BBC Sounds Controller announced; Nielsen announces new podcast advertising service

• Breaking: Nielsen has just announced the launch of the Nielsen Podcast Listener Buying Power Service, a service that provides podcasters and brands with compelling insights matching podcast listeners by genre with their buying habits. Charter clients are iHeartMedia, Cadence13, Stitcher, Westwood One and Cabana.

• Jonathan Wall has been appointed as Controller, BBC Sounds, the corporation’s radio, music and podcast app. Jonathan has worked for BBC Radio 5 Live for the past 21 years, overseeing the station’s push into podcasting. The press release tells us that he “will have responsibility for coordinating activity across the organisation to achieve the BBC’s ambitions, develop the strategy for Sounds as well as have an overview of the content that is being commissioned for BBC Sounds by the radio, music and podcast teams.” He’ll start in August.

  • Stats: “Since launch last year there have been more than 2.3 million downloads of the app, with the number of people using Sounds continuing to increase and now at nearly 1.5 million users each week.”

• Voxnest have posted details of why all podcast listeners are not the same, discovering interesting differences between podcast categories. Of note: news podcasts appear to be consumed in the evening, rather than - as you might think - the morning.

  
  Aug 14 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Community Access radio stations in New Zealand are celebrating significant growth for their podcasts. Ten of the twelve New Zealand Community Access stations collaborate on a podcasting project called AIR – Access Internet Radio. They’re seeing growth of 77%.

• The seven most popular podcast formats include, yes, one-on-one interviews and solo commentaries, but many other formats too, according to Mark Leonard.

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• Spotify Lite has been released for Android phones. It’s a cut-down version of the app, built for slower phones and poorer networks, and is available in parts of Latin America, Africa and Asia. Conspicuously absent from any publicity, and from the Google Play listing - any mention of podcasts. (Thanks to Dean who installed it, we can confirm that podcast aren’t in this version.)

• Live podcast ticket sales have increased by over 2,000% in the past six years, says a US ticket vendor. The average ticket price for Pod Save America? $103.

  
  Aug 14 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Backtracks, a podcast analytics and hosting platform, now supports Apple Airplay within its audio and podcast player. They’ve also posted a history of Apple Airplay if you’re interested in the technology.

Podcasts

Noble Blood is new from iHeartRadio - a “podcast that discusses the salacious, secret and tragic stories of monarchs like you’ve never heard them before.” (Megaphone)

Life, Death, and the space between is from Chicago-based clinical psychologist and medium Dr Amy Robbins, and sets out to explore life, death, and what it all means. It was launched six months ago. (Libsyn)

A John Burroughs book from 1871, a nature study into birds and their migrations, is being republished as a podcast, carefully weaving in the sounds of the birds themselves. Return of the Birds won a WDS Foundation grant last week.

Launching tomorrow, Feeling My Flo is a podcast on menstruation, “geared toward young people eager for information and community as they experience one of the most transformative changes in their lives”. (Mia Warren / Lantigua Williams & Co / Libsyn)
Unlocking your nonprofit potential is a new podcast, focusing on helping organizations grow with the help of social media and online marketing. It aims to help build confidence and giving tangible, do-able tips and tricks to help listeners grow their nonprofit’s reach.

BBC Radio 4's Beyond Today is currently running a six part investigative series about how one day in Afghanistan has rippled out into the lives of the men who were there and their families back home. It’s called Deadliest Day.