Podcast Day Asia launched

• Podcast Day Asia has been announced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Sep 6. A preliminary schedule has been announced, and features Podnews writer Guang Jin Yeo, our Editor James Cridland, Podbean’s Norma Jean Belenky and others. It’s part of the Radiodays Asia conference.

• Westwood One and Signal Hill Insights have released data suggesting that the fourth largest podcast platform is Facebook. The surprising data comes from surveying 608 weekly podcast consumers, and asking them “Which of the following places do you use the most to access the podcasts you listen to?”. Facebook doesn’t have a podcast player: the researchers suggest that it’s where they see promotion for podcasts, rather than actually listen to them.

• Apple has enhanced the search tools on Apple Podcasts, adding nine subcategories, recommendations, and language searches in select countries.

• The Paris Podcast Festival is crowdfunding for its sixth event in October.

• Spotify has redesigned its desktop app.

• Acast launched Acast+ Access, which gives any company with an existing paid subscription offering the ability to add exclusive podcast benefits.

• UK advocacy group Radiocentre has unveiled a new logo and design. The group promotes audio owned and operated by commercial radio broadcasters, including podcasts and on-demand streaming services.

• A new place to distribute your podcast? In-game audio. Europa Universalis IV has integrated two podcasts into the China and Japan expansion packs.

• Audio Hijack has added new features - a parametric EQ, speech denoise, and an FIR filter.

• The owner of the iHeartPodcast Network Australia, ARN Media has bought a 14.7% share of its competitor SCA, which owns LiSTNR. Media ownership laws mean it can’t own more than 15%.

• The CyberWire has published a free eBook, The B2B Marketer’s Guide to Podcast Advertising.

• Congratulations to Joe Rogan, who has just published episode 2000 of his podcast. The show, with Duncan Trussell, is marked as containing views about COVID-19.

Moves and hires

• David Maher Roberts has been appointed as a Board Advisor to Bristol-based branded podcast production company 18Sixty.

Tips and tricks

• Can podcast AI really help me (and you) save time and energy? Claire Waite Brown tested five AI platforms that write show notes, social media captions, and more.

Podcast News

From Red Bull, Mind Set Win's first season, which unlocks the mental tactics used by leading sports professionals and shows how we can apply the same techniques to our daily lives, contained shows that were under fifteen minutes - so a lot of great content was left on the cutting room floor. “UNCUT” are new episodes in the feed that give you the raw, unfiltered shows, and available now.

The Sound Off Podcast has Kattie Laur as a guest this week - the editor of Pod The North. Kattie and host Matt Cundill spoke in depth about the growth of podcasts in Canada, their disjointed start, and the challenges Indigenous podcasters face.

Inside Criminal Justice with Jeff Clayton is new from the American Bail Coalition, and will identify what works in criminal justice reform and what has failed drastically. New episodes will be published monthly, in both audio and video.

The Media Mix is new from veteran journalist Claire Atkinson, delivering exclusive insights into the fast-paced industries of news, tech and marketing. It’s a partnership with Situation Room Studios, the news podcast division of Global Situation Room. Atkinson has nearly 30 years of experience in print and broadcast journalism.

Raffi Krikorian, a former executive at Twitter and Uber as well as former CTO of the Democratic National Committee, is the host of Technically Optimistic which launches today - examining the use of technology for good, with a particular focus on AI and its potential to transform society.

A new season of horror drama podcast Undertow has been released. “What happened all those years ago in the old abandoned well now returns to threaten Lizzie -- and her entire world” - it’ll be released weekly. The show, created by Fred Greenhalgh, is from Realm.

This podcast studio is better than yours

The studio Red Bull used for Mind Set Win (mentioned above) is, in no way overkill for an interview podcast recording.

Podcast promotion in the wild

On 220 sites this week across the UK, Acast is promoting “the best of our femalte fronted podcasts”. The ads say “listen on any app; advertise only through Acast”.