A new way to manipulate the Apple Podcast Charts

Another day, another new way of manipulating the Apple Podcast Charts (see examples from May 13 and May 16). Airtasker, an Australian tasks-based website similar to TaskRabbit, currently carries this ad - and many others similar:

I’m looking for 6-12 people for this task. This will involve going to the Apple retail (physical) store and subscribing to a podcast on the iPhones and iPads on display to improve my podcast rankings. In total you should do 35 devices and this will take 15 mins. - screenshot

The price being paid for this task is AUD$15 (US$12). The poster is “Darren H”, a podcaster from North Adelaide, who has made at least ten different tasks, all for Thursday 24th May. That’s tomorrow. Might be interesting to watch the (Aussie) charts…

• In The Word from Mouth this week: a call for podcasters to connect, why mindshare and community amongst podcasters is important, an interview with “Jemmy” Legagneur of the “Finding Florida” podcast and making a show more about the listeners and as a jumping off point for a network.

• A UK journalism website profiles Today, Explained from Vox. “There’s a lot less formality than there was at the beginning,” says Sean Rameswaram.

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• The owner of PodcastChart is selling the domain, and gifting associated social media handles. The owner, a broadcast media professional, says that the domain has, with the right execution, the potential of delivering global authority.

• Bullhorn is a new podcast app with an interesting twist: you can listen to podcasts on a phone call, rather than paying to use data. An amount of free minutes are normally included with many phone plans. The developer has posted on Reddit looking for beta testers.

  
  Aug 2 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Overcast developer Marco Arment tweets about Castro’s new release (which includes silence detection), saying “I actually want and need Castro and other podcast players to succeed. My goal of keeping podcasting open requires diversity among player apps: so many apps, all built on open podcasting, that producers can’t ignore or control them all.”

• New podcasts:

  • A new podcast from KCRW and David Weinberg: Welcome to LA
  • Parcast debut Great Women of Business, stories of business savvy women who battled sexism all the way to the executive suite.

• Listicle corner: 7 strategies for building a strong podcast community (We Edit Podcasts); the best tech podcasts to listen to right now (Uproxx)