NPR's RAD analytics standard goes live

• NPR’s RAD, a method of measuring consumption data for podcasts, has launched. A blog post describes the companies NPR have worked with to get to this point. There is also a tech spec website, including a simple introduction. NPR say they will soon release a web-based tool to help create RAD-compliant podcasts. The NPR One app for Android works with RAD today.

  • RAD works by podcasters adding specific time markers ('tags’) to things they want consumption data on - a story, an ad, a section - and a tracking server to send anonymised data to. RAD-aware podcast players send data back to publishers, so you know how many people have heard those bits of your podcast.

  • Podtrac has announced support for RAD, and their own RAD beta is open for signup. Other companies who’ve said they’ll support it are Acast, AdsWizz, ART19, Awesound, Blubrry Podcasting, Panoply, Omny Studio, Podtrac, PRX, RadioPublic, Triton Digital, and WideOrbit.

    
    Aug 8 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• More on RAD: Developers will find RAD tags in the wild within the Space Economics episode of The Indicator. (They look like this). We’ve also tagged yesterday’s Podnews podcast up with it as a separate download; we’ve tagged every story for fun, and written our own tracking server to collect the data. We plan to support it as part of our daily publishing process if we can automate that.

  • Apple, Google and Spotify have yet to comment about whether they’ll support RAD. It’s fairly clear that Overcast’s Marco Arment won’t: he commented earlier this year that “Big data ruined the web, and I’m not going to help bring it to podcasts. Publishers already get enough from Apple to inform ad rates and make content decisions — they don’t need more data from my customers. Podcasting has thrived, grown, and made tons of money for tons of people under the current model for over a decade. We already have all the data we need.”

• One in six British drivers listen to podcasts and music instead of radio, claims a survey done for car manufacturer Nissan. “Music, comedy and sport were the top podcast topics to listen to during a commute.” Meanwhile, separate data from the US suggests that 25% of US commuters listen to podcasts and music.

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• WNYC has won two duPont-Columbia Awards for digital journalism: for Trump, Inc., and juvenile justice podcast Caught.

• Podsights Research has been made free for everyone. The product continuously samples episodes from hundreds of podcasts, and offers insight into how brands use them to advertise. Their announcement notes that Apple advertised using podcasting briefly at the end of September.

• Podbean has released a new PodAds affiliate program, with commissions for referring podcast advertisers and up to $100 credit to referred advertisers. PodAds is Podbean’s smart podcast advertising platform.

• Podcast recommendation website piqd has launched piqd pennies, a way of encouraging use of the platform. “Once you’ve collected enough, you can redeem them for books, cash, and other cool prizes,” says an email sent to members.

• TuneIn is now reporting a distinct useragent for iOS - we’ve seen TuneIn%20Radio%20Pro/1136 CFNetwork/975.0.3 Darwin/18.2.0 recently, while reader Jay also reports seeing TuneIn%20Radio/1125 CFNetwork/901.1 Darwin/17.6.0. The TuneIn Android app is still claiming it’s Lavf/57.25.100 however. We’ve updated our useragent table (which now has a “last updated” date on it).

• The European Radio Show 2019 (Paris, France 24-26 Jan) will have a special podcast exhibitors area. Zoom, Samson and the Paris Podcast Festival appear to be exhibitors.

• Cabana looks back at 2018 in podcasting, using the medium of animated GIFs. (We still have thirteen issues to go, Cabana. Lots might happen!)

Podcasts

Nothing Much Happens, “bedtime stories for grownups” hosted by meditation specialist Kathryn Nicolai, has joined Corus Entertainment’s CuriousCast. It’s the network’s first alternative health podcast.

Ira Glass is interviewed by Alex Blumberg on the latest episode of Without Fail.

Cook and supermarket salesman Jamie Oliver has launched Jamie’s Christmas Cracker, which promises listeners “all the tips they need to ensure their Christmas feast is a cracker”. (Acast)

Baby, it’s cold outside is a three-part audio drama in association with UK homelessness charity, Crisis. It stars Chris O’Dowd and Anne-Marie Duff. (Duck Soup Films / Storyglass / Acast)