Spotify financials: it has 4.4m podcasts now

• Spotify published its Q2/21 financial report. which out-performed market expectation. Ignoring currency fluctuations, ad-supported revenue (including podcasting) is up 31%; the platform now has 4.4m podcasts. “The number of (monthly active users) that engaged with podcasts grew in the substantial double-digits Y/Y and per user podcast consumption rates continued to rise,” though no numbers were given.

  • Monthly active users rose 18.6% year-on-year, a record growth; margin fell to 24.6%; the company lost €194m, the biggest loss for some time. It will hire 25% fewer people in H2/22.
  • Spotify has ceased selling their Car Thing product, which aimed to replace the car radio. It cost them €31m to do so.

• Two CNN journalists and podcasters have been confirmed as the closing keynote for Podcast Movement 2022. Audie Cornish, a former NPR presenter and host of “a new podcast from CNN Audio”, and Dr Sanjay Gupta, will be being hosted by Erica Mandy.

• The BBC could be examining ways to change their financial reporting to hide their presenters’ earnings for podcasts. Currently, podcasts are paid from public service money (which has to be reported, like on page 97 of their Annual Report); one potential plan is to get the commercial arm, BBC Studios, to make the shows and pay the presenters, which wouldn’t fall under these rules.

• Targetspot’s H1/22 financial report. Revenue from podcasting has tripled year-on-year. The company is to sell music business Jamendo, and music player Winamp - we guess it really didn’t whip the llama’s ass after all.

• Podcast host Omny Studio has published data about podcast consumption on their platform. The company saw a 12% increase in listens via Spotify, and a 36% increase for Google Podcasts.

• Triton Digital released the Canadian Podcast Report for June. SXM Media is still #1 for podcasts. Studio71 is a new publisher this month; excluding them, average weekly downloads fell by 2.2%.

• Does podcasting have a privacy problem? Writing on his personal blog, our Editor highlights what the GDPR actually says, whether you can do privacy-friendly geo-targeting, and where things might be an issue. (He would appreciate feedback).

• Transistor has added achievement badges.

• Jane Lynch, an actor best known for a character she played in Glee, has tweeted that women who host podcasts should “lower their annoying high-pitched voices”. As you might guess, Twitter wasn’t convinced.

Moves and hires

• Exclusive: Jim Ballas has joined Magellan AI as Head of Publisher Partnerships. Ballas was CTO and VP of Operations at PodcastOne.

• Mimi O’Donnell has been promoted to Head of Scripted Fiction at Spotify Studios. She’s been Head of Scripted Fiction at Gimlet for the past six years, and will report to Julie McNamara, Spotify’s head of talk studios.

• Matthew Rouse has joined Octave Audio as Podcast lead. He joins from Mindshare. Octave Audio is a joint venture between News UK’s Wireless and Bauer Media. He also hosts a podcast about house music, called House Culture.

Podcast News - with Pushkin Industries

From Pushkin: This season on Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell focuses on experiments. Experiments that end up in salt factories and file drawers filled with carbon copies. Experimental endings to Hollywood classics and a deep dive involving… Will & Grace. On today’s episode, Malcolm tells the story of his parents and their friends sponsoring Vietnamese refugees in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Malcolm wonders: Do we underestimate the value of ordinary acts of kindness?

Back in 2016, the Museum Of Comedy Podcast did an interview with Bernard Cribbins. The British actor, comedian and singer died today, aged 93.

Harmful is new from SBS, tackling the subject of bullying. Bullying touches most of us at some point in our lives; and this podcast asks how we can better tackle this pervasive issue in our schools, workplaces and online. It’s hosted by Rae Johnston.