Google Podcasts disappears from Google Search

• Exclusive: Google Podcasts has been removed from Google Search.

  • In April 2018, Google started showing individual podcast episodes and play buttons in Google Search, which opened a Google Podcasts branded player. Now, a Google search for a podcast no longer shows any play buttons linking to the service, or any links to Google Podcasts itself. A search for “history podcasts” lists a number of shows, but links to reviews, Apple Podcasts pages and other platforms.
  • A Google spokesperson tells us that this is “as intended”, adding “we’re constantly experimenting with ways to improve the experience for our users”.
  • The Google Podcasts app has had no feature updates for the last eighteen months; the Google Podcasts Creators Program closed this month; and now with the removal of the product from Google Search, the business unit that owns the app, we asked if Google Podcasts is to close. The answer: “YouTube and Google Podcasts serve different needs. Both serve podcast listeners today and we are not changing this right now. We have nothing more to share at this time.”

• Sounds Profitable has announced new research and content partners, and their presence at SXSW and Podcast Movement Evolutions.

• Magellan AI has added support for analysing Spanish language podcasts in the US and Mexico. The product is already monitoring more than 2,000 advertisers.

• First look: Sounder and Urban One have partnered to research improved brand safety tools for BIPOC audio content, which the companies recognise is currently limited. Sounder will work with Radio One and the Urban One Podcast Network.

• Libsyn has launched Libsyn Connect, a browser-based remote recording tool. Here are the support documents; it’s free for every Libsyn customer until Feb 7, and will be available for any customer on a $20+ plan.

• Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast has signed an exclusive advertising partnership with Aaron Mahnke’s Lore, including Libsyn’s Auto Ads solution.

• The Australian Podcast Ranker for December was released by Triton Digital. SCA’s Hamish & Andy lost their top spot - but then, they didn’t release a single show in December; the #1 is now Casefile True Crime, produced by Audioboom and represented by ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia, which remains the top publisher; while SCA’s LiSTNR remains the top sales house (just). Both claim they’re #1 in press releases.

• Further reading: Matthew McLean writes Why Video Can’t & Won’t Replace Audio in Podcasting … Jonas Woost at Bumper writes on A better way to measure podcast success: Listen Time

Moves and hires

• Manuela Bedoya has been made Head of Operations at Sounds Profitable. She was with LWC Studios.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Movement Evolutions

• Yesterday, we covered Ali Abdaal, telling us how he earnt $4.6m last year from his YouTube channel. Tony Dec links us to former YouTuber Anastasia Petrenko who has a very different experience. Ali was clear that his experience wasn’t typical, and we linked to him in case his ideas were helpful in thinking about new ways to earn revenue for podcasters: we link to Anastasia since her experiences are, also, useful.

Podcast News - with editaudio

From editaudio: The Teardown Activist and tattooer Vegas Ink chats with fellow artists about everything from owning a shop, to dating as an artist and finding work/life balance.

Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children is new from iHeart today. The school was a so-called “reform school” outside of Montgomery, Alabama, which was, as several former students called it, a slave camp. The podcast is an 8-part investigative series hosted by journalist Josie Duffy Rice.

Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast drops today - an intimate look at the making of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The podcast is a production of Proximity Media in collaboration with Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment.

What are businesses doing to protect our future and what more can be done? Café Direct’s Building Better Business returns for a second series today, aiming to empower people to become part of a positive movement for change through their consumer choice. It’s produced by This Is Distorted.

Mark Your Place in Internet History

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