With many around the world staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic, video conferencing during the quarantine has grown exponentially for both work and personal purposes. Podcast creation platform Anchor wants to take advantage of this, making it easier than ever to create and publish podcasts.
The new feature will turn your video chats and virtual hangouts into podcast-ready audio. Anchor has announced that the conversion tool will work on almost all major video chat platforms, including Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, Twitch and Instagram Live.
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The podcasting platform will then, like it does with all podcasts you create on it, publish the newly created podcast to all podcasting platforms. Other than the video chat platforms, the service will also work for any .mp4 and .mov file you upload.
Anchor was bought by Spotify in 2019 for an estimated $140 million.
A central pillar of their business model is making all services and features extremely simple to use, allowing users to focus on the content they are creating rather than having to worry about the technicalities. The new feature is no different.
After you record the video chat and download the resulting video file, you’ll then upload it to Anchor’s web platform. The converted file will then appear as a segment in the episode builder, allowing you to edit it like any other segment on the platform, like adding background music, interludes, sound effects and Voice Recordings.
The feature comes at a time when a lot of podcasts are struggling to put out the content they did before quarantine. Most podcasts were still being recorded in studios or with several different sound streams that needed to be cut together afterward.
Of course, another major factor to the decline in podcast listenership during this time is as a result of changed daily routines. Many people used to listen during the commutes to and from work, or during the workday while sitting behind their desks.
Conversely, the number of podcasts published has actually surged, with Spotify announcing a 69% month-on-month growth in March. There are now more podcasts than ever trying to get a slice of a smaller pie of listeners. Nevertheless, it is widely thought that podcasts will go from strength to strength and come out of the global pandemic stronger than ever.
