Apple Podcasts publishes the best of 2021

• Apple Podcasts announced its Best of 2021. A Slight Change of Plans with Maya Shankar from Pushkin Industries was chosen as Best Show of the Year, and WBUR/Futuro’s Anything For Selena chosen as Newcomer of the Year. A list of top new shows and top subscriptions is available in the app.

  • The chart also gives us some understanding of the performance of Apple Podcasts Paid Subscriptions - Bad Blood: The Final Chapter is #1 in the list, and said in September that they had 6,000 subscribers. (That was $16,000 a month in revenue after Apple’s cut).

• Advertising in podcasts brings one company 25% more revenue than Google Search. Füm shares their strategy for podcast advertising in this week’s Sounds Profitable with Magellan AI.

• iVoox has added a further 24 new podcasts to their slate of iVoox Originals. They now have around 200 exclusive shows. The Spanish platform has more than 5m unique users per year.

• Business Insider posts an article entitled “Inside the rise and fall of Clubhouse, a pandemic poster child of VC-backed hype now hobbled by 'drama rooms,' unhappy creators, dwindling users, and dubious advertisers”. It claims daily average users are down 80% since February. It does, though, conclude: “Clubhouse likely has enough money to see it through years of product updates and experimentation,” and the company has attracted $110m of funding.

• Acast has announced a partnership with Podcast Network Asia, its first in the Southeast Asian market.

• The CyberWire has released a report entitled B2B Marketer’s Guide to Podcast Advertising - How to generate leads without an awareness budget.. The report is also available as a podcast.

• In Australia, the winners of the Australian Commercian Radio Awards were announced, including a number of podcast winners. Best Original Podcast went to Zero Waste Baby with Veronica Milsom, produced by SCA’s LiSTNR.

• RAIN’s Brad Hill reviews Facebook Podcasts. “Clearly not ready for primetime”, he concludes.

• A free day talking about audio tech and creativity, from the BBC? Sounds Amazing - it’s free, and runs all day tomorrow; there are different sections of the day to take part in. You’ll need a BBC account to start (those are free too).

Moves and hires - with Pod People

• Noel King has joined Vox’s Today, Explained as Editorial Director and co-host. She was formerly with NPR’s Morning Edition and Up First. The daily podcast will also air on local public radio stations nationwide, in partnership with New York’s WNYC Studios.

Tips and tricks

• Downloads vs audience - what’s the difference? A useful primer from Podtrac. (Also - a quicker read than our comprehensive look at podcast stats.)

• Top tip: the latest update for Hindenburg Journalist Pro changes the application’s name to Hindenburg PRO - which means, if you use Loopback or OBS, you’ll need to reset your virtual device. Ask us how we know.

Podcast News - with Blue Wire

In Blue Wire's limited series WR1 presented by WynnBet, legendary NFL wide receiver Cris Carter interviews legends of the WR position as well as the next generation of superstars to understand what makes this position so unique, as so many personalities and stories come from outside of the hash marks. Guests include Julian Edelman, Adam Thielen, Mike Evans, Calvin Johnson, and many more.

We’re guessing CNN’s The Handoff might be on haitus: or perhaps it’ll just be Don Lemon talking to himself; Chris Cuomo has been suspended by the network for a breach of journalist ethics. - read more

Jen Cody (Disney’s The Princess and the Frog) and Hunter Foster (Tony Nominee Little Shop of Horrors) guest star on the latest episode of Mythic Thunderlute: A D&D Podcast Musical, from the Broadway Podcast Network.

Walk the Pod - a daily show designed to accompany you on your lunchtime walk - has just released its 300th episode. It’s hosted by comedian Rachel Wheeley.

Pushkin launches season two of Lost Hills today. Hosted by Dana Goodyear, it focuses on another Malibu crime, a suspicious drowning in the Channel Islands, thirty miles off the coast, that leads into an exploration of the freewheeling, hedonistic world of Malibu in the late 70s and early 80s, when the quiet beach town was transforming into a haven for money, drugs and celebrities.

The second season of The Envelope from the LA Times has launched with Kirsten Dunst as special guest, interviewed by Times reporters and podcast hosts Mark Olsen and Yvonne Villarreal. - read more

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