“I mean there’s a foundation that needs to be put into place. You don’t just say I want this, I want that, you know send me this, send me that. And then you have the people that are very sophisticated and they want like crazy experiences within their marketing and their advertising. So it’s kind of like two ends of the spectrum. You’ve got the people that know so much and wanna take advantage of every new technology. And then you’ve got the people that didn’t even want a sound logo and now they’re behind the times a bit. And they want to get caught up and they want to get caught up today. And I think that it’s that balance to show them that it’s a very iterative process.” -- Audrey Arbeeny As some of you know, I host regular weekly Clubhouse rooms on Wednesdays at 2 PM Eastern Time. We talk about all sorts of things related to sound, including voiceovers, public speaking, podcasting, music, audio branding, voice AI, sound in social media, and especially digital audio. If you’d like to drop by, you can check out the schedule for my House, The Power of Sound, to see what’s coming up. We recently had a fascinating discussion (and everyone here knew that the room was being recorded so I do have permission) called The Power of Digital Audio, where talked about what digital audio means, how it’s reshaping our online lives, and how AI fits into the voiceover industry.My fellow panelists in this episode are WitLingo founder and CEO Ahmed Bouzid, podcaster and Dreamr Productions founder Jeanna Isham, sound branding professor and Audiobrain founder Audrey Arbeeny, and audio alchemist and sonic strategy director Steve Keller.  We start things off by getting to the heart of what we mean by “digital audio” and talk about the marketing push into podcasting and social audio spaces, how digital audio hardware from smart speakers to custom vehicle soundscapes are changing the role of sound in our lives, and how the role of machine learning can be as subtle as speeding up recording sessions or as dramatic as creating whole new voices from scratch.As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available. And if you’re getting some value from listening, feel free to spread that around and share it with a friend, along with leaving an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page. I would so appreciate that. Hearing the AuthenticityAs we start the Clubhouse chat, Ahmed introduces himself and tells us how he defines digital audio. “For example, podcasting that you can listen to from your desktop or from your mobile smartphone,” he explains. “I think, that would be an example of digital audio.” We talk about how digital audio can foster a greater sense of connection and listener engagement than traditional audio and mass media. “When you hear that, you can hear their enthusiasm. You can hear their authenticity.” Talking to the CompaniesJeanna introduces herself next, and we talk about how COVID helped change the way people relate to sound in a way that, for Jeanna, seems oddly familiar. “We actually went back to an original idea,” she says. “going back to having just that radio in our kitchen or in the living room and everybody would gather around and listen to the radio. So it’s kind of like, in my opinion, it’s a full circle...