Anchor shares podcast stats; The Guardian's daily podcast goes live

Podcast platform Anchor has posted data on how people listened to its podcasts in September. Apple Podcasts has 52% of all downloads; Spotify has 19%; Google Podcasts has just 0.9%. (Google might want to read this.)

• The Guardian has launched its daily news podcast, Today In Focus, hosted by Anushka Asthana (press release) - with ads from Acast.

• Meanwhile Leo Hornak, who was billed as the Executive Producer for Today In Focus, curiously removed any mention of The Guardian from his Twitter biography just a few days ago. He’s credited as show developer, but not as an Exec Producer, in the latest episode.

• Global, the media and entertainment company, has launched DAX in Canada. The company acquired the digital audio sales division of Canadian based leanStream, which already represents companies like TuneIn and 8tracks. Global adds Toronto to its list of office locations alongside its headquarters in London and DAX divisions based in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Hamburg and Paris.

• RAIN thinks that Apple are considering investing in iHeartMedia.

• More on the BBC’s new “radio, music and podcasts” app BBC Sounds (a UK-only app, for now, but a mostly globally-available website):

  • All BBC domestic radio stations have rebranded their Twitter names to include their availability on BBC Sounds, and all on-air messaging now includes BBC Sounds as their main platform.
  • Some BBC podcasts are now exclusively available on BBC Sounds, including End of Days, which will be available on other platforms later in the year
  • The app is getting some outdoor marketing
  • There’s a (long) and star-studded TV trailer for the app
  • It contained, we understand, two third-party podcasts at launch. Swipe Left Swipe Left is in BBC Sounds and the BBC website here: while the original is 16 programmes long, the BBC Sounds version is only 10 programmes (and edited to remove commercials).
  • The app has a number of omissions - no support for Apple CarPlay or for Chromecast, but also, oddly, no BBC logo is visible once inside the app.

• The theme for Podcast Brunch Club - like book club, but for podcasts - for November is artificial intelligence.

• For all the excitement about The Daily, The New York Times’s digital advertising revenue is flat, according to their new figures.

• Spotify has made net profit for the first time. It’s the result of a revaluation of their shareholding of Tencent, though.

• How should you use podcasts in the classroom? A set of academics have been working on some open educational resources to help.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 7 2023

• Brooklyn NY, USA has a relocated podcasting studio. After a close shave with a fire, Brooklyn Podcasting Studio is now open in Garfield Place.

Opinion

• Cary Green says that
  All of us Podcasters benefit when more people discover podcasts:

There is still a very large portion of the worldwide population that don’t even know what a podcast is or how to access one. We can ALL work together to change that  — and we SHOULD.

Podcasts

Profoundly Pointless, by news anchor Nick VinZant, is a show in two parts. “The Profound part features fascinating interviews with everyone from athletes and celebrities to professional domintrixes and dinosaur hunters. The Pointless part seeks to answer life’s greatest questions.” (Podbean)

The latest episode of BE Podcasting focuses on the recent OzPod conference, and some of the highlights. Thoughts into some of the statistics, the future of audio, smart speakers (are they a “thing”?), branded podcasts, and more.

Podcasting Smarter, the Podbean podcast, has a guest of James Cridland, the editor of Podnews, in their latest episode.
Aug 7 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

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