Focusrite launches Vocaster, an audio interface for podcasters

• Focusrite launched the Vocaster: a dedicated podcasting audio interface for podcasters. The device is designed explicitly for podcasters, offering auto-gain and voice presets. (There’s a video, and more pictures, in the press release).

• Sounds Profitable announced the Business Leaders Summit, in collaboration with Podcast Movement on Tuesday, Aug 23, in Dallas TX. The summit is built with four sessions: new research, successful measurement, video and programmatic. People at companies that sponsor Sounds Profitable, like Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast, get in for free.

• In Bloomberg, Ashley Carman reports on Spotify podcasters making $18,000 a month with nothing but white noise.

• New RØDECaster Pro II units are being shipped ahead of its release: but they won’t work until release day, June 12.

• Data: Bruno Guglielminetti reports on a new survey about podcast listening in Québec, Canada. 30% of Québécois adults regularly listen to podcasts.

• Six shows from Evergreen Podcasts have won the 2022 Communicator Award of Excellence.

• Futuro Media has received a major grant from the Mellon Foundation to support second seasons of its Pulitzer Prize winning podcasts.

• Podchaser Pro users with the Sponsors add-on can now access brand pages for the top 2,000+ brands. Users can see how many times a brand has sponsored the top 5,000+ podcasts and the brand’s estimated ad spend for each show.

• Headgum has acquired the Too Scary, Didn’t Watch video podcast, and launched a new show called Keepin’ It Rel. Average weekly downloads for its Headgum Original podcasts have increased 50% year-on-year, the company says.

• EditEddy was launched on Product Hunt. The service makes audio editing simple - upload your spoken word audio, get a transcript, and then edit your audio by editing the text. Here’s a video demo.

• ThoughtLeaders is to open a podcast recording space in Tel Aviv, Israel.

• The number of podcast episodes using Chartable, Podtrac and Podsights prefixes has increased. Of the top two, Chartable was seen on 4.87% of all episodes in May; Podtrac on 4.49%.

• In May, Omny Studio overtook Podbean to become the #5 podcast hosting company, measured by new episodes. Anchor is still #1, with 24.3% of all new episodes - a figure that dropped by over 6%. Amazon Cloudfront is still the most popular podcast CDN (including us!); Cloudflare a distant second.

Moves and hires

• Camilla Byk, the founder of Podium​.me, a media network for young people, has been awarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Tips and tricks - with RedCircle

• Remahtullah Sheikh from Pacific Content talks about the right way to work on podcasts with clients, and branded storytellers to work best. He was speaking at Radiodays Asia last year.
• How to choose the best podcast keywords - SEO is a thing for podcasting too, and Spreaker tells us how to describe your show.

Podcast News

In January 2018, Chris Bombardier climbed the highest mountains on each of the seven continents: already an achievement, but especially one for someone with severe haemophilia, a condition that means his blood doesn’t clot properly. The Final Summit is a series for adventurers, bleeders and anyone who’s ever chased a dream.

The CyberWire is partnering with Dragos for Control Loop: The OT Cybersecurity Podcast. Control Loop provides key insights and best practices from OT cybersecurity thought leaders that will bridge the gap between IT and OT cybersecurity in the industrial industry.

The Piketon Massacre, called one of the best new podcasts by Vulture last year, has just launched season three. With trials starting and local residents opening up for the first time, we’re finally getting a glimpse into the night in question and perhaps more importantly, the minds of a killer family.

Oldest Podcast Guest Corner: In this hitherto light-hearted feature this week we have arrived at a 105 year-old guest who we thought might be the oldest podcast guest. A producer for Radiotopia’s Radio Diaries has been in touch, pointing out that the show recorded 107 year-old Joe Newman in 2020. In an email entitled “Fact Check”, we were told our feature was “inaccurate” and a correction was demanded. Here it is, oh bringer of dark clouds and extinguisher of sunlight and fun.