Comprehensive coverage of the podcasting industry and its business ecosystem.
With an ambition to make podcasts more accessible, the Crooked Media network has partnered with Adobe and its Premiere Pro’s speech-to-text technology to create captioned videos of podcasts. Production speed is key. Click for details and a behind-the-scenes video. Continue Reading
Kara Swisher, co-host of the Pivot podcast at Vox Media, and former host of Sway — a current events interview podcast at The New York Times — will leave NYT and start a new Vox show. As yet untitled (at least publicly), it will be another interview format. A big get (re-get, really) for Vox. Click for details. Continue Reading
Maya Prohovnik, who was Anchor’s first employee and is currently Director of R&D for Talk Verticals at Anchor parent company Spotify, will become Head of Talk, replacing Michael Mignano when he departs the company this month. Continue Reading
Buzzsprout is creating buzz (sorry) for its new podcaster advertising program, Buzzsprout Ads, which allows podcasters to purchase midroll spots in Buzzsprout-hosted podcasts. The promotion is absent of details pertinent to Buzzsprout shows which will receive the ads. But by digging into the Buzzsprout Facebook community we were able to piece together the entire picture. Continue Reading
WNYC Studios has signed with talent agency UTA, presumably to explore podcast crossovers to film and TV. The potential extension might seem surprising to listeners who think of WNYC’s podcast creation mainly for its intellectual programming. But the network also produces Dolly Parton’s America, Dead End, and Radiolab. Continue Reading
Acast announces its teased partnership with audio equipment make Focusrite, unleashing details today. The new relationship aspires to raise podcast audio quality for producers equipping their shows (by selling them new Focusrite gear), and saving them money post-production with free use of Acast’s mid-level hosting plan for six months. Focusrite, maker of Scarlett mic-to-computer interfaces, is releasing a new product as part of this. Click for details. Continue Reading
According to Libsyn subsidiary AdvertiseCast, podcast CPMs dropped a bit in May after an April rise from the preceding month. The sharpest movement was in the 1,000-9,999 listeners trendline. Click through for more metrics and an illustrative chart. Continue Reading
Podcast creation in May dropped to 9,391 new shows, from 14,282 in April, according to Listen Notes. It is the fourth consecutive monthly drop which has seen podcast creation on the slide through 2022. Click through for details and graphics. Continue Reading
Podcast company Libsyn and podcast ad marketplace AdvertiseCase are celebrating the one-year anniversary of their merger. In this recognition, Libsyn takes the opportunity to disclose a general picture of AdvertiseCast earnings. It’s double-digit percentage growth. Continue Reading
Acast is teasing a quasi-announcement, timed with the Podcast Show happening in London this week. In it, we learn that Focusrite and Acast will do something together, sometime. It’s a tease. Our guess: A discount on the Scarlett brand of Focusrite recording interfaces. Continue Reading
Magellan AI released its always-interesting Top Spenders list, listing the highest 15 spenders for April. BetterHelp lands in the #1 spot, as it has for the last 12 months in today’s RAIN analysis of this ranker. There are zero newcomers. Click through for downloadable 12-month chart. Continue Reading
In an interesting piece of research from Podtrac, YouTube had a larger share of podcast plays for shows that distribute full video episodes on YouTube. The results add dimension to the growing idea that putting a podcast on YouTube is a good idea for discoverability. Podtrac’s work points to YouTube as a potential leader in audience reach. Continue Reading