Search for ‘The End’

We have a date: Google Podcasts is to close, globally, on June 23 (according to an email sent to a UK user). July 29 is the end date for users to export subscriptions.

The IAB in the US recently posted $7.2bn for “internet audio” (we don’t yet have a podcast figure), which suggests that, adjusted for population, the UK market is seven times smaller - reflecting analysis by Will Page towards the end of last year.

We covered Spotify’s quiet withdrawl from the IAB on Monday. In commentary about Spotify’s IAB , RAIN’s Brad Hill calls it “a signal of extraordinary self-sufficiency”. He also notes that the IAB’s website still lists Spotify as a member of the IAB Podcasting Technical Working Group; we spotted that too, but we’re told this is an error (not least, the named contact, Kevin Sachs, left the company at the end of March).

The TWiT studios in Petaluma, California, will no longer be open to visitors to watch live recordings after the end of this month, says Lisa Laporte. It’s part of a Club TWiT revamp.

Christian Luiga has been named as Spotify’s new Chief Financial Officer. He will start in October, says his previous employer, Saab. Ben Kung will be acting CFO until then; Spotify’s previous CFO Paul Vogel, who sold $9.3mn of Spotify shares on the day the company laid-off 1,500 people , leaves Spotify at the end of this month.

How To Optimize RedCircle For Your Fiction Podcast (Evo Terra, The End)

Tim Clarke, Audacy’s SVP of Digital Audio Content, is leaving the company at the end of the month. He won’t be replaced.

The Podcast Show in London has extended its first release pass rate until the end of March 4. (Use PODNEWS10 to save on selected passes)

In France, a charity event called Podcasthon is planned for next month. The idea is to make a special version of your show that highlights a cause or charity; and to co-ordinate its release at the end of March. Last year, 300 podcasts took part; this year, it has the support of Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify. 400 shows have already registered for this year - et vous? (Next year’s Podcasthon will be in English and other languages, too).

RadioPublic is to close at the end of March. The public benefit corporation launched in 2016, asking podcasters to support an investment round in 2018. It offered podcast websites and had a listening app. After it was bought by Acast in Feb 2021, our news archives show the disappointing story of what happened next. OP3 reports it currently has a 0.003% share of podcast downloads.

Podcast production company Broccoli Productions is to close this week. The company, which lists six members of staff on its website, says its partnership with Sony Music Entertainment ended early - the joint venture was announced in October 2019. Sony made a number of redundancies at the end of last year; and closed an earlier JV with Three Uncanny Four in Jan 2022.

Spotify announced “time-synched transcripts for more podcasts on the platform” at the end of September. While you can opt-in to this process within Spotify for Podcasters (and we have), we can only find it active for a few Gimlet shows. Podcasters can’t edit transcripts or supply their own.

Acast podcast ads in Ireland have delivered €7 million to podcasters since the end of 2019, says the company.

PSA: if your podcast uses the Voxalyze prefix (it looks like a.pdcst.to), you must remove it before the end of January, otherwise your podcast will stop working. Check for an email titled [Action required] Remove your Voxalyze Tracking Prefix for more information. The company has announced it is ceasing this service and has filed for insolvency.

Ten podcast companies are still not certified for the latest version of the IAB’s podcast measurement guidelines v2.1, in spite of being asked to do so by the end of 2022. More than a year later, the IAB’s list of compliant companies still shows AdsWizz, Anchor (now Spotify), Buzzsprout, Captivate, Chartable, Libsyn, Megaphone, Podbean, Podtrac and Simplecast as only compliant to v2.0 of the guidelines, something that means “they will lose current status”, according to the IAB Tech Lab.

First look: Evo Terra’s newsletter highlighting completed audio fiction, The End has posted its look back at 2023. Only five percent of submitted audio fiction shows did not have an RSS feed. Evo also recommends some of the best.

The effect of iOS 17’s changes in Apple Podcasts could be 30% fewer downloads for your show, according to Libsyn’s Rob Walch, speaking in The Feed. “If shows have over 300 episodes, they could and should expect to see their weekly downloads at the end of November be greater than a 25% drop below where their weekly numbers were in early September.” He adds: “Your audience size did not change. Those numbers? That was extra downloads (from) your back catalog (that) weren't being listened to. It's just right sizing your monthly and weekly downloads to what's more realistic and what's really happening.”

Have you spotted a theme in your favourite audio fiction shows? Audio fiction newsletter The End is thinking of a way to identify thematically similar audio shows, and is looking for your help in compiling a list.

The Engadget Podcast produced its 200th episode at the end of last week. The show looked back at tech developments since 2019.

What’s the future for IAB Podcast Measurement? In November 2022, we reported that the IAB’s v2.0 certification would no longer be valid after Dec 31 2023. As of today, some of podcasting’s largest names are still only compliant to v2.0, and all will lose their claim to certification by the end of the year unless recertified: Adswizz, Buzzsprout, Captivate, Chartable, “EmpireStreaming” (now Soundstack), Libsyn, PodBean, Podtrac, Simplecast, and “Anchor” (now Spotify Creator Studio).

OP3 reports that by the end of November, more than two-thirds of all unique listeners using iOS were from iOS 17. For much of the month, though, it was just over 35%; so December may give us even clearer indications.

The Podnews Weekly Review this week features an interview with Alberto Betella from RSS.com, and with singer-songwriter Ainsley Costello. Our Editor also (right at the end) kind of launches a new tool if you're fed up with the amount of spam you get from the email address in your RSS feed.

The Premios Ondas Globales Del Podcast, the main podcast awards for podcasts in the Spanish language, are open for entry. You've got until the end of the year.

It isn't the end for Podvibes after all: after we reported the Mastodon community was to close, some good news: Podvibes has been acquired by The End, the audio fiction newsletter.

Total listens dipped in the quarter (Jul/Aug/Sep) by 2.9%. Acast CEO Ross Adams blamed a decrease in listens on changes in download behaviour by Apple Podcasts in iOS 17. But, iOS 17 was only released on Sep 18, and only 16.7% of iPhones had installed it by the end of September, an adoption rate that Cult of Mac calls "a trickle". Too early to blame Cupertino?

Eric John is to leave the IAB at the end of the month. He was part of the team responsible for the initial IAB Podcasting Measurement standards.

Evo Terra's The End website, which is a weekly newsletter for fans of complete audio fiction podcasts, has undertaken a full rebuild and redesign. New features are planned, including a full set of pages for creatives.

And that's the end of that chapter: Archewell Audio, the company owned by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, have abandoned their application for an "Archetypes" trademark. The podcast was axed by Spotify in June.

KJZZ’s Kathy Ritchie likes to talk about things that make most people uncomfortable. KJZZ’s Period, The End is an educational series about menopause, a chapter of life that can be gut wrenching, exhausting and just plain confusing. It launched yesterday.

Auddia has released faidr v3.0, which promises "fully integrated podcasts" as well as a new user interface. The company is to acquire two new companies toward the end of the year.

John Lansing, the CEO of NPR, is to step down at the end of the year.

Oskar Serrander left Acast at the end of last week. He was latterly Chief Operating Officer, and had worked for the company since 2017.

YouTube will fully support ingestion of RSS feeds for podcasts by the end of the year, it was announced at Podcast Movement by the Product Lead Podcasting at Google, Steve McLendon, speaking to Ausha's Jennifer Han. He also made the first public acknowledgement of the ongoing beta testing that we reported on in May. (It ingests RSS audio feeds and turns them into YouTube-hosted video, like CNN One Thing which we understand is using it.)

SiriusXM released its Q2/23 financials. Podcast ad revenue was higher, though not split out in the results; programming costs were higher too. Pandora fared less well, selling fewer ads, and reaching 3m fewer people per month. The word "Stitcher" doesn't appear once in the results; the podcast app closes at the end of this month.

Free plugin, anyone? If you want your podcast to sound as if it's been recorded on a TASCAM cassette deck, today is your lucky day - and no requirement for a bit of sellotape over the recording hole. You've until the end of August to grab a free plugin from TASCAM and IK Multimedia, and add a bit of 1⅞ ips sound to your next show.

The Canada Podcast Ranker for May was released at the end of last week by Triton Digital. For sales networks, Amazon's Wondery Network overtook CBC/Radio-Canada to reach second place, behind the SiriusXM Podcast Network. It lists participating publishers only.

Branded content company JAR Audio wants bad reviews for its new podcast. The show, How To Get Ahead In Podcasting, presents a ludicrous and deeply incorrect view of the branded podcasting industry. At least, if you don't listen right to the end.

Lillian Xu is joining Vox Media as the Executive Director of the audio business. She joins from New York Public Radio. We're also told she plays pickleball, which we fondly imagined was a game played with actual pickles, probably in a bar at the end of a long night. It turns out not to be.

In The Dark London and Transmission Roundhouse are planning a listening event in London on Sep 4 - and they're looking for your audio work; planning to showcase new creators and new ideas. You have until the end of June to enter.

The number of podcasters using Spotify's proprietary Q&A and polls features has doubled in the past two months, Spotify has revealed - these features are available to any podcaster available on Spotify, wherever they're hosted. In an article sharing case studies from a number of different podcasts, we also learn that Maya Prohovnik, VP and Head of Podcast Product at Spotify, hosts a show herself - The End of the World as We Know It, a first-time parenting podcast.

There's little that Evo Terra doesn't know about fiction podcasts. In an article for The End, his fiction podcast newsletter, he writes ten ways to package your fiction podcast to maximise the listener experience.

The Podnews Weekly Review will be live on stage at the end of the event. Come and join Sam Sethi, James Cridland and guests for the last word in podcasting news (The Amplify Theatre, May 25, 4.15pm)

The 18th Annual People's Choice Podcast Awards is open for registration (you've until the end of July). The registration fee is unchanged from last year - and anyone can enter, wherever you are.

PodcastOne's stock market floatation is still on; but an article at the end of last week didn't give a date. Previous dates given have been Jan 16 and then before the end of March.

SiriusXM's AdsWizz will continue as SoundCloud's sole sales partner in mainland Europe until the end of next year.

Corner of doom: Vanity Fair publishes a piece on the end of podcasting's boom; while Paramount is "slowing down its podcast production launch pace", according to Digiday.

A scripted vampire thriller from Echoverse, The Lesser Dead, is launched today on Wondery+. The supernatural audio series stars Academy Award nominee Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting and The Riches), Jack Kilmer (The Nice Guys, Palo Alto), Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Saul Rubinek (Hunters, Warehouse 13). It's an adaptation of Christopher Buehlman's book; it's released on open RSS at the end of May.

iOS 16.4, which fixes Apple Podcasts sometimes calling itself "AppleCoreMedia", was released in final form to developers yesterday, which suggests that it'll be rolled out to everyone next week. For podcast hosting companies that correctly split out Apple Podcasts and AppleCoreMedia, the end of April should see growth for Apple Podcasts of about 6%, we predict.

YouTube's Creator Insider has produced a video announcing the company's new podcast features and metrics. Unlike the announcement from the company earlier this week, this new video claims that the features are still rolling out; but that rollout will finish at the end of this week.

Hernán López, the former CEO of Wondery, has been convicted of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies while working for 21st Century Fox. Awaiting sentence, López faces up to 40 years in prison and millions of dollars in penalties. A lawyer for López said that they will appeal. López left Fox in 2016 before founding Wondery, which was sold to Amazon at the end of 2020. There's no suggestion that Fox, Wondery or Amazon were involved.

LiveOne, the owner of PodcastOne, released a quarterly financial report. Ad revenue grew by 3% to $26.1mn in the nine months ending Dec 31; PodcastOne is the bulk of this revenue. The company will spin out PodcastOne before the end of March.

Nick Hilton, who claimed that podcasting was dead at the end of last year, admits in a follow-up that the title was because he "wanted people to click on the article". After landing a guest spot on a BBC Radio 4 show to opine about podcasts (more than we've done), and being mentioned in a Bloomberg article (we've managed that at least), he admits that he "doesn’t really think that podcasts are dying", adding that he would quite like you to subscribe to his newsletter. We're taking notes at his clever customer acquisition scheme; but would also like to congratulate Maria who became our 26,000th subscriber yesterday in spite of boring article titles like "no, the number of new podcasts are not really plummeting".

Google tells us that Google Podcasts carousel links in Google Search (which the company said will go away at the end of this week) are being replaced with a new feature. A spokesperson told us: "We are always working to make it as easy as possible to find helpful information in Search, regardless of the form that content takes. Our existing podcast features will gradually be replaced with a new, single feature, What to Podcast (currently live on mobile for English users in the US.) This feature provides detailed information about podcasts, links to listen to shows on different platforms, and links to podcasters’ own websites, where available."

Last week's Code Switch was the first with the podcast's new co-host, Lori Lizarraga. She was announced at the end of September, and joined from television news in Denver CO and Bakersfield CA.

A Joe Rogan podcast was edited earlier this week, after Rogan read out a hoax tweet about vaccines. Rogan's contract is up at the end of this year.

Christmas comes early part 1: In October, RØDE launched a games division, including streaming software Unify. Costing $69 a year, it was given away for $1 at the end of November, but in an email sent to customers and seen by Podnews, the software is now free. It will only work with RØDE microphones from now on; but the company is to send a free XCM-50 microphone to every former subscriber. /ht Neal Veglio

Variety interviews Spotify's Dawn Ostroff. She talks about Joe Rogan, though doesn't say whether he's going to sign again at the end of 2023 - or Meghan Markle, come to that. She promises to cancel shows on a regular basis, as they do in TV, she says.

DM Podcasts and NOVA Entertainment are to end their commercial partnership at the end of next month. NOVA had hosted and commercialised the company's shows since July 2021; DM were previously with ARN's iHeartPodcast Network, while NOVA once had a partnership with Acast.

Mastodon fun facts: if you add .rss to the end of someone's account page - like this - then you get an RSS feed. Audio files attached to posts are given a proper enclosure tag (there's an example in this feed), so theoretically every Mastodon user is already a podcaster. However, a) Apple Podcasts doesn't like these RSS feeds, though other apps are fine with them; and b) it'll add significant extra cost to your server instance's bandwidth bills so best not.

Evo Terra has published his last episode of Podcast Pontifications. "Podcasting has outgrown my ability to keep up with all the changes," he says. It might be the end, but it isn't The End - what he'll focus on now: a newsletter about completed fiction podcasts. You should sign up.

Can you help us grow? So far in October, we've welcomed 293 new subscribers from companies like Spotify, NPR, Pandora, Nova Entertainment, the Washington Post, TED, the BBC and Veritone. At the time of writing, we're on 24,963 subscribers. We'd quite like to be 25,000 by the end of this week, because that's a nicer number. Can you help by mentioning us on your favourite social networking platform, or telling your colleagues? We'll be your friend for life.%%promo-end%%

Fun fact: in the US since Sep 22, Joe Rogan has only been #1 in Spotify for three days. Rogan's deal with Spotify expires at the end of 2023.

Some of those made redundant in Acast's job cuts are leaving at the end of the week. We wish them all the best: our Podjobs board is full of opportunities. Shout if we can help.

Joe Rogan is no longer #1 in Podnews's Ranker. 40% of our mentions of people were of women in the 90 days to the end of September.

Podcast Hall of Famer Evo Terra is to write a newsletter on audio fiction podcasts: specifically, those that have completed (so you can listen right through to the end). The newsletter is called The End.

Audacy's Cadence13 has partnered with veteran journalist Stephen A. Smith for a thrice-weekly show; Know Mercy launches at the end of September.

Looking Forward hit 100 episodes at the end of last week. The host, Jeff Ostroff, told us that the 100th episode focuses on opportunities created by the somewhat obscure, yet growing industry known as “fiscal sponsorship.”

In the 90 days to the end of July, 43% of all mentions in our newsletter were of women.

LiveOne's podcast company, PodcastOne, might be stepping out by itself. The company, which has just closed a $8.1m funding round, says it hopes to be a separate public company before the end of the year. Formerly known as LiveXLive, LiveOne acquired PodcastOne in 2020, but the parent company has had financial troubles.

Some podcasts really are artificially-hosted, artificially-written, and artificially produced. We covered Deep Dreams at the end of last year, which is entirely AI-authored.

Which Formula 1 driver received death threats and hired a bodyguard at the end of last season all because he crashed into a wall? Choosing Sides: F1 unveils the excitement and thrills of Formula 1 racing in a new podcast from iHeartMedia and Sports Illustrated Studios today.

After being purchased by Spotify at the end of last year, podcast host Whooshkaa is to close on Aug 31. Podcast hosting customers are being invited to migrate to Megaphone.

"The endless bashing of RSS (most recently by Spotify executives at their “investor day” event) and its role within the technology of podcasting is honestly baffling, and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what RSS is and what function it serves within the open podcast ecosystem." - Dave Jones sets the record straight about RSS's place in the podcast ecosystem

The Infinite Dial 2022 Australia will be announced at the end of this month in a free webinar. It's the first new set of Infinite Dial data since the surprise drop for podcast consumption in the Infinite Dial US.

Who Cares Wins with Lily Cole returns this week from Mags Creative. This season will run until the end of the summer, and will talk to people like Chelsea Clinton and Joe Lycett.

Michael Mignano is to leave Spotify. He's said to have given his resignation last week, and leaves at the end of June. He was co-founder of Anchor and is currently Head of Talk (Podcasts, Live, and Video) at Spotify. In January he was “Global Head of Talk Verticals” Spotify; he had been “Head of Podcaster Mission” for a while, and has also variously been called “Head of Podcasts, Live and Video”, and “Head of Creation Platform”. He joins Courtney Holt and Lydia Polgreen in departing the company.

Snigdha Sur, founder and CEO of The Juggernaut, is the curator this week of the EarBuds Podcast Collective, looking at podcasts and stories that break down the stereotype of success. She says: "at the end of the day, it’s not about How I Built This, but How I’m Building This". Looking for great podcast episode recommendations? You should subscribe!

With the excitement earlier on this week about Spotify's proprietary video podcasts: Substack quietly released video on their platform back at the end of January, we're told by Podland's Sam Sethi.

Libsyn, parent company to AdvertiseCast, has had trading in its shares suspended by the SEC. The company hasn't filed financial reports for any period since Sep 30, 2020. The company appointed a new CFO at the end of last year to help sort things out.

PodKast is a new podcast app for KaiOS, the mobile OS for developing countries. Watch for it using PodKast at the end of the RSS user-agent or audio user-agent.

Kai Chuk, YouTube’s Director of Podcasting and Next Gen Media Partnerships, will be speaking at Podcast Movement Evolutions. This will be the first public presentation from Chuk since starting his current position at the end of last year.

Supernatural Then and Now is a rewatch podcast for TV's longest-running fantasy series, Supernatural. It launched at the end of last month, and is hosted by Richard Speight, Jr., and Rob Benedict - it's being produced by Story Mill Media.

Acast says: (our emphasis) "Acast+ will work on all podcast listening platforms that give their users the ability to add any RSS feed of their choice. This means that a few podcast players - like Spotify - are currently excluded because they work differently. However, we are part of their OAP programme and we are continuing to work with them on their approach to how they manage subscriptions to ensure that the end product meets what's best for Acast creators and the open ecosystem - which is for podcasters to have direct relationships with their listeners. Acast+ works on the majority of podcast apps and players including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Castbox and is available to access for 80% of our listeners."

Shared on Twitter by David Eagle himself, The David Eagle Podcast featured, back in April, a "big highlight that's too good to edit down for the end-of-year episode: my chat with the wonderful Boff Whalley from Chumbawamba."

The Final Word Ashes Daily is a new podcast with The Guardian and The Final Word, claimed to be the best cricket podcast in the world. Australia leads England 1-0; tomorrow, the second test starts in Adelaide SA. The show is updated at the end of each day's play. - read more

NPR's College Podcast Challenge is back for 2022. You've until the end of February to enter.

Brian Kibby has been appointed as Chairman of Libsyn. He's been on Libsyn's Board since October 2019. Libsyn also announced that Denis Yevstifeyev will step down as a Board Member at the end of the year.

The Signal from the Australian ABC, is to end, according to an announcement from one of the podcast's hosts. The show was launched in February 2018, a daily morning news podcast for 20 and 30-something Australians. "The market has been crowded with similar offerings all largely chasing the same under 40s listener and we've watched our growth slow", says an email sent to ABC News staff obtained by Podnews. The feed will be replaced with ABC News Daily from the end of January, aimed at 40-55 year-old women. The new target competes with the ABC's local radio audience, and leaves the broadcaster without any daily news audio output aimed at audiences between 24-40.

Cloudflare post an interesting piece about multi-user IP address detection. The current IAB specification discusses a method of marking some IP addresses (a big corporation, for example) as safe to assume it has multiple users on the end: but this technology looks as if it might automate that work.

Alex Underwood has joined Vurbl as Chief Revenue Officer. He's been an advisor to the company since January; he left Spotify at the end of 2019.

Samsung Free Listen, the mobile phone company's podcast app, is to expand from the US to launch in Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland from the end of October. If you're on the platform, sign in here to accept the new terms (and you can use that link to add your podcast, too).

The implementation adds ?t=(seconds) at the end of the URL. YouTube and Spotify use this too, as does Pocket Casts and Podfriend, and it works on Overcast. Google Podcasts works differently; Apple Podcasts doesn't let you do this at all.

The virtual event Share Your Pod happened at the end of July; with more than sixty speakers, their website contains full videos of both days.

Podtrac has highlighted how the Apple Podcasts bug affected US podcast traffic in July - reporting a 31% drop in downloads from the app. The company suggests that traffic during much of August will still be affected. Podtrac also report a significant drop in news podcast downloads since the end of the US election cycle in February 2020.

If you add <meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=1256040890"> in the <head> section of your website, it adds a little link to your podcast on Apple Podcasts on iPhones and iPods. The ID is your podcast's ID, the number at the end of your Apple Podcasts URL. (They're Smart App Banners).

The Sports Podcast Awards will be announced later today, we understand. With 27 categories for sports podcasts, they were initially announced in April. Emails sent to podcasters say the categories are open from now until the end of September; the winners will be announced in a live-streamed event in February.

Radio is making way for podcasts - in Cleveland, quite literally. Evergreen Podcasts has purchased the former radio station complex of WDOK-FM. The building is six times larger than Evergreen's current offices; the company will employ 25 people by the end of the year. The building is in "Radio Lane", but that name's unlikely to change for now. WDOK-FM, better known as Cleveland's Star 102, moved in to the Halle Building with other Audacy stations in 2012.

Apple Podcasts has emailed users of iTunes Site Manager (an enterprise version of the old iTunes Podcasts Connect), to let them know they will be migrated over to the new Apple Podcasts Connect by the end of May.

Emsolation from Australian broadcaster Em Rusciano has become a Spotify exclusive. She'd moved it away from SCA's Podcast One, as it was then, at the end of last year.

Launched at the end of last month, Blood on Gold Mountain focuses on the problem of anti-Asian-American violence by telling the story of the 1871 Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre.

Jamie Perkins writes: "Tom Webster is misinformed. As a regular consumer of YouTube, I hear 'hit that subscribe button' at the end of nearly every video. Everyone knows it doesn't mean you have to pay anything. Perhaps the subscribe 'confusion' only arises in an older generation? (Read: boomers)"

Not Another Parenting Podcast is new from NOVA Entertainment, who say the show is a safe place for any parent who gets to the end of the week and thinks: “How did I keep my children alive?”

Seems someone agrees: The Joe Rogan Experience has started posting clips of shows on its old, open RSS feed. Currently, a clip from a recent Elon Musk interview ends with a 40 second promotion for Spotify at the end, voiced by Rogan. The show went exclusive on Spotify on Dec 1.

Now we're at the end of phase 2, person, location, season and episode have been formally adopted into the new Podcast namespace. Full implementation details are in this file, along with five tags from phase 1.

As today marks the end of Donald J Trump's presidency, so it marks the end of the WNYC/ProPublica podcast Trump, Inc, which has just posted its final episode.

The Adam Buxton Podcast, due to return in April, is to return at the end of January, "due to the ongoing COVID situation". The UK has been hard hit by a resurgence of the virus.

After Amazon purchased Wondery at the end of last year, the company has been buying again - this time, buying eleven Boeing 767-300 aircraft for their own airline, Amazon Air. Had they bought them new, that purchase would have been $2.4bn, or "8 Wonderys".

Fable and Folly presents The End of Time and Other Bothers. A cafeteria worker, a demonic filing clerk and a fairy PR exec are thrown back into the ancient past to save the universe.

The podcast:location tag has been finalised. The new tag is intended to describe a location that a podcast is about, and will be formally added to the Podcast Index's 'podcast' namespace at the end of January.

Moonbase Theta, Out - a tense, emotional, queer sci-fi drama counting down to the end and beyond - now in Season 3! 2020 Webby Awards Honoree. Ad Sales by Fable and Folly.

Podcast advertising will be worth nearly $3.5 billion globally by 2025, according to a new study from Omdia. The technology research company says that global podcast advertising revenue is set to reach $1.4bn by the end of this year.

Buzzsprout is now the world's largest paid-for podcast host. The company overtook Libsyn (including LibsynPro) according to data from ListenNotes over the past few days, which measures RSS hosting domains. Buzzsprout itself claimed it has 82,574 shows at the end of October; Libsyn claims just 62,000 podcasts on their main website but over 75,000 in their latest press release; Libsyn haven't responded to recent requests for comment. While both companies also offer custom RSS domains, Buzzsprout has a limited free plan.

Competitor iHeartMedia currently uses Megaphone for its 489 shows; but bought Voxnest at the end of last month.

PowerPress 8.4.1 was released at the end of last week. It includes a submission tool to The Podcast Index and to Amazon Music.

Sutterfaction was launched at the end of last month. From Evan Sutter, the podcast contains short 6 to 20 minute talks about life satisfaction, well-being, happiness, the absurdity of life, suffering, playfulness, travel, relationships and joy.

John Barth, the Chief Content Officer at PRX, is to retire at the end of this year. Kerry Donahue, Director of Training has already left the company, according to her LinkedIn. PRX management have been criticised for a lack of diversity and gender equity. Meanwhile, MPR/APM employees have launched a website to change their company culture.

SiriusXM announces a new CEO and CFO. James E Meyer will retire at the end of this year to be replaced by Jennifer C Witz, who is currently the President of Sales, Marketing and Operations. Sean S Sullivan is appointed the new CFO; David J Frear is "pursuing other opportunities, effective immediately". The company owns Pandora, Simplecast and Stitcher.

Comedian Murf Meyer has announced a new podcast about addiction and drug policy. It launches at the end of November.

The BBC is launching a a new topical comedy podcast - Comedians vs.The News will be hosted by two New York comedians. The show, which will also be carried on BBC World Service Radio, launches at the end of August.

Podcast maker Alitu is to release Call Recording as a limited beta this week. For use with remote interviews, at the end of the call each guest's audio is polished up through Alitu's standard audio cleanup process - including levelling and noise reduction - before being joined together into one single interview recording for you to edit and package further. It'll be in limited testing until late September.

An SEC filing states that Libsyn's former CEO Christopher Spencer, who resigned on July 31, will continue to be paid until the end of this year (he earns $400,000); will get a bonus of $177,776 in early January; and will then earn $215,000 a year for his role as Senior Advisor until the end of February 2023, for which he'll have to work a maximum of eight hours a month. Libsyn will also pay Spencer $4,061,385 to buy back shares he holds.

Dylan Pugh, Spotify's former Head of Podcast Monetisation for EMEA, has launched his own sports and lifestyle podcast company. Pomodo launched at the end of July. Their first podcast is about themselves - Pomodo - the startup journey - while Couples Quarantine launches on Wednesday. (They're both hosted on Spreaker.)

Brooklyn's Gilded Audio, with UnionDocs, has announced 2020's Signal to Noise award, which offers a production grant. The award "celebrates creative work that synthesizes audio documentary and experimental sound design". You've until the end of August to apply.

Dan Misener notes that Apple is self-hosting the audio (other Apple shows are hosted by ART19). Evo Terra suggests this could be the beginning of the end of the RSS feed, and possibly podcasts hosts too, comparing it to the ebook market.

The Podcast Academy has started accepting memberships. Membership is US$50 before the end of September; the membership requirements are on The Podcast Academy website.

iTunes U, the educational service from Apple, is to close by the end of the year. Content producers are being recommended to use Apple Podcasts, where appropriate.

The annual Podcast Awards are open for registration. Podnews is a supporter for the third year. You have until the end of June to register: it'll cost $25.

In one of podcasting's biggest deals, The Joe Rogan Experience, generally held to be the biggest podcast in the world, is to move to Spotify in a licensing deal. It will remain free, but will become an exclusive-to-Spotify show by the end of this year. The show is currently hosted on Libsyn.

Manoush Zomorodi and Jen Poyant have released a new episode of ZigZag, announcing the end of the partnership. Parenting time pressures and the uncertainty of the coronavirus were to blame.

SiriusXM, the owner of Pandora, has admitted in an earnings call that Pandora has "definitely seen a downturn in listening" but that it "has come back recently". "You can track the change and listening trend directly to commute [times]", said CFO David Frear. The company didn't mention Pandora's podcasting aspirations at all; Pandora itself has lost 8% of its monthly active users over the past year. Meanwhile, the company's star Howard Stern is open to ideas about what happens at the end of the year once his contract expires.

Voxnest have released an update on COVID-19 podcast listening across their network. The main claim is that global podcast listens are "up by 42%", a comparison to listening in the first week of January, a time when many people, especially in Europe, were on holiday. The graphs appear to show that all territories have increased since the end of March; and that categories around peoples' "hobbies and passions" are doing well; the company does note that, as a whole, US podcast listens are down by over 20%, however.

For every review, Podchaser is paying 25 cents to Meals on Wheels America. It's extended its reviews4good program until the end of April. Libsyn and Captivate are also matching all donations for podcasts on their platform, and if a podcast replies to the review, that doubles the money. (Our Editor is on Captivate's advisory board. Disclosures)

Podcast Movement is five months away; and currently is still planned to happen at the end of August. Happily, the event is scheduled to be in Dallas TX this year, which is where Podcast Movement's main headquarters is based, so they know what it's like. The company has also posted details of a "contingency registration", and ways that it offers to remain part of the podcasting community.

Audio editor Reaper is offering a temporary license, valid until the end of June 2020, to help those working from home.

If you bought a RØDEcaster Pro between Nov 1 and 29 Feb, you can claim a free accessory pack from the company. There's a US$20 shipping/handling fee, but it includes a set of cables and a power pack so you can use it without access to a mains plug. Terms apply; you've got until the end of this month to claim.

Today is the 500th episode of Gary Leland's 4 Minute Crypto And Bitcoin Daily News. A Bitcoin conference, Bit Block Boom, will be held in Dallas TX, USA at the end of August. (Libsyn)

Radiodays Europe, a large conference for radio and podcasting in Lisbon, Portugal, is going ahead at the end of March. It has announced a number of keynote speakers, including Entale's Wil Harris; and has covid-19 information on its website.

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.

New York Media merged with Vox Media at the end of last year; and Vulture's Good One podcast, a podcast about jokes and the people that tell them, is relaunching as a weekly Vox Media podcast. It's the first to officially enter the Vox Media fold. (Megaphone)

Deloitte published its Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Predictions 2020 report at the end of last year, and has additionally published an Australian focussed study. Australian podcast revenue will grow this year to US$31m, it predicts. The global report also predicts 2020 will be the year when the global podcast market hits US$1.1bn (and compares this to radio's revenue, at US$42bn)

The subject of an IndieGoGo campaign that we reported on at the end of August, serial fiction podcast VALENCE is released this Saturday. The podcast, according to its press release, features veteran sound designer Julia Schifini and a cast of both veteran and newcomer actors in the audio fiction space; it's written by Wil Williams and Katie Youmans. (Pinecast)

A staffer at The Late Show with Steven Colbert, Aaron Nemo, has made a weird and slightly dark The Daily Remix. Stay for the end.

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.

A new podcast for Halloween, Cryptids tells the story of a conspiracy radio show host and an avid listener who go in search of an afterlife. Instead they find a truth beyond their wildest nightmares. A female-driven scripted scifi drama, it's releasing a new episode until the end of October. (Podbean)

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.

The Journal, the Wall Street Journal podcast which quietly appeared at the end of June, has been formally launched with "Skybox" placement on the newspaper itself. Circulation of the print newspaper is 1,011,200; a full page in the newspaper costs over $354,000.

Accused of plagiarism, Crime Junkie was sent a lawyer's cease-and-desist letter at the end of last week by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The letter claims "unauthorized use and broadcast" of a podcast series from the newspaper, produced by Cathy Frye. Meanwhile, Tanner Campbell says, in a blog post, that Crime Junkie "were just ignorant" and this was "inevitable".

From today, Spotify is rolling out user-generated Podcast Playlists. The feature is designed to help discoverability of podcasts. Users will be able to make their own podcast playlists, and also mix podcasts and music; and share those lists with others. Spotify will also continue to work on their own curated Podcast Playlists. The rollout will be complete by the end of next week.

The New York Times, in an analyst's call earlier this month, revealed that digital advertising (including within its podcasts) grew by 14% year-on-year, and that they added a second ad into The Daily at the end of June. (We think this refers to an additional midroll position; there have been occasional post-roll ads for a while). Mark Thompson, the CEO, added that the company is "looking for ways ... of building out our podcasting capability".

Gimlet had a rebrand at the end of May. Here's more about that from a design website. "With its typography, it gives the company a feeling of authority, but its colours and use of imagery mean it still feels playful and approachable." The company responsible is GrandArmy.

A detailed study into Spanish-speaking podcast listeners has been released by Podcaster@s. Based from a self-selecting sample, it shows that Spotify is most popular, and that Apple is just as popular as YouTube for podcast listening. It also touches on ideal podcast length, attitude to advertisers, and more. (Go to the end for a summary).

Podcast Movement starts today, after a busy day of pre-meetings yesterday. The largest podcast gathering in the world is in Orlando FL, USA between now and the end of Friday. The main stage will be streaming live throughout. We're there too!

The open-source podcast directory gPodder is looking for a new maintainer before the end of the year. It's integrated into several podcast clients.

Podcast app Castbox has 3m daily users, says CEO Renee Wang in a TV interview on Bloomberg. The company, which has raised $30m to date, plans to launch premium content in the next two years. She says the company will be profitable by the end of the year. (The company has no Chinese users).

Samantha Henig, currently editorial director of audio at the New York Times, is leaving at the end of the month. She doesn't appear to have anything lined up, noting that she's "free for coffee/lunch/daytime drinking".

At the end of last year we highlighted that Podtrac's figures were around 27% higher than Blubrry/RawVoice, who were awarded IAB Certification in early December.

Spotify has launched Soundtrap, a browser-based podcast editing suite. Offering editing, transcription, and some additional audio processing features, the software costs US$15/month and has been compared to "Google Docs for podcasting". Spotify purchased Soundtrap at the end of 2017. We've had a short play and it seems remarkably capable. (Of note - it should work on a Chromebook, opening podcasting up to a whole new set of people including education).

The O2Pod meetup in Bangalore, the biggest podcasting event in India, happened at the end of April. Some notes from the event.

Available in Canada, the UK, Australia and the US, Luminary is priced at US$7.99/month (but a third cheaper for Australians oddly). We tested the website with a Brazilian IP address, where Luminary is not supported: every page, even for free podcasts, forwards to a page explaining Luminary is unavailable. (Add ?country=US to the end of the URL).

Duolingo Spanish Podcast es un podcast bilingüe que tiene como objetivo enseñar español a auditores de habla inglesa. En cada episodio, dos narradores cuentan una historia real. El protagonista habla español (simplificado para el nivel intermedio) y la anfitriona habla en inglés. Adonde Media are looking for story pitches: you need to be a native Spanish speaker, and get your proposal to them by the end of April 28th.

Ahead of Luminary, French subscription podcast app Sybel launches today. It plans to be a subscription platform (€4.99 / US$5.60 a month). They raised €5m / US$5.6m at the end of last year. The service launches with an exclusive podcast, Gurus, focusing on true stories from powerful gurus around the world. Narrated by Mélanie Doutey, with an original music score composed by Nova Materia, it's produced by Engle.

The BBC have blocked access to its podcasts by Google; and BBC podcasts are no longer available on Google Podcasts, Google Assistant, and Google search. Our special report notes that this may herald the beginning of the end of free and open podcasting.

Podcast Movement has a new Head of Sales: Kristy Scott. She was formerly selling Tom Taylor NOW, the very excellent daily email for people in radio; Tom retired at the end of last year.

John Lee Dumas was the first keynote speaker at Podfest. Slides from his talk, The top 4 tactics for creating, launching, growing and monetising your podcast, are available online. "JLD", as he calls himself, was also the target of the humorous "roast" at the end of the event, which took place in Orlando FL, USA and attracted podcasters from across the US and Canada. Other speakers included Libsyn's Rob Walch, Evo Terra, and Chartable's Dave Zohrob. It was sponsored by Himalaya.

At the RAIN Podcast Business Summit, Google's Zack Reneau-Wedeen announces that Google Podcasts will have search results for episodes by the end of the week. Episode results are supported in all languages, and for many languages works by analysing automatically generated transcripts. This feature was first spotted within the app's code in July last year.

Spotify+Gimlet: Paul Colligan thinks that Gimlet will contain ads for Spotify, and that this is a valuable part of a purchase (if it comes). HotPod today contains lots more about the deal, and the promise/threat that "we’re going to [be] talking about every implication of this for a long time". Spotify has an investor's call today, so we've not heard the end of this story yet.

Patreon are having system difficulties, and podcasters (and others) have been waiting longer than usual for payouts. The site has been taken down for maintenance at times over the last few days. They're hoping to have sorted payment by the end of tomorrow (and if it helps, ours came in three hours ago).

We mentioned Radiodays Europe yesterday - lots of great speakers, including our own Editor; in Lausanne Switzerland at the end of March. Register now and use promo code PON19LA - you'll save €160 on your ticket. Shh, don't tell everyone.

Radiodays Europe has published its preliminary programme. This conference, in Lausanne Switzerland at the end of March, is the world's meeting point for the world of radio and audio. Tom Webster from Edison Research, and James Cridland, Podnews's Editor, are amongst the speakers.

How do you listen to a podcast? CBS Sunday, a US television show, show people (complete with an awkward joke at the end). Spotted by Steven Goldstein.

What Next, Slate's daily news podcast, launched today at a new time of 5am. It had a short pilot period at the end of last year, and undertook surveys of their audience to tweak the show. It's hosted by Mary Harris, formerly of WNYC. (Of the current US daily news podcasts from major publishers, is this the only one permanently hosted by a woman?)

Discoverpods gives us their 2018 listicle compilation - 312 podcasts have been mentioned on 'best of' articles at the end of this year. Anchor's team also tell us their favourite podcasts of 2018.

Podsights Research has been made free for everyone. The product continuously samples episodes from hundreds of podcasts, and offers insight into how brands use them to advertise. Their announcement notes that Apple advertised using podcasting briefly at the end of September.

American comic book writer Stan Lee passed away earlier this week; but he'd been fighting battles of his own at the end of his life, with charges of fraud, elder abuse, theft, and plenty more as his family fought for who would control his business - and his money. Scandal - Stan Lee's World covers the ugly inside story. (reVolver Podcasts / ART19)

Freemantle, the TV network, is reported to be releasing eight scripted drama podcasts by the end of Q2 2019. The company's podcast brand to watch for is Storyglass.

Imagined Life tells the life story of a notable celebrity, without actually telling you who that celebrity is until the end. Live their life from their point of view; then learn who “you” really are. (Wondery)

Event: the Vancouver Podcast Festival is at the end of this week (Nov 8-10). Here, for example, is just one of the sessions, including speakers from Podnews supporters Spreaker/Voxnest, Himalaya, and The Podcast Exchange.

Podcastfestival, the first podcast festival in the Netherlands, was held at the end of last week. All the sessions were recorded, and if you speak Dutch, you'll find them on the Podcastfestival 2018 podcast feed. Lekker!

The Guardian is to launch a daily flagship podcast by the end of the year. The host has been announced as Anushka Asthana, who is currently the newspaper's joint political editor; Leo Hornack is EP. Bose is due to be the launch sponsor, and Acast will represent the podcast.

At the end of the IAB Podcast Upfront was a chat with Bob Pittman, CEO and Chairman of iHeartMedia, and Jarl Mohn, CEO of National Public Radio. Here it is in print form. Question from the moderator: "How do you ensure that podcasts don't cannibalize terrestrial live radio?"

Ben Franklin's World is a podcast about early American history; host Liz Covart became a personal supporter of Podnews at the end of last week. Be like Liz. (Libsyn)

The first podcast from everywhere in the world? Palle Bo, the host of The Radio Vagabond, will speak about travel podcasting at the TBEX Travel Bloggers Conference in Ostrava, Czech Republic, at the end of July.

Next Radio, the radio and podcasting conference ("no panels, no suits") in the UK, has announced its first set of speakers. Podcasting is well represented, with Guardian podcaster Kary Stewart, Griefcast's Cariad Lloyd, and Suchandrika Chakrabarti from Black Mirror Cracked. Tickets are at an early-bird rate until the end of June. James Cridland, Editor of Podnews, is one of the organisers of Next Radio.

Podcraft estimates that, by the end of 2018, there will be 700,000 podcasts available on Apple's platform.

Interesting idea: at the end of the season, 2298 - A Distopian Fantasy posts an additional version - all the episodes edited together as one piece of standalone audio. (Advantages include: no skipping past the intro every time).

WFAE's She Says, an investigative podcast series that follows the story of a sexual assault survivor in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County, launches at the end of May.

Author B J Mendelson has written a book Privacy: And How We Get It Back. He's releasing it as a free audiobook podcast, The End of Privacy.

Chris Hardwick's ID10T podcast, formerly the Nerdist Podcast, is now going to air on 107.7 The End in Seattle WA, USA.

An improvised podcast, set in a fantasy world, that also combines roleplaying and the end of time? The End of Time and Other Bothers is a very different-sounding podcast, from Hamilton ON, Canada.

Spotify is funding Sound Up Bootcamp, a weeklong intensive program for aspiring female podcasters of color. It's in June in New York NY, USA, and the top three pitches at the end of the week will be funded at up to $10,000.

Lots of podcast chat in Radiocentre's See Radio Differently podcast this week from Radiodays Europe: Geoff Lloyd and Ed Miliband from their Reasons to be Cheerful podcast, BBC Radio boss Bob Shennan, and podnews editor James Cridland (but I'm at the end so don't worry)

Magellan analyses 14 weeks of ads sampled from popular podcasts at the end of 2017, and focuses on how US beer brands are advertising on podcasts.

The Nerdist Podcast is no longer: host Chris Hardwick is re-branding it as ID10T and is moving it away from Nerdist Industries. Hardwick sold Nerdist Industries in 2012, and his contract with owners Legendary expired at the end of 2017.

Podcasts really are the holy grail - a piece from WIRED magazine, focusing on the drop-off rate that's now visible in Apple's podcast analytics. It's very good - 90% stick with a podcast to the end - which, naturally, advertisers are quite pleased about.

ABC Radio - the US one - produces a six episode crime podcast designed to be marketing for a TV show at the end of November.

Podible is a(nother) podcast player that offers personalised recommendations. "Discover your next favorite podcast". Doesn't appear to be an app; rather a web-app that works on everything. (Though we are at the end of a slower-than-128k data connection this week, so full evaluation is hard)

SoundCloud might not have very long to live: possibly less than six hours. There's a deadline of the end of today, Friday, for investors to agree with the latest rescue plan. If it's rejected, that's it: they lose the deal, and the company can't continue, says this piece.

Mike Francesca, New York sports radio personality, is leaving WFAN at the end of this year, and might be eyeing up a podcast of his own. What interests him about podcasting? “Right now, nothing. They’re doing it so wrong.”