Month: November 2021

Acast Partners with Belgian Podcast Awards

~ jen

Acast, the world’s leading independent podcast company, has signed up as an official partner to the inaugural Belgian Podcast awards. The awards have been created to highlight the year’s best podcasts – and voting is open to the public right now.

Acast is the only podcast hosting and distribution company to partner with the event, showing its support for podcasting in Belgium and beyond — and making good on its mission to find and champion the world’s next great podcasters.

According to research by the Reuters Institute, 26% of Belgians listen to podcasts every month — and Acast sees great potential in the region. Its partnership with the Belgian Podcast Awards will continue until June 2022.

Awards categories cover everything from Business to Sports, and the shortlist was announced at the end of October. The winners’ ceremony takes place this Thursday, November 25, and will be live streamed across YouTube and Facebook, directly from the Arendsoog TV studios in Gent.

Megan Davies, Managing Director, International, at Acast, said: “It’s important for Acast to support podcasters of all shapes and sizes, in all our markets around the world — and Belgium is no exception. We see great potential in this region, with a number of fantastic creators already emerging, and can’t wait to see what’s next.”

Maarten Bovee, Belgian Podcast Awards founder, said: “Acast is a global podcasting powerhouse, so it’s a huge boost to have them on board — and, with their support, the first ever Belgian Podcast Awards are sure to be a great success.”

Liberated Syndication Appoints Brian Kibby as Chairman of the Board of Directors

~ jen

Liberated Syndication Inc. (“Lybsyn”), the industry’s leading podcast hosting platform and advertising marketplace, announced that Brian Kibby has assumed the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Mr. Kibby has served on Libsyn’s Board since October 2019. Upon his appointment as Chairman, Mr. Kibby commented, “This is an exciting time for our podcast community and for Libsyn. Together, we are transforming the way that the world consumes information and content, while also creating effective platforms for our community to reinvest in their podcasts via effective advertising platforms. Libsyn has transitioned over the past two years from its hosting roots to a platform strategy with advertising and monetization at its core. The launch of Libsyn 5 and the recent acquisitions of AdvertiseCast, Glow, Auxbus, and Podgo position Libsyn as the go-to destination for podcasters for all of their growth needs. I look forward to supporting our new CEO, Brad Tirpak, the incredible team at Libsyn, and most importantly, our dedicated community of creators and artists.”

Mr. Kibby is currently the CEO of Modern Campus, a leading student information, engagement, and content management SaaS platform. Mr. Kibby has served the educational technology community for over three decades, including senior leadership roles at Pearson and McGraw-Hill, two of the world’s largest education technology and platform providers.

In addition to Mr. Kibby’s appointment as chairman, Libsyn earlier announced that Patrick Dolan will be joining the Board of Directors. Mr. Dolan previously served as the President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the leading trade organization whose members include more than 650 leading media companies, agencies, brands, and technology firms driving the digital marketing economy. As part of these changes to the board, Denis Yevstifeyev will step down as a member of the Board of Directors on December 31, 2021.

Pro Podcast Production Launches a New Podcast Studio

~ jen

Pro Podcast Production announces the launch of their new studio. Darcy Milne, founder and 2021 podcast audio producer of the year winner, said “We are so excited to offer a new, premium space for podcasters to record, attend masterclasses and get access to the best expertise for their podcast.”

The new studio is located at 1 Sussex Street, Barangaroo and is fitted with broadcast quality equipment, allowing up to 8 people to attend in person or connect virtually.

Star of Amazon’s Lux Listings Sydney, Gavin Rubinstein, has been one of the first to record his podcast in the new studio.

Pro Podcast Production specialises in creating independent podcasts and is also celebrating the creation of its 200th podcast series.

This has included working with organisations including the Oscars, Bendigo Bank, IKEA, Google, The Lowy Institute, NSW Government, Acast, Whooshka, Gritty Pretty, Nova’s Tim Blackwell, Real Housewives of Melbourne star Jackie Gillies and a host of independent podcasters.

Patricia Routledge, Communications Operations Manager IKEA, said “Darcy has been a godsend and what I call, our secret weapon. He is on hand to provide strategic advice on how to run a podcast series, grow your audience and his role as an audio producer is second to none.”

Darcy has said whilst highlights have included recording Drew Barrymore, Miranda Kerr and producing now over 5,000 episodes, he’s most proud of watching his team in action, saying “we’re excited to deliver a truly VIP (very important podcaster) experience from start to finish for anyone wanting to start a podcast.”

The team includes recent hire Madi Hodder as a client services assistant and Phil Horn as an audio producer. Pro Podcast Production also partners with graphic designers, voice-over artists, executive producers and publishing networks to offer a complete production solution for podcasters.

Before podcasting, Darcy spent 10 years in radio most notably as the audio producer for Kate, Tim and Marty where he won the ACRA for best achievement in Production before leaving to start Pro Podcast Production.

More information can be found at on the Pro Podcast Production website.

2nd Annual Golden Crane Podcast Awards Submission Window Open

~ jen

Nominations for podcasts are now being accepted for an annual awards show held in December, officials said; It is sponsored by ListenNotes.com. Podcasters can now submit their shows to the GOLDEN CRANE Podcast Awards program, co-founder Andy Wang said. The deadline for submissions is December 7th, 2021, 11:59 p.m. EST.

“It will be great to continue to showcase the work of podcasters with the GOLDEN CRANES this year, especially since there are new categories this year,” Wang said.

Awards will be given out for the following genres, some of which are new categories: Business/Finance, Wellness/Self-Improvement, Sports/Hobbies, Entertainment/Movies/TV, Society and Culture, Audio Drama, Mental Health, Production, Student-Age-Run Podcast, and Asian Culture Stories and Experience, co-founder Lee Uehara confirmed.

“Winners from last year’s GOLDEN CRANES continued to use their shows to, in some cases, raise awareness and create social impact, from across the globe,” Uehara said. “We look forward to boosting showrunners and to showcasing the work of podcasters everywhere this year, too.”

“We are still the only awards show which acknowledges podcasters who are of student age,” Uehara mentioned. “Podcasting is one of the few content creation vehicles where there is no age limit, and we’re always glad to encourage our younger colleagues.”

Winners of the Golden Cranes will be announced in a black-tie, live, virtual ceremony on December 21st. Students: $15 with proof of matriculation; AAP members, $25; non-members: $50. Joining AAP is free, for now. The Asian American Podcasters Association is a non-profit organization.

Liberated Syndication Announces Patrick Dolan Appointed to Board of Directors

~ jen

Liberated Syndication Inc., (“Libsyn”) , the industry’s leading podcast hosting platform and advertising marketplace, announced that it appointed Patrick Dolan, a veteran of the interactive advertising industry and seasoned operating executive, to its Board of Directors, effective November 22, 2021.

Mr. Dolan has been at the forefront of the digital media business for two decades. Mr. Dolan served as the President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (“IAB”) from 2017-2020 and as COO since 2007. The IAB is the leading trade organization whose members include more than 650 leading media companies, agencies, brands, and technology firms driving the digital marketing economy. At the IAB, Mr. Dolan led the organization through transformational growth, helping to increase membership and co-founding the IAB Mobile and Data Centers of Excellence, Digital Sales Certification Program, and the IAB Tech Lab. Under Mr. Dolan’s leadership, the IAB also established the IAB Podcast Upfronts, a leading industry event connecting podcasters to agencies and brands.

“Patrick brings decades of digital media experience at both for-profit companies, as well as the most important trade organization, the IAB. He has been a long supporter of both Libsyn’s business and the podcasting sector overall. As a board member, I know Patrick will contribute significantly to Libsyn’s growth and help position the company to be a go-to-destination for podcasters for all of their needs,” said Libsyn’s CEO, Bradley Tirpak.

Previously, Mr. Dolan served as the Director of International Finance and later as Director of Business Operations at DoubleClick, Inc., an early innovator in digital advertising services that Google acquired in 2008. At DoubleClick, Mr. Dolan was responsible for establishing international financial operations and for integrating new businesses that DoubleClick acquired, including Abacus.

Mr. Dolan has also served in executive roles at The Locomotion Channel, a cable channel co-owned by Hearst Entertainment and Corus Entertainment, and CFO of the Early Learning Coalition of South Florida, a not-for-profit with a budget of over $160 million. Earlier in his career, Mr. Dolan served as the director of finance for George Soros’ network of philanthropic entities, the Open Society Institute, where he managed a budget of over $500 million disbursed in over 20 countries.

Mr. Dolan commented, “I am honored to join Libsyn’s Board. As the first podcast hosting company, Libsyn has long been an innovator in the podcast industry. With the recent addition of the AdvertiseCast marketplace and the tremendous growth in podcast advertising, it is an exciting time in the Company’s history. I hope to be able to support Libsyn’s platform strategy and development of new value-added services for podcasters.”

Edison Research Announces Top 50 U.S. Podcasts by Audience Size for Q2 2021

~ jen

Edison Research announces the comprehensive U.S. Top 50 Podcast chart for Q3 2021. This list ranks the 50 biggest podcasts by audience size, based on the Podcast Consumer Tracking Report, the only podcast measurement service that measures the relative audience size and demographics of all podcast networks. The Podcast Consumer Tracking Report is the only measurement based on actual listening, not downloads.

“We are continuing to see strong performances from the true crime and news categories. What I find most compelling is the strong movement by some of the independent shows on the chart. It’s a testament to how remarkable this medium is that both large networks and independent creators continue to be able to amass a sizable audience.” said Edison Research SVP Tom Webster.

The Edison Research Top 50 Podcasts of Q3 2021 list is derived from data collected continuously from Q4 2020 – Q3 2021, from surveying weekly podcast consumers ages 18 and older in the U.S. Participants indicate which podcasts they listened to in the past week along with a variety of demographic, psychographic, and purchase behavior information. The results are then coded and analyzed to ascertain the genre, network, and sales representation for each podcast. The relative audience size of each podcast network is then calculated and expressed as the percentage of weekly podcast listeners reached by that network. Surveys of over 8,000 podcast listeners in the U.S. were conducted Q4 2020 through Q3 2021.

Current subscribers to the Podcast Consumer Tracker include the top networks in podcasting as well as leading technology platforms, and is growing quarterly. Subscribers include SXM Media, Google, NPR, Spotify, Wondery, ESPN/ABC/Disney, WarnerMedia, and more.

The Top Ten Podcasts are:

  • The Joe Rogan Experience
  • The Daily
  • Crime Junkie
  • This American Life
  • Stuff You Should Know
  • My Favorite Murder
  • Pod Save America
  • Serial
  • Office Ladies
  • Call her Daddy

You can find the full list of the Top 50 podcasts at Edison Research.

Pod1 Launches the Ultimate Bio Link for Podcasters

~ jen

Pod1 is the new ‘link in bio’ service created specifically for podcasters.Since 2016 the ‘all your links on one page’ sector has been growing, yet without a focus on the ever expanding podcasting sector.

With now over 2 million podcasts and 50 million episodes online, we believe podcast creators and agencies deserve more.

Pod1 cleverly and quickly creates a landing page from your podcast RSS feed. You can then choose to add links to anywhere, even embedding videos directly on your profile and featuring recent episodes.

All links are tracked, alongside your profile views and plays.

Pod1 profiles stay fresh, as they sync with your RSS feed to automatically showcase your latest episode.

Unlike other services, Pod1 also allows you to manage multiple profiles in one account, essential for production companies and channels.

All sounds great so far, but we wanted to go one step further. So we built our own trending charts for podcast discovery.

Charts for every category and an overall Pod1 chart, accessed via your profile, giving your audience a chance to discover similar podcasts.

Sign up for free at pod1.co and claim your name.

Pod1 is now the only link you’ll ever need to market your podcast.

Acast Grows Team in Germany Looking to Build On its Success in the Region

~ jen

Acast, the world’s leading independent podcast company, is further growing its German offering by adding two new positions to its sales team in the region. As Key Account Managers, Andre Schatz and Mario Bruhn will be based on Munich and Hamburg respectively, with a remit to build in Acast’s successes this year, and to continue to drive the company’s growth in Germany.

Both Hamburg and Munic play a central role for Acast, as many of the leading German media and creative agencies – and major brands – are based there. With the two new hires, Acast wants to ensure that it is closer to its current and potential partners, to better cultivate and expand cooperation and relationships.

The goal is also to expand into other German cities in the near future, with additional positions across the region set to be filled in the coming year.

Acast’s positive performance in Germany this year means revenue in the market more than doubled compared to the previous year. Shows that are part of the Acast Creator Network, such as Weltwach and Fette Gedanken are growing steadily – opening up more and more to monetization via various advertising products.

Such growth gives advertisers more choice and more inventory for their messages — and the demand is already there. One of the biggest developments in this area has been Acast’s programmatic advertising offering, which allows for automated podcast media buying. Throughout 2021, numerous agency trading desks have been connected and set up with both Private Marketplace (PMP) and Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) deals.

Acast has become a one-stop shop meeting the various needs of clients in the audio space, not least due to high demand for all the advertising products the Acast Marketplace offers (audio ads, sponsorships, branded content, and so on). While host-read sponsorships are still the most popular ad format among clients, the demand for reach and scalability continues to grow.
Globally, more than 300 million users listen to podcasts hosted on Acast each month, meaning Acast can offer huge opportunities for German creators who are looking to grow — especially as the brand champions the open podcast ecosystem, where shows are made available to listeners everywhere.

Alexander Koberstein, Acast’s Head of Sales, Germany, said: “It can sometimes feel like we’re a little early, but we can see from other markets which trends are going to be big — and we’re using that knowledge to make sure we have the right answers for the German media industry.
“There’s a great need to use podcast audio in more creative ways — but, at the same time, many brands still have little sense of how to translate their values and branding into audio due to the ‘intimacy’ of the medium. That’s where Acast comes in.”

Yann Thebault, Regional Managing Director at Acast, added: “Germany is an important market for Acast, but we still have a lot to do. We’re diversifying our tools for creators with launches like Acast+ — a set of powerful new subscription options — and will continue to adapt them to give podcasters more ways to create new revenue streams for their podcasts. The growth we’ve achieved throughout 2021 is just the beginning, and I’m already looking forward to what next year will look like.”

Audacy Welcomes Brian Benedik as Company’s Chief Revenue Officer

~ jen

Audacy welcomes Brian Benedikas as the company’s Chief Revenue Officer, effective December 1. As a key member of the executive team, Benedik will lead all aspects of revenue generation across corporate, national, regional, and local levels and develop fully integrated, multiplatform, sales solutions and breakthrough strategies to attract new revenue streams. He will report to Chief Operating Officer Susan Larkin.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Brian to Audacy and our executive leadership team,” said Larkin. “His resume speaks for itself, with key roles at audio publishers like Spotify, iHeart Radio, Audible and Katz Media, where his strategic vision enabled the former to quickly elevate from a newcomer in our industry to a multi-billion dollar leader in the audio streaming space. Brian’s considerable expertise and experience will amplify our revenue generation efforts as Audacy continues its upward trajectory.”

“The audio industry is booming with innovation and consumers are enjoying wonderful content experiences across a number of platforms. The Audacy re-imagination efforts are beyond impressive and the portfolio of assets across radio, streaming, podcast, live events, sports play-by-play and sports betting are best in class. I’m looking forward to working with David Field, Susan Larkin and the Audacy executive team to drive value to marketers and our loyal users.”

Brian Benedik joins Audacy from Niantic, an AR developer platform and real world gaming publisher, where he served as VP/Global Head of Revenue. Prior to Niantic, Benedik spent over 25 years in the over-the-air and digital audio space across a number of global and U.S.-centric organizations. For seven formative years at Spotify, Benedik was a key member of the senior leadership team as SVP/Global Head of Sales and Operations leading a team of over 550 people in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. As the leader of the Spotify Global Advertising Business, Benedik oversaw the direct, programmatic, podcast, re-seller and self-serve platform teams as well as ad and sales operations, trading, global agency and accounts and training groups.

Other previous roles include Founder and President of Katz Digital, President of Christal Radio within the Katz Media Group; and General Sales Manager for WHTZ-FM New York at iHeartMedia. Benedik has held strategic advisory roles for Audible, an Amazon company, and Targetspot, a division of Audio Valley. He is currently a board member at Podcast Tech platform, Sounder.fm, The Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, The American Advertising Federation and PTTOW. Benedik holds degrees from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications and Columbia School of Business’ Continuing Executive Education program.

Futuri Podcasting System POST Launches Major Update

~ jen

Futuri, the leading provider of AI-driven audience engagement and sales intelligence solutions for broadcasters, announced a major update to its patented and patent-pending POST podcasting system. POST is relied on by thousands of top-performing audio creators to quickly and efficiently capture, edit, package, and distribute PPM-encoded broadcast content, as well as original podcasts, on multiple audio and video platforms.

The POST update includes:

A new in-app audio editor. This powerful, yet simple-to-use, editor is designed to save production time, speed up distribution of timely content, and enable audio brands to quickly make simple edits to their on-demand broadcast content to keep people listening longer.

Customizable widgets: A new suite of customizable widgets makes it easy to apply station brand standards to their embedded audio.

Improved ad insertion capabilities: POST’s ad marker and mid-roll capabilities have gotten an update, making it easier for stations to monetize their on-demand broadcast and original podcast audio.

Much more, including streamlined publishing to third-party destinations; enhanced chapter markers and analytics; and new features that make it easier to switch to POST from another podcast provider (paired with Futuri’s white-glove US-based support).

The update comes as Futuri released a new white paper, Growing Audience with On-Demand Broadcast Audio. It includes new data from a nationwide study on On-Demand Broadcast Audio (ODBA), also known as time shifted audio, across all PPM markets, conducted by Nielsen, which reviewed millions of occasions of minute-level data. The white paper examines the current state of On-Demand Broadcast Audio and reveals POST’s unique ability to maximize ROI on broadcast content by quickly, efficiently editing and parsing content, packaging with metadata, and publishing this audio.

Key findings include:

Challenging the perception that podcasts and on-demand content are only consumed “on the go,” Neilson found that 63% of all ODBA listening is at-home (37%OOH). Three of the top five formats are music formats, with CHR and AC over-indexing on the at-home number – 77% and 79%, respectively.

Stations using POSt are over 5x more likely than non-POST stations to have on-demand PPM broadcast audio minutes captured by Nielsen, showcasing the unique results delivered by POST’s patented system.

Average minutes per on-demand broadcast audio listening session for stations using POST is nearly 30% higher than stations not using POST.

Demographics: The breakdown of on-demand broadcast audio published through POST is 50.2% Female vs. 49.8% Male, compared to 39% Female / 61% Male for content published by non-POST stations.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently issued a U.S. Patent for POST. The patent adds to Futuri’s diverse portfolio of technology patents, protecting a broad range of methods released to POST, which automatically captures, parses, and publishes on-demand audio and video content to a multitude of social channels and audio, video, and podcast platforms.