best audio quality from your Zoom recordings.
This thread might help folks trying to grow their audience with Tik Tok.

Here’s a fun thread of podcasters sharing the weirdest sounds they had to edit (in and out) of their podcasts!
Marry you a wife who recommends podcasts for self-development. Like Aproko Doctor did.
Here’s a fun thread of Podcasters describing their podcasts to 5-year-olds.
When famous Nigerian Youtuber Sisi Yemmie asked for Nigerian Podcasts to check out, these were the recommendations.
This thread on how podcasters prep for their shows could spark off some creativity on your part.
Al Caan shares his favourite podcast episodes for the month of March.
A thread of podcasts that’ll make great TV shows!