Spotify Live - but not for long

• Bought in March 2021 for $57mn, Spotify is to shut down its Clubhouse-clone, Spotify Live. Some live shows will continue as podcasts. It joins other Clubhouse-clones Reddit Talk (closed last month), and Facebook’s live audio rooms (closed in December).

• Buzzsprout’s statistics for March show a drop in downloads from Apple Podcasts and a growth in listens via Spotify, which had its best figures since Dec 2021. We should see a significant increase in Apple’s figures for April, as the new version of iOS rolls out.

• Podcast ad revenue is up. Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast reports an increase of average CPM to $22.17 for March: an increase from February of less than 1%.

• With NPR, Edison Research is to release data about podcast listeners aged 55+. The webinar is on Apr 13.

• Adthos has announced a self-service, 100% AI-generated audio ads generator. The company “will generate a script, adding AI voices, sound effects and music, resulting in a fully AI-produced ad that’s available to be played out instantly”.

• Veritonic is now a preferred audio attribution partner of Spreaker.

• Wondery has signed indie podcast RedHanded, a multi award-winning show. It was previously with Audioboom. … Blue Wire has signed LA Lakers podcast Lakers Lounge, Boston Celtics show Green With Envy, and Dallas Mavericks show Pod Maverick. The shows were previously with SB Nation

• RØDE has launched the Wireless ME, a wireless microphone system.

• Apple has reportedly made a very limited number of roles redundant within its corporate retail division.

• Further reading: Belt-tightening will be good for podcasting, argues Steven Goldstein … The Podcast Host publishes Why We Need To Protect Open Podcasting (& How You Can Help!) … and the Hollywood Reporter documents how Amazon Studios work out whether their (TV) shows are hits or not.

Thank you to Goodpods, for promoting our daily podcast as a “team pick”.

Tips and tricks - with Phantom Producer

• James McKinven’s podcast studio gets highlighted in the Podcast Studio Ideas website.

Podcast News

Podcast Bestie, the Podcast returns with Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere Daily, who has achieved thirteen million downloads. He records in… Garageband. (transcript)

Choice Words with Samantha Bee is a new podcast, out in June, from Lemonada Media. Her late night show Full Frontal ended last year; this new show will contain interviews with celebrities and politicians. It’s on the same RSS feed as her previous show, Full Release, from Earwolf.

On the 55th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has launched the I AM STORY podcast. The new show details the history and legacy of the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers’ strike.

Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch is new from Sony Music Entertainment. This season reexamines one of Greenville, Mississippi’s most notorious unsolved murder cases through the eyes of the victim’s granddaughter.

The Wittering Whitehalls return for a new series: the parents of UK comedian Jack Whitehall. Michael has been amusing audiences with his trademark grumpiness and Hilary with her never-ending optimism; the pair have also become the UK’s favourite Agony Aunt and Uncle - though you may want to take some of their advice with caution.

Podcast ads in the wild

Podnews field reporter Arielle Nissenblatt is currently in Vienna in Austria, sending us pictures of bathroom walls - more specifically, the bathroom inside the Academy of Fine Arts. This piece of guerilla marketing is for Vorstellungskraft (“Imagination”), stories of a future worth living and how we get there. Worth noting that the podcast itself has no “podcast” in the title, but this sticker does. The QR code goes to a Linktree with an embedded player and subscribe links.