YouTube launch podcasts into YouTubeMusic in the US

• YouTube Music has officially launched its podcast service in the US. They have posted this advice for podcast creators, and badges (which, we note, talk about “listen on YouTube Music”, despite the company suggesting we don’t say that). It looks identical to our examination of the web version earlier this week. Two notable quotes:

“For those of you outside the United States, rest assured that we plan to bring podcasts in YouTube Music to other regions in the future!”

We’ll also offer you the option to directly upload your audio podcasts via RSS feeds to both YouTube & YouTube Music down the line.

• SiriusXM released its Q1/23 financials. Podcast revenue was up by 34% (though overall revenue declined by 2%). Cumulus Media also released their Q1/23 financials. Digital revenue (including podcast ads) was up by 23% (though total revenue slumped 12%).

• Podcast ad spend grew by 32% last year in the UK, according to the IAB.

• Clubhouse has made more than half of its total staff redundant. See our people section, below, for more layoffs from other companies.

• Pocket Casts have clarified the pricing changes for the podcast app. The price-hike is for new subscribers only.

• Oxford Road’s Dan Granger considers programmatic advertising on podcasts is a “shortsighted compromise”. Speaking to the Podcast Business Journal this week, he describes it as a way to “get away from even associating hosts with the advertising”. You can read his thoughts in the latest Podcast Business Journal newsletter.

• Hosting: Libsyn won a Stevie Award for product innovation … Buzzsprout has added unlimited team members to its podcast hosting service.

• Rogan and renewals and corrections: Our correction yesterday hopefully had the context to make it clear that Spotify pointed out that Joe Rogan’s podcast is not up for renewal this year. They wouldn’t tell us when it is up for renewal: it might have been renewed already, or it could be up for renewal next year. Sorry for our loose writing yesterday, which we’ve corrected on the web version. Trust us, if we discovered that Rogan’s show wasn’t being renewed, it wouldn’t have been buried in a one-line correction in the middle of a newsletter.

Moves and hires

• Kathy Doyle has been appointed to the Strategic Advisory Board of global podcast company Mission Based Media. She was at Macmillan Publishers.

• Scott McCarthy, the VP of ESPN Audio, and Pete Gianesini, Senior Director of Audio Programming, are both casualties of layoffs at the Disney-owned company.

• Eli Chen, Jacob Pinter and the team who ran Overheard at National Geographic have been laid off. The company is majority-owned by Disney.

• At VICE News, Sam Eagan has been laid off, “along with the rest of my amazing colleagues on the VICE Audio team”, the company’s entire APAC newsroom, and the Waypoint gaming site. The company will continue producing “some” shows.

Tips and tricks

• Privacy is important for podcasting. Here’s why unique domains for your RSS feeds, and insecure feeds, are bad for your audience.

• CoHost share four audience growth lessons for branded podcasts.

Podcast News

In the Podnews Weekly Review this week, an interview with Staffan Rosell from the PodX Group, and Ami Thakkar talks about The Podcast Academy. And, the good folks at Headliner have made it look amazing on YouTube.

A new kids series starts today from Fun Kids. Badger and the Blitz introduces listeners to Badger – a plucky pooch who becomes a war hero. The story is one of a boy’s life and survival in a war-torn Britain - alongside a four-legged friend who never loses hope. It’s produced by Roxo.

WNYC and Gothamist have launched a new podcast, NYC NOW. Updated three times a day, it contains the latest WNYC newscasts. In a letter posted on Gothamist, Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper suggests the new podcast is an accompaniment to WNYC and Gothamist’s longer-form material.