Roughly talking, about 22,000 new podcasts are launched in a month. There are near 2.5 million (greater than 71 million episodes) within the Apple Podcasts listing proper now, in keeping with Podcast Trade Insights. And people are simply those we learn about.

“Numerous podcasters aren’t even going via the massive platforms now. They’re going direct to their listeners, promoting premium content material and having large success,” says Andy Taylor, previously of BBC Radio and founding father of Cardiff-based R&D consultancy Bwlb.

And that’s to say nothing of the rising quantity of podcast-like content material, whether or not created by manufacturers for promotion or occasion producers that need, for instance, to make talks accessible on-demand. Each piece of content material must be produced and distributed, whether or not by audio professionals or people studying the craft. Due to this fact, the extra they will automate giant swaths of manufacturing, the extra they will deal with the content material.

“The totally different locations audio is being revealed have simply exploded,” explains Jonathan Wyner chief engineer at M Works Mastering and a professor at Berklee School of Music in Boston. “With all these contexts, there’s a actual motivation and crucial for creators to be extra versatile.”

To not point out, extra productive and environment friendly.

The Rise of AI

Synthetic intelligence (AI) — software program that may automate duties beforehand carried out by people — holds the important thing to dealing with the tsunami of podcast content material. Not solely can AI pace up manufacturing, it might probably make podcasts sound higher and set the stage for the audio experiences of tomorrow.

“AI mainly helps deal with repetitive duties to quicken the workflow of the podcaster,” explains Manos Chourdakis, analysis engineer at Nomono, which develops AI-based podcasting instruments. “For instance, with AI, you don’t must take heed to a complete podcast to seek out the place somebody mentioned one thing fallacious, then exchange or take away it. You might do this your self, however AI does it sooner.”

Then there are chores that may solely be achieved with AI — not less than at scale, resembling eradicating noise or enhancing dialogue. “Good-quality dialogue enhancement could be not possible with out AI,” Chourdakis says. “At the least not possible in an inexpensive timeframe utilizing conventional instruments.”

Good for Menial Duties

Purposes of AI in podcasting are as various as manufacturing duties. Some are constructed immediately into podcast platforms. When creators add their podcasts to internet hosting platform Podcast.co, the system routinely “listens” to the audio recordsdata and normalizes sound ranges.

“Any instrument that may assist cut back the mind-numbing bits of a job is an efficient factor,” says Mike Cunsolo, the platform’s co-founder. Cunsolo additionally runs Cue, a podcast manufacturing firm working with company manufacturers, and Matchmaker.fm, which connects podcast producers with friends. “You’ll all the time want that human experience component, however quickly machines might be taught to grasp what makes a podcast attention-grabbing and cut back time on job.”

Answer supplier Descript applies AI to many features of podcast engineering, together with noise removing and echo management. One of many extra “mind-numbing” chores Descript can deal with is room tone.

“Generally producers have to insert digital silence right into a podcast. Possibly between edits or to tug out the spacing between sentences,” says Jay LeBoeuf, head of enterprise and company improvement at Descript. “However that sounds extremely unnatural.”

If producers didn’t seize room tone when a podcast was recorded, they might have to return and get it. Or they will hear for it within the recording, copy-and-paste the place wanted, then edit the outcome to make it mix naturally.

Or computer systems can deal with it. Descript’s AI-based room tone generator analyzes a recording, identifies the room tone, and routinely synthesizes it the place it’s wanted. Such expertise not solely obviates menial duties, it permits for better manufacturing flexibility.

“AI goes to permit us to make use of cheaper {hardware}, worse-sounding rooms, and noisier places and nonetheless get good outcomes,” says Nomono’s Chourdakis.

New AI-Based mostly Capabilities

AI additionally opens the door to innovation in podcasting — creating new options that elevate the bar for podcasters and listeners. For instance, the Epidemic Audio Reference (EAR) instrument helps podcasters discover copyright-free music based mostly on songs they like.

“Say you’re on the lookout for intro or outro music, and also you’re considering of a selected tune, nevertheless it’s protected by copyright,” says Chourdakis. “The system makes use of AI underneath the hood that can assist you discover one thing related.”

At Bwlb, Taylor’s crew developed Accordion, an AI-based answer that may take a podcast and reproduce it at numerous lengths.

“Each different a part of our life is getting smarter — sensible properties, sensible fridges,” Taylor says. “Individuals need extra management and comfort from their podcast expertise, too.”

When Taylor labored on documentaries for the BBC, he’d be requested for shorter variations to run on totally different platforms. The method was all the time guide. Accordion applies software program algorithms to podcast content material to intelligently create variations of various lengths. “It doesn’t pace something up,” Taylor says, “nevertheless it provides the person management over the period of the content material with out shedding tone construction or listenability.”

Placing the Deal with Immersive Storytelling

The extra podcasters use AI instruments, the higher they develop into. In different phrases, the extra information they ingest, the extra they be taught.

Nomono’s dialogue enhancement algorithms are based mostly on giant datasets of voice recordings — some clear and intelligible, some much less so — which educate the AI instruments find out how to generate higher sound. “Podcasters shouldn’t want superior audio information to supply high-quality audio,” says Chourdakis. “By automating a few of these duties, they will spend extra time specializing in nice storytelling, and fewer time on tedious clean-up duties.”

And sooner or later, they will evolve extra simply to create a brand new style of immersive, spatial podcasts. For instance, Nomono’s expertise permits object-based audio manufacturing, which permits producers to “place” voices in a 3D soundscape or create dynamic variations that may be tailor-made to listeners.

“Media manufacturing is now getting into a part the place in the event you can dream it, it might probably occur,” says Descript’s LeBoeuf. “And also you now not have to have an costly studio or many years of coaching to perform your objectives.”