CASTING CALL: Professor Pandemonium's Peculiar Panoply

me and my homies support real artists who put their passion into their pieces instead of a machine who rips off the hard work of talented peeps

Dance as an act of rebellion. Dance as an act of joy.

Another (4) 1-stars. At this point it really doesn't feel worth it to keep the show up since it wont be seen by anyone on Spotify for all this negative engagement out the door. They have done the same on Apple but I assume that since Apple Pods is tied to your phone number they cant abuse the system in the same way. Sigh. I just wanna tell little ghost stories.

New Episode! Tales from the Dead West: La Loup Garou is live!

Our new podcast segment Tales from the Dead West is live! These are stand alone episodes from the wider world of the Dead West which allows us to both fill out the world and give you (the rabid listener) more of our weird little world! For this one we peek in on a moment in the life of Louis before his death. Please be aware there is a LOT of content warnings for this episode. Be sure to check them out before diving. ================================================ LISTEN HERE: SPOTIFY APPLE WEB RSS ================================================ Don't worry, these are going to be highly irregular on the main feed but if you like them then be sure to check out our Ko-fi and Patreon pages for more of these as they will be regular offerings for supporting the show.

I HAVE A GOD DAMN PLAN, to listen to this for the rest of the day! Honestly between this new beauty and the Port Sulphur Band record I am in hog heaven while I finish up some writing and planning for the next podcast episodes.

PSA for podcast and audio drama creators:

If you publish a new episode of your show and it never shows up on Spotify, *do not panic*.

If you're using any kind of background music, it might've gotten flagged by their copyrighted content scanner. If it has, they do not notify you directly about it. Instead, they will notify your podcast hosting platform (i.e. Buzzsprout, Acast, Podbean, etc.)

If your new episode doesn't show up on Spotify within an hour or two (as it normally does), here's what you should do:

Create a video of your podcast and upload it privately to YouTube.

Check the 'Restrictions' column of the Content page in YouTube Studio. If the video you uploaded has 'Copyright' in this column, something was flagged and this is the problem. (In my experience, YouTube and Spotify's scanners are aligned).

Hover over where it says 'Copyright' and click the 'See Details' button. This will tell you what got flagged.

Confirm whether this content was legitimately flagged or not. If it was (meaning you can't prove that you have rights to use the music), it's time to replace the track and reupload your episode. (You'll still want to do the following steps after you do that). If wasn't, it's time to document why the flagging was in error. In Metropolis' case, we use a lot of pre-1924 music that is in the public domain per Title II of the US Music Modernization Act of 2018. But rights holders are notorious for not removing things that have aged into the public domain from their claims list. That means we have clear rights to use the music (as does anybody: again, public domain!), but we still have to go through the appeals process.

Contact your hosting provider to get the notice email from Spotify Content Protection. You need to ask their support team if they've received an email for your show from Spotify with a Subject line of "Possibly Infringing - Notification Warning - Claim xxx - ref:_xxx". It usually takes about 30 minutes to an hour for them to receive that notification from when the episode was uploaded. Within the email, there's a unique link to appeal the decision. Note that you only get five days to appeal - procrastination is definitely not your friend here!

Use the Appeal Link from the Email to file an Appeal Notice If you click the link, it will take you to a form to appeal the decision not to post the episode. This is where you need to present your case by either that you've replaced the music in question, or that you have a right to use it. If it's the latter - make sure you present the case as thoroughly and completely as possible (with links and references). (You'll also want to confirm that the track that YouTube spotted is the one that Spotify flagged.)

From my experience, Spotify will usually respond 24-36 hours.

If you took the right steps, it'll usually be a short note that they've published the episode and you're in the clear.

Cheers, and happy creating!

1930s news about a trans woman: Well I'll be curfuffled young Corlotta Jhonson has transformed herself from a dandy into a dame and what a Bombshell she's become. And How!

1930s news about trans men: Wanted dead or alive this young lady who started wearing trousers, the tomboy terror known only as The Crust is wanted for snorting the President's personal stash of opium and has slain nearly every senate member in a pistol duel.

A recommendation to all the audio drama creators out there:

Always listen to your show in the way your audience is listening to your show.

We tend to edit using nice gear. Good over-the-ear headphones. Quiet rooms. But most of your audience will not listen to your show this way. A recent poll indicated that almost 20% of AD listeners listen with a *single* earbud in. Almost 10% listen on their phone speaker. That's a significant part of your audience that is listening in a mono environment or with tiny speakers (or both). You also likely have listeners with hearing loss in one of their ears*, and you want your show to be accessible to them. Before you release your show, make sure to listen to it at least once on a single earbud in a noisy environment. Is your show still legible this way? Can a listener still enjoy it like this, and understand all the plot beats and character moments? If not, it's a good idea to spend some more time on your edit so that they can. (And it's still definitely OK to make your show sound *great* for those who have a great audio setup! Just make sure the show still works for those who don't.) *You likely also have audience members with hearing loss in *both* ears. Transcripts are important. I'm behind in getting them posted for Metropolis, I need to get on that. (Episode 3 of Metropolis is live, BTW. Just waiting for Spotify to pick up the RSS feed before the big announcement. 😅)

The number of times I do this per episode is frankly amusing and concerning.

[In the middle of audio editing, frustratedly scouring a timeline]

"Why the heck does everything sound panned to the left all of a sudden? What did I screw up!?!?"

(Pushes earbud slightly further into right ear.)

"Oh."

voice acting as a profession is so funny because you'll see someone being like "voice actors need to be paid better! like [obscure person you've never heard of]" and you're like "oh I wonder who that person is, maybe I've heard them voice a character" and you look it up and it turns out they voice 137 characters in Futurama and 94 characters in The Simpsons and 96 characters in Adventure Time and every one of the My Little Ponies and 27 characters in Arcane and 96 characters in Kim Possible and 4 characters in Phineas and Ferb and 296 characters in Dexter's Laboratory and all of the main cast of Fairly Odd Parents and at least 6 characters in every Pixar movie and almost every animated depiction of Superman and 473 SpongeBob characters and they've been in every installment of Mass Effect and Halo and The Elder Scrolls and Fallout and Call of Duty and they were in Star Trek and Law & Order and they were 12 characters in the MCU and they also invented t-shirts and the colour green and they got paid a sum total of $3.27 and a mothball for all of it combined. then you go burn down David Zaslav's house with him inside