Blubrry turns on programmatic ads for all

• Blubrry has unveiled a way all its hosting customers can earn money through programmatic advertising. There are no minimum downloads or audience figures required; the company is using SoundStack. We’re also told to expect a big announcement from the company on Monday.

• Megaphone clients will get free access to both Chartable audience insights and the starter plan for Podsights ad attribution from September, Spotify has announced.

• Disctopia has announced it is to “become the first podcast streaming platform to pay podcasters 5 cents per stream”. (That’s a $50 CPM).

• Yesterday it expanded podcast advertising services into Germany; today, Libsyn has announced it is expanding into Canada. The company has announced the appointment of Bob Kane (Podnews told you in June), and has signed Bob McCown and The Sonar Network.

• Podcast Radio is to hold an international podcast conference in New York NY, USA on October 19.

• Above: Edison Podcast Metrics has released the US top 50 podcasts, by audience size, for the 12 months ending Jun 30.

• Gemini XIII is working with best-selling author Jane Green to launch Emerald Audio, a female-led podcast network.

• Pew has published research on how teenagers are using the internet. One-in-five teens “visit or use YouTube almost constantly”. Neither podcasts or Spotify get a mention though.

• Adalyst Media has added Labyrinths: Getting Lost With Amanda Knox to its podcast roster.

• WMG’s podcast network Interval Presents has added Holding Court with Eboni K Williams to its portfolio.

• Jack Quaid is to star in a new scripted audio thriller from Echoverse.

• Penn Entertainment has told the SEC that it plans to to purchase the remaining shares of Barstool Sports for $387m. It bought 36% of the company in 2020.

• SpokenLayer is the latest company to sign with Sounder for third-party brand safety verification. Advertisers will be able to buy ads knowing that the shows adhere to their brand values and to the brand safety guidelines set by the IAB and GARM.

• UK media website The Drum looks at 7 podcast incubators keeping an ear out for the sound of tomorrow. Kenya’s SemaBox and Australia’s Syn Media rub shoulders with NPR, the BBC, Spotify and Acast.

• Audacy is to make around 250 posts, 5% of the company’s workforce, redundant.

Thank you to Josh Muccio, the host of the newly-independent The Pitch, for becoming our latest personal supporter on Patreon. The more personal supporters we have, the ruder we can be about our advertisers the more independent our journalism can be: you can be like Josh.

Moves and hires

• Matt Turck has joined AdLarge Media as Head of Podcast Growth and Strategy. He was Publisher of Slate, and co-founder of Megaphone.

Podcast News

The premiere of HBO’s House of the Dragon is on Sunday, but in The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon you can hear George R.R. Martin’s insights into the show - and the similarities and differences between House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones.

FT Tech Tonic returns for a new season, with a five-part series called A sceptic’s guide to crypto. Jemima Kelly casts a sceptical eye on what led to the boom in digital assets and why they’re so volatile. She takes a trip deep into cryptoland to hear from critics, converts and hardcore believers to find out whether crypto technology has a future.

One Year returns for a new season, looking at 1986 - the year of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the opening of Al Capone’s vault, and No Crime Day. It’s from Slate.

Lizzy Cooperman’s In Your Hands - at least, if you’re one of her guests, who tell her what to do. The Starburns Audio show had Lauren Passell on her show recently, and the audience voted that Lizzy needs to work with Lauren to grow her podcast. So that’s what’s happening here: one of Lauren’s plans is to get Lizzy’s show as much press as possible: and that includes Podnews. You should listen - her audience knows best, after all.