Spotify ad revenue to reach $2.1bn this year

• Spotify’s global ad revenue is set to reach $2.1bn in 2024. Data from WARC’s Platform Insights report points to growth coming from Spotify’s video podcasting, quoting Spotify research that audio+video ads work 66% better than audio ads alone.

• Buzzsprout has achieved the latest IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines compliance to v2.2. Megaphone achieved v2.2 in late July; Captivate and Audiomeans are the only other podcast hosting companies to be compliant with the latest standard.

• The Black Podcasting Awards announced 64 nominations. The winners will be announced online in a live show this Sunday.

• Pocket Casts is to support transcripts, according to 9to5Google. We think this will be limited to shows providing their own transcripts, using the podcast:transcript tag.

• Did someone at Alaska Airlines leak a true crime podcaster’s flight details? Investigating for a new season of Up and Vanished, Payne Lindsey claims that details of an upcoming flight were leaked, even though he never took it. Alaska Airlines is the only way to fly to the town; and it’s alleged that people involved in the double murder case he’s investigating have connections with airline (or airport) workers.

• The plan for Kast Media’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy has been published. The plan is for creditors to either get a share of $230,000, or company shares. The company owed a total of $6.3mn.

• Podcast listening continues to grow in Sweden, says new data from Mediavision.

• Podcast app Castro has a tweaked logo - no more black, the logo is now a simpler white/green. Nathan Gathright has updated his podcast-badges set with the new logo; you’ll also see it in our podcast pages.

• AdLarge is to represent Crystal Media Networks for ad sales. The company, which is to rebrand next year to Portfolio Media, partners with top-ranked radio stations across the country to deliver targeted audiences in the nation’s top markets.

Tips and tricks - with Ausha Pro 🚀

• Learn from YouTube experts: watch the replay of a live session with Ausha about Podcasting on YouTube with YouTube specialists. Step into the world of video podcasting and learn everything you need to know about Podcasting on YouTube.

• Podcast artwork is important - it sets the tone for your show, and helps people spot you in their app. Here are some of the best resources for making your artwork.

Podcast News

Seemingly, the entire podcast industry has launched a new show today. Here are just some of them:

Hyperfixed is new from Alex Goldman today - a brand new show from the co-producer of Reply All. If you’ve got a problem, Alex is here to solve it, he says - it’s new from Radiotopia from PRX.

Goalhanger is best known for “The Rest Is…”, but the company’s geo-political Disorder podcast is celebrating its one year anniversary. In a special episode today, co-hosts Jason Pack and Alex Hall Hall look back at the past year of geo-politics, their favourite interviews, and preview the next year of the show.

Spotify launched a new video podcast last week. Countdown To's debut episode with Jelly Roll (interviewed by mgk) was Sunday’s most listened to new episode in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and #2 in the UK and Ireland. The show features artists are interviewed by fellow performers to celebrate their upcoming albums.

Cazagringos is new this month from Wondery. The Spanish-language podcast focuses on a special unit of the Mexican Police dedicated to capturing fugitives from the United States. Over the past 20 years, they have captured more than a thousand criminals wanted in the United States, many of whom were on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. It’s produced by La Maldita.

On the eve of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, a new season of Democracy Decoded dives deep into the systems in place that ensure that US elections are safe, secure and accurate. The show, from the Campaign Legal Center, explores how US elections function, the potential threats they face, and the checks and balances in place so voters can rest assured that the election results reflect the will of the people.

The first video podcast mini-series on Spotify’s Ringer Food has gone live today - Shift Meal is on a journey to find out what L.A. barbecue is. Join host Danny Chau on their first stop today with Phil Martin, the owner and pitmaster of Black Cat BBQ. If you’re worried that they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats or they’re eating the pets of the people that live there - good news, we fact-checked: the Black Cat BBQ cooks food like Carolina pulled pork and prime beef brisket.

Three years in the making, Cement City is new today from Audacy Podcasts, looking at Donora, Pennsylvania. Donora’s population is 4,650. The town has no schools, no banks, no grocery stores, no gas stations. But, for the first time since the steel mill left 50 years ago, something might be moving into town instead of leaving it - and there’s an unlikely cast of people who are determined to make it happen.

From The Atlantic, We Live Here Now is new today. Hanna Rosin and Lauren Ober found out that their new neighbors were supporting January 6 insurrectionists. One is Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was killed in the Capitol building on January 6. Another is the wife of the first person sentenced for crimes related to January 6. They knocked on their door. We Live Here Now is about what happened next.

Hosted by Jonquilyn Hill and launching today, Explain It to Me is a weekly call-in show that will further Vox’s mission of explaining the world by answering complicated questions from listeners about everything from retirement and why there’s so much money in politics to Gen Z’s odds of avoiding an apocalypse and why jars are so hard to open. Got a question? 1-800-618-8545 is waiting for your call.

From WaitWhat, Pioneers of AI is an ideal companion for the AI-curious and AI-experienced alike - with tools, resources, and informative insights from top minds in the industry to help listeners understand, embrace, and anticipate what’s next.

From voter disenfranchisement to gerrymandering and income inequality, there’s a major underlying issue with American democracy: the polarizing winner-take-all electoral system. The Future of Our Former Democracy explores what it could look like if the United States dismantled their electoral system and rebuilt a proportional representation system instead. It’s new today from More Equitable Democracy and LARJ Media.

The new season of Slow Burn is live today - as the Murdoch family tears itself apart in court, Slow Burn is looking at the rise of one of their biggest assets: Fox News. The show takes listeners back to a crucial inflection point in American history: the moment between 2000 and 2004 when Fox News first surged to power, and a whole bunch of people rose up to try and stop it.

Unhinged Collaboration returns for a new season today. The show explores change management for leaders but it does so in a very changed way. The show has cloned one of their hosts with generative AI and they will test out what the twin learns with each new episode.