A new podcast company launches in the UK

• Somethin’ Else – which claims it’s Europe’s biggest producer of radio and audio content – is putting £1 million (US$1.3m) into a new podcast division, called Sound Directions. Eight new staff will be hired.

• Brains On!, the science podcast for kids, is partnering with the curious tinkerers at America’s Test Kitchen for a series of episodes on cooking. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal writes more about childrens’ podcasts (paywall).

• A promotional idea from Wondery - a set of Spotify playlists of music inspired by their podcasts. Enjoying their 90s computer games soundtracks for the computer game episodes of Business Wars. And on that: “Business Wars is back with a brand new series to tell the big, bold story of Hearst vs. Pulitzer and how their publishing rivalry came to a head over one particularly salacious case: the mystery of The Headless Torso.”

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 2 2023

• In Philadelphia, The Grit Live aims to be 'the Pandora of entrepreneurs’

• Speaking of Philadelphia, Podchaser have a ticket to Podcast Movement to give away, along with $500 for travel. You must be in the US or Canada to enter; entry focuses on reviewing a podcast. Cough.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 2 2023
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• The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) included a podcast category in their media and technology awards this year. Congratulations to the winners: Bullock Texas State History Museum’s Texas Story Podcast; WNYC/MOMA’s A Piece of Work; SFMOMA’s Raw Material; Brooklyn Historical Society’s Flatbush + Main; and the independent Museums in Strange Places.

  • The Streamy Awards are now open to enter; there’s a podcast category.
  
  Aug 2 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• New podcasts:

  • Australia’s Smooth FM has launched a wine podcast with a wine retailer. A Moment In Wine is hosted by Acast, with whom Smooth’s owner NOVA Entertainment have a relationship in Australia.
  
  Aug 2 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
  • Tech news website Fast Company have launched two new podcasts - Secrets of the most productive people and Creative Conversation (“icons from art and business to break down the secrets of their success and their tricks for overcoming creative deserts”).

• Spreaker launch embeddable players for Medium, Patreon and more platforms. If you don’t host with Spreaker, a similar service is available with RadioPublic for any podcast.

  
  Aug 2 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Steven Goldstein writes about podcasts and smart speakers; particularly, a set of data and numbers that might come handy. NPR noted in a conference earlier this week that voice activation is the future of podcasting; we also noted Libsyn’s stats that 0.2% of all podcasts were played on a smart speaker in April.

  
  Aug 2 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Podcraft estimates that, by the end of 2018, there will be 700,000 podcasts available on Apple’s platform.

• Spain: “We see an explosion in branded podcasts” - the view of a panel on Wednesday of The Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA Spain).

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Our podcast subscribe pages now let you see all app subscribe links (thank you, Adam); our site search now returns podcast main categories and artwork and is finger-friendly.