Podnews Weekly Review

Evo Terra joins James Cridland this week, while Sam drinks wine in Europe somewhere. Evo's podcast is at podcast pontifications and he runs simpler.mediaSpecial Guest: Dan Misener co-founder of Bumper. Podcast guests are paying up to $50,000 to appear on popular shows, and the podcasts don’t disclose it, according to a piece from Ashley Carman in Bloomberg. It quotes a number of podcasts who charge more than $30,000 per interview… and they only added a full disclosure (an FTC requirement) after being contacted by Bloomberg for the story.Dan Misener and Jonas Woost launched Bumper, a new podcast growth agency. Bumper will work with organisations on audience development strategies, marketing and promotion.How many downloads get you into the Apple Podcasts charts? Tanner Campbell managed to get into the top 100 in the US Books category last Friday with just 10 listens and 24 followers. In November last year, Steffan Garrero got into the top 50 using social media; but it had no effect on his overall downloads.Podtrac is to add a Sales Network Ranker report in Q3 this year, according to emails from ART19 to some of its customers.Tips and Tricks might be a waste of time, argues Evo Terra, in an article entitled Avoiding The Perils Of Un-aligned Podcast AdviceThe team at the Podcast Index have worked on a proposal for the podcast:verify tag, which would remove email addresses from RSS feeds, and instead use a simple one-click claiming process. It uses a simple token system, letting podcast hosting companies understand which services people are using, and avoiding the near-25% dropoff from email verification. It’s built to be simple to implement, and great for privacy. If you work for a podcast hosting company or a service like a directory or tool, they would appreciate your feedback on the proposal.A reminder that if you use Apple’s AppleCoreMedia SDK to playback audio in your app, Send James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Guest InterviewsJohn Spurlock - Thread.land  Matt Medeiros - CastosShow NotesAcast has released the company’s Q2/22 financial report.The Swedish company now hosts 66,000 podcasts (a record growth last quarter); the number of listens in the quarter increased 41% year-on-year. The company lost $11m in the quarter, though now expects to make EBITDA profit in 2024, earlier than previously expected. “The heavy investment phase is now over, " says CEO Ross Adams, noting that the advertising market has been cooling globally.Bloomberg's Ashley Carman’s newsletter launches next month. Ashley wrote about the world of paid podcast appearances, or what some consider podcast payola. Guests are paying hosts up to $50K for an interview, and the disclosures around that exchange aren’t always clear or even existent.Skye Pillsbury (Frmr contributor, Hot Pod) has launched her newsletter called The SqueezeWant to support podcast:socialInteract with ActivityPub in your feed. Find your podcast on thread.land then DM @johnspurlock the unique prefix url .Congratulation to Josh Chen from JustCast for also adding Alby integration and enabling autofill in Value4Value tag to enable the Alby wallet. Online studio Cleanfeed has won an Emmy Award for Engineering, Science & Technology.The BBC claims a new record number of weekly users for its audio app, BBC Sounds.All future @SoundsProfNews podcasts will be built with @spoolermedia.Publisher and broadcaster Audacy has bought podcast app Moonbeam.Send James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Guest InterviewAlberto Betella - CTO RSS.comShow NotesPodcast host RSS.com is to announce integration with Alby this week: enabling value 4 value for thousands of podcasts. You’ll be able to activate and link your Alby account with your podcast in RSS.com’s dashboard.  RSS has produced a video showing how it works on their platformMonetize your @CastosHQ podcast with @getAlby and @PodcastindexOrg value4value tag!  Castos has produced a video showing how it works on their platformFull List of  New Podcast 2.0 Apps  Full List of Podcast HostsHot on the heels of last week's acquisition by Acast. Podchaser announced this week that developers can now pull episode transcripts from the Podchaser API.  In this beta release, developers can retrieve JSON transcript files of episodes from the top 5k podcasts.  Spotify published its Q2/21 financial report. which out-performed market expectations. Ignoring currency fluctuations, ad-supported revenue (including podcasting) is up 31%; the platform now has 4.4m podcasts. “The number of (monthly active users) that engaged with podcasts grew in the substantial double-digits Y/Y and per user podcast consumption rates continued to rise,” though no numbers were given.Does podcasting have a privacy problem? Writing on his personal blog, our Editor highlights what the GDPR actually says, whether you can do privacy-friendly geo-targeting, and where things might be an issue. Was the much-loved comedian and actor Robin Williams the first podcaster? We’ve unearthed some compelling evidence that shows that yes, he might well have been.The British Podcast Awards 2022 winner’s ceremony took place on Saturday. Podcast of the year was Send James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Special GuestsMoritz Kaminski - AlbyRoss Adams -  AcastBradley Davis - PodchaserShow NotesAcast is to acquire Podchaser, the “world’s most comprehensive and authoritative podcast database” in a deal worth $34m. Podchaser, which is expected to make a profit next year, will continue to operate as a separate brand: it contains data of more than 4.5m million podcasts, including advertising information. The integration will bring additional data to Acast’s advertisers.The podcast landscape is ever shifting!Alby, a browser extension for cryptocurrency, has added its own podcaster wallet. The service allows you to earn from your listeners as they listen. The company has written a full guide to enabling your podcast.Audioboom’s H1/22 financials were released, showing revenue was up 79% on the same period last year. Profit was $2m, up from last year’s $0.2m, and the company’s doing 124m downloads a month (up 35%).Pushkin Industries has purchased podcast creator Transmitter Media. Transmitter’s founder and CEO, Gretta Cohn, will join Pushkin’s senior leadership team. Auphonic and Hindenburg have announced an integrationWhich company is sending the most unsolicited commercial email to podcasters, by scraping your RSS feed to gather your email? We have been running a spamtrap on our podcast feed for the last three months, and today, we reveal the podcast industry’s biggest spammer. (No, it doesn’t start with an “A”).British Podcast Awards: Jul 23 · London, England, UKSend James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Special Guests:Mitch Downey - PodverseMike Mignano - Angel Investor and ex-SpotifyShow Notes:Michael Mignano, has written a piece about what he calls The Standards Innovation Paradox. In response, James Cridland wrote a long article that basically points out that Apple took the RSS standard and enhanced it. The thing that Mike Mignano says is impossible.Adam Curry said: Spotify is the shitcoin of podcasting.Spotify is expanding the ability to post video podcasts for creators in six new countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Mexico. This marks the first time the audio streaming company is making this feature available in non-English speaking countries.Spotify has purchased Heardle.Overcast, Marco Arment, describes “cheap, sloppy dynamic ad insertion in podcasts” as something that “continues to degrade the experience for listeners” in a tweet.Reddit is to start live audio Talks says Arielle Nissenblatt in a Twitter thread.Message Heard has signed an audio partnership with The Kyiv Independent.Descript launched Storyboard.Eddy, the audio editor that works like a word processor, now lets you edit video.Send James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Special GuestsHarry Duran -  Full CastOscar Merry - Fountain AppShow NotesPodverse adds support for LIT and Video Support. Podcast Host Ranking from John Spurlock Fountain rewards users for listening to podcastsBlubrry has launched 'podcast media kits’ that update daily Libsyn StudioAnchor podcast fraud.  Here’s a link with details on how to report themAlby, a browser extension for cryptocurrency, has added its own podcaster wallet. The service allows you to earn from your listeners as they listen. The company has written a full guide to enabling your podcast.EventsThe British Podcast Awards, powered by Audible, Ceremony- Kennington Park, London - Saturday 23rd July - Tickets on Sale: Monday 20th June. Send James & Sam a messageBuzzsproutStart podcasting - keep podcasting!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Special GuestsTom Webster- Sounds ProfitableZachariah Moreno & Rock Felder - SquadcastSophie Hind & Jim Salveson - VoiceWorksShow NotesSounds Profitable released The Creators, a study of the people who create podcasts. Tom Webster revealed that US podcast creators are more diverse than the US population, but are significantly younger and more male. Most own both Android and iOS devices, though more than four in ten podcast creators have been listening to podcasts for under a year. You can download the full report here.Bloomberg Businessweek posts Spotify’s Billion-Dollar Bet on Podcasting Has Yet to Pay Off. The piece, originally titled “Spotify’s Joe Rogan-Powered Podcast Bet Hasn’t Paid Off”, suggests that the company’s investments haven’t yet yielded a major hit, and contains criticism of Dawn Ostroff’s growth strategy.Spotify and Anchor have debuted RADAR Podcasters, a podcast-creator version of the Spotify program designed to spotlight emerging voices worldwide. The companies start by highlighting more than 40 creators around the world.The number of open video podcasts are on the rise. In November last year, Podcast Index listed 39,194 video podcasts. As of June this year, Podnews can reveal the number had grown by over a quarter to 50,863. We measured these by looking for enclosure files with the extension mov, mp4 or m4v, the three filetypes Apple Podcasts supports. Apple has recently put video podcasts in the spotlight again; Spotify launched its own proprietary video podcasts tool in April (which we can’t measure).Send James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Special GuestsCarlos Diaz - Uncut.fm is a new podcast platform that lets you "mint, share and sell your content as NFTs".Jake Warren  - UK podcast production company Message Heard has signed with CAAShow NotesBreaking: Acast+ has announced an integration with Facebook. It allows Acast+ subscribers to offer members-only Facebook groups, as a launch partner of new Facebook functionality. Fountain is now rewarding people for listening to shows with Bitcoin, which they can then share with their favourite podcasters as “value4value”. The more people listen, the more they get  (like this for Podland).The Creators FREE webinar from Soundsprofitable. register hereSpotify is testing a tool to record a podcast directly into the Spotify app Spotify to make streaming more social on new ‘community’ mobile app Send James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Special GuestKen Miller - CTO Fathom New podcast app Fathom, designed for better podcast discovery, has been launched on iOS and in-browser.  It promises you can “ask any question and hear answers from your favourite podcasters and their guests.”https://fathom.fm/podcast/podland-newsShow NotesBreaking: Apple Podcasts has published details of how search in its app works. The post includes clarification that ratings and reviews aren’t factored into search results; and that the search function searches the show name, channel name, and episode title. In July last year, Podnews published data showing what metadata different podcast apps use: noting that Apple Podcasts does not search podcast (or episode) descriptions.During Pride Month, Google Podcasts is blocking and hiding some podcast episodes apparently because they use the word 'lesbian’. Transistor’s Justin Jackson has reported Acast to Canadian law enforcement after the company targeted Transistor customers. Acast recently targeted customers from Podbean, Captivate, Blubrry and others, using competitor’s logos, and sending multiple follow-up messages to each podcaster. International Women’s Podcast Festival in London is on Sat Jun 18.The British Podcast Awards, Ceremony- Kennington Park, London - Saturday 23rd July - Tickets on Sale: Monday 20th June. Send James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net

Special GuestAlban Brooke - Head of Marketing at Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout the world’s second largest podcast host, has just formally announced Buzzsprout Ads, letting podcasters buy adverts for their shows (and other podcasters to earn revenue).We’re using them - automatically inserted by Buzzsprout Ads.Show Notes & LinksSpotify had an Investor Day last Wednesday.“Spotify share price slid 55% this year. Daniel Ek said Spotify would grow beyond music, increasing creator tools and moving into audiobooks. This growth, Ek predicted, would take the company to 10 times its current size, with an aim to reach one billion listeners by 2030 and generate US$100 billion in revenue.”Maya Prohovnik said Spotify brought in around €200m ($215m) in podcast revenue last year. Podcasting lost the company €103m ($110m), though is expected to turn a profit within two years.Maya Prohovnik described RSS as “outdated technology”, and said they have been able to replace it for their on-platform distribution. She also claimed that every new Anchor show brings 2.5 new monthly active users to the Spotify platform.iHeart’s Conal Byrne writes for Forbes, promoting the benefit of RSS, which was soundly denigrated by Spotify in their presentation.Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman noted in an entertaining Twitter thread that Joe Rogan was missing from their presentation.Blubrry has emailed its podcast hosting customers that the company is ready to launch programmatic advertising.AVURLAssetHTTPUserAgentKey has just appeared in Apple’s documentation for the next version of iOS, allowing all podcast apps to correctly state their user agent. Developers can adopt this today; there will be a public beta in July, and this will roll out for everyone in Q3. Expect Podnews to grumpily highlight apps that don’t bother with it.Headliner now supports direct sharing to TikTokKara Send James & Sam a messageSupport the showConnect With Us: Email: weekly@podnews.net Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support Get Podnews: podnews.net