The rise of the smart speaker

• Australians love their smart speakers, according to new research from Edison Research and Commercial Radio Australia. 26% of people own one; compared to 33% in the US. The research doesn’t specifically mention podcast consumption (though 41% claim to use it to “get the news”).

  • Podnews is available on your smart speaker: “Play the news from Podnews podcasting news” works, and you’ll find us in your news briefing menu.

• The Australian Podcast Ranker is also out for June, measuring participating publishers. Casefile True Crime is still #1, but Hamish & Andy has moved up to #2. Casefile is now on a break while their anonymous host recovers: so, will we see a new #1 for July?

• RSS Podcasting has launched a community section of their website, promoting the varied shows available on their hosting platform.

• The ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖏᑦ podcast from the far north of Canada has helped identify the Inuktitut storyteller in an archive recording about a creature named Qallupilluk. Koonoo Ipirq died in the late 1980s. It’s the second storyteller to be identified by the show.

• Audiovalley, the owners of Targetspot, have posted their H1/21 revenue. Targetspot revenue is up 56.3% at €11.2m (US $13.2m). It also owns music rights company Jamendo, Shoutcast and Winamp.

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• Matt Deegan writes about organising the British Podcast Awards. Look at the cushions! We published the full winners list yesterday.

• We’ve dropped the ball, says Evo Terra: promoting the benefit of Podcasting 2.0 and the new namespace for the future of the medium. Meanwhile, Tanner Campbell suggests that RSS isn’t just dated, it’s quickly approaching irrelevancy.

• Is podcasting’s future using Tik Tok stars? BlueWire has signed 12 Tik Tok influencers; and Stay Hot has grown to be one of their biggest podcasts, CEO Kevin Jones tells Podnews.

  
  Sep 5 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Successful Farming has signed podcast publisher Global Ag Network for adsales representation for their podcasts.

• СЛЫШ! The Russian Podcast Festival is free on YouTube between July 16-18, with more than seventy speakers.

• Caution: A version of Overcast appears to be on the Google Play store for Android users. It isn’t Overcast: it’s the codebase for AntennaPod with lots of ads thrown in, and just uses the Overcast logo and name. We’d recommend PocketCasts if you’re looking for a decent podcast player.

Tips and tricks

• How to design a profitable branded podcast that doesn’t sound like a branded podcast - Paul Colligan cautions you to work with the client and set a simple goal.
• Andrew Gold posts How My Podcast Went from 4 Monthly Listens to 20k per Week - “and how every podcaster can use this strategy to increase their audience”. It’s relatively simple, too - as long as your podcast is good, he adds.

Podcast News

Digital Citizen launches today: a podcast that helps you become a more responsible digital citizen and make the internet a better place. From Fastmail, it’s produced by The Podcast Partnership.

Killer Psyche is new from Wondery today; Candice DeLong, a former FBI criminal profiler, draws on her decades of experience to reveal why murderers and criminals do what they do. She will reveal fascinating new details about what drove these people, including cases she worked on first-hand, like the Unabomber.

Vox Conversations has been re-launched with new hosts and a new production schedule. Sean Illiing and Jamil Smith welcome guests for authentic, open conversations about everything from the relationship between democracy and fascism to the intersection of sports, politics, and culture.

The Night Shift is a new real play D&D podcast played by an acclaimed young adult author, a radio DJ, a food network star, and an LSU football player. It launched yesterday, and is based in Baton Rouge LA, USA.

Live life in sneakers is the advice of Scott Henderson, who claims it’s a deliberate step towards self-improvement. He’s launched a new podcast with NOVA Entertainment, saying “Every discussion is designed to pass on the tools for bettering yourself, and the world around you.”