Month: November 2019

Headgum Podcast Network Launched Gumball

~ jen

Headgum – the acclaimed Los Angeles-based comedy podcast network – announced the launch of Gumball, a modern marketplace that allows brands to buy host-read advertisements directly from podcasters. The announcement follows Headgum’s success as the first podcast network to use Gumball’s core technology for its own line-up of podcasts.

With the Headgum network, Gumball has grown network revenue by 55 percent year-over-year. To date, over 300 brands have used Gumball technology and partnered with podcasters on impactful campaigns, delivering over 4,000 host-read advertisements.

Gumball is changing the way podcasters and advertisers plan, track and grow both campaigns and revenue, in an emerging and highly-valued medium. Gumball’s platform now empowers established and upstart podcasters to easily connect with advertisers, efficiently manage campaigns, get paid faster, and independently track advertising revenue.

The platform streamlines the sponsorship process so podcasters can book more ads, retain more advertising revenue and remain focused on creating compelling, listener-centric content. Well-positioned to lead the next generation of podcast advertising marketplace solutions, Gumball is on track to more than double its platform revenue in 2020.

Gumball for Podcasters:

  •  Empowers podcast creators with a streamlined sponsorship process that provides extended access to more advertisers and allows for independent monetization of advertising revenue
  • Enables podcasters to efficiently manage campaigns, get paid faster, and easily track revenue and payouts
  •  Delivers intuitive dashboard functions, including ad scheduling, unified script and referral code access, as well as easy aircheck uploads

The podcast medium continues to show rapid exponential growth. In line with this changing landscape, both advertiser and podcast network decisionmakers show increasing reliance on impactful and seamless technology platforms like Gumball.

Discover Pods Awards 2019 Winners have been Announced

~ jen

The winners of the 2019 Discover Pods Awards have been announced. This is the third year of the awards, and over 20,000 votes were tallied for the finalists alone.

Kevin Goldberg, Founder and Editor of Discover Pods, recommends you bookmark the list of winners and finalists and come back to it when your podcast queue runs dry.

  •  Best Overall Podcast: 99% Invisible
  •  New Podcast of 2019: Dolly Parton’s America
  •  Most Innovative Podcast: Ear Hustle
  •  True Crime Podcast: Swindled
  • Sports Podcast: Sports? With Katie Nolan
  • News Podcast: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
  • Interview Style Podcast: Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness
  • History Podcast: History Chicks
  • Comedy Podcast: Badvertising
  • Kids & Family Podcast: Mirths and Monsters
  • Society & Culture Podcast: NB: My non-binary life
  • TV & Movies Podcast: Office Ladies
  • Technology & Science Podcast: Curiosity Daily
  • Audio Drama or Fiction Podcast: The Magnus Archives
  • Business Podcast: Robinhood Snacks
  • Arts Podcast: Potterless
  • Health & Fitness Podcast: Sex With Emily
  • Music Podcast: Dissect
  • People’s Choice: And That’s Why We Drink

Acast Announced Acast Open

~ jen

Acast announced Acast Open. Its launch brings the world’s most sophisticated podcast hosting engine to every podcaster, big and small. Acast Open is available in English and French at launch, with more languages to follow.

Acast Open is a new product for anyone looking to create their own podcast for the first time, or who want to take the next step in their podcasting journey. They can choose Acast Open’s three service tiers, one of which is – ‘Starter’ – is free.

Acast Open is described as a “simple, smart podcast hosting for all creators.” It gives podcasters the choice of four pricing plans: Starter, Influencer, Ace, or Pro Service.

Starter: Free

  •  Podcast RSS feed for distribution to every podcast app
  •  Basic analytics
  •  Basic podcast website

Influencer: $14.99/month

  •  Podcast RSS feed for distribution to every podcast app
  •  Customizable podcast website
  •  YouTube, Spotify, and Soundcloud
  •  Unlimited episodes and downloads

Ace: $29.99/month

  •  Podcast RSS feed for distribution to every podcast app
  •  Advanced analytics
  •  Customizable podcast website
  •  YouTube, Spotify, and Soundcloud
  •  Unlimited episodes and downloads
  •  Episode transcriptions
  •  Team & Network Management
  •  Advanced support
  •  Pro Webinars
  •  Publishing API

Acast also offers a Pro Service. To be eligible, you must be an established podcaster, publisher or network, Or, you expect to launch with more than 10,000 weekly listens. If that describes you, then you can talk with Acast’s dedicated team about the premium hosting, monetization and marketing support they offer.

This news follows Acast’s acquisition of technology company Pippa earlier this year. Pippa has now been integrated into the Acast platform. Acast says that the Pippa brand will no longer exist.

All Acast Open subscribers – including former Pippa users who have been automatically migrated to the platform – will receive access to Acast’s world-class tech stack, which now includes the slick product suite built by Pippa.

Spotify Created a Daily Podcasts Playlist

~ jen

Spotify announced created a personalized playlist called Daily Podcasts. It functions similarly to Spotify’s Discover Weekly and Daily Mix playlists. The purpose is to make it easier for people to find a new podcast to listen to after they have binged through their favorites.

Now we’ve created Your Daily Podcasts – our first daily personalized podcast playlist that gives users an easy way to discover new shows while also keeping up with old favorites. If you’ve listened to at least four podcasts in the past 90 days, you’ll find the playlist in the “Your Top Podcasts” shelf on Home or in the “Made For You” hub on browse.

Here’s how Daily Podcasts works:

  •  Spotify’s algorithms analyze your podcast behavior – like recent streams and follows.
  • Then, based on your listening history and the podcast type, Spotify will recommend the next best episodes for you.
  • That might be the next sequential episode in a podcast you’re already listening to, or a timely episode from a daily updating podcast.
  • No spoilers! If you’ve never listened to a story-driven sequential show that Spotify thinks you will like, you’ll get the trailer or pilot episode first – to see if it catches your ear.

Free and Premium users in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand can check out their Your Daily Podcast playlist, now available on Spotify.

Anchor Announced Anchor Trailers

~ jen

Anchor announced Anchor Trailers. They put together a blog post about best practices for creating a trailer for your podcast.

When you record a trailer using Anchor, we’ll automatically transcribe your words into a beautiful, animated video that you can use to promote your podcast. Embed it on your website, post it on social, and share it all over the world. You never know where your future listeners may be.

Anchor Trailers is Anchor’s latest feature to help their podcasters get the word out about their podcast. Anchor says that trailers are a trademark of successful podcasts and a powerful way to share your show with new audiences. This new feature is an improvement over Anchor’s feature that allowed podcasters to mark episodes as trailers.

It appears that a podcaster who used Anchor Trailers to make a trailer for their show could use that trailer as their official trailer on Apple Podcasts. Anchor Trailers are one minute in length, and podcasters get a warning before their time runs out. It is possible to select some “smart background music” to go in your trailer.

Anchor notes that if the focus of your podcast changes over time, it is possible to create a brand new trailer for your show. Back in 2005, when I started podcasting, we called this type of thing a “promo” and passed them around to other podcasters to play on their shows. The difference is that Anchor Trailers involve animated video, which just wasn’t possible at the dawn of podcasting.

The only thing I find strange about Anchor Trailers is that they encourage podcasters to create a trailer before they’ve actually gotten started on their podcast. It might make sense for a show that has already recorded and edited several episodes to put out a trailer before the podcast officially launches. But, I cannot imagine how a person could create a trailer when they haven’t yet worked out what their podcast is actually about.

Blubrry Podcasting Released Podcast Network Plugin for WordPress

~ jen

Blubrry Podcasting, leaders in the industry for 14 years, launched its Podcast Network plugin for WordPress, available to any podcaster. The Podcast Network Plugin allows professional Blubrry hosting customers to create and share a network with other podcasts outside of the Blubrry hosting realm.

Professional Blubrry customers can utilize this plugin for free. Instead of designing and paying a developer to produce a network site, podcasters can now use the Podcast Network Plugin to create a network website that integrates up to 500 shows and integrates seamlessly with PowerPress, Blubrry’s podcast plugin.

“The most important factor was allowing this to work with podcasts not utilizing Blubrry hosting,” said Todd Cochrane, CEO of Blubrry. “Networks can include shows in a specific genre, alliances, or even business relationships, and we know shows aren’t always on the same host or team. We look forward to seeing shows – new and old – come together for their audiences.”

Podcasters are able to use any WordPress theme or additional plugins of their choosing as they always have on their website. The network plugin is a free add-on feature of the professional level plan. Shows can be added to the account for standard pro-pricing, and any podcast outside of the main Blubrry account for an additional tiered fee, starting at $50 for one-10 shows.

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.

Edison Research Announced First Podcast Consumer Tracker Report

~ jen

Edison Research has delivered to clients the first and only comprehensive measure of the comparative reach of America’s top podcast networks, the Podcast Consumer Tracker.

Edison, the leading podcast research company in the world, has been studying this rapidly evolving medium since 2006, and the Podcast Consumer Tracker represents the first successful endeavor to present a unified look at audience information at the publisher/network level. The Podcast Consumer Tracker also contains competitive intelligence, audience demographics, and sales targeting information for podcast publishers and networks.

The Podcast Consumer Tracker from Edison currently has 10 charter subscribers, including NPR, PodcastOne, Wondery, ESPN, WarnerMedia, and other significant publishing and agency partners. The study is based on a continuous sampling of consumers who have listened to a podcast in the last week. Comparative rankings of publisher networks are available only to subscribers.

Among the findings in the first report:

  • The Joe Rogan Experience is the leading podcast in terms of reach amongst weekly podcast consumers.
  • There are significant content consumption differences between iPhone and Android users, rendering “Top Podcast” charts derived exclusively from users of either to be unrepresentative of total listening behavior.
  • While the study tracks the relative reach of the top podcast networks, 54% of weekly podcast consumers have listened to an unaffiliated, independent podcast in the last week.

“This is the first study in the podcast space to tackle a universal measure of reach,” notes Edison SVP Tom Webster. “There are, of course, various charts of downloads that cover parts of the overall universe, but those either reflect only a portion of the podcast audience, or they measure publishers that opt-in. The Podcast Consumer Tracker’s goal is a truly inclusive measure of the comparative penetration of the leading publishers and networks. In that, we have been highly successful.”

In addition to network reach statistics, the study also provides the only nationally representatives look at the purchasing and consumption patterns of podcast listeners, content preferences, and advertising targeting information across a broad array of consumer goods and services.

Last Podcast on the Left Moving Exclusively to Spotify

~ jen

The Hollywood Reporter reported that Last Podcast on the Left will be moving exclusively to Spotify in 2020. This change could be welcomed by fans of the podcast who currently have a Spotify account, but may make fans who do not have one worry about being left out.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote that this move is part a larger push by Spotify to offer a slate of first-run and original shows to its 248 million users.

Nabbing a longstanding podcast like Last Podcast is crucial to Spotify’s push into the audio medium, lending credibility to its efforts as it makes splashy acquisitions and inks deals with high-profile talent like Barack and Michelle Obama. Other preexisting shows that have become Spotify exclusives include The Joe Budden Podcast, the German-language Gemischtes Hack and the Spanish-language podcast Se Regala Dudas. Spotify says that all three have built on their audiences when going exclusive on its platform.

Henry Zebrowski, one of the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, tweeted a short thread that started with: “This is a very exciting piece of news for us. Over the next couple of months we will begin a partnership with @Spotify who have showed us we have the same goals in taking podcasts seriously. Let’s do this shit”

He continued the thread with: “We will be posting on all feeds for a while, also the show remains free. They do not own our network but are going to support us in expanding the shows we make, which means more staff, higher quality podcasts and more content than you can shake a vagina at”

Ben Kissel, another host of Last Podcast on the Left tweeted: “Regarding the Spotify partnership with LPN, EVERY show will still be free to listen to and download through Spotify. The content will not change at all nor will our Patreon be affected. This opportunity is going to allow us to give you even more sweet content in 2020 with new shows!”

Blubrry Podcasting Announces Pro-Production Services

~ jen

Blubrry Podcasting has been leading the way providing podcasters with hosting and tools since 2005 and is now offering high-touch professional post-production.

Post-production for many podcasters is, at best, time-consuming, and at worst, technically challenging and detrimental to publishing.

Right now, professional hosting customers can choose between a “launch/relaunch” rolling into weekly production, or simply transfer their show over to an “auto-pilot” package. All packages include support from a dedicated team of podcast pros!

Once again, Blubrry is leading the way in podcast innovation, continuing to put the podcaster first.

CEO Todd Cochrane said, “We often hear how overburdened our clients feel when they are producing all the elements of their podcast, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I’m confident, these pro-packages are the ultimate solution to help our podcasters get their valuable time back so they can focus on creating their best content and prevent pod-fade.”

Spots are available by application only to current/new Blubrry Pro Hosting customers and are limited to just 15 slots for Launch and Relaunch podcasts and 50 slots for ‘Auto-Pilot’ show transfers. Customers that are not currently subscribed to ‘professional level’ should upgrade to become eligible for pro-production services.