Apple Podcasts

Apple Podcasts Now Available in More Countries

~ jen

Apple announced in April that even more customers around the world can enjoy many of Apple’s most popular services. This includes Apple Podcasts (as well as The App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, and iCloud). Apple Podcasts is now available to people in 20 more countries. Apple Music is available in 52 additional countries.

“We’re delighted to bring many of Apple’s most beloved Services to users in more countries than ever before,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content. “We hope our customers can discover their new favorite apps, games, music, and podcasts as we continue to celebrate the world’s best creators, artists, and developers.

Apple Podcasts (and The App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, and iCloud) are now available in the following countries and regions:

  • Africa: Cameron, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Libya, Morroco, Rwanda, and Zambia
  • Asia-Pacific: Maldives and Myanmar
  • Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia
  • Middle East: Afghanistan (excluding Apple Music) and Iraq
  • Oceania: Nauru (excluding Apple Music), Tonga and Vanuatu.

Apple describes Apple Podcasts as “the best place to browse and listen to the world’s largest catalog of podcasts, now featuring over 1 million shows in more than 100 languages and 175 countries and regions.”

Apple Podcasts Made a COVID-19 Essential Listening Channel

~ jen

One would assume that the majority of people who visit Apple Podcasts go there because they want to find a specific podcast that they just heard about. Others go there to find a new podcast to listen to after the one they were enjoying came to an end. You might not think of Apple Podcasts as a place to find news about COVID-19, but they have created a collection of it for “news junkies” to listen to.

Apple Podcasts’s COVID-19: Essential Listening collection has more episodes, news, and podcasts dedicated to information about COVID-19 than anyone could binge listen to in a few days (or maybe even weeks). The collection is described this way:

No medium is better suited to reacting to and providing context for the current unique circumstances across the globe than podcasts. Nimble and efficient and personal in ways that other sources of information cannot always be, these program have quickly become integral parts of our lives – and its no surprise how many have sprung up so quickly in response to this worldwide crisis.

This frequently updated field guide will help direct you towards the most useful shows out there – from the most urgent reporting and expert analysis surrounding the fast-evolving pandemic to advice on protecting the physical and mental health of you and your loved ones during these unusual times. Stay informed, stay home, and keep coming back here for more of the reporting, storytelling, and words of wisdom you need to get through this.


Here are a few of the COVID-19 focused podcasts that are featured:

  • Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction with Dr. Sanjay Gupta – CNN. (This one is also produced in Spanish).
  • Coronavirus Global Update – BBC World Services
  • COVID-19: What You Need to Know – ABC News
  • Coronavirus Daily – NPR
  • Daily Coronavirus Update – iHeartRadio
  • Politico Dispatch – Politico
  • AP Ground Game: Inside the Outbreak – The AP / Westwood One Podcast Network
  • Social Distance – The Atlantic
  • Into America – NBC & MSNBC
  • Fighting Coronavirus, from American Innovations – Wondery
  • Science VS – Gimlet
  • PBS News Hour – Health – PBS Newshour
  • Coronavirus in California – L.A. Times

Apple Podcasts is Seeking a Head of Partner Relations

~ jen

Apple Podcasts is seeking a Head of Partner Relations. This role can be based out of Cupertino, Culver City, or New York.

We are seeking a talented and results-oriented individual to lead the Apple Podcasts Partner Relations team for Apple Podcasts. You will oversee all new and exciting relationships with podcast creators. You will report to the Worldwide Head of Apple Podcasts and will be responsible for driving the success of podcast partners within our ecosystem.

Description:

  •  Direct a team of Partner Relations managers to achieve measurable goals by helping creators find audiences on Apple Podcasts
  •  Build and maintain close relationships with top creators
  •  Identify and execute on new business development and partnership opportunities
  •  Advocate for creator-centric platform improvements based on feedback, market research and internal analysis
  •  Work with internal teams (product, marketing, legal, analytics) to gain support for new initiatives
  •  Help define growth strategies across different creator verticals.

Key Qualifications include:

  •  Deep knowledge of the podcasting ecosystem with a fluency in common business models and podcast creation best practices
  •  8+ years of relevant experience across business development, partnership management, and product management, ideally within podcasting space
  •  Strong executive relationships with podcast creators across a variety of verticals
  •  Outstanding problem-solving and analytical skills; finely tuned judgement
  • Willingness to travel regionally and internationally

Education and Experience:

  •  BA/BS degree, MBA preferred

Those who are interesting in learning more about the Apple Podcasts Head of Partner Relations position, and to apply for the job, can do so on the Apple website where the job is listed.

Play Apple Podcasts with Alexa

~ jen

Podnews posted the contents of an email that Apple sent out. It included the news that Apple Podcasts are now on Alexa. The email also provided details about Apple’s holiday submission schedule for podcasts.

Apple Podcasts is now available on Alexa-enabled Amazon devices in the United States. As a creator, you’ll find this presents an even greater opportunity for listeners to hear your show.

Spread the world on your show or episode promotion channels, and wherever else you communicate with your audience. For example, encourage them to say things like:

“Alexa, play (podcast title) on Apple Podcasts”
“Alexa, play (podcast title) from yesterday on Apple Podcasts”
“Alexa, skip ahead 30 seconds”
“Alexa, play the previous episode”

Apple provided information about what you need in order to play Apple podcast on Alexa. It includes the following:

An Amazon Fire TV or Amazon Echo speaker and the iOS or Android device you used for setup with the Amazon Alexa app installed. Make sure you update to the latest iOS and check the App Store to see if there are updates for the Amazon Alexa app. If you use an Android device, check the Google Play store for any updates to the Apple Podcasts app or Amazon Alexa app.

Apple’s Holiday Submission Guidelines are:

  •  If you plan to release new shows in December, be aware of delays in he review process for new submissions between December 23, 2019, and January 2, 2020.
  •  Shows submitted during this time may not be reviewed within our regular timeframe of five business days. Plan accordingly and submit any new RSS feeds in advance.
  • Note: This does not affect shows already available on Apple Podcasts. New episodes will continue to be available within 24 hours.

Apple Sent an Email to Podcast Providers

~ jen

Podcasters who have shows on Apple Podcasts may have received an email from Apple. For those that did not get that email, Podnews has posted a copy of it. It turns out that part of the information in that email was incorrect.

The email from Apple started with “Dear Podcast Provider”. The email was focused on pointing out updates “to help improve the experience for your listeners on Apple Podcasts.” Here is a portion of the email that is correct:

Manage Show Launches

You can now hide shows while being reviewed for approval. This way you can easily manage the launch of new shows directly from Podcasts Connect.

Simply select Hide Podcast after submitting it for review – this action will not impact or delay the feed’s review process. When approved, you can then select Unhide Podcast and allow up to 24 hours for your show to become searchable on Apple Podcasts.

Learn more about planning and promoting your new shows on Podcast Marketing Best Practices.

Podnews received a response from an Apple Podcast support team member who confirmed that the portion of the email about Updates to Host and Guest Image Specifications was inaccurate. Apple updated the aspect ratio of images of hosts and guests displayed on the show and episode pages (but made some mistakes). The correct information is:

Requirements:

  •  Square aspect ratio
  • Minimum Size: 1440 x 1440 pixels, Preferred: 2400 x 2400 pixels
  • Format: PNG or JPG

Guidelines:

  •  One person per image
  • Talent should face and look into the camera
  • Fit the entire face of the person within the image
  • Follow the eyebrow and lip guidelines
  • Leave padding between the edge of the image and the face
  • No borders of any kind
  • No pixelation or low-resolution images
  • No typography or logos of any kind
  • Don’t crop head, ears, or chin.

There is a Holiday Submission Schedule that podcasters need to know about. If you plan to release new shows on Apple Podcasts in November or December, be aware of the following periods of delayed submission activity: November 22 to December 2, and December 23 to January 2.

Apple Changes Categories on Apple Podcasts

~ jen ~ 2 Comments

Apple announced that they are adding top-level categories, such as Fiction, History, and True Crime, this summer, as well as dozens of new subcategories. Podcasters may want to read Apple’s list to see if their shows will be affected by the changes.

PodNews put together a detailed list of the changes to the podcast categories. Their list is the updated July categories, which were slightly changed from the original announcements. I’m not going to copy their entire list here, but will point out some categories that have been removed.

The entire Games & Hobbies category has been removed and renamed Leisure. As a result, the following subcategories have been removed: Automotive, Aviation, Hobbies, Other Games, Video Games. (Automotive, Aviation, Hobbies, and Video Games have been moved to Leisure.)

The entire Government & Organizations category has been removed and renamed Government. As a result, the following subcategories have been removed: Local, National, Non-Profit, Regional.

The News & Politics category has been removed and renamed News. Politics is one of the subcategories in the renamed News section.

The entire Sports & Recreation category has been removed and renamed Sports. Under the Sports category, the following subcategories have been removed: Amateur, College & High School, Professional, Outdoor.

In the Technology Category, Gadgets has been removed. Tech News has been removed and placed under the News Category in a subcategory called Tech News. Podcasting has been removed. Software How To has been removed and placed under the Education category in a subcategory called How To.

UPDATE: According to The Simplecast Blog, Apple is not removing the entire Technology category. It is, however, removing all of the subcategories that were under it. That includes the subcategory called podcasting.

Apple Seeks a Data Scientist for Apple Podcasts and Media Products

~ jen

Apple Podcasts is seeking a Data Scientist to join a team passionate about Data Science & Analytics for Apple Media Products (AMP) covering Apple Podcasts.

This role will involve working with Internet-scale data across numerous product and customer touch points, undertaking in-depth quantitative analysis and building models to drive product and strategy.

Dive deep into large-scale data to uncover trends and identify key insights that will propel the Apple Podcasts product and content strategy. Craft how to best monitor, measure and understand product and business performance. Collaborate with business, marketing, finance and executive teams to generate regular presentations for C-level. Partner with other Apple organizations on data gathering, data governance, evangelizing key performance indicators and democratizing data. Your creative problem solving will be utilized daily.

Key Qualifications include:

  • 3+ years of experience in a Data Scientist or Data Analyst role, preferably for a digital publishing or digital subscription business. Domain knowledge in the podcasting space is a plus.
  • Strong proficiency with SQL-based languages. Experience with large scale analytics technologies such as Hadoop and Spark preferred.
  • Familiarity with Python or R and data visualization tools such as Tableau for full-stack data analysis, insight synthesis and presentation.
  • Experience using relevant statistical packages to build predictive/ML models and knowledge of A/B test experimentation design.

Visit the Apple website where the Data Scientist job is listed for more information about qualifications, education and experience required, and to submit a resume.

Apple, YouTube, and Facebook Removed Alex Jones’ Content

~ jen

Last week, Spotify deleted several episodes of The Alex Jones Podcast. The reason was because that content violated Spotify’s hate content policy. Stitcher removed Alex Jones’ podcasts on August 2, 2018. Apple, Facebook, and YouTube have followed with their own bans.

Buzzfeed News reported that Apple removed the entire library for five of Infowars’ six podcasts from its iTunes and Podcasts Apps. Among them were War Room and Alex Jones Show.

Buzzfeed reported a statement from Apple that said:

“Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users. Podcast that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

CNBC reported that YouTube, which is owned by Google, has removed the Alex Jones Channel.

CNBC reported that Google said in a statement regarding the removal of the page: “All users agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines when they sign up to use YouTube. When users violate these policies repeatedly, like our policies against hate speech and harassment or our terms prohibiting circumvention of our enforcement measures, we terminate their accounts.”

Facebook provided information about why they removed four videos on four Alex Jones Facebook pages in a newsroom post titled: “Enforcing Our Community Standards”.

It starts with: “We believe in giving people a voice, but we also want everyone using Facebook to feel safe. It’s why we have Community Standards and remove anything that violates them, including hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others. Earlier today, we removed four Pages belonging to Alex Jones for repeatedly posting content over the past several days that breaks those Community Standards.”

Toward the end of the post, Facebook said: “As a result of reports we received, last week, we removed videos on four Facebook Pages for violating our hate speech and bullying policies. These pages were the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page, and the InfoWars Nightly News page. In addition, one of the admins of these Pages – Alex Jones – was placed in a 30-day block for his role in posting violating content to these Pages.”

Facebook also removed more content from the same pages that had been reported to them. Facebook took it down for glorifying violence, which violates Facebook’s graphic violence policy, and using dehumanizing language to describes people who are transgender, Muslims, and immigrants, which violates their hate speech policies.

On August 2, 2018, Stitcher posted a tweet that said: “Thanks for your note. We have reviewed Alex Jones’ podcasts and found he has, on multiple occasions, harassed or allowed harassment of private individuals and organizations, (1/2)”

Stitcher followed that with a second tweet: “and that harassment has led listeners of the show to engage in similar harassment and other damaging activity. Therefore, we have decided to remove his podcasts from the Stitcher platform.”

Apple has Acquired Pop Up Archive

~ jen

Apple logoNicholas Quah reported in his Hot Pod Newsletter on Nieman Lab earlier this month that Apple has acquired Pop Up Archive. It was the parent company of Audiosear.ch. Both of them shut down on November 29, 2017.

Pop Up Archive focused on building tools to transcribe, organize, and search audio files. Audiosear.ch was among Pop Up Archive’s suite of tools. Audiosear.ch was its podcast search engine. Nicholas Quah shared the following insight:

That said, I’m pretty sure you can put two and two together with what’s on paper: Apple, long the dominant hands-off steward of the podcast universe, has acquired a technology dedicated to increasing the knowability and sortability of the hundreds of thousands of shows distributed through its Apple Podcast platform. This, as you can imagine, has widespread implications for the ecosystem.

Exactly how Apple will use its newly acquired tools is unclear, or if they are already using them in some “behind-the-scenes” way. I searched for a press release from Apple about this acquisition, but was unable to locate one.

Apple Podcast Announcement Wrap-up – PCN Show 043

~ shawn

PCN iTunes artworkApple’s announcement this week at the end of the Worldwide Developer Conference is some of the biggest podcasting news to happen in years. That’s why I’ve decided to dedicate an entire episode to it.

Links:

 

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