Company plans to cut out podcast ads

• Auddia has announced it will automatically remove ads from podcasts in its app, called faidr, in early 2024. The company says it will launch with the top 200 most popular shows, and will initially bundle ad-free shows into its $5.99/month plan. Users can also request additional shows for future commercial-free listening.

• Podcast creators won’t need to sign any agreement with Auddia to have their show carried and their ads stripped. “Our app is really just acting as a smart recorder, and allows users to automatically skip commercial breaks on supported shows. Because of that distinction, and that we don’t technically alter the episodes in any way, we don’t necessarily need an agreement to proceed,” a spokesperson for the company told Podnews via email, adding: “because of how our technology works, it doesn’t result in less revenue for podcasters any more than someone manually skipping an ad, which to my knowledge doesn’t negatively affect revenue per episode today.” The company does, however, plan to offer a partnership with creators in the future, offering what it calls “attractive revenue-per-listener-per-episode.”

• We asked how podcast creators can request their shows to be removed from Auddia’s platform. “Why opt-out if no harm is being done?” the company responded.

• BBC Podcasts Premium, a paid Apple subscriptions service, has launched across the world, after a successful start in the US and Canada in 2021. It offers early-access, ad-free shows, and is now available almost everywhere except for the UK, which gets a similar experience within BBC Sounds.

• Fiction podcast network Realm has partnered with entertainment and gaming platform IGN from Ziff Davis. The partnership provides both companies with opportunities in ad sales and audience engagement, and the companies will collaborate on podcast titles based on major video game IP.

• The UK’s RAJAR released its MIDAS study for Autumn 2023, containing consumption data of internet-delivered audio, including podcasts. We like the last page, showing the time of day when people listen to what: there’s a very noticeable jump for podcasts between 5-6pm during the drive home. The data also shows that 94% of Brits listen to podcasts alone.

• AntennaPod has published a guide on how to migrate from Google Podcasts, which closes next year. AntennaPod is free, open source (and Android only).

• Podpage has launched a podcast name generator. Unlike others, the names given are pretty good - we quite like some of the ones it gave us.

• Triton Digital launched Demos+ in the Australian market.

Podcast News - with Airwave

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Podcast promotion in the wild

Podnews reader Jason, who hosts the 10 year-old Zero To Travel podcast (on Spotify’s Megaphone), was at the Christmas Market in Oslo, Norway, on a family holiday: “when I spotted a podcast recording booth of all things set up by Acast. Random!” Checking the weather, it feels like -11°C (12°F) there today, so surely this studio’s missing some warm glasses of gløgg?

Spot some marketing for podcasts in the real world? Hit reply and send us a (landscape) photograph.