Up to ten companies may lose IAB measurement certification

• Ten podcast companies are still not certified for the latest version of the IAB’s podcast measurement guidelines v2.1, in spite of being asked to do so by the end of 2022. More than a year later, the IAB’s list of compliant companies still shows AdsWizz, Anchor (now Spotify), Buzzsprout, Captivate, Chartable, Libsyn, Megaphone, Podbean, Podtrac and Simplecast as only compliant to v2.0 of the guidelines, something that means “they will lose current status”, according to the IAB Tech Lab.

  • The organisation also now requires companies to recertify anually. However, of 28 compliant companies, only 6 have recertified in the last twelve months. An IAB spokesperson told Podnews last month that “We do have several companies in process of recertification and we do expect them to be completed by the end of the year. We will offer a little flexibility to these companies if these are not entirely complete by 12/31 so they won’t lose certified status.”
  • The only company that did recertify last month was SoundStack, which achieved v2.1 certification on Dec 31.

• Audacy, owners of Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios, has filed for bankruptcy. The company plans a restructure and claims it will have “no operational impact”. Formerly known as Entercom, it acquired CBS Radio in 2017. It currently has debts of $1.9bn.

• The Castro podcast app is in trouble again: the app and website has been down since late Friday. In November, we reported it was to close: the company posted a denial, but said it was looking for new owners. We’ve asked for comment.

  • It appears to be an issue with DNS; if you are able to add the old DNS records to your network, you can get everything to work.

• An audio drama discord community, Audio Drama Lab, is to close tomorrow, following frustrations directed at moderators. The server had around 960 members and had just celebrated its 1 year anniversary.

• SoundCloud is up for sale. The music service, which made 10% of its workforce redundant last year, is preparing for a sale worth up to $1bn.

• In China, one in five internet users listen to podcasts on Ximalaya, says the company. It shared US $9.8mn with its podcast hosts.

• Podtrac published its rankers for December 2023. Global downloads for the month were down 19% month-on-month and 24% year-on-year: the company blames Apple Podcasts changes. The ranker lists participating publishers only.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS․com

• PodcastAI is to add automatic speaker recognition to its platform, with the AI tool automatically identifying the speakers.

• John Spurlock posted data from OP3 showing total downloads from Spotify and from Apple Podcasts. A significant dropoff is visible for Apple Podcasts since Nov 1.

• The Podcasting 2.0 show regularly receives boostagrams and donations to help run the Podcast Index. In total over the last few years, Chad Farrow calculates it has earned $70,319 in donations, plus a further $38,400 in micropayments.

• Modern podcast app Podverse is so popular, some scammers have worked out how to get free access to the premium version and are selling it to unsuspecting users.

Tips and tricks - with Patreon + Spotify

• How do I get more listeners to my podcast? Possibly the most-asked question: and we’ve got a number of answers.

• How long should a podcast be? If you were to copy the #1 podcast in the world, it would be a flabby two and a half hours… but is that the right duration?

Podcast News - with Airwave

From Airwave: Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove has joined Airwave Podcasts. The show was with Glassbox Media, and contains relaxing sleep hypnosis, guided sleep meditations and bedtime stories.

Congratulations to WTF with Marc Maron for hitting 1,500 episodes. His guest is actor Paul Giamatti.

The Geek News Central Podcast team, including Todd Cochrane, are in Las Vegas this week to cover CES, the consumer electronics show. The podcast will include live coverage, which you’ll spot in new podcast apps like Fountain and TrueFans.

In this week’s Podnews Weekly Review, James and Sam look back at our predictions this time last year, and see how many of them came true. No Apple Podcasts app for Android, but James still predicts that we’ll see Apple Podcasts on more platforms in 2024.

Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson has joined iHeartPodcasts for its new season, which launches today. The show aims to not only have some laughs but to maybe inspire some people along the way with universal tales of what it’s like to grow up with brothers and sisters.

Bored of the hits? Unsung is a 6-part series on forgotten music luminaries - the likes of Charles Mingus, Wendy Carlos, Jacob Miller and Lata Mangeshkar. The series was produced at the end of last year by creator Sumit Sharma.

Podshape have signed In Her Power from entrepreneur Bec Stewart. The podcast chats all things personal development, life, career, wellness and pretty much everything else in between.