Is podcasting in China really worth $7bn?

• China - is podcasting there really worth US$7.3bn? Nick Quah’s HotPod interviews Yi Yang, a Podnews reader and Editor of 播客一下, a podcast newsletter, about the industry. Meanwhile, podcast Tech Buzz China from Pandaily dives into this topic in more detail, concluding that it’s 知识付费 - the pay-for-knowledge industry - which is really worth $7bn:

  What is sometimes referred to as the “podcasting” industry in China is really the amalgamation of educational lectures, audiobooks, music, and even short unauthorised Tom Hiddleston audio clips.

• Podcast host Libsyn has partnered with Entercom’s RADIO·COM, which claims it’s the fastest-growing audio app in the US. Entercom reaches 170m Americans every month; Libsyn customers will find RADIO·COM listed as a new destination in their dashboard. (Podnews is on RADIO·COM; here’s a full list of where we are, and how to get your podcast there).

• A new podcast platform in Chile, Emisor Podcasting, has launched. A platform for podcasts and radio on demand, created in Chile for the Spanish-speaking world, it’s owned by commercial radio group 13 Radios.

• In Sweden, PodMe, a podcast subscription service, has successfully raised US$1.3m in funding. Investors include a large Nordic media company Schibsted. PodMe has 20,000 subscribers “and is not profitable”.

• The Apple iPod Touch has had its first refresh since July 2015. The new version, which comes with 32GB base memory as standard, costs US$199.

• We mentioned Podcast Transcribe the other day - a free podcast transcription service. It’s already got an upgrade: it now recognises different voices, and is now HTTPS.

• Patreon have released an update to their mobile app that is a significantly better experience for audio, with bugfixes and new features.

• In Brazil, B9, a creativity and innovation website, has announced a significant expansion of their podcast network. O Mamilos has over one million listeners per month; in total, their network has over 4m plays a month and an average retention rate of 80%.

• IAB Brazil has a webinar - The Golden Age of Podcasting - tomorrow (30 May) at 3pm Brazilian time. You can sign up for free - the event is in Portuguese.

  
  Aug 13 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Advice: how to create and maintain a newsletter for your podcast (Ma’ayan Plaut, RadioPublic)

• Event: Paris, France, is the home of the Paris Podcast Festival, back October 8-10 at la Gaîté Lyrique. 4,300 people came last year, and this time around they’re enlarging the event with more rooms, more meetings and more podcasts. Merveilleux!

  
  Aug 13 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Thanks to Megaphone - modern podcast technology for publishers and advertisers - for becoming a Gold Supporter today.

Podcasts

Wildfire is a new podcast from REI Co-op, a camping equipment company. It’s a six-part investigative series into a controversial wildfire in Oregon, US, that trapped over 150 hikers and burnt over 50,000 acres; and a broader look at forest fires. (Simplecast)

The Journey, a podcast from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, returns for a new season tomorrow. The first season achieved a Red Dot Award, 3 x Lovies Awards and was a Webby nominee; it’s also available on KLM aircraft. (Airborne / Simplecast)

Brexitcast stars Chris Mason and Adam Fleming are on the RadioToday Programme this week, “explaining what makes their podcast so successful”. (Audioboom)

Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend recently interviewed Howard Stern. He reflects that rules and regulations, as he had on radio, give structure, discipline and tension: removing those rules dramatically changes things, as he found when moving to SiriusXM (but also valid for podcasting). (Team Coco / Earwolf / ART19)

They Walk Among Us is an award-winning weekly UK true crime podcast covering a broad range of cases from the sinister to the surreal; and also our latest personal sponsor. Yay! Thanks for your support! Be like them. (Acast)