Figures down 10% in September, says Podtrac

• Podcast downloads and audiences both fell 10% last month, according to Podtrac’s rankers for September. iHeartPodcasts are still #1 for podcast publishers; Wondery is still the #1 sales network; The Daily is still the #1 podcast. Podtrac measures participating companies only.

• Amazon has closed its streaming “radio” service Amp. The service launched in March last year; and reportedly fired half its staff twelve months ago.

• Podcast production tool Podcastle has launched “Magic Dust AI”, a generative AI tool that enhances podcast creation. It includes a studio-quality sound tool and a cinematic blur feature for video. Techcrunch covers the launch, claiming that the company has a user base of more than one million.

• Data: Melon Media, a podcast production company in Greece, released the first survey into Greek podcast listeners last year. It suggested that podcasts in Greece is a relatively recent phenomenon: only 8% of respondents have been listening for more than two years. We missed this data when it was first released; but it’s still helpful.

• Auphonic has launched a new “automatic filler word cutter”. It’s been trained for four languages, but you can help test it on more.

• Spotted on Hacker News: a new service called Grro, which promises “AI-powered & actionable cross promo recommendations. Tailored for your podcast.” Recommendations will always be free, it says.

• Patreon has a new logo, along with a set of new features.

• Acast has been announced as the major partner for the Paris Podcast Festival next week.

• Not sure why you’d want to host your podcast on Spotify for Podcasters without wanting to be listed on Spotify itself. But, from November 6, that won’t be possible, says Spotify, notifying S4P users that their show will automatically be distributed on Spotify from that date.

• The New York Festivals Radio Awards are open for entries (from anywhere). There are a set of new categories including scifi/fantasy/horror and mystery; with plenty of podcast categories.

• The Canadian Podcast Awards are also open for entries; more than 600 podcasts were submitted last year for the awards, which are open to Canadian shows.

• In the Netherlands, the NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences is to start a course on The Business of Podcasting.

• The PodPros Actively Established Podcast Report has been updated for October. It reports more active shows. Captivate is the new #1 ranked podcast host.

• Spotify has announced a new set of podcasters that have been selected for the company’s RADAR emerging talent program. There are five podcasters selected from France, Italy, Spain and the US; and three from Australia.

• Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, writes about the CRTC’s registration requirements for podcast services, criticising the media regulator’s process, and concluding that it “did not want to give Canadians a reasonable opportunity to have their say”. (He also writes a decent explainer). Meanwhile, Canadaland’s Jesse Brown is concerned: “What they’re signalling is, 'We are going to be regulating the space, but we’re not telling you how.' That makes it very hard,” he told Canada’s CBC.

Podcast News

Are you getting the most out of AI? The AI and Digital Transformation Podcast looks at small and medium enterprises, and how they’re using AI to solve issues. A monthly podcast, the latest episode features how to build a secure ChatGPT for your business; it’s from Genova in Italy.

ICE-CREAM, a fiction horror series from 911 Podcasts, is celebrating its 1 year anniversary with 100,000 global downloads. The show has released a five-minute anniversary episode from cast and crew.

The etiquette podcast Were You Raised By Wolves? has been selected by the New York Comedy Festival, and will do its first ever live show. You can see the team perform live at the New York Comedy Club on November 8th.

The Deep Dive with Jessica St. Clair and June Diane Raphael has joined Lemonada Media. The show was with Earwolf; a new episode is out today.

Born Greek - Made American is new from Melon Media, a podcast production company in Athens, Greece. It focuses on a long line of adopted Greek children by US couples that has been kept a secret for years. It is a story that takes us back to the Cold War years, and a story about broken families. All episodes are out today.

Season eight of Heavyweight premieres today. In the first episode, host Jonathan Goldstein harkens back to meeting Lenny, his childhood best friend, and their bonding over recording prank phone calls, their parents’ dinner parties, and making radio plays - then jumps to their relationship today, a far cry from the childlike innocence that brought them together.

Your weekly dose of the news, from an anti-racist perspective, Don’t Call Me Resilient launched season 6 last week. Vinita Srivastava dives into conversations with experts and real people to make sense of the news, from an anti-racist perspective. It’s from The Conversation Canada.

The third season of Sound Judgment launched last week - exploring the audio storytelling craft of podcasting. Last week, Classy’s Jonathan Menjivar, of Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios and alum of Fresh Air and This American Life, shared strategies and self-doubts on the challenge of making a gripping podcast about class in America; and to come are Anna Sale, Nikki Boyer and others.