Amazon turns social audio up to 11

• Amazon has released Amp, a “live radio app” seen as their version of Clubhouse or TwitterSpaces. It’s available in the US for iOS users only in a waitlist; it’ll enable you to DJ your own music show (with “tens of millions of licensed songs” they say), and you can take callers, too. Amp’s website is live, and you can download the app to join the waitlist (although we’re told one code that works is twitter but we suspect it won’t work for long). You don’t have to use music; you could use the tool for a Clubhouse-like experience too; the app will alert your followers to upcoming shows. Guy Raz is doing a show for it; so is Nicki Minaj.

• Written by Shreya Sharma and Caila Litman, and guest-edited by Mignon Fogarty, Sounds Profitable with Claritas this week gives sage advice from the women building the podcast industry (también en español). Making the podcast industry more vibrant, inclusive and accessible to women and other historically disenfranchised voices, the article has quotes and a list of people to watch.

• Gumball has raised $10 million to expand its podcasting host-read advertising platform. The company was built by the team behind the Headgum Podcast Network.

• Spanish-language podcast platform iVoox says that 43% of all the podcasts created in 2021 were created by women.

• Radiodays Europe, in Malmö, Sweden, this May, has announced a Podcast Summit as a pre-conference event. Speakers haven’t yet been announced, but we can exclusively tell you Rob Greenlee from Libsyn is one of those speakers; and the summit will be moderated by James Cridland, Podnews’s Editor.

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• How much should you pay for that podcast deal? UTA has launched a data analytics service called AudioIQ, to help value podcast companies. It uses “analytics compiled from categories including social media, search and other propriety (sic) data gleaned from open source data”. It offers future projections for shows that are not yet launched. (UTA represents podcast companies in deal-making).

• Podsights has unveiled a website redesign. Here’s what’s changed for publishers and brands - we hope you like flourescent colours.

• Podcasts now make up a quarter of all time-listening on smart speakers, according to Edison Research’s Share of Ear study. Cumulus Media and WestwoodOne’s Audio Active Group has released its analysis on the latest data.

  
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• The Hollywood Reporter covers the booming business of kids’ podcasting.

• Podetize, the “largest podcast production company in the world”, is crowdfunding, it has announced. The company claims 4.2m monthly listeners, with more than 500 subscribers and a thousand podcasters on its platform.

“I love daily news-y podcasts, I listen to many of them. They are literally yesterday’s news in many cases: and that’s OK, because they’re doing news analysis and really thoughtful stories, but just this morning there were all sorts of breaking stories on Ukraine and there will be for the forseeable future: that’s something that deserves a place in on-demand audio as well.” - Andy Bowers from Spooler, in an interview coming out tomorrow in the Podland podcast.

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• UK radio group Nation Broadcasting has acquired a 10% stake in Podcast Radio. Podcast Radio is planning international expansion.

• Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast has added exclusive partnerships with four new podcasts, including The Gist with Mike Pesca. Pesca was suspended last year from Slate, who subsequently sold the podcast to Pesca’s Peach Fish Productions.

• PRX has been named as one of the ten most innovative media companies by Fast Company, “for presenting its creators with full control and rights in their audio projects”. Spotify was also in the list, “for building up the podcasting business with video, live audio, and more targeted ad opportunities”.

  
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• Acast has joined the Unstereotype Alliance as its first audio partner. It’s designed to increase positive portrayals of women, girls and marginalised groups in podcast advertising.

Moves and hires

• Jocelyn Lee has been hired as VP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Sounder. In 2015 she’d worked at WNYC as Director of Business Development, before moving to Hearst.

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• Sam Sanders, who we reported was leaving NPR, is to join Vox Media to host their culture podcast.

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• Mikey Fowler has been made VP and GM of a new podcast production house, Audiorama. He was previously at Barstool Sports. The company launches its first podcast today, called Youth Inc, which is hosted by Adori Labs.

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Podcast News

BioHacked: Family Secrets launches today - following the children of anonymous sperm and egg donors as they uncover the identities of their donors and gather vital medical information. It’s from Sony Music Entertainment’s Global Podcast Division.