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The winners of the British Podcast Awards 2024 were announced. Of the podcast-specific awards, the BBC won nine; Acast were involved in five. Audible won three awards, including podcast of the year, which went to Press Play, Turn On.
Audible, Crooked Media, iHeart Podcasts, PRX, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Lemonada Media, Wondery, and Vox Media to name a few.
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Cathrine McVeigh has been made Director of Production - Audible Studios APAC. Based in Singapore, she’s worked at SCA, the Australian ABC, and Amazon Prime Video; and is a founding board member of Women in Media.
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Nicole Op Den Bosch has been promoted to Vice President, Operations & Publisher at Pushkin Industries. She’s been with Pushkin for two years, joining from Audible.
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At PAVE Studios, Kerri Kolen has been announced as Vice President of PAVE Publishing House, the company’s print and audiobook publishing venture. She joins from Pushkin Industries and Audible.
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There are just 7 days left to enter the Audio Production Awards 2024. The awards, sponsored by Audible, celebrate the people both behind the scenes and in front of the mic. There are 23 categories to enter.
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The Hollywood Reporter announced “The Most Powerful People in Podcasting in 2024”. The list is a mix of podcast executives and hosts; and is almost entirely US-based (excepting two Brits who now live there).
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BBC Studios Audio has made a number of hires. Annie Brown joins as Executive Editor in the US (she’s worked for the NYT and Wondery); Thomas Curry joins as Head of Production (he’s ex-Vespucci, Novel, and Audible). Ella Woods becomes Podcast Marketing Manager, and Mary Milad will be Podcast Insights Analyst.
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From the creators of Fiasco and co-creators of Slow Burn, comes Backfired: The Vaping Wars, just released on Audible. Is vaping the answer to one of the world’s most pressing public health problems, or did it introduce a whole new generation to nicotine, spreading an intractable addiction? Hosts Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes unravel the polarising story of Juul Labs, and dive into the illegal vape market that sprouted up in its wake.
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Audible has laid off over 100 employees, around 5% of its workforce. The layoffs do not affect Audible’s content teams, a source told Variety.
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Diana Dapito has been promoted to Head of Regional Content, North America at Audible. As part of the announcement, Kate Navin has been made Head of Creative Development, North America; and Rhonda Adams Medina becomes Head of Business Affairs for Audible.
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Collin Campbell has been named as Senior Vice President of Podcasting Strategy and Franchise Development at NPR. He will start in December and be based at NPR West in Culver City; he joins from Gimlet Media (and before that, Audible).
The Meteor, Audible, HBO, Apple, The Washington Post, Crimetown, The New York Times, Pivot, California Love and Lemonada Media.
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In London, Audible and Multitrack are running free production workshops next year, offering training on a variety of different off-mic roles, delivered by experts and leading industry figures across the audio sector. The organisers encourage applications from individuals across the UK that face barriers on entering the industry because they are: Black, Asian or ethnically diverse; LGBTQIA+; those from lower socio-economic backgrounds; and people with disabilities.
The Meteor, Audible, HBO, Apple, The Washington Post, The Daily, Crimetown, The New York Times, Pivot, California Love and Lemonada Media, to name a few. Help them continue celebrating the most innovative, creative, and transformative work that shapes the online zeitgeist.
Stitcher, Audible, The Daily, WaitWhat, Pivot, California Love and Lemonada Media, to name a few.
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Felicia Day will take the stage at On Air LA Annex for a special audio showcase of the new Audible Original Third Eye. Brit Marling has also been confirmed as a guest of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso; and a live taping of Let's Make A Horror has also been announced. The event is Nov 1-4.
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The Times writes How to make big money from podcasts. We learn that Persephonica's Political Currency is recorded at Acast's offices in London; we also discover that Steve Coogan's CH Podcasts business, which makes an Audible-exclusive show, paid £1mn in dividends last year.
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Meghan Markle is apparently talking with Audible about producing her Archetypes podcast.
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The Signal Awards announced the 2023 winners. Audible won the first-ever Signal Company of the Year. Podcast fans cast over 130,000 votes in the public voting stage.
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The first radio station in the US to broadcast 24/7 podcasts was San Francisco's KYCY, on-air as KYOU, in May 2005 (Dave Winer was the first show aired). Adam Curry also started programmed "Adam Curry's PodShow" on Sirius Satellite Radio the same month. iHeart has also a few channels, which haven't had the best reviews.
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Your Mama’s Kitchen is now available wherever you get your podcasts. The new podcast from Higher Ground, which launched earlier this month on Audible, is now available everywhere with a partnership with Acast. The show is hosted by Michele Norris, and is a podcast about cuisine and culture, ingredients and identities, and the meals and memories that make us who we are.
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The new Audible show Your Mama's Kitchen, mentioned below, is one of a trend of new podcasts which re-use existing RSS feeds (and Apple Podcasts IDs) for older, related shows. In this case, it re-uses Michelle Obama's "The Light" podcast feed (and Michelle Obama is the first guest). It's a good way to start with an audience who might like the new show. (It won't appear in any data purporting to show new podcast launches, though).
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Lining up against Spotify and Audible, an audiobooks app which promises to share its profits with independent bookshops has been launched internationally. Libro
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Rachel Ghiazza has been appointed Chief Content Officer at Audible. She has been Content EVP since Jun 2020, and joined the company from Spotify in Apr 2019.
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Thought the days of exclusive shows were over? If they are, nobody's yet told Audible, who have just announced a sci-fi comedy original called Third Eye, starring Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton and many others. It's out in October.
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A study by the Observatorio Nebrija del Español at Nebrija University in Madrid examined 263 original podcasts published last year by Amazon Music, Audible, Cuonda, iVoox, Podimo, Podium Podcast, Sonora and Spotify. The study discovered that 68% of original podcasts from these companies were only available with a paid subscription. Sonora led Spanish podcast production in 2022, with 84 original podcasts.
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Adtech company Audiomob has partnered with Katz Digital Audio to further expand Katz's in-game audio ads. The company has patented technology which ensures ads are always audible when played.
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Fans of jumping in muddy puddles, rejoice - Peppa Pig is coming as a podcast - at least, as an Audible show, made with Hasbro. Snort!
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Audible announced a multi-project exclusive deal with Ashé Audio Ventures, a newly-formed podcast label from actor Viola Davis
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In the Room with Peter Bergen is the first ever podcast from the CNN national security analyst, and was launched yesterday. It's also the first weekly podcast from Audible available across all platforms. Alison Craiglow, formerly of Freakonomics Radio, is Executive Producer of the show for Fresh Produce Media.
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The Podcast Academy has announced the association's 2023-2024 Officers. Donald Albright (Tenderfoot TV) continues as Chairperson; Christy Mirabal (SiriusXM) continues as Vice-Chairperson. New as Secretary is Martha C Little (Audible), replacing Alia Tavakolian; the new treasurer is Sierra Reed (Vision Media Partners), replacing Rob Greenlee.
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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).
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Audible has announced the launch of Dolby Atmos on the platform, and a launch of more than 40 shows mastered in spatial audio. "Dolby Atmos expands the possibilities of audio storytelling through the ability to place sounds in a multidimensional space, drawing listeners into a deeper, richer, and more lifelike spatial sound experience that fully engrosses them in each story."
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Now that Apple Podcasts is implementing the code to stop using "AppleCoreMedia" as its useragent in some circumstances, here are the other apps that need fixing, according to John Spurlock: Podbean, Castro, Fountain, Podcast Republic, Moonbeam, Playapod, Pods, Bullhorn, Luminary, Listen App, and Audible. That means all those apps appear smaller thank they should be in podcast analytics.
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Almost 20% of episodes in Steve Bannon's War Room podcast contain false, misleading or unsubstantiated statements, according to new research from the Brookings Institute, reported by The New York Times.
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Michelle Obama is also doing an exclusive: but an Audible Original, and exclusive to that platform. The Light Podcast starts in early March. The Obama-owned production company Higher Ground signed the deal with Audible in June.
Stitcher, Audible, The Daily, WaitWhat, Pivot, California Love and Lemonada Media, and shows like Song Exploder, And That’s Why We Drink, Ologies with Alie Ward and more.
Thank you to Gilded Audio, who have become our latest supporter today. The only award-winning podcast production studio to ever send us a picture of their logo in cheese, they describe themselves as good-natured and trustworthy, producing shows for Spotify, Audible, Accenture and Chobani (so we assume a picture of their logo in greek yoghurt is coming soon). You can be like them - not the cheese but the support - by following this link.
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Audible has debuted a brand new podcast, Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants, and Us, looking at how tech is affecting our future. It's produced by Coda Story.
Stitcher, Audible, The Daily, Pivot, California Love and Lemonada Media, to name a few.
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Audible and Content is Queen have announced the return of a micro-grants programme for UK podcasters. This year, winning podcasters will be awarded £2,500 or £5,000 as a contribution to their project.
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Production company Blanchard House has signed with Audible to create two original non-fiction eight-part series.
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In the UK, October's Pod Bible magazine was released inside some copies of The Sunday Times, and is available to read online. It features interviews with cover star Brett Goldstein from Films To Be Buried With and Jolyon Rubenstein from The New Conspiracist. There’s also Helen Bauer picking her top 5 shows, and regular columns from Acast, Audible, Stak and Apple Podcasts. We like page 27.
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Spotify's Nir Zicherman calls it an epic shift in a personal blog post. Former Spotify exec Michael Mignano calls it a big deal for creators in a Twitter thread, comparing it to Audible's "effective monopoly" and flat-rate pricing model.
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Podland News has an 'extra' episode today, containing a full-length interview with Persephonica's Dino Sofos; a look at RedCircle's new dynamic ads system for creators with Mike Kadin; and more from Eric Nuzum about his time at Audible.
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Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com podcast this week: "Why none of my books are available on Audible", which he describes as "a short audiobook I produced to be distributed through Amazon’s ACX platform, explaining how that platform’s sloppy rights verification and mandatory DRM screws over writers."
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NYT best-selling author Heather McGhee is to host The Sum of Us, a new podcast on Spotify from Higher Ground. The show is a road trip from rural Maine to the California coast, looking at the real impact of inequality and racism on everyday Americans. It's one of the remaining shows on Spotify from the Obama's production company; they signed a deal with Amazon's Audible in June.
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AYR Media and Team Coco are producing Funny My Way, a six-part series highlighting the story of six Black comedians: how they made it to the top and influenced so many by doing it their way. Hosted by JB Smoove, it premieres on Aug 4.
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Michelle and Barack Obama's production company, Higher Ground has signed a multiyear deal with Audible. No details were shared. In February, we heard they were leaving Spotify. Audible's content is normally hidden behind a $7.95 paywall.
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The nominations for the British Podcast Awards, powered by Audible, were announced last night. The winners will be announced on Jul 23 in a weekend event.
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Welcome to Night Vale is celebrating its tenth anniversary; the creators Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink are collaborating on a new series, Unlicensed, which is being made as an Audible exclusive later this year.
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Aha! Alan Partridge is coming back to podcasting with season two of his From The Oasthouse podcast. It's an exclusive on Audible, and will launch in September.
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The Podcast Academy has announced its newly-elected members of the Board of Governors. They are: Chirag Desai (Founder, Amaeya Media); Steve Wilson (Chief Strategy, QCODE); Valentina Kaledina (Director of Business Development, Castbox); Ami Thakkar (Host, Tuckered Out), Ilana Susnow (Head of Marketing and Audience Development, PodcastOne); Daniel J Lewis (Host, The Audacity to Podcast and founder, My Podcast Reviews); Martha Little (Editor, Audible); and Becky Celestina (Content Partnerships, Acast). If a member, you can meet the board on Apr 19.
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Podimo has signed with CAA to identify and create opportunities for its IP … Fresh Produce Media has signed a first-look development and production deal with Audible … in Spain, Spotify has signed with PRISA Audio to make three new original shows.
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Stephen Fry has launched a new podcast exploring the brain. The podcast is exclusively on Audible, which has a number of exclusive UK shows.
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After dismal audience figures, the all-podcast radio format has been dropped by iHeartRadio from its two AM stations KABQ Albuquerque (in favour of Christmas music), and WSAN in Bethlehem PA (in favour of oldies). A radio executive described these stations to Podnews as "poorly executed and confusing" when they launched; iHeart-owned Inside Radio reports that both stations only managed a 0.1% market share. "iHeartPodcast 95.9" WEBG, an FM station, is still airing non-stop podcasts: that station, licenced to serve Mina NY (population 1,016) is audible in parts of Erie PA (pop 94,831).
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The Campfire Studios crime podcast Abuse of Power has been acquired by Audible. The podcast was with Acast. A new season, exclusive to Audible, will premiere on Nov 25.
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Jessica Radburn has been hired by Wondery as Head of International Podcast Content. She was previously Senior Director of Global Content Programming at Audible - both companies are owned by Amazon. She's based in Berlin.
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In The Verge, Ashley Carman also looks at Spotify's purchase of Findaway, the book distributor.
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NewsCast, News Corp's podcast division, has hired Tiffany Dimmack as Audio Editor (ex Nova and Audiocraft), Nina Young as Audio Producer (ex Kidspot), and Hareem Khan as Audio Producer and Journalist (she'd worked at SBS and Audible).
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TV and movie producer Kenya Barris has signed a multi-show podcast deal with Audible.
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Audible in Germany have published a look at what audiobooks each individual German Länder, or state, listens to. Niedersachsen in the North East love stories about dragons and elves; Berliners like practical audio books about health and lifestyle.
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The National Association of Television Program Executives in the US, NATPE, has revealed NATPE Virtual: ContentCast - the Business of Podcasting Content. The event in July will include executives from Audible, GroupM, iHeartMedia, RoosterTeeth, ViacomCBS, Wolf Entertainment, and Triton Digital, and the press release also tantalisingly reveals that "moderators for the sessions include top minds covering the audio industry including Nick Quah (HotPod) and James Cridland (Podnews)."
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We've discovered an Amazon Music Podcasters portal has been quietly launched. It seems to be a way to add your podcast to Amazon and Audible, and has some promotional tools.
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Zola Mashariki has been appointed Head of Audible Studios. She joins from a number of TV/film companies.
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Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic Mystery has won the 'best podcast' awards in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. The only independent show in the Podcast category, it beat shows from Audible and the BBC itself.
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West Cork, a former Audible exclusive, is now available as a free podcast. One of the producers, Eric Nuzum, is thrilled that more people will hear it. It was reviewed by The Times of London as "…the new Serial. It may even be better."
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Leigh Zarelli has joined Audible as Chief Product Officer. She joins from Marriott International.
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Other larger podcast apps have already changed: Spotify and Audible use "follow", Stitcher uses "+ follow", and Amazon Music uses "♡ follow". Meanwhile, Google Podcasts and Castbox use "+ Subscribe", and Overcast and Castro uses "Subscribe".
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Audible appears to be listing third-party podcasts in the US. Amazon's page listing offers both Audible and Amazon Music options. (Oddly, the ASIN number is different for each).
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AdsWizz has been certified by the IAB Tech Lab "for audibility" - with this in place, they say, publishers and advertisers can now know for certain whether an ad was heard or not. (To classify as an “audible” ad, the audio ad must play for 2 seconds with the player unmuted.)
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Ocean Matters was released by Fresh Air Productions earlier this year in binaural, focusing on the state of the oceans. The same producers who made this also made Dom Joly's Big American Vacation for Audible back in 2016.
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Steve Carsey has joined Storyglass as Managing Director. He joins the UK-based podcast producer from six years at Audible.
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How much is it to listen to a free podcast on Amazon? Apparently $8.95 according to Charlie Harding, who tweeted a screenshot of the Amazon website yesterday. The Verge covered the story. Amazon have removed those prices but have not responded for comment; however, Nick Quah's Hot Pod Insider has been told it was a technical error. Podnews's podcast appears to be free again, as we go to press.
25% of this revenue is from licensing deals to TV, companies like Stitcher Premium and Amazon's Audible, as well as its own Wondery Plus service and licensing with overseas partners.
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Audible has launched the Audible Podcast Development Program. You could win $10,000 to develop your idea. You've until January 18; it appears to be open worldwide.
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Richard Stern, ex Audible, is the new CEO of TuneIn. Juliette Morris appears to have left the company after 18 months as TuneIn's CEO.
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Veritone has launched an audio licensing library, including audio from CBS News and Bloomberg. Already being used by companies like Stitcher and Audible, the service also allows podcasters to make their clips available for licensing too.
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Podcasts was a category in US quiz show Jeopardy! on Monday. Podcasts highlighted were Stitcher's Science Rules! with Bill Nye, Luminary's Fiasco, Wondery's WeCrashed, an Audible Original called It Burns, and Earwolf's Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend. Taped earlier, it was the first broadcast since the death of the host, Alex Trebek.
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Audible has added "100,000 free podcasts" to their app, says The Verge. This seems a geographic rollout - we don't see them in the Audible app in Australia - yet, anyway. (Are we there? )
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The second keynote session at Podcast Movement Virtual looked at emerging podcast markets across the world. Our Editor hosted it; panelists were Norman Chella from Malaysia, who hosts the Podlovers Asia podcast; Paula Rogo from Kenya, who runs the Pods4Africans newsletter; and Núria Net from Spain, from the boutique podcast publisher La Coctelera Music, currently in the middle of several productions for Podimo, Audible and others.
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Amazon has bought two domain names: podcast.com and podcasting.com. They both forward to Audible, which doesn't have third-party podcasts on it. (Amazon Music does, in four countries).
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Veritonic, an audio measurement service, has raised $3.2m in new capital: one of the investors was Audible.
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Conan O'Brien's Team Coco has signed a deal to produce exclusive podcasts for Audible.
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According to Libsyn's The Feed, today is the last day to submit your podcast into Amazon Music/Audible to be there for the launch. Use your podcast host's distribution option, or this link if your podcast host doesn't have one. (If you wondered where Amazon makes its money, Benedict Evans has an illuminating piece today).
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Audible has unveiled new pricing for a new subscription podcast service. Audible Plus will offer access to exclusive Audible podcasts for US$7.95/month. (Luminary charges $4.99/month for their subscription service). Audible's Rachel Ghiazza apparently clarifies to The Verge that the platform is developing podcast content, but isn’t pulling them in from third-party RSS feeds. Confusingly, Podnews reported that Audible, and Amazon Music, have emailed podcasters to get them to submit their RSS feeds for a forthcoming service.
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After Podnews reported it on July 23, Amazon has apparently dropped the condition that, in order to be on Amazon Music/Audible’s upcoming podcast service you agreed you would not criticise Amazon in any way. According to The Desk, that portion of Amazon’s terms has now been quietly removed. However, we took a look: and what's it's been replaced with appears to be much more restrictive.
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Here's how to get your podcast into Amazon Music/Audible: the company has emailed a large number of podcasters over the last few days, inviting them to use this link to submit their shows to an upcoming service from the company. However, you are highly recommended to submit via your own podcast host if they offer the service, especially if you're with Libsyn, since you'll get additional control and statistics via your own podcast host's dashboard. Amazon haven't responded to our requests for comment.
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We published Amazon Music/Audible's content license agreement for their upcoming podcast service yesterday. Kristofor Lawson points out that one clause says you can't say anything mean about Amazon in your podcast if you want to be on their platform. We've added this to our list of unusual terms and conditions from podcast hosts.
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Podcasts are coming to "Amazon Music / Audible"; Libsyn has quietly rolled out a distribution option for this service. "Amazon is not announcing a launch schedule at this time," the announcement says.
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Brad Schwartz, who became the new podcasting boss of Audible last month, has left the company after 'employees discovered an old sexual-harassment lawsuit in which Schwartz was named'.
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Aha! UK broadcaster Alan Partridge (a character played by Steve Coogan) is to podcast from his shed. From The Oasthouse will be available from September, but there's a free episode on Audible for the next seven days. "All national treasures have a podcast," says Coogan, adding "it’s time for the UK to hear what a real award-winning podcast is like".
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Amazon will be delivering podcasts soon, according to Bloomberg - the article claims they'll be put into Amazon Music; we'd assume they'd also replace TuneIn as the default podcast experience for Alexa speakers. Meanwhile at Amazon's Audible, they're said to be looking at a different price-point to allow access to Audible Originals shows but not to books.
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BAFTA and Emmy winning producer John Battsek has been signed by Audible UK to produce an exclusive documentary, Deepcut, examining the deaths of four young soldiers at the Princes Royal Barracks in Surrey.
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An audio and radio emergency fund has been established in the UK. It's been kickstarted with contributions from the Radio Academy, the BBC and Audible; and will give grants of up to £1,000 to individuals who need extra support during the pandemic.
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A third of Australians (6.6m) listen to audiobooks, according to new research from audiobook company Audible. Of those already listening to audiobooks, the research claims that 90% agree it allows them to multitask or to be more efficient, says the company, which charges AUD $16.45 - (USD10.99) for monthly membership. Aussies most often wish they had read Game of Thrones, the research goes on to say, which luckily is included in an Audible membership rather than paying $31.50 for the first book. etc.
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Audible has debuted two new exclusive shows from Ant Middleton, a former British Special Forces soldier, author, documentarian and adventurer. The first, about marathons, is now available; the second will be launched at the end of April.
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Rocketship is back for a new season. It's a business podcast that has brought stories and advice to the startup community for the last 6 years: this season is all about product failure, like Google+, Webvan, and... Audible. (Rocketship / The Podglomerate / Megaphone)
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Audioboom has appointed Stuart Last as their new CEO. He joined the company in 2014 (from Voxnest and the BBC), and was appointed Interim CEO in September. Meanwhile, Audible has a new CEO: Bob Carrigan (who joins from Genscape, a data company).
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UK audio producer Listen has been recommissioned by Audible to make a further series of "A Grown-Up Guide To...", this time looking at the oceans. The company has also been commissioned to produce a show with Levi Roots and a careers show, The Careers Couch.
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The winners have been announced for the UK's Audio Production Awards. The winners are mainly people (not companies or podcasts); Audible’s Hana Walker-Brown won two Gold awards for podcasting. The winner of Production Company of the Year was Fresh Air Production: Neil Cowling told us:
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Event: Audible Live: The Sun King in London, Wed November 27, is a panel event with David Dimbleby and journalists about Rupert Murdoch, to accompany The Sun King podcast.
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Exclusive: Audible UK has announced the winners of their Audio Production Grant (which was announced in May). They will be awarded a £5,000 grant and will get free access to Audible’s state-of-the-art studios in Barbican, London to develop one of their own productions. The company tells us:
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Veteran British broadcaster David Dimbleby is to host a podcast. An Audible Original, The Sun King will be all about the rise of media baron Rupert Murdoch. Dimbleby stood down from the BBC's Question Time program at the end of last year.
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Paradiso, a new international podcast studio, has launched. The company, made from executives from French pay-TV operator Canal Plus, entertainment company Konbini and ad company Havas, aims to produce twelve series by the end of next year for platforms like Spotify, Audible, Majelan and Sybel, in a variety of languages. They're already producing shows for Spotify and Sybel.
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Amazon is trying to produce more Spanish-language podcasts. Prisa Group, a large Spanish media company, has rejected a deal with the company, which would have put a daily podcast into Audible.
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In Apple Podcasts, this podcast looks good; and it has five stars too. Apple check all new podcast in their directory, right?
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Audible has posted 145 jobs in the past month, Karen J tips us off. There are roles in many countries; and as this job makes clear: "In an effort to push the boundaries of spoken-word entertainment, Audible is now developing, commissioning and producing a wide range of high-quality, original, audio programs." It's 11 months since the Amazon-owned company eliminated almost all their roles from podcast-style programming.
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EXCLUSIVE: Audible UK has announced an Audio Drama Production Grant for audio drama producers. Winners will be awarded a £5,000 grant and will get free access to Audible’s state-of-the-art studios in Barbican, London to develop one of their own productions. It's open to both established teams and emerging newcomers: the entry form includes script excerpts.
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Poynter does some analysis on recent announcements from Buzfeed, Panoply and Audible to pull out of podcast content. "Everybody wants a 'Serial,' but nobody wants to spend 'Serial' money"
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BuzzFeed has cut their podcasting team to focus on video, the Wall Street Journal reports. "As a result of the changes, most of BuzzFeed’s podcasts would be shutting down." The cuts only affect a handful of BuzzFeed employees. Last week, Panoply shut its content division; earlier, Audible did similar.
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Research: which is more emotionally engaging: audiobooks, or films? Audible Deutschland share a study from University College London (the video's in English, with German subtitles available).
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What's exciting about podcasts? Here's an uplifting list of what excites Sara DaSilva.
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Audible have unexpectedly eliminated a large number of roles, including "nearly the entire group responsible for Audible’s shorter-form podcast-style programming", Nick Quah says in HotPod. (We covered Eric Nuzum's exit yesterday). It's unclear what that means for Audible's podcasts, like The Butterfly Effect and Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel.
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Audible SVP Eric Nuzum has also announced he's leaving the company in the next few weeks. He writes: "It’s summer, and it’s ****ing beautiful outside". We hear he's not the only person to be leaving Audible's podcast division; if you know more, do let us know, in confidence.
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AudioCraft, a conference in Sydney, is putting a session from June's conference into the AudioCraft Podcast every day. The first: Think Big with Audible. Master storytellers Jesse Baker and Collin Campbell show how they make, break, bend and completely redefine the rules of storytelling to pull off a gripping narrative podcast series.
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New podcasts include Bad Reception, an Audible Original ("set entirely on the phone"); Good Carma, a three-part comedy podcast from Direct Line, a UK auto insurer, and comedian Richard Herring.
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Audible is celebrating ten years in Berlin; the company moved from previous offices in Munich. There was a big party last month, including two gold discs being given to author Sebastian Fitzek and narrator Simon Hunter. The current #1 in Germany is "The tyranny of the butterfly" which sounds like a bad dream.
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Finally: the US-based WIRED magazine says that some podcasts are 'accent-riddled', gets the words 'dialect' and 'accent' confused, weirdly claims Adnan Syed's American-Pakistani accent is similar to that of Norwegian Marit Higraf, and apparently 'Oohwdible' is how you pronounce Audible with an 'aloof' British accent. It really isn't.
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In Germany, Audible is releasing a new audio drama, Die Meisterin, written by best-selling thriller and fantasy author Markus Heitz, and starring Bettina Zimmermann and Stephan Luca. It comes with an interactive Alexa skill.
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Some data, from March 2017, about podcasting and audio books in France. At that stage, 39% of the country had listened to a podcast. OpinionWay, the company who conducted the research, has a (french-language) podcast, also called OpinionWay.
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Also in the UK, ITN has launched their first podcasts with Audible. The Dark Web is all about online crime; and Real Crime is all about offline crime - some of the UK's most infamous cases.
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The Guardian's Hear Here reviews their podcasts of the week. It's part of a weekly email newsletter. This week's staff recommendations are Homo Sapiens and an Audible-only podcast, Questions of Faith.
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A Forbes blogger talks about "audio drama". "Unlike your Audible audiobook subscription (or your Netflix/Hulu subscription), audio drama subscriptions are completely free."
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Here's a profile of a new Audible-only podcast, West Cork. Audible Channels is free for those with Amazon Prime.
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Audible, Amazon's audio production arm, is working with theatres as a way of producing audio drama, reports The Pacific Standard. The move is seen as a significant win for accessibility of theatre productions.
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NYC-based podcast producer Midroll announces a Make-A-Wish podcast mini-series. Audible is donating US$1 per listener, up to US$25,000, to the charity, which helps children with critical illnesses.
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In other Amazon news: Amazon launches in Australia. Audible, the audiobook and drama service, is also launched (books only). No Amazon Prime, nor any Fire TV sticks other than the basic one, and no Amazon Echo speakers. Surprisingly, lots of products are out of stock. They also don't sell digital radio receivers. Interestingly, they do sell Chromecasts, via Kogan.
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Amazon Australia is to soft-launch at 2pm tomorrow, and be fully available on Friday. Up until now, Amazon has simply sold ebooks in Australia (population 24m), and to purchase a Kindle ebook readers, Amazon customers have had to go to Officeworks. This may mean Audible, Amazon's audio service, becomes available in the country.
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Jon Ronson's Audible-exclusive documentary, The Butterfly Effect, is now available more generally, ad-supported, with Midroll (there are seven episodes in the feed).
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Midroll announce that the anonymous TED podcast "Sincerely, x" - previously an Audible exclusive - will be generally available on July 20 (ad-supported).
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Interview with Eric Nuzum from Audible, on (Australian) ABC Radio National.
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A new golden age of audio drama is coming, according to this piece, mainly fleshing out Audible's announcement last week of a $5m drama fund.
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Audible makes a USD$5 million fund to commission new audio drama from emerging playwrights. Fancy advisory board of folks from the theatre. A dozen playwrights will be chosen.