AI versus human - from Brisbane, the latest from podnews.net with SoundStack earning more programmatic revenue.
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The Australian ABC has published its findings from a project where the broadcaster used AI to try to optimise episode titles and descriptions. AI isn't better than humans, the research discovers, but it can be useful for summarising and inspiration. Highlighting cultural differences, it also appeared difficult to stop AI from using a US English style of writing. Podcasting Made Simple Live is a virtual event taking place this Thursday from 11.30am to 4pm Eastern Time.
There are a number of speakers aimed to help podcast creators grow influence, revenue and expertise. Tickets are normally $97, but we've got a link in our show notes and our newsletter today at podnews.net to get in for free. You'll even get replay access too. In Australia, the 35th Australian Commercial Radio and Audio Awards, the ACRAs, announced its winners, including a set of podcast prizes. Hannah's Story won Podcast of the Year.
Why aren't podcasters being taught the craft of audio storytelling? Podcasting isn't just a technology problem, says David Hoffman, starting a new series of articles for Podnews from members of the Podcast Professionals Association. iHeart's Inside Radio writes about an NAB show panel focusing on changing technology inside podcasting and how Crooked Media and 770WABC use tools to help.
I've written a personal opinion piece on my personal blog about public service broadcasters and exclusive podcasts, suggesting that the two shouldn't go together. LexLib is a list of Amazon affiliate-linked books mentioned on the Lex Friedman podcast. In France, new data was released about French podcast consumption, summarised by OSHA, which we'll link to today, which has increased year on year. The research looks at native podcasts, which are distinct in the country, from radio podcasts.
It's a Monday, so time for some tech stuff. If you've got an I/O domain name for your podcast, well, the British government has done it again, haven't they? They've given up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and given them back to Mauritius, which means that the .io domain name will eventually disappear, possibly. How many people feel strongly about the spam they get from the email address in their RSS feed? Not very many, it turns out.
The podprotect.email service, which forwarded emails after spam-checking them, is to close, says the developer, that's me. The service cost a total of $6.15 a year to run, $6 for DNS via Route 53 and literally $0.15 for the website and the email forwarding service. However, the fancy domain cost us $70 a year and we can spend that on beer instead. Whisper CPP has been updated to version 1.7.1 and now deals with the new large version 3 turbo model, which is much faster.
The podcast funding tag is now valid at the channel and at the episode level. The tag, which is widely supported, helps podcasters add a link to a support mechanism like Patreon or, in our case, a donation page, and there's a link in our show notes and our newsletter at podnews.net where you can click that link and find out how our donation page works by donating.
For phase 8 of the podcast namespace, I've also proposed an extension to the podcast location tag, which would allow for location of the creator as well as of the subject matter of a show, and a simple pragmatic country code too. The aim is to also produce a JavaScript tool which can build those location tags automatically. And in podcast news, American Tributaries says it's the first podcast to have hosted a guest from all 50 states.
The show has conversations with everyday folks with different backgrounds, different areas or pursuing different livelihoods. Small Ball is now with Vox Media. The show is hosted by YouTube star and NBA superfan Kenny Beecham and provides year round basketball coverage and publishes weekly on Fridays during the NBA season. Unbiased has moved to the fwd Network, the innovative media brand championing female creators.
The show is hosted by South Florida attorney Jordan Berman and it offers straightforward fact driven insights on current events and legal matters. Skincare and Beyond is launched today, a beauty podcast from a UK online skincare company called Face the Future and covering the fascinating world of mathematics education. Strength in Numbers is back for a third season.
It's produced by the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers and the podcast serves as inspiration and brain food for teachers across Australia who teach that most divisive of subjects, mathematics. This podcast is sponsored by SoundStack, so if you've got a portfolio of podcasts and you're looking for more opportunities for them in 2025, then helping them earn more programmatic revenue is simple with SoundStack. Every podcast and streaming audio business deserves a chance to grow.
You can find out more about SoundStack in the link in our show notes and that's the latest from our newsletter. To read all the stories and subscribe, we're at podnews.net.