The Handmaid's Tale coming to Canada on May 1 via iTunes

Canadians now have an option to stream the first season of The Handmaid's Tale which is based on author Margaret Atwood's award winning novel. 

The Handmaid’s Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly part of the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism regime that treats women as property of the state. As one of the few remaining fertile women, “Offred," is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world.

Coming on May 1, the pre-order the Season Pass on iTunes to The Handmaid’s Tale here and watch the double-episode premiere on May 1. View the entire The Handmaid’s Tale iTunes collection, including versions in iBooks, Movies right here.

Source: Apple

‘Serial’ podcast creators tries Netflix-style binge-listening for new podcast

With the lack of data and metrics to see what works for the podcast industry, creators on the medium can be a bit more creative when it comes to their content. Now, creators of podcast hit Serial are trying a different approach to releasing their new true-crime podcast S-Town. According to S-Town’s executive producer Julie Snyder, they thought that the story of this new podcast would best be told in the Netflix approach of dropping all episodes at once. "There's a lot of paranoia and a lot of accusations that get kind of thrown around back and forth," Snyder said. "And if we were going to do it weekly, you'd have to address all of those things in that episode. You can't leave someone hanging [when] accusing someone of being a murderer."

Serial became a hit even with its weekly release. So there’s no saying yet if the approach to S-Town will work for Snyder and her team or backfire. At the moment, though, it seems to be doing well on the iTunes podcast chart with it at the top of the list.

Source: Mashable

Google gets into the original podcast game

Following in the footsteps of Apple and Spotify, Google now has its own audio podcast. Called City Soundtracks, it focuses on conversations between musical acts as they delve into the places, moments, and songs that influence both their work and lives. It’s hosted by West Wing Weekly’s Hrishikesh Hirway. There are currently three episodes of the “pod” with one focusing on Grammy-nominated R&B artist Kehlani, another on “Queen of Bounce” Big Freedia, and the third is a tour of Austin’s music culture with Britt Daniel and Jim Eno. It isn’t known yet what Google plans for this podcast or if we can expect more new original content from them but having exclusive content is one way to differentiate themselves from the competition. City Soundtracks is available on iTunes and Google Play Music.

Source: The Next Web

Canadian audiobook listeners prefer Amazon and Audible over iTunes

David Clare/Flickr

A new study from BookNet Canada explores the local consumers’s audiobook listening habits and methods for discovering new titles. It was found in this follow-up to a 2014 study that most users found audiobooks on websites of retailers as well as from recommendations by friends. However, it doesn’t mean these are the top places for downloading. People still prefer to borrow from public libraries or make use of free downloads to acquire new audiobooks.

But for those who do purchase audiobooks from retailers, the popular retailers to turn to are Amazon and Audible. Amazon is used 21 percent of the time this year (compared to 21.5 percent in 2014 and Audible is used to buy audiobooks 20.7 percent of the time (compared to 14.2 percent in 2014). Apple’s iTunes sees a 3 percent dip in use from 2014—they’ve gone from 17.7 percent in 2014 to 14.7 percent this year.

Source: Forbes