Libsyn podcast revenue up 16% in Q1 2019

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• The largest independent podcast host Libsyn has released its Q1 earnings report. Libsyn’s podcast revenue increased by 16% to $3.3m (and, including Pair Networks, the company got $6.28m in revenue, up 24% year-on-year). Libsyn now hosts 62,000 shows (and 4.9m media files); it claims it’s responsible for around 35% of the Apple Podcasts top 200, and delivered over 5.1 billion downloads in 2018.

  
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• Dominick Milano has joined audio advertising platform Targetspot as Vice President Business Development in North America. He was formerly a senior leader at Triton Digital.

• The iHeartRadio app now offers over 250,000 podcasts, the company has said. (One of them is us.) By comparison, Apple Podcasts has over 700,000 podcasts.

• The BBC has switched its domestic news bulletin on smart speakers - which was mainly a version of the pacy news bulletin on BBC Radio 5 Live - to one being produced especially for smart speakers. (Tip: you’ll find an update from LBC on your smart speaker as well.)

• Podcast host Simplecast spent a week off-site recently, and posted their insights from it.

• Pandora has a new, native Mac app, but it comes… without podcasts. (We’re on Pandora).

• Erik Diehn, the CEO of Stitcher, was interviewed on Yahoo Finance recently, talking about podcasting after Game of Thrones.

• This week on Luminary, co-creator of Slow Burn, Leon Neyfakh, releases a new podcast, Fiasco, which dives deep into the untold stories of the 2000 Gore v. Bush recount in a 6-episode narrative series.

• Podcast Day from Radiodays Europe, in London this June, is coming. We asked if we could extend our discount code - apparently we can, until Friday. Subscribe to our newsletter, and we’ll send it to you tomorrow - you can save €100.

• The amount of babies called Alexa has halved in four years, reports Statistia.

Podcasts

Our Editor, James Cridland, is featured in the latest edition of PodLords, from Jim Harold. Discussed is the influx of large companies into podcasting, the continued importance of indies and why we should be optimistic about the future.

The University of Chicago’s Big Brains interviews Eric Oliver, a political science professor who for decades has studied conspiracy theories and the people who believe them - from the birther movement and the people who think the FDA knows the cure for cancer but aren’t telling anyone.

The Alien Chronicles is an independent podcast focusing on immigration, with interviews that try to unravel the complexities of being an immigrant in the US. With the aim of building bridges and understanding, it’s hosted by Saadia Khan, a Pakistani American living in New York.