A fluent Spanish podcast from a non-Spanish speaker

• Sounds Profitable en Español starts today, as Bryan Barletta explains in Sounds Profitable with Podsights. The podcast adtech newsletter will be translated and produced using technology from Veritone MARVEL․ai: and so will the Sounds Profitable en Español podcast, with Bryan sounding as if he speaks Spanish fluently… but he doesn’t.

  • Using the same synthetic voice technology, you can hear our Editor, James Cridland, speaking Spanish (he doesn’t speak it either) in our podcast today. It’s quite a thing.

• Google Podcasts is blocking access to some podcasts to under 18s and users who aren’t signed-in, we’ve discovered. We’ve more details in depth, below.

• Apple Podcasts for Creators has updated its Podcast Hosting Providers page, with twelve new podcast hosts and filters.

  • We’ve previously asked Apple how companies are selected for this page. They wouldn’t say; but suggest that providers use Apple’s contact us link.

• Podcast host Transistor has partnered with Descript as an automated publishing destination.

• Triton Digital has released the Australian Podcast Ranker. There’s no change in the top 3 in either the publisher or show rankers. Total measured downloads rose to 52m; almost hitting the record of 52.2m in May.

• Susie Warhurst has been appointed Head of International, Apple Podcasts. She was SVP of Content for Acast, and works out of London.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Sep 8 2023

• Kristin Charron has been named VP of Marketing for Veritonic. She moves from Triton Digital, where she’d been for ten years.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Sep 8 2023

In depth: Google Podcasts blocking some podcasts

Podnews has discovered that Google Podcasts is restricting podcast content, marking some shows as “Content not available”, with a note that the company has “restricted some content for people who aren’t over 18”. Shows may be restricted even if they are not marked as 'explicit’, or have any obvious reason to be blocked; and publishers have no visibility as to whether their shows have been flagged in this way.

We were contacted by an affected sports and fitness podcast publisher, with episodes including interviews with a women’s football manager, a TV sports commentator, and a rugby coach. Their client was concerned that their content had been apparently flagged as unsuitable for kids. Having reviewed the content, we can’t see any reason why it should be restricted.

A Google Podcasts spokesperson tells us:

"We work hard to offer a safe and reliable platform to our creators, which means we take seriously our obligations to comply with applicable regulations and legal requirements around the world.

"As part of our efforts to comply with new children’s privacy regulations in the United Kingdom and other regions, certain content may now be restricted for users who our systems indicate may be under the age of 18 or who are not signed into their Google Account and are in a region impacted by the aforementioned compliance measures.

“To determine what content is age-appropriate for these younger users, we rely on information from multiple sources, including publisher tags, our own internal reviews, and other signals. We are working to improve our signals so that we can safely expand the corpus of podcasts that can be accessed by younger and/or signed-out users in the relevant regions, and plan to roll out additional updates soon.”

We’re unaware of any other podcast app that takes decisions to hide entire shows like this, seemingly at random. It’s particularly disappointing that publishers are unaware that their show (and reputation) is being erroneously highlighted in this way. Google can, and should, do better.

Podcast News

Spotify has launched two new shows about Spotify this month. Spotify: Mic Check launches on Oct 19 with “intimate conversations with musicians and podcasters from around the world, sharing exclusive recordings and personal stories in their own words”.

We’re told that the other, Spotify: Discover This, is brand new and launches tomorrow, though you’ll spot 11 episodes have been published in the past year. It promises fresh insights on music, podcasting, cultural moments, and trends.

The existing “Spotify show about Spotify”, Spotify: For the Record, will, this season, “push our stories further by making this podcast the only place where audiences can hear certain business updates.”

Radiotopia has launched S***hole Country, describes as an audio memoir about achieving the Ghanaian-American Dream. It’s produced by an anonymous producer using the name Afia Kaakyire.

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