Spotify launches targeted podcast advertising

• Spotify has announced Spotify Podcast Ads, a method of targeting advertising for listeners within its exclusive podcasts. The announcement promises that advertisers can target listeners based on age or gender, as well as reach and frequency. Covering the story, The Verge says that premium users will still hear these ads (just as they do with non-Spotify Original podcasts).

  • Inevitably, the idea of more targeted advertising has concerned some. Pat Walshe, a privacy campaigner, has posted information on Spotify’s sharing of listener data with third parties, and the company was the subject of an investigation by Swedish Data Protection officers in June, which does not, yet, appear resolved. Another point of view is that advertising for products that are unavailable in a listener’s country or irrelevant to the listener’s needs, are not advertising but just an unwanted, useless, interruption.
  • Talking about podcast advertising, try this clip from Family Guy, broadcast last Sunday.
  • Elsewhere: Spotify is working on daily sports podcasts, says Bloomberg; and yesterday we reported Morgan Stanley’s survey saying that Spotify now was more popular than Apple Podcasts. On Twitter, With A Side of Knowledge wondered about that, and ran a poll. Surprise!

• More than half of US adults use voice assistants, says new research from Edison Research and NPR. 24% of the population - 60m people - own at least one smart speaker device (and typical smart-speaker households now have 2.6 devices).

• A survey in Nigeria about podcasting from Tony Doe Media has revealed that Nigerian podcast listeners are mainly male, and aged below 35. Additionally, almost half of Nigerian podcast listeners prefer podcasts under 40 minutes - a stat we’ve added to our how long should a podcast be page.

• Jar Audio, a Vancouver BC, Canada-based company that “produces branded podcasts that you can’t turn off”, has announced that it expanding, working with Expedia on Out Travel The System, and Hello Movies, a film interview podcast for Cineplex Entertainment.

• David Axelrod’s The Axe Files podcast is leaving Luminary, and returning to CNN Podcasts. It was one of Luminary’s launch podcasts; and is the first major defection from the subscription platform.

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• Jacaranda FM in South Africa is celebrating record download figures, even if awareness of podcasting is quite low in the country, says the company’s podcast host, iono·fm.

• Darling New Media in Sacramento CA is launching a podcast recording studio. The company got over three minutes on Good Day, a local breakfast TV show.

• We bet you wished your studio looked as glamorous as this one in Paris in 1922.

Thank you to Jar Audio for becoming our latest Gold Supporter. You can be like them.

Tips and tricks - with Acast Open

• Are you wanting to be a podcast guest? Here’s how to record yourself - and why you might want to do that. (Chris Ashmore)

• Your advice, please. We wrote How to use commercial music in your podcasts a while back. It’s quite popular, even if it’s quite a few pages saying the word “No you can’t” repeatedly. But where can you get music for your podcast? We’d love your feedback on the places you use (paid or not); just hit reply.

Podcasts

Things Going On In The News Special

Truth and Lies: Jeffrey Epstein launches today from ABC News in the US. Is there more to this story that has already been uncovered? ABC News’ Mark Remillard, reporting with the ABC News Investigative Unit, looks into the story and interviews those involved. (ABC News US, Wide Orbit)

Things That Go Boom has a special edition about Iran, the US, and President Donald Trump’s authority to launch nuclear missiles. How worried should we be? (PRX / InkStick Media)

Palace Intrigue: A daily Royal Family podcast is the best place to hear an amazing fairytale story about a prince called Harry and a princess called Meghan wanting to get away from their evil grandmother’s family by escaping to Canada, only to find their evil grandmother’s picture is still on all the money. (Libsyn)

The Gays Are Revolting have raised over a thousand dollars for the Victorian bushfires appeal, selling tickets to two live shows in Melbourne and Sydney. “Our home is on fire, and our leaders have their head in the sand”, says one of the hosts Mykiii Rangi, which, if we were allowed to express an opinion, we’d agree with. (Lipp Media / Acast)

With all the news going on, here’s a thing to get away from it all. Happy LDN Press are running a collection of short stories read by the authors for listeners to enjoy during their coffee break. “Some stories are dark, some are romantic and we even have some children’s stories,” they tell us. (Anchor)