Is personalisation coming to Apple Podcasts?

• Apple have republished a job opening for Product Manager, Apple Podcasts, Personalization which is a role to “build and execute a roadmap for Apple Podcasts personalization”, open in Cupertino CA. (Jobs are free to post at Podjobs).

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 22 2023

• Chartable had two short outages yesterday, thanks to tech provider Heroku (details), which impacted podcasts using their analytics prefix for a total of around twenty minutes. They plan to harden their systems, and move away from Heroku altogether to Amazon’s API Gateway.

• Podcross is a service to cross-promote your show on other podcasts, and a way to promote your show on the world’s largest podcasts - they contacted us after our story yesterday about promoting a podcast using cross-promotion, and since we technically need a minimum of three stories for this section, we’re delighted they reminded us of their service. If, er, you have stories for us, we’re at editor@podnews.net

• Actually, technically, we need four stories, it turns out, otherwise things break. So, below, we link to an article from Rob Dietz about eight things he learnt when making his podcast. That’s in our podcast news section, which is next.

COVID-19

I’m certain consumption will go down because people aren’t commuting nor hitting the gym. This will be like summer vacation but worse. Maybe some political shows or kids shows will increase. Hard to say. I worry about advertiser money drying up or campaigns being postponed. We are already seeing a lot of this. - Jordan Harbinger, The Jordan Harbinger Show

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• Audio editor Reaper is offering a temporary license, valid until the end of June 2020, to help those working from home.

  
  Aug 22 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Hindenburg Journalist Pro have also offered three-month temporary licences for B2B customers (you’ve got an email from them). However, for podcasters everywhere, they often advertise this link for a 90-day free trial, and a mystery “special discount”. This isn’t related to the coronavirus, and isn’t an affiliate link - we use their product and like it though.

• Podbean is offering free audio live streaming as well as a discount on podcast hosting for non-profits and educational establishments.

  
  Aug 22 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• The New Yorker covers podcasts to listen to while you’re social distancing, favouring Coronavirus 411.

• Sean Howard from Fable and Folly Productions has left a little message for us all to watch.

• Nick Quah posts details of how US podcast companies are faring.

• JAR Audio reckons that every brand and authority should be producing a podcast to help and reassure their citizens and customers. “As a citizen in Vancouver, BC, personally I need to need to hear Justin Trudeau’s voice right now and that of my Mayor Kennedy Stewart.”

• Apple is not allowing anything about the coronavirus into its app store, excepting from governments, medical or educational institutions, or health-focused NGOs. This doesn’t affect podcasts (though we’d encourage you to report anything that’s wrong). Meanwhile, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube have released a joint statement.

  
  Aug 22 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Canadian Music Week has been postponed to Sep 8-13.

Podcast News

Crazy Town, an unexpectedly cheery podcast about the climate emergency and human unsustainability, launched its second season last week. Rob Dietz writes eight things he learnt while making it. “Not all recordings are worthwhile, even some of the funny ones. It can be a great joy collaborating with creative colleagues. At times we made ourselves laugh to the point of abdominal pain, but some of the material that caused such outbreaks failed to make the cut because it didn’t strengthen the message of the episode.” (Buzzsprout)

Podcast Junkies has interviewed our Editor, James Cridland, on what podcasting can learn from radio. It’s a wide-ranging interview with lots of our Editor’s back story. (Harry Duran / Simplecast)

How’s your heart? “moved up our launch date by a week because we felt this is a time when we all need some laughs in our lives,” they tell us. It’s a “hilarious, vulnerable, and unapologetic” podcast about dating, sex, queerdom, “all those feelings”, and more. (Libsyn)

America Dissected: Coronavirus launches today - it’s the second season of America Dissected, and is hosted by Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and former city health commissioner. (Crooked Media / Megaphone)