Owen Grover on the demise of Apple, and being cautious of Spotify

• In a talk that was praised as 'refreshingly frank’, CEO of Pocket Casts Owen Grover spoke at OzPod 2019, an Australian podcast conference, earlier today. In a wide-ranging Q&A with ABC Audio Studios boss Kellie Riordan, Grover predicted a continuing decrease in Apple’s influence, and said that Pocket Casts is planning for a future where there is no market leader in podcast discovery. “Spotify are helping non-podcast listeners to discover content: but we’re fooling ourselves if we believe they’ll indefinitely do this for the love of the medium,” he said, highlighting the benefits of RSS. “We just got over what Facebook did to journalism - we don’t want that to happen with podcasting.” Asked whether Pocket Casts will share individual audience listener data in future: “No,” he said, adding “We won’t do that. Is that clear enough? No.”

• As of Friday 27 September, there were 741,600 podcasts in Apple Podcasts (excluding iTunes U content), says Daniel J Lewis from The Audacity to Podcast. This number started a presentation from James Cridland, Podnews’s Editor, at OzPod 2019, highlighting the benefit of RSS for a level playing field and looking at Australian and global podcast data. His slides are here.

• The ABC Podcast Survey 2019, released to coincide with OzPod 2019, reveals just how engaged podcast audiences are. Their data also highlights that growth in podcast listeners has been driven from regional and rural areas, and that word of mouth remains the most popular way of discovering new podcasts. The full survey results are available on the ABC website.

• The third annual DiscoverPods Awards are open for nominations today. Last year, over 10,000 people voted for their favourite podcasts. It’s free to nominate podcasts. (Podnews would live under “news podcast”, we suppose, not that we’re suggesting, cough).

• Auxbus has started a Kickstarter for a new feature called Auxbus Connect, a way to record remote interviews or co-host a podcast from anywhere in the world.

  
  Aug 17 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
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• General Motors is to bring Amazon Alexa to its cars next year. Any 2018 Cadillac, GMC or Chevrolet vehicle will get the upgrade, according to the manufacturer, which should add podcasts and more audio services to millions of cars.

• Osiris Media, a network of music podcasts, have announced five new shows for Q3.

  • Meanwhile, Tenderfoot TV is to launch its first semi-scripted podcast. Radio Rental will premiere on October 31st.

• Writing in Podcast Movement, Seth Resler and a cast of audio professionals listen to, and critique, The Hidden Entrepreneur.

  
  Aug 17 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Spotify is testing the ability to report podcast episodes and songs, according to Jane Manchun Wong. Reasons given include “hate speech”, “violent or gory content”, and “I just don’t like it”.

• This is nice. A tool to help you find a new podcast, from Canada’s CBC.

• Headliner’s automatic video generation tool now works on mobile phones. Here’s an example automated video.

• ICYMI (and you probably did) - how the Apple Podcast Chart works. Our Editor, from 2016, asks “please can we stop calling it a chart”?

Podcasts

Season three of I Burn Everything, a podcast about food and relationships, has launched. Hosted by actor Stevie Nelson and writer and comic Dave Horwitz, Noël Wells, an actor, writer and musician, is this week’s guest. (Campfire Media / Anchor)

Parcast podcasts are participating in a crossover event, Parcast Presents: Halloween, which is a collection of new episodes of Parcast favourites all about spooky stories and urban legends.

Hormonal is a new podcast from a female health app Clue. The weekly podcast examines the ways in which hormones affect, and are affected by our world - spanning everything from PMS to pollution. It’s hosted by author Rhea Ramjohn. (Libsyn)

Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend returns next week, with comedy heavy hitters such as Paul Rudd, Ellen DeGeneres, David Letterman and Tina Fey. It’s achieved over 55 million downloads and 23,000 ratings and reviews. (Team Coco / Earwolf / ART19)

A new podcast for Halloween, Cryptids tells the story of a conspiracy radio show host and an avid listener who go in search of an afterlife. Instead they find a truth beyond their wildest nightmares. A female-driven scripted scifi drama, it’s releasing a new episode until the end of October. (Podbean)