Gimlet staff want a union; Spotify files complaint against Apple

• The staff at Gimlet Media, bought by Spotify last month, are looking to launch a worker’s union. With the Writer’s Guild of America East, the Gimlet Union posted their reasons why on a tweet. Gimlet’s management have acknowledged the request for union recognition, but otherwise have yet to respond. It would be a first for the podcast industry.

• Gimlet’s parent company Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission for unfair competitive practice, and has launched a website with their side of the story. Their complaint focuses on difficulties that Spotify has with app approvals and contractural agreements, but contains this interesting nugget at the bottom of their timeline:

  So we announce two podcast acquisitions we are super excited about, and all of a sudden Apple arbitrarily decides to prohibit use of its API to recommend podcasts to users

• The Wall Street Journal isn’t a fan of corporate podcasts.

• The iHeart Podcast Channel on AM 1470 in Allentown-Bethlehem PA, USA, is the first station owned by iHeartRadio that will just air “the most creative stories from over 25,000 podcasts available on our free iHeartRadio app”, according to iHeart-owned InsideRadio, which also reproduces a program schedule. The station, WSAN, had a 0.3 share (12+) with its previous format of spanish-language sport from ESPN; it covers 728,100 people.

  
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  • This isn’t the first all-podcast station: back in 2005, KYOU in San Francisco tried this. Who had a listen? Why, Edison Research’s Tom Webster did.

• My Favorite Murder now has its own beer. It’s called Stay Out Of The Forest, it’s an IPA with lactose and blood orange, and the brewery should know that our mailing address is in our about page.

• iMessage, the instant messaging service for Apple devices, is about to sound an awful lot better. Here’s a comparison using the new iMessage in the beta of iOS 12.2.

• Dan Misener from Pacific Content looks into the possibility of getting a total subscriber number for your podcast. tl;dr: no chance.

• The classic podcast revenue model is broken, claims Ronan Leonard.

Podcasts

The Pensky Podcast is our newest supporter, and we like new supporters. It’s an attempt to analyze hundreds of hours of Star Trek, and aims to provide a unique blend of humor, misinterpretation, and conspiracy theory. (Podbean)

The Parenting Spectrum is a podcast about autism and family life; mainly recorded in the home of Fiona and Travis, and their son Patch, as they discover what an autism diagnosis means and what happens next. (ABC Radio)

What Really Happened launches a set of interview podcasts yesterday, “expanding season 2” of the hit podcast. Host Andrew Jenks will sit down with a wide-range of notable personalities to discuss “what really happened” during a specific, significant time in their lives. (Seven Bucks Productions, Cadence13, Megaphone)

The CBC’s PlayME, which turns contemporary plays into bingeable audio dramas, adds The Fish Eyes Trilogy, an award-winning play by Anita Majumdar: it’s an interwoven trio of stories told from the perspectives of three teen girls.

Preserve this Podcast, a podcast preservation project, now has its own podcast to preserve. Host Molly Schwartz interviews different podcasters about their efforts to maintain archives of their work. (Simplecast)

Monster: The Zodiac Killer “has topped 12 million downloads since its January debut,” we’re told, while the series as a whole has achieved 60 million downloads. (Tenderfoot TV / iHeartRadio)