Podcorn, a new self-service ad platform, launches

• There are more than 700,000 podcasts, but only 15% are making money - according to Podcorn, a new self-service advertising platform which has launched today. Podcorn promises to “streamline podcaster discovery and provide the tools to run native podcast ads at scale”. The product has a good ancestor - it has been built by the founders of FameBit, a service which allowed YouTubers to connect with brands: Google thought it was so good, they bought it.

• Is it time to look at additional extensions to RSS? In an episode of the New Media Show, Blubrry’s Todd Cochrane and Libsyn’s Rob Greenlee say they’re working on some new namespaces to allow podcast apps to link to things like transcripts or podcast guests and asking for contributors. Our Editor has previously suggested some optional attributes to help publishers control audio caching and automated transcripts. Extensions to RSS namespaces don’t break existing feeds.

• Apple TV+ has a new show about true-crime podcasts.

• Podtrac have published a “top 20 new podcasts of 2019” list (which like all Podtrac lists are US-centric and opt-in). Wondery has eight titles in the top 20; iHeartRadio has five.

  
  Aug 19 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• In a memo obtained by Podnews, the Sony Music podcasting team has been announced. Emily Rasekh (Entercom, CBS Radio) is Senior Vice President of Business Development and Operations, Podcasting; reporting to her are Brittany Hall (Pandora, Megaphone), Vice President of Sales, Podcasting; Ryan Zack (Megaphone, Acast), Vice President of Revenue Operations, Podcasting; and Christy Mirabal (Stitcher, Panoply), Vice President of Marketing, Podcasting. Emily reports up to Dennis Kooker, President, Global Digital Business & U.S. Sales and Tom Mackay, President, Sony Music Film and TV A&R, who add: “Together this leadership team strongly positions us to super-serve the podcast community, help them reach larger audiences on more platforms and further grow our podcasting business opportunities around the world. With a rapidly expanding number of creative partnerships and with the strength of our best-in-class capabilities, we are confident they will keep enhancing Sony Music’s compelling value proposition in the podcasting industry. ”

  
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• Spreaker have refreshed their podcast categories, four months after Apple Podcasts did so.

  
  Aug 19 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
  • Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant now has the capability to sound excited and disappointed, the company’s announced. Here, have a listen.

• As a little test, Podnews is now on WT·Social. Post your news, or follow some of our longer-running stories.

  
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Tips and tricks - with Acast Open

• What’s a strong podcast intro? Jennay Horn writes about the ten key elements for your intro. Ours is only eight words long.
• Here’s how to use commercial music in your podcasts, including the defence of fair use and details of a bot that is scanning podcasts for unlicensed music.

Podcast News - with Spreaker Prime

Spreaker Prime: Blue Babies Pink is a Southern coming-out story, that was held in – for nearly a decade – by Brett Trapp who kept a secret journal of his thoughts on being gay and Christian. The 44-episode memoir is a captivating story of the host’s struggle with faith, loneliness, shame, singleness, workaholism, and uncertainty. He’s using Spreaker Prime to make hosting and advertising easier.

Boomtown takes us to Texas, “where roughnecks and billionaire wildcatters are fueling a boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics.” Texas Monthly’s Christian Wallace follows characters from both scrappy start-ups and huge multi-national conglomerates as they try and make their fortune. (Imperative Entertainment / Texas Monthly / Megaphone)

UK newspaper The Telegraph has launched The Briefing, a two-minute show updated for the morning and evening commute. Unusually, the show started as a piece of audio delivered via WhatsApp. It’s now available as a podcast, too, as part of a new partnership with ART19. It also accompanies an email newsletter, sent to 275,000 people twice a day.

The Sydney Opera House has launched Arty Farty: A Podcast for Kids - a feed that contains two different shows, Creative Conversations, an interview podcast, and This Kid Life, where kids “discuss life as they see and experience it”. They describe the combined feed as “a brand new hub for podcasts” (Simplecast)
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Borrowed Future, a podcast highlighting the student loan crisis in the US, has been downloaded over a million times since launch two months ago. (Dave Ramsey / Libsyn)