Podcasts are coming to Amazon

• Amazon will be delivering podcasts soon, according to Bloomberg - the article claims they’ll be put into Amazon Music; we’d assume they’d also replace TuneIn as the default podcast experience for Alexa speakers. Meanwhile at Amazon’s Audible, they’re said to be looking at a different price-point to allow access to Audible Originals shows but not to books.

• Larry King, an 86 year-old former CNN interviewer, has signed a deal reportedly worth $5m for his first-ever podcast. The Millionth Question, focusing on entertainment and celebrity, will debut in mid-June. The show is being produced by 4forty4, a media company owned by Jeff Beacher and Larry’s son, Chance.

• Bandwidth isn’t cheap: for many podcast hosts, it’s one of the biggest bills they have. We were curious: how much does Anchor add to Spotify’s bandwidth bill? Spoiler: it’s not as big as you’d think.

• In Australia, the Wheeler Centre has launched Signal Boost, a mentorship and development programme for aspiring podcasters. Applications for this year’s program are open until Wednesday 17 June.

• Dear Media’s CEO, Michael Bosstick, is interviewed by Yahoo Finance on his plan and the future of the sector.

• “There are handful of people who have taken to podcasting like Luke Skywalker to a lightsaber and become masters of cyberspace broadcasting,” starts Will Gompertz, the BBC’s arts editor, in his review of the Joe Rogan Experience. “His natural curiosity tended to stop at wow without getting to why,” he says, before saying “I wouldn’t download another show in a rush for entertainment’s sake”, before u-turning to conclude “I will continue to download his show, not to be amused but to be informed”. He gives it three stars out of five.

• Podyssey have added a way of sharing podcasts on Instagram Stories and Twitter.

• Squadcast has unveiled a set of improvements and redesigns.

Podcast News

The Red Room is a new health and fitness podcast from Barry’s Bootcamp. Hosted by Anya Lahiri and Sandy Macaskill, and produced by Mags Creative, this is “our chance to have a drink at the Fuel Bar with some of their incredible and inspiring clients”.
What’s it like in lockdown in Belgium, Romania or Germany? Lockdown Companion takes you there, with a different country every day (and, in the episode images, a different photograph from the window of the person being interviewed). An inspiring listen from across the world: where we’re all experiencing the same thing in different ways.

History That Doesn’t Suck is now publishing in partnership with production company Airship, and “sucks even less” according to the company. The theme song has been rearranged and re-recorded, and there’s a full new sound design.