The Ambies 2022: the winners

New podcasts and new properties: Sounds Profitable has been growing. Bryan Barletta gives a status update in this week’s Sounds Profitable with Claritas.

• The Ambies, the awards from The Podcast Academy that celebrate excellence in podcasting, took place last night. The winners are here: 9/12, from Amazon Music, Pineapple Studios and Wondery was the podcast of the year; the podcast’s host Dan Taberski accepted the award in the award ceremony in Los Angeles CA, USA.

• PRX and Google Podcasts have announced a new round of the Google Podcasts creator program: a podcast accelerator and training program for audio producers around the world. Applications open Mar 29.

• Breaking: PodcastOne have just announced a partnership with Adori Labs for their YouTube Podcast interface technology. The tech adds enriched visual content to podcasts, and uploads them automatically to YouTube.

• Meanwhile, Studio71 has signed Jumpers Jump as a “simulcast podcast”, joining over 100 that Studio71 distribute to YouTube. One of those, Violating Community Guidelines, has achieved five million streams on YouTube in their first two months.

  • Matt Deegan writes more about podcasters using video in his newsletter.

• We’ve been saying it for years, but Apple Podcasts has explained how their podcast charts work in a new blog post today. No, ratings and reviews are not part of the algorithm.

  • Apple has also clarified how to set the order of your episodes, choosing between serialised and episodic; and clarified how automatic downloads work for serialised podcasts.

• Chartable is deprecating its SmartAds product, starting this week. June 30, 2022 will be the last day that new impressions tagged with Chartable SmartAds will be measurable; you’ll be offered the opportunity to switch to Podsights. Both companies were bought by Spotify earlier this year.

• A new book has been published, called Narrow Podcasting - a book for business owners who podcast. Author Toby Goodman is at Podcast Movement Evolutions; the book is available on Kindle (and, in LA, in print).

• Pantheon Media and SiriusXM are working with cable TV executive Doug Herzog to tell the story of “the glory days and crazy world of cable TV” in a new podcast series. The series launches May 18.

• iVoox has analysed the growing number of podcasts in Spanish. 40% of new Spanish-language podcasts last year were created by women; there are now more than 300,000 podcasts in Spanish. In 2021, the most new podcasts were made in the Art and Literature genre.

• Eric Nuzum posts Five Things No One Tells You When You Leave Public Radio for Podcasting. There has been a 'talent drain’ away from public radio in the US and UK towards podcasting.

Moves and hires

• Eric Barnett joins Supporting Cast as director of sales and marketing. He joins from Findaway, an audiobook distribution company acquired by Spotify, where he was the manager of strategic partnerships.
• Bob Shennan is to join BBC Studios, the corporation’s for-profit arm, as its first Director of Audio. He used to run BBC Radio 2, Europe’s largest radio station; and was Director of Radio and Music for the BBC’s public service.

Tips and tricks

• Show notes are good - but could yours be better? How to SEO your show notes reminds us that show notes aren’t just for your current listeners.
• Podcast merch can be a fun way to build community, says The Podcast Host. Wait till they get a hold of our podcoasters.

Podcast News

Conversations on the Margins goes inside an Irish prison to give a voice to the people behind the prisoners. It’s presented by Independent Senator in Seanad Éireann, Lynn Ruane, who discovers that the prisoners have many things in common.

Gay Music: In the Key of Q returned for a second series yesterday. Presented and produced by London-based Dan Hall, the show aims to celebrate queer musicians, their lives and their music, and publishes every Tuesday, which the podcast calls “Quesday” because why not. The first guest is Brandon James Gwinn.