Acast makes noise on NASDAQ Stockholm

• Acast started trading on NASDAQ Stockholm today. Celebrating today: Marianne Boström, Chief People Officer; Lizzy Pollott, Chief Communications & Brand Officer; Emily Villatte, CFO; Greg Glenday, CEO; Daniel Adrian, General Counsel. The shares are currently down about -1.75%, but year-on-year the Acast share price has more than doubled, up +105.33%.

• RSS.com has launched free podcast hosting. Made for local & niche podcasters, the free plan offers unlimited episodes and unlimited audio, and analytics, including episode-by-episode analytics, for up to 90 days. Paid users get access to transcripts, programmatic ads, and YouTube posting. (Podnews’s Editor is an advisor).

• Riverside announced the launch of its podcast hosting product, which we covered in August. As we noted then, the service offers no support for transcripts or for direct Spotify video uploads. Podcast hosting, for one show per account, is included in all plans.

  • We’ve a full interview with Kendall Brietman in this week’s Podnews Weekly Review, tomorrow.

• Spotify expanded its Spotify Partner Program to the Nordic countries. Now, audio and video creators in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland can participate. It also means that creators in the program elsewhere will begin earning from views in those countries, too, which have a combined population of 22.6mn people - the same population as Florida, except not the same at all.

  • The program also expanded to Monaco. It is a) the second-smallest country in the world, b) a place where your Editor has been, and c) a place with no Podnews readers in it so who cares

• The winners of the New Zealand Podcast Awards were announced. Podcast of the year went to Kelly Tarlton’s Final Treasure Hunt from RNZ. As ever, we have a full list of the winners for your podcast app.

• A new audio awards have been announced in Australia. The Australian Audio Awards will take place in Sydney on May 28. Operated by Mumbrella, Radioinfo and RadioToday, the awards will recognise both radio and podcasts.

  • The Australian Podcast Awards last took place in 2024. Owned by Haymarket, the website hasn’t been updated since with new information.

• “AI-generated video is set to become an increasingly viable route to visualising podcast audio.” Dan Taylor-Watt, a UK media executive and former BBC manager, examines AI video generation used in three recent podcasts.

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Podcast News

The latest episode of The Hart Of It All with Teri Hart — a podcast about navigating the realities of caregiving — welcomes the show’s first celebrity guest: Canadian comedy legend Gerry Dee! He comes to chat about his experience as a caregiver for his 92-year-old father. Honest and funny, this is Gerry Dee like you’ve never seen him.

The newsletter that 4.5mn people start their day with just launched a podcast, and it’s tackling the questions you didn’t know you needed answered. 1440 Explores is a sonic encyclopedia for the insatiably curious. Each episode delivers essential knowledge on fascinating topics, weaving history, science, and insight from leading experts to help you make sense of the world. You’ll explore mysteries of the mind and forces shaping society—recent episodes cover why people see ghosts, how one bank changed spending habits overnight, and why humans learned to love alcohol. It’s curiosity-driven learning, with zero fluff.

The Management Meets PODCAST from the University of Bath is back for Season 4 and this time they are going international. Join Steve and Katie on a world tour, meeting graduates across the globe leading change and innovation in their industries. From motorsport to high-end fashion, listen along and join us on our journey to celebrate the international impact of the School of Management community.