Joe Rogan renews; no exclusivity

• The world’s #1 podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience has renewed with Spotify. The show will no longer be exclusive: and will ‘soon’ be made available on additional platforms like Apple, Amazon and YouTube.

  • Spotify tells Podnews that The Joe Rogan Experience podcast saw a 45% increase in revenue in 2023; and since the podcast went exclusive to Spotify, overall podcast consumption on the platform has increased by 232%. The company also tells us that: “his guests, often fellow podcasters, have seen on average a 47% increase in engagement on their own podcasts following their appearance on JRE”.
  • Terms of the deal weren’t given; the Wall Street Journal suggests the deal is worth as much as $250mn; however, Spotify told The Guardian that figure was incorrect.

• Spotify does still have exclusives. The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark is described as a “Spotify Audio Series”, and is not available outside of the Spotify platform. It’s part of Spotify’s multi-year agreement with DC and Warner Bros. We did note at the time that the press release studiously avoided using the word “podcast”.

• First look: Rhapsody Voices and Airship have announced a new true-crime podcast, American Criminal. The show, to be hosted by Jeremy Schwartz, goes live on Feb 29.

• First look: Audacy has renewed its relationship with Veritonic for brand lift and creative measurement.

• The school bell? The school podcast, more like. Over a hundred New York City schools are to replace the traditional school bell with a bite-sized educational podcast instead.

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• New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about AMA’s dynamic digital audio ads - which can now contain up to 100,000 locations. The feature offers “precise targeting through either latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates or ZIP codes”.

• UK audio trade association AudioUK has launched its 2024 manifesto for UK podcast, radio and audiobook producers, to help UK political parties to support the audio industry; it’s an election year in the country.

• Many creators are unaware of the concept of brand suitability, which is often used against them to exclude their content from advertising opportunities, according to the MOSAIC Collective - which has been launched to help diverse creators connect with brand advertisers.

In Brisbane, Australia? Well, there’s a coincidence: so are we. The co-host of the Podnews Weekly Review, Sam Sethi, is also in the country; and will be coming up to Brisbane next week. Want to come for a beer?

The Tech Stuff - with RSS․com

• As part of a renewed education process around “new podcast apps” and Podcasting 2.0, Phantom Power Music is a new company for music artists wanting to use “value4value” podcasts and streaming services. The FAQ is worth a read.

• Tip: don’t talk back to Apple Podcast’s transcription engine. It doesn’t like it. (Yes, you, Adam Curry)

Tips and tricks - with Podpage

• How long should a podcast be? We’ve some data, some mathematical argument, and other points of view.

• Is your podcast too quiet? We can help - all you need is LUFS. LUFS is all you need.

Moves and hires

• Audiomy, the German language podcast media buyer agency, has hired Sven Westermann as Head of Sales.

• Blue Wire has made a number of promotions. Andrew Rotondi was named Chief Operating Officer, Luke Pagano was named Chief Revenue Officer and Brittany Machado was named Senior Vice President of Business Affairs.

Podcast News

Hosted by Stanford Strategic Communication lecturer Matt Abrahams, Think Fast, Talk Smart discusses real-world communication challenges to provide tips and tricks to help hone and develop your communication skills. The Webby award-winning show (which is measured by OP3) has just hit 42 million downloads, we’re told.

The Anxiety Coaches Podcast has just published episode 1,000. Hosted by Gina Ryan, in the 1,000th episode she shares how, at the age of 60, she took over the podcast when the existing hosts didn’t want to continue publishing.

The richest person of all time, an African king, gave away so much gold that it caused Cairo’s economy to crash… for over a decade. The first woman on to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List was a Black Panther. Black History, For Real is new today from Wondery, a weekly podcast series that chronicles Black trials and triumphs you’ve never heard about.

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