BBC launches new radio and podcast app

• The BBC has officially launched BBC Sounds, their radio and audio app, which “brings together 80,000 hours of unmissable music, radio and podcasts, available live and on-demand in a personalised single app and website”. The app is only available for download in the UK; the BBC didn’t supply detail of when it might be available for the rest of the world. The website is, however, available to all - though some content is geo-locked.

• BBC Sounds includes a limited selection of third-party podcasts, with six podcasts highlighted in the press release - none of which were actually available through the app when we, and others, checked. We asked about the criteria for inclusion, and whether these third-party podcasts included advertising. The BBC didn’t respond to our questions. We estimate the BBC to be the world’s second-largest podcast publisher.

• Azul Chiclamino - La realidad de lo absurdo won three awards at the Latin Podcast Awards. Here are all the winners. Congratulations to Podnews supporter Allan Tépper for his award. Be like Allan and support us.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 7 2023

• Live podcasts are fun to watch: live podcasts with beer are funner. The Unfiltered Gentlemen and Booze League will be recording live at 8one8 Brewing in Canoga Park, CA on Saturday, November 3.

• Midroll offer advice on how best to make podcast advertising work for your brand.

• Wooooooo. It’s halloween, and therefore Podcast Websites share The Scariest Podcasting Stories We’ve Ever Heard, and Pacific Content post advice on how to dress up as your favourite podcast.

Opinion

• Folio Magazine posts a provocative article entitled Please Fix Podcasting Before It Jumps the Shark:

This original acolyte of on-demand audio is increasingly frustrated by its creaky mechanics, content clutter, mixed ad experience and sometimes borderline-hegemonic style. … Podcasting simply is not about a bunch of like-minded buds talking and talking and talking and talking, with contextually irrelevant commercial breaks. To evolve as a form and a business, podcasting needs to think harder.

• Are podcasts are on “the precipice of a monetization revolution”? Eric Knight Hornung argues:

The unique structure of the podcast ecosystem in the United States and legacy pricing model will make it difficult for podcasts to monetize in any significant fashion without the complete overhaul of the Apple podcast app, which drives 55% of all podcast listens.

Podcasts

As part of the BBC Sounds launch, the BBC launched Beyond Today, a daily news podcast. “News built to last from the BBC. Tina Daheley and Matthew Price ask one big question of one big story every weekday. A space to figure out what’s going on.” It’s a spin-off from Radio 4's Today Programme.
Aug 7 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Lineker and Baker: Behind Closed Doors is a new football/soccer podcast, presented by comedy writer Danny Baker and English football player turned crisp salesman and broadcaster Gary Lineker. It launches Nov 7. (Goalhanger Films / Acast)

A Scottish Podcast returns for a second season. It’s an audio drama about a washed-up DJ who launches a paranormal investigation podcast. (Jester’s Baffies Productions / Libsyn)

Dissect, a podcast “about the albums you love”, has launched a Spotify-exclusive miniseries about The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. (Cole Cuchna/Spotify/Anchor)
Aug 7 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

The CBC have announced season two of Other People’s Problems. “Normally, therapy sessions are totally confidential — but this podcast opens the doors. Hillary McBride and her clients want to help demystify mental health. No actors. No auditions. No artifice. These are real-life therapy sessions. This is what people really sound like when they talk about traumatic births, turbulent divorces and tough childhoods.”

Daniel Ruiz Tizon, a UK comedian, presents daily missives from the South Lambeth Portuguese café he has holed himself up in since the summer of 2001, in The Café Chronicles. It’s a ten-part series, first aired on London’s Resonance FM.

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