Spotify to use AI for host-read ads

• Spotify is building AI versions of its hosts for ad reads, according to The Bill Simmons Podcast. “There is going to be a way to use my voice for the ads,” he says, before adding that he would need to give approval first.

  • Opinion: Spotify, relatively uniquely, requires a signed-in account to listen, and therefore has personal data available for each of its listeners - and collects even more data. Technically, that means that Joe Rogan is able to address you by name in a personalised ad, then selling you a new security system, tailored to your street name. “We wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to that nice house in Parsons Street, now, would we?” Technically possible, perhaps, if not editorially desirable; but not possible for the majority of ad sales companies who don’t have sign-in data.

• In his latest podcast, prominent podcaster and YouTuber Bandrew Scott explains why shows from companies like NPR and Slate are not doing well on YouTube. He suggests podcasters need to supply YouTube with video, and a specific re-edit, to make the most of the platform.

  • As to whether YouTube’s integration into YouTube Music is working? He shares the statistics for the Bandrew Says podcast: 20,426 views on YouTube, and just 1 on YouTube Music. “I am pretty sure that one view is me making sure the show was actually working in YouTube Music … This is worse than my than my worst expectation of this.”

• YouTube has added a “podcasts” tab to the YouTube TV interface. However, it’s hidden in the “more” tab, unless you already watch podcasts frequently.

• Podcast studio Rococo Punch has been acquired by Audily, a podcast and audiobook company. No terms were given.

• Ballen Studios, the podcast company owned by YouTuber and podcaster Mr Ballen, has launched a talent management arm.

• Goalhanger Podcasts is to switch to Spotify’s Megaphone and the Spotify Audience Network. The company is currently with Acast, and produces some of the largest shows in the UK including The Rest Is Politics. The companies will jointly announce their new relationship at The Podcast Show in London tomorrow.

• Financial company Alby has partnered with Castamatic to allow the podcast app to support Vale4Value, where listeners can pay for shows they listen to.

Tips and tricks - with Podnews Live - where podcasting connects

• The award-winning Tink Media share the “ten Tink commandments” for your podcast, and especially how to promote it.

Podcast News

Realm has launched The Jane Austen Podcast with comedian and writer Alison Larkin. Each season will present an Austen novel with her award-winning narration and feature chats with actors, writers, and others who have one thing in common: a passionate love for Jane Austen.

A new audio drama from the BBC, People Who Knew Me, launches today. It stars Rosamund Pike and Hugh Laurie, and is the story of Emily Morris, a woman who uses an emergency call to fake her own death and run away to start a new life in California as Connie Prynne.