Pocket Casts begins 'scaling back up'

• Good news - cross-platform podcast app Pocket Casts is “scaling back up”, the company posts in an update. In a comment perhaps aimed at the buggy Apple Podcasts, they’ve revealed that the first thing they’re working on is “how quickly you get new episodes after a podcast author publishes them”. They’re also working on app translations; Emmeline Berry is rejoining the team as Content Curator and Podcaster Liaison.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Sep 6 2023

• Why did Amazon get into podcasting? For a share of its growing ad revenue, according to an interview with Steve Boom, the head of Amazon Music, in Bloomberg Businessweek.

• Paid podcast subscriptions have helped The Tommy, Hector and Laurita Podcast see an increase of 59% in their monthly revenue, according to data shared by Acast today.

  • Acast has also described Triton Digital’s Podcast Ranker as “a pretty average buying tool”: Guy Scott-Wilson was commenting in an Australian interview. Acast doesn’t participate in it.

• For many of us, it’s almost time to renew our membership of The Podcast Academy. The organisation has said that they’ll now renew automatically: you’ll get an email two weeks beforehand.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Sep 6 2023

• Podcast discovery and listening app Moonbeam now offers ratings and reviews powered by Podchaser. It’s the latest company to use Podchaser’s data.

  
  Sep 6 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Triton Digital has introduced a shared listeners tool within podcast host Omny Studio, allowing podcasters to see how many people are listening to more than one show from a publisher. Here’s a deeper dive into the tool.

• Podcasting should be easier than ever for new Blubrry customers: the company has released a new, easy onboarding process to get them started within minutes.

• Podcast production company Resonate has launched its own iOS app, which lets you make production comments on episodes, review and approve them, and record remote interviews.

• Podscribe has an embedded podcast transcript player: we’ve put a recent episode of Podnews on our embedded players page.

• A new podcast report will be released in Germany on Thursday. Hitting the right tone: Germany’s podcast boom will be released by the Otto Brenner Foundation. It’s covered by Berlin’s Der Tagesspiegel (Thanks, Steffen!)

• Dr Greenthumb, a podcast hosted by Cypress Hill’s B-Real, has signed with PodcastOne for sales and distribution. The press release calls it “one of the very first vodcasts”: although it only launched in January 2020.

• iHeartMedia has launched Cool Zone Media, a progressive podcast network from an investigative journalist, Robert Evans.

• The virtual event Share Your Pod happened at the end of July; with more than sixty speakers, their website contains full videos of both days.

• Osman Faruqi has been promoted to Head of Audio at Schwartz Media.

• Thank you to Bradford S for becoming our latest personal supporter. Podnews has many personal supporters who help support our independence: we’re grateful to them. Here are the ways to support us

Tips and tricks

• Evo Terra is trying a system that should boost the listening audience of Podcast Pontifications to 10,000 listeners: but he doesn’t think it’ll work. He appears to have called Tanner Campbell’s bluff. Tanner’s system involves spending $5 a day on Facebook ads. Tanner says: “In one year I won’t promise the audience size will be 10,000, but I will promise that it’s significantly higher than the existing audience size.” 🍿

• Niki Kottmann writes 7 Podcast Automation Tips That Will Save You Time. (We think we’ve automated uploads to YouTube for our podcast today.)

Podcast News

Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - and a stage. The show is to record live onstage in Los Angeles on November 3. Tickets go on sale on Thursday.

The Fboy Podcast is the latest Audioboom Original, and launches on Thursday. The show is hosted by three actors, and promises to give 'plenty of hot takes on all of your favourite characters and pop culture icons, from Harry Potter to Henry VIII’.