Google to launch podcast app in Android's Play Store

Google is preparing to launch “a Google Podcasts app” for Android within the Google Play store. It’ll act as an installable link to the (quite decent, if basic) podcast app already in Android phones, originally launched in April 2016. Incidentally, we spotted over the weekend that it’s sporting a nice new 'Google Podcasts’ wordmark at the top of the homescreen.

Melbourne-based Nearly launches World Cup Road Trip, with broadcaster Francis Leach (SEN, ABC, Triple J) and writer Tony Wilson in Russia in a “nearly-daily” show.

Also Melbourne-based, By Association, an award-winning soccer podcast, has launched a spin-off, World Cup Stories, in which “James Parkinson speaks with football writers, broadcasters and creatives about their favourite tournament; their fondest memories, their experiences and what the world’s biggest sporting event means to them”.

Audioburst, the podcast indexing company, has launched Audioburst Creators, a set of promotional tools. “Transcribe, Clip, and Share your audio content for free. Just enter your RSS feed and we’ll take care of the rest!”

Dave Winer: podcasts are feeds. “If it doesn’t have an RSS feed, it isn’t a podcast,” he says, pointing out the freedom and independence it offers. Wembin Fang from Listen Notes also posted about this subject over the weekend, keen to highlight why “Netflix for podcasting won’t work”.

A new daily podcast from Canada’s Global News: This is Why. Has the same polish as The Daily.

Medium have launched their first podcast, Medium Playback. “Your favorite writers, sharing the story behind the story — in their own words”.

The US’s Department of Homeland Security is compiling - for reasons unclear - a database of journalists and media influencers. Podcasters are, yes, included.

Voizzup, a radio analytics company, posts about their analysis of podcast performance. The company goes into detail about what it measures - it notes that volume control changes are valuable to understand listener reaction.

Fairfax Media, a newspaper publisher in Australia (Sydney Morning Herald), has added a new column on podcasts in a redesign of their weekly TV pullout.