Spotify is ready to buy more

• Spotify CFO Paul Vogel says the company has $3.5bn in cash for acquisitions. Speaking at a conference in Boston MA, USA, he said: “Podcasting was this business that for 20 years didn’t change — it was a simple RSS feed — no way to do anything different”. (Paul - podcasts are 18 years old).

• Podcast platform Vurbl has come out of beta, and is adding more advertising to the platform, it says in an email. The company offers revenue share; but says it is “currently honoring requests to keep your station ad-free”. You can claim your podcast here.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Sep 9 2023

• Podcast app GoodPods have been emailing podcasters using the email addresses in RSS feeds, suggesting that you download the app to claim your podcast, and then add a payment service (Patreon, Paypal or Venmo) for tips. Opinion is divided on whether emailing like this is legal; though Adam Curry notes in Podcasting 2.0 this week that the podcast:funding tag is perfect for them to use, rather than new proprietary data.

  • Our own podcast pages support the podcast:funding tag, and fall-back to searching through podcast descriptions for payment links.

• There’s a new podcast studio in Sydney. Pro Podcast Production has opened in Sussex Street, Barangaroo, close to Darling Harbour in the city. The company has just recorded its 200th podcast series.

• The Golden Crane Podcast Awards are open for entry. The awards are in their second year, and are run by the Asian American Podcasters Association.

• Earwolf producer Matt Apodaca is interviewed by Podcasteroid, a podcast review blog.

Moves and hires - with Pod People

• Patrick Dolan has joined the Board of Directors at Libsyn. He had worked for the IAB for 14 years, and was recently COO and President.

This link is no longer available, as at Sep 9 2023
• Jessica Radburn has been hired by Wondery as Head of International Podcast Content. She was previously Senior Director of Global Content Programming at Audible - both companies are owned by Amazon. She’s based in Berlin.

This link is no longer available, as at Sep 9 2023
• Bryce Crosswell has been hired as Group Sales Lead in Victoria for Acast AU/NZ. He was previously Group Sales Manager at JCDecaux; it’s the first hire in Melbourne for Acast. The division has 23 employees.

This link is no longer available, as at Sep 9 2023
• Apple Podcasts is hiring - Podjobs carries eleven open roles today in the US and Australasia.

The Tech Stuff - with the podcast:soundbite tag

• We updated our guide on how to earn Bitcoin from your podcast.

• This hasn’t happened before to our knowledge: Buzzsprout lost the most amount of shows in our sample last week, losing 40 shows overall. Anchor hoovered up 60 shows overall, with Megaphone and Acast also doing well.

• “I created an open source library for generating Podcasting 2.0 RSS feeds”", writes Gabriel J. Pérez Irizarry. It’s a fork of python-podgen and is part of the Caproni platform.

• Our list of Apple Podcasts channels got a bit unweildy with more than 1,000 channels. It’s now easier to flick through with an A-Z filter.

• Our audio quality comparison page suffered a little when we removed Google’s AMP a while ago. If you wondered what bitrate and samplerate does to audio quality, the list is back again.

• Boostagrams Adam Curry boosted for Helipad, the upcoming Umbrel app that will help people see their boostagrams automatically. That’s coming soon. Meanwhile, Podnews earnt 11,859 sats last week - $6.82, or $354/year. Hit the boost button, or find a better podcast app.

Tips and tricks

• What are show notes, and why do you need them? asks Rachel Corbett.

• The five main factors that affect your sound quality include whether you wear headphones or not, and how you record, says Sounds Media’s James Marriott.

Podcast News - with Blue Wire

In Blue Wire's limited series WR1 presented by WynnBet, legendary NFL wide receiver Cris Carter interviews legends of the WR position as well as the next generation of superstars to understand what makes this position so unique, as so many personalities and stories come from outside of the hash marks. Guests include Julian Edelman, Adam Thielen, Mike Evans, Calvin Johnson, and many more.

Earlier this month, Podcast Town Throw Down had our Editor, James Cridland, on the show. The Mayor of Podcast Town learnt how to build and grow audiences through newsletters, while Podnews’s Editor significantly fails to win any points in the quiz.

In Podcasting 2.0, Adam and Dave discuss the week’s developments at the Podcast Index with Castamatic developer Franco Soleri - including deep thoughts on Docker Dumpster Fires and Podcast Player Audio Processing.

In Dicktator, you can expect “a sassy incarnation of Adolf Hitler and his romantic pursuit of Dr. Mengele”, we’re told. From the Hynes Brothers, it was launched yesterday.

How Long Gone reckons it is the first podcast to be signed to a record label, and will release a double-CD on Dec 17. Adds Colour features podcast hosts Chris Black and Jason Stewart casting their critical acumen and color commentary upon choice cuts from Angel Olsen, Bon Iver, Dinosaur Jr., Molly Lewis, Moses Sumney, Sharon Van Etten and more of their fellow Jagjaguwar family.

Podland News has Sean Li as a guest this week from the Clever FM podcast app; and discusses Spotify’s recent acquisition of an audiobook distributor. It’s hosted by Podnews’s Editor, James Cridland, and Sam Sethi.

The most in-depth music podcast ever produced in New Zealand, Aotearoa Hip Hop looks at the music, people and history of hip hop in the country. A new show, it was initiallyreleased on rova, a radio platform, and is now available everywhere. - read more