Podcast Movement NYC releases full schedule

• The full schedule for Podcast Movement NYC has been published on the website. There are announcements still to come for the keynote sessions. We’re told that the event will be using Swapcard, as previous years, so you’ll have an app to plan it all. Tickets are still available.

• Podbean podcasters were given a shock this week, as the company rolled out new filters to its download analytics “designed to identify and filter AI and crawler-related traffic” - but the change marked all downloads from Apple Podcasts as invalid, causing a significant decrease in reported numbers to its customers. Podnews has seen data from some podcasts showing hundreds of plays on Apple Podcasts Connect, but apparently zero downloads to Apple Podcasts in Podbean’s analytics dashboard during the same time period. One support email says: “We recently pushed an update to mitigate disingenuous traffic from accessing podcasts on our side. Unfortunately, this inadvertently also affected the genuine traffic reporting. It has been advised that we rolled back our current update.” If a rollback has happened, no change has been visible in the numbers as yet.

  • Podbean is certified compliant with IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2.2, and was last certified in January. However, it seems that a company is able to significantly change its podcast measurement toolset without affecting its published IAB Tech Lab certification.

• RØDE released the DS3, a new desktop studio arm. It’s capable of holding a microphone weighing 1.5kg, and doesn’t need a desk clamp.

• In a recent communication from Apple Podcasts, a reminder of a useful stat about followers that the company released in 2023: “Followers typically listen or watch your show regularly. On average, users who follow a show on Apple Podcasts listen to 80% more of the show than users who do not follow the show.”

• Oxford Road released an update to its list of the most effective comedy podcasts to advertise in. Crash Dummies gets the #1 slot.

• A website called “PodSubs” sent us a press release wanting our promotion: it apparently runs newsletters for podcasts. The website certainly looked nice - but a closer look revealed that none of the examples on the website actually worked, the “PodSubs has been featured in…” press links were entirely made-up publications that didn’t exist, the “real PodSubs pages” didn’t actually exist either (despite apparently having more than 4,000 customers), and the whole website’s layout, colours and fonts seemed remarkably similar to Podpage - except Podpage actually exists (and, guess what, offers email mailing list integration). PodSub’s author has evasively responded to our questions through a verbose AI bot; and removed its company name from its terms of use after we started asking why the referenced company didn’t exist. In our opinion: run, run away.

• Digital audio editor Ardour has released v9.8. The tool is open source, though prebuilt versions are paid-for (as little as $1 a month).

• iHeart’s The Martha Stewart Podcast launches on Netflix tomorrow. The show was first announced to be moving onto Netflix in June.

• Signings and launches: Vox Media Podcast Network launched Monday Music Club with Will Anderson. Each week, Anderson will explore the stories behind iconic songs, legendary artists, and the creative forces that have transformed music and culture … HeadStuff Network added The Seán Chorus, a brand-new weekly podcast hosted by Cork-born ornithologist and wildlife sound recordist Seán Ronayne … Amplitude Media Partners have signed the hit true crime podcast Criminology. The show is nine years old, and has more than 400 episodes.

• Further reading: while on the face of it, not much to do with podcasting, the co-founder of the British Podcast Awards and host of The Media Club, Matt Deegan, has written a full proposal for what UK public media should look like in the coming years. “This is not a plan to save the BBC. It is an attempt to decide what public media Britain needs next.” It’s also an interactive essay worth reading for anyone trying to argue a big plan.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Movement NYC

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: The Family Road Trip Podcast might save your sanity this weekend, with weekly trivia fun for everyone while you’re stuck in the traffic (or worrying how much the fuel will cost)

Emma Paton is the new lead host of The Athletic’s football show The Athletic FC Podcast.

For twenty years, the United States Marine Corps has tried to bury the truth about Haditha. In 2005, 24 civilians were killed by a squad of United States Marines in the Iraqi city of Haditha, a massacre that became one of the most notorious and controversial incidents of the war. Fault Line: Haditha is new this week from iHeartPodcasts: Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Michael Epstein delivers a gripping investigative series that finally reveals the truth about the Haditha Massacre and the government cover-up that followed.

On Toy Heart, CBC radio host Tom Power (“q”) presents conversations with with bluegrass greats like Del McCoury, Alice Gerrard, and Jerry Douglas. In a special episode, Power welcomes modern bluegrass legend Billy Strings in front of a live audience at IBMA World of Bluegrass in Chattanooga, TN. Strings talks openly about poverty, addiction in his family, and the role music played as a coping mechanism and survival tactic.

Ella Watts (Doctor Who: Redacted, Camlann, Eliza: A Robot Story) and Naomi Clarke (The Secret of St Kilda) join the writers’ room for I Need A Miracle season 2, if the production can hit its crowdfunding goal by 1 October. Also on board to write episodes for the second season are Bel Lazarus (Radio San Lazaro), Rhys Lawton (star of Ethics Town and writer of the experimental flash fiction series Paddleboat), and improviser and horror storyteller Fiona K.T. Howat.

Call 'Em Like Museum with Eric Johnson debuts this week with a provocative question: What’s the point of going to a museum? Historian Susan Crane talks about how museums & their visitors have been changed by technology, why the Mona Lisa only got famous after it was stolen, and what you need to understand about the Trump administration’s efforts to censor the Smithsonian.

In the start-up tech leaders podcast Code Story this week, the show kicks off Season 13 featuring Dave Garcia, Co-CEO of Pensero, telling us all about why the AI token winter is coming.