In a seemingly win-win scenario, global podcast company Acast has signed a distribution deal with Resso, a streaming music service operating in Brazil, India and Indonesia. Resso was started two years ago by ByteDance, parent company of TikTok. Click for more. Continue Reading
In Podtrac’s Top Podcast Publishers monthly ranker for May we learn that the metrics for download growth were on a slight upswing (1%) month-over-month, and a sharper growth of 32% year-over-year. (Podtrac measures its clients.) Click through for the results and the RAIN remix, which re-sorts the top publishers by average listeners and downloads per show. Continue Reading
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
Jottings of Note
— Cannes (SXM Media)
— Upfront (True Native Media)
— Short News (Schwartz Media / SCA)
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
Jottings of Note
— Crypto Cast (a16z)
— Thirsty (Rob Greenlee)
— Limited Series (iHeartMedia)
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