Here We Go Then…
Hello, and welcome to Sound Rebel!
I’m Ben, and Sound Rebel has been a business that’s been forming in my head for a long time now. For the last decade, I’ve been working in the radio UK’s commercial radio industry, starting my career as a breakfast show producer in my home city of Birmingham and eventually ending up as a Managing Editor for Capital FM running three of their regional stations (including their newest acquisition, the freshly rebranded Capital Liverpool).
The radio industry in the UK is changing rapidly. Changes in licencing laws and new technology now means that regional radio stations can carry the vast majority of their programmes from a central studio in London, which means that the big groups need fewer people to make programmes for them in cities like Liverpool where I’m now delighted to be building a life.
As Managing Editor of three regional stations, my name (along with a lot of others) ended up on the redundancy list and I was left with a choice – either I could find another job in radio and risk the same thing happening again as the industry shrunk even further, or I could pluck up the courage to do something new. Podcasts have been quietly growing in popularity for years, and in my opinion, are about to boom – so I’ve decided to take the leap and create Sound Rebel, a podcast-only audio production company.
This is the first in what we hope will be a lot of news updates from us as we’ve got huge ambitions for our new venture. We have been creating audio for the radio industry for years, and podcasts offer a really exciting opportunity for creative types like us as audiences begin to adopt podcasts as a form of mainstream media.
I say “we” because I’m not the only radio professional who thinks that podcasts have a very bright future in the UK. I’m delighted that some of my former radio colleagues have decided to join me on this journey as we launch our own original podcast productions with in-house talent and are commissioned to produce podcasts on behalf of businesses, personalities and brands.
Although the word “podcast” was coined in 2004, it’s only now that podcasts are really starting to come in to their own. Every phone now comes pre-installed with a podcast app (whether that’s Apple Podcasts on iPhones or Google Podcasts on Android) and listeners are beginning to understand the benefits of podcasts on-demand over listening to live radio: they can choose what they listen to and when they want to listen, rather than consuming a schedule that’s been created for them by a radio programmer.
Podcast listeners provide brands with immersed, engaged and hugely responsive audiences: 91% of people in the UK listen to podcasts on their own and, of course, listeners actively choose what to listen to when it comes to podcasts rather than being passive listeners which is often the case with traditional radio.
Creating a podcast has never been easier, and we can’t wait to help businesses, brands and personalities to produce professional podcasts with the production values of traditional radio. Of course, we’d love to talk to you about starting a podcast for you – we can help with everything from idea development through to podcast distribution to all of the major podcast apps (including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts).
So, watch this space – we can’t wait to get started!
Ben Anderson is the Director of Sound Rebel and a former Managing Editor for Capital FM. Sound Rebel is proudly based in Liverpool and produces professional podcasts for clients in the North West and remotely across the UK. Talk to us about starting a podcast for you – email hello@soundrebel.co.uk