It's Friday , the 16th of June 2023 .
The last word in podcasting news . This is the Pod News Weekly Review with James Cridland and Sam Suthey .
I'm James Cridland , the editor of Pod News in Hayes in London .
And I'm Sky Pillsbury . I am the creator of the Squeeze newsletter here in California .
In the chapters today . Spotify ad analytics has been launched , rsscom has launched a thing called PodViz , and Apple might be killing value for value . This podcast is sponsored and hosted by Buzzsprout . Last week , 3,189 people started a podcast with Buzzsprout .
Podcast hosting made easy with powerful tools and remarkable customer support , and now AI to help you publish your show . and by Pod News Live in London this September . Tickets at podnewsnet slash live .
From your daily newsletter , the Pod News Weekly Review .
Sky Pillsbury is in for Sam Suthey , who is recovering from Pod News Live earlier this week . Actually , i believe he's going to watch a Shakespeare play , which is very fancy Yeah , which is good . So welcome along , sky Pillsbury .
Well thank you so much .
So thrilled to have you Tell folks who , if there's anybody that doesn't know about the Squeeze , tell folks what the Squeeze is all about .
I will , but first I just wanted to thank you for having me on the show , james . I'm thrilled to be here . This is a lot of fun already And about the Squeeze it's a newsletter I started just about a year ago actually .
I realized that the other day And what I do is take a look at the audio industry for people who work within it , so hopefully a lot of the people listening to this might find that interesting .
My latest story is part of a series that I'm running on WNYC , which produces a lot of podcasts that people listening to this may have heard of The New York Radio Hour Death , sex and Money a lot of beloved shows And I'm taking a deep dive in looking at what's , what has been the evolution of WNYC and where do things stand now .
They've had a lot of turnover . There are actually a lot of people managing that station who have no radio experience , if you can believe that . So I'm taking a look at sort of what the impact of all of that has been .
Yeah , and it's a great read as well and very much enjoying it .
There's a there's a TV show in Australia which is called Media Watch , which is essentially a guy basically looking into the media and looking into when they screw things up and everything else , and the catchphrase for that is everybody likes it until they're in it , and I wonder whether that might be the catchphrase for the Squeeze . Who knows ?
Yeah , yeah , i can relate to that . Yeah , it's , it can be a tough go in this industry sometimes .
Yeah , yeah , well , exactly , and this industry needs some really good reporting such as that . So that's super good . Tell me , where do I subscribe to the Squeeze ?
You can find it on the Substack website . So wwwsubstackcom . Forward slash . This is the Squeeze , and you can subscribe right there and check out my archives . My main newsletter is totally free , so you can come and read the bulk of my reporting , and then there's some fun extras If you decide you want to become a paid subscriber .
So you can check all of that out on the website . Excellent .
Well , shall we kick off for this week ? Let's do it .
Spotify has just announced Spotify at Analytics . It's a free measurement , attribution and brand lift tool . It uses first party data and the Spotify Pixel . It allows advertisers to understand if consumers heard an ad and then took an action .
That seems like maybe the most important thing to know , and works for music and podcast advertising on and off the Spotify platform . There are more details on the product's website . James , help us understand why this is important . This is important .
Well , this is basically a pod site , as was . So they bought pod sites a year or so ago And this is pod sites on steroids . Basically , they seem to have added a bunch of different features And what's really interesting to me is that it's not just available to podcast advertisers on the Spotify platform .
It's also available to people that aren't advertising the Spotify at all and not using Spotify at all , and it's completely free , which is interesting . I guess that Spotify get to keep the data , i guess so that they can see how all of that works .
But yeah , i thought it was a really interesting move from them , clearly what that means for other podcast attribution tools . Who knows ?
Yeah , i mean , obviously , from the advertiser perspective , it's really helpful to have that information . Of course , my brain also goes to it's a little bit creepy , but Well , yeah , i guess that's where we are with online advertising these days . Right , it's not like that isn't happening already on a lot of consumer commerce websites and things like that .
Yeah , I think my understanding of it is if you listen to a podcast , it works out what your IP address is and what sort of device you're using , And then there's a thing called the Spotify Pixel which is put onto your website if you're an advertiser , and then that pixel spots you if you come and have a look at that website .
So it knows that you've listened to the ad . It then knows if you've come to the website or maybe bought a product or whatever it ends up being . I'm always sort of slightly nervous about that sort of thing from a data protection point of view .
It's one of the reasons why I don't have any third party embedded stuff on the Pod News website , because nobody wants that . Ah , good move . But I think one of the things of course that Spotify is going to learn is it's going to learn what the big shows are off the Spotify platform .
Clearly , they know some of that with the megaphone platform that they have , but they can probably find out a little bit more about other shows if people start using that particular tool .
Bigger and bigger player . And data , that's for sure . Oh yes , absolutely .
It's not the only thing that Spotify has done this week , is it ?
No . Spotify has also announced that it's selling its music and podcast creation tool , soundtrap , back to its original founders . No terms were given . That's pretty unusual , anything . Do you know anything else about that , james ?
Yeah , it is pretty unusual , isn't it ? They've done that once before with some other products that they bought and then they thought , well , we don't really need it .
But I think what's interesting about this one is that they spent quite some time making it better , and Soundtrap , if you remember , back a couple of years ago , was actually promoted as a way that you could edit and record your podcast , so they were actually doing it like that a few years ago .
They've completely stopped promoting it , but , yes , i wonder whether Spotify have made a profit .
Yeah , i wonder do you remember what they paid for it ? I can't pull that up out of my brain .
They got a $6 million funding round in 2016 . And that was a year before the acquisition , which was in October 2017 , therefore , i'm guessing . So , yeah , so one would assume that Spotify is at least looking for that sort of amount of money . Yeah , exactly , but yeah , really interesting to end up seeing .
But it's a fancy multi-track recorder that does music , obviously , and podcasts as well . So , yeah , so interesting , because you used to write for inside podcasting . Yes , yeah .
I'm sure I did write about this , but it was so long ago now . When did I write for inside podcasting ? Did I start in ? I can't even remember 2017? .
The OG . I am the OG , the OG editor of it . Yes , that's right .
Yes , the original , the original one I think I started in it was either 2017 or 2018 , how embarrassing that I can't even remember . And then I wrote until really until maybe six months past the start of the pandemic , so like fall of 2020 .
I was finishing up the second season of the Inside Podcasting podcast if there are any OG listeners out there in which I interviewed podcast creators about their craft , and when the pandemic hit and I knew that my kids were not going to be in school in the fall of 2020 , i said I've got to finish this podcast and finish up writing this newsletter and hand over
the reins to someone else . But I probably did write about this . It does sound familiar , yeah , yeah .
No , it's a good thing still going , although I believe that other podcast newsletters are available .
Yes .
Spotify . Spotify also . They're doing quite a lot of interesting things . They're doing a masterclass , aren't they ?
Yes , they're doing a masterclass on quote unlocking your podcast potential . One of the speakers is Maya and I'm probably going to mess this up Maya Prohovnik Prohovnik . She is the VP of podcast product at Spotify , as well as Jordan Newman , spotify's head of podcast partner management , and Gail Eitor from Teenager Therapy .
They're going to be running the masterclass and that sounds pretty interesting . I wonder what they're going to be saying . Are the major drivers of unlocking your podcast potential ? Any ideas ? James Indeed .
I've got absolutely no idea , and they ran it on Wednesday And I believe it's up on the website as of now , so we can all find out ourselves . I think it's interesting that Maya Prohovnik all of a sudden is getting a bit more public .
So I was sent something the other day from someone at Spotify saying did you know that Maya Prohovnik has a podcast that she is doing herself with her , i think , husband , partner ? No , kidding , what's that ?
What's the topic ?
The topic is I think it's something to do with becoming a parent for the first time . So yeah , so very different , but I find it interesting that they are pushing Maya , as a person , to watch .
That is interesting , given how much turnover they've had in the podcast division over there . They've let go of so much of the I guess old guard at this point And Maya must be new guard . I wonder if I have an email from her as well . I've been so heads down writing my my my upcoming newsletter issue that I haven't had a chance to check .
But that is that's fascinating . She certainly has a lot on her plate over there in Spotify podcast , so looking forward to seeing more from her And maybe I'll check out that podcast , although it sounds like maybe her kids are much younger than mine . If her podcast is about having a child for the first time , my oldest is 17 .
Oh wow , So we're moving into having adult children territory .
Yeah , that sounds terrifying . My , my , i have a 10 year old and and so I'm moving into into teenager territory .
So that's going to be . Oh yeah , hold on , hold on tight . Yeah , that's going to be a little bit terrifying One .
one more little bit of news about Spotify in Asia .
Yes , so Spotify apparently isn't monetizing its podcast inventory in Asia at the moment . This is a claim from Audacia CEO Kim Treasurer . She wrote an article for campaign which contains many positive stats and quotes from the industry in Asia , but this one sounds a little . a little less positive perhaps .
It's interesting to see . I've got a case study , which you'll have seen in Thursday's newsletter , for a letter from a cast talking about their a big thing that they were doing in the Philippines . So clearly a cast is making money in in APAC , but yeah , the the the suggestion here is that Spotify isn't yet doing that , which I find interesting .
Normally , Spotify are very keen to very quickly jump on anything that I say , which isn't true , Yes , And they , and they haven't done that . So , um , Oh , interesting .
Yes , The I that actually rings the bell for me . I feel like I saw something recently where where you had said something and then Spotify came in and wanted you to get it right .
Oh yes .
What was that ? What am I ? what am I ? I'm spacing .
Point out my mistakes . Why don't you ? I don't know , I can't , I can't remember .
Let's just cut that all out , cut that piece up with that , but just off the record , not even , not even part of this , like no , it was entertaining to me because it was like it was clearly Spotify , like worried about something . Like it wasn't that you had reported anything . That wasn't correct .
Yeah .
It was more like the positioning of it . They weren't happy about it , or something .
Yeah , exactly Shoot .
I can't remember .
Maybe it was a while back , but Oh , and they've got , they've got an awful lot of press , of press focus , you will know . So , uh , yeah , it's always interesting knowing exactly who , uh , you know when , when . I always find it interesting asking somebody for a quote at Spotify , because it's always a different person every time , So it's always quite fun .
Well , and I have to say , for me they're not very responsive . I mean , i can't blame them , given the kinds of stories that I tend to write , but I am . I find it's really hard . I mean , i've had better luck , obviously , reaching people at Gimlet .
I have relationships there , but , um , you know Gimlet , which doesn't really technically exist anymore , i guess , but I have had a really tough time , uh , with Spotify . So the fact that you're actually getting a response , james , i think says a lot .
Oh well , yeah , Well , maybe , maybe , yeah , it's interesting about Gimlet and Parkast . They , they , so the the businesses are merging , aren't they , into Spotify studios ?
Being absorbed . It said something like that in the in the in the memo . Do we ?
know whether or not the brand is actually going away Are will you no longer see Gimlet or Parkast on the show It's my , my suspicion is we'll probably still see that .
Yeah , i don't know , um , you know I according to , like , the Gimlet union . Uh , you probably saw they put out a tweet saying as of today , gimlet is no more . I can't remember if they said the same thing about Parkast . Yeah , um , so that made me sort of immediately think like that the brand was going to be absorbed as well , i think .
I think it's probably . If they're , if they're not going to keep those organizations separate and they're going to be creating , you know just , they're going to be merging sort of like their own content you know , spotify studio content with Parkast and Gimlet . I mean , how , even if they keep the brands for a little while , does it really make sense to do that ?
in the longterm ? It might just confuse , you know , new listeners . So I wouldn't be surprised if , in the longer term , those just become Spotify podcasts . I don't really see what the benefit is at this point , given the fact that if anyone Googles Gimlet or Parkast , they're going to see all this baggage , you know acquired and layoffs and this and that Like .
Why do that ? Why not just absorb them into Spotify ? It makes me , i mean , i'm heartbroken over it , of course .
Yeah .
But they're , you know , with that , with 200 people being laid off , I mean , who's left ?
Well , yeah , exactly , Because if you count up the amount of people that worked at Spotify and at Gimlet , you got to about 200 people . So I always found that , yeah , a little bit strange .
Anyway there we go , there we go .
Indeed , it remains to be seen . Let's move on from Spotify , because we have other stories , do we not ?
Yes , we do . Before we actually started recording . You were telling me a little bit about how you had a networking event earlier this week in Media City , uk in Salford earlier this week . Wait , let me do that again .
And it's Salford Not .
Salford . Ok , say it again Salford , salford , salford . Am I saying Salford ? Yeah , do I say the R Yeah ?
Salford That's an American . That's really weird . Salford , yes .
I'll say it with a British accent . That's right , why not ? It was held at Media City UK in Salford , or said in a British accent , which you did a moment ago , salford earlier this week . I do a terrible British accent .
That's a terrible British accent . Sounds like the Queen . Hey , I'll take that as a compliment .
Your next event is in London on September 27 . But , first tell us how your event was that you just had And yeah , let's start with that How was the event that you had earlier this week ?
It was really good . actually , it was really good . It's been absolutely blisteringly hot in the UK this week . I think it went up to now . here you go , see , i'm going to say it went up to 29 , and that sounds very cold obviously .
So what's that in American ?
84 . Yeah , so incredibly hot , which has been very nice actually , and we had a good amount of people who came and there was a lot of show and tell . That's the theory behind these events , and then either Sam or I jump on stage and interview the folks afterwards .
I was trying to understand how much one of the people pays its producers and didn't get much of an answer . That was quite funny , but yeah , no , it was a really good event , so thoroughly enjoyed that . The next one that we're doing is in London , as you say , on September the 27th It's the day before the British Podcast Awards .
Oh , perfect .
So if you're making your way to London . Then just make your way to London a day earlier and come to the networking event that we're running there , an easy add-on . We've got some super good speakers as well . Can you tell us any of them ? Well , i can tell you .
I think I can tell you that we've got the big boss of A-Cast , ross Adams , and so super looking forward to that , and we're hoping for another very big name , but I don't want to jinx it by mentioning who it is .
So yeah , that sounds very intriguing . I wish I was going to be in London on September 27 . So where can people get tickets for the event , James ?
I'm glad you asked . They can get tickets at podnewsnet slash live . It's going to be held in Old Television Center , so in White City , where all of the TV used to be made and where I once used to walk around the corridors at work . Wow , Really looking forward to .
Do you work in television , James ?
I used to work for the BBC .
That I did now actually .
For two years , but I'm cured , now Recovered . Yeah , super , super , looking forward to that . It's now a Soho house And , yes , we're holding it there , so come along , get your tickets . Podnewsnet , slash live And we'll see you there on September the 27th .
So for some more news , podcast hosting company rsscom has launched PodViz . It's an in-house visualization tool to produce videos from audio podcasts for services like YouTube . The service supports chapter art and YouTube metadata . I don't , so what do you think about YouTube videos and all that for podcasts ? I've heard you talk about it before .
Oh yes , What are your thoughts ?
As you know well . I mean , let's start with my thoughts on this rsscom tool . It's a very smart tool . If you want to upload your podcast onto YouTube and you want to reach folk there , then this does a very nice job . I think it is the only one that does chapter art .
It supports , by the way , it supports podcasting 2.0 chapter art , so it's the fancy one , and it converts that into the video and everything else and does all of the YouTube metadata so that the chapters still exist in the YouTube player . So all of that is very , very smart , and you don't need to be with rsscom to use it .
If you host with somebody else maybe you host with our sponsor , buzzsprout then you can still use this rsscom slash podviz . That's V-I-Z or V-I-Z if you want to pronounce that more correctly , anyway , so that's pretty good . What do you think of YouTube , though , getting into the podcasting world ?
You know , i mean , i guess it's fine , it's fine .
Yeah .
I'm just fine with it . You know , i just have I feel so old school or slash old when I say this . but to me , the magic of a podcast is that you're listening to it and not looking at it . Yeah , and so the I guess it's really just a semantic frustration for me , and that I feel like a YouTube video is a video , it's not a podcast .
But you know , i know that you know , a lot of podcasters are having a lot of great success , you know finding , you know new , you know bringing new people into their funnel , so to speak , and that's important . I certainly wouldn't want that to , you know , to not happen .
But at the same time , you know , i feel like , you know , the priority should be making something that sounds great . But that's just my own , my own preference . And you know , when I talk to my kids , who I mentioned earlier , i have actually two teenagers in the house , one's 14 , one 17 .
They very rarely listen to podcasts unless they're with me in the car and I've trapped them , yeah , and most of the time they're watching on YouTube . So you know , i have to give that some respect . I have to honor the fact that that is happening and not pretend that it's not . You know .
Yeah , yeah , no , indeed , and I think there was some data that came out from the Reuters Institute in Wednesday's pod news about the number one podcast platforms in various countries for news podcasts And weirdly , youtube ended up being number one in the US , spotify number one pretty well everywhere else , and I'm just there .
I don't necessarily see that in the numbers .
Yes , i heard you talking about this the other day on the show And it seems really surprising to me too , like where are they getting those numbers ? And you know , we know that numbers can get ginned up as well . We've heard that quite a bit in on YouTube and other platforms , so you know , who knows ? I don't see the numbers either .
I think you said something like I'm not seeing the numbers and I don't know any other podcasters who are seeing those numbers , but maybe they still exist . And yeah , i had the same , i am having the same experience .
Yeah , Yeah , no , indeed . Well , it's worth a go anyway , It's a free service from our friends at rsscom , And I should say that I'm an advisor to RSS . Sam edits the script for this very show . He's very exercised about this next story all about Apple . What's the what's the story ? sky .
So the big story is that Apple has stopped micropayments . Damus , a Nostar app on iOS , has had to remove the zap button on post because this is considered quote selling digital content by Apple .
Yeah , so what's the deal ?
with this James .
Well . So Sam is very upset and has left lots of , lots of notes , which he's highlighted in bright orange in here , but the implications are .
So Damus is is a chat app , but the way that Nostar works is that you can zap someone if you really like what they have said , and by zapping somebody , you are giving them a very small amount of money in the form of sats , in the form of , you know , very small amounts of Bitcoin And and , of course , tim Apple has gone . Hang on a minute .
Normally I get 30% of all of the money that goes through all of these apps , so I'd like 30% of the money from this , please .
And Damus is you know the folks behind the Damus app , you know understandably slightly aggrieved , but Sam points out that apps like fountain , like podfriend , like other apps that are using value for value for podcasting 2.0 , payments with boostergrams and all of that streaming sats stuff Those are all doing much the same sort of thing .
So this potentially means that those may be whisked off the the Apple App Store as well , which is slightly scary . Sam then adds a hashtag gaslighting hashtag , gatekeeper hashtag , anti competitive . It's clearly very upset about this .
Yes , he's very worked up and it does seem a bit draconian to be doing something like this , but at the same time I I guess this is their policy right , but it does it . I can see why he is upset .
Yeah , i guess it is their policy And I guess I'm surprised that they haven't been upholding their policy until now with these sorts of apps . But what I would also say is , of course , you know , there's the PayPal app , there's your banking app , there's , you know , venmo . Apple doesn't ask for 30% of all of the money for those apps , and isn't this ?
the sort of a good point . Yeah , so that's not about it that way .
Isn't this the same as a PayPal app or a Venmo app or everything else ? So I think it's going to be interesting to see whether Damus does a good job of you know , of appealing this and fighting back , Because it could be , it could be quite bad for you know , for podcasting .
That said , of course , Apple has recently enabled PWAs , which is a way of using a website as if it's an app anyway , And so perhaps this will just hasten the use of those . So who knows ?
But anyway , Yeah , whatever the way forward is , hopefully they will just . This will help them make decisions that are clear for everyone , so that it's not so that no one is confused and and sort of at the last minute , you know , finding out this information and and with no warning , that's probably part of what's most frustrating .
Well , yeah , indeed , they've got basically two weeks to get that payment stuff out of their app , otherwise it'll be taken out of the app store entirely . So you can well understand that people are a little bit upset about that . Most definitely , hey , podcast advertising works . Sky , no kidding .
Are you kidding ? I am just I'm just learning this to . Apparently , according to Edison Research , 46% of weekly podcast listeners have bought a product or service because they heard a podcast ad for it . That is not not incredible news to you and me , but hopefully it is reaching the ears of people who need to hear it .
That data is actually up quite a bit from 34% in Q1 of 2020 .
Yeah , and I when I was writing this up , i was there thinking well , that means that podcast ads are more effective , right ? And then I thought , no , it just means that people have listened to podcasts for longer And so therefore they're more likely to have bought something , i guess . Oh , yes , because it's it's . these have ever bought a product or service ?
And I have a . I have a bit of a thing about research that asks have you ever done something ? Because I'm there going . yeah , i mean I've . I've once stood on a on a Lego brick , in in their feet That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to do that again . You know what I mean .
Yes , that's right . It's not a cumulative like have you has , have you done it even more and more as time has gone by . It's just have you ever done it , and then that's that one sort of sunk cost and it lasts forever . So have you , james , bought something that you've heard in an ad on a podcast ?
I mean , i guess I probably have , because I've heard an awful lot of ads . Yes , have I bought them ? Have I bought something specifically because I heard I don't know , i think maybe .
Yeah , i think maybe I was listening to ATP once and and they were talking so excitedly about hover for for website domain names that I went to hover , so yeah , so maybe I have .
Yeah , well , there you go , You can you can , you can .
You can chalk me down in terms of that , and Triton is going to make it easier for people to buy all kinds of advertising in the future .
Yes , it's letting advertisers book ads on broadcast radio and streaming alongside podcasts . Apparently , the company claims it as an industry first . Broadcast radio inventory includes iHeart medias 850 plus stations and will shortly add 3,400 plus stations represented by Katz media .
The company suggests that making advertising easier to buy will benefit all parts of the industry . Is this an industry first , james ? Do you know ?
Yeah , i don't know whether it's necessarily an industry .
First , i have a feeling that there's a system called Jet in the UK which I think is doing much the same sort of thing , but I wonder whether or not lots of people are going to be buying ads on broadcast radio as a result , and I wonder whether or not it's just broadcast radio wanting a little bit of the halo effect from podcast advertising .
Obviously , podcast advertising is increasing an awful lot at the moment . I think it was up by 26% last year , or maybe it was even 29% , whereas you have a look at broadcast radio and that is most certainly not up by 26% . So maybe it's iHeart going . Yeah , this is another way of getting our product in front of ad buyers , and Katz media is huge .
It represents pretty well the rest of the industry . So maybe it's a dying medium going . We need to be able for people to buy our stuff in other places . I don't know , but yeah , interesting .
I think it's definitely a smart move And actually , to be honest with you , i'm surprised that , i mean , this makes it sound like that wasn't possible before , like it just seems so , like in some ways it seems like , yeah , of course you should be able to buy both . You know , check both of those boxes when you're making an ad buy .
But in any event , it sounds like the right thing to do , i agree . I think it probably is going to give terrestrial radio a bit of a , you know , some kind of a bounce or halo effect , whatever you want to call it .
So I think that's a good thing .
So some news around the world . James in Saudi Arabia , spotify more news from Spotify is running a gaming podcast PodCamp in Saudi Arabia . The company is working with Kearnyng Cultures and Gamers 8 . I haven't heard of any of those companies .
Saudi Arabia's a fascinating market , as a lot of the Arab markets are in terms of podcasting real growth going on And I find it interesting that Spotify is very much getting behind specific content in this way in the country . So Kearnyng Cultures is a podcast production company . that's quite a few of the Arab but speaking nations .
So , yeah , i find that interesting that Spotify is doing that . you know , work with creators . I mean , i was at a big event in Germany that Spotify was running as well , so you know , you can very clearly see that they are doing a little bit of this stuff . So that was interesting spotting .
And in Australia , the Infinite Dial 2023 Australia it's the gold standard of data , including podcast consumption data . That's going to come out on June the 27th , that is . You'll be able to watch that on a webinar , probably on June the 26th in the US , june the 27th in Australia .
Hello TimeZones And it will give us a new number for how many people listen to podcasts in Australia . It would be nice if Australia beat the US , but not sure whether that's going to happen .
Time will tell The tech stuff on the Pod News Weekly Review .
Yes , it's the stuff you'll find every Monday in the Pod News newsletter . Here's where we do all of the tech talk . Good Luck , Sky . Let's start with news about 3D sound .
Ah yes , Noiser is to launch 3D sound across the company's podcast network . The company uses 3D sound to describe binaural sound , a recording technique that works on any player or headphones . Oh , I like binaural sound . It makes things sound , so 3D .
Yeah , yeah , and it works . Binaural sound is nice because it works on pretty well anything And it works through Apple podcasts and you know Google podcasts and Spotify and everything else . There is Dolby Atmos , which is much more complicated , which basically doesn't , and that's the surround sound stuff . Do you think that people care that much about ?
you know audio quality and audio sound .
You know , I think that it depends on the type of podcast you're listening to , potentially .
But if you're putting together , say like a fiction podcast or you know something where really feeling that sense of multidimensional sound can make a difference , I don't know that it's a reason to not listen to a podcast if they don't have it , if you're really interested in whatever their , whatever the content is .
But I do think that once you've experienced it it's pretty incredible and you might get hooked and then start looking for more stuff . So if Noiser is going to be doing this across their network of podcasts , maybe they feel like that will give them some kind of an edge .
Yeah , I think it's probably an interesting thing . I know that in terms of Dolby Atmos . I think Q-Code has done a bit of work with that . I think Wondery as well . I think the Wondery app supports that as well , but that's good . It's time for a drink , because we're going to be mentioning AI .
Do you do a drink ? Is there ? a drinking game 7.30 am in the morning for me here , but I'll take a drink . Snippid has launched a chat GBT-powered feature that automatically summarizes the key points from podcasts you listen to . You can join the waitlist on the Snippid website . By the way it's spelled S-N-I-P-D .
So how do you feel about this chat GBT-powered feature , james ?
Yeah , I'm always slightly nervous about stuff that takes things that creators have done and messes about with it , as this feature clearly does . What happens if chat GBT gets the wrong end of the stick ? I never quite know who's responsible then , So I'm never quite sure about it .
But it's the only use currently that I'm giving AI when I'm writing the daily newsletter is that occasionally I will copy and paste a long press release .
This will as a former person who worked in PR Sky , you will hate this , But I will copy and paste a press release into Google Bard and say please tell me what this press release is about in just two sentences .
I think that's brilliant , james . I don't hate it at all . In fact , when I was a publicist , my very first job I just have to mention this , my very first job was at a PR firm , and they're like quote unquote .
Secret sauce , they felt , was that at the top of their press releases they would have sort of a literal like box , like a square box on the first page , and within that square box they had two sentences that summarize the entire press release , and I really think it did help for them like get the point across .
It was like an easy way for journalists to just like get the information and move on , and so the fact that you're now using chat GBT to do it , i actually think is a brilliant thing . I mean that's the perfect use for something like that Absolutely And that's the best way to get it wrong .
So you sort of have to understand , you have to make sure that they're actually getting it right . But which is always the thing that for me and AI and chat GBT , all this stuff seems a little wobbly Like , are they going to get it right ?
But as long as you know and James , you're very intelligent , i'm sure you understand the meaning of press releases with a quick skim So as long as you know that , then I think you're safe .
And I'm supportive . Well , it depends . It depends Some of the press releases I get . I simply do understand them . So , yeah , and sometimes the press releases say one thing and mean another . So overhaul FM is a new podcast app that came out last week .
The press release says no ads , says it curates its featured podcasts , but then in the next paragraph literally the next paragraph says that if you're a podcaster , you can pay $89 or more to advertise your podcast as a feature within the app . So it's not curated at all . No , and it's also pretty , pretty rubbish .
It doesn't play the pod clock app testing podcast that that we've put out there . It doesn't support episode images . One kind of wonders why they , why they've bothered ? basically because it's clearly a podcast that doesn't work very well .
Yeah , I wonder who's behind this . It sounds a little janky and .
I would suspect it's like one person who's behind it And yeah , and they don't know much about the whole podcast landscape , But yeah so yeah . So anyway , so that's , that's a new podcast that that you can , that you can happily ignore . It seems to use the Apple , the Apple data , and the very clever Nathan Gathwright is doing something smart , isn't ?
it . Yes , he's working on a transcription service to produce word by word Jason transcripts . We all need more transcripts , so this sounds like a good thing , right .
Yeah , it's always good to see more transcription tools out there . I believe that it's going to be on transcribefm , which he said surprisingly wasn't taken . It wasn't taken , nathan , becausefm is really expensive , because there's a nice man called George and George will sell thosefm's to people . But , yeah , so so that should be . That should be really good .
And it does remind me that Nathan , who I think listens to the show , did actually write some code for me which came in a busy week for me , which I then ignored , and I've got no idea where that code is now to do some word by word , jason , stuff for this very show and for others as well , so I should probably Nathan , resend the code .
Yes , yes , i think it's somewhere on MasterDawn , but who knows ? Let's have a quick look at some upcoming events . Podcast movement , of course , happening in Denver between October the 21st and the 24th , which should be fun . The first set of speakers has been announced . I am going . I like moderating panels , otherwise I'm not speaking .
So if you're running a panel and you need a white middle aged man , then great , go for it . That should be a winning plan .
I think that's a great idea .
Yeah , yeah , because because you know , let's face it , there's not enough of those And a couple of big events obviously coming on in September . There's pod news live , which is towards the end of September in London on the 27th , pod news dot net slash live for those tickets .
The British podcast awards on September the 28th , which I think there might be a coupon code for for you to get money off those . I should go and check that , but that should be good . There's a thing called the independent podcast awards , which will be held in London on October the 12th . What do you think of a independent podcast awards ?
Well , i'd love to know what they mean by independent first off . You know , are these , you know who's who's behind them ? I , i . This is the first I've heard of them .
Oh well , it's two companies , one called why now , and one called verbal diorama . Wow .
That's quite a name , yeah , yeah .
Yeah , purple , purple diorama Yes , and they define independent podcasters as being podcasters that don't have the financial backing of brands to support them .
It's going to get tricky because there are podcasters who are sort of hybrids . There are podcasters who get a fund , you know , get funding by you know .
I just know that many times when I've tried to really be clear about like okay , this is what an indie podcaster is , i wonder how strict they're going to be , because there's there's a lot of gray areas in terms of how podcasters fund their creations ? Yeah , Exactly .
I mean there was . there was one in India , I think it might have been the ambies , where one of the nominations for the indie podcast award was a show from my heart , which I'm not sure necessarily fits the bill .
I remember that , yeah , yeah .
I mean , I guess , from my point of view , I I'm I really don't like the idea of indie podcast awards , because what you're basically saying there is that indie podcasts aren't good enough to win the big awards , So you have to have special awards for them . And I'm kind of there thinking no , that's entirely wrong .
Indie podcasts are great and fantastic and can very easily win awards .
That's a good point .
I'm kind of you know , i mean supportive To them , but I'm also thinking , yeah , you know . So . M McGowan , who is the creator and host of verbal diorama , said that independent podcasts are the cornerstone of podcasting .
These are people with regular jobs , families and other commitments who still endeavor to put out quality podcast content regularly , often from spare bedrooms , garages or the dining room table , which completely agree . And so the Phoenix Arts Club in London on the 12th of October .
I remember the Phoenix Arts Club because that was one place in London that was still open after the pubs closed , and so , therefore , that was somewhere that I got to know relatively well when I used to work in the center of London And I was a member . I was a member .
So this will be just your , your old stomping grounds , if you stop by , for sure , yeah .
So maybe I should , although frankly that would mean getting on a plane and we don't want that . And October the 21st , the Afros and Audio podcast festival , which is happening in Baltimore as well . And then finally , for this , the International Women's Podcast Awards , hosted in London , again , i think , good Lord On Monday , the 6th of November .
And there are more events , both paid for and free , at Pod News virtual events or events in a place with people . If you're organizing something , you can tell the world about it , and it's free . podnewsnet slash events . Boostergram . Boostergram Corner .
Corner Corner on the Pod News Weekly Review .
Oh yes , it's our favorite time of the week , Isn't it Sky ? It's Boostergram Corner .
Ah , yes , i'm so excited about Boostergram Corner . Yes .
Yes , I'm guessing that inside podcasting , when you were doing that podcast didn't have uh boostergrams on it because uh boostergrams hadn't been invented yet .
No , we definitely did . This is totally new to me , although I do think it has something to do with uh commentary that you've gotten from people who listen to the show .
Yes , that's , uh , that is exactly it . So a boostergram is somebody that has sent a boost , which is a small amount of money , um , and they accompany that with a message , um , which is , uh , an excellent way . I always think of getting comments in , because every comment makes you richer , ooh , uh , albeit not that much richer , um .
So , uh , we've got one from the mere mortals podcast , um , uh , here , haven't we ?
Yes , it says hope your pod news event goes schmick fellas . I'm not really sure what schmick means , but okay , um , james , don't forget to bring me back some pod fans swag when you come home . I'm a medium .
Yeah , Well , um , that's Kyrin from the mere mortals podcast . He is uh , he's an , he's an . Aussie Schmick means something that's really , really good .
I'm feeling schmick , so is . it's an Australian slang term , i assume .
Yeah , yeah , it's Australian slang . I've lived there for six years . I understand Australian slang now , so that's a good thing isn't it ?
Oh nice .
Uh , he sent us a row of ducks double two , double , two sats . Uh , thank you , kyrin , for that . The bad news is that Sam did not give me any pod fans swag , uh , so unfortunately , i'm not bringing any back into the great country of Australia And so therefore I won't be able to uh , bring that back to you .
So next time .
But who knows , maybe we can do the yeah another time . uh , uh , september . Uh , i'm sure that that's a plan Um , and a massively long uh message here from Martin at Podfriend .
Yes , it's massively long , it's two words . Love listening . Yes , and he sent you 10,000 sats , which I guess must be even more , uh , more money , so you're even richer .
Yes , That's um 10,000 sats , which is two , two dollars 60 . So , um , that's almost enough for , uh , half of a pint of beer .
Yes , I was just going to say you can buy yourself half a drink , uh , something relatively inexpensive , okay . So , yes , something super inexpensive .
Somebody was saying , uh , we were . I was chatting to somebody who listens to this show , um , at uh Pod News Live earlier on in the week and they said , what's all this boostergram stuff ? What does it ? what , what , what , what even is a boostergram ?
And I said , well , it's about $2,000 so far , and that and that changed their , uh , their , their , their thought of , uh , how all of this stuff works .
So well , it really does add up right . Yeah , like every little , every little bit , i mean I mentioned earlier I have paid subscribers from my newsletter and each time I get a little ding and someone subscribed it . really it really does . over time It builds up .
So it's an important thing . And , of course , there's uh streaming sats as well , which is where you say I'm going to um , i'm going to pay I don't know 10 sats or maybe 100 sats every minute that you listen Um , and that's another great way of um of earning out of this uh as well .
It's all to do with value for value , what value you get , um , and giving that value back in terms of time , talent or treasure . Uh , if you get value from what we do at the Pod News Weekly Review , it's um separate from Pod News . Sam and I share everything from it and we really appreciate your support so we can help continue making this show .
Um , you can either um support us with uh dollars at weeklypodnewsnet or support us with sats by hitting the boost button in your podcast app . If you don't have a suitable podcast app , then that's fine . Just download Fountain . That will work uh excellently , uh , or you can find out more at podnewsnet slash new podcast apps . How's your week been ? That's going .
Oh , it's really busy , busy writing Um . I'm writing the third part in my series and , uh , last time I focused on WNYC studios and progress there over the past four years , and in my next issue I'll actually be continuing the thread and adding a bunch of information , uh , that I didn't include last time because of space .
um , specifically , all you know also about WNYC studios and and its progress , its innovation , or lack thereof , over the past four years , but I'll also be looking at the WNYC newsroom , um , in this last piece to see , um , why , why the output there has changed as well . So I'm really really busy trying to get that out before I leave on vacation .
I'm leaving on vacation , coming to where you are right now , james , flying to London on Friday .
Yes , which will be very exciting . It may still be very , very hot , uh , or it'll probably be be back to its normal , uh sort of um pouring itself . Um , uh you , you , uh . Have you got anything exciting planned ? Are you coming to see some shows while you're here , and that sort of thing ?
Yes , we've got a few things on the calendar , but we didn't schedule a lot . We we like with our two kids , our plan is usually one touristy thing during the day , then the kids can have a break , we can , my husband and I can walk around , grab a drink , whatever , and then we all meet up at night again . So we've got it's pretty loose .
Um , i've found that in London , like you , don't have to reserve a lot of stuff in advance , although we have gotten tickets to uh Book of Mormon , which probably isn't totally age appropriate , but we think our kids are going to love it . Um , and uh , some other fun things .
And obviously we're going to do all the touristy stuff , like you know , uh towers of London and Buckingham Palace and all of that . So we're really looking forward to that .
Yes And uh , yes , no , it's , it's , it's going to be , it's going to be a good , a good time , i think , And uh , yeah , and enjoy uh the the fun of the um , uh , of the subway and everything else . Uh , it's um .
The thing that surprises me after spending , you know , obviously , quite , quite a lot of time away but I used to live here Um is just the amount of , um , uh , the amount of people that's gone from the streets .
I was in the city of London on Friday And , um , you know it , when I was living here , um five , six , seven years ago , um , the city of London would be absolutely full of , you know , bankers finishing their Friday going to the pub , um , and it would have been impossible to , you know , sit down for a quiet beer .
Um , this , this Friday , which was the start of a of a holiday weekend as well , uh , this Friday , there was literally one person in the pub that I walked past at , uh , half past seven in the evening . Wow , um , because everybody works from home now .
Yeah , you know the . I live in the Bay Area , as you know , and our downtown , downtown San Francisco , is similar . It's it's much quieter than it used to be , it's um , it's really distressing . Yeah , that's , that's , that's uh sad to hear . I'm , i'm , i'm . I hope things change over time . Yeah , we'll have to see .
I hope so , I hope so . It does make you wonder what's going to happen to the property market and all of that . but still , there you go .
Oh yeah , real estate . It's definitely in trouble here in San Francisco . We'll have to see whether there is over time , if there's a return or if people just stay at home . It seems like it's definitely going to lean towards people staying at home , but who knows , We'll see what the future holds .
In any event , James , I'm going to definitely go to London so I can show people my amazing British accent , as I was , you know , doing that for you earlier in the call . I'll be , you know , just really blowing people away with my British accent for the next week .
Yes , yes , not necessarily sure that that's a thing .
You sound genuinely shocked .
There's a worry . There's a worry , we'll have a fantastic time in the UK .
Thank you , and how about you ? What's happening for you this week , james ?
Well , i mean , obviously I'm spending . I'm spending a long time on planes , trains and automobiles , except not the automobiles bit . So Manchester was lovely . It was very unusual going to Manchester and it being sunny , so that was a nice thing . And yes , and I'm just getting ready to tomorrow morning I will be flying your way .
I'm going over to Toronto spending the night in a airport hotel because flights and then Toronto , vancouver back home , so imagine the excitement that I'm going to have . It's a 14 , 14 and a half hour flight . Oh wow , In coach .
Yeah , brutal , brutal . But the reward of being in your home , sweet home , i'm sure . Oh , yes , yes , very much looking forward to that .
And yeah , and then , and then , and then . my next flight will be over to Denver , colorado , for podcast movement . That is , of course , assuming that your company , your assuming that your country hasn't gone into civil war by then .
No , you never know here in the US .
Wow , what on earth .
Anyway , let's not . Let's not get into politics . A different conversation for a different time .
It most certainly is , and that's it for this week .
Yes , you can ask Sam and James questions using the email , weekly at pod news dot net , or send them a booster gram for feedback which , as you've been able to tell you , you might even hear your own feedback on this very show .
Oh yes .
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