Spotify for Podcasters starts to roll out monetisation

• Spotify for Podcasters is rolling out the company’s monetisation programs, Automated Ads and Ambassador Ads, to more countries. As part of a closed beta, the company will reach out to select podcasters in the UK and Australia to invite them to take part: they plan to test more markets later this year.

• iHeartMedia shared the company’s Q1/23 financial results. Podcast revenue at $77mn was up 12%, representing 9.4% of the company’s total.

• Podcast Network Builder has been launched by Podmachine and Podcast Network Asia. The tool is designed to help brands and companies build their own podcast networks.

• Ad Aures has launched a new podcast hosting solution on Castopod.com for those who don’t wish to host their own server. The open-source Castopod remains freely available.

• Barometer and Audiohook have partnered to offer media buyers brand suitability and contextual targeting at scale.

• The 18th Annual People’s Choice Podcast Awards is open for registration (you’ve until the end of July). The registration fee is unchanged from last year - and anyone can enter, wherever you are.

• There’s a new podcast studio in the Mack Gaston Community Center in Dalton GA, USA.

Moves and hires

• Karyn Pugliese has been named the Editor-in-Chief of Canadaland, a podcast network.

Tips and tricks - with Podnews Live - where podcasting connects

• Steven Goldstein suggests there are many things in podcasting that suck time, especially new tools that require more manual work. His advice is to cut as many of those out, and “spend the rest of the time focusing on making a smarter, better, more compelling, and easily monetizable podcast.”

Podcast News

It Can’t Just Be Me is a new podcast from Podimo and Mags Creative, hosted by UK agony aunt Anna Richards. Anna’s first guest is Married At First Sight’s Mel Schilling. Mel is a dating coach and therapist who brings her decades of experience from the dating world as well as her own dating history to help answer listener Rachel’s dilemma - ‘is it possible to stay friends with your ex?’

Without local game stores, tradeable card game players wouldn’t have a place to play. But finding good local game stores can be hard, especially when more retail is online. The Match Slip is a new podcast that is focusing on local game stores across the US who are holding events and putting a human connection back into the games industry. It’s hosted by Frank Angelone.