Branded podcasts: are they a good tool for marketing?

• A good long read about branded podcasts from Brand Tales, a content marketing website. “I think [a podcast] has got to be done for the right reasons. The problem I have with it, like anything to do with content, is there’s no shortage out there. So if you’re going to do anything, you’re going to have to really define what you’re doing.”

• What type of shows dominate the podcast charts? Steven Goldstein looks at iTunes, and tells us. Spoiler: Apple Podcasts has very wide categories.

  
  Jul 28 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• A write-up from last weekend’s PodCon in Seattle WA, USA.

• Welcome to Night Vale has apparently done a deal with the TV network FX for television rights.

• Miranda Sawyer, The Guardian’s radio critic, notes that in 2017 “for the first time, I found myself reviewing more podcasts than radio programmes.” She looks back at the best of the year.

• Shortcut, a tool to allow anyone to share clips from your podcast on social media, is now open-source.

• Want to see a podcaster using a tractor as a makeshift husky in the Welsh snow? Of course you do.

• Report: More people make podcasts than listen to them. “'We’re really in the golden age of podcasting,' says Rod Dubois, who jumped on the already crowded podcast bandwagon without ever having listened to a podcast and despite having no knowledge of writing, editing, interviewing, sound engineering, marketing, or what other people are likely to sit through.” This website is satirical. Or is it? ;)

• Because I clearly have nothing better to do, Podnews is now on Google Home. You can now say to your Google Home or Google Assistant: OK, Google, ask podnews for the latest will get the latest headlines. If you’re interested, this was about two hour’s work - mostly trying to understand how the tools work.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Jul 28 2023

I’m grateful to Edison Research who join podnews as our newest silver sponsor.