Jodi Krangle

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Jodi@VoiceoversAndVocals.com

audio branding

Podcasting By Numbers: An Interview with Jeff Vidler – Part 2

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“Voice does communicate so much more meaning than what you can read. No matter how well written it is, it’s still the voice that really carries the meaning of the feeling of that, and you know as a voice actor how important that is and how much more it communicates.”

Jeff Vidler

This week’s the second part of my interview with Jeff Vidler, audio researcher, media analyst and the founder and president of Signal Hill Insights, as we discuss smartphones, Clubhouse, the future of podcast growth and marketing, and his latest audio studies.

 

The Problem of Downtime

We continue with a look at how much the audio industry has changed over the past ten years, especially as smartphones, smart speakers, and streaming audio have come to replace traditional radio. “One of the things that smartphones do,” Jeff explains, “is that they solve the problem of downtime when my mind is free but my eyes are busy and I’m bored.” Despite the changing technology, he notes that radio programming itself has turned out to be more resilient than we might have expected, with more 18-to-34-year-olds listening to the radio than reading newspapers or watching network television.

 

Clubhouse vs Podcasts

Jeff and I also talk about the emergence of Clubhouse as an entirely new form of audio media, and whether it’ll replace or enhance the role of podcasts. “Being part of something,” he notes, “interacting with something in real-time, is different than settling into a podcast and losing yourself in a podcast, in a story that’s being told.” We also discuss Apple’s recent change to its podcast language, and whether you “subscribe” or “follow” podcasts.

 

A Whole New Vista

We wrap up the interview with a look at the Megalab Truth Test and the surprising insights it offered about how well people can detect a lie, and some of the upcoming projects Jeff’s working on right now, such as the Radio on the Move study for the Canadian radio industry as well as commercial podcasts and radio contests. “For many years in radio research you weren’t finding many new things,” he says, “the last ten years… has opened a whole new vista in audio.”

 

If you’d like to know more about Brand Lift Studies for podcasts, radio, and streaming, you can visit Signal Hill’s Brand Lift Help page: https://signalhillinsights.com/brand-lift-help/ to access their free videos on Brand Lift Studies for audio,  as well as a checklist you can use to help set you up for success on your next Brand Lift Study.

 

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Connect with Jeff

Website: https://signalhillinsights.com/

Follow Jeff Vidler on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JeffVidler

Connect with Jeff Vidler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffvidler/

Podcasting By Numbers: An Interview with Jeff Vidler – Part 1

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“It’s a gift to listeners. If you make your podcast a gift to listeners, they’ll appreciate the fact that you gave them that gift and they’ll remember you for that and they’ll think better of you for that as a brand.”

Jeff Vidler

 

This week’s guest has remained at the forefront of changing audio landscape. From his start as a radio station manager and program director, he’s spent more than twenty-five years in research, sharing his passion for audio with North America’s major broadcast companies. More recently, he’s been doing the same with podcast publishers. His name is Jeff Vidler and we’ll be talking about his insights into this steadily growing media segment. For those of you curious to learn more about the world of podcasting and how things have changed over the years, this is definitely the interview for you.

 

Listening to the Funnies

Jeff tells us how he grew up with an older brother who wanted to become a radio DJ and, as a child, helped his brother cut demos for his first radio job using a portable record player and the family’s home stereo system. Radio had a powerful early influence on Jeff, and he tells us about the radio program that awakened his passion for broadcasting and the audio industry: a local show that turned the newspaper comics into comedy skits every Sunday morning. “I can remember even thinking,” he tells us, “this company is so cool that they’re allowing me to hear the funnies brought to life.”

 

A Really Exciting Time

Next we take a closer look at Jeff’s career and how much it’s evolved and grown since those early days in front of his brother’s turntable. After starting his audio career as a copywriter, music director, and radio consultant, he moved on to media research in everything from print and digital media to television and radio. “In the last four or five years the whole audio world has opened up with the growth of music streaming and particularly the growth of podcasting,” he explains. “It’s a really exciting time for audio.”

 

Nobody Really Knows

One of the challenges that he’s working to overcome is the lack of marketing research into podcasts and new media. As Jeff puts it, “nobody really knows that much about what gets listened to and who’s listening… and is it working for the advertiser.” Although podcasts have seen incredible growth over the past five years, ad spending has

lagged behind it for a variety of reasons such as segmentation, measurement, and the sheer number of podcasts out there.

Podcasts By Brands

We also talk about his research into the emerging market of branded podcasts, or, as one of the companies that Jeff’s worked with prefers to call them, original podcasts by brands. “They’re not trying to sell,” he explains, “they’re telling stories.” Despite having no editorial impact and having a very light brand touch, they’ve turned out to be surprisingly effective at garnering brand recognition and creating a positive association with the podcast’s listeners.

 

Be sure to check back next week for part two as we take a closer look at the rise of smartphones and smart audio, Clubhouse’s impact on podcasting, and some of Jeff’s latest market research.

 

If you’d like to know more about Brand Lift Studies for podcasts, radio, and streaming, you can visit Signal Hill’s Brand Lift Help page: https://signalhillinsights.com/brand-lift-help/ to access their free videos on Brand Lift Studies for audio,  as well as a checklist you can use to help set you up for success on your next Brand Lift Study.

 

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Connect with Jeff

Website: https://signalhillinsights.com/

Follow Jeff Vidler on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JeffVidler

Connect with Jeff Vidler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffvidler/

Healing Tones & Audio Therapy: An Interview with Michael Joly – Part 2

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“I came into the world listening. Other people came in noticing, visually, or touching things, tactically, which is why there are sculptors and visual artists, and some of us were just innately oriented toward the sound of the world.”

– Michael Joly

This week is the second half of my interview with Michael Joly, founder of solu® and maker of the n.o.w. Tone Therapy™ device, where we talk about microphones, share tips for improving your sound recordings on a budget and look at the future of sound healing.

 

Sound is a Doorway

“I think sound is a doorway,” Michael says, “that can help us experience truth.” We begin with a discussion of microphones and audio recording equipment, comparing such diverse microphones as the Shure SM7 cardioid dynamic microphone, the Electro-Voice RE20, and the classic Neumann U47 microphone. Michael also shares his tips for creating an optimal sound environment for recording at home, using such everyday items as a clothes closet, furniture-wrapping blankets, and curtain rods to achieve surprisingly effective results. “What we’re trying to achieve here is to communicate to people through a voice, and people love the intimacy of the audio medium.”

 

The Future of Healing

We wrap up the interview with a look at what the future of sound healing might bring as audio continues to play a bigger role in our everyday lives. Michael also talks about the emerging field of “well buildings,” an international standard of wellness that includes sound reduction and ambient sound systems. “Sound is dynamic and always changing, and I think that we connect to this and we know something about ourselves and the way that the world is constructed.”

 

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Connect with the Guest

Website: https://www.nowbysolu.com/

Connect with Michael Joly on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-joly-043513144/

Healing Tones & Audio Therapy: An Interview with Michael Joly – Part 1

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“In tone therapy, we’ve created a space which is both safe and intriguing so we can solve some of the discomfort problem with mindfulness meditation and we can also solve some of the boredom aspects of it.”

– Michael Joly

 

This episode’s guest is the founder of solu®, maker of n.o.w. Tone Therapy™, a sound meditation device. Before solu®, he designed a range of professional and consumer audio products for motion picture sound, home theater, and recording studio use. He has a background as a musician, an on-air announcer and radio business development executive, and he’s also been immersed in the study of metaphysics, focusing on the intersection of sound, listening, and consciousness.

His name is Michael Joly and you can find the n.o.w. Tone Therapy™ System at nowbysolu.com. There’s a lot to unpack here, but Michael’s enthusiasm for audio and its proper use is something I really think you’re going to enjoy hearing. If you’re one of those people who are extremely sensitive to sound, I think this episode will validate and soothe you. I know Michael understands your pain!

 

Sounds in the Fog

Michael tells us about his first memorable experience with sound at the age of five when he heard the sound of distant foghorns on a misty morning in New Hampshire. That early memory not only sparked his interest in such experimental sound projects as Brian Eno’s Music for Airports but also paved the way for his own work with ambient audio and tone therapy. “I realized,” Michael explains, “I heard something like what Brian Eno is doing when I was a kid, that is, quasi-random overlapping of simple sounds to make new compositions. And that’s what eventually led to tone therapy.”

 

Listening to Nothing

We also talk about Michael’s early professional work, a career in cinematic audio technology that introduced him to a surprising new way of considering sound. “I spent a lot of time listening to the noise floor of optical soundtracks and the noise floor of magnetic tape, so I got really, really experienced at listening to nothing.” Listening to nothing became a big part of his approach to tone therapy, and turns out to be harder than we might expect. As he puts it, “I realized that you can’t be thinking and listening attentively at the same time. It’s just not possible to do. You’re either giving your full attention to what you’re hearing or you’re thinking about it, or you’re asking a question, or you’re judging it.”

 

The Power of Now

Michael admits that when he first read the book The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle, he wasn’t impressed. But a series of changes in his life several years ago, including his struggle with depression, helped him see it in a new light. We discuss how the name of his n.o.w. tone therapy system is an homage to the book and its role in shaping his approach to sound healing, and how the sound of church bells in Frankfurt, Germany inspired the distinctive sounds of tone therapy. “I remember hearing two bells ringing, then one bell ringing, then no bells, just the foot traffic on the street,” he says. “And then, like out of the movies, the clouds parted and this beam came down.”

 

Surprising Yet Familiar

Tone therapy can be a challenge at first, he explains, because so many of us simply aren’t used to sitting still and turning off all our thoughts and worries. That’s why he’s worked to create a sound therapy system that, as he describes it, is both safe and intriguing, and incorporates the harmonic sequence to create an instinctively soothing quality. We also take a look at his upcoming tone therapy software service, including a brand new sonic logo.

 

Next week we’ll continue with a discussion of the best quality microphones, share helpful recording tips to try at home, and a look at what the future might bring when it comes to tone therapy.

 

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Connect with the Guest

Website: https://www.nowbysolu.com/

Connect with Michael Joly on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-joly-043513144/

Audio Essentials with Filmmaker Kevin Elliot – Part 2

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“It’s the biggest misconception is that successful creatives lay back on their talent.”

Kevin Elliot

 

Matching Sound and Matching Audio

 

As our brand interprets a project, you start at the perspective of what’s the first thing that strikes your mind? Kevin looks for the video’s vibe and creates a complementary soundtrack that goes along with the footage and feel of the brand. For one specific project, Kevin started looking through soundtracks and found the most wonderful viola piece.

 

He prides himself in grabbing people’s hearts and drawing them in emotionally to the soundtrack and visuals created. Kevin splits the difference between what you would expect to hear in a piece and bringing it to Wewa Films’ interpretation of the piece, which builds his brand.

 

The Distinct Look to Wewa Film Production

“It’s incredibly hard to take the talent that you have and become excellent at doing it.” Kevin believes that art is what organically comes out of a person. However, the teacher wanted to analyze and determine why his filmmaking looked different from other filmmakers’ video productions. He found two reasons for the cinematic difference between his production and other videos:

 

  1. His partner is a wedding photographer, which taught her to be a ghost when shooting so she can capture those raw emotional moments. 
  2. She is a natural-born visual storyteller who knows how to put video clips in sequence

 

Making Everyday Work Look Like Magic

 

Kevin and his partner created a video for a local McDonald’s advertising their business. The client left a review that said, “You made our everyday work look like magic.” He enjoys taking everyday activities and creating beautiful art.

 

A sound design is needed whether you are shooting near a road or shooting a spectacular jet launch. “When you have a bold video, you’ll need to match your audio to compliment the visuals.” There are certain audio bites people expect to hear if you want to complete their experience. You want to make sure there isn’t any cognitive dissonance. If you don’t design the audio around the visuals, you can easily distract your audience.

 

Connect with Kevin Elliot via Wewa Film Production Studios https://wewafilms.com/

Like Wewa Film Studios, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wewafilms/  on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wewafilms/ and connect with Wewa on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/wafilms You can also chat with Kevin by tweeting with Wewa on Twitter https://twitter.com/wewafilms

 

Join me next week as we dive into Voice AI, its current and future applications, and Dr. Teri Fisher’s insight into how this technology will shape our future world.

 

In the meantime…

 

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy. 

 

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

 

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

 

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Audio Essentials with Filmmaker Kevin Elliot – Part 1

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“Music has been a part of my life for my whole life and I didn’t realize that most kids don’t grow up with that kind of music exposure.”

Kevin Elliot

 

Filmmakers who understand sound and why sound is essential to their production are a favorite topic on the Audio Branding Podcast. I’m excited to introduce the co-founder and lead producer for Wewa Films, a company specializing in heartfelt, cinematic video stories. In addition to being co-founder of Wewa Films, he’s also a college professor, teaching public relations writing, persuasion, and public speaking at Florida State University. He’s produced videos nationwide for high-profile clients, including McDonald’s, the Federal Highway Administration, Florida’s Great Northwest, and the Children’s Advocacy Center. In addition to video, Kevin also creates written content and has published articles for The Washington Post, Desktop Documentaries, Business Energy Magazine, and Public Roads.

 

Why Audio is as Essential as Visuals in Filmmaking

“The audio is easily, equally as important as the video in filmmaking,” says Kevin. His earliest memories of sound made a strong impression on him as a child, listening to his dad’s sermons.

 

His father was a minister in the Air Force, better known as a Chaplain, and he remembers hearing his father “professionally speaking once a week” during his sermons. While his dad was talking, his words would be backed up by music. Whether it was the choir or instrumentals, he remembers having exposure to many different sounds. “The overlay and interplay of voice gives certain effects to the sound and it was fascinating.”

 

Raised as a “Music Kid”

 

Starting piano lessons at the age of eight, Kevin added learning to play music to his music appreciation repertoire. After piano, he practiced music in his school band starting in middle school and started college on a music scholarship from high school.

How Teaching Compliments His Audio Work

Kevin never expected his teaching background would complement his audio work, but he found out that his teaching background gave him incredible instructional skills that his students appreciated. He discovered that his way of teaching was very effective and resulted in a better production.

 

Connect with Kevin Elliot via Wewa Film Production Studios https://wewafilms.com/

Like Wewa Film Studios, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wewafilms/  on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wewafilms/ and connect with Wewa on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/wafilms You can also chat with Kevin by tweeting with Wewa on Twitter https://twitter.com/wewafilms

 

Join me next week for Part II of my interview with Kevin Elliot where we’ll continue our conversation about audio as an essential part of video production.

 

In the meantime…

 

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy. 

 

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

 

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.