Anna Faris Is Unqualified makes it to the radio; Play Podcasts fixes podcast links

• Anna Faris Is Unqualified will be turned into a long-form radio program which will air weekends across Top 40 radio stations owned by iHeartMedia, the company has announced. iHeartMedia claims it has a quarter of a billion listeners.

• “Podcast links are a mess”, says a new service called Play Podcast - they promise simple one-click podcast links for social media and similar. They gave us playpodca·st/podnews which automatically opens Apple Podcasts and/or Google Podcasts on phones, and helpful links on desktop.

• Smart speakers are “having their 2004 iPod moment”, argues Pacific Content’s Steve Pratt, suggesting some ideas for your content strategy. Meanwhile, Google Home smart speakers now speak Spanish.

• In the UK, the BBC has released BBC Sounds, a new app containing BBC live and on-demand radio, clips from programs and podcasts from the public service broadcaster, as well as editorially themed playlists. It’s planned to replace BBC iPlayer Radio, the current app, later in the year. It isn’t available outside the UK, and does not yet offer either downloads or Chromecast support.

• The Brand Brothers are “on a mission to fight the spreading peril of fake-branding in order to save entrepreneurs, good businesses, honest candidates, and people everywhere from wasting precious time, money, and reputation on empty trends and shallow nonsense”, according to its press release. It’s hosted by Podmio.

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• Alan Alda launches a podcast in early July, called Clear+Vivid. Represented by Midroll, it’s hosted on ART19.

• Congratulations to Edison Research for doubling your office-space.

• Thank you to Resonate Recordings and to She Podcasts for kindly becoming supporters. (You can do this via Patreon, or we can invoice).

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