Stuart Morgan is the Managing Director and Founder of Audio Always — this interview has been lightly edited for style and readability
Stuart Morgan: Audio Always is a production company based in Manchester and London in the UK, which started in 2012. We’ve grown from being a production company that primarily worked on short form audio, trails, station sound, commercial advertising - into a business that now spans content in terms of radio and podcasts and audiobooks and studio facilities. I’ve been part of it since we started.
Sam Sethi: Give us some of the names of the podcasts that you’ve been producing.
SM: We work on both commission podcasts, so people who want to pay us to make podcasts and also original pods. So commission pods, lots of stuff for the BBC, so Elis James and John Robins, and lots of stuff for (online study service) BBC Bitesize and factual stuff for Radio 4. We had a great series called The Human Subject, where we looked at the intersection between clinical trials and the morality of it.
And in the original space, podcasts like Help I Sexted My Boss, for example, Get a Grip with Angela Scanlon and Vicky Pattison, all the way through to parenting podcasts like Secret Mum Club and Made by Mammas, and also actively in the storytelling and true crime space. So stuff like The Pitcairn Trials and Carrie Jade does not exist, and also always on factual true crime like The Murder Mile, all part of our network.
SS: You’ve expanded your team at Media City. What have you done?
SM: What we try to do is remove barriers between the skill sets that go into creating some of our radio shows and podcasts, and vice versa, as the convergence between radio, podcasts, and audiobooks happens across the industry. We’ve got three great new content directors who are working across all of our projects, all of our radio podcasts and audiobook projects, bringing a vast amount of experience.
SS: When are you renaming to “Video Always”? Will you be a video platform?
SM: “Audio Always, Video Most of the Time”! I wish I had a crystal ball 13 years ago when coming up with a name.
In terms of our original podcasts, we’re video across everything, in visual podcast studios. We’ve got staff working across video and the same way we have staff working across audio. So as a business, we are very much delivering video in the same way that a lot of our competitors are and are doing a great job.
We’re not a video company, though, and I think that’s a distinction that we make with our name, and the audio product does come first. We want to make sure that things sound great technically, but also audio is what we do and it’s what makes us different. Video, social, the stuff that goes around it is all about enhancing and amplifying that. So would we be going out and pitching for TV shows? No, that’s not in our world. Do we want to be making a YouTube series without that kind of audio crossover strategically? No, not right now. But if we have an amazing audio podcast and we’ve got an audience that we know would want to get more of that on YouTube, then we’re absolutely behind that.
I think that it’s wise for all of us in the industry to be embracing all of those ways that listeners can consume what we do, and where they’re listening, watching, and consuming that content.
SS: Now, the other hot topic, of course, is AI. Where do you stand on using AI for hosting?
SM: I don’t believe that audience would want to listen to an AI host. There are intricacies and beautiful things that come with human interaction that just can’t be replicated. We’re a long way off that.
I think it’s more interesting for me in the audiobook space. Does somebody want to listen to 8,000 audiobooks read by AI? Probably not. When stuff’s written, the nuances and the beautifulness of some of the text that we work on, you just couldn’t replicate that, especially at the moment in AI. But is there a longer way of being able to deliver longer form content to audiences with the help of AI, maybe? Who knows? I think the world is moving quick, and all we can do as an industry is be part of it and do what feels right.
I’m a techie geek and I love trying all these things out, but for me it comes down to what does the listener or viewer want and how can we best deliver that? If it’s AI, then great. If it’s not, then we stick to what we do.
SS: Do you have anything to do with live podcasting? Because of your background in radio?
SM: There are a couple of examples. On Friday night, we’re doing a live stream for another podcasts on Instagram. Is that a live podcast? Probably yes, in the minds of the audience. Are we defining it as a live podcast? Probably not. Could we overthink how we’re defining this stuff and get caught up in it? Probably.
I think the interesting thing for me is around how we can use events and live shows as a revenue stream. We work with Drunk Women Solving Crime as an example, and a big part of them is residency in terms of live. So rather than record their podcast in a studio, they will record it in front of an audience. And there’s some really interesting examples across the industry of that.
I think those lines are blurred, and for us, it’s about going podcast by podcast. There are some podcasts that work well in that space, there’s some that wouldn’t work well. It’s just about making sure that we’re reacting and putting that content live pre-recorded where we know the audience will be.
SS: Thank you so much. Congratulations on the new hires.
SM: Thank you. Thank you for having me.