Welcome back to TalentCast after such a long time. This is the 472nd edition. My regular listeners know that I couldn’t release a regular weekly podcast, because I didn't receive enough interesting independent music to play. Today it's exactly 12 years since the first podcast of TalentCast came out, and I did receive more than enough good music in the past months to make an interesting programme for today. I would love to make a weekly podcast again. If you also want TalentCast to come back every week, I will ask you for a little favour. All you have to do, is to find TalentCast on Google Maps (maps.google.com). When you scroll down a bit, you see an option to review TalentCast. You can give some stars and if you like, you can write a little review about the project too. Because this is a one-time podcast for now, you don't have to vote, just enjoy the good independent music. All the songs are new, never played on TalentCast before. Four are by artists who have just joined the project and the other eleven songs are new releases of earlier members.

Our regular listeners might have noticed that for a long time just a few new artists and bands have joined TalentCast. Although our independent music podcast attracts still quite many listeners via podcast websites, our website is hidden away in search engines, which is the main reason why many artists and bands don't discover our project. Because of this I have decided to pause the weekly podcasts for a while, until I have fixed this issue. I still have some very nice tunes in the TalentCast archive and some new tracks which were sent by our artist members. You will hear some of these today. Among them are 2 Christmas songs, because within 3 weeks it's Christmas already. 2018 has gone very fast. Because this is the last podcast for the upcoming time, there is no voting, so relax and just enjoy the music. I will start in my home town Groningen with a jazz band which joined TalentCast last autumn. TalentCast will be back in the new year. I wish you a merry Christmas and of course a happy, healthy and musical 2019.

In this week's podcast I will play downtempo, singer-songwriters, jazz, rap and some rock. One of the songs is by a newcomer to TalentCast. It's a new collaboration between a Belgian and a Dutch artist. Quite a few votes came in last week. In about 20 minutes you will hear which song is most appreciated by our listeners of last week and is our new Song of the Week. I will start with an electronic, downtempo and chill-out solo project from Barcelona, Spain.

Last week TalentCast was all about rock. This week the music genres are varied and mainly peaceful, some of the songs are new songs I have recently received, and I am happy to have a new Song of the Week winner again. I will start with a happy tune from Poland by a 4-piece rock band.

The programme will sound a bit different than usual because I will only play rock music this time. But there are very many kinds of rock, so the music is still very varied. Unfortunately too few votes came in last week, so we don’t have a new Song of the Week winner this time. If you hear a song you enjoy, please take a short moment and vote for it. The first song of today is by a 3-piece punk rock band band from the Czech Republic.

This week there are some artists in the programme whose work I enjoy a lot. The music styles vary from relaxed to pop and rock, so for sure there is something you will enjoy too. Two songs I am going to play are new songs I have recently received via our upload page, both are by bands from the United Kingdom. The podcast is a bit longer than usual this time, over 65 minutes. When we were still broadcast on Ede FM, our podcasts were limited to 57 minutes and a half, but now we have the freedom to make it as long or short as we want. Last week's voting almost gained 2 Song of the Week winners for this week, but fortunately that didn't happen in the end. In about 40 minutes you will hear who finished that close and who else entered our charts top 3 this time. If there is a song you enjoy very much, please take a short moment to cast your vote for it. There is no registration necessary to vote and it takes less than a minute. If the song gets the most votes, I will play it next week again as TalentCast's Song of the Week. I will start with one of the new songs I received. It's the first recording of a new collaboration of 3 friends from England.

Last two weeks there was no TalentCast because of website updates and because of a technical issue: listeners were experiencing difficulties tuning in. The reason was Spotify attempting to download too many podcasts at the same time, which overloaded the small TalentCast network. Now, at the time you are listening, the complete TalentCast archive with 466 podcasts is available on Spotify in addition to all the previous platforms. Perhaps because of these technical issues we do not have a new Song of the Week winner. I hope we will have one next week. If you hear a song you really enjoy, welcome to cast your vote for it on our website. The website has changed since the last two weeks. The least popular pages are gone and the charts pages are integrated with the playlists. From now on all functions of the website can be used without a mouse and it works well with screenreaders, so it is now also accessible for visitors who cannot use the mouse, and for visually impaired and blind visitors. Today's music will vary from relaxed at first to loud rock at the end. You will hear a track from a brand new album from Switzerland and another song I recently have received from a producer from the United States. I will start in the United Kingdom with a track from Gabby Young & Other Animals who has some happy news to share with us.

Because I know I have some fans of electronic music among my listeners, I will pay extra attention to that genre today, after I have played this week's Song of the Week. I will also play one newcomer to TalentCast, an acoustic duo from the Netherlands. I will start in Denmark with a soul, jazz and pop project, and end in Poland with a 4-piece instrumental music band. Many votes came in last week and it was not easy to enter this week's charts top 3. In about half an hour I will play the number 1, our new Song of the Week.

I have a lot of varied independent music from around the globe for you, from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland and Chile. The Song the Week of this week is by a very convincing winner from Finland. I start in the United Kingdom, with a 3-piece indie, alternative and dance project, formed in 2012. I shall end with a danceable song by an artist from Switzerland, who made her first home-recorded album at the age of 10 already.

This week I have a track from a just released album for you, made by the duo that also made some of our jingles, and like last week the music is relaxing and the music styles are varied. The first song of today is the track from the new album. It's by the duo of Paméla and Chris from France – Laïxa. The last track is by the dance and electronic project of Peter Lagarde from Germany - Pluxx7MusicStudio. This was the last time TalentCast was broadcast on Ede FM. They are reorganizing their programming and TalentCast doesn't fit there any more. A big thank you goes to Ede FM, and especially Martin Both, for broadcasting TalentCast for so many years.

This week I planned a programme with many different music styles and mostly relaxing music. Not so many listeners came to vote during the last voting round, but the voting gained a new winner, a jazz band from my hometown Groningen which I played for the first time last week. First song in the programme is by a singer-songwriter from Nashville. The last song is by an electronic music composer from Finland.