Acast turns up criticism of Spotify’s ad analytics

• Acast’s Ross Adams and Podscribe’s Pete Birsinger are the guests on the Podnews Weekly Review this week, explaining Acast’s recent decision to stop accepting Spotify Ad Analytics and instead to offer Podscribe for free, along with using a number of other attribution partners. Ross tells us: “Relying solely on a one-publisher environment for data aggregation could, we believe, introduce bias and self-promotion. That hinders the objective analysis of data. Podscribe, it’s worth noting, doesn’t sell media. Spotify does.” The interview is in full in the Podnews Weekly Review.

• Triton Digital released its US Podcast Ranker for August. There were two new entries in the podcast list, which measures participating publishers.

• Tip: we hear that the first-ever Edison Podcast Metrics ranker for the UK will be published in The Observer on Sunday.

• Spotify announced their newest Batman show, “The Riddler: Secrets In The Dark” will debut exclusively on the platform on Tuesday Oct 10. The press release is notable in not using the word “podcast” at all; the text on the artwork reads “A Spotify Audio Series”.

• Daniel J Lewis’s My Podcast Reviews is set to have an upgrade - and a new name: Podgagement. The service has had a full rewrite; signing up before launch gets you the current, lower, price.

• The hosts of Strike Force Five have cancelled a planned benefit show in Las Vegas tomorrow. Jimmy Kimmel has COVID. The show earns money for the late-night show hosts’ employees who are impacted by the Hollywood writers’ strike.

• Kym Treasure from Audacia Audio writes in ExchangeWire about the significance of digital audio advertising in today’s dynamic marketing landscape.

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Tips & Tricks

• Riverside’s Stephen Robles looks at the big changes in iOS 17's Apple Podcasts in a fancy video. As the podcast app responsible for more plays than any other, it’s worthwhile tweaking what you do to make sure it looks great.

Podcast News - with Airwave

From the Airwave Podcast Network: IGN Daily Update is IGN’s daily update on the world of video games, movies, and television, featuring the latest news, previews, and reviews. It recently looked at announcements from Nintendo and Playstation, as well as the success of The Little Mermaid on Disney+.

Even accountants find it hard to get on top of their personal finances: and caba, an occupational charity, has launched The Cash Conversation to help. New research suggests that almost half of all young accountants experience anxiety around their financial security. The show is weekly and launched this week.

Small Town Dicks is back for a thirteenth series. It’s co-hosted by Yeardley Smith (the iconic voice of Lisa Simpson), identical twin detectives Dan and Dave, and acclaimed Cold Case investigator, NYT best-selling author, and true crime expert Paul Holes. The podcast explores big-time crime in small towns through in-depth, first-hand accounts from the detectives that cracked each case.