Todd Cochrane: Podcasting in the Age of AI

Blubrry's CEO Todd Cochrane is back once again this week, and this time he's got a new toy he's eager to share: The Thrive bundle, Blubrry's first major foray into AI integration for podcasters. We begin by going over what exactly the Thrive bundle offers its users, including various AI-powered tools to help podcasters with tasks like episode planning, production, social media clips, and email.For those who fear AI will run the world someday, worry not. Anyone who's used the current suite of online AI tools certainly knows they're not a replacement for human input by any means, and the Thrive bundle isn't trying to be. Todd explains that the AI tools are simply designed to streamline the podcast production workflow, giving users a jumping-off point to help create show notes, descriptions, and other metadata quickly. We do, however, touch on the valid concern that people may attempt to create fully AI-generated podcasts using voice data, or replace sections of their podcasts with AI voiceover and pretend they didn't. The Thrive bundle doesn't provide these tools to begin with, but Todd also emphasizes the importance of full disclosure to the audience whenever AI tools are integrated in any form, a sentiment we at The Sound Off Media Company fully agree with.We also discuss Blubrry's competition in the AI field, and what makes the Thrive bundle stand apart in a sea of rushed-to-market AI tools, from its price to its comprehensive toolkit. If you, like me, are growing tired of paying for 6 different AI assistants and using maybe 20% of each one, the Thrive bundle may be the option for you.We take a slightly different direction in the latter half of the episode, moving to the topic of podcast discovery. Google's AI integration for its search engine is already making it trickier to find correct information quickly (see the "put glue on your pizza" incident), and Todd believes having a rich suite of metadata and SEO skills will continue to grow ever more important as time goes on.PROTIP: One of the podcasts Todd listens to on a regular basis to stay on top of AI is The Artificial Intelligence Show. A Transcript and video version of the episode is available on the network page.Please sign up for the SOUNDING OFF Newsletter. Full of all the verbal diarrhea you never knew what you were missing in your life.Thanks to the following organizations for supporting the show:Nlogic - TV & Radio Audience Data SolutionsMary Anne Ivison at Ivison Voice. - Make her the female voice of your radio station.Matt Fogarty Voiceovers - It's great to have Matt back for 2024 supporting our show. Make him the imaging voice for your radio station by contacting him through his website.Megatrax - Licensed Music for your radio station or podcast production company.Also we added the Sound Off Podcast to the The Open Podcast Prefix Project (OP3) A free and open-source podcast prefix analytics service committed to open data and listener privacy. You can be a nosey parker by checking out our downloads here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.