PodX Group acquires Lemonada; Spotify launch “plays”

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• PodX Group is to acquire Lemonada Media. The Swedish company already owns a number of podcast production houses across the world; it’s their first acquisition in the US. No terms were given.
  • Last month, PodX merged its three UK companies.
• Spotify announced that it is to add a “play” count, visible within the app, for all podcasts. “Plays will capture engagement across audio and video content on Spotify”, the company says, also pointing to a blog post for creators.
  • But, what exactly are plays? “Plays are a new metric that reflects the number of times people have actively watched or listened to any episode in your catalog,” the Spotify for Creators page says - but gives no detail of how this is calculated. Podnews asked Spotify for the definition of a “play”: it’s a measure of “intentional engagement”, we were told, but were sent no further clarification on how it is calculated (even when we asked again). Consumption will now be confusingly displayed to creators in “streams”, “downloads” and “plays”, but without a definition of what a “play” is, it seems an opaque and self-serving number, and is disappointing.
  • Consumption hours and consumption hours by user will also now be available.
• The Canadian Podcast Listener, a survey of podcast consumption in Canada, will contain enhanced video podcast metrics when it is released later this year. The research will break out actual audio and video consumption among genres, top podcasts, and among all podcast consumers.

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