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October 21, 2024:
    Podnews keeps an eye on shows moving from one podcast host to another, and it’s worth a peek every so often. Spotify for Podcasters gains a lot of shows, but has a high churn rate, losing around half the number of the shows it gains. In the last thirty days, Simplecast, Captivate and Acast are the other winners; Soundcloud, Omny Studio, Libsyn and Buzzsprout are the losers.
October 18, 2024:
    Captivate has relaxed limits on its private podcasts feature. Now, every podcaster can have up to 100 private podcasts and up to 50,000 private subscribers.
October 14, 2024:
    Small Ball with Kenny Beecham is now with Vox Media. The show is hosted by YouTube star and NBA superfan Kenny Beecham, and provides year-round basketball coverage and publishes weekly on Fridays during the NBA season, Beecham will share his unique insights through game analysis, player stories, and more. Vox Media will look after sales, marketing, and distribution; the show was formerly with Captivate.
September 27, 2024:
    In the Podnews Weekly Review this week, we talk to Mark Asquith from Captivate about his company's new Spark AI product; and more about the decision by Spotify to close Chartable.
September 25, 2024:
    Growth-oriented podcast host Captivate has launched Captivate Spark AI, what it calls a “fully integrated AI assistant”. The tool delivers transcripts, episode titles and suggested times for ad breaks: and will also suggest potential new guests and episode subjects, as well as trend analysis. The tool is charged at $1/hour for transcription: transcripts are compatible with Apple Podcasts and Pocket Casts.
September 20, 2024:
    Small Town Dicks is back for its fifteenth season. today. With over 50 million downloads to date, the show continues to captivate listeners by exploring big-time crime in small towns worldwide through in-depth, first-hand accounts from the detectives who cracked each case.
September 18, 2024:
September 4, 2024:
    Ashley Flowers is back with So Supernatural, in a new partnership with Crime House from Max Cutler’s PAVE Studios and audiochuck media. The show was a Spotify exclusive with Parcast; it now has two additional hosts, Yvette Gentile and Rasha Pecoraro, and will “dive deeper into the mysteries that captivate our imaginations and challenge our understanding of reality”. It launches on Friday.
August 26, 2024:
    Above - what a request from the Apple Podcasts web player looks like, as seen by OP3. The user-agent looks like a browser; but the “referer” header makes it clear that this is coming from Apple Podcasts. Many podcast hosting companies (Ausha, Buzzsprout, Spreaker, Captivate and Transistor), and OP3, are using the referer to count these as Apple Podcasts downloads.
August 22, 2024:
August 20, 2024:
    Statistics in your podcast host - We asked a variety of podcast hosts. Ausha, Buzzsprout and Spreaker will correctly list this as Apple Podcasts. Omny Studio lists this separately as an Apple Podcasts website play. Captivate, Podbean, Megaphone, Spotify for Podcasters and RSS.com will list this as a browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc).
August 1, 2024:
July 23, 2024:
July 17, 2024:
July 16, 2024:
    Captivate is doing a live unveiling of Captivate 2.5, the company’s new dashboard and some new features, on a live stream at 4pm UK time (11am ET). Captivate's Mark Asquith, co-founder and Managing Director, Garry Aylott, Head of Design, and Danny Brown, Head of Podcaster Experience will all be speaking.
July 10, 2024:
    In & Around Podcasting ask whether "value 4 value" is dead (by which they really are talking about streaming SATs, not the concept itself). It's a good listen, with Captivate's Mark Asquith and Danny Brown, joined by Mathew (one 't') Passy.
May 3, 2024:
    In the Podnews Weekly Review this week, Kevin Finn talks about "fanmail", a new way for listeners to get in touch with Buzzsprout podcasters. Plus, Captivate's Mark Asquith talks about the YouTube integration the company has worked on this week.
May 1, 2024:
April 29, 2024:
April 22, 2024:
    Last week, Libsyn was recertified under the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2.1. Captivate and Buzzsprout were last certified under v2.0 in 2020, but both companies are in the process of recertification.
April 19, 2024:
April 18, 2024:
March 6, 2024:
    As one open standard gets integrated by Apple (the transcript), another has been integrated by Spreaker. The company now supports podping, a near-instant way of communicating to podcast directories that you’ve published a new episode. Already supported by companies like Buzzsprout, Blubrry, Transistor, RSS.com and Captivate (and us!), the addition of Spreaker adds a signficant number of shows, says John Spurlock.
March 4, 2024:
    In & Around Podcasting is a new show launching today from Mark Asquith. A fight against the "podcast elite", and built to be an accessible, inclusive podcast for every single podcaster, it allows everyone with an interest in the medium to have a fair, open and transparent view on the podcasting industry and how it affects them. It's hosted - where else? - on Captivate.
January 17, 2024:
January 8, 2024:
    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.
December 14, 2023:
    Growth-orientated podcast host Captivate has launched an analytics migration tool, which pulls in the data from a podcaster’s previous host as they move over to Captivate. The tool should smooth one pain-point for podcasters looking to switch hosting companies.
December 6, 2023:
December 5, 2023:
    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).
November 29, 2023:
October 5, 2023:
September 25, 2023:
July 6, 2023:
    Naughty step, part 1: Podcast hosting company Podbean is misleading Google users searching for its competitor, Captivate. A search for "Captivate FM" returns (in third place when we looked) a paid result from Podbean impersonating the company, against Google Ads policy and US trademark law. Podbean didn't respond to Podnews's enquiries this week; the misleading ads are still running.
July 3, 2023:
June 28, 2023:
June 7, 2023:
    The King Road Killings: An Idaho Murder Mystery is new from ABC Audio, investigating a set of savage murders that captivated and horrified the nation at the end of last year in Moscow ID, USA. The final two episodes will include real-time updates from investigators revealed in the preliminary hearing for the accused murderer.
May 19, 2023:
    The Podnews Weekly Review this week includes interviews with Mark Asquith of Captivate on the company's new monetisation tools, Oscar Merry of Fountain on the new version of the app, and Martin Mouritzen on the new version of Podfriend.
May 17, 2023:
    Podcast hosting and analytics platform Captivate has launched a new membership and tipping product, allowing podcasters to launch subscriptions and receive income directly from listeners. The company also launched the “Captivate Creator Suite,” a toolkit that brings together Captivate’s market-leading workflow and revenue tools.
May 5, 2023:
    The Podcast Accelerator has returned after a haitus. In the first episode, host Mark Asquith (who also runs podcast host Captivate) takes some time talking about why he took a break.
March 29, 2023:
March 28, 2023:
March 24, 2023:
    In the Podnews Weekly Review, Sam Sethi is back from skiing, and we talk to Captivate co-founder and CEO Mark Asquith about his company's recent embrace of the new podcast namespace. We also discuss YouTube's recent announcements.
March 13, 2023:
    Thanks to boosts from Mike Dell - "Vegas Boost! Good to see you!", he says; Dave Jones, who says "Yay, Captivate!" at the news that the podcast host was adding more podcasting 2.0 features; and Adam Curry, "value received and returned". Boost us with your comments in Fountain or other new podcast apps.
March 7, 2023:
January 19, 2023:
December 26, 2022:
    In Dec 2021, Adobe revealed Project Shasta, which we noticed in Oct 2022 had rebranded to Adobe Express Podcast. It's now branded Adobe Podcast beta, and offers a mix of Descript-like "Edit words, not waveforms", SquadCast-like "Remote recording", and Auphonic-like "AI-powered audio" - and there's a waitlist on the website. But how does it compare to the market leaders? From Castos, Matt Medeiros gives it a full review.
December 19, 2022:
    Captivate supports OP3, and has done for a while. (Many other podcast hosts let you type in prefixes yourself; "support" means additional UX to help you add services like this).
December 9, 2022:
December 2, 2022:
    YouTube has launched a podcast. Like & Describe, YouTube’s first-ever official trends podcast, is of course available on YouTube itself, but also on all podcast platforms. It's hosted by Captivate.
November 14, 2022:
    Thank you to boosts from Adam Curry, 10,000 sats, because he liked the word "lekker" last Friday. ChemistryMadeSimple sent us 567 sats thanking us about the news about Captivate's download limit changes; and to Dave Jones who suggested the IAB's move to annual re-certification is tone deaf. If you get value from Podnews, support us with a boost from your new podcast app.
November 9, 2022:
October 28, 2022:
    Spotted: Adobe's Project Shasta, which we first spotted in Dec 21, appears to now be called Adobe Express Podcast. It's a podcast editor that lets you "edit words, not waveforms", and is in early preview.
September 26, 2022:
September 21, 2022:
August 19, 2022:
    Opinion: SiriusXM claims that Stitcher has transcripts available for "some but not all" podcasts, and has "been working diligently to identify and select the technology to implement closed captioning". Let's save them the time - the solution is the podcast:transcript tag, which is in production in a number of podcast hosts, including Buzzsprout, Captivate and others. An already-supported, creator-friendly, open tool that allows both transcripts and closed-captioning could certainly help.
August 9, 2022:
    Blubrry has partnered with Descript to allow Descript users to publish their edited podcasts directly from the app. Blubrry joins Buzzsprout, Captivate, Castos, Hello audio, Podbean, Podcast·co and Transistor with this functionality. Blubrry publishing is also available directly from Hindenburg.
August 1, 2022:
June 17, 2022:
June 15, 2022:
    Transistor's Justin Jackson has reported Acast to Canadian law enforcement and to Acast's email service provider, after the company targeted Transistor customers. Acast's email provider says that Acast's use is against its terms of service, and Jackson - who has previously worked for an email company - considers the emails are illegal under Canadian law. The company has recently targeted customers from Podbean, Captivate, Blubrry and others, using competitor's logos, and sending multiple follow-up messages to each podcaster. A spokesperson for Acast tells Podnews that the emails are "part of our continuing marketing strategy, which we don't currently plan to change".
June 14, 2022:
June 10, 2022:
    The new episode of Pod Chat released today is with Captivate CEO, Mark Asquith. "The time for exciting things needs to take a break, and we need to get really good at the basics. How do we measure things? How do we make sure that all creators are represented fairly? How do we begin to educate that podcasting is different depending on your scale?"
May 30, 2022:
    Riverside, SquadCast, Restream and Captivate will be adding new integrations with Descript. There's a launch event on June 1 at 12pm ET.
April 19, 2022:
February 2, 2022:
January 17, 2022:
    In the latest episode of The Podcast Accelerator, co-founder Mark Asquith talks about podcast hosting company Captivate's acquisition by Global, and the company's plans for 2022. (Podnews's Editor was an advisor for Captivate).
December 22, 2021:
    New, from Global's podcast hosting company Captivate, comes Captivate Insider - a weekly behind-the-scenes show hosted by Garry Aylott.
December 21, 2021:
    We reported yesterday that podcast hosting company bCast had pulled all "lifetime" accounts with just two weeks notice. The company has now changed its mind, calling the decision "misguided, irresponsible and a mistake"; it's also refunding customers if they bought a new plan.
December 20, 2021:
    Breaking: Media and entertainment group Global has purchased podcast hosting company Captivate. "This acquisition will enable us to support all talent in the podcast community from the very largest to emerging new talent", said Global's Group CEO Stephen Miron. Terms weren't given; company founders Mark Asquith and Kieran McKeefery will remain with the business. Podnews's Editor was an advisor to Captivate.
December 16, 2021:
    The podcast:transcript tag is an open standard, supported by a number of podcasts and offers both static transcripts (in HTML or text) or real-time captions (in the SRT format). It has significant usage already - widely supported by many modern podcast hosts including Captivate, Transistor, Buzzsprout, Omny Studio and others, a number of podcast apps display these transcripts, including the popular Android app Podcast Addict. This open standard enables podcast publishers to produce accurate transcripts for themselves.
December 6, 2021:
December 3, 2021:
    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).
December 2, 2021:
November 16, 2021:
November 8, 2021:
    Player 456 is - and you may not need telling - a show about Squid Game; it's the first from the UK, and takes a deep dive into the Korean show that has captivated the world. Produced by Quite The Thing Media, it's released three times a week.
November 1, 2021:
October 25, 2021:
    Captivate is due to launch AMIE, their dynamic ad and content insertion tool, live on YouTube this Friday at 12pm Eastern. Podnews's Editor is an advisor.
October 1, 2021:
September 30, 2021:
September 28, 2021:
September 23, 2021:
    Podcast Maker Day is today, from podcast host Captivate. It's free for everyone, and includes guest speakers and help launching a podcast.
September 16, 2021:
August 20, 2021:
August 19, 2021:
August 18, 2021:
    Podcast hosting company Captivate is set to unveil a major new feature as part of their Ready, Set, Grow! podcast education summit. It's free today at 11am Eastern, and also has guests James Marriott, Heather Osgood and Kelsey Johnson. Podnews's Editor is an advisor.
June 30, 2021:
    Podcast host Captivate has launched Captivate Growth Labs: described as "an actionable and continually expanding library of courses and workshops diving deep into all facets of podcast marketing, audience growth and monetization". The community is free to all Captivate customers. Podnews's Editor is an advisor.
June 9, 2021:
    Podcast host Captivate has unveiled what it calls Captivate 2.0: a refresh of the user interface, a new trackable short-links tool, an "omni-search" service for quick navigation, and a simpler global one-click distribution service for podcast directories. Mark Asquith, pictured above, told Podnews: "We always wanted to make the real potential of podcasting more accessible to everyday podcasters, and we think the new features and the flexibility that these upgrades offer for the future are a game-changer." Podnews's Editor is an advisor to the company.
June 4, 2021:
May 31, 2021:
May 28, 2021:
May 18, 2021:
May 11, 2021:
May 6, 2021:
April 26, 2021:
    Meanwhile, Podcasting 2.0 chats to Kieran and Mark from Captivate, and "Hydra Podping", which we'll cover when we understand it.
April 12, 2021:
April 5, 2021:
March 31, 2021:
March 30, 2021:
March 24, 2021:
March 5, 2021:
February 24, 2021:
February 19, 2021:
February 16, 2021:
January 26, 2021:
    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.
January 15, 2021:
December 18, 2020:
December 11, 2020:
December 3, 2020:
    Podland, a new weekly podcast about the world of podcasting, launches today - with Sam Sethi and our Editor, James Cridland. This week there's an interview with Captivate's Mark Asquith, too.
November 27, 2020:
November 23, 2020:
October 26, 2020:
October 22, 2020:
    Podcorn, a self-service marketplace connecting podcasters with advertisers for native sponsorships, is announcing new partnership deals with podcast hosts Buzzsprout, Podomatic, RSS, Captivate and Omny Studio. Podcorn claims to have done thousands of campaigns with tens of thousands of podcast creators.
October 8, 2020:
September 25, 2020:
    Captivate has announced a raft of updates to Captivate Sites, the company's free podcast websites for customers. The sites are now customisable, include email optins. (Podnews’s Editor is an advisor).
September 22, 2020:
    Captivate, a podcast host, is to integrate with Zapier, and are looking for beta testers. Zapier allows a number of automation triggers with over 2,000 apps and services - Podnews uses it to post stories to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. (Disclosures)
September 21, 2020:
    Captivate wasn't the first to announce integration with The Podcast Index, as we said on Friday: Fireside was first, implementing that within 24 hours. Sorry.
September 18, 2020:
September 3, 2020:
    Podcast host Omny Studio published a privacy policy for listeners in May, joining Acast, Buzzsprout and Captivate, we discover. No other podcast host has clear privacy policies to explain to listeners what happens to their identifying data when they listen. (Here's ours). Writing personally, our Editor called for these in December 2019: if privacy is as important to some podcast hosts as they claim, we look forward to seeing their privacy policy for listeners, too.
August 17, 2020:
    Podcast host Captivate has added Gaana as a destination - they claim it's India's #1 audio platform; and a link with Podcorn in their new resources section. (Our Editor is on Captivate's advisory board - Disclosures).
July 17, 2020:
July 16, 2020:
June 1, 2020:
May 22, 2020:
    Exclusive: Podcast host Captivate will announce later today that they have achieved IAB Certification for their podcast analytics. The certification was achieved at an "unprecedented pace" according to CEO Mark Asquith, and podcasters will see no significant changes to their reported download numbers. The first UK company to undergo this work, Captivate joins another 10 retail hosts that are certified compliant. (Podnews's Editor is on Captivate's advisory board).
May 15, 2020:
    Podcast host Captivate have added unique listeners to their analytics. Calculated to the IAB v2 standard, they highlight it as "part one of an analytics upgrade". (Disclosures)
April 22, 2020:
April 17, 2020:
    For every review, Podchaser is paying 25 cents to Meals on Wheels America. It's extended its reviews4good program until the end of April. Libsyn and Captivate are also matching all donations for podcasts on their platform, and if a podcast replies to the review, that doubles the money. (Our Editor is on Captivate's advisory board. Disclosures)
April 8, 2020:
    In Captivate's weekly feature release, the podcast host has added XSLT styling for podcast feeds, that removes the confusing jumble of code you normally see when clicking an RSS feed by mistake. Here's an example. (Our Editor is on their advisory board; Podnews smartened up our RSS feed up a few weeks ago too.)
March 16, 2020:
February 6, 2020:
February 5, 2020:
January 22, 2020:
    Podcast host Captivate have added "single subscribe pages" for all podcasts. Here's one. The pages are automatically generated for every podcast hosted on the platform.
December 31, 2019:
December 20, 2019:
    Podcast Gumbo is a new, weekly, podcast from the excellent Paul Kondo, who writes the Podcast Gumbo newsletter. It'll contain three podcast recommendations, in less than five minutes. (Captivate)
December 11, 2019:
    Gravity is a brand new podcast from real estate developer, speaker, writer and advisor Brett Kaufman, featuring thoughtful conversations with people worldwide. (Crate Media / Captivate)
December 10, 2019:
    Podcast host Transistor now supports WebSub, to help get your episodes quicker to podcast apps. Captivate, Simplecast, Zencast, Transistor, Powerpress and Buzzsprout now all support the standard.
December 5, 2019:
November 6, 2019:
November 4, 2019:
    Why do podcast companies try to complicate things?, asks Captivate's Mark Asquith. "Many of the 'old school' people in the industry still try to hold on to podcasting being complicated, generally making newer podcasters feel bad about themselves and treating them like fools. This has to stop," he says.
October 31, 2019:
October 22, 2019:
October 21, 2019:
October 8, 2019:
    Podcast host Captivate now has Spotify passthrough, which means Spotify stats appear in the same place as the rest of stats on the Captivate platform.
September 25, 2019:
    Podcast host Captivate has released a number of enhancements including automatic checking for cover-art size/colourspace, Podchaser ratings, and support for third-party tracking codes. Disclosures
August 30, 2019:
    Podcast host Captivate is now in public beta. Part of Rebel Base Media, it describes itself as the world's only growth-oriented podcast host, and includes a website generation tool and submission services. Disclosures
August 27, 2019:
August 12, 2019:
    Captivate podcast hosting, analytics & marketing from Rebel Base Media have announced their Advisory Board, including Laura Roeder, the Founder of MeetEdgar and well-known podcast "pontificator" Evo Terra, CEO of SimplerMedia. Our Founder and Editor, James Cridland, is also an advisor. Disclosures
August 6, 2019:
July 25, 2019:
    Acast, Buzzsprout, Transistor, Podbean, Captivate and Megaphone are some of the publishers that have switched on the new Apple podcast categories for their users. (We've also shifted to using News > Daily News in our podcast as the primary category.)
July 5, 2019:
    Captivate, a growth-oriented podcast host currently in beta, has just announced Captivate Sites for a podcast website that "looks like it was designed this decade".
November 30, 2018:
    Reflecting planned expansion at the company, the owner of Podcast Websites is now known as Rebel Base Media, with Podcast Websites making up one product within a suite of platforms created to help podcasters grow their audience and their audio influence. Today, they announced a new "growth-orientated" podcast hosting platform, Captivate·FM. The service is open for pre-registration in preparation for launch in January 2019.

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