Spotify in talks to buy Gimlet Media

Welcome to our new readers who’ve joined in the past week, including people from the BBC, the Sunday Times, KUOW, NPR, Turner, Himalaya, Entercom, the Washington Post, and from our new beneficent overlords, Spotify.

• Spotify is in talks to buy Gimlet Media, it’s been reported. Recode quote the price as being $200m; Nick Quah adds that “a source … tells me that the specific price is $230 million”. The WSJ’s Ben Mullin underlines that “talks are ongoing and it is still possible that a deal won’t happen”. There’s a Spotify investor’s Q4 earnings call on Wednesday, so we should know more this week.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 10 2023
  • Our take: We’ve checked the data, and in an opinion piece today, we try to understand the purchase, because it’s not that straightforward.
  • Elsewhere, Pete Davies argues that this might change everything… or might change nothing; Cohan Robinson suspects it’s a case of embrace, extend and extinguish. There’s coverage also from FastCompany,
  
  Aug 10 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Dana Carvey and Conan O’Brien talk about podcasting on a recent podcast - and Dana Carvey has a sudden realisation. A good reminder of the power of podcasting.

• A free recording space for indie podcasters has opened in Seattle WA, USA; run by Podcific North West.

  
  Aug 10 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• A Russian-language podcast article focuses on Подкастерская (“Podkasterskaya”), a podcast production company in the country. Interesting to note that VK, the Facebook-equivalent, has a podcast portal.

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• You can now register for the 2019 Latin Podcast Awards.

• Event: Indiepodfest, Melbourne VIC, Australia, in July. If you’re interested in attending, there’s a short survey for you over here.

• Google is shutting Google+, their social media network, shortly. (You might want to go there, leave a final message, and then grab anything you want to save).

Stats and data

• “Brazil is now the second largest podcast download market in the world– bigger than the UK and Australia… combined.” - Podcast stats from Brazil

Podcasts

Children’s author and comic actor David Walliams has launched David Walliams’ Marvellous Musical Podcast with Classic FM, a national UK classical music station. A new episode is being released every weekday for the next two weeks; it’s intended to give children an introduction to classical music. (Global / DAX)

Jessica Harper, an award-winning actress, has announced Winnetka. The podcast is a weekly ten-episode memoir. Narrated and with original music by Jessica Harper, the podcast features the voices of the Harper family, who share in the telling of their remarkable story. (The Podglomerate / DAX)

The Family Tree returns for its final season. A piece of audio fiction presented as true, the majority of the action happens off-mic, spanning comedy, tragedy, adventure and interpersonal drama. If listening for the first time, you might want to go back to the first season, as a press release makes clear. (Libsyn)

Masters of Scale answers the question “how do companies grow from zero to a gazillion?” Legendary Silicon Valley investor / entrepreneur Reid Hoffman tests his theories with famous founders: this week’s edition focuses on Hoffman himself. (WaitWhat / ART19)

Thank you

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