YouTube execs to host Q&A

• Just days after Spotify’s video announcement, YouTube has announced that it is to run an online Q&A session on Dec 12. Kai Chuk, Global Head of Podcasting, and Steve McLendon, Podcast Product Lead, will be “spilling the tea on platform updates and answering your burning questions”. The session is free; they’ll be joined by Stephanie Chan, a Strategic Partner Manager for YouTube Podcasts.

• Ashley Carman got an interview with Gustav Söderström at Spotify’s Now Playing event last week. In her newsletter, she managed to prise a little more information from him about how the revenue for videos will work - though much is still under wraps - and she notes the tension from some publishers with the announcement.

  • John McDermott from Calaroga Shark Media is quite critical. For podcasters: “Do video if you wish. Do audio if you wish. But I don’t think this announcement wasn’t meant for you.”
  • Tech Radar suggests that Spotify “cares more about video podcasts than launching its long-awaited lossless HiFi tier”, adding “Maybe you’ll be able to play Spotify Hi-Fi in your flying car”. Ouch.

• In Russia, Apple Podcasts has removed a number of Russian-language shows, including a BBC podcast and shows from The Insider and Echos of Moscow. It’s also removed some apps including the US’s Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Podnews is unavailable in Russia, otherwise we’d ask whether people there can get the shows putting the RSS feed directly into Apple Podcasts. We’d be curious to know.

• iHeart’s Inside Radio reports that iHeart’s Triton Digital is to launch its Demos+ product in the Netherlands. It’s the first time the product has launched in the EU, which has significantly enhanced privacy laws.

• Audioboom released a trading update, suggesting that the company should make an EBITDA profit of $2.8mn, rather than the $2.5mn they were previously forecasting.

• Kast Media’s bankruptcy continues to roll on. If you’re curious what contracts in the podcast industry often look like, recent court filings have included Jim Cornette’s podcaster contract (appendix B); and X1T’s affiliate contract, a company that brought Kast a set of smaller shows.

• Wanted something more tangible than our screenshot of an email that Samsung Podcasts is closing down on Dec 1? It’s all we had at the time; but there’s a now link at the top of this Samsung page.

• Sounds Profitable are hosting a webinar this Wednesday at 2pm Eastern, called Video’s Rise in Podcasting.

The Tech Stuff

• Cleanfeed has made a number of improvements to the core audio quality of its remote audio tool. The Podnews Weekly Review uses this every week; advantages for podcasting over tools like Riverside and SquadCast are significantly lower latency and “what you hear is what you record”, rather than hoping that the local audio recording will be OK. Cleanfeed are a long-term supporter of Podnews, but we’d recommend them anyway.

• Transistor has added a look-up feature for podcast guests, that grabs details from Bluesky, Mastodon, GitHub and X. It puts the details on podcast RSS feeds.

• Alby appears to be shutting down its remaining lightning wallets, pushing people towards Alby Hub. Meanwhile, Proton’s Proton Wallet is now rolling out to existing customers; it doesn’t support Lightning, as yet.

Moves and hires

• Greg Wasserman is no longer Head of Relationships at Castmagic. He was employee #4 at the company, and led partnerships, sales, training, community building and advocacy. A podcast coach and consultant, and extremely active on LinkedIn, he’s looking for a fabulous next role.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• Making evergreen content is a good plan - since it means it’s ever-listenable (and ensures long-term revenue, rather than short-term hits). Philip Pape has written a guide to producing evergreen content, based on his podcast.

Podcast News

Today In History with The Retrospectors will release their 1,000th episode today. It produces ten-minute daily episodes bringing you curious moments from this day in history

The founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy, is to leave BFFs with Dave Portnoy, Josh Richards, and Brianna Chickenfry. He says he’s uninterested in the topics, and becoming too old; and there’s been other drama that we assume some people care about.

The Podnews Weekly Review reached episode 100 at the end of last week. Matt Campion from Spirit Studios joins us to talk about the company’s IP 360 strategy; while James and Sam talk about Spotify’s push to video.

Tenderfoot TV and Audacy today release an investigative series which revisits a 1995 murder after uncovering a box of forgotten VHS tapes and police reports. Evidence is discovered linking the crime to a secretive cult that required its members to “take a soul” as part of their initiation. There’s a possible connection to several unsolved murders. , and exposing of a mysterious group known as The Lords of Death.

SmartLess Presents ClueLess is an all-new bite-sized brain teaser podcast. Emmy-winning writer Elliott Kalan guides listeners through different puzzles, brain teasers, and conundrums, to see if they’re faster than this season’s permanent contestant, SmartLess co-host Sean Hayes. In each episode, Hayes will be joined by his close friends and family, who also share a love of games.