With little to no promotion or public relations, a Chatham podcaster has a million reasons to be thrilled about a recent milestone.
David Farquhar and his online audio drama service, Moonlight Audio Theatre, reached one million downloads.
“I can’t believe how quickly it happened,” Farquhar said. “It just shows how much demand there is for audio dramas today. We’re getting downloads from all over the world.”
Farquhar added he doesn’t use Facebook or Twitter for promotion and for the longest time, didn’t even have a website.
“It has really gotten to this point based on good-quality content,” he said. “Most of our downloads, about 80%, come from the United States, but we’re getting them from small countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar … to name a few.”
Other popular countries include Canada and the United Kingdom, with a growing number from China and Germany.
Farquhar’s collection of audio/radio dramas totals 297 to date, and includes eight originals from his “Voices In The Wind Audio Theatre” production company.
Farquhar said audio/radio dramas differ from spoken word audio books, as they include different actors, music and sound effects.
Farquhar said he has utilized professional actors from New York, Toronto, Los Angeles and from his hometown of Chatham in his productions.
The podcasts have a full range of genres, including mystery, suspense, horror, comedy, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, Halloween, Christmas, special features and old-time radio shows.
“I started off by using a free app for Blackberries,” he said. “Now we have an app for Android smartphones, Windows 8 smartphones.”
Farquhar said analysis of the downloads has surprised him, revealing that audio dramas are popular with university students and kids as young as 13.
“Being accessible on mobile devices, a lot of people will listen to them on their commute in the car, train or plane,” he said.
With the million downloads behind him, Farquhar said he still feels the momentum is picking up.
“There is a lot of demand around the world… so you never know where it will lead,” he said.
The audio dramas can be downloaded free of charge through iTunes, or through www.moonlightaudiotheatre.ca.
