The podcast hoster helping people to copy your show

• Exclusive: Podcast hosting company Spreaker is, we believe, enabling wholesale copyright theft for podcasts - letting people copy other, well-known shows, host copies of them, and sell ads in the stolen audio. We discovered how easy it is to copy someone else’s show on Spreaker; saw how few checks the company does to enable monetisation; and found that there are more than 1,700 shows duplicated on Spreaker at the moment, from publishers like PodcastOne, Vox Media, Goalhanger and SiriusXM. We have all the details in a special report.

  • As we were working on this story, we were contacted by Lisa Lacy. Someone had copied her podcast, and five days later the copy was already charting. In her story for Podnews, she gives five steps to protecting your podcast; and she’s founded a service called PodProtect as a direct response to her experience.

• Netflix has a new person who’ll be overseeing podcasts on the platform, reports Bloomberg: and, excellently, it’s someone who knows the industry inside-out. The appointment of Steve Wilson - a former Apple Podcasts, QCODE and Daylight Media executive - has been confirmed by Netflix.

• Riverside unveiled a major update - adding “agents” to give creators a virtual production team. The four agents play the part of a producer, editor, clipper and marketer, all of whom are directed by the human creator throughout the podcast production process.

• Instagram might be the next place to put your video podcast: it’s rolling out long-form horizontal videos. If you’re a select creator, and in the US, you’ll be able to add videos of up to 90 minutes. The test is called Features, and has already been quietly running in Brazil.

• Run a membership program for your online publication? Supporting Cast has uncovered data showing that the churn rate halved for subscribers who enabled audio benefits in those programs. For these publishers, podcasts are one perk of the program - but, far from being lost in the mix, it’s a reason why subscribers stay subscribed.

• An update to your iPhone, iOS 27.2, is now available for everyone. As part of the new software, Apple Podcasts has a change to the Up Next screen - now offering “New Episodes” and “Continue Playing” in separate sections. Here’s a look at the new screen. There are also updates for other Apple devices, too.

• Nine months after he closed a podcast, Nick Korte has written what he learnt from the experience. “If you ever get asked to be part of a podcast and you say yes to doing it consistently, be prepared to walk away changed in an amazing way. I know I did. The change is a gift.”

People news - with podnews.net/jobs

• Amy Pilewski has joined the Gamut Podcast Network as Head of Sales. She moves from Realm.
• YAP Media has made three executive hires: Tatiana Matias, previously at Acast, as Creator Partnerships Director; Caleb Bissinger, previously at Wondery, as VP of Production and Operations; and Lauren Lindberg, previously on the creative leadership team at Big Think and Freethink, as Creative Director.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: The Family Road Trip Podcast might save your sanity this weekend, with weekly trivia fun for everyone while you’re stuck in the traffic.

New today from UK news outlet Tortoise comes Spiral - a six-part investigation into how the rush to build ever more persuasive AI is pulling some users away from reality. AI chatbots have been built to mirror us, to flatter us, to keep the conversation going. But the same design choices that make these systems so appealing can also make them dangerous.

In Podmastery: podcasting insights and advice for indie creators this week, Neal celebrates 100 episodes of the podcast, with a free podcast health check for every listener that you can follow along with in real time, or use his supplied free tool in your own time.

Caregiving is messy, exhausting, sometimes hilarious, and almost nobody talks about it. The Hart Of It All does. Each week, veteran broadcaster Teri Hart sits down with doctors, advocates and familiar faces to get real about caring for the people we love. Season 2 kicks off with comedy legends Colin Mochrie and Debra McGrath, who’ve been making each other laugh for more than 35 years. Then Colin needed a knee replacement. You’ll hear them hash out the walker, the physio, the bruised egos and the strange new job of looking after each other. It’s funny, tender and a little chaotic, just like caregiving itself.