Bookmarks for Pocket Casts

• Popular podcast app Pocket Casts has added a bookmarks feature, letting premium users mark those parts of podcasts they want to come back to later. You can add bookmarks from the app or directly through your headphones. The Android app is also to display episode artwork in more places.

• Exclusive: In Australia, we’ve had a number of tipoffs suggesting that the Australian ABC will be listed in November’s Australian Podcast Ranker, which is released tomorrow. It’s one of the country’s biggest podcast producers.

• On Musk with Walter Isaacson launches today on open RSS in most markets from iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope (as below) - but in an interesting development, the show will be exclusive on Podimo in five European markets (Denmark, Norway, Germany, The Netherlands, and Finland).

• Warner Bros Discovery is to partner with Spotify’s Megaphone and SPAN for podcast distribution and monetisation. Other WBD podcasts signed with Acast in September.

• In an unusual development for this quarter, Spotify has announced it is not going to close something: the app will continue to be available in Uruguay. A change in copyright law meant the service was to close in February, but Spotify says it now has clarification from the government as to the new law.

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• Over 70% of Apple Podcasts users now have iOS 17, reports John Spurlock’s Livewire. It suggests a drop of around 7-8% of share of downloads (but we also know there are fewer downloads too).

• Musixmatch has launched Podcasts Premium, a tool that gives automatic transcripts, video clips to share your podcast to social media, newsletters and other offers. It’s at a 50% saving as an early access offer.

• Podscribe has added “performance breakouts” to its ad analytics tool, allowing you to see how your campaign is doing across a number of different dimensions.

• The initial program for On Air Fest in Brooklyn has been announced. The event, for audio storytelling, will be held Feb 28-Mar 1.

• The Weather Channel Radio Network and Skyview Networks have renewed and expanded their partnership. Skyview will now represent The Weather Channel’s podcasts.

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Podcast News

The finale episode of audio fiction podcast Underwater has just been published. It stars Jason Derulo and Alexandra Shipp, and is from Warner Music Group’s (WMG) in-house podcast network Interval Presents. It’s the last of eight episodes.

WNYC’s Death, Sex & Money, which ends in its current form this month, held an event last weekend which was reported by The New Yorker. Host Anna Sale told the room: “I’m not dead, the members of the ‘Death, Sex & Money’ team are not dead, and we don’t even know if the show is dead.”

The man who single-handedly destroyed Twitter? Or a visionary? On Musk with Walter Isaacson is new from iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope. Evan Ratliff (“Mastermind,” “Longform” Podcast) sits down with Isaacson to draw out the behind-the-scenes stories of this epic biography, and what the writer has learned as an outsider inside Silicon Valley.

Podcast promotion in the wild

The Grinch popped his eyes. Then he shook. A surprise! At Westfield Century City.

A pop-up store, see? From the folks at Wond’ry. With QR codes, swag… what a pity!

For he looked and he saw, it ends Dec 24. In Los Angeles you might spot him,

But you’ll have to be quick, until the day of Saint Nick. Thanks to Tony for doing his shopping.

Spot some marketing for podcasts in the real world? Hit reply and send us a (landscape) photograph.