Acast reaffirms commitment to open podcasting

• Acast UK shared stats and data from their 2020. They now have more than 60m UK monthly listens, and saw a 184% growth in UK brands spending more than £100,000 ($178,000). CEO Ross Adams also reaffirmed the company’s commitment to an open podcasting ecosystem.

Open podcasting is the bedrock of which the entire podcasting industry was built. It’s an ecosystem that allows content creators to share their work with listeners everywhere … we don’t believe that podcasters, listeners and advertisers should be tied to a single platform, because being open is the only sustainable way to build our podcasters and an engaged, consistent audience that is attractive to advertisers. - Ross Adams, CEO, Acast

• Seems someone agrees: The Joe Rogan Experience has started posting clips of shows on its old, open RSS feed. Currently, a clip from a recent Elon Musk interview ends with a 40 second promotion for Spotify at the end, voiced by Rogan. The show went exclusive on Spotify on Dec 1.

• Podcast listeners in the Middle East and North Africa are listening to more podcasts, a new report from Amaeya Media says. Listeners “continue to prefer shorter podcasts”, says the survey.

• Recommended: YouTuber Tom Scott posts a thirty-minute video called YouTubers have to declare ads. Why doesn’t anyone else? He doesn’t - but could - highlight branded podcasts.

• Clubhouse users might be sending raw audio and user data to the Chinese government, it’s been claimed. The app uses a Chinese company, Agora, for their voice conferencing service: that company denies there’s an issue.

• Gary Aylott has joined podcast host Captivate as the company’s Head of Design.

  
  Sep 1 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• The next newsletter from Sounds Profitable tomorrow, sponsored by Chartable, is a hands-on explainer of how dynamic ad insertion works. We’d have published today, but someone turned all the power off in Texas… ☃️

  
  Sep 1 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Tips and tricks - with PODGO

• How to Write a Podcast Business Plan (& Why You Should!) (The Podcast Host)

• How I make Grumpy Old Geeks - Jason DeFillippo takes us how he makes a podcast that has had 494 episodes so far and “a few million downloads”.

Podcast News - with CBC Podcasts

From CBC Podcasts: Mic Drop Tweens and teens sharing their mood-swinging, dream-chasing, rule-breaking dramas, adventures and experiences - with no adult interruptions.

For All Mankind: The Official Podcast is a new podcast from Apple, as an accompaniment to the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind. Apple’s press release says “available globally on Apple Podcasts and via RSS”, which is one way of acknowledging that other platforms exist; however, the show isn’t on Spotify.

The YUNGBLUD podcast has the biggest proportion of under-35 listeners on the BBC Sounds app, it’s been revealed. The app claims 130m plays for on-demand radio and podcasts in Q4 2020.