Podcast hosting companies: “copycats, not innovators”

Apologies again if you got Podnews late yesterday, or if you got it twice. We had some technical issues. Today’s is a shortened edition.

• “Right now, the [podcast] industry is growing from a copycat standpoint, instead of from innovation. The industry doesn’t grow from every single company doing the same thing.” - Patrick Hill, the CEO and founder of Disctopia, is interviewed in the Podcast Business Journal today. Subscribe, free, to the business of podcasting.

• Faidr, a radio and audio app from Auddia, now has podcasts - in the Android version, to start. It appears to be pulling data from Apple’s directory.

• The International Women’s Podcast Festival has been postponed, due to what the organisers call a systemic lack of industry support.

• Mackie, an audio equipment manufacturer, has made a bigger and more expensive version of the RØDECaster Pro II. Techcrunch’s Brian Heater wants a smaller unit instead. (How about the RØDECaster Duo?)

• Triton Digital’s US Podcast Ranker for April was released. NPR’s Up First climbs to #3, behind Crime Junkie and NPR’s own NPR News Now, which remains the #1 show. The ranker measures participating publishers only.

• ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia and Magellan AI released Australia’s top 15 podcast advertisers.

• The Podnews Weekly Review this week includes interviews with Mark Asquith of Captivate on the company’s new monetisation tools, Oscar Merry of Fountain on the new version of the app, and Martin Mouritzen on the new version of Podfriend.

Back to full strength on Monday, when we’ll be in London in preparation for The Podcast Show.