Podcast Company Accidentally Invents Audiobooks

Cadence13 has a big idea. What if movies were ... podcasts? What if you simply called an audio book a podcast? Is that something? Is that anything? Where is our money?

Via an exclusive Variety report:

"Imagine if “Jurassic Park” or “Jaws” hadn’t unfolded on the big screen. If, instead of reveling in cinematic carnage, audiences might have experienced the bloodletting of these dinosaurs and giant sharks from the relative safety of their earbuds. At least, that’s the latest idea from Cadence13, a podcast company that counts Goop and Crooked Media among its partners. As its latest foray into the white-hot podcasting space, the company is launching C13Features, which will back thrillers, dramas, comedies, and other stories that unspool between 90 minutes to two-hours, or roughly the length of a feature film. Each C13Feature will be a fictionalized story with a beginning, a middle and end, all wrapped into one podcast episode — similar to a movie arc. The company plans to hire movie stars and prominent actors to voice key roles and to partner with film directors and other creative talent."

Ah yes. Jurassic Park. Who, outside of Michael Crichton, could possibly imagine experiencing an incredible screenplay like that in a different form? Where was this idea in the early 1990s?

Now, to be fair to the idea and Cadence13 founding partner Chris Corcoran, the project aims at pulling some scripts off the discarded pile and turn them into franchises. So there's some real potential here, especially with how people love their podcasts.

"“There are a lot of scripts out there that are un-produced that might work and there are also original scripts that we hope to develop,” said Corcoran. “There can’t be too many characters and we need a compelling storyline that keeps listeners engaged.” There are certain movie and television templates that Corcoran references in describing his ideal projects. “To me ‘Jaws’ or something like ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or ‘Stranger Things’ would work well,” he said. “Dramas or thrillers would be good.”"

But ... am I crazy or are we just talking about an audio book of a work that hasn't been made into a book yet?

This is why I am so bad at Big Ideas. Definitely need to change that. So here are a few off the top of my head:

- Pizza you can cook in your own oven

- Taking the best part of sports games and distilling them down to a digestible package

- Videotaping the live production of radio shows

- A big ride-share vehicle with a predetermined route where people pay a small fee

- Daily fantasy sports

Of course, surely this blog post will age terribly and I'll be on record laughing about a $42 billion idea. Those are the breaks.