BBC announces new personalised podcast app

“2 million podcast listeners in the UK don’t consume any BBC Radio at all”, said Bob Shennan, Director of BBC Radio, at the Radiodays Europe conference this morning. To combat this, he announced a new “revitalised audio product from the BBC” is coming later this year: live radio, on-demand including podcasts, and a personalised service. “This is essential if we are to reinvent what we do,” he added. He also shared that the Corporation is about to announce a new Podcast Commissioner; and that the BBC’s new voice skills had, last month, one million requests.

Panoply announce a distribution and monetization partnership with HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks sees over 50m downloads a month, according to the release.

Customer Think posts the pros and cons of including podcasts in your content marketing strategy. Cons are 'strict schedule requirements’, 'you need to buy a microphone’, and 'one of your employees might inadvertently blurt out a confidential secret’. (If only podcasts were recorded, so you could edit that out.)

Podcast Review takes a listen to Closer Than They Appear; The Verge’s PodHunters column listens to LeVar Burton Reads.

Blubrry asks Will Podcasting Save Radio?, highlighting the company’s appearance at the NAB Show. (For comparison: Radio: 93% of the US listened last week. Podcasts: 17%.)

Ever wondered how to get music tracks onto your podcast? The Verge explains how music copyright works; what it has to do with mechanical pianos; and why it’s rather complicated.

The Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for 2018, an award ceremony for UK content, had a podcast category for the first time. The winner was Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd’s Reasons to be Cheerful.