Earlier this year, Spotify ran a ‘Sound Up Bootcamp’ in the US for women of colour, picking 10 from more than 18,000 applicants for a week-long series of educational sessions to help them develop their podcasts.
Now the streaming service is taking the idea across the Atlantic to London, with plans to hold a UK version of the bootcamp in November.
The week-long residential workshop is open to women of colour who are aspiring podcasters, from those already making their own shows to those with no experience but a good idea. As in the US, three of the finalists will get support to develop their shows (in the US that was up to $10k each).
“The week was so much more than planned. It was a privilege being in the room with an amazing group of women,” says Spotify’s director of content partnerships Natalie Tulloch. “During the course of the week, it was more than learning about the business of podcasting, it was therapy, bonding and plenty of laughter.”
The deadline for applications to the UK bootcamp is 31 August: more details are here. The motivation remains the same: when it was publicising the New York bootcamp, Spotify cited research showing that “only 22 percent of podcasts are hosted by women, and even fewer when it comes to minority women”.
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