SiriusXM revenue up, Spotify back in profit

• Spotify is back in profit, according to its Q1/21 financial results. It now has 356m monthly users; 2.6m podcasts; but no increase in the percentage of podcast listeners from last quarter (25%, so now 89m listeners monthly). It made €14m profit (US$ 17m).

• In terms of Spotify’s shows: “The Joe Rogan Experience performed above expectations with respect to new user additions and engagement” - the show was exclusive from Dec 1. Renegades: Born in the USA, with Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, is their #2 show.

• Facebook’s in-app podcast player has appeared to have rolled-out. Open this in the Facebook app to see it; it seems that Android users only get to hear 30 seconds of the podcast, while Apple users get a consent window to hear it all.

• Q1/21 revenue is 5% up at SiriusXM, which owns AdsWizz, Simplecast, Stitcher and 99% Invisible. Revenue was boosted by Stitcher and AdsWizz revenue. Pandora has lost 8% of its monthly users over the past year, though.

“I’m not optimistic that consumers are going to want to have a lot of micro audio subscriptions.” - Jennifer Witz, SiriusXM CEO, in SiriusXM’s earnings call

• Apple Podcasts has emailed users of iTunes Site Manager (an enterprise version of the old iTunes Podcasts Connect), to let them know they will be migrated over to the new Apple Podcasts Connect by the end of May.

  • We believe that Anchor uses this tool to automatically add shows into Apple Podcasts without content approval (an arrangement both companies deny), so this special access, too, may cease at the end of May.

• The Apple Podcasts Connect service is still down for many people. Ominously, the set-up message, which used to say “this could take up to two hours”, now says “this could take up to a day”. The comments to this tweet aren’t great.

  • But on the bright side: Evo’s in!

• iOS 14.5 rolled out earlier this week, containing a lot of changes to the Apple Podcasts app. The new app accounted for 24% of Apple Podcasts downloads for our podcast yesterday already.

• ICYMI, Sounds Profitable recently did a deep-dive with Omny Studio, the enterprise-grade podcast host. It’s one in many deep-dives they’ve done, allowing you to spend proper time with a product to get a feel of how it might work.

• Why did TuneIn download our podcast audio 4,016 times yesterday (CSV) from our private feed that we supplied to them? Why did they use 7.3GB of data? Why did 79 of those downloads appear to come from a copy of Safari running on Windows Vista? We have oh so many questions, and, thankfully, a firewall.

Thank you to Mamamia for becoming our latest Gold supporter. Mamamia is a media company with a purpose: to make the world a better place for women and girls. We’re grateful for their support. Here’s where you can join them.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Day 24

• Handling corrections in podcasting is best done by editing the episode in question, suggests Gavin Gaddis.

• Media lawyer David Oxenford writes about music licensing for podcasts and other services. “Proceed with care”, he says.

Podcast News - with Sounder․fm

On sounder․fm - In Huddle Up With Gus, 14 year NFL QB Gus Frerotte chats with Matthew McConaughey and how Matthew turns red lights into green lights.

The Lazarus Heist is new from the BBC and currently the #1 show in the UK. It tells the sotry of a group of elite North Korean hackers behind an attempted $1 billion digital heist, as well as the Sony hack, Wannacry, and lots of other cybercrime.

Sudhir Breaks The Internet is a new short show from the Freakonomics Radio Network - who is building the tools and platforms we work with every day? How can these tech companies with seemingly infinite resources face so many challenges — and make so many mistakes? All three episodes are now available.

The improvised D&D podcast Dark Dice is to have a new star: Jeff Goldblum, according to Deadline.

Rory & Mal have returned to The Joe Budden Podcast with Rory & Mal. According to The Root, it’s all about respect.

We’re currently unable to promote too many “just-launched” shows here, because of Apple Podcasts Connect’s downtime having an impact on new show launches.