How is the coronavirus affecting podcast downloads?

• How is the coronavirus affecting podcast downloads? If you’re seeing a slight drop in your downloads, you’re not alone, it seems - we’ve lots of detail from podcasters today, as well as an understanding of whether the internet can cope with all this home working. (The comments are open here, too)

• Could we be replaced with computers? The BBC is working on artificial announcers with authentic regional accents. You can hear some of its early work, and take part in the study, on the BBC’s R&D website.

• How easy is your podcast to understand? The Lexile Audio Analyzer is a piece of software to examine the 'content features’ of what is spoken and the 'acoustic features’ of how it is spoken, to make sure you’re getting your message over. (Thanks, Harry Orenstein!)

• Richard Fidler, host of Conversations, which we believe is the most popular podcast in Australia, has posted his home studio setup, complete with cardboard box. Meanwhile, 'podjock’ Gene “Bean” Baxter shares his soundproofing booth for Podcast Radio in the UK: less carboard, more curtains.

• Spotify has published a set of Podcast APIs, allowing developers to build alternate front-ends and recommendation services for Spotify’s podcasts, as well as “episode resume points”, so you can help listeners come back to a podcast at the position they left. The APIs were first requested by developers in May 2017; and an undocumented API has been used since October 2018.

• Developers: The open list of podcast useragents on Github now has The Economist’s podcast app, Podimo’s user-agent details, and RadioPublic’s new user-agent. Visible here, it’s used in production by a number of podcast hosts.

• We’ve made it easier to grab “listen link” code for your podcast’s website - HTML code you can copy and paste, which opens the right podcast app on someone’s phone or tablet. (And a way to get the proper Apple/Google/Spotify buttons). Here’s an example for Reply All - just search for your podcast.

Podcast News

Cavalry Audio and Cloud 10 launch Made Women, a Sopranos re-watch podcast. It’s the first release from the newly-announced Cavalry Audio, and is hosted by actor and Sopranos star, Drea De Matteo and her close friend, entrepreneur and New Jersey native Chris Kushner. (Simplecast)

Viral: Coronavirus focuses on the actions of Congress and the Federal Reserve and explores how their decisions will impact the possibility of a recession. The show will tackle the questions that everyday Americans are all wondering: What is the government doing? Why are they doing it? Most importantly, will it work? (Three Uncanny Four / Sony Music Entertainment / Megaphone)

Gavin Esler’s The Big Steal was the subject of an interview last week on Podcast Radio with Gene Baxter - the podcast examines Russia’s journey from democracy to kleptocracy, as the Putin regime attempts to erode democracy across the globe. The station has run episode one as an exclusive. Is Putin, in fact, the richest man in the world? (Fresh Air Production / Omny Studio)