Podcasts are giving movie and TV stars a path to one thing uncommon in Hollywood: IP possession.
On July 21, actor Gina Torres launched her first-ever podcast, a fictional audio thriller narrative titled “A Homicide in Montecito,” developed in partnership with the manufacturing firm Sonoro. Torres is the most recent Hollywood actor to throw her hat into the narrative podcast ring, becoming a member of the likes of Danny Trejo and Rami Malek.
It’s nothing new for Hollywood stars to launch their very own podcasts — however Torres is a part of a rising wave of movie or tv actors who’ve taken on a extra direct function within the manufacturing and possession of scripted, narrative podcasts, with a watch towards potential adaptation. In current months, Audible has taken this method for co-productions with Hollywood expertise. On July 3, for instance, “Trendy Household” star Ty Burrell printed the primary episode of “The Good Life,” a fictional narrative podcast that he developed and govt produced based mostly on tales from his personal childhood. In Might, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos launched the narrative fictional podcast “Summer season Breeze,” which the actor/talk-show hosts co-produced by way of their firm Milojo Productions. In October 2024, Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone produced the narrative podcast “Hildy the Barback and the Lake of Hearth” by means of their firm On the Day productions.
For these actors, podcasts are greater than only a artistic outlet. They’re a strategic transfer towards proudly owning useful mental property — one thing historically out of attain within the movie and TV industries.
Torres, recognized for her starring roles within the tv collection “Firefly” and “Fits,” co-owns the IP for “A Homicide in Montecito” with Sonoro. She cited proudly owning the IP as a key cause for increasing into podcasting, with the eventual objective of adapting the property to movie or tv.
“There are quite a lot of cooks within the kitchen on the subject of conventional broadcast and streaming TV, and it’s satisfying to have been capable of categorical my needs, my hopes and my wishes with an organization like Sonoro and have them go, ‘Yeah, we will try this’,” Torres mentioned.
Torres’ new podcast doesn’t have devoted sponsors, nor does she intend to do advert reads. By means of Sonoro’s sponsor community, the podcast will serve adverts from manufacturers resembling Toyota and McDonald’s, with Torres receiving a 50 p.c minimize of all advert income, based on Sonoro CEO Joshua Weinstein.
“We’re companions with Gina on the mission, and we’ll share in all of the income streams collectively,” Weinstein mentioned. “That may be audio, or it could imply TV and movie derivatives.”
Joanna Jordan, the founding father of expertise reserving company Central Expertise Reserving, mentioned that she’s noticed an inflow of Hollywood expertise into podcasts over the previous yr, with the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes kicking off the method as a result of union rules that allowed actors to proceed engaged on audio initiatives in the course of the strikes. She cited Rob Lowe and Kenya Barris as different examples of actors who had just lately launched their very own podcasts.
“The podcast area appears to be one thing that’s simpler for them, as a result of fiscally, they are often in charge of it, they usually can develop it the best way they need it to be,” Jordan mentioned. “After which, if it’s profitable, it opens up many different alternatives down the street.”
As stars like Torres step into the podcasting area, they’re tapping right into a rising pattern the place actors usually are not simply lending their voices however controlling the content material. This shift displays a bigger rethinking throughout the media business about content material possession and income fashions, as corporations acknowledge podcasts as a brand new avenue for creator-driven IP and a doubtlessly profitable extension of conventional Hollywood fare — generally even providing the origins of an concept.
For Sonoro, actor-led podcasts have generated extra curiosity for potential TV/movie diversifications than different podcasts, based on an organization consultant, who declined to share particular figures. The chance to personal extremely adaptable IP has been a key motivator for each Torres and different Hollywood expertise to work with podcast corporations resembling Sonoro, per Weinstein, who mentioned that fifty p.c of his firm’s restricted collection have been tied to prime Hollywood expertise.
“A few of that expertise are folks you’ve heard of, as a result of they’re actors, however a few of them will be writers or producers which might be behind the mic, behind the digicam,” he mentioned.
Sonoro is much from the one manufacturing firm that frames IP possession as a profit for its podcast creators and expertise. Different manufacturing corporations that supply creators possession of their podcasts and IP as a core a part of their enterprise mannequin embody YMH Studios, the producer of comedians Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitsky’s podcast “Your Mother’s Home,” and FlightStory, the manufacturing firm behind Steven Bartlett’s “The Diary of a CEO” podcast.
“For celebrities and creators of observe going into podcasts, I feel one of many biggest incentives is proudly owning your viewers,” mentioned FlightStory CEO Georgie Holt. “In the event you select to distribute your content material on streaming companies or any sort of cable, the viewers doesn’t technically belong to you; it’s not one thing you’ve constructed and scaled, it belongs to the community. So, you don’t have the leverage of possession that you would be able to if you happen to begin to begin to construct your individual IP.”
