Podcasts are getting shorter

• Podcasts are getting shorter, so says podcast host Megaphone, who looked at the top 200 (US) podcasts, and offer the advice to “start shorter than your first instinct tells you to”.

  
  Aug 15 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
  • We’ve updated our guide to how long a podcast should be, which contains more data on ideal podcast length.

• Stagepass, a company that allows podcast hosts and other creatives to increase their income by selling tutorials, retreats, sessions and other experiences, has announced a partnership with Blubrry, a podcast host that supports over 100,000 podcasters and shows. Blubrry’s MacKenzie Bennett calls the partnership a “refreshing new take on monetisation”.

• Steven Goldstein has an interview with Westwood One’s Pierre Bouvard, highlighting how people are changing their habits when it comes to podcasting.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 15 2023

• Podtrac has posted their top 20 (US) podcasts for June 2019. The data is opt-in and proprietary (nothing wrong with that, though); in the top 5, based on US unique audience, iHeart’s Stuff You Should Know has overtaken This American Life.

  
  Aug 15 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Jamie Perkins writes an opinion piece about how much they love RSS, the technology that makes podcasting work.

• On 3 June, we reported that Tim Ferris had dropped advertising, moving to a subscription model. Last week, he reversed that decision. “Many of my assumptions were totally off,” he says.

  • A data point from Tim Ferris: “The podcast passed 400 million downloads a month ago”. We presume that’s 400 million downloads ever.

• The True Crime Podcast Festival took place over the weekend in Chicago.

• Noted: Podimo, a Danish “Netflix of podcasting” to launch later this year, promises “a compensation model that rewards all podcasters for their work - whether it’s a niche podcast with a handful of dedicated listeners, or a well-known show with a massive following.”

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the star of Inception and Looper, is working with Cadence13 to launch a new podcast.

• Real Agenda has set up a new political podcast network in the UK, and aims to partner with an initial 30 campaigning organisations whose combined online following is over 500,000.

Podcasts

Code Story looks at how a startup goes from an idea on the back of a napkin to a product. The latest episode features Leah Culver from Breaker, a popular podcast app.

Rob Schneider and Patricia Maya have launched See What Happens, promising occasional guests and dissecting show business, their contrasting parenting methods, jokes, good food, philosophy, and more. (Libsyn)