Lore's Aaron Mahnke launches new show: Bridgewater

• The creator of Lore, Aaron Mahnke returns with Bridgewater, with a promo set to launch later today. It’s the supernatural story of folklore professor Jeremy Bradshaw, who is pulled into the mysterious 1980 disappearance of his police officer father. The screenplay is written by Lauren Shippen; Bridgewater is on all major platforms.

• Spotify’s podcast ad revenue has jumped 627% year-on-year, according to their revenue announcement today: Joe Rogan and Megaphone helping the increase. We learnt that Podz cost the company $53.4m; and Greenroom $67.7m. The company appears to have stopped reporting the number of monthly users who listen to podcasts. They have 365m monthly users; last we heard, 25% of them (91m) listen to podcasts.

  • Spotify stocks did drop, though: they had slower user growth, partly caused by an issue with email verification which perhaps cost the company two million users. (We feel better at our bugs now).

• First look: Podcast producer Jam Street Media has been acquired by Amaze Media Labs, in a deal announced today. No terms were given. Amaze Media Labs owns a number of podcast networks; Jam Street Media is run by Matty Staudt, a member of the start-up team at Stitcher and iHeartRadio’s first VP of Podcast Programming.

• First look: Acast has expanded its Acast Creative unit to the US, to work with sellers and production partners to offer new creative solutions. Shantae Howell has been appointed Creative Director of the Americas; she joins from Vox Media.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Sep 5 2023

• “South East Asia is the blue ocean. I see all the action happening in the West: guys, the whole supply, the next frontier is here.” So says Ron Baetiong, the founder and CEO of Podcast Network Asia, interviewed on this week’s Podland. Podcasting is growing fast in the Philippines and Indonesia: countries where Spotify has a significant lead.

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• Audioboom has signed a distribution agreement with Samsung Podcasts, the podcast app for Galaxy phones. (You can submit your show there too - find the details here).

• The NBA, the National Basketball Association, has signed with US podcast producer iHeartMedia to produce more than twenty podcasts.

• Daniela Garcia from PodBooking, a social networking app for podcasting, is interviewed by PodBible.

Tips and tricks

• Think you need a big budget for a podcast? Megan Jones, the producer of Museums n’That at Leeds Museums and Galleries in the UK, says that a big budget is nothing without personality.

Podcast News

Axios Re:Cap had a special guest, focusing on Spotify’s continued growth: none other than Daniel Ek himself. He’ll be on the For The Record podcast on Spotify this week, too.
Sep 5 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

A new series of the Puffin Podcast: Mission Imagination, has launched. Hosted by multi award winning comedian Babatunde Aléshé, it’s made for the British summer holidays: each weekly episode will whoosh children away to a different magical world created by a fantastic Puffin author. It’s made by Mags Creative.

The audio producer of international hit Teacher’s Pet has released The Elements, a new podcast that journeys into the heart of surviving a disaster. Slade Gibson, the audio producer and composer, won a Walkley Award alongside Hedley Thomas for his work on Teacher’s Pet.

Malpraktis Universiti launched yesterday: the first fiction thriller podcast in the Malay language. A remotely produced podcast, it highlights mental health issues faced by the local student population and subtly calls out government ineptitude in managing the COVID crisis. It was produced by ZAG Podcasts in Kuala Lumpur.

Long Shot is new from iHeartRadio and School of Humans, examining the history and 250-year journey to the COVID-19 vaccines. It’s hosted by journalist Shaun Raviv.