Google launches an analytics - and submission - platform

• Google have announced the launch of Google Podcasts Manager, an analytics tool for your podcasts on the Google platform. We have taken a full look at it - and discovered that you can also use it to submit new shows too.

  • Yesterday, we uncovered that Google Podcasts is now the most popular Android podcast app. (We’ve added Podbean to the list too).

• The BBC blocked their content from Google Podcasts last year, saying that Google wasn’t sharing any audience data with them. Now Google Podcasts Manager has launched, the BBC have confirmed to Podnews that they still have concerns about Google Search. As we investigate today, they remain one of the publishers who don’t want their podcast to be on every platform, along with Radio France and the Australian ABC.

• Fox News is getting their podcasts onto Spotify, they’ve announced: including three new shows.

• “The world’s first HD Podcast”? Rock N Roll Archaeology is new from Pantheon Podcasts: an eighteen episode history of rock’n’roll.

  • The podcast itself is a 192kbps MP3, which is good quality but hardly HD - however, playback on their website downloaded chunks of audio that were 5.3MB every thirty seconds - that’s an audio bitrate of around 1,384kbps, roughly the same as CDs or WAV files. The episode we tried, which was 98 minutes long, would have been a 524MB download.
  
  Aug 23 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Melbourne podcast agency BE Media Production has rebranded to SoundCartel. The new brand “reflects an edgy, exciting journey ahead for the business but it’s also a commentary on the close-knit team”.

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• The Skimm is laying off 20% of its staff. However, Skimm This and Skimm’d from The Couch have both posted episodes in the last 24 hours, and the producer of Skimm This appears to deny that she’s been let go in a tweet.

• In a recent blog post, Francisco Izuzquiza looks at the Spanish podcast industry.

  
  Aug 23 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Blue Wire, a sports podcasting startup, gets a write-up by a Forbes blogger, especially focusing on the changing times for sports radio. The company has also announced three new hires from Sports Illustrated, Warner Brothers and Wondery.

• Jetpack, a Wordpress plugin, has added a Podcast Player Block. It “allows you to easily show your visitors a listing of recent episodes from a podcast and play them on your website”. (Here are more embedded players).

Changing times, changing consumption

• Podsights dives deep into state-by-state data. In New York State, morning listening dipped by half during the pandemic; Iowa, however, is seeing much less impact. “If downloads at 7am drop, and stay down, people are staying at home”, say Podsights, adding that a drop in download numbers is therefore a good thing. (The biggest change? Those safe people in New Jersey.)

• Speaking on The Feed, Rob Walch said that there has been a 15% decline in weekly downloads on Libsyn since the pandemic. The week of April 19th was, apparently, the worst; and things are getting better since then. He also said that the median number of episode downloads for Libsyn shows was 125 (so if you’re doing more than 125 downloads per episode, you’re better than 50% of all the shows out there).

• Peter Wells writes in The Age about how podcast consumption is changing.

Tips and tricks

• Why don’t my podcast’s full episode notes appear in Apple Podcasts? (Transistor)

• How to structure your podcast (Buzzsprout)

• The Ultimate Guide to Remote Recording - part one of a two-part series from PRX

Podcast News

Start Here from ABC News has an interview with “World News Tonight” Anchor David Muir, who’s just sat down with President

The New Media Show is live today at 3pm, with Google’s Robin Bhaduri to talk about the Google Podcasts Manager, and Ronsley Vaz from We Are Podcast.

Media’s New Deal is a new podcast from the founder and CEO of Oxford Road, Dan Granger. The first episode had an interview with Wondery’s Hernan Lopez; today’s episode features David Field, the CEO of Entercom (which owns Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios).

Courtney Rich, an instagram baker, has a new podcast launching today. Courtney: Beyond The Cake promises “inspiring stories of everyday people, as well as well-known celebrities”.