The top 50 US podcasts for Q1/2024

• Edison Research has published its Top 50 Podcasts in the US for Q1 2024. There’s a new entry at #4: New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce. Our list includes hosts (Megaphone host 22 of the top 50) and links to each, with trailers where posted.

• First look: Podscribe has announced “International Research”, with detailed insights into the top 600 shows in Germany, Mexico, France, the UK, Australia and Canada.

• Spotify has added “consumption hours” data to its podcast dashboard, says podcast growth agency Bumper. It’ll show you how long your audience has spent with each episode on Spotify: a vital metric to help understand how well your show is doing.

• Spotify’s The Ringer is taking residency at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. For six weeks, the company will be recording live shows, including The Ringer-Verse and The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Tickets are here.

• The Triton Digital Podcast Ranker is out for Australia. ABC News Top Stories is new at #3 (like NPR News Now, it’s the bulletin that also appears if you ask a smart speaker for the latest news). Everyone is a winner: ARN/iHeart is #1 publisher by listeners; LiSTNR/SCA is #1 sales representative, though ARN is close on its heels, and the ABC is #1 for total downloads.

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• Try the Accidental Tech Podcast on Spotify, and you’ll see it has a full (automated) transcript, and automated chapters. Spotify tells us that “we are currently running some tests exploring transcription and chapter functionality”. (We see a transcripts setting in Spotify’s podcaster dashboard, too).

• Time is running out to enter the British Podcast Awards - it closes tomorrow night.

• Sonos appears to have ruined its speakers for podcast listeners.

• The bankruptcy case of former podcast producer Kast Media is continuing in court. Arcadian Vanguard, the company behind Jim Cornette’s podcasts, has objected to a claim by CEO Colin Thomson for any money; the judge has reduced his claim by 50%. Arcadian Vanguard has also claimed that money destined for SoundStack might belong to them instead. Meanwhile, X1T LLC (which is fighting a separate case against Kast Media) is also objecting against protection given to Colin Thomson, who they say has not claimed bankruptcy himself.

• Court action between the National Association of the Deaf and SiriusXM rumbles on. The case is about the lack of podcast transcripts in SiriusXM’s app. A transcript has been made of a recent court conference: but, we’ve 90 days to wait until that transcript about the unavailable transcripts becomes, um, an available transcript.

Tips and tricks - with Ausha 🚀

• Ausha suggests: Explore Ausha’s curated list of the top tools for AI-assisted podcast editing

• Ausha suggests: Watch how artificial intelligence is transforming the podcast industry in this YouTube Short

• Timing is everything, and editing all the breaths out of a podcast makes it sound just plain weird, suggests Danny Brown.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: History of the Second World War’s Wesley Livesay says: “This is the first podcast network I have been a part of where I can always depend on getting help and support. Emails are responded to, questions are answered. The network respects and supports my path as an independent creator, and I have experienced constant growth since joining the network."

Noted - The Tucker Carlson Podcast is now called The Tucker Carlson Show. What is a podcast anyway?

When a young boy asks what his father’s nightmares are about, he’s told: “Alabama, son.” That young boy is journalist Lee Hawkins, who hosts What Happened In Alabama? - unpacking Black history, slavery and segregation to find out. The podcast launches today, and is new from APM.

What’s it like to be homeless? Orange Sky, a non-profit organisation that provides mobile laundry and shower services to the homeless, has worked with Podshape to produce The F Word - where the F stands for 'Friends’. Friends are transformative among the homeless community, and each episode highlights individuals who have experienced homelessness and how friendship can lead to change and healing.

Netball is Australia’s most popular sport for female participation. No Dribble is new from DM Podcasts, hosted by former Captains of Australia’s national netball team, Liz Ellis AO and Catherine Cox AM - and their friend, comedian Carolyn Swindell. The show uses their love of netball as a launchpad to talk about the things that matter to women.