Podcasting world converges on LA

• Podfront LA is happening tomorrow morning in Los Angeles: eight podcast networks will be announcing new shows, and Edison Research’s Tom Webster will be giving an opening keynote. The event is at Century City in Los Angeles: we’ll have details of the announcements later. Podcast Movement Evolutions is later this week.

• Westwood One has released new research into What agencies and advertisers say is needed to achieve $2bn in podcast ad revenue. The data says that podcasting needs to achieve 44% monthly reach in order to get there: it’s currently at 32%.

• Tomorrow is Africa Podcast Day, a day to celebrate and commemorate African podcasts—and the people who make them. You’ll see some activity on the #AfricaPodcastDay hashtag. Next month, Africa’s first podcast festival Africa Podfest will be in Nairobi, Kenya.

  
  Aug 21 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• What was the most popular topic on health-related podcasts? Babylon, a health app, listened to them all to discover. Bad news for kale fans: it’s only the seventh most popular topic.

• Enterprise podcast host Megaphone has opened an office in Germany, officially launching its expansion into Europe.

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• Clever idea: Headliner have produced a Chrome extension to get their product into Soundcloud. The extension adds a Headliner button, for you to make video sharing clips of your SoundCloud audio.

  
  Aug 21 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Acast have improved their embedded player, adding a subscribe button as well as more advanced customisation.

• Hindenburg, who make audio editing tools, are once more celebrating World Radio Day (Feb 13) with discounts and a donation of 10% of all sales to the Cultural Survival charity. So far, the company has raised over US$21,700. (So - hold out on that upgrade until then!)

• In London, Podcast Live have announced a new live podcasting event: Podcast Live: Crime. It will be held in Whitechapel, probably the most famous crime scene in history. You can see three podcast live shows on two different nights.

From the new book Make Noise by Eric Nuzum, available now

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Podcast News

Launching tomorrow, Finding a Unicorn is a new podcast about the highs and lows of the dating world. It must be nearly Valentine’s Day. (NOVA Entertainment / Acast)

Love Letters to Kellie is also launching tomorrow, and is also a relationships podcast: this time, Kellie Rasberry is launching her hit segment from the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show into a podcast - featuring “letters from listeners who are in need of advice from the Love Expert”. (YEA Networks / Megaphone)

Citizen Critic features Scott Janovitz and Greg Conley discussing “beloved slices of pop culture”, like the 1989 Batman film. It’s also new this week. (Double Elvis Productions / iHeartRadio / Megaphone)

Over the Road is a podcast telling stories of long-haul truckers - all of whom have plenty of time to listen to podcasts. There’s a difference between a ‘bedbugger’ and a ‘dock-bumper,’ we’re told, and this podcast will probably help with that. (Overdrive Magazine / Radiotopia / PRX)