High profile creators leave Patreon
This article is at least a year old
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Patreon, a crowd-funding platform used by many podcasters, has removed a number of far-right creators including Milo Yiannopoulos and Carl Benjamin, a YouTuber known as Sargon of Akkad, for what Patreon claims is hate speech. (Last year, the company’s CEO Jack Conte explained when Patreon removes creator pages, using “manifest observable behaviour”). However, Sam Harris, host of The Waking Up Podcast, one of the top-grossing Patreon creators, has deleted his account in response, accusing the company of political bias; and other Patreon creators, Dave Rubin and Jordan Petersen, have promised to build an alternative platform “that will not be susceptible to arbitrary censorship”. There are reports of many Patreon supporters leaving the platform in protest.
Aug 8 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.- If any of our Patreon supporters wish us to bill them directly, we’ve worked out an alternative if you want it. Please mail updates@podnews.net and let us know.
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Yesterday, we reported that Apple Podcasts has mysteriously removed many reviews and ratings from their service. Those that contacted us reported losing around half their ratings and reviews; issues were seen throughout the whole App Store, not just for podcasts. Some noted that review removals were seemingly at random, and not related to a purge on automated or spammy reviews. At time of going to press, podcasters report that their ratings are back to normal.
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Are they actually important - do you need ratings and reviews to get into the What’s Hot section in Apple Podcasts? - Daniel J Lewis has been checking the data, and he knows the answer.
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Adam Curry has railed against NPR’s RAD podcast analytics (Dec 12) in his No Agenda podcast, calling it “completely stupid”. Meanwhile, surprisingly to many, Pocket Casts have confirmed that they have no plans to include RAD in their roadmap - the podcast app is part-owned by NPR.
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TNT and Cadence13 are launching a companion podcast to a crime television drama I Am The Night. The podcast, called Root of Evil, will be eight episodes focusing on the real story and real people behind the dramatized crime series.
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The Australian ABC post an article on why women are fuelling the growth of true-crime podcasts. “The more informed I am about crime, the more safe and empowered I feel,” says an interviewee.
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Joe Rogan has reached out to Kanye West to interview him on mental health. Rogan has one of the most listened-to podcasts in the world; West is keen to have a “serious interview”.
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We’ve just discovered Due Credit, a newsletter highlighting good podcasts and newsletters, aimed at people “who could use some help developing a healthier news diet”. We’ve added it to our list of podcast recommendation newsletters.
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Resonate Recordings have added a tutorial on how to use Audacity for your podcast.
Stats and data
- 20% of people in Peru listen to podcasts, according to an article in El Comercio.
Radio vs Podcasting
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Time-shifted audio demands some respect, argues Steven Goldstein, saying that “In many circles time-shifted audio is the Rodney Dangerfield of podcasting”. (Rodney Dangerfield was apparently a US comic famous for a catchphrase “I don’t get no respect”; he died in 2004.) The respect Goldstein wants for podcasting is from the radio community, who don’t always see the benefit of podcasting: he argues it helps them.
This link is no longer available, as at Aug 8 2023 -
Is it radio, or is it a podcast? argues Francisco Izuzquiza. The Google Translate of this article includes the excellent phrase “Let’s turn this omlette around”.
Aug 8 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
Podcasts
Companies mentioned above:
Apple
Apple Podcasts
Cadence13
Google
NPR
Pocket Casts
