Social podcast app Breaker won't close after all

Let’s do more with the data we have: we’ve barely scratched the surface so far. Bryan Barletta suggests Let’s Make Podcasting Metrics More Meaningful in this week’s Sounds Profitable, with Podsights.

• Social podcast app Breaker is not to close after all. The app has been acquired by Maple Media, an LA-based publisher, which already owns Player FM and Podkicker. The Breaker team will still be joining Twitter.

• Buzzsprout has announced dynamic content for every podcaster on the platform. The product allows automated prerolls and postrolls. Kevin Finn from Buzzsprout will be on Podland this Thursday.

  
  Aug 31 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Podcast analytics and advertising platform Backtracks has announced it has closed a $1.6m funding round, and launched a number of new products.

• Australia’s Podcast Ranker for December shows Stuff You Should Know at #1, represented in the country by ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network. They had 9.2m downloads in December; the second place, SCA/PodcastOne, had 5.2m. The ranker is incomplete, listing participating publishers only.

  • By comparison, the ABC’s Annual Report 2020 doesn’t give a total download figure, but claims annual downloads of at least 211m across four different categories (p53), equating to 17m a month. Their Coronacast podcast alone did 7.7m downloads between March and May. However, for advertisers, this is pointless: the ABC does not carry advertising.

• In the UK, the BBC report 45m plays within their BBC Sounds app over the holiday fortnight, an increase of 36% compared with the same time last year. “Plays” include live radio as well as on-demand content including podcasts. (By comparison, the BBC iPlayer, which does catch-up TV, did 245m streams.)

• The Playapod app is to add Podcast Index support shortly. “We have been wanting to do this for months but nothing like big tech censorship to make it a higher priority.”, they say in a toot.

• German podcast company Viertausendhertz runs a premium service, similar to Wondery+ or Stitcher Premium. The membership company they use is called Steady. They note: 'We now “advertise” the opportunity to support us, rather than the benefits of membership’. (You can support Podnews over here).

• Imagine Podcasting, a podcast creative agency in Carlsbad CA, USA, launched their new website at the beginning of this month. The team have been producing podcasts since 2005.

• Podchaser is now integrated with Blubrry.

  
  Aug 31 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• A venture capitalist, Loup Ventures, floats the idea that Apple should launch Podcasts+, a set of exclusive podcasts available to anyone with an Apple One or Apple Music subscription.

  • In March 2019, our Editor suggested that Apple allow podcasters to set a price for their own shows, to lessen the reliance on ad revenue.

• Legal tech company InfoTrack has purchased Lawgical, which operates the Legal Talk Network, a podcast network with over twenty different legal shows. The Legal Talk Network has operated since 2005, and was acquired by Lawgical in 2013.

• Acast has a free online event for new and aspiring Asian podcasters. It’ll be on Wednesday January 27th. Details at our podcast events website.

We welcome back Oxford Road, the leading performance audio agency, as a Podnews supporter; and welcome a new one, Podmetrics, who pull all your podcast’s data into one place. We’re grateful for your support.

Tips and tricks - with Buzzsprout

• Quick Tips For Podcasters on the Clubhouse app (Suzy Chase)

• The Benefits of Host-Read Dynamic Ad Insertion for Podcasts (Podcast Movement)

• 5 Audience Building Lessons from the Worst Ever Year’s Best Podcasts (DiscoverPods)

Podcast News

The Adam Buxton Podcast, due to return in April, is to return at the end of January, “due to the ongoing COVID situation”. The UK has been hard hit by a resurgence of the virus.

Best of the Left, an award-winning curated podcast of progressive politics and culture, is celebrating its 15th anniversary. It’s chosen quite a week for it; marking the occasion with archive clips from as far back as 2006 warning about the threat of degeneration into right-wing violence. Like that’s going to happen.