Spotify adapt 'Sandra' to international markets

• Gimlet and Spotify have adapted their scripted series Sandra for a set of new markets. Sara (in France), Susi (in Germany), Sonia (in Mexico) and Sofia (in Brazil) claim they are “the first truly localised adaptations ever made of a hit fictional podcast”. While Wondery’s Dr Death was first to produce translated versions, Spotify are making these adaptations in the countries themselves, and adapting for “culture and nuance”. Episodes drop July 7.

• First look: Want to win over $100,000-worth of prizes? Supercast has launched their Paid to Podcast competition, with a grand prize including cash, a trip to San Diego to have lunch with Pat Flynn, promotion and a pro ticket to Podcast Movement 2021. All podcasts that enter will be considered for an investment offer from Supercast’s investors, Tiny. You can enter now.

• After WWDC, Apple executives have been making appearances on podcasts. Apple Marketing VP Bob Borchers and Product Manager Ronak Shah appeared on Upgrade; Apple SVP Craig Federighi talked on Waveform; John Gruber’s The Talk Show snagged Federighi and VP Greg Joswiak. Apple Podcasts’ boss Ben Cave? Not so much. We need more aloof British accents in podcasting, Ben.

  
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• Audio sales house DAX has teamed up with actor Kevin Connolly to launch a podcast network. Action Park Media will focus “on podcasts in all genres and creating intellectual property to develop for television and film”.

• The latest Triton Digital Podcast Report for Latin America has been released. The top 3 was unchanged: total downloads for the top 3 slightly fell (by half a percent).

  • Edison Research release their Latino Podcast Listener Report later today in a webinar, focusing on US latino audiences.
  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 25 2023
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• YouTube temporarily removed a chess “podcast” for being 'harmful or dangerous’. The Agadmator Podcast was discussing the current pandemic; it appears an automated algorithm pulled the live stream after it spotted the c-word.

  • Clearly that rule isn’t for everyone: a recent edition of the Joe Rogan Experience appears to have contained “advice” on how to avoid catching COVID-19: advice not backed up by peer-reviewed medical evidence and in one case entirely disproven. Neither YouTube, Apple or Rogan’s host have removed that, though.

• Maple Media, who bought podcast app Player FM earlier this year, are about to buy another, unnamed, podcast app - according to the Los Angeles Business Journal, which claims that “podcast biz is heating up”.

• JustPod, a podcast newsletter covering the Chinese podcasting scene, has published a new edition. It focuses on the removal of two popular podcast apps from the Chinese Apple App Store, and the podcasts that are available in the country.

• My RØDE Cast, a competition to win $150,000-worth of podcasting equipment from RØDE, had 1,778 entries. The winner was A Latto Thought, an upcoming podcast that 'dismantles post-racial myths’. The press release links to every entry.

• Data: We earlier worked out that the BBC had 117m podcast downloads per month globally in Q1. The BBC iPlayer, the corporation’s TV service, saw 570m UK-based stream requests in the month of May, according to a press release. The UK often appears towards the bottom of global podcast consumers: but Edison Research’s Infinite Dial survey, which would give more comparable data, isn’t compiled in the country.

• Got a few minutes spare? Take the survey for The 2020 Podcast Trends Report

• Radio Days Africa, a radio-and-podcasting conference normally held in Johannesburg, South Africa, is a free virtual event this year, and runs over most of July. It’s free to attend.

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• New to podcast advertising? Five things you should know, from Adam King, Group Sales Head at Acast AUNZ.
• The Second Captains Podcast has 12,766 paying subscribers, each paying €5 (US $5.62) per month. Here are other examples of podcasts from Ireland that use Patreon and other forms of membership.

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On The Jordan Harbinger Show Maria Konnikova is a journalist, a best-selling author and an international poker champion: a title she earnt while researching her latest book. Fans of poker and human motivation should listen to her interview

A senior US Veteran Affairs official has been fired, she says, for making a podcast. Politico report that Allison Gill produced Mueller She Wrote, and performed a number of live shows, while on medical leave.

Being a podcaster is a skill. “I had to learn how to be a better communicator”, said Joe Rogan in a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with Jon Stewart. A full round-up of the show is in the Podcast Notes newsletter.