Action on copycat podcasts

• A few weeks ago, Podnews investigated growing concern about the number of copies of shows. We’d heard from many creators who expressed frustration at the practice - duplicates that confused listeners, reduced total downloads and ad revenue, and even interfered with chart positions. Today, we’re delighted to share that following our reporting, Spreaker has made a commitment to put in place a number of changes to fight these unauthorized copies of shows.

  • Additionally, working with the industry, Podnews has drafted a Code of Practice for podcast migrations. Spreaker, RSS.com, Transistor and RedCircle have all made commitments to follow the code. We’d be keen for more hosting companies to follow their lead: and to see a proper home for this work.

• Podcast ad spend is up: +18% year-on-year, according to Magellan AI’s Q3 2026 Podcast Advertising Quarterly Benchmark Report. It’s behind a registration wall. However - podcast adload continues to increase: Magellan AI suggests it is up to 8.86% in Q3, versus 8.75% in Q2, and 8.34% a year ago. In a year, that’s around 20 seconds more advertising (+6%) in a typical hour-long show.

• How did our pilot with Liquid Studios go, to visualise our podcast? You might wonder how much extra work it was - or, whether it had an effect on our traffic. We’ve published the results.

• Caloroga Media has opened Linnet, its AI-powered media production platform, to the public. The tool includes an audio-to-video capability, plus “God Mode”, which turns a single prompt into a complete first draft of an episode, including script, narration, music, artwork, and video.

• Type C Studios celebrated its one-year anniversary with a Substack post written by CEO N’Jeri Eaton - highlighting the “tough media environment”, and the pressure that companies are currently under. She notes that the company had a head start that not many have - years of pre-existing relationships, strong reputations and a past portfolio.

• Promised in an announcement last month, the PAVE Studios original series Mother Knows Murder launched yesterday on Disney+ and today everywhere else. From the Crime House brand, it’s hosted by Emmy-winning actress Niecy Nash-Betts and her daughter Dia La Ren, and “unpacks real-life murder cases packed with shocking twists, unexpected revelations, and laugh-out-loud reactions”.

• Launched in April 2023 for iOS users, RØDE has finally got around to launching its video and audio recording app, RØDE Capture, on Android. The app offers full control of its wireless microphones, alongside recording video on the device’s camera. The company was promoting it as “coming soon” in April.

• In France, SoundCast has partnered with StackAdapt. Advertisers and agencies on StackAdapt can now buy SoundCast’s entire audio offering programmatically, directly from the platform. The new deal covers more than 150 leading publishers, including Le Figaro, Ouest France, AudioBoom and Acast.

Tips and tricks

• Lower Street’s Jackie Lamport suggests that nobody wants their podcast to look like a Zoom call - and it turns out that the simplest upgrade is with decent lighting.

People news - with podnews.net/jobs

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: Smart Travel from Nerdwallet helps you get the most out of your travel dollars, your travel pounds, your travel euros and even your travel đồng. Today - how to choose an airline credit card.

Magellan and the First Voyage Around the World on Dan Snow’s History Hit. In his signature epic storytelling style, Dan Snow sweeps listeners into the perilous voyages of Ferdinand Magellan in the great age of exploration around the world. It charts a brutal odyssey of mutiny, shipwreck and discovery. One that transformed humanity’s understanding of the globe, even though Magellan himself never made it home.

In BIO (By Invitation Only) this week, Rich talks to Ailis McGovern about about loyalty lessons from telecoms, making subscription the default while keeping it easy to opt out, and scratch and sniff. It’s a Klaviyo podcast For heads of ecommerce, CRM and DTC brands.