Chartable to close

• Exclusive: Spotify is to close the podcast analytics platform Chartable, as part of a re-focus at the company. Chartable users will receive an email a little later today detailing next steps. The tool, bought by Spotify in Feb 2022, offered “SmartLinks and SmartPromos” attribution tools; which we reported in 2022 were to be incorporated into Megaphone. That’s still the plan for Megaphone-hosted customers; though Spotify has also recently announced generally available attribution tools similar to SmartLinks for the Spotify app. Chartable’s co-founder Dave Zohrob left Spotify in July; Spotify’s other purchase at the time, Podsights, was integrated into Spotify Ad Analytics in June last year.

• The winners of the British Podcast Awards 2024 were announced. Of the podcast-specific awards, the BBC won nine; Acast were involved in five. Audible won three awards, including podcast of the year, which went to Press Play, Turn On.

  • Our award-winners lists include full hosting details and an OPML feed to import all the winners into your podcast app.

• The winners of the Black Podcasting Awards 2024 were announced too. Lisa Woolfork and her show Stitch Please won three new trophies. PRX shows won eight awards.

• Sport podcast listeners are 2.3x more likely to trust podcast adverts, compared to print and sports radio, according to new data from Sport Social.

• Tom Webster look at “The Persuadables”, 20 million people in the US who don’t listen to a podcast right now, but could easily be converted - and what’s needed to get them listening.

• New stats from Libsyn’s The Feed show another record low in share of downloads to Apple Podcasts.

• The Podcasting Standards Project has issued an update on its work. The group is working on enhancing the “people” feature, which provides podcast credits, and a potential feature to mark shows produced by AI.

• 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.

• Google’s NotebookLM - which (in part) lets you create a podcast-like experience from uploaded articles, like this, has added a built-in YouTube uploader, and better sharing tools. Since it’s a Google product, we assume it’ll be closed in three years; but it’s an impressive tool in the meantime.

Correction: Yesterday, we got a bit confused about connecting Apple Podcasts with your NYT subscription. Just like Spotify, on Apple Podcasts you can connect these, no matter how you subscribed to The New York Times.

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Tips and tricks - with Ausha - next gen podcasting 🚀

• Amplify your podcast’s reach — grab Ausha’s ultimate marketing checklist to make every episode a success.

• Dive into the essentials of launching a podcast on YouTube with Ausha’s resources

• Why did iOS 17 have such a big effect on podcast downloads? We look at Apple’s changes in iOS 17, and what it meant for the industry.

Podcast News

The Take will be made into a video podcast on YouTube from Monday. It’s the second show from Al Jazeera, the international news broadcaster, to make the jump to video.

The New Media Show this week had Adam Curry as a special guest for episode #501. The Podfather joined from Hill Country Texas, talking about value-for-value and how No Agenda works.

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.

The Wonder of Stevie was launched yester-me, yester-you, yesterday from Higher Ground, the Obamas’ production company. It’s a six-part series about Stevie Wonder’s five legendary albums in just four years, hosted by Misstra Know It All himself, NYT writer Wesley Morris. Perfect for you if you’re a part-time lover of his work, or if his music is the sunshine of your life.

What would you do if you won the ultimate lottery jackpot? Rich Beyond My Wildest Dreams is new today from Acast and EuroMillions from The National Lottery. Every Friday, a new guest will be invited to sit down and plan how they’d spend their hundreds of millions, covering their first purchases, their long-term plan, and the charitable causes they’d champion. Supporting Podnews had better be in the list.

Decision-making in the built environment is evolving faster than ever, and it’s causing friction across industries. Season six of Design Nerds Anonymous started this week on the SURROUND podcast network. The new season pulls back the curtain on the challenges facing decision makers today — why decisions are taking longer, involving more people, and demanding more data than ever before.