MUMBAI: Asiaville and Spotify announced a strategic collaboration to discover and educate the next 1,000 regional language podcast creators through ‘Create with Anchor’. The initiative will give Tamil and Malayalam content creators, from first-time podcasters to pros, a powerful platform to share their unique voices and stories. The first phase will be for Tamil language podcast creators, with the initial call for applications going live on August 5th. The launch dates for the Malayalam podcasters will be announced shortly after. The application process will run for a period of three weeks, during which time candidates can apply for consideration for the program through the following URL: https://createwithanchor-tamil.splashthat.com.

This one-of-a-kind program presented by Asiaville, the media tech company and Spotify, the world’s most popular audio streaming platform, aims to tap into the burgeoning culture of podcasting, focusing on Tamil and Malayalam voices. With its deep focus on the creator ecosystem in South India, Asiaville is well poised to leverage its sizable digital network to curate the most passionate podcaster creators for the program. The participants will benefit from best-in-class guidance offered by expert trainers and mentors, wherein popular RJs and podcasters will host a series of workshops aimed at orienting them into the art of podcast creation, storytelling, technical aspects, and overall best practices for the medium. The goal is to equip the creatorswith knowledge such that they potentially bag their own exclusive podcast series with Spotify.

The workshops will be interactive and engaging, with the core objective of unleashing the potential of the participants and guiding them through their formative steps in effective podcast creation. The program will culminate with the first batch of episodes created by each of the selected creators rolling out on Anchor, an easy-to-use podcast creation tool by Spotify.

Tuhin Menon, Co-Founder and CEO of Asiaville, said, “We have been heavily invested in the creator ecosystem at Asiaville, with particular focus on the southern languages, so this initiative is a natural extension for us, and we’re pleased to be collaborating with Spotify on it. Identifying, grooming, and ultimately giving wings to the next generation of podcast creators would be a gratifying experience for us. We look forward to a robust series of engagements, driven by a top-notch mentor and trainer team, working with talented creators across our focus geographies in Tamil and Malayalam.”

Dhruvank Vaidya, Head of Podcasts, Spotify India, said,“As podcast listeners actively seek out new genres of content, there is an opportunity for creators to share their stories through different formats - poetry, talk shows, interviews, and more. Spotify is committed to building this robust ecosystem for audio content creators in India, starting with educating them on the relevant tools. The Tamil and Malayalam editions of ‘Create with Anchor’ are free and open to all podcasters, and will enable existing and aspiring creators to learn from the best in the audio business. Our goal is to grow the pool of accomplished podcasters, who could even have a Spotify Exclusive podcast in the near future.”