Podcast promoters are still a thing: we talk to one

• “I am a professional podcast promoter iTunes store and YouTube and providers.” Think podcast promoters have gone away? They haven’t. Podnews’s Editor chatted with a podcast promoter yesterday - but, as he explains in a personal blog, he isn’t going to unmask the podcasts who are spending money to manipulate the Apple Podcast charts.

• The Webby Awards have announced their nominees, and opened for the people’s vote - you’ve nine days to get your votes in. Judges also get to vote separately (and as a disclosure, James Cridland, our Editor, is a Webbys judge). Congratulations to all who have been nominated.

  • The One World Media Awards have also announced their nominees. Among them are Afroqueer and Mothers of Invention.

• Plink, a podcast link service, have released data showing when people are clicking a link to listen. Weekdays - and Mondays/Tuesdays particularly.

• Buzzsprout have reviewed Listen Notes, a podcast search engine.

• Free podcast host Anchor has unveiled a new service to turn your online video chats into a podcast. The service appears to work on most video platforms including Zoom, Skype, Facetime, Google Meet and others. (Most digital audio editors also accept files from these services).

• Apple Podcasts are now recommending news podcasts, according to Axios, in a special editorial section for the US, Canada, UK and Australia.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 23 2023

• SiriusXM, the owner of Pandora, has admitted in an earnings call that Pandora has “definitely seen a downturn in listening” but that it “has come back recently”. “You can track the change and listening trend directly to commute [times]”, said CFO David Frear. The company didn’t mention Pandora’s podcasting aspirations at all; Pandora itself has lost 8% of its monthly active users over the past year. Meanwhile, the company’s star Howard Stern is open to ideas about what happens at the end of the year once his contract expires.

• Amanda Loughlin, the CEO of a Brooklyn-based podcast collective called Multitude, is interviewed for Pocket Casts. The company also writes a guide for listening to your own audio files on the app. Pocket Casts accounted for 1.14% of all podcast downloads in August 2019, according to Libsyn; but even though the app went free in September, it has slightly decreased in share to 1.12%.

• Membership service Podfan now lets you offer a seven day free trial.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 23 2023

• Spreaker now offers a customisable publisher plan aimed at attracting more corporate users of their podcast hosting platform.

Changing times, changing consumption

• There’s a free webinar this morning (at 8.30am Pacific), called “State of Podcasting Amid COVID-19”, being run by Ad Results Media with guests from Edison Research, NPR, Barstool Sports and Freakonomics.

  
  Aug 23 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Edison Research and NPR’s Smart Audio Report gets unveiled tomorrow in a free webinar at 2pm Eastern. The data will include some findings of amended behaviour following the coronavirus.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 23 2023

Tips and tricks

• Which platforms allow remote recordings and interviews? (Podcast Movement)

• How to write a great podcast script (Part-time Podcaster)

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 23 2023

• How to record from home (JAR Audio)

• How to work with your podcast co-host (Joseph Anderson)

• Do you need a website for your podcast? (Rachel Corbett)

Podcast News

Mesh Lakhani’s Talk Money, a podcast about investment, recently pivoted his second season, and is now focusing on the price of the pandemic to specific businesses. The show comes recommended by those who hear it, we’re told.

Happy Yom HaAtzmaut. Israel Story is running a virtual online event, IsraPalooza, all day, with stars from the country.