Where new listeners start? New YouTube study

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• YouTube could be great at finding new listeners for your podcast, according to a study into podcast consumption on YouTube from Veritonic. 65% of people who watch a podcast on YouTube are consuming it for the first time, the data says. Also, we learn that 54% of listeners like to consume podcasts on YouTube because they enjoy seeing the hosts and their guests talk, we also learn; and (slightly unnervingly) 2% of people watch YouTube while driving.

• So - is YouTube Music rolling out podcasts worldwide? A YouTube spokesperson has told us that YouTube Music has begun to roll out podcasts to Canada and Brazil (but, for now, nowhere else). “Podcasts are currently only available to YouTube Music users in certain markets. Stay tuned for updates about when podcasts will launch in YouTube Music in your region.”

• The Australian Podcast Ranker was released. The ABC is still absent; the data is otherwise consistent with previous months.

  • As mentioned yesterday, Australia’s podcast insights survey PodPoll 2023 is now available for download. Specifically, the data contains subjects for podcasts that listeners say they want more of - for young people, that includes science and the environment.

• PRX and TED are to expand their audio partnership: PRX will continue to serve as podcast distributor for the TED Audio Collective, and with Soundrise, will now serve as official sales partner to all TED podcasts.

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• Momento, an AI-powered method of creating video shorts from your filmed podcast or other video content, is to announce a free plan today. Creators will get to upload up to two hours of video, and make ten clips, or “moments”, every month. The AI finds key highlights, funny moments, and more.

• iHeartMedia has extended a first-look deal with Ninth Planet Audio. Meanwhile Boston-based public radio station GBH has signed with Anonymous Content.

• Amanda Montell of Sounds Like A Cult has sued her co-host Isa Medina for half a million dollars alleging bad behaviour. The show announced it had moved to Exactly Right in November, but the network dropped the show within two weeks.

Thank you to Steve Lack Audio - which produces podcasts, audiobooks and does audio post - for becoming our latest gold supporter. Based in Washington DC, Steve says: “After reading every day and staying up to date on the industry through your work, I thought it was time to give something back!” We’re proud to #MixWithSteve - and thank you for supporting us. (You can mix with people like Steve too).

People News

• Ryan Redington has been promoted to GM of Amazon Music. Predecessor Steve Boom is now leading all Amazon’s digital entertainment businesses.

Tips and tricks

• Castos looks at how you promote a podcast on Spotify.

Podcast News - with the Radioinfo Asia Podcast Awards

Drilled - a true-crime podcast about climate change - launches a new season today looking at Herb Schmertz, and how he got large fossil fuel corporations into the corporate free speech business, where deliberately misleading statements about the environment are protected by the First Amendment, and where corporations have personal beliefs. It’s hosted by Amy Westervelt.

Win or lose, sink or swim: one thing is certain, we’ll never give in. McCartney: A Life in Lyrics is new from Pushkin Industries and iHeart, and is a collaboration between the former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and the poet Paul Muldoon. Arm in arm, hand in hand, we all stand together in knowing at least one song that won’t be making the highlights reel. It’s out in September.

Brian James and Didontae Farmer were never meant to be friends while serving time at a California state prison. But through a chance encounter, they managed to form an incredible bond in a very broken place. As free men, they now co-host Strangest Fruit where they are sharing their unique friendship and insight with the world in hopes of having more conversations that matter to make positive change in communities and culture. The show is new this month, from HEARD Studio in LA.