Facebook launches podcasts for US users

• Facebook has launched its in-app podcast experience today. To get listed, you need an invite directly from Facebook: and they’ll only play in the US. We gather that Buzzsprout, The Joe Budden Podcast, and Jam Street Media were some of those chosen to get podcasts set up on their pages. Facebook’s Clubhouse clone, Live Audio Rooms has also launched: that, again, is for the US only, and live rooms are only available on iOS. “Later this summer, we’ll roll out additional features, like captions and the ability to create and share short clips of a podcast,” says Fidji Simo, Head of Facebook App.

• BetterHelp remained the biggest US podcast advertiser in May, spending $5.6m according to Magellan AI. HelloFresh has cooked up a storm to reach #2; ZipRecruiter has gently lowered itself to #3. Dell increased its spend most in May.

• Nielsen suggest that “light podcast listeners”, who listen three times or less per month, now make up half of all podcast listeners. The data also claims that 42% of all podcast listeners listen to comedy; and that fiction podcasts have gained the most listeners since November 2020, up by 21.4%.

• We’ve just hit 4 million podcasts in the Podcast Index. The website says 640,240 were active in the last 60 days.

• Kevin LaBuz has written a long look at Spotify’s podcast strategy, or “Spotify’s Second Act”, as he calls it. Meanwhile Brett Schafer at The Motley Fool asks whether their strategy will pay off.

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• The Apple Podcasts app has a thing called “stations” in it, which you might not have noticed. AppleInsider has a tutorial on how to use it.

• Ariel Helwani has announced he is to do an exclusive show for Spotify’s The Ringer within Spotify Greenroom. “We’ll do a live show, with callers and taking your questions, and it’ll be made available as a podcast”: this sounds like the first announcement of Greenroom being used as a podcast source. Additionally, The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani returns to SB Nation and the Vox Media Network from mid-August, the companies have announced.

• Guardians of the River, which we covered on June 14, has won the Tribeca Film Festival Podcast Award.

• Lemonada Media has officially launched its Apple Podcasts subscription channel. Listeners get bonus content, discounted merch and behind-the-scenes access for $4.99/month.

• Podcast analytics company Chartable has added “episodic retention”, a new metric to help understand the effects of your podcast marketing.

• In the UK, Podcast Radio has signed with Triton Digital.

• Audacy has expanded their partnership with Crooked Media. Their Lovett or Leave It podcast is to be broadcast on Channel Q and the LGBTQ+ Talk Radio Network. The broadcaster already airs a minute-long version of What A Day.

• WaitWhat has raised $12m in funding.

Hints and tips

• How to make great podcast artwork that pops! - Gareth Evans suggests not leaving your artwork as an afterthought.

• Tom Webster, who knows a thing or two about surveys, tells us how to field your own listener survey. He also covers how he made his fancy website.

  
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DISH! launches soon: a new podcast that serves up “a hilarious conversation about food and culture”, from Australian broadcasters Tegan Higginbotham and Paul Verhoeven.

Smoke Screen: I Am Rama is a new season of Neon Hum’s investigative documentary podcast. It follows the pull of a spiritual teacher known as Rama, and the complex legacy of what he left behind.

Who Was Prince? Why, he was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor, and director. But if you want more than that, Cumulus Media and DCP Entertainment have launched an eight-episode series, hosted by music journalist Touré.

Tech Tonic from the Financial Times has returned for a second season, exploring the philosophical, ethical and technological cruxes of AI’s ever expanding role in medical research, modern warfare and investments.

PodClock, our podcast about time and absolutely not just built as an April Fool’s joke, now has new audio in a new episode called “Who are you?” The audio tells you your podcast app’s useragent and your IP address, while the show notes do the same for whatever looked at the RSS feed. Might be good for testing. You’re welcome.