Tencent to pay a mountain of cash for Ximalaya

• Chinese podcasting company Ximalaya is reportedly to be acquired by Tencent Music for $2.4bn, reports Bloomberg. (Spotify bought Anchor for just $140mn). Ximalaya, which claimed more than 303mn monthly active users in 2023, spent $100mn on a US expansion in 2019 (though it may not have done); the company tried to float on the NYSE, but didn’t, and was going to float in Hong Kong, but hasn’t.

  • Himalaya’s highest-profile employee in the US was Peter Vincer, who made the headlines in Jun 2021 (though he denied the story); now called Notorious LLC, his company hasn’t posted on socials for the last five months (one of its last posts: a picture of Vincer dressed as Superman).

• Spotify quietly launched a trending podcasts chart a few weeks ago: “designed to spotlight the shows that are getting people talking right now.” Available in many different countries, you can see it at the Spotify Podcast Charts website, or in JSON form.

  • It’s quite similar in intention to the Apple Podcast chart, which is also mostly based on trending information. And for bragging rights, it’ll be much better than the standard Spotify chart , since newly-launched shows should rocket to the top.

• Podlibre has been launched - the project is to build an all-in-one, open-source, privacy-first desktop app to help make podcasts. Run by Benjamin Bellamy’s Ad Aures, it has funding from NLnet.

• The New Zealand Podcast Summit is less than two weeks away. In central Auckland, it’s a day of networking, sharing and collaboration. Tickets are here, and include lunch, as well as morning and afternoon tea.

• DeepCast has launched DeepChat, a method of chatting with podcasts using an “AI knowledge bot”. You can try it out by chatting with the Podnews Weekly Review - “what is the definition of a podcast” came out pretty well.

• Hindenburg Pro has updated its transcription tool to now work with 99 transcription languages. You need to check for updates today, to ensure transcription keeps working; you should be updated to version 2.05 2700. (We also hear that, if you’re a Mac user, it’s also much faster).

  • Podnews readers get a free three-month trial and 30% off
  • Tip: if Hindenburg doesn’t show the update window, choose the “Manage my account” option and download it again.

• For podcasters in the UK and Ireland, the Independent Podcast Awards are currently open for entry. This year, there’s also the Independent Podcast Forum, too, on Jun 16 in London.

• Podscribe’s dashboard has three new campaign attribution features, designed to reduce repetitive workflow and give new ways to analyse and report on data.

• Vox Media announced a new column and upcoming podcast from Tefi Pessoa.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Podcast analytics service OP3 has a live feed showing what people are listening to right now. Using that data, a coder has created EarPort, plotting every listener on the map, and you can click each listener to hear the podcast they’re downloading right now. Very cool.

• As part of this, worth looking at the massive numbers of people apparently listening to the Podnews Daily podcast in Malaysia and Indonesia. This is a bug with Google News. We’ve still heard nothing more from their team on how they intend to fix it: it’s costing us hundreds of dollars a month. If anyone knows anyone senior at Google, we’d appreciate a contact.

• The revised location tag has been approved for the podcast namespace. The full specification and implementation document should be updated shortly, so we’ll make a thing of it next week, if we remember.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• Steve Stewart has been posting podcast tips since seemingly before the dawn of time; but this one, from Dec 2020, could have saved us some time - the “scratch test” before every recording.

• Riverside looks at Jesse McCune’s podcast setup. He has a lot of equipment on his fancy desk. We’ve just got a microphone on ours.

• Also, Riverside covers “how to start a podcast on Spotify”, though judging by the photograph, that podcast is going to sound an awful lot better if someone remembers to plug it in at some point.

Podcast News - with New Podcasts

From Wondery, Death County, PA is new today on open RSS: a gripping new investigative documentary that delves into the shocking and mysterious deaths of dozens of inmates in the Dauphin County Prison in Pennsylvania, and uncovering a web of corruption, abuse, and systemic failures. It’s hosted by PennLive investigative reporter Joshua Vaughn, and seeks the truth after one man’s young cousin dies under suspicious circumstances.

Creators from TrueFans is a new weekly podcast from TrueFans which launches today. Each week Sam Sethi (CEO of TrueFans and the co-host of the Podnews Weekly Review) and Claire Waite Brown (Producer and Host of Podcasting 2.0 in Practise & Fanzone), will showcase independent podcast and music creators. They will also discuss features recently released in TrueFans that will help creators monetise their fandoms. Sam and Claire are very keen to hear from independent creators who would like to be featured on the show, too.

Story & Craft with Marc Preston features actor Asher Grodman from the CBS series “Ghosts.” Asher shares his career journey, his love for football, the making of a unique mockumentary for the Jacksonville Jaguars, life as a working actor on a successful network television show, and what it’s like to portray a character who never wears pants.

The Middle East is a huge, ever-growing business ecosystem, and new podcast Flavors of Ambition talks to the industry pioneers, global investors, and visionary leaders shaping the region’s future. Hosted by award-winning journalist Ramia Farrage, you’ll hear exclusive insights from some of the greatest minds making things happen in the MENA region.

In Down The Road, Simon France tells a business story through the lens of a life story, starting with the people who are down the road from where he lives, which is a small coastal town 3 hours north of Sydney, Australia called Forster. If you haven’t been here, it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Lamestream is new today in Australia, from two formerly mainstream journalists Osman Faruqi and Scott Mitchell. The show plans to “interrogate the critical questions we face in an increasingly complex media landscape” and will be available in both audio and video format.

Purposing is back for a new season, with Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bicycle as the show’s first guest. The show features the people driving change inside some of the world’s most recognised brands – from sustainability and social impact to building business models that deliver on both purpose and profit. It’s hosted by Given founder & CEO Becky Willan.