The “13” podcast’s live event

• 13, the biggest Taylor Swift podcast in the world, did a live recording with more than 300 fans before a Taylor Swift concert over the weekend in Arlington TX, USA. The show is from YEA Networks.

• Podcasts from Higher Ground are to be sold and distributed by Acast, bring them available to podcast listeners everywhere. Shows were previously with Spotify.

  • Exclusive: Acast’s SVP Marketing, Communications & Brand, Lizzy Pollott, will be interviewed in this week’s Podnews Weekly Review.

• The 27th Annual Webby Awards nominees have been announced. Voting for the People’s Voice Awards kick off today. A new award, Webby Podcast Company of the Year, will recognize the company with the most nominations and wins across the podcast categories. Organisations in contention include Audible (13), Wondery (8), WaitWhat (7) and iHeartMedia (5).

• The Alberta Podcast Network is to close. The Canadian network has distributed more than $125,000 to its member podcasts. The Pod The North newsletter contains a look back at their work; no reason for the closure has been given.

• Libsyn’s latest platform stats numbers seem to mirror Buzzsprout’s in seeing a drop for their “Apple Podcasts” numbers (which include AppleCoreMedia), and a year’s high for listens on Spotify.

• Auphonic has released metadata variables, for quicker automation.

• Project Brazen’s podcast series about the Havana Syndrome could be making it to the small screen, as non-fiction studio XTR has announced a co-production deal.

• The British Podcast Awards will be held at Outernet in London on Sep 28. Podnews Live in London, our networking conference, is being held the day before.

• Fort Collins CO, USA has a new community storytelling and recording space. Loudspeaker Studios, a full-service recording and broadcast facility in midtown Fort Collins, opened this week.

If you use our jobs or events services, we’ve added a reporting tool should you need to alert us of anything. These services run on trust: thank you to Katie and Anna for reaching out yesterday with concerns.

Moves and hires

• Jason Hoch has been hired by Audiochuck to run a premium podcast network called WAVLAND. He joins from Imperative Entertainment and HowStuffWorks.
• Mike Joachim is no longer working in Senior Sales at Supporting Cast, and is looking for a new role in sales in the podcasting industry. He also has production experience.

Tips and tricks - with Phantom Producer

• How to Create an Astounding Host-Read Ad from RedCircle suggests creating a script that is conversational in nature.

Podcast News

On Purpose with Jay Shetty has joined the iHeartPodcast Network. “As the podcast has scaled globally it made perfect sense to join together with the number one podcast publisher - iHeartMedia”, said Shetty.

Dear Media launches Barely Filtered today - hosted by HBO Max’s The Culpo Sisters’ Aurora Culpo, and Sports Illustrated alumni, Kristen Gaffney. Aurora & Kristen discuss everything you’re scared to talk about, and while they don’t always agree on everything, they do agree on this - live your best life.

Dish has returned for a new season. Hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett OBE, the show is produced by S:E Creative Studio and the UK supermarket Waitrose & Partners. The show features interviews with celebrities, while Hartnett prepares and serves recipes from the store.