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Libsyn Ads, formerly AdvertiseCast, combines an industry-leading ad buying and management platform with full-serv...
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July 22, 2024:
July 17, 2024:
July 16, 2024:
    At Libsyn Ads, CRO Dave Hanley and CIO Trevr Smithlin are leaving the company, three years after the acquisition of AdvertiseCast by Libsyn in 2021. “As significant shareholders & friends of the company, they remain strong supporters of the business,” says CEO John W Gibbons. “We’ve crossed a lot of ground together over the last 3 years, transforming Libsyn from a Hosting platform into a full-suite, monetization and hosting service company generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for podcasters. It’s been a blast, wildly successful, and game-changing in so many ways.”
July 15, 2024:
    Dave Jackson has left Libsyn. One of the most respected podcast consultants and trainers, Dave had worked with the Libsyn team for eight years. But it’s him, not them. “There is nothing wrong with Libsyn”, he said, adding “when you hear where I’m going you’ll see it’s simply a better fit for my educational skillset”. We get to find out where on Jul 29 - in, of course, the School of Podcasting podcast.
July 2, 2024:
    Libsyn Ads released its June 2024 ad rates - average CPMs were $21.90, up 1.2% from May, and down 0.3% from last year. Technology podcasts pay the most; fiction podcasts are “more accessible”, the company says.
June 27, 2024:
June 21, 2024:
June 19, 2024:
    Libsyn stats for May show another new low for Apple Podcasts, and another new high for Spotify. The iOS/Android ratio is also at a new low. Google Podcasts slipped to 7th place; it closes internationally this Sunday.
June 18, 2024:
    Libsyn has integrated YouTube Music’s API, which lets podcasters automatically upload shows to YouTube. The API, which was announced at Podcast Movement Evolutions in March, automates the process of telling YouTube where your RSS feed is: Libsyn also pulls in statistics from YouTube to a separate page in the Libsyn dashboard.
June 17, 2024:
June 10, 2024:
June 6, 2024:
June 4, 2024:
May 23, 2024:
    Libsyn Studio, the company’s online recording tool, has suddenly closed. An email to customers said it was a “difficult decision”. No alternative tool was offered; we’d recommend Podcastle, and other alternatives include Alitu, Riverside and Descript.
May 14, 2024:
May 8, 2024:
    In the US, Libsyn Ads debuts at #3 publisher, while in podcasts, The Daily is #1 again, beating NPR News Now.
May 2, 2024:
April 22, 2024:
    Last week, Libsyn was recertified under the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2.1. Captivate and Buzzsprout were last certified under v2.0 in 2020, but both companies are in the process of recertification.
April 18, 2024:
April 2, 2024:
March 28, 2024:
March 27, 2024:
March 21, 2024:
March 12, 2024:
March 7, 2024:
March 6, 2024:
March 1, 2024:
February 27, 2024:
    A new sales company has launched for podcasters and YouTube creators: Amplitude Media Partners has been formed by John Donahue, who was most recently Senior VP of Sales at Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast. He says: “Our network’s goal is to assist Independent Creators in monetising their content through a back-to-basics approach of dedication and transparency, utilizing our experience and extensive Advertiser connections.”
February 16, 2024:
February 8, 2024:
    Somewhat surprisingly, he’s hosting on Spotify for Podcasters, rather than Megaphone. (His old Libsyn feed redirects here, too).
February 2, 2024:
January 30, 2024:
January 29, 2024:
January 26, 2024:
    The Podnews Weekly Review looks at the Digital Markets Act, and what this new EU legislation might mean for podcasters. We also take a listen in to Libsyn's The Feed, which claimed that Apple Podcasts doesn't support any Podcasting 2.0 feature. That comment got old quickly...
January 24, 2024:
January 22, 2024:
January 10, 2024:
January 9, 2024:
January 8, 2024:
    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.
January 3, 2024:
December 21, 2023:
    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.”
December 11, 2023:
December 7, 2023:
    John Donahue, SVP of Sales for Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast, has left the company. “For the moment, I've been given the gift of time and intend to use it wisely.” He’d been with the company since 2018.
December 5, 2023:
    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).
December 1, 2023:
    Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast suggests that in 2024 advertisers will get more comfortable with brand safety in podcasting; and that more precise regional and local targeting will mean a boom in that sector of advertising. The predictions are made alongside the company’s average CPM for November, which rose 2.6% month-on-month to $22.96, though is down more than 6% year-on-year.
November 22, 2023:
November 1, 2023:
October 31, 2023:
October 26, 2023:
October 24, 2023:
October 4, 2023:
September 25, 2023:
September 11, 2023:
    Podtrac's US data for August shows a 7% increase in global downloads over July. There is no change in the top 5, with iHeartPodcasts being #1 for podcasts and showing an 11% increase in total global downloads. Libsyn's AdvertiseCast saw an increase of 27% of global downloads month-on-month. The data measures participating publishers.
September 6, 2023:
August 30, 2023:
August 21, 2023:
August 18, 2023:
    Libsyn (#101) is doing a $250,000 podcast advertising giveaway at Podcast Movement next week.
August 17, 2023:
August 11, 2023:
August 4, 2023:
August 1, 2023:
    Libsyn's AdvertiseCast reports that the average CPM for podcast advertising in its marketplace fell last month to $22.24. It's the lowest level for four months, and is down 3.6% from June's figures.
July 24, 2023:
July 20, 2023:
July 14, 2023:
    Libsyn's AdvertiseCast has renewed its partnership with improv comedy show The Commercial Break. The Commercial Break will leverage AdvertiseCast’s full-service advertising platform, including the incorporation of host-read ads, as well as other service offerings.
July 12, 2023:
July 3, 2023:
June 27, 2023:
    TWiT is switching away from Spotify - the company is now using Podscribe, and is testing Libsyn's AdvertiseCast instead of Megaphone. "Advertisecast has a higher fill rate, plus we hope to partner with them on the host-read ads side of our business," says Lisa Laporte.
June 26, 2023:
June 16, 2023:
June 5, 2023:
May 11, 2023:
May 2, 2023:
April 28, 2023:
April 27, 2023:
April 18, 2023:
April 17, 2023:
    At the NAB Show, a number of podcast companies including Blubrry, Podbean and Libsyn are exhibiting among the plethora of equipment manufacturers. The event has a podcast conference track: among the speakers: our Editor, James Cridland, interviews Valerie Geller in Podcasting in 2023: Where Are We & Where Are We Going? (11.30am, N255/N257)
April 13, 2023:
April 12, 2023:
April 11, 2023:
    Podtastic Audio has made it to 100 episodes: the show aims to "deliver value to the indie podcaster", and help them learn basic techniques that will make their podcast stand out. Brian Cottington of Libsyn is the guest for this episode - a filmmaker and podcaster.
April 6, 2023:
April 5, 2023:
April 4, 2023:
March 31, 2023:
    Libsyn has mailed its hosting customers announcing Apple Podcasts subscriptions, YouTube stats and an episode tracking tool, as well as stats exports.
March 30, 2023:
March 28, 2023:
March 23, 2023:
    Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast has hired Cody Kleitz as a Sales Associate. He was at Havas Edge, where he served as a Media Buyer for the performance marketing agency’s Influencer Marketing team. Before that, he was a Media Manager at Veritone One.
March 15, 2023:
March 7, 2023:
March 3, 2023:
March 2, 2023:
February 28, 2023:
February 14, 2023:
February 8, 2023:
February 3, 2023:
February 2, 2023:
January 31, 2023:
January 27, 2023:
January 18, 2023:
January 10, 2023:
    Later today, Apple Podcasts will announce the launch of Delegated Delivery (beta), allowing creators to publish Apple Podcasts Subscriptions content directly from their participating hosting provider dashboard. Blubrry, Libsyn, Triton Digital's Omny Studio and RSS·com are the first to offer the service: Acast, ART19, Buzzsprout and other providers will follow. Creators can still upload subscriber audio directly to Apple Podcasts Connect.
January 3, 2023:
December 22, 2022:
December 21, 2022:
December 12, 2022:
December 9, 2022:
December 5, 2022:
    By 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities, and How to Really Run a City is new from The Philadelphia Citizen, telling us how mayors and their teams should be innovating. It's hosted by Kasim Reed (Atlanta's mayor from 2010 to 2018) and Michael Nutter (Philadelphia's mayor from 2008 to 2016); and, fittingly for a podcast from Philadelphia, is hosted by Libsyn, who are based there.
December 2, 2022:
December 1, 2022:
November 29, 2022:
November 23, 2022:
November 21, 2022:
November 10, 2022:
November 7, 2022:
    How was Libsyn's hosting done when launched 18 years ago in 2004? Here, from one of the founders, is one of their notes - underneath an architecture diagram, the phrase "research colo and dedicated hosting".
November 4, 2022:
    Podcast hosting company Libsyn - the first in the world - turns 18 tomorrow. Founded by Dave Mansueto, Matt Hoopes, Marty Mulligan, and Dave Chekan on Nov 5, 2004, here's the back story and, rescued from the web, Libsyn's first video ad. Libsyn's CEO Brad Tirpak told Podnews: “We’re proud of our growth and transformation. Our innovation and investments are paying off — with the scaling of our advertising business, international expansion, and enhancements to our industry-leading tools.” Under US law, now it's 18, Libsyn will be legally able to get a tattoo, vote, use a meat slicer, and adopt a child.
November 3, 2022:
November 2, 2022:
October 27, 2022:
October 24, 2022:
    A group of podcast companies, RSS Buzzsprout Transistor Libsyn and Acast, are working on a project to promote open standards for podcasting. "The Podcast Standards Project" hopes to launch its website before January's Podfest.
October 19, 2022:
    Podtrac has launched a new Podcast Sales Network Ranking. The initial ranking, for September, places Wondery at #1, with a US monthly audience of 25 million. Others in the ranking include Podcast One, and new to Podtrac's measurement, Acast and Libsyn's AdvertiseCast - we understand more sales networks are lined-up to be included.
October 17, 2022:
    TikTok's parent company also owns Resso, a music streaming service in Brazil, India and Indonesia, which already carries podcasts from hosts like Libsyn.
October 12, 2022:
October 5, 2022:
October 3, 2022:
September 29, 2022:
September 2, 2022:
August 30, 2022:
    Podcast startup Auddy has purchased Audiomy, a podcast advertising company focused on the German language region of Europe with access to around 450 podcasts, 70 from Austria. No terms were given. Auddy announced the closure of their £2.5m investment round earlier this month. Podcast host Libsyn also recently purchased a German podcast company.
August 24, 2022:
August 18, 2022:
August 17, 2022:
August 3, 2022:
August 2, 2022:
July 26, 2022:
    Parts of Libsyn were down for over five hours yesterday. Downtime happens to all of us; this was related to a database change. Apart from delayed stats processing, all is now well.
July 19, 2022:
July 14, 2022:
July 7, 2022:
    Libsyn Studio, the company's free podcast maker tool, is running a brief user survey to help shape the future of the product. Watch your email if you've used the service in the past.
July 1, 2022:
June 13, 2022:
    Brad Tirpak, Libsyn's CEO, will be speaking at the Credit Suisse 24th Annual Communications Conference on Wednesday. He'll be taking part in a virtual panel discussion on podcasting from 8.45am. Tomorrow, SiriusXM's Jennifer Witz at 12.45pm (listen).
June 9, 2022:
    Bob Kane was at Canadian Music Week representing Libsyn AdvertiseCast. He'd worked at TPX and CBC.
June 7, 2022:
    Buzzsprout's global stats don't include AppleCoreMedia, under-estimating downloads from Apple Podcasts. On the other hand, Libsyn's stats wrongly attribute all traffic to AppleCoreMedia as Apple Podcasts.
June 3, 2022:
    After its shares were suspended in April, Libsyn has confirmed it is no longer a publicly-listed company, telling Podnews in a statement: "The Company agreed to the deregistration of its shares with the SEC. When it completes its financial audits, the Company intends to re-register with the SEC and re-list on an exchange. The shareholders who purchased shares when it was publicly listed retain their exact same number of shares and proportional ownership interest in Libsyn as a private company." The company's ad business grew more than 50% last year, and it has hired additional financial staff, below.
June 2, 2022:
    Sounds Profitable announced the Business Leaders Summit, in collaboration with Podcast Movement on Tuesday, Aug 23, in Dallas TX. The summit is built with four sessions: new research, successful measurement, video and programmatic. People at companies that sponsor Sounds Profitable, like Libsyn's AdvertiseCast, get in for free.
June 1, 2022:
May 31, 2022:
    How much did that cost? Megaphone gets 600m monthly downloads (Mar 2020); assuming three ads per download and a CPM of $24.01, we estimate $588,791 was lost to the podcast industry.
May 20, 2022:
May 17, 2022:
    A number of initial podcast hosting companies have been announced including RSS·com, Libsyn and Buzzsprout; but if you run a podcast hosting company and wish to participate in Delegated Delivery, you're encouraged to fill out this form. (Memo to Apple: here's a list).
May 16, 2022:
May 11, 2022:
May 3, 2022:
May 2, 2022:
    More than a quarter of new podcast episodes published in April were on Anchor, according to data from John Spurlock: Spotify's free podcast host was responsible for 25.8% of all new podcast episodes in April, breaking 25% for the first time. The rest of the top five were Buzzsprout, Spreaker, Libsyn, and at #5, Podbean which overtook Omny Studio last month. More ranking detail in The Tech Stuff, below.
April 22, 2022:
April 20, 2022:
April 12, 2022:
April 11, 2022:
    Podcast host Anchor's creator interface is now available in 35 different languages. Of the top five podcast hosts, Omny Studio is in six languages, Spreaker available in four; Buzzsprout and Libsyn only offer English, though YouTube is in 82 different languages. It's unclear whether support is available in all of them. Podcasting is growing faster in non-English languages.
April 4, 2022:
March 16, 2022:
March 11, 2022:
March 10, 2022:
March 9, 2022:
    Radiodays Europe, in Malmö, Sweden, this May, has announced a Podcast Summit as a pre-conference event. Speakers haven't yet been announced, but we can exclusively tell you Rob Greenlee from Libsyn is one of those speakers; and the summit will be moderated by James Cridland, Podnews's Editor.
March 7, 2022:
    In our sample, we observed Buzzsprout losing 27 podcasts last week, and Libsyn losing 14. The podcast hosts gaining the most were, as they always are, Anchor and Megaphone; though Simplecast and Acast also saw a good number of migrations.
March 3, 2022:
March 1, 2022:
February 25, 2022:
February 24, 2022:
    How much did Libsyn pay for PAR? (We'll update this story tomorrow).
February 23, 2022:
February 15, 2022:
    A podcast has turned into its own radio station in the UK. Libsyn-hosted The Alfred Daily, a 40-minute daily local news show, is now being broadcast on 107.3FM across Shaftesbury in Dorset. The podcast, and station, is staffed by volunteers, and uses the Hindenburg editor. The podcast has been doing 1,000 downloads a day (the area it covers is just 12,000 people).
February 14, 2022:
February 9, 2022:
February 2, 2022:
January 31, 2022:
January 27, 2022:
    Acast was announced as a launch partner for Spotify's Open Access subscription tool in July last year; but Acast+ doesn't work with the tool. Memberful and Libsyn's Glow were also announced as launch partners; but have also yet to roll out support. We hear whispers that Spotify Open Access requires mandatory caching of audio, which cedes considerable control away from podcast hosting companies.
January 25, 2022:
January 24, 2022:
    The launch of Libsyn5 last week also means a new, more private, RSS feed address for shows. Libsyn had used unique domain names for RSS feeds, which are never encrypted and bad for listener privacy. New feeds from Libsyn will come from feeds.libsyn.com - older feeds don't yet 301-redirect, but we assume they will. (If all that's tech-speak - don't worry, you need do nothing).
January 21, 2022:
January 13, 2022:
    The Podcast Hall of Fame is coming back. Presented by Libsyn, the awards recognise those that have made a difference to podcasting. The ceremony will be held at Podcast Movement Evolutions in Los Angeles on Mar 25, though open to everyone. It last took place in 2018; the current members will be involved in choosing this year's inductees; eight were announced in 2018, and we expect a similar number this year.
January 6, 2022:
    Billi Watland has joined Libsyn's AdvertiseCast as Senior Publisher Relations Manager. They bring more than 20 years of media experience at places like Gannett and Time Inc.
January 5, 2022:
    There's been action in Libsyn's ongoing dispute with what they call fraudulent shareholders, who own 22% of Libsyn (worth $26m). In an SEC filing, Libsyn say they've now cancelled those shares: the company will give the shareholders 90 days to object. If they're cancelled, investors say it increases the value of remaining shares.
January 3, 2022:
December 13, 2021:
    Podbean has switched all its RSS feeds from unique domains like podcastname.podbean.com/feed.xml to feed.podbean.com/podcastname/feed.xml. This is good news for privacy: domain names are never encrypted, so you can be tracked as a listener to a specific podcast every time your phone checks the RSS feed for a new episode. Libsyn is now the only major podcast host still using unique, trackable domain names for its feeds.
December 2, 2021:
November 30, 2021:
    It's Christmas time at Libsyn, with a number of SEC filings. New CEO Bradley Tirpak now owns $2.4m of stock, while board member Eric Shahinian now controls $17.7m of stock, around 13.4% of the company.
November 29, 2021:
    Dave Jackson and Elsie Escobar from Libsyn are hosting a holiday game afternoon for podcasters - it's not limited to Libsyn customers, and the artwork features Dave and Elsie in festive costumes we think may have been Photoshopped.
November 23, 2021:
November 22, 2021:
November 19, 2021:
November 18, 2021:
November 12, 2021:
November 5, 2021:
    Libsyn is on the acquisition trail again, with its AdvertiseCast platform acquiring "certain assets" of PODGO, a podcast monetisation platform for smaller podcasts, specialising in host-reads. PODGO’s founder David Ehrlich joins the company and will help transition customers and advertisers. No terms were given.
November 4, 2021:
    Bradley Tirpak is the new CEO of Libsyn. A professional investor, he's been Chairman of Libsyn since August 2020, and a director since October 2019. The company had been without a CEO for over 14 months.
November 1, 2021:
October 28, 2021:
October 26, 2021:
October 25, 2021:
    Want a nice example of a podcast using the podcast:location tags per episode? Закат империи has it properly used, with placenames, OSM id, and latlong. It's hosted with Libsyn.
October 20, 2021:
    Facebook recently added podcasts into their app (mobile only, US only), but haven't talked too much about their plans for podcasting. 1.8 billion users visit Facebook daily, so anything they do to increase podcasting would be welcome. Today, Facebook's podcasting team is joining The New Media Show, with Libsyn's Rob Greenlee and Blubrry's Todd Cochrane, at 3pm Eastern. You can watch the live feed here.
October 11, 2021:
    Libsyn Pro appears to have migrated many of its shows over to Libsyn RSS feeds, according to our podcast hosts tracker (we list the two as separate). Otherwise, our sample suggests Megaphone gained 27 shows overall, while Libsyn lost 25 overall.
October 8, 2021:
October 6, 2021:
October 5, 2021:
October 4, 2021:
    RSS feeds on LibsynPro infrastructure appear to being migrated to standard libsyn․com feeds.
October 1, 2021:
September 29, 2021:
    Hot on the heels of Fireside comes Glow - in terms of name confusion, that is. Just as Mark Cuban's Fireside is nothing to do with Dan Benjamin's Fireside, so Amazon's Glow is nothing to do with Libsyn's Glow. Amazon's Glow, launched yesterday, is a device to help parents play with their kids remotely, while Libsyn's Glow is a podcast membership service. We're pleased to have cleared that one up.
September 24, 2021:
September 22, 2021:
September 13, 2021:
September 8, 2021:
August 31, 2021:
August 30, 2021:
    We've added ceased shows (those that have removed their RSS feeds) to our podcast host changes page. There are surprisingly few of these. As usual, Megaphone is the paid podcast host being switched to the most (observed gaining 39 shows overall this week); Libsyn performing worst (observed losing 35 shows overall to other hosts).
August 26, 2021:
    Podsights has terminated its contract with Libsyn's AdvertiseCast, according to a notice on Podsights' website. Podsights attribution will not be available to advertisers attempting to run campaigns on Libsyn's AdvertiseCast from Oct 11. Podnews understands a notice of termination was sent after a Libsyn employee accosted a female Podsights staff member at a virtual event in April, but the banner only appeared after Podsights was called "malicious" and "ignorant" by the same person, Libsyn's Rob Walch, during a session at Podcast Movement. Walch accused Podsights of "f#cking this community" in an aggressive speech that we're told is part of a pattern of targeted behaviour against Podsights.
August 25, 2021:
    Congratulations to Elsie Escobar, who's podcast The Feed for Libsyn has hit episode 200. The show first published in 2013 - the first five episodes covered Windows Phone 8 podcast apps, social media marketing, and what to do if Apple iTunes is not updating your podcast. Not that this would happen these days.
August 23, 2021:
August 16, 2021:
August 10, 2021:
    Fearne Cotton's Happy Place, the most-listened-to wellness podcast in the UK, has signed with Acast. The deal will unlock fan-supported revenue with Acast+. It was with Libsyn.
August 9, 2021:
August 6, 2021:
August 2, 2021:
July 22, 2021:
July 9, 2021:
    Inspired Money hit episode 200, with new episode art, social media re-branding, and an interview with international motivational speaker Chad E. Foster. We reported it hitting episode 100 in July 2019.
July 8, 2021:
    Libsyn shows can now be added to JioSaavn, India's largest music streaming service with more than 100m monthly users. “I see the partnership with JioSaavn as a key opportunity to expand interest for podcast creators and listeners globally,” said Rob Greenlee, Libsyn’s VP of Content and Partnerships.
July 1, 2021:
    Apple Podcasts has reinstated HTML links in podcast descriptions. The server-side change appears to be live for Podnews, PodClock and for The Feed by Libsyn: it seems to be a recent change with the RSS parser used by the company. HTML links are important for podcasters to allow additional reading, affiliate links, sponsors or support: they broke with the rollout of the new Apple Podcasts infrastructure in late April.
June 15, 2021:
June 14, 2021:
June 9, 2021:
June 8, 2021:
June 7, 2021:
June 3, 2021:
May 24, 2021:
    After a short hiatus, our podcast hosting company changes page has returned. As ever, it shows a significant amount of podcasts moving from paid hosting companies to Anchor. Overall, the biggest gains went to Anchor, RedCircle and Megaphone; the biggest losers were Whooshkaa, Soundcloud and Libsyn.
May 19, 2021:
    Libsyn has released its most popular platforms for April, in The Feed: Apple has 60.01% and Spotify 13.65% of all podcast downloads. Earlier this month, Buzzsprout released its April figures: it reports Spotify and Apple Podcasts both tie at 29.3%.
May 6, 2021:
April 26, 2021:
April 16, 2021:
    Podcast hosting company Libsyn is a GARP, according to Adam Wilk from Greystone Capital - "Growth At A Reasonable Price". Speaking on the Yet Another Value Podcast, he criticises the company's recent growth rates, however, and says he will "have to assess how much damage the lack of effort toward the product and the customer has hurt them".
April 14, 2021:
April 13, 2021:
April 2, 2021:
March 31, 2021:
March 26, 2021:
    Samsung has launched Samsung Podcasts within the Samsung Free app in the US. The service offers instant access to "thousands of podcasts" from publishers like American Public Media, CNN Audio, Conde Nast, iHeartMedia, Kast Media, Motley Fool, NPR, PodcastOne, PRX, This American Life, Vox Media Podcast Network and Barstool Sports. Both Blubrry Podcasting and Libsyn have announced a launch partnership: both require you to specifically add your podcasts to the service. Samsung has a roughly 25% market share in the US; this is available now on Galaxy S21, Galaxy S20, Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy S10, and Galaxy Note 10 devices.
March 18, 2021:
March 17, 2021:
March 15, 2021:
March 10, 2021:
    Speaking in The Feed, Rob Walch says that the word 'subscribe' is 'an elegant word for a more civilised age', quoting from Star Wars "A New Hope". He adds, "kudos to Apple".
February 15, 2021:
February 12, 2021:
February 11, 2021:
February 5, 2021:
February 1, 2021:
    Libsyn feeds all now include the namespace declaration; but this number shows use of tags.
January 29, 2021:
    Libsyn's senior management presented at an investor conference. President & COO Laurie Syms and CFO Richard Heyse highlighted that their strategy is to grow the company organically, rather than take part in corporate acquisitions.
January 27, 2021:
    Libsyn has added the namespace for Podcast Index and Google Podcasts by default in their feeds "in preparation for productisation". This work now allows advanced podcasters to hand-code additional tags into feeds at their own risk - "picture a big flashing neon proceed-with-caution light", said Rob Walch in The Feed episode 185 (47'04").
January 18, 2021:
    Libsyn released some data in The Feed saying that 44.8% of its creators use Macs; with its publishing backend also being used by Windows (30.8%), iOS (20.3%), and Android (3.4%).
January 15, 2021:
January 14, 2021:
January 13, 2021:
    Speaking on the latest episode of Libsyn's The Feed, Rob Walch highlights Apple's privacy information in the app store, which we covered December 14: "For those that are tracking podcast listeners, do you really think the only thing in iOS14 that Apple will allow privacy violations to continue with… is your product? And for those running newsletters and sites on this space that just don't think tracking with no opt-in is okay but actually promotes privacy violations, the world is changing, and privacy is going to matter more and more. Opt-in is the only ethical way to track the listener, and sans that ability, it should not be done, period."
January 11, 2021:
January 7, 2021:
    Greenlee also announced in his Podland interview that Libsyn has decided not to support the new Podcasting 2.0 namespace at this time. "We're definitely monitoring it. We're very supportive of what Adam Curry is doing, but we are primarily working on our new Libsyn5 tools. It's in our roadmap to consider against a lot of other things that are going on as far as priorities in the company."
January 4, 2021:
    Also from that data: just seven companies host 75% of all podcast feeds in Apple Podcasts: Anchor, Buzzsprout, Feedburner, Libsyn, Podbean, SoundCloud and Spreaker.
January 1, 2021:
December 31, 2020:
    According to reports made to the SEC, Libsyn's President, COO and Principal Executive Officer Laurie Sims was awarded $917,000 in Libsyn shares on Monday. She'll also be entitled to receive at least $500,000 in cash at midnight tonight - a bonus for completing three years of her employment contract with the company.
December 29, 2020:
    The Feed from Libsyn has unveiled the latest data from Libsyn's network, claiming Apple Podcasts was still #1 with 64.5% of all mobile downloads in November. The data relates to mobile downloads only, and the company tells us that these are not based on IAB certified downloads.
December 25, 2020:
December 22, 2020:
    Libsyn has said it will support the Podcast Index tags, Adam Curry will announce in the next edition of Podcasting 2.0. Buzzsprout is already supporting the new tags, and Blubrry has already said it plans to support them soon too. The podcast will have a special guest: our Editor.
December 15, 2020:
December 8, 2020:
November 30, 2020:
    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.
November 25, 2020:
November 17, 2020:
    Podcast host Libsyn has published its 2020 third quarter financial results. The company's podcast hosting revenue for the quarter grew by 15% year-on-year. However, Libsyn's ad revenue continued to fall, down by 22%; and the payoff to the company's former CEO made the company lose over $2m this quarter. Libsyn also owns Pair, an internet hosting company.
November 16, 2020:
    Spotify is taking a bite out of Apple. Buzzsprout has shared the top podcast 'agents' on their platform. Apple Podcasts accounts for just 47% of all plays and downloads, Spotify for 24.4%, and Google Podcasts is third with 2.4%. These are the lowest numbers yet for Apple Podcasts from a podcast host. (Libsyn's data only shows mobile app downloads, and has a higher percentage of US downloads).
November 4, 2020:
    Elsie Escobar criticises Shure in the latest edition of The Feed from Libsyn, for seemingly giving every single one of their review units of the new Shure MV7 microphone to men. "It's not about wanting free stuff: it's the fact that there is an unrepresented community here. Consider expanding your relationships with just not the same dudes."
October 30, 2020:
October 21, 2020:
    Google Podcasts is now the third-biggest podcast app. Libsyn's Rob Walch unveiled the company's download statistics in The Feed. It is, though, still five times smaller than Spotify, the #2. According to Libsyn, which gets 62% of its downloads from the US, total downloads to Pocket Casts dropped below 1%.
October 16, 2020:
October 14, 2020:
October 13, 2020:
October 12, 2020:
    Libsyn appears to have started automatically forwarding insecure RSS feeds to their secure HTTPS versions.
October 7, 2020:
October 2, 2020:
    Spotify has signed a new exclusive - the Just Break Up podcast. Of note - it was hosted on Libsyn; had a short incubation period on Anchor some time between September 7-14, and then announced its exclusivity a week later on September 21. It'll become exclusive from October 19.
September 30, 2020:
September 23, 2020:
September 9, 2020:
    Analysis The downloads data is similar to Libsyn's reported global downloads for July (Apple 68.4%; Spotify 9.1%): but the difference between "downloads" and "audience" is clear - Apple Podcasts might still be bringing in the downloads, but Spotify appears a significant service in terms of increasing podcasting's total audience. This data would explain the discrepancies in some research for platform popularity, which typically measures audience, rather than downloads. (Some audiences may use both apps, of course). We'd expect to see these figures shift significantly as Joe Rogan's audience moves onto Spotify.
August 18, 2020:
August 17, 2020:
    Podcast host Libsyn has published a positive Q2 2020 financial report. While revenue from advertising and LibsynPro decreased during the worst months of the pandemic, total podcasting revenue was up by 10.6% in the second quarter. Laurie Sims has been promoted to COO, and a strategic review has recently concluded. The company now hosts 74,000 podcasts; and April was the second-highest month in the company's history for signups. Libsyn also owns Pair, an internet hosting company.
August 14, 2020:
August 12, 2020:
    An update from Anchor, following our story yesterday that Anchor could automatically delete your account without warning. Anchor say that they do not have an algorithm that automatically deletes duplicates; instead, the company uses a combination of automated and human-detected signals to assess potential infringement, and they tell Podnews that podcasts are always elevated to a human before any action is taken. In the case we reported on, the podcast had "similar content to the Libsyn-hosted Spotify listing", and it had other negative signals which led to its removal.
August 10, 2020:
August 7, 2020:
    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.
August 6, 2020:
August 4, 2020:
    Libsyn has hired Richard Heyse as their new CFO. “I am delighted to join Libsyn at this exciting time. I believe the potential for shareholder value creation is excellent given the favorable growth trends in the podcasting and web-hosting market and Libsyn’s position as a leader in the space”.
August 3, 2020:
    Libsyn report that Apple continues to be the #1 podcast app, accounting for 68.2% of mobile downloads. According to the podcast host, which is the largest paid podcast host in the world, Spotify is at 8.3% and Google Podcasts at just 1.3%. Sharing these figures on The Feed, Rob Walch adds: "The death of Apple Podcasts has been greatly over-stated".
July 29, 2020:
July 22, 2020:
July 17, 2020:
July 15, 2020:
    Edison Research's Tom Webster is on The Feed, the official Libsyn podcast. He focuses on the Latino Podcast Listener Report. The episode also includes average downloads stats: if your podcast is doing more than 120 downloads per episode, you're doing better than half the shows out there, says Libsyn VP Rob Walch.
July 13, 2020:
June 22, 2020:
June 17, 2020:
June 12, 2020:
    Some podcast download numbers might be incorrect: and could be 5% too large, according to The New Media Show. If you use Apple Podcasts and own an Apple Watch, your watch automatically downloads duplicate copies of shows you're subscribed to when it's charging - which could be as much as 5% of a podcast's total downloads. According to the podcast, Libsyn already marks these additional downloads as duplicates, but many podcast hosts may not be doing so. In October 2018, Voxnest published that 9.4% of all downloads were to an Apple Watch.
May 28, 2020:
    The Podcast Academy have posted an updated Board of Governors. Rob Greenlee from Libsyn has been confirmed as the Chair; governors include Conal Byrne from iHeartMedia, Ben Cave from Apple, Anya Grundmann from NPR and Courtney Holt from Spotify. The Board also includes podcast producers, talent agents, and studios. Google is absent.
May 22, 2020:
    Search Off The Record is a new podcast from Google's Webmasters, the team behind search. "They will share fun stories from the many conferences they attend", we're promised (presumably this feature comes later). It's hosted by Libsyn.
May 20, 2020:
    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.
May 18, 2020:
    Podcast host Libsyn have filed their 2019 financial statement. Libsyn brought in $14.4m in 2019 (up 14%); including Pair, the company's ISP, the company made $2.8m profit (down from $4.3m last year).
May 13, 2020:
May 6, 2020:
    Speaking on The Feed, Rob Walch said that there has been a 15% decline in weekly downloads on Libsyn since the pandemic. The week of April 19th was, apparently, the worst; and things are getting better since then. He also said that the median number of episode downloads for Libsyn shows was 125 (so if you're doing more than 125 downloads per episode, you're better than 50% of all the shows out there).
May 5, 2020:
May 4, 2020:
April 29, 2020:
April 22, 2020:
    More people are listening to podcasts on computers, according to new data from Libsyn's The Feed podcast. Total plays via computer, rather than mobile, increased by almost a percentage point to 12% of downloads. "Those changes had to do with people starting to stay at home", said Rob Walch, the company's VP of Podcaster Relations, adding that he would "expect [the figure] to drop more next month for mobile". Apple Podcasts is still the market leader for consumption, though more people are listening via Android devices according to the company.
April 17, 2020:
    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)
April 9, 2020:
    Yesterday, we got all excited after Libsyn's Rob Walch spotted that podcasts had been removed from Google Play Music's iOS app. Google tells us: "We actually have never had podcasts in Google Play Music on iOS." (We didn't know either.)
April 8, 2020:
    How many takedowns have Blubrry and Libsyn had from Spotify because of coronavirus-related concerns? Hardly any - "under double digits" according to Todd Cochrane of Blubrry, speaking on The New Media Show.
April 7, 2020:
March 20, 2020:
March 19, 2020:
March 17, 2020:
    How's your heart? "moved up our launch date by a week because we felt this is a time when we all need some laughs in our lives," they tell us. It's a "hilarious, vulnerable, and unapologetic" podcast about dating, sex, queerdom, "all those feelings", and more. (Libsyn)
March 16, 2020:
    Sickboy is an independent Canadian comedy podcast that breaks down the stigma surrounding illness and death - with 75,000 listeners each week. You'll never guess what virus they're talking about this week (OK, perhaps you will). (Libsyn)
March 12, 2020:
    Google is podcasting. Apps, Games and Insights is a new podcast for developers and software companies. It went live on March 4th. (Libsyn)
March 11, 2020:
    Libsyn has added Headliner integration, to help podcasters share pieces of their shows on social media. They've introduced a new, simpler method of setting permanent 301 redirects, which the company no longer charges for.
February 28, 2020:
February 21, 2020:
    Libsyn's Eric Shahinian and Bradley Tirpak were each awarded around $100,000 of Libsyn shares earlier this week.
February 20, 2020:
February 19, 2020:
    Bad On Paper is a weekly podcast bringing you the people, products, and books you need to know about; it already boasts 125,000 monthly downloads, and a Facebook community with over 4,000 members. (Libsyn)
February 12, 2020:
    There's been a murder! True crime meets business in The Great Fail - a new podcast that launched this week, focusing on what killed some of the greatest companies and ideas. The first few episodes look at LA Gear and Google Glass. (Libsyn)
February 10, 2020:
    Justin, the host of The Peripheral Podcast has announced, on his Facebook page, that he's no longer producing the show after an online harassment campaign. He adds: To those I've advised about podcasting, I strongly urge you to reconsider. The bigger your podcast becomes, the more prone you become to criticism, personal attacks, and drama. The toxic culture and harassment will never dissipate. (Libsyn)
January 31, 2020:
    Podcast consumption on smart speakers is up, says Libsyn: their official podcast The Feed claims podcast plays on smart speakers has grown 45% between October and December. Hold on though: the growth, while welcome, just means they're now responsible for 0.29% of all plays.
January 28, 2020:
    The Apple Podcasts directory is currently slow to update podcast episodes on their website and to people who aren't subscribed. Libsyn say Apple are aware of it. Subscribers remain unaffected.
January 22, 2020:
    Exclusive: Apple vs Spotify: who is number one, really? Morgan Stanley and MIDiA have both released recent data showing Spotify could be #1 for "people", aka "unique devices" - but both surveys are based on human recall, not data. We were keen to see what the data said: so Podnews asked two podcasting companies whether they were able to work out "devices" vs "downloads". Libsyn did not reply to our email; but Chartable - which has oversight of a number of podcasts across different podcast hosts and services - has crunched the data and given a categorical, and final, answer to who is #1 for podcasting. Researchers may like to note that Chartable's "unique downloads" per app are, pleasingly, within 1% of Libsyn's reported percentages.
January 20, 2020:
January 17, 2020:
    Libsyn has decided to "set the record straight" about whether Spotify is #1 or not, by publishing their app download figures for December to "help debunk the erroneous stories". They show 59.6% of downloads from Apple Podcasts and iTunes, and 11.6% from Spotify. Interestingly, Spotify has dropped from the 13% Libsyn reported in October. (In November, Libsyn became a passthrough destination for Spotify).
January 16, 2020:
January 14, 2020:
    Sam Walker, a former BBC radio presenter, changed her life from living in drizzly Manchester to take her family to the desert in Phoenix AZ, USA. Sam Walker's Desert Diaries promises "excitement, frustration, fear, joy, loneliness and scorpions". (Libsyn)
January 9, 2020:
    Palace Intrigue: A daily Royal Family podcast is the best place to hear an amazing fairytale story about a prince called Harry and a princess called Meghan wanting to get away from their evil grandmother's family by escaping to Canada, only to find their evil grandmother's picture is still on all the money. (Libsyn)
January 8, 2020:
    Immigrantly is a podcast from a Pakistani American human rights activist, which explores racial identity, culture, and class through the lens of immigrant experiences. Some episodes have made it to public radio; season five has just launched. (Libsyn)
January 7, 2020:
January 1, 2020:
    Libsyn have published their review of 2019. They claim 5.1bn downloads in the first nine months of the year, and highlight the welcome hiring of Rob Greenlee, who joined Libsyn earlier in 2019 as VP of Content and Partnerships.
December 26, 2019:
    In Libsyn's The Feed, Rob Walch shared growth stats for Libsyn-hosted podcasts in Jan-Oct 2019. Listening on Apple Podcasts increased by 13.1%; but since Apple Podcasts accounts for 58% of all podcast listens, that growth accounts for 44.5% of total podcast growth in 2019. Listening to podcasts on Spotify doubled in 2019, accounting for 39.5% of total podcast growth. We reported on Libsyn's overall podcast app market share numbers in late November; Walch also clarified that almost all Libsyn shows are now on Spotify.
December 23, 2019:
December 20, 2019:
December 19, 2019:
    Podcast host Libsyn is restricting its publishers from using some analytics companies. The company's recent platform update to add "URL prepends" for companies like Podtrac and Blubrry does not allow publishers to add Podsights, a company that measures the effect of podcast advertising. Attempts fail with an error, saying that the prepend is not compliant with privacy legislation. Podsights, however, say in a statement to us that "Podsights is GDPR and CCPA compliant, and data privacy is core to our business." Libsyn tells us: "We are taking these steps to help Libsyn, our customers and Libsyn partners better comply with CCPA and data privacy best practices globally, and because we feel it is necessary to protect listener privacy," though their statement does not mention Podsights by name.
December 16, 2019:
December 9, 2019:
    Podcast advertising company Midroll is "bullying" podcaster David Pakman to switch his podcast host from Libsyn to Omny Studio, he says in a YouTube video. Pakman is unhappy at leaving Libsyn, and claims Omny Studio "tracks listeners using a tracking pixel". He is, he says, ending his relationship with Midroll as a result. We've approached Midroll for comment, and will carry that tomorrow; however, Sharon Taylor, CEO of Omny Studio, has clarified to Podnews (our bold):
December 5, 2019:
December 4, 2019:
November 29, 2019:
    BLACK FRIDAY launches today. A scripted podcast by Tycho Newman, it tells the story of a mysterious phenomenon that turns white people into black people. (Stormfire Productions, Libsyn)
November 28, 2019:
    Thanks to Carey Green from PodcastFastTrack: have you ever wondered what good podcast editors can chop out of your show? Carey shares this audio with us - edited out of just one episode. 😲
November 27, 2019:
    In the latest episode of The Feed, Libsyn report which mobile apps downloaded podcasts from them in October. Apple Podcasts is the highest, at 58%. Of note: only around 40% of Libsyn shows are published on Spotify (so the app will be under-represented in these figures). Libsyn won't publish any numbers next month, because of work they're doing on Spotify passthrough.
November 26, 2019:
    Clarification: plays from Spotify are counted in all Libsyn accounts: they are broken out per destination for accounts paying $20/month or over ("advanced statistics"). Destination data, and IAB v2 certified figures, are not available for those with basic statistics. We meant to say that yesterday but didn't make that very clear.
November 25, 2019:
    Libsyn's changes to become a "Spotify passthrough" destination - so Spotify appears in their standard stats - has had the effect of instructing Spotify to download every single episode all over again, the company says, causing a spike in download numbers. "Don't panic!", they add. Spotify stats are available for users paying $20 or more per month.
November 20, 2019:
November 19, 2019:
    Yesterday, we quoted Libsyn's Rob Walch about what happens if you mark your podcast as explicit: that you're removed from Apple Podcasts in many countries. Jack Rhysider, who hosts an occasionally potty-mouthed podcast Darknet Diaries, says things have changed somewhat, and that "it's hardly a hurdle now".
November 18, 2019:
    Writing in a Facebook group, Libsyn's Rob Walch reminds us what happens when you mark an episode as explicit:
November 15, 2019:
    Libsyn's revenue continues to increase, according to its Q3 2019 report. For its podcasting business, Libsyn earnt US $10.5m in revenue in the first nine months of 2019: up 14% from $9.2m in the same period last year. Libsyn has 67,000 podcasts on its platform, and also owns an internet hosting company, Pair.
November 6, 2019:
    The latest episode of Be The Drop was recorded live in Adelaide SA, Australia, and is an interview with James Cridland, Podnews's Editor. (Narrative Marketing / Libsyn)
November 4, 2019:
    Caution: Libsyn achieved IAB Certification in August, but that doesn't mean you'll get access to those numbers. We've been alerted by a number of podcasters that basic Libsyn plans do not give access to IAB Certified statistics. In September 2017, the company claimed "ALL users" would get "more accurate download numbers", and though they may dip a little, "➩ They will, however, be IAB Standard!"
November 1, 2019:
October 28, 2019:
October 25, 2019:
October 24, 2019:
October 23, 2019:
October 22, 2019:
    Ignition Point returns for a second season, with twenty guests for practical strategies to help young professionals and aspiring leaders get fired up. Podcasts are deliberately short at around 20 minutes. (Libsyn)
October 21, 2019:
    Ignition Point returns for a second season, with twenty guests for practical strategies to help young professionals and aspiring leaders get fired up. Podcasts are deliberately short at around 20 minutes. (Libsyn)
October 15, 2019:
October 11, 2019:
    Extreming is your basic “girl meets boy, girl meets robot, girl can’t decide” story set against the fakiest, fraudiest election in U.S. history—the one ahead. A "barely fiction musical theatre" podcast from Santa Barbara CA, USA, it launched on October 1st. (Libsyn)
October 10, 2019:
    The Contrarian Investor Podcast, from Nathaniel E. Baker, is a weekly podcast featuring an interview with a personality from the investing world. A press release highlight's Baker's experience at Bloomberg News. (Libsyn)
October 9, 2019:
October 8, 2019:
    BREAKING: Podcast host Libsyn has reached a settlement with their disgruntled shareholders, led by Camac. Libsyn has agreed to many of Camac's demands - Camac's founder Eric Shahinian is now Libsyn's new Chairman; some payments to Libsyn's CEO and former CFO have been cancelled; a new independent director will also be appointed, as will Bradley Tirpack; and Libsyn will pay Camac $600,000 for their expenses. Shahinian, 31, is an investor; Tirpak, 49, has variously worked for a dentist, a mining company and a vending company in the past four years, and works to improve corporate governance. Libsyn's CFO resigned last week; the special shareholder's meeting has been cancelled.
October 4, 2019:
    Libsyn's Chief Financial Officer, John Busshaus, has resigned. It comes after a complaint by the US's Securities and Exchange Commission, accusing Busshaus and Libsyn's CEO, Chris Spencer, of negligence and misrepresentation involving Libsyn's previous parent company. Busshaus and Spencer have agreed to a settlement "without admitting or denying the allegations"; and Busshaus has also agreed to a two year suspension of appearing or practicing as an accountant before the SEC.
October 3, 2019:
    Hormonal is a new podcast from a female health app Clue. The weekly podcast examines the ways in which hormones affect, and are affected by our world - spanning everything from PMS to pollution. It's hosted by author Rhea Ramjohn. (Libsyn)
October 1, 2019:
September 26, 2019:
    We're only one idea away from changing our whole lives. Unlocking Creativity talks to industry-leading creatives, exploring the thought that changed everything: and tips and tricks for coming up with great ideas. (Libsyn)
September 24, 2019:
September 13, 2019:
September 12, 2019:
    I Know Dino, a podcast that "dives into the latest dinosaur related news", will release its 250th episode next week. It's hosted by husband and wife team Garret Kruger and Sabrina Ricci, " who celebrated their love for each other and dinosaurs with a dinosaur themed wedding". (Libsyn)
September 10, 2019:
    40.2% of new shows on Libsyn in Q2 2019 were hosted by women, according to Rob Walch, speaking on The Feed.
September 9, 2019:
    George McDonagh, the producer of Power Corrupts writes what he learnt when producing the first season. He notes that the podcast has had half a million downloads. (Libsyn)
September 5, 2019:
September 3, 2019:
    A Scottish Podcast is an audio drama about a washed-up former radio DJ. His name is Lee, and these days he runs a paranormal investigation podcast called The Terror Files. In season 2, we’ve travelled with Lee and pals Gina and Dougie to the North coast of Scotland: the season finale will be on Friday 13th. (Libsyn)
August 26, 2019:
    Naxos, the classical music record company, are producing music podcasts. The Naxos Classical Spotlight is produced by Naxos of America every fortnight. (Libsyn)
August 23, 2019:
August 22, 2019:
    The latest episode of Freelance Pod features an interview with Zoe Jeyes, who's the programmer of the London Podcast Festival. She listens to four new podcasts a day; and knows what makes a good live podcast. (Libsyn)
August 20, 2019:
    Dave Jackson's School of Podcasting focuses, in its latest episode, on insights from Podcast Movement. (Libsyn)
August 15, 2019:
August 13, 2019:
August 12, 2019:
    Futility Closet covers forgotten stories from the pages of history. It's hosted by Greg Ross, who kindly just increased his personal support for Podnews. Be like Greg (Libsyn)
August 9, 2019:
August 8, 2019:
August 7, 2019:
    Podcast Movement's main stage will be streamed live all day Wednesday and Thursday. The last event of Thursday is a live taping of the New Media Show, with Todd Cochrane (Blubrry), Rob Greenlee and Rob Walch (Libsyn), Lindsey Bowen (Pandora) and Sarah van Mosel (Stitcher).
August 2, 2019:
August 1, 2019:
July 31, 2019:
    Rob Greenlee is a guest of Podcasting Made Easy, delving into the past, present and future of podcasting. (Libsyn)
July 30, 2019:
    The Paranormal Podcast is celebrating its fourteenth anniversary today, with 597 episodes to date. The host, Jim Harold, started producing the podcast on July 29th 2005, and went full-time in 2012. (Libsyn)
July 29, 2019:
    Marketing podcast Future Proof interviews Danielle Lee, Spotify's Partner Solutions Global VP, on the company's aspirations - and why marketers should be "leaning in" to audio. (Saïd Business School / Oxford University / Kantar / Libsyn)
July 26, 2019:
July 25, 2019:
July 24, 2019:
    Blubrry has already activated the new podcast categories in their platform; and we understand Libsyn should follow suit today. The Powerpress Wordpress plugin has a new release to also support the new categories.
July 19, 2019:
    First Draft has reached its 200th episode. Hosted by author Sarah Enni, it promises "a quality hang with young adult and middle grade authors". The 200th episode is a compilation of some of the best and most pointed questions. (Libsyn)
July 17, 2019:
    A minority shareholder of Libsyn says it has succeeded in forcing the company to convene a special meeting. Camac, which owns 6.5% of Libsyn, wants to replace the board of directors and change the company's corporate governance. Shares in Libsyn closed up almost 5% yesterday on the news, at a five year high. (Don't worry, though - people called Rob are expected not to be affected by this news).
July 16, 2019:
July 15, 2019:
    The Screenster Podcast is an industry-insider look at the film and television world. Host and actress Georgie Grier talks to her guests about their careers, the highs and lows of this business and the good stuff on our screens. (Libsyn)
July 12, 2019:
    Turn Me On, a "provocative" podcast, has a live show next week in Toronto ON, Canada, "allowing the audience to be a part of the salacious conversation". Tickets (eOne / Libsyn)
July 10, 2019:
    Life, Death, and the space between is from Chicago-based clinical psychologist and medium Dr Amy Robbins, and sets out to explore life, death, and what it all means. It was launched six months ago. (Libsyn)
July 9, 2019:
July 1, 2019:
June 27, 2019:
    Rob Walch from Libsyn has released the latest download figures for podcasts hosted on Libsyn on mobile apps: Apple Podcasts 59.9%; Spotify 10%; Overcast: 2.9%; Castbox 2.5%; Stitcher 2%; Podcast Addict 1.6%; Google 1.3% and Pocketcast 1.2%. This is the first time, he notes, that Apple have slipped below 60%. (Libsyn's podcasts aren't all in Spotify, incidentally.) You can hear commentary on this in The Feed.
June 26, 2019:
June 25, 2019:
    After a minority shareholder threatened to replace Libsyn board members by calling for a special meeting (Podnews passim), the Libsyn board have changed the company bylaws to require a vote from the majority of shareholders to make such a change.
June 13, 2019:
    A minority shareholder of podcast host Libsyn, Camac, is continuing to express dissatisfaction against the current Board. Its latest filing highlights salary and bonus for some Board members. Camac is drumming up support for a special meeting; but needs 25% of shareholders to request one.
June 6, 2019:
    Lehmans Solutions for a simpler life has interviews with homesteaders, cooks, gardeners and employees will help you take the next step on your journey to a simpler life. (Evergreen Podcasts / Libsyn)
May 30, 2019:
May 29, 2019:
May 28, 2019:
May 27, 2019:
May 24, 2019:
May 23, 2019:
    The folks behind The Nightcap built a studio above a famous restaurant in Stratford Upon Avon, England, and invited the top chefs in the country to come and... have a nightcap. (Big Bertha Productions / Libsyn)
May 22, 2019:
    Clusterf*cked is a brand new US political podcast that makes the point that liberals are too clustered together, and talks to "people in places that aren’t blue." Its first guest is Chief Political Analyst at ABC News, Matthew Dowd. (Libsyn)
May 21, 2019:
    The largest independent podcast host Libsyn has released its Q1 earnings report. Libsyn's podcast revenue increased by 16% to $3.3m (and, including Pair Networks, the company got $6.28m in revenue, up 24% year-on-year). Libsyn now hosts 62,000 shows (and 4.9m media files); it claims it's responsible for around 35% of the Apple Podcasts top 200, and delivered over 5.1 billion downloads in 2018.
May 20, 2019:
May 17, 2019:
    Veteran podcast executive Rob Greenlee has joined Libsyn as Vice President of Content and Partnerships. He'll report to Laurie Sims, President of Libsyn, and will work with Rob Walch to further the company’s relationships with podcast producers and develop industry partnerships. He's previously worked for Spreaker and Voxnest; and has also worked at PodcastOne and within Microsoft's Zune division.
May 16, 2019:
    Civilized is a brand new dark comedy podcast from Sean Howard and Eli McIlveen, the makers of Alba Salix, Royal Physician. A full-cast, immersive audio fiction series, it's an improvised podcast using seasoned members of Hamilton ON's improv scene. (Libsyn)
May 14, 2019:
    The Talkhouse Podcast has just celebrated their 250th edition, where musicians, actors, filmmakers, and others speak one-on-one with their peers. The 250th edition was a special Mothers Day episode, featuring eleven artists. (Libsyn)
May 10, 2019:
    After the fact is currently in the middle of a four-part series about today's American family. (Pew Charitable Trusts/Libsyn)
May 9, 2019:
    The Podcast Engineering Show has a long interview with our Editor, James Cridland, including plenty of technical discussion about microphones and LUFS. Lucky you. (Libsyn)
May 2, 2019:
    Latina to Latina is celebrating 100,000 downloads. “We have been so moved by how strongly the show has been embraced by Latinas and their friends,” says Exec Producer Juleyka Lantigua-Williams. (Lantigua-Williams & Co, Libsyn)
May 1, 2019:
    Persistence 360° is hosted by comedian Mark Malkoff, talking to people for whom persistence paid off. “A lot of times we don’t hear the struggles that come with these success stories,” he says. “I’ve walked away from these interviews inspired as well as practical tips to help me get to the next level of my own personal goals.” (Libsyn)
April 30, 2019:
    Spotify paid €50m (US$55m) for Parcast, their financial results say. More than 50,000 shows have been submitted through their podcast portal - and there are 250,000 podcasts in their system overall (the differences being Anchor's catalogue, presumably, as well as automated API-driven submissions from partner hosts like Libsyn or Omny Studio). Apple has over 700,000.
April 29, 2019:
    "There is simply no excuse for the current state of Libsyn", says a shareholder of Libsyn, Camac Partners, which is demanding all four existing directors of the company are removed to "bring needed discipline to Libsyn and an unwavering commitment to stockholder value". They have suggested five new directors - four of whom only have a financial background; the other has just launched a new podcast onto Luminary.
April 24, 2019:
    Libsyn's The Feed usually contains some nice stats. In the latest show, for March, 62% of Libsyn's podcasts were downloaded from Apple Podcasts; 9.6% from Spotify, and 2.8% from Overcast (with Google Podcasts at #8, with 1.2%). (Fewer than 40% of Libsyn shows are available on Spotify).
April 23, 2019:
April 17, 2019:
    What Was That Like is a conversation with someone who has found themselves in an extremely unusual situation. Previous episodes feature people who survived a mass shooting, prevented a kidnapping, or caused a fatal accident. What was that like? (Libsyn)
March 27, 2019:
    The Nocturnists is a live show (see above) where health professionals tell stories from the world of medicine. The first episode of season two came out yesterday; based in San Francisco, it records on both US coasts. (Libsyn)
March 25, 2019:
    Catholic Sports Radio - not always three words that go together, but long-time podcaster Bruce Wawrzyniak describes it as "content for ongoing reflection for daily life". (Libsyn)
March 19, 2019:
    In a statement, Libsyn says its podcasting revenue grew by 30%, and in total the company earned double the amount of revenue year on year: earning over US $22m. The company has $11m in the bank. Congratulations to them. (Cough)
March 11, 2019:
    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.
March 1, 2019:
February 27, 2019:
    How to be less awkward, a podcast from Laura Merli and a guest, generally a fellow comedian, revealing their most awkward encounters, is back for a new series. The description tells us it's "cringeworthy, heartwarming, and hilarious". (Libsyn)
February 26, 2019:
    Podrunner is a workout music podcast, celebrating thirteen years as a podcast this week. The podcast has won many awards during the past thirteen years, and is currently in the charts in many different countries. The current episode is an hour of mixes at 154 BPM, which we listened to at our desk and still felt exhausted. (Libsyn)
February 21, 2019:
    What podcast apps are Libsyn podcasts being consumed on? Stats from Libsyn's The Feed podcast, related to all podcasts downloaded on the platform, are shown above for December 2018. (We wrote these down for a presentation: but thought we'd also share them here.)
February 12, 2019:
February 7, 2019:
    Should you use 44.1kHz or 48kHz sample rate for your podcast? Allan Tépper has launched the 48kHz Alliance, giving reasons why he feels 48kHz is preferable, and taking Libsyn's Rob Walch to task for a statement he made in The Feed. (Our podcast technical analytics measure the samplerate of recent podcasts).
February 4, 2019:
    The Family Tree returns for its final season. A piece of audio fiction presented as true, the majority of the action happens off-mic, spanning comedy, tragedy, adventure and interpersonal drama. If listening for the first time, you might want to go back to the first season, as a press release makes clear. (Libsyn)
February 1, 2019:
    Pew's After the Fact is two years old today, and celebrating 47 episodes and 85 guests. The podcast features nonpartisan analysis, with numbers and trends about society’s biggest challenges. (Libsyn)
January 30, 2019:
    The latest episode of Chartable Radio has, as a guest, the Editor of Podnews, James Cridland. If you fancy thirty minutes of an "aloof British accent", knock yourself out. (Tech note: recorded using CleanFeed). (Libsyn)
January 28, 2019:
    Meet your Maker returns for a fourth season next week. Focusing on the stories behind the creation of all manner of culture, Liam Geraghty returns with his New York Festivals Radio Award nominated podcast; and will feature guests such as American cartoonist Chris Ware, Oscar nominated filmmaker Nora Twomey, Senior Conservator at the Chester Beatty Library Kristine Rose-Beers and video game maker David O'Reilly. (Libsyn)
January 21, 2019:
    Dave Hill's Podcasting Incident says "If you like podcasts and/or the Internet in general, you will really like this podcast because it is pretty much the greatest of all-time." In the latest episode, an interview with comedian and former America’s Next Top Model contestant Sarah Hartshorne. (Libsyn)
January 8, 2019:
    David Siteman Garland, a "million dollar business owner", is interviewed about his podcast The rise to the top. "Creating a podcast is relatively easy, when you know what to do. Building a profitable laser-focused business? Much harder." (Libsyn)
January 3, 2019:
    IAB Certification update: Whooshkaa lets us know that they, too, are in the process of attaining IAB Certification. They join Simplecast, Voxnest/Spreaker, Megaphone, Libsyn, Omny Studio, and ART19. Blubrry and NPR are already there.
January 2, 2019:
    OZY Confidential promises "raw, rant-o-riffic crosstalk from the edge", hosted by Eugene S. Robinson, who "gets heavy, deep and real with everyone from a world renowned Nietzsche scholar who left behind a PhD for life as a crack whore, to Boston Irish Mafia's Kevin Weeks." It launches on January 14th. (Libsyn)
December 31, 2018:
    Simplecast is in the process of attaining IAB Certification. They join Voxnest/Spreaker, Megaphone, Libsyn, Omny Studio, and ART19. With Blubrry and NPR having already achieved it, that's over a quarter of a million dollars that the IAB has earnt so far from certification. Cough
December 28, 2018:
    Omny Studio has indicated it is applying for IAB Certification. They join Voxnest/Spreaker, Megaphone, Libsyn, and ART19.
December 24, 2018:
    ART19 has told Podnews that it, too, is working towards IAB Certification. They join the previously reported Voxnest/Spreaker, Megaphone and Libsyn. (Any more?)
December 20, 2018:
    Libsyn have confirmed that they aim to achieve IAB Certification. They'd join Blubrry and NPR, who were the first to get the accolade earlier this week.
December 6, 2018:
    You can now binge the full first season of The Sugar Baby Confessionals, focusing on Ruby, a self-confessed "sugar baby". The podcast is "thought-provoking, charming, funny and candid" according to reviews. (Fable Gazers / Libsyn)
December 3, 2018:
November 30, 2018:
November 27, 2018:
    Chartable Radio is a new podcast that discusses charts and podcast statistics. (Libsyn)
November 15, 2018:
    Podcast app Pocket Casts have unveiled an entirely redesigned app for iOS, Android and the web (including new macOS and Windows apps). Highlights include a brand-new 'discover' section which is geo-aware, listening history, and more. The iOS version is available now; the Android version is in opt-in public beta; there is coverage in The Verge and CNet Libsyn report Pocket Casts was the #7 podcast app in September, with 1.42% of all downloads; Anchor suggests it's the #5 app, with 0.9%; it's based in Adelaide in Australia, but owned by a consortium of US public radio broadcasters.
November 14, 2018:
    Libsyn appear to be the only host available to independent podcasters that is included in Pandora's launch offering. Libsyn calls this an "exclusive" partnership, and has announced that Libsyn customers should email their VP of Podcast Relations Rob Walch - rob@libsyn.com - if you want your show to be listed on Pandora. Speaking on a special episode of the company's podcast, Walch said that initially there are 420 shows from Libsyn available in Pandora, and that this "is a really good day for podcasting".
November 13, 2018:
    Spotify, which is the #2 podcast platform according to Anchor and Libsyn, is testing shareable podcast playlists. A test has been seen by My Spotify Ideas which allows users to share individual podcast episodes (and, like all playlists, ask for the entire playlist to be downloaded). The test has disappeared.
October 31, 2018:
    A Scottish Podcast returns for a second season. It's an audio drama about a washed-up DJ who launches a paranormal investigation podcast. (Jester's Baffies Productions / Libsyn)
October 30, 2018:
October 26, 2018:
    Earbud Theater's latest release, "Tales from the dead of night", is a 'creepshow style anthology perfect for the Halloween season'. (Libsyn)
October 18, 2018:
October 15, 2018:
    Grumpy Old Geeks is celebrating five years online by shifting from a weekly podcast to having two episodes every week. It's hosted by Jason DeFillippo and Brian Schulmeister. (Libsyn)
October 12, 2018:
October 9, 2018:
    The Sicario Effect focuses on Jhon Jairo Velasquez Vasquez, alias “Popeye”, who was Pablo Escobar’s trusted lieutenant and chief sicario (assassin): killer of at least 300 people and now... a social media star. (Exclave Media / Libsyn)
October 5, 2018:
    Podcasts have been disappearing from Apple Podcasts - kind of. Many publishers are reporting that iTunes, and the Apple Podcasts app, showed no episodes at all for certain podcasts. Subscribers continued getting the episodes, though - with Apple, when you subscribe to a podcast, your app pulls the RSS feed directly from the publisher rather than Apple's copy. Libsyn report that Apple has fixed it.
October 4, 2018:
    Libsyn has a new status page for its customers, showing whether there are any outages on the service.
October 2, 2018:
September 25, 2018:
    Glenn Gould's Chair is a new Canadian podcast about the eccentric pianist, who always used a special seat while playing. (Ludwig Van / Libsyn)
September 20, 2018:
September 18, 2018:
    Many people fall asleep to podcasts: Sleepy is specifically designed to help you do that. Otis Gray tells me "Sleepy is now downloaded in over 50 countries, with downloads increasing by 43% each month." He also points to lots of grateful listeners, for whom the podcast is a vital part of their sleepytime. Zzzzzz. (Libsyn)
September 17, 2018:
    SAPIENS: A podcast for everything human is a podcast at the intersection of science and storytelling. The producers take one question about the human experience per episode, and answer it using anthropology. (House of Pod / Libsyn)
September 12, 2018:
September 5, 2018:
August 29, 2018:
    What is really the top hosting service? After feedback, Chartable have re-examined their numbers in an illuminating blog post. Of note: just 2.8% of podcasts are measured by Podtrac; Libsyn is hosting 28.2% of top podcasts, and Anchor is easily the most popular host over the last six months - even limiting it to podcasts with more than ten episodes.
August 27, 2018:
    Fired Up! is an "inspirational and funny" podcast with "high profile people from a variety of walks of life who have been fired or faced a downturn, and managed to turn things around to achieve greatness". (Cascade Media, Libsyn)
August 24, 2018:
    There might be about 540,000 shows in Apple Podcasts, but they're not all active. In fact, according to Todd Cochrane from Blubrry, 75% of podcast [shows] are no longer in production, he tells Stephen Goldstein - a phenomenon known as "podfade". Separately, Chartable's hosting data suggests only 16% of podcasts on the free podcast host Anchor have published more than 9 episodes: that figure rises to 77% of podcasts hosted on the paid platform Libsyn. (Anchor is considerably younger, of course.)
August 23, 2018:
August 22, 2018:
    Caution: The data, in many places, confuses "top RSS feed hosting platforms" with the audio hosting platform. As an example: the RSS feed for NPR's Up First is hosted by npr·org, but as we note on that page, the audio is hosted by Triton Digital; npr·org is not the "podcast host". Chartable say they are re-running the dataset and will post updated numbers in the next twenty-four hours. Expect Libsyn and Blubrry, who host audio and also offer tools for third-party RSS feed generation, to appear higher in the revised figures.
August 14, 2018:
    Followup - in November 2017, we reported that much of New & Noteworthy was broken within many iTunes country categories. At the time, we noted that the Business category in Australia consisted of podcasts added in Q1 2016, and hadn't been updated since then. Nine months later... nothing appears to have changed. Every single podcast in the category appears to have started two and a half years ago; of the twenty podcasts in this category, eight haven't posted a new episode in the last six months. (Meanwhile, Apple Podcasts Connect is still reportedly unusable for many podcasters).
August 7, 2018:
July 30, 2018:
    Podcast host Libsyn have published video of all of their talks at Podcast Movement.
July 25, 2018:
    AdsWizz has launched a podcast platform partnership program with a set of podcast hosts including Blubrry, Libsyn, Voxnest, StreamGuys and EmpireStreaming. The program offers 'massively accelerated revenue growth' to podcasters on those platforms.
June 18, 2018:
    Spotify is adding new shows to their system again, and working through a large backlog, including 2,500 shows from Libsyn alone. They suspended new submissions in early May while they retooled their podcast service.
June 12, 2018:
    A correction from yesterday: Libsyn's Rob Walch gave some interesting stats about average downloads, but your Editor has cloth ears and got the numbers wrong. Thanks to Justin from Transistor, here's a transcript:
June 8, 2018:
May 31, 2018:
    Omny Studio tell us that they are planning to roll out an automated tool that will automatically help migrate any of their customers' HTTP feeds to HTTPS. (They already support it, and it's default for new podcasts). Libsyn support https links (just 'add the s'), but they're also working on automatic migration.
May 30, 2018:
    Some stats from Libsyn-hosted podcasts, from their podcast The Feed (ep 120) for the month of April:
May 25, 2018:
May 11, 2018:
April 17, 2018:
    Spotify are doing some behind-the-scenes work on their podcast platform. Libsyn warns of delays in new shows. (We're on Spotify with a special weekly version of our podcast).
April 13, 2018:
    LibSyn's The Feed ep 177 was out last week. From the stats section: 1,432 is the sensibly-adjusted average episode download figure for downloads. 6.9% of all downloads have 5,000 downloads or more. Spotify is up again: 5.75% of all downloads. Tip: the show notes let you skip in this 90-minute podcast.
April 9, 2018:
February 21, 2018:
    Spotify are going to launch their own speaker hardware, according to a job ad, at least. (They're the second-most popular way of getting podcasts, according to Libsyn.)
February 20, 2018:
    In December, Libsyn said that Apple Podcasts accounted for 60.8% of all podcast downloads. Only iOS 11 devices - 65% of all active iOS devices - contribute to the Podcast Analytics (and the latest iTunes). Apple's Podcast Analytics therefore may only represent 39.5% of your total traffic.
February 5, 2018:
January 8, 2018:
January 4, 2018:
    Podcast host Libsyn, properly known as Liberated Syndication Inc, has purchased web hosting company Pair Networks. Some data points in the announcement: "In 2016, Libsyn delivered over 4.59 Billion downloads. We host over 3.2 Million media files for more than 35,000 podcasts, including typically around 35% of the top 200 podcasts in iTunes." Both companies are based in Pittsburgh PA, USA.
January 3, 2018:
    Sweden: a switch by Libsyn to use IAB-approved analytics meant that the figures for the largest podcast in the country, by Alex Schulman and Sigge Eklund, went down by 38% according to Swedish site Breakit. "Both the 750,000 and the 650,000 download number are grossly incorrect, Breakit can reveal," it said in a story from November 23. Sweden have already fixed this: they have a national weekly podcast data portal using IAB podcast measurement standards as we reported on November 20.
January 2, 2018:
    Two podcast hosts have looked back at their year's releases and activity - BluBrry and LibSyn.
December 15, 2017:
    "We found a lot of discrepancies between Apple's stats and our Libsyn stats for Apple users" says one commenter in a Facebook group.
December 6, 2017:
November 21, 2017:
    A Libsyn webinar on YouTube, including explanation of the change in stats with LibSyn (describing some of their previous stats as 'buggy'). Some podcasters are seeing over 50% smaller stats, it transpires. From 31 minutes in, some actual stats (using the new methodology): 50% of podcast episodes in September got less than 162 downloads; 80% mobile; 5.3 iOS downloads to every one Android download. Lots more in here. From 49 minutes in, how to talk to advertisers about the falling stats. From 54 minutes, their dashboard. You could criticise Libsyn for previously wildly inaccurate stats with no filtering at all; or commend them for trying to put it right even if it meant them losing customers; both are probably valid viewpoints.
September 26, 2017:
    UK presenter Geoff Lloyd launches a new podcast with former Labour leader Ed Miliband: Reasons to be cheerful. Episode 1 looks at universal bonus income.
September 20, 2017:
    Libsyn plan to overhaul their podcasting stats to comply with IAB guidelines. "There is no easy way to tell our customers that they will see a decrease in the download numbers they have worked to grow."
June 22, 2017:
    Poynter shares ideas of what Apple's new stats could mean for discovery - assuming Apple opens up the data. They're great ideas. Not sure Apple nor many podcast makers want this data to be quite as visible as these ideas would need. (That said, people like Omny Studio or Libsyn could do this.)

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