Spotify add star ratings; buy another podcast host

• Spotify has added star ratings to its app for podcasts; rolling out in their apps from today. Anchor has more details on how to use it.

  • If listeners try to rate a show they haven’t listened-to (for at least thirty seconds), they’ll be told to listen first. You can rate a show on Apple Podcasts without listening at all.
  • Ratings are shown once a show has ten ratings or more. The number for Apple Podcasts is five.
  • Ratings are global; Apple Podcasts has separate ratings for each country. (Spotify hasn’t launched ratings in Russia or Turkey, however - both countries with tight media laws).
  • Could you please rate us?
  
  Sep 9 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Spotify has purchased another podcast hosting company: Australia’s Whooshkaa. The first non-US podcast host to achieve IAB certification, Whooshkaa also has technology that automatically makes podcasts from radio broadcasts. It will be integrated into Megaphone.

  • Podland co-host Sam Sethi uses Whooshkaa for River Radio. In the latest episode of Podland, our Editor, James Cridland, asks Sam how it works and what Spotify could see in it.
  
  Sep 9 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Data: Why would Spotify want to bring more radio shows to their platform by buying Whooshkaa? Some numbers: 92% of US adults listen to radio every week; 28% listen to podcasts. 46% of all US audio listening (by time) is to AM/FM/satellite radio; 6% is to podcasts. US AM/FM radio brings in $14.1bn of yearly ad revenue (in 2019); US podcasting is around $824m (2020).

  
  Sep 9 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2022 will be announced at Podcast Movement Evolutions, the company has announced. Founder and President Larry Rosin is a guest this week on the Podland podcast.

• Hey, big spender - BetterHelp remains #1 for podcast advertising in November, but SimpliSafe and Amazon increased their spend, according to Magellan AI. Among those who have significantly increased their spend, IKEA spent more than ten times more on podcast ads; and raise a glass to Total Wine and More, spending almost twenty times more.

• Triton Digital’s November US Podcast Report says that Stitcher is still #1 for podcasts. NPR News Now remained the #1 podcast itself. The ranker contains participating publishers only.

• Bad news: BlueLab, a plugin company, has discontinued the development of their products. Good news: currently all 28 plugins are free for download from their website.

• Steven Goldstein looks at audio’s numbers in 2021. Clubhouse has dropped 80% of its daily users since February; the average number of podcasts listened-to each week is 5.1.

  
  Sep 9 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Hernan Lopez, former CEO of Wondery, has co-founded a new company. Danvas is a “digital canvas” for exhibiting those NFTs that you bought.

Moves and hires - with Pod People

• Acast will be looking for a new Chairman of the Board after Andrea Gisle Joosen announced that she does not wish to stand for re-election in May. She’d been in post since 2018.

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

Tips and tricks

• How to make your podcast into an Alexa Flash Briefing.

• 72% of people who find a podcast on YouTube go on to subscribe to it in a proper podcast app, according to the Canadian Podcast Listener 2021 report.

Podcast News - with Memberful

We Stay Looking, a satirical true-crime podcast, discovers that US prisoners make 26 cents per hour working for billion dollar companies. The episode sheds light on a serious issue of prisons wages in America - and the exploitation of prison labor by widely large and successful Fortune 500 companies.

Station Eleven: The Podcast is new from HBO Max: a companion podcast to the new post-apocalyptic saga running on the platform. It’s produced by iHeart and HBO Max, and allows fans to experience the show on an entirely new level with behind-the-scenes insights and deep dives into storylines, themes, and characters.