Ad revenue up for SiriusXM and Spotify

• Spotify released its Q4/21 financial results. Total monthly active users grew 18% year-on-year to 406m, and ad revenue grew 40%. The company fell back into operational loss, losing $44m in the quarter, and expect to lose $75m in Q1/22.

“I would never want to silence debate about vaccine safety and efficacy because the lack of critical discussion actually increases vaccine hesitancy. However, rigorous debate that benefits the public does not include the dissemination of misinformation.” - Brené Brown on why she’s paused producing podcasts for Spotify.

• SiriusXM released its Q4/21 financial results. The “Pandora segment”, which includes the company’s podcasting, saw ad revenue increasing by 30% year-on-year.

• UK radio audience figures released earlier today say that UK radio has its biggest-ever audience at 49.5m. However, the average Brit listens for 18 hours a week, down from 19.8 hours ten years ago (though research methodologies have changed).

• Hindenburg is supporting the Kasama Labs podcast training platform. Registration has been extended to tomorrow.

• PRX and Futuro Media have announced an expanded content partnership.

• The Economist writes about podcast content moderation.

Moves and hires - with Podsights

• Rosie Squires has joined Mamamia as Editorial Director. She was Head of Digital Content at ARN.

This link is no longer available, as at Sep 11 2023
• Melody Teh has been promoted to Editor at Mamamia. She was Deputy Editor, and has been at Mamamia for three and a half years.

This link is no longer available, as at Sep 11 2023
• Juan Galiardo has joined Podimo as Country Manager for Spain. He was Head of Spain for Uber.

This link is no longer available, as at Sep 11 2023

Tips and tricks - with Podpage

• Are there ideal snacks for podcasters? The Podcast Host thinks there is; nuts or fresh fruit are apparently good. And licorice.

Podcast News - with Quill

Produced by Quill: The Great Indoors How has technology changed around the world? Join Matt Roberts from Amdocs as he discusses how human technological adoption habits are evolving as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and how we’re rediscovering the magic of technology as a necessary result of being indoors.

In a new season, The Experiment focuses on spam - not unwanted email, but the meat thing in a can. The show is produced by The Atlantic and WNYC Studios, and starts - a little unexpectedly - in the Philippines. - read more

What would you choose for Your Last Meal? Rachel Belle has now made 121 episodes asking people like William Shatner and Betsey Johnson; and then researching the history and culture of the dish chosen. Macaroni cheese for us, thanks for asking. Or maybe a decent pizza.

Today, podcasts are a part of life—but the entire medium was nearly strangled in its infancy by a patent troll. How to Fix the Internet has Marc Maron and his producer Brendan McDonald tell never-before-shared details of the battle to save podcasting. From EFF, the podcast also discusses what we can do in the future to protect innovation and fix the broken patent system, so that no one will be under threat from trolls. (Podnews’s Editor is a member of EFF).

This week, 2SER’s Fourth Estate looks at podcasting, with an interview with Siobhán McHugh from the University of Sydney and Podnews’s Editor, James Cridland. May initially contain traces of Rogan, but quickly moves away from that to talk about much nicer things.

From the team that brought you S-Town and Serial, The Trojan Horse Affair launches today - S-Town’s Brian Reed and journalist Hamza Syed investigate a mystery at the heart of a scandal that rocked Britain. Has an entire country been duped? - read more