Donating to podcasts via an Amazon Alexa smart speaker; over 5,000 entries for podcast competition

“Alexa - donate to my favourite podcast.” KUOW and NPR are working on a way to use Amazon Alexa voice assistants to donate money to podcasters or public radio. Notable: 25% of KUOW’s live streaming is through Alexa.

• Amazon is also experimenting, for their third-party sellers, with “podcasting as a method to deliver updates, selling tips, and interviews with Sellers, Amazon partners, and Amazon employees”, according to an email received by one Amazon Marketplace seller.

• On May 2 we covered Gimlet and Squarespace’s US competition to “look for podcasting’s next star”. AdWeek reports that they had over 5,000 entries.

• When making the Podnews podcast, we use Hindenberg Journalist Pro to edit and mix it. Built for busy journalists, it frees you up from the tedious stuff, so it’s super-simple to make great-sounding audio. We’ve been recommending it for a while, but they’re now offering Podnews readers a 90-day trial and discount and they’ll start advertising this with us soon. We’re not on commission - we just really like it.

• RadioPublic has launched Android Auto support. The company’s equity crowdfunding campaign that we reported June 22 is currently 307% funded.

  
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• Stats from Germany: 22% are tuning into podcasts “now and then”; that figure is up from 14% in 2016. It looks like a monthly figure, though that’s not explicit in the article. Coverage in English.

• Podchaser has added custom lists to its service, so you can share lists of your favourite podcasts. We’re also told that they’ll be taking professional headshots at their Podcast Movement booth.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 3 2023

• HotPod 168 is out, covering Crooked Media’s The Wilderness, the Washington Post’s dynamic ad insertion (“I can’t say that I like this”), and Maximum Fun’s Bubble.

• An article looking back at the start of (art) podcasting in France.

• A new podcasting tool, currently in beta: Synth. “Synth transforms podcasting into tiny, 2 minute threadable pieces that are conversational, embeddable and playable back-to-back.” (See also the original Anchor and the original Audioboo.)