UK - 92 percent of podcasts are listened-to alone

• RAJAR, the UK audio measurement company, has published the latest edition of their MIDAS study for summer 2019, which claims 16% of UK adults listen to podcasts weekly. That figure increases to 26% of 15-24 year-olds. The data also says that 92% of all listening to podcasts is done alone: that figure compares with just 54% of live radio. The numbers aren’t directly comparable with the Edison Research data seen in other countries.

• It’s now day six without any categories in Apple Podcasts apps while the company reworks them. Omny Studio and Zencast has both announced that they are supporting the new Apple Podcasts categories. Pocket Casts say it intends to support them and suggest publishers adopt them. “Apple’s leadership in the space is still meaningful and the [new] categories do feel like a good step,” the CEO Owen Grover told us.

  
  Aug 15 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Podcast app Overcast was updated last week. You can now share up to 90 seconds of a podcast on social media, and it features a better recommendation engine (which no longer uses Twitter).

  • Tip: if your listeners 'star’ your podcast in Overcast, it will appear higher in the recommendation results (if you serve dynamic content, here’s the Overcast user-agent to tell your Overcast listeners); and if you take a break of a few months, your podcast will disappear altogether from recommendations until you return.

• Amazon Prime has cancelled Lore after two seasons.

• CNBC Africa focused on the growth of podcasts in the continent, with an interview with Breaking Silences co-host Dominique Alonga.

  
  Aug 15 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
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• PodTales, a “festival of audio drama and fiction podcasting”, returns to Cambridge MA, USA on October 20th. It’ll be a free event, and promises to bring together fiction podcasters for panel discussions, workshops, and guest spotlights.

• Podnews podcast pages now include ratings from Podchaser, as well as styling work. Here’s Hello from the Magic Tavern for you to enjoy.

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Thank you to the Global Story Network - the world’s new home for great storytelling - for becoming our most recent corporate supporter. Human connection starts with a story, they say. Be like them.

Opinion

• How many podcasts will be downloaded by Australians in 2019? Courtney Carthy works out it’ll be 780m. He went on to post about what that means for potential revenue in the country:

  Arguably this is another example of podcasts in 2019 being like the internet 20 years ago. Not because it’s in a bubble, but because it hasn’t figured out ways to make money that are also valuable to audiences.

• Justin Lake says that the golden age of podcasts is coming to an end.

  When big money is at stake, history has taught us that what is best for the consumer almost always takes a backseat to what’s best for the media company.

Podcasts

Timestorm, a podcast selected for the initial PRX Google Podcasts creator program, launches this week. It’s an audio fiction podcast with two twelve year-old twins who travel through time to save Puerto Rico’s true history. (Cocotazo Media)

News doesn’t have to be miserable and negative. In Happier News is a weekly roundup of positive and happier news stories, from a TV news reporter who spent years reporting the negative. (Anchor)

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)