This is sponsored by Central Talent Booking. Transform Your Podcast Guest Lineup - Central Talent Booking delivers top-tier guests—celebrities, influencers, thought leaders, and compelling experts—to elevate your podcast. Discover more.

Visit https://podnews.net/update/political-podcasts-uk-25 for all the links, and to get our newsletter.

• The winners of the UK’s Political Podcast Awards were announced. Podcast of the year was Goalhanger’s The Rest is Politics, but Persephonica’s Political Currency and Electoral Dysfunction from Sky News won two awards. Acast shows won the most awards.
• Yesterday, we linked to a presentation from German podcast marketers and publishers promoting the benefits of audio-only podcasts. It was in German. Sadly, viele Menschen sind faul und sprechen keine anderen Sprachen. The good news is - it’s now also available in English.
• How does Acast market itself to potential advertisers? By podcast advertising, of course. The company has shared a bit of knowledge of how they do it.

Host your podcast videos the right way! — Video podcasts have the potential to attract millions of viewers and listeners simultaneously. Disctopia allows you to upload podcast videos and automatically add them to your RSS feed - It's Magic!

Save $350—Evolutions Sale Ends Tonight! — Be part of the spring's biggest podcast event, Evolutions 2025, March 31–April 3 in Chicago. Save up to $350 during the Super Duper Early Bird Sale, ending tonight. Lock in your pass before midnight!

• iHeartPodcasts is to bring some of its star podcasters to Web Summit Qatar, between Feb 23-26.
• There is a strong overlap between newspaper readers and podcast listeners, says a study from The Media Audit. The sample appears to show that readers of the WSJ, the NYT or USA Today are almost twice as likely to listen to podcasts as the US average.
• The US government is opening the White House briefing room to podcasters, and will “create a dedicated seat in the first row for new media”.
• Podcastpage has added comments to its podcast websites.
• PodX Group has expanded again: the company has taken a majority stake in Mexico’s Oronda Studio.
• Reproducing this headline without comment: Renowned priest with exorcism podcast accused of using 13-year-old girl’s hair as floss at church event
• Way back in 2017 we covered Ringr, a service that let you record both sides of a conversation using a mobile phone. The app has just closed - not a bad run!
• Lemonada Media is now using Supporting Cast, joining publishers like Wondery, Slate, NPR and others. (Supporting Cast lets you offer subscription programs that work in most apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube Music).

Tips and tricks

• Headliner posts How to Start a Podcast in 2025: Starting out, growing a podcast, & more

Podcast News

• With Airwave: Tumble Science Podcast for Kids is a science podcast created to be enjoyed by the entire family. Hosted & produced by Lindsay Patterson (science journalist) & Marshall Escamilla (teacher) - the latest episode is all about the Wild Axolotl.
• KALW's award-winning Uncuffed, a podcast created in prisons, is back for a new season. For the first time, the show will include voices from the California Institution for Women while continuing to share stories from inside the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and Solano State Prison.
• The Fantasy Footballers has returned to SiriusXM for advertising and distribution rights, after moving to Audioboom (2021) and Spotify (2022). The show will also feature, once more, on one of SiriusXM's live satellite channels (it once had a show on Spotify's Greenroom).
• Bros & Shows has a new name and a new network, joining Realm today. The show, formerly known as BravBros, dives into the world of reality television.
• Two shows in one feed, Don’t Blame Me! / But Am I Wrong? has also joined Realm today. One's a candid advice show, the other is a show working out who's right and who's not.
• Hosted by Deborah Anderson and Martin Lindeskog, Studio Fusion launches today - a podcast about podcasting, focusing on everything from audio quality to podcasting 2.0. The podcast's launch guest is True Fans CEO Sam Sethi.

Gold supporters: Sounds Profitable, Buzzsprout, Mowpod, Mamamia, The $100 MBA, The Podglomerate, RedCircle, Simplecast, SALT, Podscribe, Resound, audioBoom, Cohost, Steve Lack: Audio, Audiohook, Riverside.fm, Jar Audio, Podchaser, Awesound, Knucklehead Media Group, Podpage websites, Disctopia, Acast, Libsyn, We Edit Podcasts, Evergreen Podcasts

Silver supporters: Storic Media, Audacia Audio, Bumper, PodLabs - Podcast Experimentatio, Magellan AI, SoundStack, Truefans, Tink Media, Ask Ralph Christian Finance, Voxtopica, Cloud10, Deepcast Creator, The Podcast Haven, PlayPodcast, Compliance Podcast Network, Jonekiri, Podium , POW PR, Ausha, Gilded Audio, Frequency, Storyboard, ARN's iHeartPodcast Network Aust, Red Seat Ventures, Huberman Lab, Gumball, The Roost, Podcastpage, Message Heard, Health Podcast Network, matchmaker.fm, Castos, Podcast Taxi, Zvook, Headliner, Diversion Podcasts, Oxford Road, Transistor, Ossa Collective, Rephonic, Optimal Living Daily, Sonic Influencer Marketing, Double Elvis Productions, Rhapsody Voices, Heartcast Media50, Wondery, Jam Street Media, Blubrry, Lemonada Media, Podcast Partnership, Ad Results Media, StreamGuys, Hear.Here.Singapore, Content10x, She Podcasts, Cleanfeed, Podcast Movement, Sonix, Podigy, School of Podcasting, Revolver Podcasts, Adopter Media, Lower Street, Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights

Our personal supporters: Eric Montgomery, Amy Woods, John, Jessica Alpert Silber, Armel, Oludotun Oyebolu, Mikel Ellcessor, Gene Monterastelli, Ed Sullivan, Neil Mody, Lindsay Graham, David Lloyd, Steven Goldstein, Matt Wade, Mirko Lagonegro, [email protected], Andy Maher, Kara Silverman, Eric Hunley, Liz Covart, Owen Grover, Justin Jackson, Karen Jackson, Mike R, CESLIE Armstrong, Søren Hugger Møller, Josh Withers, Michael Dell, Eric Nuzum, Benjamin Masse, Brett Johnson, Mark Ramsey, Helene Pawlitzki, Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy, Steve Stewart, Pete Morgan, Jody Avirgan, Joe Stone, ShEvo (Sheila Dee & Evo Terra), Buzz Knight, Jaz Garewal, Don MacKinnon, Stephanie Arakelian, Kerry Donahue, Tony Garcia, We Are Libertarians, Graeme Klass, Suzanne Schultz, Stew Redwine, Dave Beasing, Jeremy McCarter, Meggan Ellingboe, EarBuds Podcast Collective, Andy Bowers, Mary Dooe, Alicia Mackey Huber, Paul Vogelzang, Vanessa Harris, Rekha Murthy, Mohammad Ali, Charles Spivey, Joanne Phillips, Niall Mackay, Courtney Reimer, Brandon Schexnayder, Tom Teodorczuk, Sam Phelps, Doug Downs, Joe Tannorella, Jenn Leask, Jeremie Mani (Podcasthon.org), Jennifer Henczel, Ken Beyer, Lex Friedman, Larry Rosin, Andi, Stacey Goers, Bryan Barletta, Gavin, Bubbe Ann Schockett, Darius Derakshan, Dave Campbell, Stefano Mangone, Cindy Howes, TWRS, Anastasia Violet Lipske, Chris Peterson, Gee Padilla

Readers and supporters

Support us

This is sponsored by Central Talent Booking. Transform Your Podcast Guest Lineup - Central Talent Booking delivers top-tier guests—celebrities, influencers, thought leaders, and compelling experts—to elevate your podcast. Discover more.

Visit https://podnews.net/update/more-listeners-2025 for all the links, and to get our newsletter.

• There are more listeners than ever to podcasts in the US, according to new data. The Triton Digital 2024 US Podcast Report also suggests that YouTube continues to be the most “preferred” platform for 33.1% of all podcast listeners, while Apple Podcasts has slumped to a new low: preferred by just 12.2%. The data, which is a free download, also contains more detail about the US Podcast Ranker.
• Video podcasts are “not equally sensible and beneficial for all podcasts“. A group of German podcast marketers and publishers have worked together to produce a white paper explaining the benefits of audio-only podcasts. Advantages include better distribution, and monetisation, and audio podcasts have a 150% higher listen-through rate than video podcasts.
• There have been a number of layoffs at SiriusXM, impacting the podcast teams and Earwolf. Podnews understands that 100 roles were impacted, representing 2% of the workforce, along with a number of changes to the company’s structure. The CEO Jennifer Witz called it a “profoundly challenging day”. One of those included is Amelia Chappelow, who was Executive Producer at Earwolf.

Host your podcast videos the right way! — Video podcasts have the potential to attract millions of viewers and listeners simultaneously. Disctopia allows you to upload podcast videos and automatically add them to your RSS feed - It's Magic!

Save $350—Evolutions Early Bird Ends Tomorrow! — Join podcast creators and pros at Evolutions 2025, March 31–April 3 in Chicago. Save up to $350 on your pass during the Super Duper Early Bird Sale, ending tomorrow. Prices rise at midnight!

• Commuters listening to your podcasts are valuable, according to new research from Acast. Podcast listeners who listen to and from work are 22% more focused, 10% more likely to engage with ads, and 15% more likely to consider podcast time an essential part of their day. (Nearly half of weekly podcast listeners tune in while commuting).
• As the US looks north, and the country searches for a new Prime Minister, Pod the North has seven podcast recommendations for Canadian listeners to help keep them informed and connected.
• Noiser has a “flashy new website”, CEO Pascal Hughes tells us. We like the crisp monochrome logos for each podcast, which are then built into the artwork and accompanying information for each.
• PodToo has added the Podcast Index “live item tag”, allowing live podcasting, and has introduced a way for its radio clients to achieve greater control over release dates and times for its podcasts.

Thank you to Gee Padilla from Geenius Media for becoming our latest personal supporter. Ad sales isn’t rocket science - Geenius Media is taking care of the ad sales stuff so you can take care of the fun stuff, and now they’re also helping pay for Podnews to keep it free and open to everyone. We’re really grateful to all our personal supporters for their kind support - you can be like them and become a supporter here.

Focus

Winning a Webby Award is the Internet’s highest honor. Since the first Webbys in 1996, the world’s best independent creators, brands, agencies and organizations have entered work that has set the standard for digital innovation. When your team wins a Webby Award, you show the world that you know how to create great content for the Internet that breaks through and stands out.

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This is your last chance to join the best of the Industry! Enter the 29th Annual Webby Awards by the Extended Entry Deadline NEXT FRIDAY, February 7th, 2025.

People News

• Audioboom has hired Liv Suco as Senior Account Director. The company has also confirmed Hat Trick Productions will join the Audioboom Creator Network.

Tips and tricks

• Had a guest on your podcast? There’s nothing nicer than mailing them a handwritten note of thanks; and it works even better if it’s written in a branded card with a sticker, too. We got this, after an appearance on Courtney Elmer’s Insider Secrets to a Top 100 Podcast, produced by PodLaunch.

Podcast News

• Part of Airwave History + The Age of Napoleon Podcast - a history podcast about the life and career of Napoleon Bonaparte as well as the general context of Europe between the early eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to enjoy ad-free listening.
• On the latest episode of NPR's How to Do Everything podcast, hosts Ian Chillag and Mike Danforth asked listeners to email if they yawned after a segment on the contagiousness of yawning. Surprisingly, they got responses from all over the world: from Charlotte, NC to Buenos Aires, Argentina to Auckland, New Zealand.
• Shift-key-challenged THE JAMIE O & MASON HO SHOW has signed a multi-year advertising agreement with Libsyn Ads. The show is hosted by legendary surfers Jamie O’Brien and Mason Ho, and offers a mix of interviews with top surfers, musicians, comedians, YouTubers, and extreme sports athletes.
• How did gambling make its way from an illegal backroom operation to a state-run, multibillion dollar industry? Scratch & Win from GBH News covers the rise of America's most successful state lottery - and whether the state should be in that business at all. It's hosted and produced by Ian Coss, who also joins the GBH team.
• College holds a mythic place in American culture, with its manicured quads, bustling lecture halls, and football rivalries. It’s often hailed as the best four years of your life and revered as a beacon of integrity and excellence. But, beyond the scripted campus tours and glossy brochures, lies a far more complicated reality. Campus Files is new from Audacy today, an original weekly podcast series exploring college scandals – from the most famous to the little known, both historical and contemporary.
• How did the transatlantic folk duo Sons of Town Hall get started? In Madmen Cross The Water, we learn of the outlandish adventures behind each track on the duo's forthcoming album, with a podcast from, um, the 1900s. It's like Dolly Parton’s America shared a tour bus with Welcome to Nightvale and Iron & Wine. The first episode is out now.

Gold supporters: Sounds Profitable, Buzzsprout, Mowpod, Mamamia, The $100 MBA, The Podglomerate, audioBoom, SALT, Podscribe, Steve Lack: Audio, Simplecast, Resound, Cohost, RedCircle, Audiohook, Riverside.fm, Jar Audio, Podchaser, Awesound, Acast, Knucklehead Media Group, Disctopia, We Edit Podcasts, Podpage websites, Evergreen Podcasts, Libsyn

Silver supporters: Storic Media, Audacia Audio, Bumper, PodLabs - Podcast Experimentatio, Magellan AI, Gumball, SoundStack, The Roost, Gilded Audio, Compliance Podcast Network, Podium , Ausha, ARN's iHeartPodcast Network Aust, Huberman Lab, Tink Media, The Podcast Haven, Storyboard, Truefans, PlayPodcast, Ask Ralph Christian Finance, Cloud10, Red Seat Ventures, POW PR, Frequency, Jonekiri, Deepcast Creator, Voxtopica, Podcastpage, Message Heard, Health Podcast Network, Optimal Living Daily, Blubrry, Sonic Influencer Marketing, Heartcast Media50, Wondery, Rhapsody Voices, matchmaker.fm, Double Elvis Productions, Diversion Podcasts, Headliner, Castos, Zvook, Rephonic, Jam Street Media, Lemonada Media, Podcast Taxi, Oxford Road, Transistor, Ossa Collective, Podcast Partnership, StreamGuys, Ad Results Media, Content10x, Hear.Here.Singapore, Cleanfeed, She Podcasts, Podigy, Revolver Podcasts, Lower Street, Adopter Media, School of Podcasting, Podcast Movement, Sonix, Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights

Our personal supporters: Eric Montgomery, Amy Woods, John, Jessica Alpert Silber, Armel, Oludotun Oyebolu, Mikel Ellcessor, Gene Monterastelli, Ed Sullivan, Neil Mody, Lindsay Graham, David Lloyd, Steven Goldstein, Matt Wade, Mirko Lagonegro, [email protected], Andy Maher, Kara Silverman, Eric Hunley, Liz Covart, Owen Grover, Justin Jackson, Karen Jackson, Mike R, CESLIE Armstrong, Søren Hugger Møller, Josh Withers, Michael Dell, Eric Nuzum, Benjamin Masse, Brett Johnson, Mark Ramsey, Helene Pawlitzki, Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy, Steve Stewart, Pete Morgan, Jody Avirgan, Joe Stone, ShEvo (Sheila Dee & Evo Terra), Buzz Knight, Jaz Garewal, Don MacKinnon, Stephanie Arakelian, Kerry Donahue, Tony Garcia, We Are Libertarians, Graeme Klass, Suzanne Schultz, Stew Redwine, Dave Beasing, Jeremy McCarter, Meggan Ellingboe, EarBuds Podcast Collective, Andy Bowers, Mary Dooe, Alicia Mackey Huber, Paul Vogelzang, Vanessa Harris, Rekha Murthy, Mohammad Ali, Charles Spivey, Joanne Phillips, Niall Mackay, Courtney Reimer, Brandon Schexnayder, Tom Teodorczuk, Sam Phelps, Doug Downs, Joe Tannorella, Jenn Leask, Jeremie Mani (Podcasthon.org), Jennifer Henczel, Ken Beyer, Lex Friedman, Larry Rosin, Andi, Stacey Goers, Bryan Barletta, Gavin, Bubbe Ann Schockett, Darius Derakshan, Dave Campbell, Stefano Mangone, Cindy Howes, TWRS, Anastasia Violet Lipske, Chris Peterson, Gee Padilla

Readers and supporters

Support us

This is sponsored by Central Talent Booking. Transform Your Podcast Guest Lineup - Central Talent Booking delivers top-tier guests—celebrities, influencers, thought leaders, and compelling experts—to elevate your podcast. Discover more.

Visit https://podnews.net/update/spotify-creative-milestone for all the links, and to get our newsletter.

• Spotify has launched Creator Milestone Awards, which will be given to podcasts that reach particular streaming levels on Spotify. It’s the first time Spotify has publicly revealed streaming numbers for podcasters across the platform. Like YouTube, award recipients will be hand-delivered a physical Spotify plaque.
  • Gold (500mn+ lifetime streams) includes Joe Rogan, Crime Junkie, Armchair Expert and Last Podcast on the left, but also two German podcasts. One of those, Gemischtes Hack, only has 285 episodes: so each episode has been played an average of 1,750,000 times, just on Spotify. (And even more impressive, when you know there are only about 120mn native German speakers.)
  • There are 13 Silver (250mn+ lifetime streams) awardees, including Call Her Daddy and The Daily, two Spanish podcasts, one German and one Portuguese.
  • There are 83 Bronze (100mn+ lifetime streams) awardees. Podcasts in “emerging markets” get Bronze after just 50mn+ lifetime streams.
• SiriusXM has pulled its video versions of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy from Spotify along with other Unwell Network shows. The shows will be viewable on YouTube and the SiriusXM app. Cooper posted on Instagram saying that you can watch on YouTube “for free”.
• How do you make podcast advertising work better? Don’t make the ads dull and boring. Ads that have emotion or are otherwise interesting can work more than six times better than boring ones, according to a set of research compiled by Westwood One’s Pierre Bouvard. There’s a PDF, a video, and a white paper to download.

Let's be Podcast Besties! 👯 — Podcast Bestie is a newsletter, podcast, and best friend to podcasters trying to grow and monetize their shows. Join the squad now.

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NORMANITY - The newest must listen AUDIO MUSICAL — Normanity is a satirical interrogation of corporate corruption and the fragility of our aspirations, conducted with quirky humour and real heart. On the Wireless feed on MONDAY! Sing along why dontcha

• PodOps has added AI Blog, a new feature to turn audio into written articles.
• McDonald’s fries? Less tasty than they used to be - that’s a scientific fact, apparently. Los Angeles only has 14 public bathrooms. EarBuds published Top Podcast Fun Facts of 2024 - facts that people learnt from podcasts. One fact is to have a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar diluted in a glass of water before every meal, which is supposed to prevent blood glucose spikes, but probably only works because it makes you feel rough as a dog.

People News

• Jonathan Pascoe has joined UK production company Listen as Executive Producer. He joins from MTV and Comedy Central, and has also worked at BBC Radio 2 and UK station Heart.
• The Podglomerate has hired Perri Gross as Manager of Marketing and Audience Development. She joins from SiriusXM.

Tips and tricks

• What is the history of podcasting? From the Podnews Extra podcast, enjoy twelve minutes of clips of some of the earliest podcasts, including how the name came about.

Podcast News

• With Airwave: NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast comes from the Nerds - your resource to make the most of your personal finances, while cutting through the clutter and misinformation of today’s economic news and advice. You’ll get clarity on strategies to help you build your wealth, invest wisely, shop for financial products, and plan for major life events.
• Audioboom has renewed its partnership with the ten year-old podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. The weekly show features QI researchers Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray as they uncover and share the most bizarre, extraordinary and hilarious facts they’ve discovered.
• The Rest Is History is being made into a TV show by Wheelhouse. "Our show has always been about making history accessible, intelligent and entertaining, and we’re thrilled at the chance to bring our favourite stories to life on screen. This partnership with Wheelhouse will allow us to make history unforgettable for a whole new audience", said the hosts.
• CBC's Sea of Lies from Uncover is new this week, and has taken more than a year to produce. It's about a Canadian con artist who committed most of his crimes in the UK over a five-year period. A tale of murder, stolen identities, fine art, a diaper stuffed with gold bars, and a crime solved by a Rolex watch. From rural Canada to coastal England, he lied and deceived at every turn.
• Ideal for Gen Z and young Millennials, Heart to Hustle launched earlier this month, and highlights the journeys of people who have transformed their side hustles and creative passions into fulfilling careers. Today's guest is Marcus Collins, a marketing expert and author, who describes the cultural forces that inspire people to buy, do, and become who they are.
• Kaushal Niroula and Danny Garcia drained their victims' bank accounts and upended their lives. The two men masqueraded as real estate moguls, art dealers, bankers, and even royalty as their web of manipulation crossed academia, immigration, and finance. They scammed anyone they could — including each other — until they committed the one crime they couldn’t con their way out of: murder. True Crime News Presents: American Hustlers is new this week, with Audacy and Telepictures.
• El Chapo escaped after his associates dug a tunnel into his jail cell. American bank robber John Dillinger escaped twice; once with a fake pistol carved out of wood, and once while he managed to create a diversion. These are some of the greatest escapes in history, and Greatest Escapes is new today from iHeartPodcasts and FilmNation Entertainment. It's hosted by Arturo Castro.

Gold supporters: Sounds Profitable, Buzzsprout, Mowpod, Mamamia, The $100 MBA, The Podglomerate, SALT, RedCircle, Audiohook, Simplecast, Podscribe, Resound, audioBoom, Cohost, Steve Lack: Audio, Riverside.fm, Jar Audio, Podchaser, Awesound, Knucklehead Media Group, Disctopia, Libsyn, Podpage websites, Evergreen Podcasts, We Edit Podcasts, Acast

Silver supporters: Storic Media, Audacia Audio, Bumper, PodLabs - Podcast Experimentatio, Magellan AI, Truefans, The Roost, Deepcast Creator, Podium , Red Seat Ventures, Huberman Lab, Ausha, Ask Ralph Christian Finance, POW PR, Frequency, Compliance Podcast Network, PlayPodcast, Voxtopica, Tink Media, The Podcast Haven, SoundStack, ARN's iHeartPodcast Network Aust, Gilded Audio, Jonekiri, Gumball, Cloud10, Storyboard, Podcastpage, Message Heard, Health Podcast Network, Double Elvis Productions, matchmaker.fm, Headliner, Jam Street Media, Castos, Oxford Road, Lemonada Media, Transistor, Zvook, Diversion Podcasts, Wondery, Ossa Collective, Sonic Influencer Marketing, Podcast Taxi, Heartcast Media50, Rhapsody Voices, Optimal Living Daily, Blubrry, Rephonic, Hear.Here.Singapore, Content10x, Podcast Partnership, StreamGuys, Ad Results Media, She Podcasts, Cleanfeed, Revolver Podcasts, Podigy, School of Podcasting, Podcast Movement, Lower Street, Adopter Media, Sonix, Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights

Our personal supporters: Eric Montgomery, Amy Woods, John, Jessica Alpert Silber, Armel, Oludotun Oyebolu, Mikel Ellcessor, Gene Monterastelli, Ed Sullivan, Neil Mody, Lindsay Graham, David Lloyd, Steven Goldstein, Matt Wade, Mirko Lagonegro, [email protected], Andy Maher, Kara Silverman, Eric Hunley, Liz Covart, Owen Grover, Justin Jackson, Karen Jackson, Mike R, CESLIE Armstrong, Søren Hugger Møller, Josh Withers, Michael Dell, Eric Nuzum, Benjamin Masse, Brett Johnson, Mark Ramsey, Helene Pawlitzki, Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy, Steve Stewart, Pete Morgan, Jody Avirgan, Joe Stone, ShEvo (Sheila Dee & Evo Terra), Buzz Knight, Jaz Garewal, Don MacKinnon, Stephanie Arakelian, Kerry Donahue, Tony Garcia, We Are Libertarians, Graeme Klass, Suzanne Schultz, Stew Redwine, Dave Beasing, Jeremy McCarter, Meggan Ellingboe, EarBuds Podcast Collective, Andy Bowers, Mary Dooe, Alicia Mackey Huber, Paul Vogelzang, Vanessa Harris, Rekha Murthy, Mohammad Ali, Charles Spivey, Joanne Phillips, Niall Mackay, Courtney Reimer, Brandon Schexnayder, Tom Teodorczuk, Sam Phelps, Doug Downs, Joe Tannorella, Jenn Leask, Jeremie Mani (Podcasthon.org), Jennifer Henczel, Ken Beyer, Lex Friedman, Larry Rosin, Andi, Stacey Goers, Bryan Barletta, Gavin, Bubbe Ann Schockett, Darius Derakshan, Dave Campbell, Stefano Mangone, Cindy Howes, TWRS, Anastasia Violet Lipske, Chris Peterson, Gee Padilla

Readers and supporters

Support us

This is sponsored by Central Talent Booking. Transform Your Podcast Guest Lineup - Central Talent Booking delivers top-tier guests—celebrities, influencers, thought leaders, and compelling experts—to elevate your podcast. Discover more.

Visit https://podnews.net/update/best-podcast-hosting for all the links, and to get our newsletter.

• Buzzsprout is the best podcast hosting company, says TechRadar in a review that also gives special credit to Podbean, Libsyn, Captivate and Transistor.
• Kamala Harris’s podcast strategy fell way short of Trump’s, says Ashley Carman: Harris didn’t appear to focus on a cohesive list of shows, which didn’t share similar audiences - making it hard to hit the same talking points. The article is in the latest edition of her Bloomberg newsletter, Soundbite.
  • To support podcast journalism, Podnews has snagged a deal on Ashley Carman’s Soundbite newsletter. You can grab Bloomberg’s Tech Newsletter Bundle at a 25% discount for the first year - which includes Soundbite and others.
• The IAB suggests in its 2025 Outlook Study of ad buyers that growth of podcast ad spend will slow this year, and its market share will drop. Total advertising is set to grow by 7.3%; podcasting will just beat that, at 7.4%.
  • And, in a surprise, S&P Global Market Intelligence suggests that the US podcast industry won’t top $2bn in revenue until 2032. The IAB suggest it hit $1.9bn in 2023.

Free Podcast Growth Workshop 🔥🎧🔥 February 7th — This FREE Podcasting Business School workshop will teach you simple strategies to help you get your podcast above 1,000 downloads per episode. Show up for live training and Q&A!

Need short-form content? — I'm Kristen (a real person), who can highlight the best moments from your podcast.

NORMANITY - The newest must listen AUDIO MUSICAL — Normanity is a satirical interrogation of corporate corruption and the fragility of our aspirations, conducted with quirky humour and real heart. On the Wireless feed on MONDAY! Sing along why dontcha

Get Ashley Carman's Soundbite newsletter — Get exclusive reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends. Podnews readers can subscribe to Bloomberg's Tech Newsletter Bundle, including Soundbite, at 25% off for your first year.

• Mystery: reruns of The Ricky Gervais Show are, reports The Times, at the top of Apple Podcasts UK comedy charts, eighteen years after their release - but nobody seems to know why: not The Guardian (who’s podcast it is), or Gervais himself. The show is being hosted on Spotify for Creators.
• Podcast hosting platform Adelicious has partnered with publisher Immediate to bring its shows to the Adelicious network. Immediate saw 3.5mn downloads a month last year to its 16 shows.
• Looking at the schedule for the IAB’s 2025 Annual Leadership Meeting, Acast’s Greg Glenday posts that he’s “disappointed that podcasting barely registers a footnote ... even in the shadow of The Podcast Election. This is one of the fastest growing parts of the Creator Economy, and it's still undervalued and misunderstood.”
• While TuneIn’s CEO Richard Stern wouldn’t talk to Podnews after we revealed in December the company’s lay-offs and the removal of a way to submit podcasts on the platform, he did talk to iHeart's Podcast News Daily, which carries a full interview. He complains that there’s no revenue in adding a podcast to TuneIn; says they “get no or very little listening” anyway, given 96% of listening on TuneIn is to live audio; and confirms that the company is “not updating our podcast directory for anything other than our partners’ podcasts”. One of those partners? iHeart.
  • The article claims 2024 was TuneIn’s “fifth consecutive year in the black”. But, in an interview in RadioWorld in 2022, Stern claimed “We just finished our first full year of profitable operations in the company’s 20-year history in 2021.” Both can’t be right.
• Further reading: The FT highlight “The podcast bros who helped put Trump back in the White House” ... EarBuds focuses on podcast episode recommendations about neurodiversity, exploring everything ADHD, autism, and more ... Amazon Music held India Pod Day in Mumbai last week. ... The Relay FM podcast network is now simply Relay, with a new logo and revised artwork.

The Tech Stuff

• Podcast Vibes is a piece of research work from Yuri Vishnevsky, using AI to extract subjects and emotions from individual shows. It’s an interesting use of the technology - could “emotion” be a useful addition to just raw transcripts when working out brand suitability scores?
• Dave Jones from the Podcast Index is looking for your help: first, to stop the Docker logs from “eating all the disk space”; and secondly, to read live stream metadata from Shoutcast streams. There’s more in the Podcasting 2.0 podcast this week.

People news

• Stephen “teevio” Hallgren has joined Bumper as the company’s full-time Chief Technology Officer. He was working for the company as a “fractional” CTO.
• Ryan Morrison, a former BBC News journalist, is now working as a Content Editor at ElevenLabs.
• Gary Krantz has died. Recently, he was the Managing Partner for Podcast Radio US; he also worked with Podnews on our acquisition of the Podcast Business Journal. He had a long history of being in the radio business. He was 65.

Tips and tricks

• Josh Liston posts “4 reasons to post audio-only episodes onto YouTube”, which focus on expanded accessibility.

Podcast News

• With Airwave: What Should I Read Next? is the show for every reader who has ever finished a book and faced the problem of not knowing what to read next. The show is to help YOU find your next read, by interviewing a reader each week about their favourite books.
• The Lex Fridman Podcast is apparently going to feature Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of Wordpress (and owner of Pocket Casts), in a future episode. He's raised eyebrows recently after "going through a bunch of drama", and Fridman is keen to "nudge him" to admit "mistakes".
• Fascinated by the future of humanity beyond Earth? Entropy Rising has started gaining traction with its first milestone of 100 followers and over 500 episode downloads. The podcast explores out-of-this-world topics, from what it takes to live in space to the possibilities of mining asteroids.
• Never Miss A Monday launches today - a podcast that makes the case for the power of Mondays. Says host Stacey Garcia, "After my breast cancer diagnosis, I leaned on the lifestyle choices that had always sustained me, and I want to share these tools with others facing life’s challenges." The primary theme of the season is the power of connection and community, which is more crucial now than ever. It's executive produced by r63 Podcast Media's Scott Slaughter.
• Cop City, a new police training facility in Atlanta GA, is nearly open, in spite of protests that led to the death of one activist. We Came to the Forest from Wondery and Campside Media is new today, with details, new facts and perspectives about the events that led to the death. It's hosted by Campside co-founder, and Atlanta resident, Matthew Shaer.

Gold supporters: Sounds Profitable, Buzzsprout, Mowpod, Mamamia, The $100 MBA, The Podglomerate, SALT, Audiohook, Cohost, Simplecast, Podscribe, Steve Lack: Audio, RedCircle, audioBoom, Resound, Riverside.fm, Jar Audio, Podchaser, Awesound, Acast, Knucklehead Media Group, Podpage websites, Evergreen Podcasts, We Edit Podcasts, Libsyn, Disctopia

Silver supporters: Storic Media, Audacia Audio, Bumper, PodLabs - Podcast Experimentatio, Magellan AI, Jonekiri, Huberman Lab, SoundStack, Ausha, POW PR, Gilded Audio, Frequency, PlayPodcast, Tink Media, Truefans, Deepcast Creator, Red Seat Ventures, Compliance Podcast Network, ARN's iHeartPodcast Network Aust, Storyboard, The Roost, Cloud10, The Podcast Haven, Podium , Gumball, Voxtopica, Ask Ralph Christian Finance, Podcastpage, Message Heard, Health Podcast Network, Rhapsody Voices, Oxford Road, Wondery, Sonic Influencer Marketing, Transistor, Podcast Taxi, Rephonic, Ossa Collective, matchmaker.fm, Jam Street Media, Blubrry, Optimal Living Daily, Castos, Heartcast Media50, Double Elvis Productions, Zvook, Headliner, Diversion Podcasts, Lemonada Media, StreamGuys, Ad Results Media, Content10x, Podcast Partnership, Hear.Here.Singapore, Cleanfeed, She Podcasts, Sonix, Adopter Media, School of Podcasting, Podigy, Podcast Movement, Lower Street, Revolver Podcasts, Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights

Our personal supporters: Eric Montgomery, Amy Woods, John, Jessica Alpert Silber, Armel, Oludotun Oyebolu, Mikel Ellcessor, Gene Monterastelli, Ed Sullivan, Neil Mody, Lindsay Graham, David Lloyd, Steven Goldstein, Matt Wade, Mirko Lagonegro, [email protected], Andy Maher, Kara Silverman, Eric Hunley, Liz Covart, Owen Grover, Justin Jackson, Karen Jackson, Mike R, CESLIE Armstrong, Søren Hugger Møller, Josh Withers, Michael Dell, Eric Nuzum, Benjamin Masse, Brett Johnson, Mark Ramsey, Helene Pawlitzki, Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy, Steve Stewart, Pete Morgan, Jody Avirgan, Joe Stone, ShEvo (Sheila Dee & Evo Terra), Buzz Knight, Jaz Garewal, Don MacKinnon, Stephanie Arakelian, Kerry Donahue, Tony Garcia, We Are Libertarians, Graeme Klass, Suzanne Schultz, Stew Redwine, Dave Beasing, Jeremy McCarter, Meggan Ellingboe, EarBuds Podcast Collective, Andy Bowers, Mary Dooe, Alicia Mackey Huber, Paul Vogelzang, Vanessa Harris, Rekha Murthy, Mohammad Ali, Charles Spivey, Joanne Phillips, Niall Mackay, Courtney Reimer, Brandon Schexnayder, Tom Teodorczuk, Sam Phelps, Doug Downs, Joe Tannorella, Jenn Leask, Jeremie Mani (Podcasthon.org), Jennifer Henczel, Ken Beyer, Lex Friedman, Larry Rosin, Andi, Stacey Goers, Bryan Barletta, Gavin, Bubbe Ann Schockett, Darius Derakshan, Dave Campbell, Stefano Mangone, Cindy Howes, TWRS, Anastasia Violet Lipske, Chris Peterson, Gee Padilla

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Visit https://podnews.net/update/apple-podcasts-china-how for all the links, and to get our newsletter.

• Exclusive: Apple Podcasts has made changes to the way it makes podcasts available in China. Working with podcasters inside China, Podnews has learnt that Apple is now able to remove specific episodes from shows, and that those episodes are hidden from users even if a user tries the RSS feed in the Apple Podcasts app.
  • As two examples: Lex Fridman has 22 recent shows removed; the Joe Rogan Experience is missing eight recent shows.
  • We’ve written an availability checker for Apple Podcasts, to understand what is available where. More details in the article.
• Evolutions 2025 has announced a set of new speakers for the event in Chicago IL, on Mar 31 - Apr 3. Reflecting video’s part in the podcast space, Evolutions will have a Video Village, presented by YouTube. Use code PODNEWS to save on selected passes.
• Podcast studio Filt has announced a reorganisation, including consolidation with Finland’s Suomen Podcastmedia, and the launch of Filt Nordics across Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The companies are backed by PodX Group.

Stop Hustling and Start Living. — Learn to meet (and exceed!) your personal & professional goals in a slow, steady, & sustainable way with the highly acclaimed Slow Living Podcast hosted by NYT best-selling author, Stephanie O'Dea.

Biz & Legal Fundamentals–Don't Wait! Free Workshop — What if getting the "legal stuff" for your podcast was fast, easy and do-it-yourself-able? Join The Podcast Lawyer™ Gordon Firemark for this free online workshop. Don't miss this! Register Now.

• Audio is different from video says Eric Silver, the Head of Development at Multitude Productions. He filmed the process of recording a portion of a podcast with Amanda McLoughlin, and wrote up his thoughts. “Why do we want to dive into this wholly-different-and-filled-with-its-own-distinct-problems pool when we have our not-perfect pool here?”
• YouTube threw a party for creators and podcasters in Washington DC over inauguration weekend. (The main image of the attendees show 16 men and four women.)
• Stringbean Radio is a website that lets you follow podcast guest appearances. It’s caught Lex Fridman on 104 shows so far (and Marco Arment on 88).
• Podcast host RSS.com launched a set of tweaks and updates, including a web player “with iOS dynamic island support” and improved podroll support.
• John McDermott discovers that The Journal, produced by Spotify and the Wall Street Journal, has 21 people on staff. (You’d have thought one of them might be able to make a trailer).
• SoundCloud is doing something weird with redirected podcasts that were formerly hosted on the platform - adding a legal redirect statement if you visit the feed on something other than a recognised podcast app.

Tips and tricks

• Inc writes “why you should never pay to appear on a podcast”.

Podcast News

• From the Airwave Podcast Network: History Tea Time is a history podcast from Lindsay Holiday that spills the tea on history. This weekly show has just released an episode on Louis XIV's Illegitimate Children.
• Popular movie podcast Unspooled has signed with the Realm podcast network. The show was with Earwolf; and achieves over 12mn monthly downloads.
• New this week from LAist Studios - LA Made: The Other Moonshot tells the story of three Black aerospace engineers who worked on the Apollo mission in L.A. in the 1960s – despite barely being allowed in the room. It's hosted by Joanne Higgins, whose grandfather was among the group.
• With over a month to go until the start of the 2025 F1 season, inside the F1: Chequered Flag feed is F1: Back At Base, a new show from the BBC, taking listeners behind the scenes of McLaren and Aston Martin's Formula 1 teams. The show includes exclusive interviews and an inside look at the secret factories building the cars.

Gold supporters: Sounds Profitable, Buzzsprout, Mowpod, Mamamia, The $100 MBA, The Podglomerate, Simplecast, Podscribe, SALT, Audiohook, Cohost, Resound, audioBoom, RedCircle, Steve Lack: Audio, Riverside.fm, Jar Audio, Podchaser, Awesound, Libsyn, Disctopia, We Edit Podcasts, Podpage websites, Knucklehead Media Group, Acast, Evergreen Podcasts

Silver supporters: Storic Media, Audacia Audio, Bumper, PodLabs - Podcast Experimentatio, Magellan AI, Gilded Audio, SoundStack, Compliance Podcast Network, Frequency, Cloud10, POW PR, Deepcast Creator, Gumball, The Roost, Voxtopica, The Podcast Haven, ARN's iHeartPodcast Network Aust, Ausha, Storyboard, Jonekiri, Ask Ralph Christian Finance, Huberman Lab, Tink Media, Truefans, Red Seat Ventures, Podium , PlayPodcast, Podcastpage, Message Heard, Health Podcast Network, matchmaker.fm, Jam Street Media, Diversion Podcasts, Ossa Collective, Zvook, Double Elvis Productions, Lemonada Media, Wondery, Sonic Influencer Marketing, Heartcast Media50, Rhapsody Voices, Castos, Optimal Living Daily, Podcast Taxi, Blubrry, Oxford Road, Transistor, Rephonic, Headliner, Ad Results Media, Hear.Here.Singapore, StreamGuys, Content10x, Podcast Partnership, Cleanfeed, She Podcasts, Podcast Movement, Sonix, Lower Street, School of Podcasting, Revolver Podcasts, Adopter Media, Podigy, Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights

Our personal supporters: Eric Montgomery, Amy Woods, John, Jessica Alpert Silber, Armel, Oludotun Oyebolu, Mikel Ellcessor, Gene Monterastelli, Ed Sullivan, Neil Mody, Lindsay Graham, David Lloyd, Steven Goldstein, Matt Wade, Mirko Lagonegro, [email protected], Andy Maher, Kara Silverman, Eric Hunley, Liz Covart, Owen Grover, Justin Jackson, Karen Jackson, Mike R, CESLIE Armstrong, Søren Hugger Møller, Josh Withers, Michael Dell, Eric Nuzum, Benjamin Masse, Brett Johnson, Mark Ramsey, Helene Pawlitzki, Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy, Steve Stewart, Pete Morgan, Jody Avirgan, Joe Stone, ShEvo (Sheila Dee & Evo Terra), Buzz Knight, Jaz Garewal, Don MacKinnon, Stephanie Arakelian, Kerry Donahue, Tony Garcia, We Are Libertarians, Graeme Klass, Suzanne Schultz, Stew Redwine, Dave Beasing, Jeremy McCarter, Meggan Ellingboe, EarBuds Podcast Collective, Andy Bowers, Mary Dooe, Alicia Mackey Huber, Paul Vogelzang, Vanessa Harris, Rekha Murthy, Mohammad Ali, Charles Spivey, Joanne Phillips, Niall Mackay, Courtney Reimer, Brandon Schexnayder, Tom Teodorczuk, Sam Phelps, Doug Downs, Joe Tannorella, Jenn Leask, Jeremie Mani (Podcasthon.org), Jennifer Henczel, Ken Beyer, Lex Friedman, Larry Rosin, Andi, Stacey Goers, Bryan Barletta, Gavin, Bubbe Ann Schockett, Darius Derakshan, Dave Campbell, Stefano Mangone, Cindy Howes, TWRS, Anastasia Violet Lipske, Chris Peterson, Gee Padilla

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Podcasters hard at work at the next event in the Canadian city

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The whole ceremony is available to watch

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The Podcast Hall of Fame induction ceremony is tonight

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