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November 18, 2024:
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John McDermott from Calaroga Shark Media is quite critical. For podcasters: “Do video if you wish. Do audio if you wish. But I don’t think this announcement wasn’t meant for you.”
November 12, 2024:
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One year old this month, Beifahrersitz is a German-language newsletter about what it’s really like to have your own podcast. Denise Fernholz shares her numbers and her experiences growing her own show. There’s a new edition today; last week, she read Tom Webster’s book.
November 5, 2024:
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Chris Stone writes about The New Statesman’s YouTube channel. Leaning into producing full video podcasts has reaped significant rewards - even among the older audience that the channel has.
November 4, 2024:
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Frank Racioppi writes Five Ways That Podcasters Are Their Own Worst Enemy, Way #2 says that podcasts have become 22% longer in the last five years: nobody likes a flabby, unedited podcast. We agree.
October 30, 2024:
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Apple Podcasts offers some great opportunities for artwork - but only if you know about them all. Chris Stone has produced a simple guide to Apple Podcasts artwork, which is well worth a read. It’s part of his weekly newsletter.
October 28, 2024:
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A new podcast newsletter has launched - the Indian Podcast List. The newsletter shares five Indian podcasts to your inbox every week.
October 17, 2024:
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Canadian podcast newsletter Pod the North publishes The 10 Best Canadian Podcasts of 2024.
October 1, 2024:
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Ant Smith is the viral editor behind the video trailers for Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO. Callum McDonnell breaks down Ant’s approach to the trailers and how they’ve driven a lot of the show’s success.
September 27, 2024:
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Adam Carolla is to release a new show, “Beat It Out”, as an exclusive show on Substack. You’ll need to be a paid subscriber to listen.
August 23, 2024:
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Samantha Hodder interviews David Modigliani on how he produced the “creative non-fiction” show, Pack One Bag for Lemonada Media.
August 20, 2024:
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Africa Podfest, the pan-African podcast festival, is to close according to co-founder Melissa Mbugua. For five years, the organisation worked with over four thousand podcasters in Africa, and advocated for African podcasting on the world stage.
August 19, 2024:
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Bradley Hope from Project Brazen is interviewed by Simon Owens: “How Project Brazen builds huge audiences for its narrative podcasts”
August 13, 2024:
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Free money! All Hear is a free email newsletter which contains available grants, calls for podcast pitches, residencies and awards, and has almost 4,500 subscribers. Looking at August’s edition, there were 115 different opportunities all round the world. Subscribe over here.
July 22, 2024:
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Podcast Marketing Magic looks at the metrics that matter when you launch a new show.
July 18, 2024:
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Simon Owens posts How Gary Arndt built Everything Everywhere, a podcast with 1.5 million monthly downloads.
June 20, 2024:
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Is your work in Descript being used to train generative AI tools - and could it leak out in other forms? Writing in The Squeeze, Skye Pillsbury notes that a major investor in Descript is OpenAI, a company which has been keen to grab as much training data for its tools as possible. Does that include your content in Descript - even the stuff that doesn’t make it to your final podcast? The company says no, but is there more to the story?
June 12, 2024:
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Questioni d’orecchio is a newsletter in Italian from Andrea de Cesco about podcasting and more. È fantastico avere un'altra prospettiva.
May 30, 2024:
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“I’m still in shock, and I’m also very sad.” The closure by Rogers of Pacific Content is the subject of a blog post by its co-founder Steve Pratt, who says “the Pacific Content/Rogers story holds both lessons and warnings.”
May 9, 2024:
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Kattie Laur has joined Bumper as a Podcast Growth Specialist. She also writes Pod The North, a newsletter on Canadian podcasting.
May 1, 2024:
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Reflector is a new project from Andy Mills and Matt Boll - the producers behind The Daily, Rabbit Hole, Caliphate and The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling - who are making this documentary-style podcast that explores the strange experiences of being human. It's a Substack paid subscription podcast, and marks the first time that Andy and Matt will own every aspect of their work (from podcast IP to subscriber data, and their own RSS feed).
April 30, 2024:
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Canadian podcasters prefer the Canadian way to monetise: collaborative host-read ads with brands they trust. Kattie Laur looks at the Canadian podcast sponsorship economy, in the Pod The North newsletter.
April 23, 2024:
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Podcasting is hard to sustain. Make a plan for taking a break. says Ashley Hamer in The Weekly Tweak
April 17, 2024:
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People in Quebec call podcasts “balados”, according to the latest edition of Pod The North. In France, however, they’re all about “le podcast”.
April 15, 2024:
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Meanwhile, Wil Williams suggests that nonfiction podcasts can learn from “the black sheep of podcasting” - they write that crossover episodes and promo swaps work very well, along with a wish for all to succeed.
April 12, 2024:
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Your paid-for Substack podcast is now available to listeners using Spotify, the companies have announced. It’s part of Spotify Open Access, which brings premium podcast content from across the web to Spotify users.
April 11, 2024:
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Further reading: Simon Owens suggests that local podcasts are rarely sustainable.
April 10, 2024:
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Podcasters are now earning more than $100 million in annual revenue on Substack the company says, a figure that has more than doubled in the past year. Of the 250 highest-revenue publications on Substack, more than half publish audio and video.
April 2, 2024:
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A significant jump for Spreaker is seen in the share of new podcast episodes in March, according to Livewire. Spreaker’s use of Podping, a simple mechanism to advertise new published episodes, may be the reason why. Podbean overtook Spotify’s Megaphone to claim #6.
April 1, 2024:
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How Andreas Sator built one of the most popular podcasts in Austria - the award-winning show is Erklär mir die Welt.
March 21, 2024:
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PJ Vogt’s Search Engine is to launch a paid subscription, dubbed “Incognito Mode”. It’s powered by Supporting Cast. In the announcement, PJ Vogt says the show is not profitable; and 40% of the show’s audience are international but “we currently do not make money from the advertisements they hear”.
March 14, 2024:
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The costs of growing your podcast by buying ads in podcast apps have been compared by podcast app Fountain. Unsurprisingly, Fountain does quite well - but it’s a helpful look at the costs of each of the apps and how they work.
March 13, 2024:
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John McDermott posts 5 Ways To Grow Your Podcast in 2024. One of the ideas - “date Taylor Swift” - appears to be slightly beyond our capabilities right now, although come to think of it, our Editor is relatively similar to Tom Hiddleston, albeit ten years older with rather more grey hair and without the impressive acting career. So there’s a chance, right?
February 29, 2024:
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Why are we celebrating Pushkin’s Malcolm Gladwell, who fired a third of his employees, with an award this week? Skye Pillsbury asks whether accountability has “slipped through the cracks” in her newsletter.
February 19, 2024:
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Accessibility matters in your marketing, says Wil Williams
February 8, 2024:
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Podcast hosting company Pinecast has a striking new website - and a nice new logo. Matt Basta, the founder, has written about the new design in more detail than is really needed by anyone (although, if you think we’re being a little sarcastic, you should see his second-last paragraph).
January 23, 2024:
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Pod The North takes a deep dive into The Signal Awards, which are run by the same company as The Webbys. There were 600 winners in more than 100 categories. The story says that the judging process is opaque, and that the 177 judges were not compensated for their time.
January 1, 2024:
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Podcast Marketing Magic looks at predictions for techniques to marketing your show in 2024.
December 22, 2023:
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Fountain has published v1.0 of its podcast app, with a refreshed design, a new clip editor, home feed, and other improvements. It also has added a payment connection with the Strike app. Co-founder Oscar Merry is interviewed on the Podnews Weekly Review about the changes this week.
December 11, 2023:
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Substack now has a video episodes feature. They’ve not called it a video podcasts feature, because the video doesn’t make it to the RSS feed, thus you’ll not be able to watch it in Pocket Casts or Apple Podcasts; and you can only watch in the iOS Substack app.
December 6, 2023:
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Mia Lobel writes about her experience at Pushkin Industries, and why she left the company: “The people who are ultimately making the decisions are not the people who know how to make shows.”
November 20, 2023:
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Further reading: JAR Audio suggests that engagement, rather than conversions, should be your podcast's North Star. (Fun fact: we can't see the North Star from where Podnews is put together). ... Shreya Sharma describes the importance of show notes in Podcast Marketing Magic.
November 15, 2023:
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In Pod the North, Kattie Laur asks Why can't I access podcast transcripts on the apps? Indeed, Spotify and Apple... there's an open standard here, if you'd use it?
October 18, 2023:
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Further reading: Pod The North looks at the Canadian government now regulating podcasts and what it means, saying it all seems to be a bit of a mystery … Tony Doe looks back at the Spotify for Podcasters Workshop in Lagos, Nigeria.
October 17, 2023:
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How can you make a whole podcast just using AI - no microphones required? Paul McNally produced a podcast with three hosts chatting about the news, entirely AI generated. He writes how he did it, and produced the Develop AI podcast which is impressive (try episode 1 for an episode based on his blog post). McNally founded Develop AI, an AI training and strategy company, and runs podcast producer Develop Audio.
October 10, 2023:
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Skye Pillsbury reports that WNYC's Death, Sex & Money, "a juggernaut show that helped establish WNYC as a force within podcasting", has been cancelled. Production ends in January. Anna Sale says "I am working with the company to find a new partner or home for our show long-term".
September 25, 2023:
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Adam and Tina Curry published an overview of Podcasting 2.0, including the value4value model. 14,000 podcasts are now using it - and, unlike the ad-funded model, revenue from value4value also helps fund the whole ecosystem, including podcast hosting companies and app development.
August 29, 2023:
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Tink Media's Lauren Passell asked people at Podcast Movement last week what they were listening to and released a great list. Michael Osborne, from Famous & Gravy, shares our Editor's choice; disappointingly, nobody mentions the Podnews Weekly Review, but we'll forgive you all. (Next week we'll have an interview with Greg Glenday, the new Chief Business Officer of Acast).
August 21, 2023:
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Make the most of podcasting conferences, suggests Podcast Marketing Magic, with six things to concentrate on. "Visit the Podnews Puppies" would be a good #7.
August 17, 2023:
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Further reading: Why Podcasters and Publishers Should Lean into Ad Measurement (Signal Hill Insights) … What to Watch Out For at Podcast Movement Next Week (Eric Nuzum)
August 15, 2023:
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For a time yesterday, Substack was blocking popular podcast app Overcast, and the Podcast Index, from accessing shows hosted on the platform. The shows are hosted using the Cloudflare CDN - "Do not host podcast feeds behind Cloudflare", says Overcast's developer Marco Arment, before explaining what settings to use if you do.
August 9, 2023:
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Further reading: JAR Audio has updated its ultimate guide to branded podcast ROI … Eric Nuzum asks "What do all successful podcast hosts have in common? And what is necessary for someone to succeed as a podcast host?" … and Jonas Woost from Bumper writes: don't confuse listeners with downloaders. He points out that both Spotify and Apple (which for most podcasters is the majority of their traffic) give actual listener numbers in their dashboard, since you have to sign in to use those apps.
August 8, 2023:
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Further reading: Digiday writes Why some publishers are reducing their podcast slate to try to grow their audio businesses (something Eric Nuzum called a big red flag earlier this year) … the Dentsu study we mentioned last week is the subject of a blog post by Westwood One's Pierre Bouvard … in Pod Bible, Meera Kumar suggests that we should pay for podcasts unless we all want them to sound the same … and FlightPath CEO Sean Howard talks about yield optimisation in podcasting.
August 1, 2023:
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Many will tell you that YouTube really doesn't like static-image podcasts. Tell that to Josh Taylor of The Wild West Extravaganza, a static-image YouTube podcast channel with more than 20,000 subscribers. Courtney Kocak's Podcast Bestie this week interviews Josh on how he does it.
July 24, 2023:
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Shreya Sharma starts Nine ways to make it easy to reach your podcast with "have a website".
July 20, 2023:
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Congratulations to Lauren Passell, who celebrates four years of running Tink Media this week.
July 12, 2023:
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The new Canadian bill C-18, which forces Google and Facebook to pay to link to Canadian news sources, could be bad news for Canadian news podcasts, says Kattie Laur. Facebook and Google have stopped linking to news content, or threatened to - but could that include news podcasts?
July 11, 2023:
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Is podcasting about to collapse in on itself? No. But don't take our word for it: Eric Nuzum points out that the Archewell Audio deal closing plus the Stitcher app closing is not the entirety of the industry closing.
July 5, 2023:
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Spanish-language premium podcast company Sonora, which charges €4.99 a month to access its fiction and documentary podcasts, is to switch to an ad-funded model. The company, owned by Spanish media conglomerate Atresmedia, will also cut staff, including co-founders Gabriel Saenz de Buruaga and Toni Garrido. It released 84 titles last year.
June 27, 2023:
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NYPR, the owner of WNYC Studios, is to eliminate FY23 bonuses for the leadership team, and will not take a new cycle of interns. An internal email, seen by Skye Pillsbury's The Squeeze, also warns of more cost-cutting to come.
June 26, 2023:
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The average monthly audience for individual shows in 2023 is half of what it was in 2019 - and downloads are down, says Eric Nuzum, quoting Podtrac data. He suggests that publishers are pulling back on new shows: and it's new shows that drive more downloads.
June 23, 2023:
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Voltage has launched two new high-profile podcasts on Substack. "Two of the biggest obstacles facing independent podcasters are audience engagement and monetization," suggests JE Petersen, "and Substack is fantastic at both things".
June 19, 2023:
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Podcast Marketing Magic shares how to make the most of your good, bad, and helpful ratings and reviews
June 5, 2023:
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There is more to your episode notes than meets the eye, suggests Podcast Marketing Magic.
May 29, 2023:
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Popular Podcasting 2.0 app Fountain has seen an upgrade. It now supports transcripts (not just those using the
podcast:transcript feature, but will produce transcripts on-demand); supports the liveItem tag; and works faster - with many other additions.
May 24, 2023:
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Ever Gonzalez writes about the successful Outlier Podcast Festival, which took place this weekend.
May 23, 2023:
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The award-winning Tink Media share the "ten Tink commandments" for your podcast, and especially how to promote it.
May 8, 2023:
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Further Reading: Eric Nuzum wonders if podcast success is all about patience, adding that podcasting is not the right choice for Tucker Carlson … Life Beyond Numbers interviews a number of people from the podcast industry in India … and the EarBuds Podcast Collective looks at podcast episodes on burnout. The episodes are chosen by Tiffani Jones Brown, host of Remotely Curious.
April 14, 2023:
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There's gold in the hills of audio fiction, claims Jordan Petersen, the founder and CEO of Voltage Productions.
April 10, 2023:
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Five things indie podcasters want to know when pitching sponsors (Podcast Marketing Magic)
April 5, 2023:
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The Alberta Podcast Network is to close. The Canadian network has distributed more than $125,000 to its member podcasts. The Pod The North newsletter contains a look back at their work; no reason for the closure has been given.
April 3, 2023:
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Eric Nuzum publishes his speaking notes from a 7-minute speech at Radiodays Europe about the challenges for the industry over the next twelve months. He spoke about market saturation. Podnews's Editor, James Cridland, also spoke: his topic was about keeping podcasting open. Arielle Nissenblatt gets prime placement in this piece from Czech Radio on the conference.
March 16, 2023:
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Courtney Kocak shares an interview with Isabella Di Stefano on how to throw a press party or PR event for your podcast. Our email is editor@podnews.net for those invites.
March 15, 2023:
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How much money should I spend on growing my podcast? Pod North looks at experiences paying platforms to promote shows.
March 14, 2023:
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Shreya Sharma is to write a podcast newsletter, Shreya’s Audio Affairs. We've subscribed.
March 9, 2023:
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Substack has come under fire for not giving free 301 redirects for RSS feeds. The company, which offers free podcast hosting, deletes 301 redirects if you delete your account with them.
February 27, 2023:
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Further reading: in Tech Dirt, Mike Masnick writes about "the flop of Spotify's podcast colonization" … James Burtt suggests that new shows perform better in Apple's ranking algorithm … Jordan Harbinger shares at least 18 podcast marketing tips in Podcast Marketing Magic.
February 23, 2023:
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Jonas Woost has thoughts on the best success metrics for independent podcasters.
February 22, 2023:
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Courtney Kocak interviews Eric Silver from Multitude about "podcast show notes that hook listeners".
February 8, 2023:
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Courtney Kocak's Podcast Bestie newsletter is to also have a podcast. "I will be sprinkling in some podcast interviews amid the regular newsletter content to dive deeper into craft and marketing topics," she says.
February 6, 2023:
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Further reading: Nour Eldin writes about the smart way to listen to podcasts using AI … The Observer writes Podcasts in pivotal moment as number of new shows drops by 80%, except, as we covered last week, this figure is misleading … Eric Nuzum, writing in his newsletter, says that "Podcasting is now acting like a mature media platform, subject to the laws of economics and physics, as well as the realities of audience taste, engagement, and return on investment that governs other media platforms." … Erik Johnson is hurming and murming about podcast awards
February 2, 2023:
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Booking promo swaps is an important part of any podcast marketing strategy. Podcast Marketing Magic does a deep-dive into how it all works.
January 26, 2023:
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Pinecast founder Matt Basta writes a piece accusing Apple Podcasts of "trapping" creators, based on one podcaster who apparently used Apple Podcasts as a hosting platform.
January 23, 2023:
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In the Netherlands, news from Lieven Heeremans about a fund for audio production from the public broadcaster NPO: which was to disappear, and now isn't, kind of.
January 10, 2023:
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Value-for-value enabled podcast app Fountain has had a major update, adding an "activity feed" for enhanced discovery, and an integration allowing you to reward podcasters directly using your credit card. (Our Editor is an advisor.)
January 3, 2023:
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Podcast Marketing Magic have a list of what you should, and shouldn't, be doing in 2023 to market your show.
January 2, 2023:
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Further reading: Courney Kocak writes about her first year on Substack … here's a 1.5 hour podcast made by AI on the subject of AI, using Joe Rogan and Tim Ferris's voice … The Washington Post looks at podcast producer Dear Media.
December 28, 2022:
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Pod the North, a newsletter about Canadian podcasting, shares insights from twelve of the largest podcast publishers in the country - including our sponsor, CoHost and Quill.
December 20, 2022:
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Africa Podcast Day 2023, scheduled for Feb 12 in Kenya, has been cancelled. The organisers blame the current economic climate for not being able to attract enough sponsorship to pay for the event.
December 19, 2022:
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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".
November 15, 2022:
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From CBC Podcasts #11 is: The Outlaw Ocean Pulitzer-Prize-winner Ian Urbina spent over eight years reporting at sea. His 7-part investigative series explores the gritty and lawless realm rarely seen. "Ian’s not relying on research," says critic Lauren Passell. "He was there ... and Outlaw Ocean makes you feel like you’re there, too.
November 8, 2022:
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Eric Johnson's Follow Friday podcast and newsletter is another casualty of Twitter's purchase by Elon Musk. "I believe the era of social media as we’ve known it is coming to a close," Johnson adds.
November 2, 2022:
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There are just fourteen active indigenous podcasts in Canada, says Pod The North, a newsletter looking at Canadian podcasts.
October 21, 2022:
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The Active Voice has launched a new podcast of conversations with the most interesting writers and thinkers working today. It's hosted by Hamish McKenzie, co-founder and chief writing officer at Substack.
October 19, 2022:
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Eric Nuzum has written about the power of three, and how we use it to promote podcasts.
October 18, 2022:
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Jay Clouse spoke to Podcast Bestie about how to make a good video podcast.
October 17, 2022:
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Advertising in fiction podcasts delivers 10x more conversions than not-fiction podcasts, according to a data point in Lauren Passell's Podcast Marketing Magic newsletter. /ht Evo Terra
October 14, 2022:
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The spotlight is focusing on Spotify's podcasting business. Skye Pillsbury has published "an oral history of Gimlet's slow demise" after interviewing five current and former Gimlet staffers. Ariel Shapiro takes a look at Spotify’s practice of making its podcasts exclusive, and also notes that The Ringer didn't make any layoffs. Ashley Carman suggests that Spotify is refining its strategy.
October 10, 2022:
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Further Reading: Adam Bowie on why podcasters should read their contracts carefully, and why RSS feeds are valuable … Danny Brown on where next for exclusive podcasts after the Spotify news … and Vanessa Pacheo has written about How a Rave Podcast has Built an Engaged Community by Understanding Its Audience, focusing on the I'm Peaking Podcast
October 5, 2022:
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Further reading: James O'Brien writes about Podcast Day 24 Sydney … Nick Hilton digs deep into Spotify's new podcast research … Steve Pratt cautions you to define yourself by content, not by platform … Steven Goldstein suggests that the podcast business is being "right-sized" … Esther Kezia Thorpe reckons that most podcasts get fewer listens than you think.
September 30, 2022:
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Simon Owens, a media commentator, writes that narrative podcasts are a bad investment for most publishers - "they're prohibitively expensive and very difficult to monetize effectively."
September 16, 2022:
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If you heard that "most books sell fewer than 12 copies", that might not be true: but in the comments to this article, we learn that 66% of books (print, from major publishers) sold fewer than a thousand copies in the last year.
September 15, 2022:
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Why is every podcast seemingly sponsored by a VPN? Michael Girdley had access to one company's profit and loss sheet.
September 14, 2022:
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Courtney Kocak shares How To Be Your Own Best CEO. We're told to kill unnecessary meetings, and also that everyone has imposter syndrome. We're also told to "be a good person".
September 12, 2022:
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Shreya Sharma and Lauren Passell publish 4.5 things everyone wants to know about podcast marketing
September 9, 2022:
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Skye Pillsbury publishes "a visual representation of what diversity looks like at the executive and deal-making level in Big Podcasting."
September 8, 2022:
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All podcast roads lead to video, suggests Anchor founder Michael Mignano in a blog post. "This notion will likely irk some readers," he adds.
September 6, 2022:
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Pod The North, a Canadian podcast newsletter, launches today. Run by Kattie Laur, it aims to "put Canadian podcasts on the map".
August 31, 2022:
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Substack has added a podcast preview feature, allowing creators to add a second audio file to send to free subscribers only. You might use that as a teaser. The company has also added separate show notes.
August 23, 2022:
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Podnews's Editor, James Cridland, is interviewed in this week's Podcast The Newsletter from Lauren Passell.
August 12, 2022:
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In The Squeeze, Skye Pillsbury highlights a company selling a podcast training program for $4,000 which Pillsbury suggests is little more than an unpaid internship.
August 8, 2022:
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How many downloads gets you into the Apple Podcasts charts? Tanner Campbell managed to get into the top 100 in the US Books category last Friday with just 10 listens and 24 followers. He writes more on Twitter; and will report back after a month with more detail about what he's learnt about the Apple Podcast charts - and the importance of choosing an appropriate category.
July 29, 2022:
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The ethics behind true crime podcasts are the focus of Skye Pillsbury's The Squeeze newsletter this week, with an inside story of why a popular show was cancelled.
July 26, 2022:
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Tanner Campbell is spending money on Overcast to promote a show, and explains why. He's also posted a number of other places you can pay to promote your show (costs and details).
July 22, 2022:
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Skye Pillsbury's The Squeeze weekly newsletter has launched, with a scoop: MPR Axed Peabody-Winning Podcast "In The Dark" Halfway Through Production. It's a great piece of long-form reporting.
July 15, 2022:
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Molly Jensen, the CEO of free pan-African podcast hosting platform AfriPods, was interviewed by Podcast Related.
July 13, 2022:
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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.
July 11, 2022:
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Courtney Kocak interviews James Cridland, Podnews's Editor, in Podcast Bestie. He manages to get away amusing names for podcasts about fish and chips, and asks indie podcasters "not to join the gang".
June 30, 2022:
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Substack has added additional tools to create 'voiceovers', text-to-speech or audio embeds to posts.
June 28, 2022:
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Substack publishes a primer on podcast production, including setting up a recording room and tips for a smooth recording. (Substack doesn't mention trailers, but we'd recommend recording one of those, too).
June 21, 2022:
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Substack has written a guide to using podcasts on the platform.
June 20, 2022:
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Marketing your podcast isn't a "once and done" thing - Lauren Passell posts three things that busy podcasters can do every week.
June 17, 2022:
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Eric Nuzum wonders whether podcasting lacks a middle class.
June 13, 2022:
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"The endless bashing of RSS (most recently by Spotify executives at their “investor day” event) and its role within the technology of podcasting is honestly baffling, and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what RSS is and what function it serves within the open podcast ecosystem." - Dave Jones sets the record straight about RSS's place in the podcast ecosystem
June 10, 2022:
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Substack has announced Summer of Sound, a month-long workshop for podcasters and audio-based publications on the platform, with mentorship, guidance and a stipend. You have until Jun 21 to apply.
June 6, 2022:
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If you're on Twitter, you've probably seen little cartoons about podcasting from Erik Jones. Courtney Kocak's Podcast Bestie newsletter interviews him about them.
May 26, 2022:
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Skye Pillsbury is to launch a new podcast newsletter, The Squeeze. She was the original writer for Inside Podcasting, and also wrote for Hot Pod.
May 23, 2022:
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Spotify added advertising banners to many podcasts on Saturday for Wild Turkey, a bourbon whiskey. The ad, which on some platforms included an "order now" button for the liqour, was even placed on a podcast for recovering alcoholics. A Spotify spokesperson told Podnews: "On Saturday, Spotify made a technical error that caused ads featuring the Wild Turkey brand to be incorrectly placed on a number of podcasts. We identified the cause and swiftly resolved this matter." We contacted Wild Turkey's owners, Campari; they did not respond. This raises trust issues for podcasters and brands alike.
May 20, 2022:
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Showing commitment for podcasting, Substack is opening applications for a month-long immersive workshop, called the Summer of Sound. Applications start on June 9.
May 17, 2022:
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Courtney Kocak looks at Podspike, a podcast promotion tool.
April 28, 2022:
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With the excitement earlier on this week about Spotify's proprietary video podcasts: Substack quietly released video on their platform back at the end of January, we're told by Podland's Sam Sethi.
April 26, 2022:
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Substack has dramatically improved its podcast player in its iOS app. As shown above, the updated app now has a full-screen podcast player, speed controls, accessible playback options and a customisable 'playing next' queue. Here's more about podcasting on Substack.
April 25, 2022:
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Lauren Passell highlights the exciting world of feed swaps.
April 12, 2022:
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Advice on conducting a great interview is posted on Substack by Alicia Kennedy, the host of Substack's From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy Podcast.
April 8, 2022:
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Rent Free Media is a free software platform not unlike Patreon, Substack, BuyMeACoffee or similar services. Integrated with Stripe, the code is open on Github. It's in-use on DubiousPod.
April 6, 2022:
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Substack is moving into podcasting - "but better". The company released two blog posts, announcing that "The same way we made it simple to start a paid newsletter, we’re making it just as easy to produce a paid, subscription-based podcast on Substack". They'll play on any RSS-based podcast player. The platform also lets you podcast for free, their FAQ says. The company has, says Bloomberg, poached some podcasts from Patreon.
April 5, 2022:
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What is Podcasting 2.0 all about? As Dave Jones writes, our report card shows that there's some confusion out there; but it's a vision: and the standards to achieve it.
March 29, 2022:
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Here's a list of podcast editing communities from Stephanie Fuccio.
March 23, 2022:
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Eric Nuzum posts Five Things No One Tells You When You Leave Public Radio for Podcasting. There has been a 'talent drain' away from public radio in the US and UK towards podcasting.
January 28, 2022:
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There are many different Grants for Creators - so Danielle Desir has launched a paid newsletter to help you find them across the US. Her most recent newsletter contains grants totalling $106,500 (though some are state dependent).
January 20, 2022:
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20 Podcast Twitter Tips from Lauren Passell includes the great advice "follow @podnews". We 100% agree.
January 10, 2022:
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Registration is open for the Africa Podcast Day 2022 festival. It's to be held on Feb 12.
January 6, 2022:
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In Eric Nuzum's Audio Insurgent newsletter, he writes about good podcast pitches, and the questions he asks.
December 9, 2021:
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Ian Urbina, a journalist, has been accused of operating a scam by musician Benn Jordan. Urbina is claimed to be collecting royalties for more than 400 artists, for music he didn't write, using a distribution company that, it appears, he owns. Urbina has partially apologised in three parts, and a fact check questions some of the claims made.
December 3, 2021:
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In his newsletter, Tim Eby wonders aloud whether NPR and member stations have a good enough plan for working together in the podcast space.
November 12, 2021:
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Lieven Heeremans writes about gentrification of the podcast landscape. He argues that the initial phase of the 'creative bohemians' have made podcasting attractive to new listeners, and now the big commercial operators are moving in to take advantage.
November 9, 2021:
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"Did the feed change yet? Did the feed change yet?" What's the alternative to refresh buttons and repeated checks for updates? Podping - decentralised push notifications for podcasting, means that new episodes can appear in podcast apps within just 45 seconds. Part of Podcasting 2.0, Podping has been running for the past six months for more than 200,000 podcasts and claims to fix a lot of practical issues with WebSub, a similar service. Dave Jones writes about Podping, and how podcast hosting companies can support it with one line of code.
November 3, 2021:
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In his newsletter, Eric Nuzum suggests that podcast success comes from focusing on making it "good".
November 1, 2021:
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Africa Podcast Day 2022 has been announced for Feb 12, 2022. They're looking for session ideas and commercial partners.
October 19, 2021:
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Eric Nuzum shares five pieces of advice for those interested in podcasting, including: "don't be boring".
September 3, 2021:
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Paid podcast subscriptions seem to be having a moment: Breaking Points, a podcast and YouTube show, has seen 10,000 paying subscribers in just two days using Supercast. The company tells Podnews that their top ten podcasters are earning more than $9 million in annual recurring revenue from paid subscribers on the platform; and that their growth rate is outperforming Substack's early published milestones.
August 30, 2021:
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In the Netherlands, the program for the Podcast Festival 2021 has been published. It's Sep 23-26. The theme is "Take Me With You".
July 23, 2021:
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Clubhouse no longer has a waitlist, and is open to everyone. It's also got a nice new logo, and a fancy website. Ed Zitron isn't a fan, calling it a stinker.
July 21, 2021:
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Substack is funding the launch of Booksmart Studios, a podcast network, to the tune of "a six-figure advance". So far, they've launched Amna Khalid's Banished, John McWhorter's Lexicon Valley and Bob Garfield's Bully Pulpit, with two more titles to come.
June 22, 2021:
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Kevin LaBuz has written a long look at Spotify's podcast strategy, or "Spotify's Second Act", as he calls it. Meanwhile Brett Schafer at The Motley Fool asks whether their strategy will pay off.
May 24, 2021:
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Bob Garfield's sacking from WNYC is the subject of a wider look from the New York Times at WNYC's "epidemic of bullying, or whining, depending on who you ask." He's starting a new Substack podcast.
May 4, 2021:
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JustPod's Yi Yang reminds us that 播客一下, his newsletter about podcasting in China, is also available in English.
April 27, 2021:
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Eric Nuzum writes about why subscriptions matter: suggesting that podcast creators shouldn't rely on one source of revenue; but to examine who owns the relationship.
March 30, 2021:
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West Cork, a former Audible exclusive, is now available as a free podcast. One of the producers, Eric Nuzum, is thrilled that more people will hear it. It was reviewed by The Times of London as "…the new Serial. It may even be better."
March 29, 2021:
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Tom Webster writes about exclusives in podcasting, and a "beignet", a New Orleans deep-fried pastry topped with sugar. Previous editions have included Yoo-Hoo, some form of sugary chocolate beverage from New Jersey; and nachos. We'd like to request Twinkies, please.
March 10, 2021:
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Tom Webster writes an additional newsletter this week, saying: “Stop using the word ‘Subscribe’ in your call to action immediately.”
March 9, 2021:
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This seemingly small change could dramatically affect the industry. Tom Webster from Edison Research says 47% of people who don't currently listen to podcasts think that 'subscribing' to a podcast will cost money, describing it as a stone in the shoe of podcasting's growth run. He tells Podnews: “Today, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube are the three most widely used services to play podcasts, and now the word Subscribe means ‘automatically download for free’ in exactly none of them. Podcasters will have no choice but to adapt their language accordingly or risk confusing listeners.”
March 8, 2021:
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The forthcoming Edison Research and Triton Digital "Infinite Dial" will tell us that "the amount of ad-skipping (in podcasts) is high", pre-warns Tom Webster in his newsletter. He points out that podcasts are the only audio medium that even has skippable ads.
March 2, 2021:
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Listeners want to go to ONE place for everything, be it Clubhouse or Spotify or whatever, says Eric Nuzum in his latest newsletter.
March 1, 2021:
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Africa Podfest's Feb 12 event is available in full on their YouTube page, and the team have posted an overview of their event this year.
February 15, 2021:
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Google Podcasts is "pretty good now" says a review; is the Dutch language market really too small for podcasts? asks Lieven Heeremans.
February 4, 2021:
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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.
February 3, 2021:
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Heb je nog een podcasttip? Answering the question often asked - "do you have any podcast recommendations" - Lieven Heeremans has been keeping an Excel sheet of all the podcasts he's listened to since April 8. 835 so far, and recommends you some. Google Translate is your friend, tenzij je Adam Curry heet.
February 2, 2021:
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What Problem Are You Solving...And Whose Problem Is It? - Eric Nuzum's newsletter this week includes advice on creating production budgets, and this:
February 1, 2021:
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As Tom Webster shows us, podcasting is more than five times bigger than AM/FM radio simulcasts on mobile phones.
January 27, 2021:
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Shuffle, an iOS podcast player, has redesigned its player too. "We've moved the scrollbar to the side," says the update. The app uses Listen Notes as a podcast directory.
January 18, 2021:
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In opinion, Jack Baty wishes podcasts would go away; Tom Webster wonders What If This Is All The Love Podcasting Ever Gets; and Adam Bowie has had enough of celebrity-driven podcasts.
January 13, 2021:
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Speaking on the latest episode of Libsyn's The Feed, Rob Walch highlights Apple's privacy information in the app store, which we covered December 14: "For those that are tracking podcast listeners, do you really think the only thing in iOS14 that Apple will allow privacy violations to continue with… is your product? And for those running newsletters and sites on this space that just don't think tracking with no opt-in is okay but actually promotes privacy violations, the world is changing, and privacy is going to matter more and more. Opt-in is the only ethical way to track the listener, and sans that ability, it should not be done, period."
January 6, 2021:
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Eric Nuzum has launched a newsletter, called The Audio Insurgent. It's free; he says it'll come out every two or three weeks.
January 4, 2021:
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Tom Webster is on Clubhouse, and reckons he's hit on a tweak to make it suck less. (James Cridland, Podnews's Editor, is there too.)
December 23, 2020:
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Anupama Chandrasekaran is the one-woman host and producer of of narrative podcast "Desi Stones and Bones". She's interviewed about how she makes her podcast.
December 21, 2020:
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Tom Webster writes about perfectionism, asking When is 'good enough' actually good enough?
December 14, 2020:
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Tom Webster, in his weekly newsletter, asks us to respect our listeners' ears.
December 8, 2020:
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How much money does The Daily make? Kevin LaBuz takes a close look at the New York Times's podcasting division, and the opportunity it may give the newspaper company. He reckons it makes $42m a year - similar to the annual revenue of Wondery.
December 7, 2020:
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In his personal newsletter, Tom Webster writes on the perils of running an online survey.
October 21, 2020:
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The second keynote session at Podcast Movement Virtual looked at emerging podcast markets across the world. Our Editor hosted it; panelists were Norman Chella from Malaysia, who hosts the Podlovers Asia podcast; Paula Rogo from Kenya, who runs the Pods4Africans newsletter; and Núria Net from Spain, from the boutique podcast publisher La Coctelera Music, currently in the middle of several productions for Podimo, Audible and others.
October 19, 2020:
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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.
October 15, 2020:
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UK radio executive Matt Deegan notes that his show was rejected because he didn't talk enough; and adds that "if anyone asks, it definitely isn’t radio and it doesn’t mean that songs have come to podcasts."
September 22, 2020:
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Wonder about the power of podcasting? Pod Save America has helped raised $22.7m, from 251,000 people, to help a campaign against US politician Mitch McConnell. As one of the prganisers of the British Podcast Awards, Matt Deegan, notes, it's a great example of super charging an audience.
August 27, 2020:
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Your podcast doesn't suck: it just needs un-stuck says Evo Terra.
August 17, 2020:
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Kshitij Aranke writes an in-depth look at Spotify's user experience - How Spotify revolutionized podcast discovery - comparing it to Apple Podcasts.
August 11, 2020:
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Ad trafficking system Google Ad Manager has announced it will now handle audio. TuneIn and Spotify are using it already, says the UK's Matt Deegan. Integration, he says, is coming for podcasts but "isn't quite there yet".
June 30, 2020:
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JustPod, a podcast newsletter covering the Chinese podcasting scene, has published a new edition. It focuses on the removal of two popular podcast apps from the Chinese Apple App Store, and the podcasts that are available in the country.
May 26, 2020:
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JustPod posts about how China's podcasters dealt with the coronavirus pandemic. Some tried live-streaming audio; others connected to frontline reporters.
May 22, 2020:
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The open podcast ecosystem is dying — here’s how to save it. writes Nathan Baschez. "It’s time to compete. Not complain," he adds.
April 17, 2020:
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Interested in podcasting in China? You'd like JustPod, a brand new English-language podcast newsletter, from Yang Yi who's based in Shanghai.
February 10, 2020:
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Will Spotify ruin podcasting? argues that Spotify plan to, eventually, "force podcasters to live in its ecosystem." The author, Matt Stoller, also argues that Spotify should be blocked from purchasing The Ringer.
February 8, 2019:
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Substack, a premium newsletter service, has launched Substack for Audio, a paid subscription tool for podcasts. Playback is through the web, which as this blog posts notes, isn't a bad experience any more on mobile.
August 29, 2018:
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Nick Quah's Hot Pod newsletter is now no longer just Nick Quah. UK-based Caroline Crampton, formerly of Podmail, has joined as a writer, says Nick and says Caroline. (They both highlight how you can support their newsletter in their announcements - so here's how you can support Podnews).
July 18, 2018:
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Kellie Riordan, the boss of ABC Audio Studios, is interviewed in PodMail and highlights radio's relationship with podcasting. "Whether someone consumes [audio] in the on-demand environment or on a radio, to me that’s almost the wrong argument."
January 30, 2018:
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Caroline Crampton, who used to write the New Statesman's podcasting column (and is Head of Podcasts for the UK magazine), is embarking on a new podcast critique newsletter. "I’m very bored of reading/hearing things about “the importance of storytelling” when it comes to podcasts."