"I felt so tired, I wanted to see how people who were also out of date lived."
This is director Ning Hao's self-description in the podcast "Story FM" episode.
In the program, Ning Hao recounted his experience from going to college to creating his first film, and expounded his deep memories of the rapidly developing 90s from the perspective of ordinary people.
In addition, "10-year-old boys who are troubled by emotions" "young people who entered pyramid schemes" ... All kinds of ordinary people have also shared their stories on this podcast.
Since last year, the blessing of the platform has promoted the small-scale out-of-the-loop Chinese podcasts. Among them, narrative podcasts have received widespread attention because of the "realism of the content" and "the depth of the dialogue".
Apple Podcast, the 2020 Hit Podcast of the Year
How do podcasts tell a good story? How to find the right protagonist? And how to monetize? This article interviews two typical narrative podcasts and observes some of the same type of podcasts in an attempt to discuss these topics.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > narrative podcast: a sound documentary about true stories</h1>
First, let's talk about what a narrative podcast is.
"Look at the Ideal Newsroom" once introduced in a paid program, "narrative podcast" is a sound documentary to tell a non-fiction story.
"Look at the Ideal Newsroom" is an introduction to narrative podcasts
But from the current content form, narrative podcasts do not have an accurate definition. It is generally believed that the characteristics of this type of podcast are that the anchor is the protagonist of various stories, telling the audience the real story that happened to him.
For example, in "Story FM", you can hear various professional stories: expedition members working in Antarctica leading a group of travelers across the Drake Strait, veterans who cleared mines in Cambodia, Yan Hexiang changed from network engineer to Deyun Society cross-talk actor...
There are also collections of ordinary people's life wonders, such as the series "The Moment I Was Hit by Joy" and "The Moment I Was Hit by Embarrassment".
Kou Aizhe, the founder of "Story FM", said that one of their topic directions is legendary stories, or experiences that are difficult for ordinary people to have.
A career story in "Story FM"
Founded in 2017, Story FM is a narrative podcast that has been growing for a long time Chinese podcasting circle. The program records the true stories of ordinary people in the form of self-narrations of witnesses. As of press time, Story FM has released 498 programs, and the average number of single programs on the whole network has reached 700,000.
On the App "Small Universe", which focuses on Chinese podcasts, podcasts that share personal stories are also emerging, including many UGC content. Recording personal stories with sound seems to be a new way to socialize.
Some new media teams based on graphics and texts are also transforming into narrative podcast tracks.
"Look at the Ideal Newsroom" launched the series "100 Career Confessions" in 2019, and recently launched the "Journey of Tranquility" to record the story of the ward.
At the end of 2019, the "Genius Catcher Program" launched the workplace story podcast "Genius Catcher FM" to launch various career stories in the form of dialogues.
The True Story Project focuses on non-fiction content and launched the revised "True Story Radio" at the end of last year. Originally told by the anchor, it has now become a self-narration of the witness.
After the revision, the number of listeners of the program has increased from hundreds to hundreds of thousands. In NetEase Cloud, the recent episode of the program has been listened to 260,000.
In the program, two post-90s men and women living alone answered 10 questions about living alone. "Worrying about falling down when you take a shower and no one will find out", "Living alone without being social", "Living alone makes people take care of themselves more"... For those who do not live alone, such a view is also quite a sense of consensus.
According to reports, the theme selection principle of "True Radio" is to "convey the true stories of ordinary people who are related to public topics", such as "intimate relationship", "985 blind date bureau", "female delivery staff".
Benefiting from the UGC content channels accumulated by the "True Story Project" in the past, the podcasts have a rich source of topics.
Lu Yao, copyright director of the True Story Project, told us that "by listening to stories, listeners will also recognize that this is a platform for resonance", in her view, the "realism" of narrative podcasts invisibly closes the distance with listeners, and it is easier to precipitate listeners.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="18" how do > narrative podcasts tell a good story? </h1>
How do narrative podcasts tell a story? For a long time, "Story FM" has been based on self-narration by witnesses. In the "True Radio", there is also a form of direct dialogue between the anchor and the narrator and the narrator.
For example, in one episode, around the topic of "the transformation of traditional media under the impact of the Internet", Lei Lei, founder of the "True Story Project", and the anchor talked, sharing the story of his career as an investigative journalist and exploring the necessity of the profession of investigative journalist in today's era.
"We hope that through some questions from the anchor, we can output a clear point of view, so that everyone can have some consensus on this era and personal experience." Of course, the dominance of the story is still with the narrator. Lu Yao said.
Of course, the gameplay is also becoming more and more diverse.
"There are many ways to play non-fiction content, and we're constantly exploring new narrative methods, such as doing complex sound documentaries." Aizhe believes that whether it is for professional teams or ordinary creators, the diversified selection of topics and story presentation methods means more room for development.
In the "Most Tear-Jerking Program" call launched by "Story FM" on April 27, the first message with the number of likes was a story about a mother and a newborn baby.
In the program, the mother read out a diary written to the baby: "My little man, how can I lose her, that is a gift from Heaven to me..." The joy of the new mother and the grief of losing the baby are all melted into the voice.
"A half-hour program is often a condensation of two to four hours of audio, which basically takes two weeks to produce, but it can maintain a long-term impact." Aizhe mentioned that it takes more effort to produce narrative podcasts than other types of podcasts.
The production process for this type of podcast generally includes: story collection, audio editing, and sound design.
After determining the topic, the producer should communicate with the narrator, not only to dig out more details, but also to guide the narrator to express naturally.
"We will try to ensure that the communication between the two sides is a natural expression, not a deliberate preparation, so that the story presented is smooth." Ai zhe believes that the sense of realism and fluency presented in the final stage of the show relies heavily on the producer's communication skills and story mining ability.
After the interview, the producer should choose the angle for the story on the basis of understanding the story, build a delicate narrative structure, and then edit the recorded audio, and in the process, some adjustments may be made to the order of the narrator's expression.
The producers of "Story FM" understand the story of an issue
To some extent, the core of a good narrative podcast is to master the ability to tell stories. In addition, similar to various audio content, the sense of rhythm of the sound design is also important.
Peng Han, the sound designer of "Story FM", once shared three methods of "music intervention narrative podcast": using music to build story scenes, music instead of narrative to render emotions, and music special effects to highlight details.
Corresponding to the fine program production requirements, it is a higher demand for people. This is also one of the dilemmas faced by narrative podcasts. At the end of last year, the story FM had several breaks due to the complicated production process.
"One of our tough issues at the moment is talent acquisition. Chinese there are no ready-made cases and talents in the podcast circle, we can only find interested and capable people to grow together. Ai zhe tells us that to create narrative podcasts, we must have a good sense of what is around us, that is, a keen "sense of general knowledge."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="18" can > narrative podcast make money? </h1>
Story FM, which has been in operation for four years, founded the company this year and received its first round of funding. Prior to this, the team's main business model was brand customization of native content.
The first issue was titled "What else can a blind person who doesn't want to open a massage parlor do?" The show tells the story of three visually impaired people who overcome difficulties and become semantic markers. And this little love voice labeling post is jointly launched by Xiaomi Group and Shanghai Renren Public Welfare Foundation.
It is understood that in 2020, the brand cooperation of "Story FM" has doubled compared with the previous year. Up to now, such customized programs have exceeded 10 issues, and the price of a single issue is 200,000.
"At the moment, the entire Chinese audio market is not big enough. If you only face the platform users, the audience will be very small. So we pay more attention to the brand. Helping them tell stories is also what we do best. This year, "Story FM" will try to explore the commercialization of "brand podcasts", planning to find some brands that match the tone, and do two seasons of brand podcasts for them, about 15 episodes in one season, and use multiple episodes to tell a story.
In the future, Story FM intends to move towards a business model of copyright distribution. These two business models have long emerged in the relatively mature podcast market in the United States.
Gimlet Media, an American narrative podcast company, was acquired by Spotify in 2019, and its podcast genre includes documentaries, dramas, and has also worked with brands such as Adobe, MasterCard, and Nike.
Another well-known podcast publisher, Wondery, has a number of podcast shows, among which Dirty John was adapted into a TV series by Netfix. Earlier this year, Amazon completed its acquisition of "Wondery.".
For creative teams like "True Radio", which has just entered the field, the commercialization path seems to be less clear.
"We have two episodes of the show that are branded, but more are brand values that rely on the True Story Program. The content monetization of the podcast itself has yet to be explored, and there may be oral titles, customized podcasts, etc. Lu Yao told us.
There are also some teams that are experimenting with paid content . In 2019, "See Ideal Newsroom" released a paid album "Border Story: Ruili's Opportunity", which recorded the life on the border line with 17 episodes. The show sells for 28 yuan on the "See Ideal" app.
From the perspective of industry trends, the current domestic podcast market is still in the early stages. Although some head podcasts have completed the initial commercialization, both the content ecology and the construction of the industrial chain need to be improved and developed.
Speaking about the growth of the blogging market, Aizhe said: "In the current Chinese audio market, there are few narrative podcasts. In the future, this could be a big growth point. ”
Lu Yao believes that the top priority is to enrich the content ecology to precipitate listeners: "More people create podcasts to attract listeners." After the pool is large, both the brand and the capital will see that there will be more possibilities for commercialization in the future. ”