Gen-Z is fastest-growing generation of podcast listeners

• Gen Z is Spotify’s fastest-growing generation of music and podcast listeners, says a new UK report from the company. In the first half of 2023, the demographic has seen 58% more podcast plays year-on-year; 39% listening at a faster-than-normal speed. Around half of Gen Z podcast listeners in the UK (53%) say they’ve learned about a community they’re not a part of as a result of listening to a podcast.

• Triton Digital released the September US Podcast Ranker. The release says that NPR is “temporarily excluded from the rankers this month due to a planned data collection migration”.

• Listen-by-location tool MapsFM is looking for a partner or acquirer to continue its work and to help expand its B2B listen-by-location service. The service locates selected podcast episodes on a map for enhanced discoverability. You can connect with them here.

• Headliner’s editing tool Eddy now gives podcast creators a “promo pack” for every show, which consists of downloadable files that contain +10 keywords, 5+ direct quotes, 3 summaries/show notes with chapters, and, now, a references page. They ran the tool on this episode of the Podnews Weekly Review, and it produced these keywords, quotes, references, and shownotes.

• AdBarker has launched new video injection tools, enabling DAI for video ads. It works great with Apple Podcasts, which already fully supports video content.

• The IAB UK Podcast Upfront took place yesterday. Sony Music Entertainment previewed their slate of shows.

• What’s up with Cadence13? The website was last updated in February 2023; and new seasons of Radio Rental, Gone South, To Live And Die In LA, Culpable and Say More with Dr? Sheila all just reference Audacy, not Cadence13. A spokesperson tells Podnews: “We continue to release shows through this studio. … Like all media companies, Audacy is focused on building equity for our master brand, and in that mission, we’re aligning our studios and market-facing brands.”

• Megaphone’s “streaming-powered tools” Spotify migration is in test for some users. It offers content and ad performance analytics, and clickable promos. However, we’re told that publishers who enable it lose access to all data about those podcasts within Megaphone, and must now log in to Spotify Ad Analytics to see downloads and streams. We’re also told this data appears to be gone from Megaphone’s export log service. Another customer tells us it’s also likely to mean lower ad delivery figures.

• The Audioboom Creator Network has signed a set of new podcasts: Girls Next Level, The Bulwark Podcast, We’re Here to Help and Out of the Pods.

Tips and tricks - with Spotify for Podcasters

Only Spotify lets you create Q&A and polls on every episode to engage fans where they’re already listening, helping you continue making content they’ll love. You can also use these tools to drive even more engagement: share questions and responses across social, ask for feedback on your content, and get suggestions for new topics or guests. And all that engagement really adds up. On average, listeners who interact with a show through a Q&A consume twice as many hours per month. Discover more tools to help you turn your listeners into fans — no matter where your show is hosted.

• Podcastle write how to start a podcast with no audience. Choosing the right niche is their first suggestion.

• Do you run a newsletter? The easiest way to send the latest episode of your podcast to someone is to use the audio tag, which is supported by probably half of the users on your list. We use it here!

Podcast News

Axios has cancelled their daily news podcast Axios Today, which the company produced with Pushkin Industries. The last episode was in mid September; the show becomes 1 big thing, a weekly, interview-style podcast, from Nov 2.

Luz y Luzía is a show for kids from the ages of 4 to 8 and is currently in its third season covering emotions through creative stories of characters traveling to different planets. The creator, Luz Ortiz, was featured at the Cali international book fair.

RED ODYSSEY, a new audio fiction podcast, has climbed the charts in many countries including Russia, even though it has a pro-Ukranian storyline. The show follows Cosmonaut Ilia and sentient lunar rover Fantom-IX, and is produced by Ari Rosenthal, a first-time audio producer and pre-med student; with a script by award-winning Polish-Canadian author Carmenn Kocznur.

Steve Goldstein and Jay Nachlis are guests on this week’s Podnews Weekly Review talking about their research into YouTube’s place in podcasting - and Gene Liverman is guest co-host. Come for the podcast news, and stay for the home automation chat.

48 Hours has launched a premium subscription on Apple Podcasts. Subscribers can enjoy premium content ad-free for $2.99 monthly. The shows are part of Paramount Audio’s slate; EVP of Podcasting and Audio Steve Raizes says “we hope to offer more exclusive programming to our subscribers through Apple Podcasts”.

Should you actually put olive oil or salt in your coffee? Which seafoods are actually sustainable? And is white rice really that bad for you? Should You Really Eat That? is new from SBS Audio, with host Lee Tran Lam exploring changing attitudes to rice, bread, cheese and other staples across the world – and how confusing it is keeping up with what’s ‘good’ for you.

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