Online audio projects supported separately by NBA star Kevin Durant and actor and producer Kevin Costner made their debut today, one aimed at business and sport, the other to data and history for car fans.
Thirty Five Ventures and podcast network Cadence13 have teamed up to launch The Boardroom Podcast Network, whose first two projects are podcasts with Durant and his lifelong business spouse, Rich Kleiman. This is an extension of The Boardroom, the Thirty Five Ventures platform, which provides sports and advertising media, adding videos, events, newsletters and a school program called The Boardroom University.
In addition, Costner (two-time Oscar winner with Dances with Wolves, Yellowstone) is one of the founders of HearHere, which introduced his “travel companion” iOS app. The other hearhere founders are former North Face president Bill Werlin and storyteller Woody Sears.
Both projects are the latest additions to one of the entertainment, audio and podcast sectors. Spotify and SiriusXM have made a number of acquisitions in the industry in recent months, and a long list of classic and social media stars are releasing more and more podcasts, especially during the pandemic, to expand their brands to a new audience.
The initial Boardroom Podcast Network programming will come with The Etc’s With Kevin Durant, which will debut in September. Durant is a two-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors and is now with the Brooklyn Nets.
Durant, a leading investor in new generations of his time with the Warriors, will combine “the scope and commercial orientation of the convention hall with Durant’s wisdom and true love of sport, music and culture,” according to a statement. The exhibition will also serve as an audio edition of some of the long exhibits elsewhere on the platform on topics such as NBA groups underestimated in history, the state of rap music and the rise of street fashion in the 1990s.
RockWater analyst Christopher Erwin said Durant’s podcast announcement is Durant’s fifth in a week, after NBA stars JJ Redick and Blake Griffin, baseball pitcher CC Sabathia and former Spotify rugby player and director Dylan Hugh, who said he would. Create a new podcast network that’s geared to the game and lifestyle.
“Modern sports media allows personalities, from athletes and hounds to sports enthusiasts, to temporarily create fandoms and new virtual media businesses,” Erwin wrote in a newsletter published today. “This is a major replacement for classic sports media models, where good luck only comes from premium rights agreements.”
The service’s other podcast series will begin next week, August 12. Rich Kleiman, Durant’s spouse in Thirty Five Ventures, will lead the way. Both podcasts will be widely available.
“We love making an investment in excellence,” said Chris Corcoran, cadence13’s chief content officer. “Kevin Durant is one of the most productive players in the NBA in the history of the game, and Rich is a prominent leader and entrepreneur; We look to the future to participate in creating Boardroom Podcast Network with them and give NBA and sports enthusiasts a much deeper look at all facets of the game.”
Other Cadence13 audio consumers come with notable stars from TikTok, D’Amelio sisters, authors Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis, manufacturer/director Jon Favreau, YouTube stars Rhett and Link, music maker Rick Rubin and TELEVISION journalist Maria Shriver.
HearHere, the new Santa Barbara, California-based company, funded through Costner, Kevin’s other, promises to make road trips “a little more engaging and inspiring,” with audio stories on topics like “Who were the first in this area? ? “and “What is the call of this mountain summit?”
“We made the decision to answer those (other) questions and make the delight more rewarding and attach more to those places,” Sears wrote in a message on the HearHere website. “It’s vital that stories are available and engaging.”
The subscription service aims to cover the U.S. With more than 10,000 short audio “vignettes”, about 3 minutes each, that are activated when you cross an area. The company cites AAA’s summer forecast, which predicted that virtually everyone on vacation this summer would drive (683 million car trips, 96.5% summer trips).
Costner, 11-time NBA champion Phil Jackson, and others recount the first 1,500 vignettes, which were made mainly on the West Coast and Montana, where Jackson has owned a giant ranch for a long time and where he grew up. Costner’s successful exhibition at Paramount Network in Yellowstone is also being filmed on a ranch in Montana.
The app will include topics such as “history, local knowledge, colorful characters, culture, herbal wonders, sports, music and special sights”. An Android edition of the app will be available soon.
I’m a columnist, speaker, podcaster and representative of Los Angeles on the collision of technology, media and entertainment. I also organize and produce Bloom in Tech