Special Podtrac ranker illustrates top new podcasts in 2020

Posted on by Brad Hill

In an intermediary report before its end-of-year accounting, Podtrac has released a chart of the top 25 new podcasts through Q3. This ranker is based on average number of U.S. downloads per episode. Even though it has been an extremely newsy year, and we observed the launch of news podcasts from major media brands, only two podcasts categorized as News made the list. Click through for key points and the entire list. Continue Reading →

Gaana brings Omny Studio into its platform to fuel Indian podcasting growth

Posted on by Brad Hill

Triton Digital, parent company of podcast hosting and technology company Omny Studio, is announcing today that Omny is being introduced into Gaana, India’s largest audio streaming platform. Gaana is perhaps best known as a music streaming app. But, like Spotify which is a better known brand globally outside of India, Gaana also distributes podcasts. Until now Gaana has mostly traded in Indian-produced shows, presented either in Hindi or English. The Omny Studio portfolio will bring a more global reach with nearly 30,000 podcasts. Continue Reading →

Acast partners with Patreon to simplify private distribution of premium episodes for patrons

Posted on by Brad Hill

Podcast content, hosting, and monetization platform Acast is announcing a partnership with Patreon, the crowdfunding platform used by many podcasters to support their ongoing projects. In this arrangement, Patreon podcasters can manage both their public feeds and private patron-only episodes in one place, and patronage listeners can hear public and private content in their favorite app. Continue Reading →

Spotify Buys Megaphone to bolster advertising play

Posted on by Brad Hill

Podcasting consolidation continues, as Spotify — an acquisition giant in the field — announces that it is buying Megaphone, one of the world’s leading podcast hosting and ad-tech companies. The deal represents not only Spotify’s growing imperialism in the podcast space, but the deepening influence of modern ad technology and audience targeting on the business of podcasting. Continue Reading →

Cumulus Q3: Podcasting up nearly 50%, 102M September downloads

Posted on by Brad Hill

A few interesting notes related to podcasting from Cumulus Media in the company’s Q3 earnings report. Cumulus owns Westwood One and the Westwood One Podcast Network, although neither entity was mentioned by name in the earnings call remarks by CEO Mary Berner and CFO Frank Lopez-Balboa. Podcasting provided a bulward during trouble performance of streaming and local digital marketing. Continue Reading →

iHeartMedia becomes exclusive rep for Pushkin Industries; co-production in the works

Posted on by Brad Hill

iHeartMedia announces today that it has accomplished a partnership with Pushkin Industries, the audio production company founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg in 2018. The alliance makes iHeartMedia the exclusive sales partner for Pushkin podcasts. Beyond the sales effort, the two companies will co-produce new shows, with a project timeline stretching over the next two years. Two of those shows are sketched out in today’s announcement. Continue Reading →

Riverside.fm comes out of stealth with cash and mission to join audio and video podcasting

Posted on by Brad Hill

Riverside.fm is announcing its emergence from stealth mode with $2.5-million of seed investment from Oren Zeed. Riverside.fm is a video+audio recording and livestream platform for podcasters, with a specialty of hi-rez recording of audio and video in separate tracks. Riverside’s competitive strategy explicitly targets audio connection platform Zencastr, promising to “drink Zencastr’s milkshake.” Continue Reading →