Joe Budden to leave Spotify

• Joe Budden won’t re-sign his exclusive Spotify deal, according to his latest episode. In a 114 minute segment, he complains variously that he has been “pillaged” by the company, that he didn’t like the host-read advertising and refused to do any, that he wasn’t paid a bonus that he believed he was entitled to, that he wasn’t allowed any vacation, and that Bill Simmons called him to question why he’d taken time off when his father was ill. We’ve a rough machine transcript of his comments. Billboard reports that Budden was offered a significantly larger deal by Spotify, which he declined.

  
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• The IAB Tech Lab has released a guidance notice about Apple Watches resulting in inflated podcast numbers. We reported this behaviour on June 12. Any downloads to the Apple Watch will “no longer be counted toward any totals reported for the podcasting industry” from October 1. Legitimate downloads from Outcast, an Apple Watch app, may now be invisible to podcast hosts.

• NBC Universal spent $822,000 on podcast advertising in July says Magellan AI: the company was promoting their new Peacock streaming service.

• iHeartMedia has signed an agreement with US sportscaster Dan Patrick for a slate of shows on The Dan Patrick Podcast Network.

• Ashley Graham Is Launching an Instagram Live Series All About Podcasts reports Marie Claire.

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• The Bello Collective interviews Carolina Guerrero and Daniel Alarcón, who came up with the idea for Radio Ambulante - and highlights the growing audience for Spanish language podcasts in the US.

• Produce an Arabic podcast? Dubai-based Finyal Media is running a talent hunt to join their network.

• Yesterday, we said that the first podcast sponsorship from Chevrolet was with Blue Wire Media. It wasn’t (though it’s a good client to have) - here’s a sponsored podcast from Chevrolet in April 2016. Sorry.

Thank you to Ampel, 'Creating productions for companies that audiences love’, for becoming our latest supporter. They’re based in Sydney NSW, Australia, and they’ve helped us spend much too long on Joe Budden’s show today. You can be like them.

Tips and tricks - with Spotify for Podcasters

• How to Use Your Existing Podcast’s Platform to Discuss Current Events (Jamila Souffrant of Journey to Launch & Stephen Hart of Trailblazers·fm, at Podcast Movement’s Shift 2020 event).
• Your podcast doesn’t suck: it just needs un-stuck says Evo Terra.

This link is no longer available, as at Aug 27 2023

Podcast News

PBS’s science series NOVA has a new podcast, NOVA Now, which launches today. The first episode has an in-depth examination of the technology and systems behind mail-in voting ahead of the 2020 election. The host is Dr Alok Patel; it’s being made by WGBH and PRX.

Also from WGBH, All Rev’d Up - where faith intersects politics and culture - is back for a new season. The first episode is with Kamala Harris, as the first Black woman on a presidential ticket.

On The Mic, “A Podcast About the Business of Podcasting and Audio Advertising” from Ad Results Media, is in the middle of a three-part series about women in podcasting; the hosts of LadyGang are in the latest episode.