Search for ‘Anchor’

Kristin Myers has joined Sounds Profitable as Principal. She previously worked with UTA and Stitcher (and was the first hire at Anchor).

In Australia, a proposed takeover of SCA by ARN has hit trouble, as partner Anchorage Capital got cold feet. ARN, which uses the iHeartPodcasts brand in Australia, has presented a new plan to the stock market.

Spotify is removing the separate login for “Spotify for Podcasters”, its podcast host. From May 14, you’ll be required to use a Spotify login, rather than your old Anchor/S4P one. The benefits are that you’ll be able to manage more than one podcast with the same login, and be able to invite teams.

EXCLUSIVE: Spotify is no longer a member of the IAB, having quietly ceased its membership in the last three months. After a press enquiry from Podnews, Spotify’s Megaphone, Chartable and the Spotify for Podcasters host formerly known as Anchor were removed from the published list of compliant companies for podcast measurement. They last underwent certification in 2020.

AdsWizz has successfully recertified for v2.1 of the IAB Podcast Measurement program. Podtrac and Simplecast also recertified in March. On the IAB TechLab website, there are still a number of companies only certified to v2.0, who haven’t recertified in more than three years: Anchor (now Spotify), Buzzsprout, Captivate, Chartable, Libsyn, Megaphone and Podbean.

Spotify is removing Music + Talk, which allowed you to present a music show (launched as “Shows with Music”); interactive audience tool Voice Messages, remote recording tool Record with Friends, and Background Music and Sounds. The company tells us it’s a shift away from legacy creation tooling, and towards tools for better audience growth and engagement.

Ten podcast companies are still not certified for the latest version of the IAB’s podcast measurement guidelines v2.1, in spite of being asked to do so by the end of 2022. More than a year later, the IAB’s list of compliant companies still shows AdsWizz, Anchor (now Spotify), Buzzsprout, Captivate, Chartable, Libsyn, Megaphone, Podbean, Podtrac and Simplecast as only compliant to v2.0 of the guidelines, something that means “they will lose current status”, according to the IAB Tech Lab.

What’s the future for IAB Podcast Measurement? In November 2022, we reported that the IAB’s v2.0 certification would no longer be valid after Dec 31 2023. As of today, some of podcasting’s largest names are still only compliant to v2.0, and all will lose their claim to certification by the end of the year unless recertified: Adswizz, Buzzsprout, Captivate, Chartable, “EmpireStreaming” (now Soundstack), Libsyn, PodBean, Podtrac, Simplecast, and “Anchor” (now Spotify Creator Studio).

Clubhouse is evolving to being a messaging app, rather than a live chat app. The new app lets you leave voice notes to one another, a little like Anchor in 2016, perhaps?

Launched Sept 2020 in Podnews, NPR ends localised versions of the Consider This podcast this week, which they claimed at the time was the "first localised daily news podcast". Localisation "did not prove sustainable", said a spokesperson; Current reports that the production process wasn't scalable; audiences didn't value it much anyway; and NPR is moving to Megaphone which means the use of different tools. Consider This continues, with national content (featuring anchors like Mary Louise Kelly, above)

The number of episodes published (on open RSS) by Spotify for Podcasters, formerly Anchor, dipped to a new low last month says Livewire; but it still hosts one out of every five new episodes; and Spotify's Megaphone also posted another record high. The biggest increases were seen by Omny Studio and its owner Triton Digital.

Podcast host Libsyn has published its latest platform stats. Spotify is showing a record number of downloads on the platform. (In March, Spotify released "Auto Play for Podcasts", which plays other relevant episodes after one finishes; and its new scrollable interface for podcasts)

Audm, the article narration company bought by The New York Times in March 2020, has been closed. As of July 1, the website redirects to a promotion for the New York Times Audio app, and the Audm app is no longer available for download. The company last tweeted in July 2021; and last updated its Facebook page in September 2019.

Spotify for Podcasters, formerly Anchor, saw a big drop in share of new podcast episodes in June, according to Livewire. Omny Studio overtook Libsyn to gain the #4 slot. For tracking services, Podtrac increased its lead over Spotify's various tracking tools.

Anchor "shut down my podcast and never paid me", claims a redittor, who says they're owed $700.

14,000 podcasters have had their Anchor usernames, emails and passwords posted on a Russian-language black-hat hacking website. (Change those passwords!)

On this week’s Money Talks from The Economist, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird ask what the future holds for the business of podcasts. Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano tells them that companies have realised they can be much leaner. And Nick Hilton, a podcast production company founder, explains why he thinks 2022 is the year when podcasting died.

One thing not being renewed: Wordpress's Anchor/Spotify plugin, which is to close. This was a service that would make a podcast from your blog posts. Creators were given fifteen days notice.

Nir Zicherman is to leave Spotify. With Michael Mignano, he was co-founder of Anchor, and is currently VP and Global Head of Audiobooks, which he describes as ground-breaking work. Mignano left Spotify last June; Zicherman's last day is Sep 30, when he will work on "a new project in the startup space".

Spotify for Podcasters increased its share in March to 23.1% of all new episodes: a six month high for the podcast host formerly known as Anchor. Spotify's Megaphone also posted an all-time high. At #3, iHeart's Spreaker saw a dramatic increase from 5.4% to 6.5%, perhaps due to a misleading announcement that the platform was "now free" (it was just a small tweak on already existing free accounts). Buzzsprout remains at #2.

Anchor, the free podcast host, is now called Spotify for Podcasters. The new podcast hosting service from Spotify includes automated ads (US-only, invite-only), and podcast subscriptions (in 34 markets). Spotify will now allow any podcaster to use Q&A and polls - wherever they're hosted.

Podcast host Libsyn has slipped to #5 in new podcast episode market share. The company had been #4 since the data started in Sep 2021. It was overtaken by Omny Studio; Anchor increased its market share to 22.3% - the highest since August of last year.

Anchor has changed the eligibility for Ambassador Ads, the company's paid ads program to promote Anchor itself. Previously, you needed 50 listens to qualify; now you need 100 listens within the last 60 days, and need to have posted at least one episode in that time.

could make RSS versions of podcast audio available everywhere for free (much like Anchor does), and pull visitors to YouTube to watch the video version. As a customer acquisition tool, this would drive usage of YouTube, and allow them to sell audio ads off-platform, perhaps.

In Toronto ON, Canada, the police have made 24 Shades of Blue, a podcast giving the Toronto community a behind-the-scenes view of police activities. A CBC investigation has discovered that the interview show, produced by Obie & Ax Inc ("North America's leading podcast production firm"), has cost more than $330,000 so far in a sole-source contract. That money hasn't gone on hosting though: Podnews can tell you that the show's on Spotify's free podcast host Anchor.

Former CNN anchor and journalist Carol Costello is working with Evergreen Podcasts for Carol Costello Presents: Blind Rage - focusing this season on the attack of Phyllis Cottle, who was blinded by her assailant. Costello says: “Her story is tragic, but that's not her full story. Her life in her words, ‘had a purpose’ after she escaped her attacker.”

Andy Slavitt, Author & Host of In the Bubble, Misha Euceph, CEO, Dustlight Productions, Audie Cornish, Anchor, Correspondent & Host, CNN Audio, Roxane Gay, Host, The Roxane Gay Agenda, Gary Coichy, CEO, Pod Digital Media and Jay Shetty, Host, On Purpose.

Is adblocking coming to podcasts? Spotify's giant hole, and Anchor's share increases

Spotify's Anchor has seen the first increase of market share for six months: the company was responsible for 22.3% of all new episodes in December. Buzzsprout's market share dropped slightly, but the company remains a strong #2 at 8.6%. The number of total new episodes dropped by 7.8%.

A survey sent to some podcasters on Spotify suggests that the Anchor name could be about to disappear: the free podcast host could simply be known as part of Spotify's "Creator Studio" in future.

Further Reading: Nick Hilton posts the cheery "2022: The Year That Podcasting Died", suggesting that everyone's interested in video now; former Anchor exec turned VC Michael Mignano says something about The Future of Podcasting Isn’t Just Audio (it's behind a paywall); Eric Nuzum shares a forbidden word list describing podcast hosts; The Wall Street Journal writes a piece about how "some of the most successful podcasters have kept their day jobs".

The winners of the Asian Podcast Awards were announced. Almost all are in English; and they are: Best podcast: 1920, within the YES 933 Radio Drama feed (Mediacorp, in Chinese / Omny Studio) … Best podcast host: Adulting with former children (Zodapop, SYRUP Media / Anchor) … Best narrative storytelling or fiction podcast: Creepy Twisted Asians (ZAG / Castos) … Best science, tech or business podcast: Inside China: Coronavirus Podcast, within the Inside China feed (South China Morning Post / Acast) … Best comedy, entertainment or lifestyle podcast: A Brief Case: true crime in Asia (Indie / Podbean) … Best arts, society or culture podcast: Miss Conduct (IVM Podcasts / Omny Studio)

Data: Spotify's Anchor continues to lose market share: it was down to 21.6% of all new podcast episodes in November. However, Spotify's overall market share remains the same after Megaphone posted the biggest share increase in the top 15 podcast hosts.

Spotify's Anchor has added "audio enhancement" to its app. The company says "A single tap can automatically reduce background noise while leveling your voice and bringing it to the forefront." Alternatives are Auphonic, which is used by a number of podcast hosts, and Descript's "studio sound".

Spotify has released video podcasts everywhere - "in 180 global markets". Spotify and Anchor's blog posts, made in July, have been updated. Until now they've only been in twelve markets; the proprietary service launched in April.

Spotify's Anchor continued to lose market share in October: it is now responsible for 21.9% of all new podcast episodes, a fall of 0.3%. Spotify's Megaphone saw a rise of 0.2%.

Andy Slavitt, Author & Host of In the Bubble, Misha Euceph, CEO, Dustlight Productions, Audie Cornish, Anchor, Correspondent & Host, CNN Audio, Roxane Gay, Host, The Roxane Gay Agenda, Gary Coichy, CEO, Pod Digital Media and Jay Shetty, Host, On Purpose.

Michael Mignano, co-founder of Anchor, was interviewed by the University of Delaware, ahead of a lecture he's giving on Friday.

Spotify released a Fan Study for podcast creators. Fans who "follow" (aka subscribe to) your podcast will listen to 4x the number of episodes of those who don't, says the data; and episode completion rate varies from genre to genre, with true crime and fiction podcasts having the highest completion rates (at about 87%), while tech shows have one of the lowest (about 72%). Also in new research, The State of Branded Podcasts 2022 Report was released by CoHost, a podcast hosting company. Two-thirds of branded podcasts post every week, says that data.

Former NY governor Andrew Cuomo is to host his own podcast. His brother, former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, has been publishing his podcast twice-weekly.

Spotify's video podcasting service is apparently being used to pirate movies. The company claims it takes IP infringement very seriously: Podnews has previously reported that Anchor has been used to pirate podcasts (using its own tools).

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett is now apparently bringing in 10 million monthly downloads. For those asking "where are the big hits on Anchor", this is one.

All podcast roads lead to video, suggests Anchor founder Michael Mignano in a blog post. "This notion will likely irk some readers," he adds.

Anchor was still the #1 podcast host in August, according to new data from John Spurlock's Livewire, but the company's share of new episodes continues to fall from a high in April. Meanwhile, Buzzsprout increased its share significantly, from 7.9% to 9.0%: the highest share for six months. There were 1.6m new podcast episodes published in August, up 5.4% from July.

Want to see what podcasts look like in Twitter? Our accounts aren't in the test list; but Ileane Smith has got it: she shares a look at how the thing works on her website.

It's eleven years since Amy Winehouse died; We Miss Amy Winehouse is a companion podcast to an Edinburgh Fringe show from Suchandrika Chakrabarti. The show, on Anchor's Music + Talk platform, asks Amy fans from the worlds of comedy, music and journalism about their favourite Winehouse tracks, when they first heard the songs and why they, too, miss Amy Winehouse.

Interestingly, Anchor appears to have slowed in growth. Our page which measures podcasters switching their shows appears to show the number of podcasters leaving Anchor is almost as high as those joining the podcast platform.

Mike Mignano, the founder of Anchor, has written a piece about what he calls The Standards Innovation Paradox. "The blessing of standardization eventually comes at a cost, and innovation suffers as a result. As an example, this is why the podcast format has remained mostly stagnant over its 20 year history," he says. Giving the examples of Substack and Spotify, a company he left last month, he argues that while standardisation is helpful to get a company started, it hinders a company longterm as they wish to continue innovating.

Anchor podcast fraud appears to be on the rise again, with a number of high profile podcasts discovering that there's a copy of their show on Anchor. Here's a link with details on how to report them.

Out of all podcast episodes published in June, Buzzsprout saw a decline of market share to 8.1%, according to Livewire. The company is still the #2 podcast host after Anchor. Amazon Cloudfront is still responsible for more than 50% of all podcast downloads; Spotify's Chartable and Podtrac both saw an increased amount of use as tracking tools.

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.

Wordpress promises: "You can automatically convert the text on any post into a podcast on Anchor, the world’s latest podcasting platform that is part of Spotify, all at no cost to you."

"Every new Anchor show brings 2.5 additional monthly active users to Spotify", said Maya Prohovnik. The company also unveiled that Anchor powers 3m podcasts on Spotify - so, "these figures suggest that Anchor has been responsible, singlehandedly, for 7.5m new users to Spotify. Given a majority of people do not listen to podcasts, the majority will be new podcast listeners. This is good," said our Editor on Twitter.

In her comments, Maya Prohovnik, who oversees Spotify’s creator tools across podcasting, 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.

Maya Prohovnik has been named Head of Talk at Spotify, replacing Michael Mignano. She was employee #1 at Anchor.

Our hosts changes page (we removed the ceased podcasts from there, which confused the graph) shows a large amount of shows switching from Anchor to Megaphone.

In May, Omny Studio overtook Podbean to become the #5 podcast hosting company, measured by new episodes. Anchor is still #1, with 24.3% of all new episodes - a figure that dropped by over 6%. Amazon Cloudfront is still the most popular podcast CDN (including us!); Cloudflare a distant second.

Crowd Network and Free Turn Entertainment have signed a partnership deal to explore existing IP development across both companies. (Steve Jones, Crowd Network's Content Director, spoke to Podland last week).

Want to get your podcast featured on Spotify? Anchor has published details of how to do it, and what shows they're looking for.

Of interest, Anchor artwork appears as Google's Knowledge Graph image for My Favorite Murder, rather than the real podcast image. On Spotify, a search for "My Favorite Murder" takes you to a poorly produced music album by "Penny Bank", called "Murder Podcasts", with somebody reading out a critique of podcast artwork over a cheap electronic drumbeat; and a set of more than ten playlists with the artwork and shows jumbled up into a random order. "Spotify respects the rights of intellectual property owners", they say, though when we tried to find that quote, Spotify's main website had fallen over.

The world's largest podcast host, Anchor was down for much of yesterday; from around 8.45am to 5.15pm Eastern. Publishers had problems accessing its website or posting new episodes; listeners were unable to download episodes either.

Michael Mignano is to leave Spotify. He's said to have given his resignation last week, and leaves at the end of June. He was co-founder of Anchor and is currently Head of Talk (Podcasts, Live, and Video) at Spotify. In January he was “Global Head of Talk Verticals” Spotify; he had been “Head of Podcaster Mission” for a while, and has also variously been called “Head of Podcasts, Live and Video”, and “Head of Creation Platform”. He joins Courtney Holt and Lydia Polgreen in departing the company.

More than a quarter of new podcast episodes published in April were on Anchor, according to data from John Spurlock: Spotify's free podcast host was responsible for 25.8% of all new podcast episodes in April, breaking 25% for the first time. The rest of the top five were Buzzsprout, Spreaker, Libsyn, and at #5, Podbean which overtook Omny Studio last month. More ranking detail in The Tech Stuff, below.

ESPN anchor Sage Steele has sued ESPN, and its parent company Walt Disney, after the company suspended her for questioning ESPN's COVID-19 vaccination mandate, and criticising former President Barack Obama, in a podcast interview on Uncut with Jay Cutler. She claims a violation of freedom of speech.

Podbean appears to be seeing a large number of migrations away from the service, according to our sample: a large amount making their way to Anchor. Worthwhile also noting AfterBuzzTV switching from Anchor to Megaphone; and our sample continuing to see iHeart podcasts shifting from Spotify's Megaphone to iHeart's Omny Studio.

Spotify's Anchor has rolled out proprietary video podcasts to all Anchor users in the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. Paid subscriptions will be available for these shows, too; additionally, Anchor has integrated with Riverside, to streamline the production of video podcasts. Anchor has posted more details, and here are Anchor's FAQs.

The OPAWG user agent list has been updated with a number of new services including Gaana's iOS app, Bullhorn, Newsly, ProCast, and Anchor's importing tool.

Acast has signed comedian Hannah Berner's Berning in Hell podcast. It was with Anchor; Acast has also announced new artwork for the show is on the way (partially, perhaps, because the old artwork was emblazoned with the Anchor logo).

An Anchor podcast called Soldier of Misfortune has been accused of being a shameless rip-off by Brendan I Koerner, a journalist for The Atlantic who wrote the story. His piece took him nine years to report, he says, and he accuses the podcaster, Jesse Rapaport, of knowingly stealing his work, and even pronouncing the name of the main character wrong throughout. "Perhaps we can start a frank discussion about what constitutes fair use for podcasters?" Koerner asks. We've approached Rapaport for comment; plagiarism has unfortunately been a recurring theme for many years.

Podcast host Anchor's creator interface is now available in 35 different languages. Of the top five podcast hosts, Omny Studio is in six languages, Spreaker available in four; Buzzsprout and Libsyn only offer English, though YouTube is in 82 different languages. It's unclear whether support is available in all of them. Podcasting is growing faster in non-English languages.

Anchor, Buzzsprout and Spreaker were the podcast hosting companies who published the most new episodes in March. John Spurlock's monthly data shows a significant rise for Libsyn (possibly due to the launch of Libsyn Studio, its free podcast hosting alternative).

In our sample, we observed Buzzsprout losing 27 podcasts last week, and Libsyn losing 14. The podcast hosts gaining the most were, as they always are, Anchor and Megaphone; though Simplecast and Acast also saw a good number of migrations.

In podcast representation deals, The FOX Audio Network has signed a hosting and advertising deal with Megaphone. A number of the company's shows were with Triton Digital's Omny Studio … BuzzFeed Studios has signed with Acast to launch a podcast slate of six shows; BuzzFeed also has shows with Anchor and iHeartRadio … Acast has signed Scott McGillivray, a "prolific expert in real estate" and TV star, for season three of The Real Estate Rebel … and AdLarge has signed Going West, a "top-ranked true-crime podcast".

Anchor has added a new privacy page for Californian residents.

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. While legal in most countries, it's seen by many as bad behaviour, and this proposal could remove email addresses from RSS feeds altogether. We asked for statements:

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": a pirated copy held on Spreaker, according to Nathan Gathright. "There are loads of benefits from our constantly checking for new RSS feeds and trying to make our own determination about which feed to use for a given show algorithmically, but we've also seen instances where we get it wrong," a Google spokesperson told us in July last year. Podnews offers a Google Podcasts RSS helper so you can check what RSS feed Google has for your podcast; we would also suggest you claim your podcast and then set the preferred feed. Pirated podcasts have been an issue for a while; if you've been affected, here's how to report a pirated podcast.

And, Jennifer Tribe, Supercast's Head of Marketing, spots a marketing opportunity: "I'd like to note that Supercast was also on the Open Access launch partner list: and we have rolled out our integration (as of Oct 2021). At this point, we're the only subscription platform offering it to all our podcasters."

Michael Mignano, the co-founder of Anchor, appears to now be called "Global Head of Talk Verticals" at Spotify. He had been "Head of Podcaster Mission" for a while, and has also variously been called "Head of Podcasts, Live and Video", and "Head of Creation Platform".

Buzzsprout lost 28 podcasts from its platform last week, but Anchor also lost 28 shows according to our sample of podcasts. Anchor podcasts were (are still?) being produced in a non-compliant format, which makes them unplayable in some podcast apps

Anchor podcasts are unplayable in some podcast apps. Popular podcast app Overcast rushed out an update after files are "now being served as AAC in some way that breaks Apple’s ExtAudioFile API," said developer Marco Arment, which "makes them unplayable in Overcast as downloads, but playable as streams". The fault in Anchor's audio also affects other apps. Arment tweeted more technical details; and 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?" The company hasn't responded.

More new podcast episodes were published last month on Anchor and Buzzsprout than anyone else, with both podcast hosts increasing their market share by more than 1%.

Spotify says that it added 1.2m new podcasts to Spotify's catalogue in 2021. "Anchor continues to drive 80% of the new podcasts being published to Spotify every year", the company says.

Spotify has added star ratings to its app for podcasts; rolling out in their apps from today. Anchor has more details on how to use it.

Do Anchor podcasters find it too hard to get into Apple Podcasts? The Podcast Index's Dave Jones reports that "726,234 Anchor feeds in the index do not have Apple iTunes IDs". The company stopped auto-submitting podcasts to Apple in June, resulting in a significant slow-down for Apple numbers. (Earlier this year, Buzzsprout told us that only 60% of their shows have bothered submitting to Apple).

Data: Around 425,000 new episodes were published on Anchor in November, but the company lost 0.7% market share. In the top ten, the top 8 remains unchanged; Captivate is new at #9, beating Megaphone which remains at #10. (Podnews's Editor is an advisor for Captivate).

This hasn't happened before to our knowledge: Buzzsprout lost the most amount of shows in our sample last week, losing 40 shows overall. Anchor hoovered up 60 shows overall, with Megaphone and Acast also doing well.

Anchor and Spotify are making Paid Podcast Subscriptions available to 400m more people from today, as it expands to 30 countries; another four will be added next week. Listeners get charged in their local currency. You have to host on Anchor, and subscriptions only work on iOS or Android.

Audiobooks are coming to Spotify - the company is to acquire Findaway, an audiobook distributor. Findaway will "enable Spotify to quickly scale its audiobook catalog". It's experimented with audiobooks before: adding classic books, and a bespoke category for spoken word. An app originally called Spooks but now named Zebralution Audiobooks surfaces more than 3,900 audiobooks on Spotify.

Anchor, Spreaker and Buzzsprout published the most new podcast episodes in October, according to new research from John Spurlock. He's overwritten last month's data, but the web archive never forgets.

Data: The Brazilian Podcaster Association has released a survey of podcast creators. 44% host on Anchor; 65% don't monetise their shows in any way.

Spotify's proprietary video podcasts system is "a dumpster fire", says Drew Linsalata, the host of The Anxious Truth. Even though Anchor gave this podcaster early access, it took six days for his podcast's episode to be correctly available on Spotify, during which Anchor support didn't return his emails.

Spotify is to add video podcasts, but probably not as you know them. You can only upload them via Anchor - there's a waitlist to join - and you can only watch the videos in Spotify. None of the video files are visible in RSS feeds, so other podcast apps that deal with video won't be able to show these. (The New Media Show is available in video format, as one example; Apple Podcasts plays the video fine).

The expiration of an old root certificate for Let's Encrypt continues to cause problems with some podcast platforms. NPR, RadioPublic and TuneIn are no longer updating any RSS feeds from Anchor or Feedpress, and others secured with Let's Encrypt. NPR, RadioPublic and TuneIn need to fix their servers to remove the old Let's Encrypt root cert: this fix helped us last week when we had a similar issue.

A market share of podcast hosts based by new episodes has been published for September. John Spurlock's Livewire Labs has produced the data: Anchor published the most new episodes, with Buzzsprout, Spreaker, Libsyn and Soundcloud also in the top five.

Spotify has made a series of announcements about podcast monetisation. First up, top Anchor podcasters in the US can now be part of the Spotify Audience Network. That allows ad-buyers to buy ads on your show, and improves your potential to earn revenue. These ads are called "Automated ads", since they'll be automatically inserted: if you're with Anchor, you can join the waitlist today.

In case you missed an email, Anchor "identified an issue that caused plays to be undercounted between Sep 8-14". It recalculated all data on Sep 21.

"We believe the future of podcasting is interactive", says Spotify. The answer, it suggests, is through proprietary Q&A and Polls, which it has launched through Anchor - here's a video of the process. Q&A and Polls are "only available in select markets", and, it goes without saying, only work in Spotify.

Podcasting on Anchor? We've discovered a bug: they're using outdated ISO 639:1988 language codes, which were changed in 1989 for Indonesian ("id", not "in"), Hebrew ("he", not "iw"), and Yiddish ("yi", not "ji") - so caution if you're podcasting in Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world. The RSS specification calls for ISO 639-1 codes ("en"), or optional country subcodes used in the W3C's standard ("en-GB").

Spotify will now let all US-based Anchor podcasters sell podcast subscriptions. They have added more price points, and - if a listener opts-in - publishers will have their email address. Unlike Apple, you can't subscribe in-app: and also unlike Apple, Spotify won't take any revenue cut (after payment platform fees) until 2023, when it'll be just 5%. International listeners gain access to paid content next month; and international creators can sell shows "shortly after".

Anchor now has more than 1.7m RSS feeds in the Podcast Index (1,711,303). 244,642 have updated in the last 90 days (14.2%).

Spotify has expanded "Music and Talk" shows to fifteen more countries, including Germany the Philippines and Brazil. The service also has a new look. Here are a few examples, which mix music and talk (exclusive to the Spotify platform): Brad Hill's Take Cover, which in this episode plays a set of cover versions of Billie Jean; and Tom Webster's Deep Six, playing six songs that have flutes in them.

Last week, we saw an overall 84 shows migrate to Spotify's Anchor and Megaphone. Excepting Podiant’s migrations to Castos, Libsyn was the paid-for podcast host losing the most shows in our sample.

Last week, we saw an overall 70 shows migrate to Anchor and Megaphone. Excepting Podiant's migrations to Castos, Libsyn lost the most shows, losing 15 overall.

In The Verge, Ashley Carman writes about shortform audio as the future for social networks. Beams, Quest, Pludo, Soundbites and Racket are all mentioned; not mentioned, the many failed/pivoted audio social networks, which include "Twitter for audio" app Audioboo (now Audioboom), and... Anchor.

RSS is the only way to reach everyone, and the only way to make money everywhere, according to Acast CEO Ross Adams, giving five reasons why you need an RSS feed for your show. Meanwhile, Anchor is preparing to only give you an RSS feed for your podcast if you ask for one.

In future, Anchor will only make RSS feeds for new podcasts if you specifically ask for one, it has announced. The company will also no longer submit new podcasts to Apple Podcasts under its own account, leaving you to do that yourself. Spotify distribution is unaffected. Last week, Podnews discovered that only 19% of shows on Anchor are still being made.

Myth-busting: is Anchor really full of dead shows? And does it matter if it is? We examine the data for the major podcast hosts, to see if Anchor is any different: and whether it makes a difference anyway.

Last week, Anchor hoovered up plenty of paid-for podcasts, but also lost plenty too, according to our sample. SoundCloud was the biggest loser, with 20 losses; Megaphone was the paid podcast host gaining the most shows.

Podpraat reports that Anchor has deleted a musician's podcast account because he put his own music in it.

Last August, we reported that Anchor was hosting pirate podcasts; and today Jake Warren says that Message Heard's Finding Natasha is one of those - copied and available, with a random piece of generic art, on Anchor, then syndicated to Apple and Spotify. Curiously, the Anchor pirate has edited the audio to remove any mention of Message Heard…

CNN is to make a new show, The Handoff, as an Apple Podcasts Subscriptions exclusive when the service launches later this month. Hosted by friends and CNN anchors Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, it will be a longer chat than their usual 'handoff' between shows normally allows for. It's part of "a subscription to the CNN channel" on Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.

We asked whether Anchor/Spotify is likely to share names/email addresses of subscribers. They said: "In order to make this product truly creator-first, it’s crucial to our model that we explore ways for participating creators to connect with their subscribers. This is something we’re working on. You can imagine it may come in the form of existing Future Format features such as Polls and Q&As exclusive to subscribers, or with direct communication from creators to their subscriber base. We don’t have any specific details at this time, but will share more as the program progresses."

We believe that Anchor uses this tool to automatically add shows into Apple Podcasts without content approval (an arrangement both companies deny), so this special access, too, may cease at the end of May.

Spotify has announced their Paid Subscriptions service, which is hosted on Anchor. NPR is a launch partner, as we reported last week. Unlike Apple, who will take 30% of your subscription revenue, Spotify "won't charge" until 2023 (after which it's 5%). There are plenty of other things to know, though (indeed, there will be a charge) - see our analysis, below.

From our sample, we saw 1.2% podcasts switching podcast hosting company last week. Libsyn was the biggest loser, down 40 shows overall. Megaphone did best, gaining 41 shows. (Anchor gained 72 overall).

What does Spotify really think of RSS? Michael Mignano, the co-founder of Anchor and "Head of Podcaster" for Spotify, writes about the 'limitations and tradeoffs' with RSS, adding that Spotify is "also interested in pushing the medium of audio beyond the limitations of the RSS standard".

Meanwhile, someone's copied Gervais's exclusive shows off the SiriusXM app and put them onto Anchor, complete with a "support this piracy podcast" button. This isn't the first time.

80% of those abandoned podcasts are hosted on free podcast websites Anchor or Soundcloud, or Spreaker, which offers a free tier.

Spotify has bought Locker Room, an iOS-only live sports audio app. Like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, it will let anyone host audio conversations. It's to rebrand under a new name, and Gustav Söderström, chief R&D officer at Spotify, hints at integration with Anchor and Spotify's podcasts.

One for the test suite: spotted by Dave Jones and hosted by Anchor, this podcast has 11,864 episodes. Gulp.

More than 179 podcasts changed hosting company last week in our sample. The most popular new podcast host was Anchor, gaining three times as many podcasts as its closest competitor.

Back when Luminary launched, Anchor declined to allow its shows to be listed. There must have been a change of heart: there are now plenty of them to be found.

Anchor announced the launch of paid subscriptions later this year. Podcasters will be able to give their supporters additional paid-for features within Spotify. You can sign up for the waitlist. This will be "a limited beta in the US", starting this Spring, we're told. The demo in the announcement shows a podcaster being able to choose from $2.99, $4.99 and $7.99/month subscriptions as price points. Podnews was told that Spotify will take a small cut of the fee.

Ariel Nissenblat has launched a newsletter, Podcast Plunge. Each issue is anchored by a podcast episode, and then focuses on other pieces of internet about the main topic of the show.

Spotify's consumer podcast host, Anchor, has had a redesign. A new 'wave' logo, a new typeface (Maax), and a new direction in photography: "less about podcasting, more about podcasters". And yes, there's a podcast, Branding Out Loud, to hear more.

The .fm top-level domain-name is now most popular with podcasters, according to 2020 data from the company, with Castbox, Anchor, Podsights, Megaphone, Omny Studio, Transistor, and Captivate in the top 15 of a chart of DNS server responses.

The Verge reports that on Anchor, the only sponsor that most podcasts have is Anchor itself. We spoke to one Anchor podcaster, who's had more than 700,000 plays on Anchor over the last 18 months. They've had four sponsors - three podcasts, each of whom paid around $200; and Anchor, who paid $8,600 advertising itself - a $17.50 CPM.

Also from that data: just seven companies host 75% of all podcast feeds in Apple Podcasts: Anchor, Buzzsprout, Feedburner, Libsyn, Podbean, SoundCloud and Spreaker.

BEST EDITING: Stories with Sapphire (Anchor)

the last big piece of M&A activity in podcasting? It was certainly the largest company still available: but there will be more acquisitions on the horizon. In particular, Amazon lacks the long tail that a consumer podcast host can give them - just as Acast bought Pippa, Spotify bought Anchor and SiriusXM bought Simplecast, Amazon could own a host of its own as a way to reach other platforms and to incubate new talent. Amazon also lacks any podcasting ad-tech companies; ART19, which hosts a number of the largest podcasts in the world, remains privately-owned. Let's watch this space.

Anchor powered more than one million show launches in 2020, reports The Verge. "Spotify says Anchor shows account for more consumption, in terms of time spent listening, than any other third-party podcast hosting or distribution provider on its platform." Wow.

A prolonged failure at Amazon AWS caused issues for some podcast hosts as well as many other services: Anchor had to remove its website altogether, while RSS Podcasting also had some issues, as did WNYC. Podcasts, however, remained available throughout; and all services appear now to be up and running.

According to investors Greystone Capital, Libsyn is "cheap, growing, with catalysts on the horizon", adding "unlike Anchor, Megaphone and Wondery, LSYN is profitable, and highly cash generative". Ouch. Libsyn is still looking for a new CEO.

Anchor, the largest podcast host in the world, has achieved IAB Certification for their podcast analytics. Here's their full certificate. We've updated our podcast hosts page. As a small warning: "some podcasters may notice a very slight decline in play counts as a result," the company says; though some that have contacted Podnews have seen significant drops.

Anchor has changed its sponsorship payouts to podcasters. Now, there's a $10 minimum for cash withdrawls, and you'll need to wait four times as long for your initial payments: which may also take longer to get to your bank. The changes have happened at some point since October 7 according to the internet archive, but the date on their documentation still says 2018. (These changes may, however, make Anchor less attractive to those who pirate podcasts on the platform.)

The latest podcast hosting company to support podcast locking is Transistor, who have announced full support. From The Podcast Index, this is a best-practice tag that aims to make podcast piracy harder than just six steps. We'd encourage other podcast hosts to step up.

Want to do a "Spotify Show With Music" but not use Anchor? You can, actually - as a playlist. This playlist uses Spreaker for the talk, and Spotify for the music. It still is only playable in Spotify, though.

We notice that Anchor have now removed our purposefully-pirated podcast. No word on whether they'll support this new tag as yet, though.

After writing about them in his weekly newsletter, Edison Research's Tom Webster has made an Spotify/Anchor Show With Music. "Ultimately, for version 1.0, I was pretty happy with the experience", he says.

Or, here's Anchor/Spotify's solution

Always wanted music in your podcast? Now's your chance. Anchor and Spotify have launched Shows with Music - a chance for proper, full radio-type shows with full tracks. However, shows only appear on Spotify and your listeners only hear the songs in full with Spotify Premium - but musicians do get paid as they would with any other Spotify play. If you're in the US, you can earn with Anchor sponsorships, but you can also upload your own ads, too. Available now in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, episodes containing music will undergo a review process before being published to Spotify.

Marco Arment, the developer of Overcast, has posted concern about the level of piracy on Anchor, and says that he may restrict Anchor shows from appearing in Overcast's search. (Podnews coverage here and here).

Following our story on Tuesday about the ease of podcast piracy using Anchor's tools, podcast host Captivate has announced a safeguard against piracy by triggering a verification email giving the opportunity to cancel any import. (Podnews's Editor is an advisor, though wasn't involved in this new feature).

Exclusive: Anchor's tools make it easy to copy someone else's podcast without them ever knowing, Podnews has discovered. You don't even need to confirm your own email address to produce a new, pirate podcast feed, hosted by Anchor, that you can publish in other places, with your own show description. We take you through their six easy steps to pirate a podcast, and discuss how it ought to work.

Spotify has signed a new exclusive - the Just Break Up podcast. Of note - it was hosted on Libsyn; had a short incubation period on Anchor some time between September 7-14, and then announced its exclusivity a week later on September 21. It'll become exclusive from October 19.

Spotify says the number of shows on its platform has increased by 240% so far in 2020. Since the last International Podcast Day, the number of podcasts created on Anchor, the company’s free podcast host, has increased by more than 380%. Today, the company has launched:

Anchor says it's cracking down on stolen podcasts, after Podnews broke a story last month that many top podcasts were being pirated on the service. "The copycats, Mike Mignano says, found a workaround in Anchor’s detection system," according to the story. We've reported a separate loophole to the company.

Former NBC and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly is to launch her own podcast network "without the constraints or political agendas of other media outlets" - Devil May Care Media's first release will be The Megyn Kelly Show,

On August 17, we reported that Anchor was hosting pirated podcasts. Aaron Mahnke is the latest high-profile podcaster to publicly criticise the platform, after discovering a pirated copy of his new podcast American Shadows on Anchor. "Same art, same description," he adds.

Headliner has added a Chrome Extension to allow you to add social videos from your Anchor account.

UK politician and Edwardian caricature Jacob Rees-Mogg has launched an official UK government podcast, Why Parliament Works. Fittingly, the podcast is hosted on Anchor.

Here's an unnamed tool to automatically upload the audio from videos you post on your YouTube channel to Anchor.

Digiday picks up our story last week about Anchor's piracy problem, and reports in depth about the platform.

Anchor is hosting a large number of pirated podcasts from other publishers, we can reveal today. 30% of all the Podtrac top 20 podcasts are currently being copied on Anchor, according to our searches. The new podcast from NYT/Serial, Nice White Parents, has a further five pirated copies hosted on Anchor, using the original artwork.

An update from Anchor, following our story yesterday that Anchor could automatically delete your account without warning. Anchor say that they do not have an algorithm that automatically deletes duplicates; instead, the company uses a combination of automated and human-detected signals to assess potential infringement, and they tell Podnews that podcasts are always elevated to a human before any action is taken. In the case we reported on, the podcast had "similar content to the Libsyn-hosted Spotify listing", and it had other negative signals which led to its removal.

Exclusive: the robots are coming. Free podcast host Anchor could automatically delete your account without any warning. It happened to experienced podcaster Jonathan Mendonsa - and all for uploading a piece of audio that he owned. And as we went to press, we discovered one reason why. If you're with Anchor, you should probably read it.

Are Anchor podcasters different? Is the platform full of dead podcasts, as some say it is? Podnews takes a look - and discovers a number of differences between Anchor podcasters and those on other podcast hosts.

Anchor has made a fancy shortcut - type podcast.new into a browser to go straight to the episode builder. It's part of Google's ownership of the .new domain.

Spotify is hiring for a senior podcast producer, for all elements "of Spotify’s internal podcasts"; and a Content Operations Associate to "build and manage a team of podcast moderators and curators responsible for keeping the Anchor platform a place for creative, thoughtful, and safe content creation" (More podjobs)

Spotify has launched a set of charts for Top Podcasts and Trending Podcasts, for 26 markets. The Spotify for Podcasters blog contains more detail on how they work (written by the excellent Wil Williams); you'll be given alerts and custom artwork to share the news. Anchor has also shared more detail. Find the charts in the Spotify app - search > browse all > podcasts > categories > podcast charts

Analysis: The podcast market appears to be horizontally consolidating. SiriusXM already owns Pandora and ad-tech company AdsWizz: their acquisition of Simplecast adds a capable podcast host and analytics company, and means they have capabilities in all sectors of the business. They join EW Scripps, who own Omny Studio, Triton Digital, Midroll and Stitcher; Spotify, who own Anchor, Gimlet et al; and Acast, who acquired Pippa and set up their own content studio last year. It's not enough, it seems, to be a great hosting company or a content-creator: the podcast companies of the future appears to need a foot in all parts of the business.

Bandwidth isn't cheap: for many podcast hosts, it's one of the biggest bills they have. We were curious: how much does Anchor add to Spotify's bandwidth bill? Spoiler: it's not as big as you'd think.

In the UK, the BBC has said that they'll open BBC Sounds, their podcast app, to non-BBC podcasts. While others report this as if it's news, the BBC is merely restating their policy, and it has already contained a handful of third-party podcasts. In November 2018 at launch BBC Sounds contained two third-party podcasts; one was heavily edited, missing a third of its episodes and having all commercial content removed.

Start Here from ABC News has an interview with "World News Tonight" Anchor David Muir, who's just sat down with President

If you're wondering: "more than 70% of new podcasts on Spotify were created with Anchor", which may be how they've hit a million so quickly after Apple. Given that some major publishers aren't on Spotify - not least, Serial and most titles from the Australian ABC - it might be accurate to say that Spotify may have over a million podcasts, but not the same 1,036,965 podcasts that are available on Apple.

Free podcast host Anchor has unveiled a new service to turn your online video chats into a podcast. The service appears to work on most video platforms including Zoom, Skype, Facetime, Google Meet and others. (Most digital audio editors also accept files from these services).

Megaphone is apparently moving offices in Reston VA, USA, to a building looking like a sandcrawler from Star Wars. They'll join up to 1,500 salvaged droids the folks from Google, who are the anchor tenant.

Spotify-owned podcast host Anchor has quietly rolled two more improvements out to their service: 301 redirects are now available directly from your dashboard, as well as a method of claiming your podcast stats from Apple Podcasts Connect.

Anchor has announced "new podcast analytics powered by Spotify". The system pulls data available on the Spotify for Podcasters platform into the hosting service.

Anchor's iOS and Android app has been updated with new remote recording features, dubbed Record with Friends 2.0. It's aimed to make it easier to record guests or multi-hosted podcasts.

Pandemic Check In is a podcast to help us all cope, trade tips, and check in with one another. Featuring mental health professionals from Brooklyn Minds, it describes itself as an old-fashioned call-in show. (Western Sound / Anchor)

Podcasting in the Dominican Republic in 2019 is analysed by Robert Sasuke. The Caribbean nation has seen a more than 400% growth in podcasting, mostly driven by Anchor (who host two-thirds of all podcasts there). 40% of podcasts from the country are inactive, though this is better than the global figure of 57%.

With all the news going on, here's a thing to get away from it all. Happy LDN Press are running a collection of short stories read by the authors for listeners to enjoy during their coffee break. "Some stories are dark, some are romantic and we even have some children's stories," they tell us. (Anchor)

We don't use the censored titles in Podnews, so you can compare this Anchor podcast on Apple with our naughtier listing of it; or this Podbean title on Apple with our listing. In both cases, the artwork contains the potty-mouthed word, though. The naughty words are not censored in Castbox, Overcast, Luminary, Podchaser, RadioPublic and Spotify; and this one isn't censored in Google Podcasts either.

Given the new CCPA regulations, you might enjoy Terms & Conditions Apply, which discusses many subjects relevant to online data collection and privacy. (Anchor)

Podcast host Anchor has rolled out new-look profile pages. (Here's one).

The Extinction Rebellion movement is another thing you can thank the UK for - it came from there. However, the movement's last uprising, in October, saw protests and marches across the world: from the Tel Aviv stock exchange to the streets of Quito, from Istanbul to India. Global Warning asks: can the model be applied everywhere? And where are they going wrong? (Anchor)

Five Things is a new podcast from W Magazine. "Hollywood’s brightest sit down with W Magazine’s Editor-at-Large, Lynn Hirschberg, to talk about “Five Things” that have made them who they are." The first guest is Margot Robbie. (Anchor)

24% of all podcasts released in 2019 are in AAC/M4A format (the format Apple recommends). So says podcast host Blubrry, who have looked at MP3 vs AAC format files. However, the company points to M4A being the default for Anchor - and once you remove those, M4A format files only account for 4.3% of 2019's podcasts where podcasters have made a deliberate choice. One of those is ours.

Apple have also published their "best of the year" lists. Anchor gets a mention in a "app trend of the year" for storytelling; TechRadar reports that they've chosen podcasts too: NPR's White Lies as "best true crime show", Carrier as "best fiction show", and 1619 as "best history show", though we can't see where.

It's increasingly easy to stay within your 'bubble' - but Over The Edge seeks, instead, to discuss and understand other peoples' viewpoints on controversial subjects. Recent episodes focus on immigration and the race for President; future ones will tackle healthcare and illicit drugs. (Anchor)

There were over 11,100,000 new podcast episodes in 2018. Listen Notes have developed a new "stats" page, looking into their database of podcasts (which appears to include all in Apple Podcasts). 21% of podcasts are hosted at Anchor, and a further 11% at Soundcloud, the results show. (Some great data for any pitching documents!)

A wild Pokémon podcast has appeared! EXP. Share features two friends who play every generation of Pokémon game, gym by gym. Future seasons will see the hosts take on every game in the Pokémon franchise (so we've possibly a while to wait until that vague disappointment of finding yet another Zubat). Episodes drop every Tuesday. (Anchor)

This is who we are is a music podcast (and new album) from Sean Watkins. During each episode, Sean plays the studio track from his new album and follows it up with an intimate conversation with the artist who inspired the song. Guests include Jackson Browne, Inara George, Peter Asher, Kate Micucci and more. (Campfire Media / Anchor)

Websleuths is the biggest true-crime forum for citizen sleuths, and owner Tricia Griffith has teamed up with Jessica Everleth, an Emmy-nominated executive producer, to produce a podcast series featuring breaking news, high profile and unsolved cases, crowd solving, and exclusive guests such as true crime authors, filmmakers, investigators, and other experts. (Anchor)

The Chad Whittle Podcast speaks to media professionals: his guests have included reporters for ABC television, sports hosts, and the latest features Podnews's Editor. (Anchor)

Anchor has launched a product to produce trailers for your podcast. Here's an example.

JetBlue, a US airline, has signed a deal with Spotify for podcasts in their in-flight entertainment system. As the airline’s exclusive podcast partner, the agreement will bring podcasts from Anchor, Gimlet, Parcast and Spotify Studios to seatback screens.

Are you a mess? Do you like jokes? Are you like, literally, everyone else in the world and love music? Then you’ll love Barely Composed, we're told: During each episode, Stacey Hardke, Dahlya Glick, and Gabi Van Horn chat with fellow comedians and musicians and attempt to create a brand new musical-comedy hit within sixty minutes. (Camp Fire Media / Anchor)

New independent series MOONFACE debuts tomorrow. It's a generational coming-of-age story between an Korean American son and his immigrant mother. He wants to finally open up to her by coming out, except they can’t speak the same language. All episodes are released tomorrow; creator James Kim is a producer for Gimlet. (Anchor)

Season three of I Burn Everything, a podcast about food and relationships, has launched. Hosted by actor Stevie Nelson and writer and comic Dave Horwitz, Noël Wells, an actor, writer and musician, is this week's guest. (Campfire Media / Anchor)

USA Today, a US newspaper, writes up how to record and publish a podcast for free.

Mark Egan, a video trainer, notes that it "looks like “The Office” is no longer the most epic media production to come out of the Slough Trading Estate", linking to this picture and the EstateLife Podcast. (Anchor)

Spreaker Prime: Frozen Truth is a deep dive, on-the-ground investigation of a new mystery each season. The most recent season investigated the 1995 disappearance of television news anchor, Jodi Huisentruit, from the parking lot outside her apartment in Mason City, Iowa. They’re using Spreaker Prime to increase exposure and maximize monetization.

Spotify is apparently promoting Anchor within its app - a "Create a Podcast" button is appearing at the top of the podcasts section for some users.

Creativity can be your best friend - but also your worst enemy. Right to the Source is hosted by successful songwriters Sarah Hudson (who wrote this) and Evan “Kidd” Bogart (who wrote this): they "dive deep inside the minds of other creative beings". (Anchor)

ArtsVote 2020 is a US politics podcast, being hosted by musician Ben Folds. (Anchor)

Emma's Diary features stand-up comedian and actor Emma Willmann, in a daily podcast recorded from wherever she happens to be. (Anchor)

News doesn't have to be miserable and negative. In Happier News is a weekly roundup of positive and happier news stories, from a TV news reporter who spent years reporting the negative. (Anchor)

Black Enterprise focuses on the team behind Earn your Leisure, which was launched in January, now has "more than 6,500 subscribers". (Anchor)

Anchor has written how listeners can support podcasts by their friends and family - a good post to surreptitiously share.

Anchor has brought their smart background music feature to the web as well as their own apps.

Following our story yesterday about Anchor seeming to bypass the Apple approval process, Anchor have responded denying that's happening; and other podcaster publishers confirm that they are able to bypass the approval process. We've updated the story.

Exclusive: Spotify-owned podcast host Anchor is seemingly bypassing the Apple Podcasts approval process, and this lets their users post tests and even illegal copyright material un-checked to Apple Podcasts and others, we've discovered.

Kyle Bylin writes about the future of podcasting in Hybebot, guessing what Spotify might do with its purchase of Anchor. Some interesting ideas.

A transgender woman and her wife have launched a podcast about life as an LGBT+ family. Our Life in Transition is about becoming parents, and the changes that come along with transitioning from a straight couple to one with a trans partner. (Anchor)

When We Got To The Seventh is a new fiction podcast about reaching the seventh thing… it could be a marriage, a planet, a house guest, a victim, an answerphone message - anything at all. Every podcast episode tells a new story featuring a different character. (Anchor)

In India, the Economic Times highlights podcasts in the language of Kannada, spoken by over 43m people in the South West of the country. Here's an example - Cricket Kannadiga, hosted by Anchor.

My stuttering life follows husband, father, USAF Gulf War Veteran, and entrepreneur Pedro Pena on life with all its trials and tribulations as a person who stutters. (We do too, so good luck!) (Anchor)

Your Weekly Tech Update with Ray McNeal is celebrating episode 100. It features "the newest, coolest and most mind boggling side of tech available on the interwebs", and in episode 100, Ray hikes Phillip Island VIC, Australia. (Anchor)

Anchor have launched a new feature letting listeners leave voice messages for podcast hosts.

Spotify paid €50m (US$55m) for Parcast, their financial results say. More than 50,000 shows have been submitted through their podcast portal - and there are 250,000 podcasts in their system overall (the differences being Anchor's catalogue, presumably, as well as automated API-driven submissions from partner hosts like Libsyn or Omny Studio). Apple has over 700,000.

Luminary, the self-styled "Netflix of podcasting", launches officially today. As The Verge points out, Luminary doesn't have The Daily from the New York Times in it - an in-app message grumpily recommends alternative podcasts. Podcasts from Spotify, Gimlet Media and Anchor are also unavailable. Perhaps surprisingly, it does contain BBC content. The Verge's Dieter Bohn calls this "the upcoming podcast wars".

The Primary Ride Home is a new daily podcast from Ride Home Media, "the daily news podcast company". The podcast, hosted by Chris Higgins, is updated for 5pm every day. It's the second podcast from the company; the first was Techmeme Ride Home, a tech news podcast. (Ride Home Media / Anchor)

Anchor now lets you share Anchor podcast episodes and profiles direct to a Snapchat story, which will link back directly so anyone who sees your story can immediately listen in their preferred podcast app. Meanwhile, podcast host Pinecast has partnered with Headliner to provide Pinecast customers with one-click access to create social videos directly within their platform.

Spotify's acquisitions of Anchor, Gimlet and Parcast are analysed by Meghan Keaney Anderson from HubSpot.

As Podnews was sending yesterday, Spotify announced it will buy Parcast, a podcast production house. Spotify purchased Gimlet and Anchor earlier this year. Meanwhile, Gimlet management has "effectively refused to voluntarily recognise" their proposed union, according to the union's twitter feed.

Anchor has added analytics metrics to its mobile app, so you can even check your download numbers on the loo bus.

Anchor has produced, with training company SkillShare, a free introductory course on podcasting.

Anchor has released a newly redesigned statistics dashboard, including a new metric: Estimated Audience Size - the average number of plays your episodes get within 30 days after publishing.

Can Anchor be "the YouTube of Podcasts", asks The Verge. #thesomethingofpodcasts

Nick Quah analyses the recent Luminary launch announcement - there's much that he considers a wild gamble. Meanwhile, The Verge covers Spotify's strategy.

What happens when people leave their regular routine and comfort zone and find themselves far from home, in foreign places and cultures unknown to them? 22.33 tells the life-changing stories that result. (Anchor)

How much did Spotify pay for Anchor? Spotify's filing with the SEC says (right at the bottom) that "the Group entered into agreements to acquire Gimlet Media Inc. and Anchor FM Inc. for purchase consideration totalling approximately €300 million, primarily in cash." That's US $338m; so if Gimlet went for $230m, as Nick Quah reported, then Anchor looks like it went for $100m.

MG Siegler, who is General Partner at Google Ventures, the investment arm of Google (and properly known as GV these days), writes about the Anchor deal. GV invested in Anchor; Siegler also personally invested in Gimlet.

Our informed Anchor purchase price of $50m? We've now heard a few others claiming $25m. Either way, it was significantly smaller than Gimlet; which many found surprising.

Relax, Reply All listeners. Here's a full transcript of the investor's call - including Daniel Ek saying: "Just to be very clear, the goal is not with Gimlet nor with Anchor to make any of their existing content exclusive, but to focus on the content that we're developing at Spotify and make more exclusive deals going forward."

Anchor now allow you up to three podcast sponsorships per episode with their Anchor Podcast Sponsorships service. "Placing three segments all together in the middle of your episodes is, for most podcasts, likely going to be the most efficient path to profit," the company advise.

The Europeans covers the most interesting stories and most fascinating people from Europe. (And no Brexit! Yay!) Hosted by a reporter in Paris and an opera singer in Amsterdam, it's back for season three. (Anchor)

Apple have released a set of online video adverts for the new iPad, including how to make a podcast on one. The ad highlights the Anchor app.

Podcast host Anchor claims that the number of podcasts carrying ads doubled last month, thanks to Anchor Sponsorships. The company is also keen to point out that they power 40% of all new podcasts (and it's estimated that they have 70,000 shows). However, according to recent data analysis seen by Podnews, over 93% of Anchor shows have already "podfaded", and haven't had a new episode in the last month. (Question: is it good to have over 60,000 abandoned shows from Anchor in podcast directories?)

Discoverpods gives us their 2018 listicle compilation - 312 podcasts have been mentioned on 'best of' articles at the end of this year. Anchor's team also tell us their favourite podcasts of 2018.

The team behind Anchor post their look back at podcasting in 2018. "As an industry, we’ve spent the year in limbo with regards to determining the best ways to make podcasting a viable business financially. The good news is that out of this uncertainty, many different business models have emerged and are continuing to evolve."

Anchor's design team have posted their design principles for their apps, where they design a "look that makes podcasting fun rather than complicated". The company also has a new support manager, Vincent Carbellano.

Anchor has shared how to record great podcast ads, meant for their own podcast sponsorship service (but applicable for all of us).

Anchor is a divisive podcast host. Rebel Base Media's Mark Asquith thinks they aren't the villain in the podcasting story that the podcasting elite would claim they are.

Lots of data about podcasts in Puerto Rico. The most popular hosts for the podcasts surveyed are Anchor, Libsyn and iVoox.

Anchor launched Sponsorships yesterday. The company says: "Anchor Sponsorships gets podcasters paid by matching them with sponsors and helping them easily create custom advertisements for their shows. It’s a new world for podcast advertising, and anyone can be part of it." - not quite "anyone", since the feature is currently limited only to US podcasters. Sponsorships are host-read, and based on a cost-per-thousand basis based on plays. Anchor takes 30%.

The CEO of podcasting company Anchor, Michael Mignano, writes that No, Anchor doesn't own your podcast, highlighting the company's new, clarified terms of service. Much of the original terms date from Anchor's first outing as an audio social network; they've been clarified and "what it means" sections have been added.

Podcast app Pocket Casts have unveiled an entirely redesigned app for iOS, Android and the web (including new macOS and Windows apps). Highlights include a brand-new 'discover' section which is geo-aware, listening history, and more. The iOS version is available now; the Android version is in opt-in public beta; there is coverage in The Verge and CNet Libsyn report Pocket Casts was the #7 podcast app in September, with 1.42% of all downloads; Anchor suggests it's the #5 app, with 0.9%; it's based in Adelaide in Australia, but owned by a consortium of US public radio broadcasters.

Spotify, which is the #2 podcast platform according to Anchor and Libsyn, is testing shareable podcast playlists. A test has been seen by My Spotify Ideas which allows users to share individual podcast episodes (and, like all playlists, ask for the entire playlist to be downloaded). The test has disappeared.

Players is a new crossover podcast with former ESPN sports anchor Lindsay Czarniak. "She connects with the biggest names in country music and beyond about perhaps the only thing as important to them as music.. sports." (Cadence13)

Profoundly Pointless, by news anchor Nick VinZant, is a show in two parts. "The Profound part features fascinating interviews with everyone from athletes and celebrities to professional domintrixes and dinosaur hunters. The Pointless part seeks to answer life's greatest questions." (Podbean)

Dissect, a podcast "about the albums you love", has launched a Spotify-exclusive miniseries about The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. (Cole Cuchna/Spotify/Anchor)

Anchor is promising to build a podcast studio in your office for free. If you're in New York, and if you pay for the equipment.

Anchor has a new Head of Content Partnerships: Armand Wilson.

Anchor has unveiled a new tool to help with podcasting: this time, the company have launched a cover art creator, working with Unplash.

Ashley Graham, a "supermodel, style icon and barrier-breaking body activist", has launched a new podcast called Pretty Big Deal. Her first guest is Kim Kardashian West, who we reported discovered podcasts earlier this year.

Podcast app Anchor has added 'smart background music' to their service. You can choose music by style or keyword, and it will be edited into your podcast with auto-dipping.

PodcastAddict is now adding "support this podcast" links, the author announces. At the start, the app is looking for Patreon, Tipeee and Anchor links, rather than the rel="payment" standard.

Women Belong in the House is all about "the record number of women running for office this November". (Wonder Media Network / Anchor)

What is really the top hosting service? After feedback, Chartable have re-examined their numbers in an illuminating blog post. Of note: just 2.8% of podcasts are measured by Podtrac; Libsyn is hosting 28.2% of top podcasts, and Anchor is easily the most popular host over the last six months - even limiting it to podcasts with more than ten episodes.

There might be about 540,000 shows in Apple Podcasts, but they're not all active. In fact, according to Todd Cochrane from Blubrry, 75% of podcast [shows] are no longer in production, he tells Stephen Goldstein - a phenomenon known as "podfade". Separately, Chartable's hosting data suggests only 16% of podcasts on the free podcast host Anchor have published more than 9 episodes: that figure rises to 77% of podcasts hosted on the paid platform Libsyn. (Anchor is considerably younger, of course.)

A correction - yesterday Podnews said that Anchor podcasters "were not subject to the same approval process as others". We were wrong: Anchor podcasts are subject to the same manual Apple Podcast Approval; although they're all posted under Anchor's account, which is a different process from other hosts. We've amended the post.

Anchor appears to have been responsible for 33% of all new podcasts over the last six months. Anchor (who offers free accounts) automatically posts all new podcasts to Apple through Anchor's own Podcasts Connect account, so Anchor podcasts were not subject to the same process as others.

Following announcements last week from Overcast and Anchor about donate links - RadioPublic is also supporting calls to action.

Anchor's Listener Support (Aug 10) is now natively supported in podcast apps, the company has just announced. "Support on Anchor" buttons are now visible in versions of Breaker and RadioPublic, with support from Castro and Podcast Addict promised shortly. Podnews also already supports Anchor's Listener Support links - here's an example. Anchor is also marking up these links using the rel="payment" pattern so they'll be visible in a future release of Overcast.

Marco Arment, the developer of iOS podcast app Overcast, has announced forthcoming support of a new "payment" link for podcasts - a big green payment button will appear in the next version of Overcast to clearly link to donation pages. It's a simple tag in your show notes, now explicitly supported by Omny Studio and Fireside, and Anchor have also said they'll support it. We already display it in our podcast pages (here's an example). Here's how to add one.

Anchor have announced Anchor Listener Support. It lets listeners pay a monthly pledge ($1, $5, $10) for your podcasts through Apple Pay or Google Pay. Including payment costs, fees are 9.5% plus $0.10 per transaction; Patreon takes 0.5% more. Listeners can be anywhere and can use any app to listen, but Listener Support is only available to Anchor creators in the US.

Podcast host Transistor launched yesterday, offering hosting, analytics, and distribution for folks who are using podcasts to build their brand and grow their audience. It became #1 on Product Hunt; and has posted guides on their product's features vs Anchor, vs Spreaker and Simplecast. They've also added a article on how to find an idea for your show.

Is Anchor a threat to existing podcast hosts, or growing the market? Padraig from Castro has analysed the data. Separately, Anchor has announced a revamp of their mobile editing tools.

A new podcasting tool, currently in beta: Synth. "Synth transforms podcasting into tiny, 2 minute threadable pieces that are conversational, embeddable and playable back-to-back." (See also the original Anchor and the original Audioboo.)

Anchor have launched new podcast sharing controls, containing - for Anchor users - "links to your podcast everywhere it’s available". They give this example.

MacObserver claims that Anchor - a popular podcast host - owns your podcast according to its terms and conditions.

Anchor have released its first podcast editing app for iPads. It's free, and available now in the Apple App Store. It's compatible with external (lightning) microphones, deals with multitasking and does drag and drop. The company calls it "the world’s first-ever end-to-end podcasting solution for iPad".

Anchor, a podcast platform, no longer resamples audio files uploaded to the service, and defaults to stereo - a 'huge upgrade', according to the company.

Anchor highlight how to market podcasts. Interesting: "Using the word “podcast” or your show’s title in the description could prevent it from being promoted on third party distribution platforms."

Anchor launches "mobile importing" on its mobile app - a way of using audio clips you already have on your phone.

Podcast app/host Anchor is producing a weekly show on SiriusXM, a satellite radio network in the US, called This Week on Anchor. It will feature podcasters from throughout the Anchor service.

Anchor have written up a look at the first week of their Cohosts feature, which finds people to record a podcast with. They've also edited together a nice overview of what it sounds like, from podcasts on their platform.

Anchor launched a feature called Cohosts, which helps aspiring podcasters find a cohost that shares their interests. Their CEO, Michael Mignano, did an AMA on Reddit answering questions about the feature and the product in general. (I, of course, had a question).

Anchor has launched a new tool to produce highlight videos for social media - now available on desktop as well as mobile. (As an aside: we'd love to share comparative stats when people use these tools vs just sharing a link to a podcast).

HotPod 153 is out. Nick is keen that you start preserving your podcasts, and also looks into the new Anchor.

A Lifehacker journalist writes how to make a podcast on your phone, using Anchor's newly redesigned app.

Podcast app Anchor has launched v3.0 of their app. Its focus is now on podcasting says The Verge, rather than simply sharing audio; RAIN notes that it now offers distribution to Spotify as well as Apple and Google.

Interesting idea: a (part-time) news anchor quits his job and rides for ride-sharing company Lyft - recording his passengers' stories and turning them into a podcast.

"The Best New App for Entrepreneurs to Record Podcasts" - you guessed it, it's Anchor.

Anchor, a rapidly-iterating podcast publishing platform on smartphones, gets $10m in funding.

Anchor announces "an easier way to edit audio on mobile". It doesn't use a waveform - instead, it uses word-by-word transcription, so editing is theoretically as easy as selecting a word.

Anchor tweaks their automated videos, which help share audio on social media platforms.

Another day, another service to make audio files into video files. This time, it's Anchor, the app that appears to either be rapidly expanding or has a damn good PR team.

Anchor has launched a migration service to allow podcasters to switch hosts. Free, and with plans to share revenue from preroll ads later.

Anchor, a "push to talk" type app - like the original AudioBoo, in many respects - now interfaces with Apple Podcasts and Google Play Podcasts. "Coming soon" - an RSS feed. Caution: they're doing this under their Apple/Google accounts, not yours, so don't expect any analytics.