More podcasts launched in 2018 than ever before

• More podcasts were launched in 2018 than ever before, says Pacific Content’s Dan Misener after examining the numbers. He adds that the number of podcast episodes has doubled every year since 2016.

• iHeartMedia and Panoply’s Megaphone have done a deal for distribution. After an original deal with Stuff Media, which iHeart purchased in September, Megaphone will now be used “to distribute select podcasts across its iHeartPodcast Network.” iHeart has been using ART19 for many of them.

• Are YouTubers migrating to podcasting? Podchaser gives four reasons why.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 9 2023

• “Vox Pods is a new, free, podcast app for finding and listening to new podcasts” (iOS only), which has a matchmaker function to find podcasts that match your taste. It’s a free app, with no visible monetisation.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 9 2023

• The New York Times talks to Dan Sanchez, the editorial lead of their new smart speaker products. Worth a read for where they see speakers going in future.

• Event: this Saturday, PodFest China takes place in Shanghai, China. It promises “your favourite China podcasters; podcast industry insiders; networking and a live recording of a new storytelling podcast”.

To every American who sent us a correction yesterday: Thank you, you were right, it’s “closed captioning”. We were close, though…

Stats and data

• Blubrry post 3 surprising stats about religious podcasts.

Podcasts

In the early hours of June 17th 1966, two black men walked into the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson , NJ and shot four white people, killing three of them. One of America’s most famous boxers – Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter – was convicted of committing these brutal murders. The Hurricane Tapes, from the BBC World Service, investigates - including hearing from Rubin Carter himself: 40 hours of cassette tapes are played for the first time.

Behind The Numbers, the eMarketer podcast, this week discusses estimates on smart-speaker use around the world. (Soundcloud)
Good Monday is a new podcast from “ousted and fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra”, and talks about world economy, the future of the job market and human longevity. (Simplecast)
Build A Better Business, an independent podcast hosted by Jamie Irvine, is approaching its 100th episode. It’s produced in Edson AB, Canada, about two hours west of Edmonton; guests have included Michael E Gerber, Dorie Clark, and John Lee Dumas.

ZIB2-Podcast - Austrian public service broadcaster ORF have begun publishing their TV interviews as audio podcasts.