Why Apple Podcasts seems slower to get new episodes

• Exclusive: Examination of internet traffic and Podnews logs reveals that the new iOS 14.5 Apple Podcasts app now works in a very different way than previously; and as a result may now take hours to deliver new episodes to your listeners - even if they are subscribed.

  • 19% of our Apple Podcasts downloads yesterday were from the new iOS 14.5 app.
  • MacRumors reports on what users think of it.
  • Spotify’s crawler also broke for a time yesterday, with some new episodes not showing.

• Spotify’s recently-acquired Clubhouse-like service, Locker Room, is to be called Spotify Greenroom, Daniel Ek announced in the For The Record podcast. “The opportunity in live, just from a consumer standpoint, is how can we create really engaging formats to allow these creators to express themselves and connect with their audience. And we’ve been watching this space from afar just feeling very, very excited about the potential opportunity.”

  
  Sep 3 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Headliner has integrated with “Megaphone by Spotify”.

  • Megaphone has also added a number of new clients including MLB, Girlboss, and many others, they say.

• Chartable has released The Ultimate Podcast Growth Playbook. In it, it says that it’s best if people hear your ad five times.

• Nielsen has announced Podcast Ad Effectiveness+ - a brand lift study service for advertisers. Sounds Profitable covered how these work in January.

• The Spotify app has a new library screen, with added functionality for podcasts.

• Audioboom is still searching for a buyer, with shareholder Nick Candy trying to get Amazon to notice the company.

Podcast News - with Sounder․fm

On Sounder: Huddle up with Gus - Listen in his own words how Matthew McConaughey translates sports into his passion for acting.

The 3 Clips (“like Song Exploder meets Inside the Actor’s Studio -- for podcasters”) has been acquired by Castos. The show talks to podcasters about their best work.

Acast has a royal first - a podcast interview with the Swedish King, Carl XVI Gustaf. He was interviewed by Kristoffer Triumf in Värvet.

Twenty Thousand Hertz has a special episode about the Shure SM7, the microphone most favoured by podcasters.

Evergreen Podcasts’ newest show is Blood Time, a show “for some of the most incredible stories and conversations about wrestling, business, leadership and perseverance”, hosted by wrestling coach Peter Cimoroni.

Evergreen has also launched Wild Precious Life, a podcast about making the most of the time we have.

Distribution rights for The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz have been bought by DraftKings, in a three-year deal worth at least $50m.

Reply All has returned; but it’s a mini episode all about the controversial work environment at Gimlet Media. It returns properly in June.

Anchor and Spotify’s Paid Subscriptions

Driven by feedback from readers, we asked Anchor/Spotify some questions about Paid Subscriptions. From that, we’ve learnt:

• Paid Subscriptions won’t be available at all outside the US at the start - not for creators, but also (surprisingly) not for subscribers either. It’ll roll out “in the next few months”.

• We asked whether Anchor/Spotify is likely to share names/email addresses of subscribers. They said: “In order to make this product truly creator-first, it’s crucial to our model that we explore ways for participating creators to connect with their subscribers. This is something we’re working on. You can imagine it may come in the form of existing Future Format features such as Polls and Q&As exclusive to subscribers, or with direct communication from creators to their subscriber base. We don’t have any specific details at this time, but will share more as the program progresses.”