Another podcast accused of copying

• Another accusation of plagiarism has surfaced. Josh Levin, Slate’s National Editor, has accused improv podcast The Dollop of lifting an article he’d written about welfare fraudster Linda Taylor over three years previously. His thread covers other accusations against the podcast team.

  • Opinion: This is not a podcasting problem. This is a media problem. Watch this, read this, or this.

• 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.

• New figures for smart speaker sales have been released. Amazon appears to be the leader; Baidu is the #2 most popular smart speaker, despite only being available in China. Google is #3. (The figures include separate smart speakers only, rather than Google Assistant-enabled devices).

• US broadcaster Westwood One have also released data about smart speakers

• A British football website highlights the growing podcast coverage of the sport, arguing that as television declines, podcasting and radio is keeping interest in the sport alive.

• The county commissioners in Shelby County TN, USA, are spending $110,000 on production and marketing of two podcasts, claims a news story. The podcasts are an attempt to reach tax payers.

  
  Aug 16 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Ken Lagana has been announced as Entercom’s Executive VP of Digital Sales, looking after Entercom’s podcasting and radio·com business. He joins from Megaphone. The US broadcaster bought Cadence13 and Pineapple Street earlier this month.

• The Podcast Host reviews Captivate, a growth-oriented podcast host, and seem to give it a good bill of health. (Disclosures)

Podcast Revenue

• Barstool Sports say that podcasts now form about a third of the company’s revenue.
• PodcastOne Australia is “expected to reach cashflow breakeven in the second half of 2020” according to owner Southern Cross Austereo.
• Listeners are awash in free content, but podcasters face likely trouble ahead if the growing industry stays hooked on ad revenue, claims WSJ columnist John D Stoll. (His paper produces seven free podcasts, supported by ad revenue.)

Podcasts

Spreaker Prime: Jay + Jack Productions produce a number of podcasts as accompaniments to TV shows. The Leftovers looks at the HBO series, as one example. They use Spreaker Prime to earn money and save on their hosting costs.

Adult ISH returns for season 2 - the culture and advice podcast for young and young-at-heart listeners returns with candid discussions about birth control, sexual health and why it’s important to know your medical rights in the #MeToo era. (YR Media / Radiotopia)

The Queen is the story of the welfare fraudster Linda Taylor mentioned above. (Slate / Megaphone)