
A new dawn: Kast Media out of bankruptcy
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As we suggested last week, podcast studio Kast Media has announced it has emerged from Chapter 11 restructuring with “overwhelming support” of its creditors. As Podnews covered, the company continued to trade through the process, which founder Colin Thomson says was “heavily scrutinized”. Thomson has become Chief Creative Officer; Kast Media’s new CEO will be Matty Staudt who joins from iHeart, Stitcher, and Jam Street Media.
- Kast has also published a Platform for Advertiser-to-Creator Transparency, which it describes as an “operational structure that provides our creators with visibility and protection of fund flow each step of the way”. It follows posts from founder Colin Thomson, one explaining what happened to Kast, and another discussing how creators are paid, and proposing a new set of protective standard practices that better care for creators. Whatever you might think of Thomson - he appeared to threaten us as we reported the initial story - it’s an open and illuminating set of posts.
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“If we don’t nail this, we’ll be essentially telling podcasters that their only real options for podcast video are YouTube and Spotify.” The Podcast Standards Project has published its thinking behind HLS delivery of video podcasting via open RSS. Benefits include one RSS feed that can contain both audio and video; and adaptive quality for all consumers, as well as potentially producing consumption analytics, and lowering bandwidth bills. HLS streams can still be downloadable if required.
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Wondercraft has launched “Convo Mode”, which it describes as realistic AI dialogue for podcasts, ads and training. The tool is similar to NotebookLM, but allows you to edit the output and its length, and customise the voices.
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Nominations open for The People’s Choice Podcast Awards in just under a month: time to register your podcast if you’ve not already done so, we’re told.
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Further reading:
- “How podcasts stole the show, and why distributors should steal it back” - a critique, by Erik Felderhof, of TV buyers missing the opportunities in podcasting.
- IAB numbers may be imperfect, but they are transparent, standardised and open, says Spreaker’s Emanuele Rampichini - who compares it with Spotify’s opaque, closed, metrics.
- In the world of true-crime podcasting, brand safety is scary stuff says Marketing Brew. It suggests that the Spotify Partner program can help true-crime creators, since it’s less reliant on overly-squeamish advertisers.
- Stop podcasts now! rages The California Aggie. “Podcasting is dangerous. It’s an indulgence of the ego!” Fair.
Thank you to the developer of Podcast Addict, Xavier Guillemane, for becoming our latest personal supporter. Podcast Addict is the #1 independent podcast app on Android, with a wealth of features and opportunities to market your show. It’s supporters like Xavier who allow Podnews to be free for everyone - and to fight for open podcasting everywhere. You could join him here.
Moves and hires
- In Australia, SCA has made a number of changes to the leadership team of LiSTNR, its proprietary audio app, including promotions for Grant Tothill, Sam Cavanagh and Mike Williams.
Tips and tricks - with Memberful
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Is it worth being a podcast guest? Here’s how to measure your ROI as a podcast guest, according to PodWritten.
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Is it costly to podcast? Rachel Corbett points out some of the hidden costs of podcasting.
Podcast News










Companies mentioned above:Campside Media
IAB
Kast Media
SCA
Spotify
Stitcher
Wondercraft
YouTube
Podcast data for Jun 3
#1 in Apple Podcasts The Best People with Nicolle Wallace (MSNBC)
安住紳一郎の日曜天国 (TBS RADIO)
#1 in Spotify The Joe Rogan Experience (Joe Rogan)
霜降り明星のオールナイトニッポン (ニッポン放送)
Over the last week, 202,433 podcasts published at least one new episode (up 0.9%). source
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