Spotify's podcast boss Liz Gateley to leave?

• Liz Gateley, who was overseeing Spotify’s podcast development, is apparently to leave the company. Bloomberg highlights what they call Spotify’s “growing pains”.

• The Naija Pod Hub has compiled the 50 Top-Ranked Nigerian Podcasts of 2020. The top three: #3 Laid Bare; #2 Jesus and Jollof; and #1 I Said What I Said.

• Veritonic have published their 2020 Top Podcast Advertisers, according to their own proprietary brand score. The #1 is Google, though we don’t get to hear any examples of their advertising in Veritonic’s blog post.

  • Here, by the way, is a nice set of audio logos.
  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 30 2023

• In India, regional podcasts are the next big thing, says an article in Financial Express that contains a number of stats from podcast apps like JioSaavn and Gaana.

• James Butcher is the new Head of Digital Audio at NZME, which runs the iHeartRadio app in New Zealand as well as a number of newspapers and radio stations. James Butcher has worked at Pandora, Nine and Microsoft.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 30 2023
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• Podstation is a Chrome extension podcast player, which synchronises shows across the computers you use.

• “I struggle to find a single example of a podcast company that’s been acquired in the past few years that has thrived under its new ownership.” Eric Nuzum writing for NiemenLab suggests that 2021 might not be a year of growth for podcasting.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS․com

• The Podcast Index is suggesting a method of improving podcast download tracking statistics with a _guid parameter. The idea is to produce a random guid per enclosure, which is consistent for every listener. “Instantly, you have perfect stats,” developer Dave Jones says, since it gives certainty for total download numbers without threatening privacy.
• If you use a custom domain on Buzzsprout, they’re now all using SSL, for better listener privacy (and higher Google SEO). Here’s an example.

Aug 30 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
• We’re now updating our podcast analytics page daily, which contains user agent lists for both audio and RSS. Using both audio and RSS user agents, our aim is for less than 2% of unknown devices or browsers. (The Indian service Gaana was our #3 podcast app on Sunday…)
• Octopod is a simple-looking website podcast player, optimised for podcasts supporting the Podcast Index tags. Here are a few examples.
• Here’s a Python wrapper for Podcast Index.

Tips and tricks - with Podpage

• Podcasting tools for podcasting remotely and social distancing (WOC Podcasters)

• Tom Webster writes about perfectionism, asking When is 'good enough’ actually good enough?

Podcast News - with Fable & Folly

Fable and Folly presents The Wanderer, the tale of a man set to wander the forest till he can find his love. Armed with nothing but his lute and a small silver hatchet, The Wanderer blends music, magic, folk tale, and fantasy. Listen to the trailer now!

The New York Times said that its podcast Caliphate had failed to meet its editorial standards. The newspaper returned a Peabody Award, and has reassigned the podcast’s host, Rukmini Callimachi. The Verge claims podcasting has a problem with facts.