Recently, I have been discovering an amazingly fascinating new world of audio: Podcast. It began where I got bored with my playlist (please give me some recommendations of your playlist on Spotify ;)), then I clicked the Podcast menu on the side navigation bar, and so I found a wide and deep of Podcast world there. If you have not, you should try it sometimes to click that button. While Video is in the second place behind the real experience itself, respectively, the Audio has always been a home for me. It is comforting for me since I am a more audible person than visual. As some of you may know, I have a tendency to go – deep – dive on something I excited about until I meet a closure: a satisfactory feeling when your curiosity come to its end.

Enter Radiotopia

Radiotopia, from PRX, is a curated network of extraordinary, cutting-edge podcasts. Radiotopia empowers independent producers to do their best work, grow audience and increase revenue. At its core, Radiotopia cultivates community – for both listeners and makers alike. Radiotopia is a partnership between PRX and Roman Mars, creator of 99% Invisible, supported by the Knight Foundation, and led by Executive Producer Julie Shapiro. In 2017, the network was named one of the Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Media. Since launch, the network has quickly grown to over 19 million downloads per month. Radiotopia is supported by a mix of grants, sponsors, and above all, contributions from thousands of listeners.

Collective-Podcasts-Only-Network, that is the core idea. There has been a shift on market, in this specific context, the audio listeners, whereas they become more into on-demand services. They select what they want to watch (Youtube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.), and also what they want to hear (Soundcloud, Spotify, and Radiotopia might be next to it). That is the very why here in Indonesia, a wave of podcast feels so overwhelming. We’ll come into that in another article.

Their Kickstarter Campaign has been achieved enormous success, twice. Until eventually they were invested by The Knight Foundation as big as $1 Million, made them set a record of more than $600,000 when it closed its Kickstarter campaign Friday, 14th November 2014, ranking as the most-funded Kickstarter project in the publishing and radio and podcast categories.

They are so good, that level of good. Here are two of my favorite episodes from 99% Invisible and The Heart:

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Radiotopia carries a mission: Revolutionary of Radio, as quoted from their Kickstarter Campaign Video below :

“It’s kind of like Indie Label for the best producers to make their best works.

We want to change radio forever, with Radiotopia.

They are also represent the best of podcast as in Art form.

We all pitch in, to create a public media that we all deserved.

This is a Radio Revolution.

We are in the Golden Age of Audio Storytelling.”

– Roman Mars

So, ready to be a part of the revolution?