Luminary 'losing $3.5m a month'

• Subscription podcast company Luminary has raised a further $30m in a funding round, but the company is 'struggling’ and only has 80,000 subscribers says Bloomberg. The story claims that Luminary, which has raised $160m so far, was losing $3.5m a month before the pandemic set in. “The company has cut spending on marketing, new shows and staff.”

• Triton Digital have published their latest Australian Podcast Ranker for the period ending 3 May. The highest new entry is Wondery’s The Dollop, at #15; new publishers in the ranker are Wondery, NBC News and Wavelength Creative, an indie Australian podcast publisher. The ABC, the largest podcast publisher in the country, are still absent. The service only measures participating publishers.

  • Podtrac have also published highlights of their top podcasts by category ranking for April.
  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 24 2023

• Acast have signed a partnership deal with Fremantle Australia to help distribute and monetise Fremantle’s podcasts. The first show goes live on Monday, a new true crime podcast. Fremantle makes many different drama shows including popular Australian soap opera Neighbours.

• Transistor have unveiled a new user interface for podcasters with a new set of features. Here’s a sneak peek.

• The founding governors of The Podcast Academy met recently, we’re told. The organisation’s planning has been a little delayed due to the coronavirus, but we can expect a set of announcements next month.

• Podyssey has launched a new initiative of 'virtual hangouts’, a way to get together with friends, colleagues and family - and your favourite podcast, of course.

• Wondering how to make your own podcast app using React Native? Here’s a tutorial on how to do just that.

• Automatic transcripts could be coming to Spotify. The terms and conditions for Spotify for Podcasters have been updated, although disappointingly, the company hasn’t indicated what’s changed. Thanks to a cached copy of the terms and conditions from a year ago, here are the new changes that we can see:

  • 6: Rights You Grant Us: In a new part of this clause, Spotify is now able to 'make derivative works’, which they highlight as being transcribing your podcast so it’s easier to search for, easier for them to review the content, maybe to display on Spotify, and possibly as a tool for improved personalisation. (Spotify already displays lyrics for some songs). The new wording in this clause specifically says Spotify won’t make new audio or video works, or merchandise, from your stuff.
  • 7.3: (in User Guidelines) is a new clause, prohibiting use of Spotify for Podcasters to upload DJ mixes, music tracks or similar content. This has been a recent issue for the service. Clause 7.2 actually prohibited this anyway, but perhaps this is there for political reasons for record companies.
  • 11. Beta Features is a new clause, saying that Spotify may randomly add new features or take them away.
  • 14: Term and Termination used to say “if you cancel this agreement, tough, we’ll keep all your podcasts thanks”. But things have changed. The new clause now appears to say “if you cancel this agreement, we’ll only keep any feedback you sent us”, and it appears your podcasts would be deleted; and clause 15: Termination gives you ways to cancel the agreement (by asking nicely, or deleting your account).
  • 16: Limitation (in case Spotify breaks your computer or they mess up your podcast or something) for some reason adds a lower limit for Spotify of US$100 in damages (the higher limit being 'all the money you spent on Spotify over the past twelve months’). Previously, if you weren’t a subscriber, this clause meant that Spotify didn’t need to pay anything in damages. We’re guessing this is the result of some legal argument somewhere.

Tips and tricks

• What does it mean to be a good podcast host and interviewer? (Sounder and Travis Brown)

Opinion

After their bumpy, tone-deaf start, it would be easy to jump on Luminary’s financial troubles with a gleeful “told you so”. Yet even if the product wasn’t perfect, Luminary did a great job marketing content to new audiences. As Rob Greenlee’s perceptive article yesterday made clear: we we need more new listeners for podcasting to succeed. We should remind others of that; and hope Luminary, and similar companies, survive.

Podcast News

Kara Swisher is guest on Inside Podcasting this week with Skye Pillsbury.

Love Learning is a new audio learning tool for kids, and was launched yesterday in Brisbane QLD, Australia. Each episode will include links to downloadable activities to keep the kids entertained for hours after the podcast ends.