Google Podcasts redesign rolling out

• Google Podcasts is getting a redesign. “The new Google Podcasts” is rolling out to a handful of users, prior to a wider release. It includes auto-downloading, and moves Google’s recommendations to a new “Discover” tab. You can also queue podcast episodes for playback. The app has already been downloaded more than 10 million times.

• Exclusive: Podtrac, the largest podcast analytics company in the US, has released weekly podcast data showing podcast download and audience growth including the effect of the coronavirus. The data will be published later on the Podtrac website, and updated weekly.

• Exclusive: Voxnest has shared a report early with Podnews, focusing on the impact of the coronavirus in Italy, Spain and the US. (Spreaker, Voxnest’s podcast hosting platform, is the #1 podcast host in Italy). As we highlighted yesterday, Voxnest see some categories in significant growth.

  
  Aug 22 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Podio has shared a report on Podcast Consumption Behaviour in the Middle East and North Africa.

• The Podcast Host suggests that Podcasting for remote teams is a really effective way to connect, engage and motivate your staff, even at a distance. A long article, it covers why and how, and suggests that Slack might be an interesting first step into seeing if it’s right for your team members.

• Best practice for podcast trailers have been published by Omny Studio, Triton Digital’s podcast hosting company. Their first piece of advice is to, um, make one: and they show plenty of places where trailers are given prominence to new listeners.

• Hubhopper, which we’ve reported multiple times are copying and republishing RSS feeds without permission, said to us on February 24th that “Any and all duplicate feeds that were unintentionally exposed have been removed”. As of today, they’re still republishing feeds from certain podcasts. We’ve contacted their team, again, to ask what they’re doing.

• Apple’s App Store is to expand to support another twenty countries in 2020. That typically means new specific podcast locales, too.

  
  Aug 22 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• BBC Sounds, the corporation’s podcast app, has launched an app for connected TVs. The BBC’s Dan Taylor-Watt is quoted as saying “More so now than ever, we want our services to be available on whatever devices people want to access them on”.

  • It’s a year since the BBC blocked its podcasts from Google Podcasts, ensuring the corporation’s podcasts, which now include important health-related information from the UK’s public service broadcaster, are not available.

• Podcast Network Solutions, which produces 2,197 podcasts every month for others, is launching their own show: and you could be part of it. The Unexpected Joy Podcast will focus on the unexpected moments of joy we have, that would not have happened before this global crisis. Want to share a story about joy? Pop over here.

  
  Aug 22 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Podcast News

CNN en Español has released a Spanish-language podcast, Coronavirus: Realidad vs. ficción con Dr. Elmer Huerta. It follows the success of CNN’s English-language equivalent. (Omny Studio)

ABC Australia, the public service broadcaster, is now listing selected podcasts on Spotify. Their Coronacast podcast is now also on Spotify. (Our systems can’t match them up, yet, since they use different publisher names - but we’ll work on that). The BBC, however, is still witholding its Coronavirus Newscast podcast from Google Podcasts.
This link is no longer available, as at Aug 22 2023

Pandemic Check In is a podcast to help us all cope, trade tips, and check in with one another. Featuring mental health professionals from Brooklyn Minds, it describes itself as an old-fashioned call-in show. (Western Sound / Anchor)

The Suga was launched yesterday. It describes itself as “a brown mama’s guide to the sweet life with hosts Tika Sumpter and Thai Randolph”, and is part of their new lifestyle brand Sugaberry. (Stitcher / Omny Studio)

The Hilarious World of Depression, a show about clinical depression with laughs, returns for season four part 2. Earlier, the host, John, posted a note from his home office. (APM)

Telescope is a new podcast focused on the personal stories of people all around the world dealing with the [profound and wide-raging effects of COVID-19 and social distancing in their day-to-day lives(https://podnews.net/press-release/telescope-isolation). (Neon Hum Media / Megaphone)

Creative Elements describes itself as “How I Built This for the creative class”, and argues that it’s never been a better time to earn a living with your creativity. The show launches today, with high-profile guests talking about the nitty gritty of building their creative career. (The Podglomerate / Megaphone)

Jarika Johnson writes saying “As an African-American woman I have travelled to over 20 countries, and I began the podcast Blackpacking to discover other people of color’s stories of travel”.(Buzzsprout)