Month: May 2020

Captivate is IAB Certified

~ jen

Captivate has announced that the platform has achieved IAB Tech Lab Certified status as a podcast analytics provider.

Our CTO, Kieran, and the Captivate engineering team have been working closely with the IAB to audit, fully document and certify the Captivate podcast analytics measurement and reporting modules to the IAB Tech v2 standards and achieve formal certification from the IAB Tech Lab.

Advanced IAB Tech Lab certified podcast analytics are now available worldwide, to all Captivate podcasters at no extra cost as Captivate becomes the first UK-based podcast host to complete the certification.

Captivate says that its podcast analytics platform was already built to adhere to IAB standards. As such, they are delighted to be able to achieve the IAB certification without any disruption to podcasters and without seeing any significant changes to podcasters’ reported download numbers.

Captivate’s decision to work with the IAB Tech Lab became an easy one to make as podcasters continually look to hone in on the accuracy of their analytics and understand their listenership more and more as the industry progresses.

This means Captivate is now among the other IAB Certified podcast companies including Blubrry, Art19, Voxnest Audience Network, Triton Digital, Libsyn, and more!

Blubrry Announces Private Internal Podcasting

~ jen

Blubrry announced a complete private internal podcast solution that suits all needs. As of yesterday, podcasters can choose from three levels of private internal podcasting – PIP – with Blubrry. The levels are: Simple, Standard, and Enterprise. Each comes with different features and security.

Last year, we knew PIP was something we wanted to add to our service offerings, and the past few months have shown that there is indeed an immediate need. Authenticated listeners are able to listen on a private podcast app as well as a private web app, depending on the show provider’s needed security.

Here are a few examples of uses for a private and/or internal podcast:

  • Premium content for your podcast audience
  • New employee onboarding
  • Bonus podcast content for your super loyal fans
  • Monthly sales reporting
  • Weekly church meetings

Here are some of the security measures Blubrry uses:

  • Signed media URL
  • SSO supported
  • oAuth2, SAML
  • Private RSS feed with authentication

All private internal podcasting levels include Blubrry’s professional hosting, statistics and their best-in-class tech support. Blubrry has put together a detailed look at their Private Internal Podcasting that gives people more information about their three PIP plans.

The Ringer is Seeking an Associate Podcast Producer

~ jen

The Ringer seeks an associate podcast producer to join its Los Angeles-based digital audio team. The ideal candidate will be creative and self-motivated, will possess experience in all aspects of production, and who loves audio storytelling and knows how to convey stories that are entertaining and engaging.

The associate podcast producer will provide support to the podcast producers and talent covering topics that drive The Ringer universe: sports, popular culture, technology, politics, food, and more.

Responsibilities include:

  • Work closely with the audio staff in support of production needs
  • Act as edit or production support for a full range of podcasts, including research and creating outlines for new episodes of existing Ringer podcast series
  • Covering studio sessions as needed
  • Organizing and coordinating show delivery schedules
  • Provide audio engineer functions to the video team
  • Aid in the operation of studio or field production equipment as necessary

Requirements include:

  • Minimum of two to three years experience in a professional digital media production role
  • Must have prior experience as an audio producer, demonstrating an understanding of creating content on the latest social media platforms
  • Must show a fundamental ability to make sound editorial judgements and balance conflicting priorities
  • An ability to convey complex information and stories in a clear and engaging way
  • Knowledge of what makes a story relatable, dramatic and interesting and what makes compelling audio and sound
  • Deep understanding of news and story lines, with sound journalistic ethics and judgement

This is a permanent, full-time position with comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits. The Ringer would like applicants to attach a cover letter, and samples of previous work if applicable.

Visit The Ringer’s Linkedin to learn more details about this job and how to apply for it.

Captivate Introduces Unique Listener Analytics

~ jen

Captivate announced that they have introduced Unique Listener Tracking to Captivate analytics as a free upgrade to all Captivate podcasters. Captivate says that, as podcasters, we’re a little addicted to measuring downloads when really, we’d love to be able to measure people who listen to our show. The new feature can do that.

The data as aggregated as:

A unique listener is defined as a listener from the same IP address and the same device within the presented timeframe. This is a way of estimating the number of people downloading your show. This is based on the IAB v2 guidelines.

Captivate podcasters will see a new section called Audience Overview. Within that section you’ll now be able to see the following unique listener data points:

  • Unique listeners today
  • Unique listeners yesterday
  • Unique listeners over the last 7 days
  • Unique listeners over the last 28 days
  • Unique listeners over the last 90 days
  • All-time unique listeners

This is part one of an analytics upgrade aiming to make it easier for Captivate podcasters to estimate their true audience size. Captivate also added “Last updated” information to the top right of your analytics screen and your main Captivate dashboard so that you can see the last time they updated your data for you.

British Podcast Awards Announced Nominees

~ jen

British Podcast Awards has announced their 2020 Nominations. The British Podcast Awards are powered by Acast. The nominees were chosen by over 50 judges.

There are several different categories. Each one has six nominees. Visit the British Podcast Awards website to see the full list of nominees, and to click on the links to podcasts on that list that you want to know more about.

The categories are:

  • Best Arts & Culture Podcast supported by Pod Bible
  • Best Branded Podcast
  • Best Business Podcast
  • Best Comedy Podcast supported byAcast
  • Best Current Affairs Podcast
  • Best Daily Podcast supported by Podfollow
  • Best Family Podcast
  • Best Fiction
  • Best Interview
  • Acast Moment of the Year
  • Smartest Podcast supported by Rethink Audio
  • Best Radio Podcast supported by Radioplayer
  • Best Live Episode supported by Latitude Festival
  • Best Network or Publisher supported by 4DC
  • Best Wellbeing Podcast
  • Best New Podcast supported by Factory
  • Best Sport Podcast supported by Audioboom
  • Best Entertainment Podcast supported by Sony Music’s 4th Floor Creative
  • Best Sex & Relationships Podcast
  • Best True Crime Podcast
  • Best Podcast in the Welsh Language
  • The Creativity Award supported by Audible
  • The Spotlight Award supported by DAX
  • The Bullseye Award supported by Blue Microphones

Voting for the Listener’s Choice Award (supported by BBC Sounds) is now open. It is the only award chosen by the general public, and saw over 190,000 votes cast last year. Voting closes midday on Monday 6th July. To vote for your favorite podcast, visit britishpodcastawards.com/vote

The Joe Rogan Experience Announces Exclusive Partnership with Spotify

~ jen

The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the most popular podcasts in the world, is coming to Spotify via a multi-year exclusive licensing deal. The comedy talk series has long been the most-searched-for podcast on Spotify and is the leading show on practically every other podcasting platform. And, like all podcasts and vodcats on Spotify, it will remain free and accessible to all Spotify users.

Since its launch in 2009, the pioneering The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) has built one of the most loyal and engaged fan bases in the world. Rogan brings his sensibilities as a stand-up comic to the show, and alongside a dynamic and diverse range of guests, he fearlessly broaches topics including neuroscience, sports, comedy, health, infectious disease, and our ever-changing culture – all with a mix of curiosity and humor.

In addition to the widely popular podcast format, JRE also produces corresponding video episodes, which will also be available on Spotify as in-app vodcats.

While Spotify will become the exclusive distributer of JRE, Rogan will maintain full creative control over the show. Bringing JRE to Spotify will mean that the platform’s more than 286 million active users will have access to one of the leading voices of today’s podcasting renaissance.

The JRE will debut on Spotify on September 1, 2020, and become exclusively available on the platform later this year.

Jetpack Plugin Adds a Podcast Player Block

~ jen

Jetpack’s Podcast Player block allows you to easily show your visitors a listing of recent episodes from a podcast and play them on your website. You can add the Podcast Player by searching and/or selecting it from the jetpack session of the block selector.

Jetpack is the ultimate toolkit for WordPress. It gives you everything you need to design, secure and grow your site in one bundle. Jetpack is free to download. You will need a WordPress.com account to install it.

There are detailed instructions on the Jetpack website that walk you through how to download, insert, and configure the Podcast Player block, as well as how to customize the block.

The Podcast Player Block has the following settings:

  • Number of Items: control how many episodes will be displayed (most recent first).
  • Show Cover Art: toggles the display of the podcasts’s cover art (if available)
  • Show Episode Description: toggles the display of the description for the currently selected episode.

Color Settings include:

  • Primary Color: controls the color used for “primary” elements in the block display (eg: titles, active episodes).
  • Secondary Color: controls the color used for “secondary” elements in the block display (eg: descriptions, non-active episodes).
  • Background Color: – controls the color used as the background color for the block.

The Privacy Information feature in the Podcast Player block. It cannot be deactivated, the Podcast Player block is always available in the Block Selector.

Neilsen Launched Gracenote On Demand

~ jen

Neilsen, a global measurement and data analytics company, launched Gracenote Audio On Demand, a standardized and enriched dataset enabling powerful navigation, search and discovery of more than 37 million podcast episodes across all digital entertainment platforms.

With this new offering, streaming music platforms, consumer electronics (CE) companies, Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs) and automakers can create personalized listening experiences, allowing podcast and talk radio fans to connect to a broader range of personalities and topics than ever before.

Based on steadily increasing popularity, podcasts have entered the mainstream as a broad-reaching entertainment medium. According to Neilsen Scarborough, the audience for podcasting has been growing by 20% on average for the last six years. At that rate, the audience for podcasting could double by 2023.

At launch, Gracenote Audio on Demand will have standardized podcast titles, descriptions and imagery across more than 900,000 podcast series and will be assigned a popularity score to help surface the most popular content, while the top series will leverage more descriptive information such as Category Hierarchy and Celebrity Links for more powerful universal search across platforms and cross-media linking capabilities.

  • Popularity Score: Improves search and discovery capabilities by identifying and surfacing the most popular podcasts in a catalog.
  • Category Hierarchy: Provides three levels of categories when classifying series and episodes to enable more engaging and unique discovery experiences.
  • Celebrity Links: Allows listeners to identify verified celebrity links across content, providing rich discovery experiences.

Other key benefits and features of Gracenote Audio On Demand include:

  • Deduplicated & Normalized Data: Daily checks remove duplicate submissions and eliminate relevant issues.
  • In-Depth Categorization: Standardized classifiers for series and episodes help surface more relevant content, enabling more engaging and unique discovery experiences
  • Standard Ids: Assigns a common Gracenote ID of reference for a podcast series across different platforms to support identification and cross-media linking.
  • Parties and Celebrities: Allows users to identify verified celebrity links with role type, including host, guest and participant, enabling better linking than text-based approaches
  • API, SDK and Full Feed Access: Tap into data via the API, SDK or Full for flexible implementation options.

Gimlet Seeks an Experienced Producer

~ jen

Gimlet Media, which is part of Spotify, is seeking an experienced producer to join a team that will launch a new crime show, based in Los Angeles. It will be a wide-ranging role that will have an impact on the exciting experiences of a launch.

Gimlet Media is here to create a world more full of human connection and understanding. Our roster of podcasts includes critically-acclaimed shows like Reply All, Crimetown, The Clearing, Heavyweight, and Homecoming. We have top editorial, sales, and business teams that work together to create experiences that help listeners better understand each other and the world around them. We are looking for ambitious, curious, talented, and kind people to join our team.

What You’ll Do includes:

  • Brainstorm, develop, and shape ideas for show episodes
  • Work with Host and supporting producers to identify sources, subjects and interviews to create a story.
  • Track down court documents, submit public records requests, find and secure archival tape
  • Find, pre-interview, and book guests
  • Plan field producing and reporting trips in collaboration with supervising producers
  • Travel and field produce interviews with people you’ve been reading about and researching for months


What You’ll Bring includes:

  •  A strong interest in the world of crime, punishment, and justice
  • A minimum of four years of experience producing audio for radio or podcast
  • A journalism background
  • Experience scripting 15-20 minute audio stories
  • Proficiency in field recording, with a variety of audio equipment

Those who want to find out more about what you’ll do, and what you will be expected to bring, should visit the Spotify website where the job is listed. It is also possible to apply for the job on that website.

She Podcasts LIVE 2020 will be in Scottsdale Arizona

~ jen

She Podcasts LIVE will take place on October 15-18, in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. Registration is open now.

She Podcasts LIVE 2020 is the largest in-person gathering of women podcasters, audio content creators, story tellers, and more. The purpose of She Podcast LIVE is to offer women audio creators a chance to learn and experience community in an environment created JUST for them.

There are several Conference Tracks offered:

  • The Start Track: For those who don’t have a podcast yet and want to get started on the right foot.
  • The Refine Track: For those who have a podcast but want to pivot, tighten their process, or aren’t sure if it’s quite right in general.
  • The Grow Track: All things marketing, audience growth, and process will go here.
  • The Accomplish Track: Covers anything and everything needed to reach a goal with a podcast.
  • The Community Track: For those who want to learn about impacting our world and the community around them.
  • The Untrack: Designed to offer activities where the attendees can interact with one another outside of a classroom.

More information about the tracks can be found on the She Podcasts LIVE website. Additional information can be found on their FAQ page, including the following:

There will not be a virtual She Podcasts LIVE event. They may incorporate move virtual/livestreaming options into their in-person event, but they will not run a fully virtual event for She Podcasts LIVE.

At this time, She Podcast LIVE does not plan on changing their October event dates. If it turns out they have to postpone in the fall, they hope everyone will be flexible.

Regardless if when the event takes place, they will be encouraging best practices for everyone’s safety at She Podcasts LIVE. They are working closely with the Scottsdale Plaza Hotel to make sure their sanitation procedures and hand sanitizer availability is in accordance with what the CDC recommends.