Monocle to launch BMW-sponsored summer podcasts

by Ben Bold, Brand Republic 25-Jun-09, 11:25

LONDON - Upmarket magazine Monocle has signed up car brand BMW to sponsor a music-focused summer season of its weekly podcast.

The hour-long Monocle Weekly Summer Series replaces the 30-minute Monocle Weekly, which launched at the end of last year and was sponsored by Blackberry.

The new format will run for eight weeks and will provide listeners with conversation on topics including culture, the arts and design, and will broadcast recordings of musical acts playing live in Monocle's studios.

The content has been devised to be more relaxed and less current affairs-focused than Monocle Weekly.

The series, which will be recorded from various global locations, including Paris, Tokyo and Barcelona, will be led by the Monocle editorial team, overseen by Monocle founder and editor-in-chief Tyler Brulee.

Each episode will be available to download free (from Friday afternoons throughout July and August) from Monocle's website and the iTunes Music Store. A preview of the series is available.

Brulee said that the music featured in the show will include acts who "deserve a bigger stage".

Tomorrow's launch edition will include a live recording of Swedish jazz band The Quiet Nights Orchestra.

It will also feature a conversation with Julia Peyton Jones, director of the Serpentine Gallery in London.

Since its December 2008 launch, Monocle Weekly has averaged 30,000 listeners per episode.

Guests have included politician Peter Mandelson, The Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and philosopher Alain de Botton. It will return in its original format in September.

Monocle magazine has a record of launching product extensions, including its online retail store and pop-up shop in Marylebone.