The platform fight: Amazon pays listeners AUD $5

• In the latest in the fight for podcast listening apps, Amazon Music is paying some Australian listeners AUD$5 (USD$3.39) in vouchers just for listening to a podcast on the platform. The offer is targeted, and we’re not eligible. But if you are, a reminder that Podnews Daily is just five minutes long…

• First look: NewsGuard, a “news reliability data service”, has announced its entry into podcasting today. The company says it’s the world’s first journalist-vetted podcast credibility rating service; its release includes example ratings for five podcasts.

• The finishing touches are being put on the NZ Podcasting Summit this Saturday in Auckland. Our Editor, James Cridland, is the final keynote speaker; also speaking is Jane Yee from The Spinoff, Tim Watkin from RNZ, and Richard Palmer from Omny Studio. Tickets are still available - we can exclusively reveal that there’s a Podnews “podcoaster” in the goodie bag!

• Bumper looks at ways to look at Listen Time as a method to measure your audience’s engagement with your podcast. The company responds to concerns from us that a listen time metric penalizes short shows (like ours).

• Acquisitions: PodcastClosing·com, a UK-based podcast sales consultancy, has acquired the Facebook group Need A Guest and The Podcast Network … Amazon quietly acquired Snackable, an AI platform, late last year: tech from it will appear in the Amazon Music app … and Mathew Passy has sold The Podcast Consultant to new owners: Passy is to leave the company after a handover period. He cites burnout and a wish to spend more time with the family.

• Thorn has joined the Spotify Safety Advisory Council. The company detects, identifies and reports CSAM material.

• The duPont-Columbia Awards are open for submissions, setting the standard for audio and video reporting, in broadcast, documentary and online. Have you done important work from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 that features deep original reporting in the public interest? Here are more details on how to enter.

• Following reporting about dismal YouTube numbers on Friday… Folding Pocket contacted us with details of Up Front with Simon Jordan, which was launched last week. The podcast is #1 Sports Podcast on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts, but also has more than half a million views on YouTube in less than a week. (There are no podcasts on YouTube Music in the UK, either).

• Snipd has added Android Auto support for drivers to save podcast highlights while on the road.

• 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.

Moves and hires

• Megan Wastell has left Global, where she was Director of Podcasts & Strategy, Global Player. She’s to be Global Creative Director for Merlin Entertainments, an operator of visitor attractions.

The Tech Stuff - with The Podcast Standards Project

• Dynamically-changing value splits were demonstrated last week in the Podcasting 2.0 podcast. As a song was played, the value splits automatically changed (in supporting apps) to include the musician, Joe Martin.

• The privacy-friendly Android podcast app AntennaPod v3.0.2 is available now on Google Play, and has a brand new home screen.

• Amazon’s CloudFront is on a 12-month high as a CDN, with 51.56% of new episodes in April hosted on the platform.

Tips and tricks - with Podnews Live - where podcasting connects

• How many podcasts are there? In the first set of regularly updated data collated by The Podcast Business Journal, we look at how many shows are being made, and whether the trend is up or down.

Podcast News

The Psychology of your 20’s has joined iHeartPodcasts. Host Jemma Sbeg explores the science, research and concepts behind the defining experiences of this critical decade – from imposter syndrome, the myth of the dream job and friendship breakups, to career anxiety, therapy and heartbreak – to show how everything is psychology, even in our 20s. The show was hosted on Spotify for Podcasters.

Podcasting 2.0 this week features Sam Sethi, co-host of the Podnews Weekly Review and CEO of Podfans.

Believe in Magic is a brand new podcast from the BBC, with Jamie Bartlett (who previously hosted The Missing Cryptoqueen). It’s the story of 16-year-old Megan Bhari who set up a charity called Believe in Magic, which gained the backing of global celebrities One Direction. The charity granted wishes to seriously ill children. Except, Megan then said she had a brain tumor and needed money for herself… and all is not quite what it seems.