Spotify announces a new podcast format with pictures

On Jan 17 we reported on Spotify’s aim, in 2018, to become a “podcast destination”. Today, Spotify announces Spotlight, which adds visual layers to podcasting. “Spotlight gives fans a deeper insight to their favorite artists, playlists, books, publishers and more by offering contextual visual elements, such as photos, video and text, that appear as users move through each episode.”

• Spotify also announced a set of launch partners: BuzzFeed News, Cheddar, Crooked Media, Lenny Letter, Gimlet Media, Genius, The Minefield Girl, Refinery29 and Uninterrupted; as well as Spotify’s own original series.

• Bloomberg reports that this is likely a play for the $18 billion spent on advertising in the US.

• You can already offer contextual visual elements in podcasts using chapter points. We looked at podcast app support for this feature last month and discovered that only 6.2% of podcast plays would be on an app that supports them.

“Is it time to add podcasting to your marketing mix?” asks a Canadian content marketer, writing in diginomica.

If you’re using Skype for long-distance interviews, you might want to consider Discord, according to this tech piece. Discord appears to be quite configurable for internet audio, and guests just need a compatible browser - anything except Safari, essentially. (It’s in use in this episode of Mac Geek Gab - start at 1'40").

Here’s a profile of a new Audible-only podcast, West Cork. Audible Channels is free for those with Amazon Prime.

First covered on Dec 13, journalism website Poynter discovers Descript, a tool that makes editing podcasts just as easy as editing text

Event: podfecta in Nashville TN, USA on April 20 - “a new kind of podcasting conference”. Tickets not yet available, but you can sign up to be informed.