A new high for podcast consumption

• More Americans are listening to podcasts every month than ever before, according to The Infinite Dial 2026 from Edison Research at SSRS. The research, with support from SiriusXM Media, was released yesterday afternoon and co-presented by VP Megan Lazovick and Editor of Podnews, James Cridland. It also shows the significant growth of online audio for Americans age 55+. You can watch the full presentation and download all the slides here.

• YouTube announced new “top podcast lineups”. A blog post, which has a YouTube podcasts logo on it, says: "To further serve advertisers looking to tap into the podcast momentum on YouTube, today we’re introducing our US Top Podcasts lineup across key verticals - Sports, News, Comedy, True Crime and Society & Culture - enabling brands to tailor their approach to key podcast verticals.” (We’re not quite sure what this means).

• Steve Ackerman has been appointed a Non-Executive Director of The Podcast Show. Most recently Executive Vice President and Head of Global Podcasts at Sony Music Entertainment, he has had more than thirty years experience across audio in the UK and US. He’s interviewed this week about his new role in the Podnews Weekly Review.

• Substack has launched The Substack Recording Studio. It’s a remote recording tool, and automatically produces auto-generated clips and thumbnails. You can also add logos onto the output.

• BBC Studios and Pushkin will announce a new partnership today at SXSW. The companies are launching Big Lives, a new podcast that will tap into the BBC’s extensive archive to profile iconic figures who have shaped our culture. It’ll be co-hosted by Kai Wright and Emmanuel Dzotsi.

• YMH Studios is to make full multi-platform attribution available permanently free for every advertiser and agency, with Magellan AI Attribution is available across audio, Spotify streaming and YouTube video, with every campaign. The network says its the first to offer this with all campaigns, with no conditions.

• Want to offer your listeners something a little different? Airwave has announced a partnership with Like Minds Travel to organise paid, creator-led tours. The company has already organised sold-out tours for podcasts like The History Chicks and The Bowery Boys.

• Hit show The Magnus Archives is to publish a series of books with Random House Worlds. The first one is out in October.

• Long-running personal finance show The Clark Howard Show has partnered with Airwave for distribution, monetisation and marketing … Airwave has also signed The New Republic’s The Daily Blast, the daily news and politics podcast.

• The ACMA, the Australian media regulator, released new data on viewing and listening to media in the country. Spotify is #1 with 59% of podcast listeners using it; YouTube Music is #2, and Apple Music is at #3 with 13%, which is impressive considering there aren’t any podcasts in it. The regulator says that the number of Australians listening to podcasts each week has remained steady at 52%.

Tips and tricks - with Riverside

• For the weekend, how about a masterclass on how to master the art of podcasting? Award-winning producer Rebecca Sananès talks about the art of conversation, the fundamentals of what you need, but also where the future of podcasting is going.
• Mike McVay has booked a number of guests in his time. Jared Easley listened to McVay sharing his insights at last year’s NAB Show.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: Smart Travel from Nerdwallet helps you get the most out of your travel dollars, your travel pounds, your travel euros and even your travel đồng. The latest show looks at top tips from listener questions.

Adobe has launched a new set of tools, as part of Adobe Podcasts. Jay LeBoeuf chats with Sam Sethi about all the new features, including who they’re for and what they do, in today’s Podnews Weekly Review

Say you’ll share with me one love, one lifetime. In 2023, Broadway’s longest-running show, The Phantom of the Opera, closed for good. Fans mourned, but few were more affected than the people behind the curtain. My Phantom Memory tells the story of Scott Mikita, a swing actor who performed in the show for over twenty years. As dressing rooms empty and final performances draw near, anxious questions arise: What’s going to happen to all this? What did this mean? After 20 years in the same gig, what’s next? An intimate, immersive portrait of the actor’s life from filmmaker Mark Blumberg and the folks at Silver Sound.

Ever wondered how 135 words can ignite wonder in kids and adults? In this week’s Tea, Tales, and Tomes, host Natasha is chatting to New York Times bestselling children’s book author, Beth Ferry. She shares the craft behind her award-winning tales, illustration magic, and weaving science into stories that linger long after the last page.

If you’re making your way to Austin TX this weekend, take some New Podcasts with you. Lots of trailers for shows you know, and shows you don’t yet.

Podcasts in the wild

Look at the outside of the Radio City Music Hall in New York! It’s promoting the Not Another D&D Podcast on April 10th; and Paul Colligan was excited enough to send us a photograph of it. That and a random photograph of the ice-skating outside the Rockefeller Center, which had nothing to do with podcasts really, but it was nice.