Pandora adds podcast analytics

Thank you to podcast editor and voiceover Harlie who became our 14,000th subscriber today, joining new subscribers this week from Spotify, NOVA Entertainment, Condé Nast, Megaphone, Simplecast and Gimlet Media among many others.

• Pandora has announced new podcast analytics for creators. It measures Pandora plays: your podcast’s audience demographics and location, as well as “thumbs” (whether shows have been given a thumbs-up or thumbs-down). You can sign up here.

• The Apple Podcasts app is to get personalised recommendations, according to a leak. Also apparently coming: “the option for podcast creators to offer bonus content” and “new user profiles may allow you to follow friends and see what podcasts they’re listening to,” a feature similar to Breaker or Swoot.

• Twitter has added mini-podcast-like audio posts to its iOS app. Android users will have to wait. The company follows Audioboom, which had this idea more than ten years ago - here’s a “boo” from our Editor from 2010.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 25 2023

• Holy podcast exclusives, Batman! Spotify has signed an exclusive deal with Warner Bros/DC for an original slate of podcasts including Superman and Wonder Woman.

  • Spotify has also launched its first original podcast for Australia and New Zealand. Search Engine S*x “dives deep to answer some of the most searched relationship questions” about special mummy-and-daddy hugs.
  
  Aug 25 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
  • And the company’s launched a podcast in Japan, too, featuring Japanese internet star kemio. Here’s more about kemio no mimisouji club, in English.
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• Boston’s WBUR is to lay off 29 people, will cease production of Only a Game and Kind World, and the New York Times will wholly take over their co-pro Modern Love. Meanwhile, Chicago’s WBEZ is laying off 12 people.

• Podcast Clout is another entrant into the crowded scene for PR consultants of “finding podcasts for your client to be a guest on”.

  
  Aug 25 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Another set of podcasting data is on the way: Edison Research is unveiling the Latino Podcast Listener Report on June 30 (which covers US listeners only). Register here for the webinar in English or en español.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 25 2023

• Castro has had an update: the podcast app now does shortcuts and can be entirely controlled through Siri.

• Podcast engineers and editors: The Podcast Audiolympics takes place July 15 to August 5. It’s a competition to win $2,100+ in prizes, and is promised to be “a fun audio competition including audio games using EQ, compression, mixing, and more!”

• Developer Reza Shirazian has built a service that tracks a podcast, transcribes its episodes, and indexes it for search. They’ve done a sample search engine for Joe Rogan.

Nothing to do with podcasts, but our Editor tried, and paid-for, new email service HEY.com. “It’s good, but it’s not right,” he says, in a personal blog.

Tips and tricks

• Rules are good, but knowing when to break them is even better, according to Pacific Content’s Jonas Woost.

Podcast News - with The Jordan Harbinger Show

On The Jordan Harbinger Show Bill Nye, a lifelong champion of science, who’s determined to teach you something today that you didn’t know yesterday: whether it’s from a television screen, the pages of a book, or next to you at a dinner party. Listen now

Idol Memories is a new podcast launching next week, hosted by American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe, with contestants, producers and production team members talking about their favorite memories on and off-camera.

Recode Media had Hernan Lopez as a guest earlier this week. He talks about the effects of the pandemic, and the issues of running a business while awaiting trial.

World on Fire is a new podcast from CBC Edmonton. It looks at “what it takes to find hope in the midst of fear and destruction caused by wildfires”.

Cadence13's Origins returns for a new season in July, looking at the movie Almost Famous.

Silence is not an option is a new podcast from CNN, dives deep into the reality of being Black and Brown in America. It’s hosted by Don Lemon, who writes about it here.