New UK podcast consumption data shows record listening

• In the UK, 18% of British adults - over 10.1m people - now listen to podcasts every week, according to new data from audio measurement company RAJAR. Podcasts are now more popular than CDs or peoples’ own MP3 music collection, according to the study. The full data is on RAJAR’s website: fieldwork was carried out in February, before the coronavirus pandemic.

• Australian audio equipment company RØDE have published a free ambisonic sound library, and DAW plugin. “Ambisonics is a 360° surround sound format that, unlike conventional stereo and surround sound, records the full directivity information for every soundwave that hits the microphone – including, crucially, height information. Once captured, ambisonic recordings can be manipulated in post-production to create any 360° surround soundscape desirable,” says the company, which makes a suitable microphone.

• Megaphone is apparently moving offices in Reston VA, USA, to a building looking like a sandcrawler from Star Wars. They’ll join up to 1,500 salvaged droids the folks from Google, who are the anchor tenant.

• We got the wrong link to this the other day: Buzzsprout’s article on How to monetise your podcast.

Four new products called Pod-something

• Podgala is a just-launched service that promises to “turns your podcast into a multimedia content gala”, with transcriptions, blog posts, video highlights and email lists.

• Podurama is a new cross-platform podcast player with data sync, available on web, Windows, Mac OS and iOS (and apparently coming soon to Android).

• Podio is a new open source podcast player for the web. (It uses the Apple Podcasts API).

• Podjobs isn’t new, but it is a fine (and free) place to post jobs in the podcast industry. Current jobs include some from Spotify, Gimlet, Apple and NPR.

Podcast News

In Australia, Anzac Day 2020 is tomorrow; but social distancing rules mean that Australians are unable to join ceremonies across the country to pay their respects. Queensland podcast The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove have produced a secular service to listen to, including a Catafalque Party, the Ode, the Last Post and importantly… a minutes silence.
This link is no longer available, as at Aug 23 2023

Previously driving from San Diego to Seattle via independent coffee shops, The Cross Country Coffee Roadshow is now focusing on the effect that the coronavirus is having on this formerly thriving industry, owners and guests.