Fountain now rewards listeners and creators with Bitcoin

The data suggests we should work together to enhance podcast search, make more video podcasts, and normalise paid-podcast promotion, says Caila Litman in this week’s Sounds Profitable, with Podsights. It’s her latest Good Data post, with data from across the podcast industry. You should subscribe.

• Podcast app Fountain is now rewarding people for listening to shows with Bitcoin, which they can then share with their favourite podcasters as “value4value”. They more people listen, the more they get - and the more they can share.

  • For listeners, we’ve added Fountain as a place to listen to podcasts in our podcast pages today (like this for Podland); and we mark shows like this that accept value4value.
  • For podcasters, Fountain has made it easy to collect Bitcoin support for your show: download the app (on iOS or Android) and claim your show.
  • The app also produces shareable clips and supports other Podcasting 2.0 features.

• More views of Twitter’s new “podcasts” menu item have surfaced from Twitter user @wongmjane. We don’t know what it’ll contain; it appeared, in March, to show podcast episodes shared by users you follow.

• In New Zealand, Spotify is testing a tool to record a podcast directly into the Spotify app according to a Kiwi tweet from the company.

• Podcast publisher Post Script Media has raised $2m in a funding round, and has announced a set of new shows. They’ve been sponsoring our Podcast News section this month.

• Crooked Media is making coffee now. Crooked Coffee is ethically sourced, packaging is recyclable, and helps raise funds for the nonprofit Register Her. “What A Morning” coffee is designed to accompany What A Day.

• The 5th annual Canadian Podcast Awards are open for nominations. There are thirty-one categories; you’ve until July 13 to enter.

• Michelle and Barack Obama’s production company, Higher Ground has signed a multiyear deal with Audible. No details were shared. In February, we heard they were leaving Spotify. Audible’s content is normally hidden behind a $7.95 paywall.

• Musician Ben Lee and actress, painter and director Ione Skye have launched The Weirder Together Podcast Network with Acast, according to an email from the company.

• Readly, a digital magazine and newspaper app, has launched podcasts on its app for iOS users. Podcasts listed are from participating magazines and newspapers.

Moves and hires - with The Creators, from Sounds Profitable

• Brian Egan has been named Director of Digital Content and Strategy for AdLarge. He also produces podcasts for The Athletic, and co-founded a podcast network in 2017.

• Steven Cohen has joined Crossover Media Group as VP of Business Development and Partnerships. He’d been with Cadence13 for seven years.

Tips and tricks - with RedCircle

• Holidays are coming - what should you do with your podcast during the break? Blubrry has some ideas, including best-of episodes, or just telling your audience you’re taking a break.

• “Could you make it sound a bit more like jeans?” JAR Audio write about choosing the right piece of (licensed) music for your podcast. They ask - will it complement the dialog? Or compete with it?

Podcast News - with Post Script Media

From Post Script Media: Climavores is a show for eaters who are trying to navigate the complex relationship between healthy food and a healthy planet. Hosted by journalists Tamar Haspel and Mike Grunwald, they explore the complicated, confusing, and surprising relationship between food and the environment.

Alzheimer’s disease affects 1 in 9 people globally. Alzheimer’s Podcast is launched today by Mission Based Media, to hear insights and information for those who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and the people who care about them.

The Martha Stewart Podcast is new today from iHeartRadio - Martha will sit down with influential people she has met along her successful and storied career, discussing their paths to the top and the lessons they have learned along the way. Her first episode, released today, is with Snoop Dogg.

The podcast all about language, The Allusionist, is doing live shows in Australia next month: all the big cities, like Sydney, Melbourne, um, Canberra and, well, Adelaide. Helen. Australia’s third biggest city says hi, Helen. Hello! We’re up here! You know, where the Olympics will be in 2032? Begins with a B. Anyway, the show is also in Auckland in New Zealand (pop 1.65m, which is significantly smaller than 2.3m, but make your own choice, don’t mind about us).

The Sound Off Podcast has Arielle Nissenblatt as its latest guest. “I want more podcast listeners. I want more people to listen to podcasts, and more people to listen to podcasts regularly”, she says to Matt Cundill, and we discover she is a big fan of 107.1 The Peak.

Podcast billboards

Here’s a billboard in Pittsburgh PA, USA, spotted by Jeff Rutherford for the ABGC podcast - a “riveting tale of half-human half-animal characters abducted by the military and forced to live on a grim space station, where they are surgically altered and ordered to pilot their space ships to defend Earth and its surrounding space from hostile invaders”.

Anyone want to share some nice podcast billboards with us? Just hit reply with a nice picture.