Spotify listeners prefer comedy; Apple's prefer news

• Spotify podcast listeners prefer comedy - Apple podcast listeners prefer news - according to new research from German podcast companies Zebra Audio and Podigee. News podcasts are 23% of Apple’s downloads, but just 8% of Spotify’s plays. Apple and Spotify are virtually the same size in the country, according to the research, which is also analysed by NiemenLab.

• Media Monitors has released a list of the top 25 podcasts as measured by audience recall: with, of course, Joe Rogan at #1 but other, more niche, podcast also appearing. iHeartMedia has the most podcasts in the top 100. (While the research was conducted independently, Media Monitors is owned by iHeartMedia).

  
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• Data: globally, we bought 44.7% more smart speakers in Q4 2019 than we did in Q8 2018. Amazon had a global market share of 28.3%; Google 24.9%; Apple just 4.7%.

• Podchaser has added bookmarks, subscriptions, and a dashboard. The service, which includes a database of podcast host and guests, has also announced a look at Democratic presidential candidates. Pete Buttigieg has appeared on most podcasts (that is, if you ignore Joe Biden, who has a podcast but doesn’t actually appear on it).

  
  Aug 21 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Acast has added PBS NewsHour to its network of partners for podcast monetisation. PBS joins the BBC, CBC, RTÉ and RNZ, and also publishers who use more than three initials.

• No, the podcast 'gold rush’ isn’t over. In fact, podcasting’s golden age is just beginning, says Esther Kezia Thorpe, in direct contradiction of a more pessimistic Digiday piece we linked to recently.

“One of the things that we all have gotten asked lately is this: ”Have we reached 'peak podcasting’? To address that, I shared a finding from the latest quarter of our subscription product, the Podcast Consumer Tracker, which we recently delivered to our subscribers. Between Q3 and Q4 of 2019, amongst the top 15 podcast networks, 10 of them gained reach, and three stayed the same. Just two lost reach, and that by just a percentage point. To me, that’s not an industry that has reached peak anything. The pie continues to grow, and there is plenty of room to add audience, and yes--add podcasts.” — Tom Webster, Edison Research, in an email

• CNN has announced a new dedicated CNN Audio division. Hires include Lisa Namerow (ex Pandora); Daniel Kantor; Megan Marcus (CBS) and Ashley Lusk (WNYC).

• The NAB Show in Las Vegas is going ahead, in spite of worries about the coronavirus.

  
  Aug 21 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Jokes about podcasts from 2017 popped up when we were recording the Podnews podcast.

Podcast News

New consultancies, like this one from Terrance J. O’Malley, means a new podcast: Operational Leaders, a podcast about running an asset management business. (Libsyn)
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New York Media merged with Vox Media at the end of last year; and Vulture’s Good One podcast, a podcast about jokes and the people that tell them, is relaunching as a weekly Vox Media podcast. It’s the first to officially enter the Vox Media fold. (Megaphone)

13 Minutes to the Moon is returning with a second season: telling the extraordinary story, and near disaster, of Apollo 13. It’ll also air on the BBC World Service. (BBC)