Podnews Weekly Review

Special GuestAlban Brooke - Head of Marketing at BuzzsproutNews: Kai Chuk from YouTube presented but said nothing about their future plansMatt Deegan writes more about podcasters using video in his newsletterBy the end of the year, it’s going to be essential that podcasters are creating proper video versions of their shows. - Matt DeeganIt’s also why nearly 20% of podcast listeners regard YouTube as their main podcast app.  - Tom WebsterTom Webster from Edison Research, warns podcasters to be careful saying “get this wherever you get your podcasts” if they don’t put their show on YouTubeAdori announced a new YouTube integration to help grow your podcast audienceThe results of the Podnews Report Card were announced at Podcast Movement Evolution by our Editor, James Cridland. Selections from the 750 comments captured are on the Podnews websiteEdison Research unveiled the Infinite Dial 2022 The Ambies, the awards from The Podcast Academy that celebrate excellence in podcasting, took place last night. The winners are here: 9/12, from Amazon Music, Pineapple Studios and Wondery was the podcast of the year; the podcast’s host Dan Taberski accepted the award in the award ceremony in Los Angeles CA, USAApple Podcasts will add follower numbers to Apple Podcasts Connect, starting next month. You’ll be able to view followers per show and easily measure followers across showsWriting in Variety, Jem Aswad is highly critical of Spotify’s $310m sponsorship of FC Barcelona, which they announced on Tuesday 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

MONTY PYTHON: Spam SketchSPECIAL GUEST: Marty Michael - CEO & Co-Founder Gumball Gumball has raised $10 million to expand its podcasting host-read advertising platform. The company was built by the team behind the Headgum Podcast Network. NEWS: Podcast host Acast is still spamming podcasters, even co-founders of rival podcast networks, or hosts of shows that ended three years ago. Libsyn's Rob Walch correctly notes "Friends don't send emails starting 'hello friend' (as Acast's do), and they don't spam". Hypocritically, Acast actually offers its customers a tool to obfuscate your email address in your RSS feed, so that it will "help our podcasters avoid unwanted spam". It's a problem the company is more than aware of, then. "Email marketing is one part of our marketing strategy", said Ross Adams, the company's CEO, when we last asked.Oscar Merry has suggested Lightning Comments as a potential solution for cross-app commenting: using "boostagrams" as a method of sending comments. We like this idea; and the spec is simple enough for us to code it; so, you'll find a "comments" section on every update in Podnews's web version. You can also see those comments in the Fountain app.Podnews are also, as of today, permanently supporting the socialInteract tag for Twitter (and will probably pull in those comments to the page, too, at some stage). A new version is up: 1.0.0-beta. This release comes with bug fixes and an exciting feature: WebSub! From now on, Castopod will push your newly published episodes directly to open subscription hubs, meaning that they will get broadcasted instantly after publication.A gateway from WebSub to PodPing. WebSub.watch allows any WebSub-enabled podcast to push notificatSend 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

GUESTS:  James O. BoggsAndy BowersNEWS: Spooler's "dynamic, real-time audio" publishing system launched last week. According to an analysis by John Spurlock, on its first day, Spooler helped The Refresh from Insider to produce five editions of their podcast. A new podcast platform, Spooler, has launched. It's founded by a who's who of podcasting, including CEO James O. Boggs, formerly Head of Podcasts at Apple; CCO Andy Bowers, co-founder of Slate Audio and Megaphone; CTO Dan Benjamin, founder of Fireside·fm and the 5by5 podcast network, and Exec Producer Kerry Donahue, former EP at WNYC.  Amazon has released Amp, a “live radio app” seen as their version of Clubhouse or TwitterSpaces. It’s available in the US for iOS users only in a waitlist; it’ll enable you to DJ your own music show (with “tens of millions of licensed songs” they say), and you can take callers, too. Amp’s website is live, and you can download the app to join the waitlist.YouTube is offering podcasters up to $50,000 to film their shows and paying podcast networks up to $300,000, according to Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman.TikTok on the clock, but the party don’t stop: except, says Rephonic, podcasters are ignoring TikTok. Twitter is significantly over-represented across all podcasts, the company summarises; but TikTok has by far the highest average number of followers.Is TikTok getting into podcasting? TikTok is hiring for someone to work in their “Podcast Operation” in Sydney NSW, Australia.TikTok is launching its own music marketing and distribution platform, SoundOnSend 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 Guest: Laura Ivey - Director of Research at Edison ResearchNews:Will we see a podcast player in Twitter? Alessandro Paluzzi has spotted a podcasts option in the latest Twitter code, and Jane Manchun Wong has also unearthed a Podcasts tab. Nathan Gathright has brainstormed some ideas about what he hopes Twitter is up to - let’s hope it’s not just reruns of Twitter Spaces.A new podcast platform, Spooler, has launched. It’s founded by a who’s who of podcasting, including CEO James O. Boggs, formerly Head of Podcasts at Apple; CCO Andy Bowers, co-founder of Slate Audio and Megaphone; CTO Dan Benjamin, founder of Fireside·fm and the 5by5 podcast network, and Exec Producer Kerry Donahue, former EP at WNYC. The product claims to be a new modular content management system for audio, allowing instant edits and re-ordering of content while being compatible with RSS podcast apps. The tech also incorporates Dolby·io to smooth audio volumes and apply noise reduction. Axios has more information.The British Podcast Awards 2022 are now open to enter. If you’ve created at least six episodes of a podcast over the last year, you’re probably eligible.iHeartMedia’s Conal Byrne has made a number of predictions about podcasting for 2022, writing in Forbes. “The entire internet will be converted to audio and distributed on-demand”, he says.iHeartRadio has added a tool called “Talk Back” to its app. It lets listeners send short voice messages to radio and podcast hosts. It “will roll out 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:John Spurlock talking about implementing ActivityPub/Co-Comments  LINKS: https://podcastsocial.orghttps://minipub.dev/NEWS: Anyone can claim to be a creator of any podcast within the GoodPods app, without any proof or validation, we’ve discovered. Acast has been been “spamming podcasters”, says competitor Buzzsprout, which has published an unsolicited email from Acast sent to many of Buzzsprout’s customers; we’re aware they’ve also been sent to Anchor users too. “Email marketing is one part of our marketing strategy as we look to bring even more great creators to Acast, and we’re focused on providing the best possible tools and services to help them reach their potential.” — Ross Adams, CEO, AcastHow should apps best verify ownership?  Fountain asks for the email held in the RSS file to claim podcast? Proposed Solution by James Cridland.  Is there a better, easier way to help podcasters “claim” their podcast on different apps? Currently, that process is a clunky method of hoping someone has access to the email address in the RSS feed, and then sending them an email. We think there might be something rather easier. Here’s some proposed documentation of how it might work.WebFinger is a protocol specified by the Internet Engineering Task Force IETF that allows for the discovery of information about people and things identified by a URI. Edison Research released their Super Listeners study, with Ad Results Media. “Super listeners” - US adults who listen to 5+ hours of podcasts a week.Responding to Spotify purchasing Podsights and Chartable, Bryan Barletta writes this week in Sounds Profitable that “Grading your own homework isn’t third-party measurement,” 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 GUEST:Mike Carr. - Crowd Network NEWS:Spotify has acquired Podsights and ChartableSpotify has published an interview with Sean Creeley from PodsightsApple has just published a guide to getting promotion for your podcast from Apple PodcastsBreakit, a Swedish news website, has published an article (translated) that alleges downloads are being bought on SpotifyiHeartRadio in the US has signed with Sounder to offer advertisers brand safety tools. The company is a seed investor in Sounder’s latest Series A funding roundPodnews is launching the first annual report card for the podcast industry. Please give your views here before Mar 1.Delegate day passes have just gone on sale for The Podcast Show 2022, coming to London in May. May 25-26  You can get your day passes today - use promo code PODNEWS for 20% off a limited number of day passes. Podnews is a media partner (and we’ll be there)A podcast has turned into its own radio station in the UKFacebook appears to have rolled-out audio rooms across the world 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

GUESTS:Gigi -  Closing the Loop - The Future of ValueOscar Merry - Fountain Podcaster WalletEvo Terra - Hall of Fame InductionStewart Townsend - Podcast HawkNEWS:Lightning Network is now available on Cash App. It's the fastest, free way to pay anyone in bitcoin. The Lightning Network is a new way to send BTC/SAT that's faster and free!!!Some legend gave 100 million sats (1 bitcoin) to Cinemuck, the people behind the movie "Human B" - Gigi #Value4Value Podcast app Fountain has launched a full Podcaster Wallet, making it the easiest way to earn Bitcoin from your podcast. Just search for your podcast and claim it in the app:  you can monitor how much you earn, and see messages, in the app too.Castos has released a new feature enabling all its podcasters to earn Bitcoin from listeners, as well as links to PayPal, Patreon and others. It’s one of the first podcast hosts to build in support for “value4value”.Exclusive: Mumbler has released what they call the first monetisation study for podcasts in Spain. This year’s Podcasting Hall of Fame inductees will be unveiled at 9am ET today by Podcast Movement.  Podcast Movement: Evolutions: Mar 23 · Los Angeles, California, USAEdison Research has released the top 50 US podcasts for 2021. Podtrac reports iHeartRadio is #1 for podcasting 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

GUESTS: Mark Asquith co-founder and MD of Captivate.FM talks about their acquisition by Global and what's next for Captivate and how the line between radio and podcasting has blurred?Craig Hewitt founder and CEO of Castos talks about the latest version of their platform and their upcoming support for Value4Value and why advertising is not the future for podcast monetisation.  NEWS: Google is randomly switching podcasts in its app to point to pirated copies with ads. Jason Calcanis noticed his podcast, All-In, mysteriously had ads in it; Google’s Danny Sullivan replied: “we appear to have mistakenly pointed to a duplicate version of the podcast”Buzzsprout’s data suggests that the Google Podcasts app is losing market share, from 2.6% to 2.3% in the past year. Buzzsprout’s global stats for January, calculated to the IAB standard, show the company hit 100 million monthly downloads for the first time.A website using Google Fonts has been fined for breaking GDPR privacy rules, since it leaked the visitor’s IP address to Google without their permission. Podnews phased out use of Google Fonts for privacy reasons more than two years ago.When publishing a show to Spotify, you are now reminded to read the platform rules; though not to explicitly agree to them.SiriusXM has launched AudioID. The BBC says it saw a total of 257m podcast downloads globally last quarter. That would make it the #3 podcast publisher in the world.TECH: 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

GUESTS: SCOTT WAXMAN // HALA TAHANEWS:Spotify takes Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s podcast ‘into its own hands’ after the couple produced NO content for a YEAR.Spotify picks Joe Rogan over Neil YoungStephen Fry has launched a new podcast exploring the brain. The podcast is exclusively on Audible.Amazon Buys Exclusive Rights to ‘My Favorite Murder’ Podcast. Amazon Music and Wondery will offer new episodes of the podcasts for a week before they are available on other services.Libsyn has put its new user interface, Libsyn5, live to all users. The new interface is easier to use, and features 'social scheduling’ and support of the locked tag.Exclusive: The free and open-source podcast solution for you to self-host, Castopod has reached v1.0, and now has a website of its own.  The podcast platform includes open comments, video clips, anonymised analytics, and wide support for the new podcast namespace. It’s available for download today.Podcast hosting company Castos has added customisable podcast website themes.CEO Craig Hewett will be a guest on the show next week. Captivate launch Automated Show Notes. Mark Asquith will be a guest on the show next week.Anchor podcasts are unplayable in some podcast apps. Overcast CEO/Developer Marco Arment, added, in a tweet to Anchor: “It’s been two weeks that you’re serving malformed files, breaking media players, and losing the audiences of your customers. Do you care about this medium at all?”Ross Mathews and Nikki Boyer are co-hosting The Ambies, the second annual Awards for Excellence in Audio run by The Podcast Academy. They’re the co-hosts of Dying for Sex, the winner of the 2021 Podcast of the Year; the ceremony is on March 22 in Los Angeles, and live online.Castopod joins Spotify, Podchaser and Podnews in adding copious amounts of JSON_LD to podcast pages.this podcast (@seetee.io) is putting their boost messages onto their website. (If you’ve an Umbrel running 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

GUESTS:  Brad Mielke - Host/Managing Editor, "Start Here" Podcast at ABC NewsEffy Kang - Head of Capital Markets at Lizhi - the first podcast app that Apple promoted in the Chinese app storeNEWS:Apple Podcasts has launched “Listen With”, a podcast playlist service to help listeners discover new shows. The first podcast guide is Jay Shetty. Creators can request to be included using this form.The flagship podcast from ABC News, Start Here, marks 1,000 episodes today. Since its launch in March 2018, the podcast’s host, Brad Mielke.PodPing a method to inform podcast apps the instant a new episode is published, Podping saw 139,328 new episodes published over the last seven days.Use the Podping Watcher to see new episodes in real-time.  Home bitcoin and lightning node Umbrel has released v0.4.11, and the first version of Helipad: an app that lets you see a live view of incoming boosts and boostagrams.  We’ve a guide to get started. Over 4,000 podcasts are now on the Lightning Network!Exclusive: PodInbox has launched a monetisation feature to allow podcasters to get fan donations.  Here is Evo Terra’s.48% of podcast downloads are of old shows, says research from Firstory. German podcast hosting company Julep Hosting has launched “Dynamic Baked-in”, a system that allows a bridge between baked-in advertising and DAIPodchaser reviews are now available in Podcast Guru, a podcast app. Podcast Guru users can read, and add, reviews direct from the 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