New voice cleaning tool from audio specialists

• A new voice enhancement tool, Voice Regen, has been launched - but this one is different. It’s from Waves Audio, an Emmy® and Technical Grammy® Award-winning audio technology company, rather than a random guy with an AI account. The tool provides content creators with instant, professional-quality voice cleanup. It removes background noise, room echo, and fixes uneven volume. Pricing starts for free, but $4.99 currently gets WAV export and 300 minutes a month. It also does video.

  • If you’d like to know what it sounds like - you’ve probably already heard it. The Podnews Weekly Review from Dec 19 included lots of individual pieces of bad-quality audio, recorded all over the world on laptop microphones, via AirPods, the tiny microphone on your headphone lead, or who knows how - some seemingly in bathrooms or echoey offices, others in low-quality low-resolution files. Testing the tool, we pushed them all through Voice Regen; and the sound is consistent throughout.

• Audioboom has signed Crooked Media for hosting, global distribution and network advertising sales. Audioboom will also represent host read ads within Pod Save the UK.

• In Australia, SXSW Sydney has been cancelled. It’s reported that the NSW government, which had part-funded the event in previous years, had pulled out (in spite of having signed a five year agreement). There were “two dedicated stages” for podcasts at the event last year.

  • SXSW in Austin TX continues, including this year’s Podcast Movement Evolutions.
  • The Domefest podcast festival in Sydney takes place on Mar 29.

• Crime Junkie is the biggest podcast in the US for audio reach, according to Podscribe’s January 2026 Podcast Industry Rankings. Good news for Audioboom - their show Bulwark is at #10 for downloads and views, while Pod Save America, which they now represent, is #10 in audio reach.

• Guests not being brilliant isn’t just something that affects smaller podcasts - Will Arnett says that one “very famous comedian” behaved so badly on the Smartless podcast, they cut him off after ten minutes. Another comedian recorded a whole show, but then decided that she didn’t want it to be released in case her quotes were taken out of context.

• Which self-improvement podcasts have the best-performing advertising? Oxford Road’s ORBIT study, based on $1.6bn in annual spend, tells us that The Anxiety Coaches Podcast with True Native Media gives the best bang for your buck. But, the self-improvement category is 8x more volatile than mental health shows - with much bigger swings between wild wins and massive misses.

• Podcast Nation has strengthened its relationship with UTA, signing three new shows: Outlore with Eleanor Neale, The Florence Given Show, and Petty Crimes.

• The IAB released “proposed draft legislation” to address AI scraping, which it says is urgently needed to protect the ad-supported publishing ecosystem.

• In the UK, YouTube has sent a legal letter to BARB, the UK television measurement service, requiring it to stop measurement of YouTube channels on smart TVs. That allowed BARB (which is roughly the equivalent to the US’s Nielsen) to report on sizes of individual channels, something that YouTube suggests breached its terms of service. (MrBeast, BARB reported, achieved 319,000 viewers in a week, details we’re apparently not allowed to know). The data was collected for BARB by Kantar Media, using audio matching recognition for 200 channels. None of YouTube’s data is compliant with IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines; and the company has never published what constitutes a “play” on the system.

• The Journey to Mastery podcast has launched an accompanying app - a daily formation app built for faith-driven entrepreneurs who listen to the show. Rather than offering more content, the app focuses on a simple daily rhythm of short prompts, reflection, and intentional focus, helping listeners apply the ideas they hear on the podcast in real life. The launch of the app coincides with creator and host Elzie Flenard III’s tenth year anniversary as a podcaster.

• Events: OnAir Fest has released its final schedule. The event is Feb 25-26 in Brooklyn, New York … The Paris Radio Show starts today, at La Bellvoise in Paris. Much of the event is free. Amongst the radio stuff is a live podcast track. It’s also on tomorrow.

Thank you to The Content Creator’s Accountant for becoming our latest gold supporter. Podnews is free to everyone because of the kind generosity of our supporters, and The Content Creator’s Accountant is a podcast that knows all about how creativity and money go together. The creator economy is booming — yet most creators struggle to manage irregular income, taxes, and business structure. This show bridges that gap by giving creators the tools, systems, and mindset to thrive financially. We’re grateful to Ralph Estep Jr for his kind support. If you value our work and our independent journalism, please consider joining as a supporter.

Podcast News - with Airwave

For your Ambies Consideration: abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast which was nominated for the Best DIY Podcast. With Airwave, it guides listeners through immersive audio fantasies, and asks critical questions about American history, culture and community.

PodBiz | Where’s The Money In Podcasting? this episode talks with Dr. Michael Osborne, founder of 14th Street Studios and and host of Famous and Gravy. He’s taken three shows from indie status to major industry partnerships - but the real money isn’t where you think it is, he says.

The Quarter Hour is a new podcast focusing on the radio industry in Australia and beyond. It’s built to be just fifteen minutes long, and is hosted by radio and creative coach Wade Kingsley. The most recent episode focuses on talk radio.

The Dan Bongino Show returned yesterday, with the former FBI Deputy Director defending his 10-month record for the agency, and criticising media coverage.

For many people, anxiety shows up loudly in when you do fundraising: tight chest, clenched gut, racing thoughts, shrinking creativity. In The Brave and Balanced Fundraiser this week, Erin explores the topic of raising money while understanding your body’s stress response so you can fundraise from clarity instead of stress and pressure. You’ll learn why anxiety feels so overwhelming, why it isn’t evidence that something is wrong with you, and how your nervous system is trying to keep you safe.

Killer Concept is a new show pulling back the curtain on the hardest, most important, and more overlooked aspect of podcasting success: Developing a show concept listeners can’t stop thinking about… and listening to. In every episode, host, Jeremy Enns of Podcast Marketing Academy takes a generic podcast idea and then fleshes it out into a must-listen, category-winning show.

A ten-year investigation. Thousands of documents. And a man who doesn’t fit in. From the legendary audio pioneer Nick van der Kolk and Daylight, Love + Radio has launched its new series: Blood Memory. A searing ten-part documentary, Blood Memory shatters the conventions of the true crime genre. The series follows the life of Michael Thompson, who became infamous for defecting from a notorious prison gang and testifying against them in several high-profile criminal trials.