A brand new song, every week, in a podcast

🇺🇸 In the US? Please vote today. Preferably for that guy, rather than that guy. Thanks! 🇺🇸

Brand safety is an easy checkmark on an otherwise long list of requests, so why aren’t more hosting platforms offering it? In this week’s Sounds Profitable newsletter, Bryan Barletta explains Brand Safety and Brand Sensitivity, and how advertisers are increasingly using it. Go subscribe!

This link is no longer available, as at Aug 29 2023

• A brand new song, every week, on a podcast? The band Don’t Stop Or We’ll Die is to launch SONG-A-WEEK, a new podcast that promises… a song a week. Patreon fans can get their names sung by the band on the podcast.

• Buzzsprout has achieved IAB certification for podcast measurement, achieving it without any adjustments to their systems. “Our customers will not see any drop in their numbers”, says co-founder Tom Rossi.

  • We have updated our list of podcast hosts, which lists all hosts with certified numbers.

• Are podcasts are bit too long? Blinkist, which takes best-selling nonfiction books and produces a 15-minute summary, has launched Shortcasts, doing 15-minute versions of podcasts. Revisionist History from Pushkin Industries is one of the shows offered in Shortcast format, in collaboration with the podcast creators.

  
  Aug 29 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Ever wondered what The Daily would sound like without the post-production? From the New York Times, The Daily will do a live broadcast today between 4pm and 8pm Eastern. We’re promised Michael Barbaro and journalists from across the US.

• Music magazine publisher Rolling Stone has partnered with Cumulus Media’s Westwood One to market and distribute Useful Idiots with Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper and Rolling Stone Music Now

• ListenNotes has added a “listen score” to podcasts on their platform, which functions as a popularity index. According to their data, Podnews ranks as a “top 2%” show, with a listen score of 41. The listen score is used in the podcast directory’s search function.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 29 2023

• Pocket Casts Paid Placements, in-app advertising for shows, are now sold out until February, we’re told.

• Stitcher rolls out “an all-new app” shortly. They’re changing their “favoriting” button to read “follow” - so if you talk about Stitcher on your podcast, you’ll want to say “follow us on Stitcher” from hereon in.

• We Are Podcast has an event on November 5/6, focusing on how to make money from your podcast. Our Editor, James Cridland, is speaking.

Sorry A few Podnews subscribers were erroneously sent a copy of Sounds Profitable yesterday. Not our plan. Sorry.

Tips and tricks

• How to launch a podcast when you’ve got no following (Rachel Corbett)

• How to reach a million podcast downloads (for zero spend) when you’re not a celebrity… (from the Slimming World podcast)

Podcast News - with Vurbl

On Vurbl Voices, Paul talks with the co-founders of KidNuz about the audio news format, storytelling, crafting your voice, distributing to the classroom and opportunities around audio for kids and families. Listen on Vurbl

My Neighbours Are Dead talks to the lesser known characters from your favorite horror films, and for all of October has been focusing on Friday the 13th.

The Red Note is a bilingual podcast, hosted by award-winning journalist Lydia Cacho about the stories behind thousands of women who have been brutally murdered or disappeared along the border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. It’s available in English…

…and in Spanish as La Nota Roja, and uncovers corruption and cover-up from the authorities.