From Brisbane, the latest from our daily newsletter at podnews.net with Red Circle. There's been an adverse reaction to Spotify's announcement that it's to add play counts to podcasts on its app. Reaction which appears to have taken the company by surprise. Spotify has issued a statement on threads addressing creator concerns, telling creators it really appreciates the honest discussion and that it'll share more on Friday. We link to that today. You should read the comments.
We don't yet see any play counts published in the app. Spotify's also been a little bit more open about how the play statistics are worked out. On an updated page, which we'll link to today, the company says that plays are the number of times a Spotify user actively watched or listened to your content on the Spotify app. Plays are only counted once per user per session. So if you play an episode, pause it and then resume playing, that counts as one play.
Well, elsewhere, Spotify points out that plays of trailers or clips are not included. Well, how different is a play on each platform anyway? Well, the Podnews Weekly Review has a total audience size of 185 people on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts over the last 60 days. But the play count, well, on Spotify, we've had 715 so-called plays. But on Apple Podcasts, we've had 2,800, almost four times as many plays from the same audience size.
Apple, it turns out, measures any touch of the play button, which probably explains Spotify's example. One of the highest pain points in the Pod News report card earlier this year was that different platforms don't measure the same thing. And we noted at the time that Spotify for creators, Apple and YouTube don't use the IAB standards. We'll link to more on this in our show notes and our newsletter at podnews.net.
Elsewhere, the Golden Globes are to add a best podcast category to its 2026 award show. Variety reports that some podcasters are concerned it's just about popularity. Just give it to Rogan every year, says one. And Variety gives its predictions for the nominees. Joe Rogan, Smartless, Theo Vaughn, Amy Poehler, Alex Cooper and the team from Up First from NPR. We miss this when it happened, but a podcast guest booking agency called Kitcaster was acquired by MoBurst last month.
Rockwater suggests it was bought for $700,000. The Indian government sent out an order to media platforms to remove all podcasts and other media originating from Pakistan. Quotes in the interests of national security. Is there a book hiding in your podcast feed? Tina Dietz and Michelle Fishering suggests that there is a new way to write a book. Use the material you already have. And YouTube ran a survey over the weekend to make YouTube podcasts even better.
It was interested in fan membership programs, mentioning Twitch, Patreon, Facebook support and YouTube channel memberships by name. Was wondering whether you've taken part in a paid brand partnership or sponsorship on your YouTube channel. And was particularly interested in short form podcast content. It's a Monday so time for some tech stuff and some great news from the next version of Pocket Casts which is currently in release candidate form.
And that will have new podcast recommendations, including support for the podcast PodRoll format. It's marked as recommended shows by the creator and it means creator recommendations go to the top of a new section marked similar shows. PodRoll is supported by hosts including Buzzsprout, RSS.com, Blueberry and Transistor. And if you're using streaming payments in your podcast, there's now no need to run a Bitcoin node.
Banking app Cash App, which is available in the US and the UK, has turned on something called LN Address so you can use that to get paid. Your lightning address is your name at cash.app. Strike also uses LN Address and RSS feed includes an example of that. In people news, Libsyn have made four hires in its business development team. Nick Zier joins Libsyn as Senior Manager of Creator Partnerships.
Cliff Clinton steps into the role of Senior Manager of Strategy and Podcast Operations at Libsyn, joining from Lemonada Media, Osser and AdResults Media. Scott Hurd joins as National Account Director, joining from Sonnent, Daily Wire and iHeart Media. And Brittany Hall comes aboard as Director of Brand Partnerships, with previous experience at Spotify, Triton Digital, Seeker, Charterball, Megaphone and Sony Music Entertainment. And in podcast news, what's a podcast?
The Media Roundtable this week is focused on little masterpieces for your ears, understanding podcasting's past, ensuring its future. The BBC's Diddy on Trial is in New York, with Anoushka Mutanda Doherty bringing listeners the latest courtroom revelations direct from the heart of Manhattan after nearly eight months behind bars in one of America's most notorious prisons.
Diddy stands accused of sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution and racketeering with conspiracy, charges he denies. Do you feel increasingly tormented by ads, algorithms and general AI slop? It's not just you, says Cory Doctorow, the host of Who Broke the Internet from CBC's Understood. In a new four-part series, the best-selling author and long-time tech watcher makes the case that the internet sucks now and that it happened on purpose.
Imagine if you work for the CBC and you've desperately tried to avoid using the word n-shittification there. And Other People's Problems returns for a new season today. It's hosted by Dr. Hilary McBride, a registered psychologist in private practice in Vancouver, and explores the transformative power of psychedelics in a therapeutic setting. And this podcast is sponsored by Red Circle. Get your free podcast advertising campaign in a link you'll find. In the show notes.
And thank us later. And that's the latest from our newsletter. To read all the stories and subscribe for free, we're at podnews.net.