Music Podcasting To Step Out Of The Shadows And Join The 21ST Century

•    Kudos Records Announce Fully Licensed On Demand Music Radio Service: Playdio•    Phill Jupitus and Phil Wilding, Peter Curran, Mark Webster To Record First Shows•    Tracks Are Skippable, Playlistable, Social Media FriendlyListened to a podcast from a major broadcaster like the BBC recently and noticed anything missing, the music perhaps? It can be a bit of a shock especially when you’ve downloaded what they claim to be the ‘best bits’ from, say, The George Lamb show to find, contrary to popular opinion, those best bits are apparently just George.As with so many things digital and music, what should be a golden time for all has been tarnished by the inability of broadcasters to legally deliver podcasts containing full-length tracks from established artists. Cutting through the red tape Kudos Records, one of the UK’s leading digital music distributors, will launch an innovative on-demand radio service this June, Playdio.Playdio (Playlist Radio) allow listeners to enjoy music shows exactly as they were intended - with full-length tracks - and at a time and place of their choosing.Playdio will initially use Spotify to deliver fully licensed and interactive, on-demand radio shows. Meanwhile talks are ongoing with other streaming platforms and Kudos is keen to ultimately make Playdio platform independent.The first presenters lined up include Phill Jupitus and Phil Wilding, whose Perfect Ten podcast has racked up over a hundred thousand subscribers – and that’s despite being unable play a single track. Further shows are being lined up by BBC presenters Peter Curran and Mark Webster.Playdio shows comprise a Spotify playlist that combines spoken ‘tracks’ - recorded by the presenters - and the selected tracks the producer wishes to play in their show.Accessing a Playdio show is as simple as clicking on a link, which opens the playlist within Spotify. As with all Spotify playlists Premium users will be able to cache shows to listen to offline or on the move. And thanks to Spotify’s new social media integrations their shows can be easily distributed through the likes of Twitter and Facebook.Playdio stands to benefit everyone. Show producers are finally free to create (and get paid for) the shows that they want, unencumbered by the tyranny of the playlist. Producers are paid per stream for their spoken word tracks in exactly the same way as the music’s rights holders.Rights holders stand to gain from the monetisation of a new revenue stream, and like Spotify itself they will benefit from anything that encourages Spotify users to upgrade to premium accounts.Finally and most importantly, consumers get the benefit of shows produced by true music lovers which, for the first time, are truly interactive allowing them to skip back and forth across tracks and with one click find out more about the artists whose music is being played.Welcome to 21st Century music radio.Said Danny Ryan, Managing Director, Kudos Records “We are always keen to work with service providers to find new and interesting ways to reach the consumer.  Adding value to legal services is the key way our industry can successfully compete with file sharing and torrents.”-    end –Playdio - Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is a Playdio Show?A Playdio Show is similar to a recorded radio show or podcast, except that it uses a streaming digital music service as its broadcast platform.Radio shows are typically a selection of music, separated by spoken word (chat, banter and interviews). So, to create a Playdio Show, a show's producer chooses music from a digital music service, and records and uploads the spoken word bits as separate tracks to the same digital music service. The spoken word tracks and musical selections are re-assembled to create a shareable playlistThis shareable playlist is a Playdio Show.Will Playdio shows replace Podcasts?Podcasts currently have the advantage of being relatively easy to distribute. They are not limited to any service's user-base, so you don't need an account with anyone to subscribe to a podcast.However, the two main problems with podcasts are that [1] you can't easily include music, as there isn't a licensing framework, and [2] there is no natural monetisation mechanism for the podcast creator. Playdio addresses these key issues, and as streaming music services become more ubiquitous, this "ease of distribution" advantage will become more marginal.Will Playdio shows only be available on Spotify?Playdio only really suits either streaming or subscription music services. If we uploaded Playdio shows to an a-la-carte service, (where you pay for every individual download), the price you would have to pay for the entire show and its related music would be prohibitive.Spotify is currently a great fit for what we are trying to achieve. We are already in talks with a number of other streaming and subscription platforms to host Playdio shows, and look forward to announcing new partners shortly.  Ideally we would like Playdio to be completely platform independent to ensure shows are as widely available as possible.How can I listen to a Playdio show on the tube / in my car / on the train / while on holiday?If you take out a Spotify Premium subscription, you can cache your Playdio shows on a compatible mobile device, and make them playable "off line".How do I get the Spotify program?The free, advertising supported version of Spotify is currently invite only. You can sign up for the Premium version at www.spotify.com. Spotify is currently only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain.So, what's the Plan?We will launch an initial collection of Playdio Shows in early June 2010.  We are developing our website at www.playdio.com where listeners can search and browse for Playdio shows.   The site will also have a secure area for show creators to upload their shows to Spotify.Who are "we"?We are Kudos Records, a Music Distribution company and Digital Aggregator based in London. You can find out more about us at www.kudosrecords.co.uk and www.kudos-digital.co.uk.  We supply music to all the main digital services, including Itunes, Emusic, Juno, Beatport, and of course Spotify.