Acast buys Podchaser for $34m

• Acast is to acquire Podchaser, the “world’s most comprehensive and authoritative podcast database” in a deal worth $34m. Podchaser, which is expected to make a profit next year, will continue to operate as a separate brand: it contains data of more than 4.5m million podcasts, including advertising information. The integration will bring additional data to Acast’s advertisers.

• BBC Sounds saw an increase of 23% of “UK plays of radio, music and podcasts”, up to 1.5bn, in 2021/22 (page 33 of the Annual Report). Total weekly users increased by 8% to 3.8m, but the number of 16-34 year-olds using it decreased slightly to 570,000 per week. No figures for podcast consumption were given. Our Editor has looked more closely at the data in his personal newsletter.

  • The app appears to be listing some third party content. It’s also added variable-speed playback for iOS users last week; we’re told it’s rolling out on Android, too.

• 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.

• In Australia? Got time to huddle under the doona and fill out a survey? A group looking to create a guide to fair pay standards across the Australian podcasting industry has created a survey to find out more about Aussie podcaster working conditions. Could you fill it in and share it with a mate or two?

• In the UK, Podcast Radio is to launch a brand extension, Podcast Radio Business.

• The Future Hindsight podcast has a new website and new logo illustration.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• The podcast:socialInteract tag has been finalised in the new podcast namespace. It allows a podcaster to attach a link to a “root post” of a conversation, on somewhere like Twitter, Mastodon, or other places. It also allows podcasters to opt out of public comments.

  • Podnews’s RSS feed has links to a lightning comments feed, and to Twitter, should you wish to try it out.

• Open podcast app AntennaPod is celebrating its 10 year anniversary, and would like to invite past, current and future users to celebrate this Friday in a virtual meetup.

• The Podcast Index’s weekly data dump will shortly contain categories and podcast descriptions (up to a character limit).

• Interestingly, Anchor appears to have slowed in growth. Our page which measures podcasters switching their shows appears to show the number of podcasters leaving Anchor is almost as high as those joining the podcast platform.

Moves and hires

• Kenzi Wilbur has been hired by SALT as VP of Partnerships and Development. She joins from Luminary.

• Rob Adler also joins SALT as Head of Post Production. He joins from Spotify.

Tips and tricks - with Podscribe

• How to add your podcast to every podcast directory out there (unless, of course, you know better!)

• How do they make The Piketon Massacre?

Podcast News - with Pushkin Industries

From Pushkin: In A Slight Change of Plans, Maya Shankar blends compassionate storytelling with the science of human behavior to help us understand who we are and who we become in the face of a big change. The upcoming season, launching Oct 3, will feature incredible stories of change from people like Ruby Bridges, Jason Isbell, Lucy Kalanithi and Florence Williams.

Laurie Hood’s Difference Makers returns for a new season, interviewing people who have dedicated their lives to animal protection and safety. The goal of the podcast series is to dramatically reduce the need for rescue and refuge.

African Folktales with Miss Jo Jo has returned for a new season. The Webby Award-winning multicultural children’s podcast, produced by ABF Creative and hosted by Heidi Kwiat, is back for a new season, this time also exploring folktales from Haiti and Jamaica.

Podcast ads in the wild

Is a big billboard in London’s entertainment capital, Leicester Square, what it takes to reach #1 in the Spotify charts? It seemed to work for Spotify’s Partners in Crime: hosted by Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling, uncovering the most infamous, bizarre and fascinating cases in true crime history. “By day, they are partners in life. By night, they are partners in crime.”

Advertising for podcasts help grow the whole medium - so if you’ve spotted any (or responsible for some), just hit reply and send us a nice picture.