Apple slow to update new episodes (and why it doesn't matter much)

• Apple Podcasts is currently being slow at updating new episodes: some podcasters reporting a delay of a number of days for new episodes to appear. “Our engineers are working to resolve this issue,” an email from Apple says, adding “we do not have an estimate as to when the issue will be resolved”. However - the delay only affects users who aren’t subscribed, including Apple Podcasts Preview on the web. Your subscribers are unaffected - they grab new episodes directly from your podcast host. So everyone’s cool.

• It’s a year since Luminary’s launch, which was a bit rocky. The company has spoken to Bloomberg, who has rewarded them with a headline calling it “a dim first year”. “Luminary has managed to grow its subscriber base by 14% in the past six weeks during the lockdown”, according to the company. Simon Sutton, who’s been CEO since October, concludes: “It’s inevitable that this business model will succeed”, though the article notes a change of strategy, with less money being available for scripted content.

• Got a beefy Nvidia RTX video card? Why not use it to remove background noise from your recordings? Nvidia RTX Voice uses artificial intelligence to work out which is your voice, and which is the clack-clack of your keyboard. This review seems glowing.

• Shelby Church, a YouTuber, posts how much she’s paid by YouTube for a video viewed a million times.

• Spotify has added a 'donate’ button: but only for music artists. There is a de-facto donation standard for podcasts, which Spotify don’t yet support.

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• The Google Podcasts iOS app gets a glowing review from TNW.

• What are the next 1,000,000 podcasts going to look like? Nick Hilton guesses that average length will significantly decrease, and fewer will be in English.

Tips and tricks

• How to improve your podcast’s audio in three easy steps (Malcolm Owen-Flood)
• Best practice for recording and producing podcasts from home (Omny Studio)

Podcast News

Congratulations to Darknet Diaries who were the winners of 'best podcast’ in The Shorty Awards. The indie podcast beat entries from PBS and CNN among others.
This link is no longer available, as at Aug 23 2023

What five things would you put in your time capsule? My Time Capsule is an attempt to find out: hosted by English actor and comedian Michael Fenton Stevens. It launches today.

What do you want to hear when this pandemic is over? Ochenta Stories is a crowd-sourced, multilingual podcast with creators across the world producing audio fiction, documentaries and interviews.

The Archers, an 'everyday story of country folk’ in Ambridge, broadcast on the BBC since 1951 and available as a podcast since 2007, is to re-broadcast old episodes while it adjusts to a new production schedule because of the coronavirus.

Comedy podcast Archergeddon clearly has nothing to do with the above. It is, according to PodBible, an everyday story of country folk in Bambersham who have to plan the Easter Fête while avoiding the apocalypse. Warning: their scripted apocalypse contains “a deadly virus”. Too soon.
This link is no longer available, as at Aug 23 2023

Bloomberg Media and Wondery’s The Shrink Next Door is being made into a TV show for Apple TV+.