James C: 0:00

it's Friday, the 5th of May 20, 23.

Jingles: 0:04

The last word in podcasting news. This is the Pod News weekly review with James Kirkland and Sam Sethi.

James C: 0:14

I'm James Cridland, the editor of Pop News.

Sam Sethi: 0:16

And I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO of Podfans.

James C: 0:18

In the chapters today, Spotify podcasts is still growing and now it offers monetization options outside of the US. A review of the latest data and numbers for April is hosted by the advertising being undervalued. The podcast Academy tells us who does what and the winners of the Arias and the Publisher Podcast Awards were announced and

Chris Quamme Rhoden: 0:40

Hi, I'm Chris Quamme Rhoden. I'm principal engineer at Acast and I'll be on later to talk about Acast support of the Podcast Standards Project.

Nick Hilton: 0:48

This is Nick Hilton, and I'll be on later to talk about podcast host-read advertising.

James C: 0:55

they will. This podcast is sponsored and hosted by Buzz Sprout. Last week, 3889 people started a podcast with Buzz Sprout podcast hosting made easy with powerful tools and remarkable customer support. Now you can turn your listeners into supporters with Buzz Sprout subscriptions, and we're sponsored by Pod News Live, where podcasting connects in Manchester in June. Get your tickets at Pod news dot net slash live.

Jingles: 1:23

Pod news lie where the podcast industry connects. Get your tickets now at Pod News start PCMag slash live.

Sam Sethi: 1:34

on that. Jane So let's kick this off. Here's a little fun fact for you, April. There was one new podcast episode every 1.5 seconds. That's quite mad really, isn't it?

James C: 1:47

I know it's a ridiculous number, isn't it? Yes. 1.7 million podcasts published in April, which makes it one every 1.5 seconds. It's quite a thing.

Sam Sethi: 1:56

I'm now talking quite a thing. We've we've written the obituary on this product several times, but it seems to keep coming back. Spotify for Podcasts posts the second highest share of new episodes growing 13% in January. So Spotify's megaphone has also continued to grow as well. But Spotify for podcast only thought genuinely that that was it. It was going to be buried put away, never to be talked about again, but somehow it seems to be growing. Tell me more. Why

James C: 2:26

Yes, it's amazing what a brand does.

Sam Sethi: 2:28

so

James C: 2:29

So they changed it away from being called anchor in March. And certainly March and April have seen significant growth for the product, which is now called Spotify Podcast, as they're hosting products. That is doing really, really well. And I think, you know, perhaps it's just that people see the Spotify brand and they go, Ooh, we trust the Spotify brand and maybe we didn't really trust the anchor brand. And so maybe that's one of the reasons why we're seeing more

Sam Sethi: 3:00

people

James C: 3:00

and more people

Sam Sethi: 3:00

do things

James C: 3:01

using

Sam Sethi: 3:01

like

James C: 3:01

Spotify for podcasters to

Sam Sethi: 3:03

that

James C: 3:03

host their show. That said, Spotify is megaphone is has actually published their best ever figures

Sam Sethi: 3:09

home?

James C: 3:09

in terms of share of new episodes as well. According to Livewire Dot IO. So clearly Spotify is hosting. Companies are having a moment.

Sam Sethi: 3:18

Well, there you go. they've also started rolling out some monetization products, automated ads and investor ads to more countries.

James C: 3:27

Yeah, well, so this used to be only the US and you used to be able to sign up for ambassador ads, which was normally a hosted read for anchor. Not very many other things ended up going in there and also then automated ads, which they launched not so long ago, which was essentially advertising from big brands automated into your individual show. But that's always been a us only thing until now, because as part of a closed beta, the company is reaching out to selected podcasters in the UK and Australia. It's invite only, but you do get invited to take part in their planning to test more markets later on in the year. And I have to say I think this is hitherto such a missed opportunity for Spotify. They do so well in many parts of the world, particularly Europe, mainland Europe, a lot of Asia, a lot of Latin America as well. They do incredibly well. Real opportunities for them there. And it's been strange to see them only focusing on the US. And I kind of understand why that is, but I think that there's real opportunity for them. So yeah, I think great news for the larger Spotify company

Sam Sethi: 4:39

Hmm.

James C: 4:39

there.

Sam Sethi: 4:40

Well, moving on from Spotify, looking at some of the other companies out there. Sirius XM released their Q1 financials. We talked about Spotify last week

James C: 4:48

Hmm.

Sam Sethi: 4:49

in Sirius. The podcast revenue was up 34%. That's pretty amazing. Although their overall revenue declined by 2%. And Cumulus Media also released their Q1 financials and they saw an increase in podcast sales up by 23%, although their revenue in total slumped by 12%. So again, are these companies doing well? A can't quite work out. Stuff's going up, but actually overall it's going down.

James C: 5:15

Well, I mean, the way that I look at this from a pod news lens is to look at just the podcast revenue. Sirius XM makes most of its money of flogging radios to car manufacturers. Cumulus Media makes most of its money flogging radio ads to people who are getting older and more irrelevant to ad buyers. So from that point of view, are they doing well? No, not really. But are they doing well in terms of podcast revenue? Yes, absolutely. I mean, tremendous growth for both Sirius XM as podcast business, which of course includes Stitcher and Simple Cast and various others doing really well there. And Cumulus Media doing really well, too. And indeed, iHeart Media, which again, they're actually seeing some tremendous figures for podcast revenue, $77 million, up 12% year on year, and that's now 9.4% of the company's total. So again, Iheartmedia obviously doing radio advertising and and other things, but again, podcast revenue doing fantastically well. So great news for podcasting, even if the rest of those companies aren't necessarily doing quite so great. And I think that's always worthwhile having a focus on

Sam Sethi: 6:33

Now, let's have a look at some of the data from April. April's average CPM rates, according to Lipton's advertised costs, were up 4% to a whopping$23.07. The company also announced that it's sponsoring the 2023 IAB podcast upfront and I went, What's upfront, James? So I'm going to ask you what's up from

James C: 6:54

what is upfront. The IAB podcast upfront, which I think is next week or the week after, but it's basically lots of podcast networks spending an awful lot of money to get into one room and to talk to the ad buyers and to basically say, here are some of our shows coming up, you should be advertising in them. I went to a podcast upfront a couple of years ago in L.A. and it was, you know, it was really good. CONAN O'Brien turned up. That was good. And I think what I found most fascinating is how good and polished some of the podcast publishers are and how utterly useless some of them were as well in terms of standing there and getting advertisers interested and excited about some of the new shows that they have coming up. But that's coming out. I keep on getting invited to parties and things in New York that are going alongside the IAB podcast upfronts and there's also TV upfronts and various other things that week as well. And I keep on patiently replying, I'm based in Brisbane, in Australia, so it's quite a long way to come for some for some crappy beer. But yeah, but yes, so that's what, that's what the podcast upfronts are all about. Very, very American thing. Doesn't seem to happen too much in other countries. And in fact when you start having a look into other countries, you know, like Australia here, and then many of the larger publishers will run their own party rather than spending money with the AIIB to promote their stuff. So perhaps that kind of makes sense. I think,

Sam Sethi: 8:29

hmm, sounds like the draft pick for NFL. Anyway,

James C: 8:34

yeah,

Sam Sethi: 8:35

moving on. Keeping the good news going. You know, we've talked about revenues up. We've talked about advertising up at the podcast. Ad spend grew by 32% last year in the UK, according to the IAB. That seems like a massive growth.

James C: 8:47

yeah, it does seem like a massive growth. So this is UK numbers, not American numbers, but a growth of 32% last year is fantastic. It's up to £76.3 million, million, which in freedom dollars is 96 million USD. So it's it's a small number, but nevertheless it's a good number and a good growth, according to the IAB in the UK. Now the raw numbers expected out this month from the IAB in the US and they should be telling us how podcast advertising worked in the US.

Sam Sethi: 9:22

Talking about the US, the time spent listening to podcasting has hit another record high. The share of ear study by Edison Research suggests the podcast now account for 9% of all time Americans spend with audio. Again, a 31% increase in all time spent with spoken word audio. Seems like everything's on the move upwards. James

James C: 9:42

Yeah, it does. It seems like the podcast industry is full of very good news. If you ignore all of the people getting made redundant. But if you ignore all of that, then the podcast industry itself is doing pretty well. You know, numbers are up, revenue is up, and even if you have a look inside the larger companies, then revenue is up there as well. So all of that is is all pretty good news. I think.

Sam Sethi: 10:06

Yeah, and again, keeping the positivity going. Apple Podcasts increased its share of all downloads to 37.8% in April. Not only don't get this, is it just because one's measuring an apples and one's measuring in oranges because Spotify is not downloads? Well, they technically are still downloads, but they're not measured against downloads because they're not number one. So they measure in streams and apple measures in downloads so they don't have to cross measure each other.

James C: 10:34

Well, I mean, Spotify, I'm sure that if Spotify was number one in downloads, they would certainly mention that too. But the reality is that they aren't. Spotify is number one in terms of total audience, in terms of total reach. But the average Spotify listener listens to a couple of podcasts a month. The average Apple Podcasts listener listens to, you know, depending on the figures that you see seven, eight, nine, ten. So there's a significantly higher number of downloads that happen through Apple Podcasts. And of course, it's worthwhile pointing out that Apple Podcasts also has element of automated downloads as well, which will obviously have an effect there. But yeah, Spotify s share of downloads has dropped ever so slightly. Um, with Buzz Sprouts stats to 28.7% of all shows, Apple Podcasts up slightly to 37.8. So some good numbers there. Google Podcasts, God Rest His Soul, is the third most popular podcast app for Buzz Sprout users. Once more 2.5% is their number. So yes. And number three, but tiny 2.5%, 3.4 million downloads and and of course, we have no visibility into YouTube because YouTube hosts everything itself. But yeah, some nice numbers that come out of the buzz brought platform. I would love Leibsohn and Blueberry and other companies to produce these as well. I really wish they would, but if you'd like to see the buzz sprout numbers than their apples sprout dot com slash global underscore stats global underscore stats and well worth a peek. The other

Sam Sethi: 12:16

The

James C: 12:16

thing

Sam Sethi: 12:16

other

James C: 12:16

that

Sam Sethi: 12:16

thing

James C: 12:16

they

Sam Sethi: 12:16

that

James C: 12:16

do

Sam Sethi: 12:17

they

James C: 12:17

mention

Sam Sethi: 12:17

didn't

James C: 12:17

is

Sam Sethi: 12:17

mention,

James C: 12:18

episode download numbers.

Sam Sethi: 12:20

you

James C: 12:20

If you do

Sam Sethi: 12:20

do

James C: 12:21

more

Sam Sethi: 12:21

more

James C: 12:21

than

Sam Sethi: 12:21

than

James C: 12:21

1000

Sam Sethi: 12:21

one.

James C: 12:22

downloads in your first seven days, then you are better than 95% of all podcasts out there, which is quite a thing. So yeah, that's always worth keeping an eye on to.

Sam Sethi: 12:35

Yeah. Now, one question in my head. Since the iOS 16.4 update, have we started to see any effect from the Apple call media change?

James C: 12:44

this is one of those

Sam Sethi: 12:45

Well,

James C: 12:46

effects. The fact that Apple Podcasts has increased from 37.3% to 37.8% of total downloads. I would suspect that that will continue going up and may should show us a quite decent month, although maybe some might argue that that growth should have been a little bit higher.

Sam Sethi: 13:09

hmm. Now, looking at the last bit of data that came out, a POD site has released its Q2 podcast Appetizing Benchmark Report. The average conversion rate in 2022 was 1.21%, a 9% year on year increase.

James C: 13:24

Hmm.

Sam Sethi: 13:24

So conversion rates for mobile app installs rose sharply as well by 44%, says the data. Again, some good numbers here again, James.

James C: 13:32

Yeah, I think so.

Sam Sethi: 13:33

Yeah,

James C: 13:33

And

Sam Sethi: 13:33

I think so.

James C: 13:34

you know, I think Pod sites his podcast advertising benchmark report, to be honest, I find quite a lot of it quite difficult to read and understand. But the fact that it is there and the fact that it it gives you all of these conversion rates and everything else is very is very helpful and it's very nice seeing those numbers going up. So basically what that essentially means is that your advertising is now working 10% more efficiently for no additional money. So that's probably a good a good thing. And I think it goes to show that the numbers are good because all of the large American broadcasters also weirdly released a ton of data as well. Audacy shared a state of audio guide. It had a number of case studies in there, basically say no, the audio does better than social media, and it says how efficient podcast host reads are and blah, blah, blah. Cumulus Media also shared seven new findings about the podcast audience, and iHeartRadio cobbled together a very rushed looking set of nine or ten slides called State of Podcasting 2023 with data from Edison Research, very well known and very highly respected market research company. Scarborough Again, a very well known and highly respected market research company and eMarketer, So it's slightly weird saying that, but still, there you go. So I'm not quite sure why all of the US broadcasters were releasing all of these reports on exactly the same day. My suspicion is that both iHeart and Cumulus thought that it would be a nice way of essentially dialing down the good data that Audacy have just released. But who knows? But again, positive stuff all over the place, which is nice.

Sam Sethi: 15:23

Hmm. Now, you mentioned who's red advertising.

James C: 15:27

Hmm.

Sam Sethi: 15:27

Now friend of the show, Nick Hilton wrote a post, Let's change the standard for who's read advertising. And also in the podcast Business Journal. You had an interview with Dan Granger about a very similar topic, really. And

James C: 15:41

Yeah.

Sam Sethi: 15:41

the general theme from both of them was that host rate advertising is actually more valuable than it's being portrayed right now or being valued by right now. I think Nick Hilton talked about a Scott Galloway from Pivot that if he wanted to get Scott Galloway to read a house, read out, say, for this show and you'd go to his agent, he would charge you a fortune. But because Vox Media have him signed to that podcast, he actually does host

James C: 16:09

Hmm.

Sam Sethi: 16:09

read out at a much cheaper lower rate maybe, you know, and the last part I think, of what he's saying, he's saying, I don't I know. I'd love to see what your thoughts were. Is that over the long term, if you say the same ads all the time, you become associated to that ad a bit like George Clooney and Nero Coffee, for

James C: 16:30

Yes.

Sam Sethi: 16:30

example.

James C: 16:31

Yeah.

Sam Sethi: 16:31

And is that something that they want to be associated to forever and a day? So, yeah. What are your thoughts, James?

James C: 16:37

Yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, I mean, as Dan Granger was saying,

Sam Sethi: 16:40

You know,

James C: 16:40

you know, it's a really important benefit that podcasting has is that associating hosts with the advertising withinside you know, with the advertising inside the podcast, I mean, we talk a lot about Buzz Sprout. Many people associate us with Buzz Sprout because we talk about it so much because they're our sponsor. And I think that there's great value in all of that. And certainly Dan Granger from Oxford Road was saying much the same sort of thing. He was talking about programmatic advertising being a short sighted compromise because it doesn't allow you to do that. It doesn't allow your hosts to get closer to the advertising as well. It's a great interview, which you can read podcast business journal dot com, which is well worth a read and be interesting to

Sam Sethi: 17:32

the.

James C: 17:32

learn a little bit more from Nick about his blog post about hosting an advertising.

Sam Sethi: 17:38

Well, lucky enough, I went along to his drinks last night and I asked Nick about what his thoughts were on how straight advertising In a very noisy pub with Nick Hilton. Look, we're all aware of what we're doing here.

Nick Hilton: 17:50

We're out clubbing barons at London while I'm posting our forecast networking drinks. And I wonder if you were kind enough to come along. Yes. And I promise you I would be early so we could do this and I would start early. And therefore, their own bills is reflective of the people now arrived. So. Okay, I apologize.

Sam Sethi: 18:07

Now I want to interview you because you wrote a post on Medium which called Let's Change the Standards about how used to read podcast advertising. Give us a synopsis of what you wrote.

Nick Hilton: 18:18

Yes, it came from me in the sense I'm always coming up with ideas and things to write. And so a talk about that, I was trying to pivot maybe Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher, and I was listening to Scott Galloway reading an advert for an electric car at a store, and I thought there was some sort of cognitive dissonance going on here that I was this man who was like an English successful entrepreneur, best a millionaire in his own right, reading these sort of crappy adverts that electric cars, I mean, maybe a really good electric car. And he also may be a shareholder in this larger company. I don't know. The point is that it was there was something that which was like a contrast here that didn't say why with many people's minds. Previous thought I've had about this when I used to work with journalists and like the serious journalists who covered policy and social affairs and politics, and we would then produce the podcast and they would be asked by ACOSS or whoever was setting up stories, adverts by HSBC, and it was a baked into their contract and they had to read this and they weren't skimming, you know, some of the front page, but they were lending their voice and by extension that credibility to financial services products at all. Something else personally, they always told me a bit like what's going on here? I mean, no other form of media sort of accepts this. That's just a given in terms of how you fund your product. So that was a starting point. But the blog, which I'm in no particular conclusion other than, you know, maybe hosts need to be a bit more upfront in saying, you know, if I'm going to read on a lend my voice to this advert, I want to 30% of all my B2C revenue from that, that that will maybe it has to be that we as the industry have to be like we need to draw a clearer line between editorial content, privatise it, which is a reasonable.

Sam Sethi: 19:56

Way, especially if that's a dynamic ad in session and I can put it against every previous podcast as well. So I can say the current house straight and literally go back against every podcast. so But why do you think people are aware of, you know, their value, the why aren't they aware of charging more for who spread out?

Nick Hilton: 20:16

Well, we come to the same accepted sound that an industry this poster and advertise that he's where the money is is where if your people make you content that's the Holy Grail. You've reached the point where you know accost or whatever you more. Whoever is doing your selling your app us will say, we've got this client we want you to read out. And that's seen as a really good thing. Rather be like, Oh, I should be a little bit concerned for our editorial independence for the head of the tone of the product. That made me think about actually what the value of that is. So we've just sort of accepted is and I think in a way that's relatively unquestioning because it is the way that you can find podcasts. But I think it's typical of a very immature medium. And I compared in the piece to Infowars naturally. So I think it reminds me of, you know, what Alex Jones might spit bile at and say Satan was, you know, in Frank Mazy America. Then he would be like, I'm in school. So I bought these vitamin supplements and you should, you know, buy the music telesales merge with news. like of journalists to be sort of QVC salesmen every 15 minutes. And I just think it's just a weird dynamic and I would say typical of something which is immature overall, which I think which is reached maturity.

Sam Sethi: 21:22

Yeah, I think it is out of desperation because everyone wants to fund their podcast somehow. And I think the analogy that he gave me that was very interesting is he picks some celebrities like George Clooney with Nero Coffee and, you know, he's forever known associates of that.

Nick Hilton: 21:40

So we call Nero Coppins Miss World. So he's not associated with that early, but we're more.

Sam Sethi: 21:44

Thankful to that. But the thing about it is, did you see recently all of those celebrities have now been done for that failure and all the sandbagging to try it out with that ATX where they were endorsing it in the super Bowl and now they being, you know, take those call on the back of their endorsement. So, again, should people, when they do how read and think very carefully about where the ads coming from and its longevity.

Nick Hilton: 22:09

I don't work in attack so I mean the notion that the advertising providers I work with, TV opportunities are screwed products that have you know, I don't think I don't think George Clooney is going to get them sued. But if I swallow an espresso cup joke. But, you know, when you're when you're dealing with crypto, you're dealing with down buying products. I think we've seen that conversations get sung by weight loss lollies and stuff like that. So, you know, they're all dangerous products. And I really hope that he serious journalistically never felt this fellow said, you know I don't think it matters that month whether it's a really soft looking crypto product or whether it's a major commercial by street bank. You know, at the end of the day, if your voice is being used to create effectively a voiceover pop out for products and other products, you should be remunerated in line with that. And not having reached out though, because as an audio medium, it's inherently more in voice has to be here.

Sam Sethi: 23:03

Yeah. The other thing you said to me the other day was funny enough that you wanted Scott Galloway to do the voiceover on your own podcast on his. He would charge, You're not Slick Falchuk.

Nick Hilton: 23:12

Right. Yeah, I know. I presume that all of these things are tied into the contract, that they manufacture this electric car call, the rip the boat out. I've never. Scott No, I was more around, put it on a TV. I assume that's all worked in the contract, by the way, Like, Yeah, you betcha. Scott Galloway's agent. And say, I want him to record a voiceover for the electric car at Easter morning. A lot of money, and that's all gone away. You know, it's not like Scott Galloway is that mainstream celebrity. I mean, how they bought celebrity. But but you know, there are so many people who and who his voice in our mind is the cheapest way to get a voiceover from Jason Bateman called Latest update and I've read on Smartless probably cost less than it would cost that you were going to do one for TV. I not there yet in terms of like where we're aligning with his product, say, and I just think that this idea that we all, that this is the route Department of Energy wants to integrate more of our adverts, smooshed them into the editorial contract, Alcon said this sort of move is like in that they dislike both its native advertising, which was been perceived as out of fashion, but for native advertising always he was never one of you, never had the idea the Pulitzer Prize because goodness would white copy. In fact, it was always totally distinct. You know, The New York Times had a very strict line. They thought, if you want native advertising copy, you will never write in the New York Times, the paper, ever. They wanted to keep those thing the.

Sam Sethi: 24:29

Term camera free school in Chinese homes.

Nick Hilton: 24:32

Right. But what we're essentially all staying here is for like help journalists to also be presenting the campaign that that's not I don't know. You

Sam Sethi: 24:40

And I guess what we're playing on his speech audiences trust with the homes to sell the product 100%.

Nick Hilton: 24:46

It's not you know when it comes to these products that are being sold he's not the podcast that is really selling, whereas products otherwise aimed to seek programmatic opportunity. The fact that the value there are such intense value, they're such a premium. On Hoekstra's podcast, I thought those advertising shows that he is the voice of the house that matters at the end, or at least that trough saying is about reputation. The White House and I would very rarely sit down and be like champion for House staff for more money. Not my persona, my blood back. You know they should because they they all the product that.

Sam Sethi: 25:19

Will come as no surprise man because we told about the other day that I wouldn't rather have advertising anyway within podcasting and he's the value providing model with micropayments. Well I think you're slightly skeptical on that more than still.

Nick Hilton: 25:30

No, no, I think it may be too late, but I would have watched your ad may have been long term and people to pay for an that I'll call this I you know bet ourselves to the will of the advertising industry and by extension indentured ourselves to the market forces and the winds of the global economic downturn that's coming for us. So I would much rather we had voice belted, not your experience. Well, informed people much more then I think something like Luminary, which is just what was a bad idea but you know, so I think it might be too late, but I wish I be done differently and I hope that, you know, I personally think that podcast, it will probably iterate towards something a little bit more dynamic in the coming years, something maybe more hybrid audio video, perhaps with more emphasis on my audio. I do hope that we from the also Beijing in ways of paying for rather than trying to do it 20 years down the line. This is the VC model to be like, That's all we are. Let's get a huge user base and I'm a worry about hope to burst down the line and it has I'm I swear on this podcast he is what the internet because so much of the internet was predicated on this advertising model that relies on AOL products to to sustain more had become a much bigger part of society. We relied on, you know, high street products to save the Internet, which was I was just a way to provide it. And I just hope that, you know, as you know, as you're doing with what bands and I like, a lot of people are now realizing how out there we make them. The idea that you pay for our product, the save of the trauma of dealing with advertisers.

James C: 27:03

Nick Hilton talking in a very noisy pub with Sam in case you're wondering, we cleaned that audio up with Adobe Podcast. Here's what the original sounded like

Jingles 2: 27:12

and I'll be on later to talk about the other value of podcast host Right topic.

James C: 27:16

and here's what Adobe Podcast did to it.

Nick Hilton: 27:19

and I'll be on later to talk about the and about your podcast post right appetizer.

James C: 27:23

So there's a thing.

Sam Sethi: 27:24

last week, James, we had an interview with Amie Tucker from the Podcast Academy. Lovely lady that she is. It seems that the press release about who does what at the podcast Academy came out this week. So who does what James.

James C: 27:37

yes, we got we got the news first, I think. So It's the association's 2023 to 24 officers to people continuing. Donald Allbright is continuing as the chairperson, and it's good to have some consistency there. He, of course, runs Tenderfoot TV. Kristy Mirabile from Sirius XM is continuing as vice chairperson, which is also good. But there's a new secretary Martha see little from audible. So good to see audible as part of the organization she's replacing earlier Tavakoli Ann and the new treasurer is Cierra Reed from Vision Media Partners. That used to be Rob Greenlees gig. So good to see some additional names on that list as well.

Sam Sethi: 28:25

Indeed. Now let's hope they do something more that hits our radar other than just the fan base

James C: 28:30

Yeah, indeed. I would certainly agree with that. I think, yes, the podcast Academy needs to

Sam Sethi: 28:35

to.

James C: 28:37

up its game a little bit in terms of in terms of stuff as do you know, the Podcast Standards Project and various other people. I think that more news is required from those types of people. But yeah, it's good news that we've heard who is doing what they're.

Jingles: 28:55

Oh.

Sam Sethi: 28:58

Now, let's have a whizz around the world. Over here in the UK, the winners of the A Publisher Podcast Awards were announced this week and Podcasts of the Year went to hot money from the Financial Times, which I have to say was a very, very good podcast. But it seems so long ago and just my memory because I listened to it when it first came out. So yeah, that was back

James C: 29:18

Yeah.

Sam Sethi: 29:19

last year. Last year, anyway, it won the podcast of the year. The FT did really well. It won three awards, Best investigative podcast, as we said, for Hot Money, a series turned the spotlight on the porn industry. And you can

James C: 29:33

Mm hmm.

Sam Sethi: 29:34

be safe listening to that podcast. I can tell you now there's no smut in this in it. So you're okay. You know, you won't be shocked, can't listen to it if you want. It's probably going

James C: 29:44

Yes, Well that, that also one publisher podcast of the year and the F.T. also as you say, one best family and lifestyle podcast for Money Clinic with Clare Barrett and in the UK the Arias which are they have always historically been the radio awards. They had the the best new podcast category supported by Audible, all kinds of names in there.

Sam Sethi: 30:09

Yeah, but one that stands out for us is Crowd Network, which won the silver for Go Love Yourself. So congratulations to Michael Carr and the team at Crowd Network

James C: 30:18

Yes. Which is a wonderful thing. It's an interesting sort of mix the the nominations in the gold, silver, bronze for that category. Lots of radio, folk talk sport, BBC news and all of that and a fair amount of non radio stuff in their history. Hit has been doing some interesting stuff along with 1860 and and Janet Boswell and various other other people I think in history here have done an awful lot of stuff around the coronation which this weekend isn't it. You got a new

Sam Sethi: 30:53

UK.

James C: 30:53

king this weekend, don't you.

Sam Sethi: 30:54

Oh don't please go. No, I'll be I'll be I'll be painting my nails or doing something more useful.

James C: 31:03

You'll be you'll be you'll be standing to attention, I hope, and taking the affirmation

Sam Sethi: 31:08

Yeah, I've

James C: 31:08

first

Sam Sethi: 31:08

done that before.

James C: 31:09

for

Sam Sethi: 31:09

No.

James C: 31:09

Prince Charles and.

Sam Sethi: 31:11

Yeah, I did it to the queen. I'm not doing it to the king. I've done my bit. Thanks. No, no.

James C: 31:18

Oh,

Sam Sethi: 31:18

Oh,

James C: 31:19

well,

Sam Sethi: 31:19

no.

James C: 31:19

let's

Sam Sethi: 31:20

Well, anyway.

James C: 31:20

let's

Sam Sethi: 31:21

Oh, I

James C: 31:21

yes,

Sam Sethi: 31:21

owe you in your republic to be soon, so don't you come up with me in the royals. All right, so the Australians are going to vote. They deferred the vote for a year just to be nice, but they're going to vote him out.

James C: 31:31

well, you know,

Sam Sethi: 31:32

So

James C: 31:32

I yes, I would probably I would probably agree with that. Um, yes, you're probably you're probably absolutely correct. They're not actually going to be

Sam Sethi: 31:42

I

James C: 31:42

putting

Sam Sethi: 31:43

think

James C: 31:43

Charlie onto our banknotes.

Sam Sethi: 31:45

surprise, surprise.

James C: 31:46

So the queen is on $5 banknotes. Yes. At the moment. And the queen will continue there for a couple of years because she lives forever, Sam,

Sam Sethi: 31:54

Oh, it's the key.

James C: 31:56

in

Sam Sethi: 31:56

You

James C: 31:56

our hearts. But what you will notice is that that will be replaced by somebody who is indigenous or Torres Strait Islander. We don't know yet who that person is going to be, but that's but that's a good thing. Let's move on to other places as well that the UK has lost interest in and given up Zambia,

Sam Sethi: 32:19

give it up.

James C: 32:20

which

Sam Sethi: 32:21

Yes.

James C: 32:21

the UK used to own until 1953. A podcast is on tour. They're really interesting. It's a podcast called Afrikaner Woman. It's touring three cities, although two have already sold out in Zambia anyway, so you won't be going to the ones in Kabwe or Lusaka. But kit way though, you can still go to that one. True two Chancer is the person who is running that tour and it's all about supporting the growth and development of ambitious high performing women. It's the first time I think I've ever seen a podcast on tour in a in an African country. So that's pretty good. And interestingly, their live shows, but they're not getting recorded. So that

Sam Sethi: 33:11

So

James C: 33:12

women

Sam Sethi: 33:12

that

James C: 33:12

can actually say what they

Sam Sethi: 33:13

I

James C: 33:13

really

Sam Sethi: 33:13

really

James C: 33:13

feel

Sam Sethi: 33:14

think.

James C: 33:14

and they won't and they won't end up regretting anything when it gets turned into a podcast. So good for Tulu. I think.

Sam Sethi: 33:23

Yeah. Amazing. Now over to Asia. The podcast Network Builder has been launched by Poker Machine and Podcast Network Asia. The tool is designed to help brands and companies build their own podcast networks. I didn't quite understand why you would want to do that, but tell me more. James.

James C: 33:38

Yeah. So this is a podcast company that is very keen to they've run a large podcast network for themselves. They understand how difficult and complicated it is to run a podcast network. And so this company will not only help you make the shows, but they will also deal with all of the network stuff as well. If you want to change an ad in 30 different shows, then it can be a bit of a nightmare. But Podcast Network Builder is new and will actually help with that. I find it a fascinating company. They the podcast Network Asia Set of Folk, they they're doing some really interesting things and some of those will stick and some of those will go away. But pod machine for example which is a but basically you pay an amount of money every single month and they will make your shows for you. So I could just give them a recording of me and you and say, take out the fluffs. And they, you know, and they and the edit points and you know and, and edit it for us please.

Sam Sethi: 34:40

There'd be nothing left.

James C: 34:42

I mean I think that you're absolutely right

Jingles 2: 34:46

People News on the Pod News Weekly Review. We're really, really

James C: 34:50

SCA which is the biggest radio broadcaster in Australia and owner of the listener app has announced a new CEO John Kelly, who's the company's current CEO. The current CEO, Grant Blackley, will step down at the end of June. He's had a good six year run. Also Jane Elliot, who used to work for Nova Entertainment as their communications person, has joined a company called Sound Story, which is a branded podcast company and many other things as communications director as well. Elsewhere in Canada, there is a new editor in chief of Canada Land, who I want to call Karine Pugliese. Doubtless that's not the way that she pronounces her name because she's Canadian and not Italian. But Karine is the new editor in chief of that podcast network, and Jim Lally has been appointed as EVP of Strategic Partnerships at AudioBoom. He'd been at Sound Rise and Market and Genuity elsewhere. A friend of the show, Cathy Doyle, has been appointed to the Strategic Advisory Board of Mission based Media, which is a podcast company. She was, of course at Macmillan Publishers as well. Those are all of the bits of good news. There's plenty of bad news, though, it has to be said this week in terms of layoffs, an awful lot of layoffs at Vice Media and Vice News. All of the people on the vice audio team have been laid off. All of the a packed newsroom, all of the way point gaming site that vice it used to own. And we hear that vice media is apparently headed for bankruptcy. Not sure whether or not that's going to eventuate, but that's going on. Also, Disney companies have been making lots of layoffs, both at ESPN, where the VP of ESPN audio, Scott McCarthy, is just one of those people. And at National Geographic, which I learn is majority owned by Disney, they own 70% of the shares and ESPN and Jacob Pinter and the team who ran their overheard podcast have been laid off as well. So yes, there are plenty of good news, but also plenty of bits of bad news as well in the industry. And let's hope that you're not affected as well. Not you, Sam, but you that you the listener,

Sam Sethi: 37:21

Thanks.

James C: 37:21

if you see what I mean.

Sam Sethi: 37:23

Thanks for caring. James.

James C: 37:24

Anyway, if you've got if you've got positions that you would like to promote,

Sam Sethi: 37:29

There.

James C: 37:30

then we would love that news. Dot net slash jobs is where you can post those for free, just like Spotify have. Spotify has a job going app for Spotify podcast client partner for Europe, Middle East and Africa, and that would be based in London. In England. Poor you. But anyway, you'll find details of that and everything else at pod news dot net slash jobs.

Sam Sethi: 37:54

Yes. And last but not least, Rob Greenly is starting a new gig or a new podcast. He's got a new show called Trust Factor, which is on a network called the TV Network, which I haven't heard about, but it starts at 11 a.m.. It's a half hour show and it's also available on YouTube. So congratulations to Rob Greenly.

Jingles: 38:15

Trust Factor with Rob Greenlee focuses on all aspects to building human trust in online communications. Only on 100 TV.

James C: 38:29

Yes. It's the stuff you'll find every Monday in the pod news newsletter. Here's where we do. The tech talk podcast guru is now supporting pod paying Sam.

Sam Sethi: 38:38

Yeah. Well, congratulations to them. It's another one to the fold. I'm glad to see that most of us now who are apps are supporting it. It doesn't make it easier for listeners to get their podcast episodes quicker. So come on, Apple and Spotify, what are you waiting for? When are you going to start to support popping? Just the answer never come to mind. But we also are. I keep asking that when I maybe I'll have to do it myself, but is there going to be a way of getting a host comparison chart to show what times and what features that host support? That would be lovely. And we could then see what's missing Is that the wall of shame or the wall of fame? I don't know,

James C: 39:20

Yeah, I think that would certainly be something that we should be working

Sam Sethi: 39:23

maybe

James C: 39:23

on. And I mean, maybe, you know, maybe a table or something like that would be the, the right choice for that and, and invite a bunch of people to come on and, and edit that. Perhaps that might be an interesting thing to do.

Sam Sethi: 39:35

now hosting companies are talking of hosting companies lips in one eye. Steve Yeah, when I first read that, I thought it was a Stevie Wonder award. But that's wrong,

James C: 39:45

But no,

Sam Sethi: 39:45

though, is it? Stevie Wouldn't I have no idea what that is? James I'll ask it. What is a Stevie Wonder award or a Stevie Award?

James C: 39:52

I've got no idea what a Stevie Award is. But there are plenty

Sam Sethi: 39:54

Oh, well,

James C: 39:54

of exciting

Sam Sethi: 39:54

there you go.

James C: 39:55

things going on there. It's it's it's a set of awards for well, I mean, there were 3700 nominations, so, you know, worthwhile mentioning that. So congratulations, Phillipson, for actually winning it, winning an award in it. It's the American Business Awards and it's been going for 21 years, but it's American, which is why you've not heard of it. So many congratulations

Sam Sethi: 40:19

Excellent

James C: 40:21

to Pittsburgh's. LIPSON Also, Buzz Sprout has added a new feature you can now add unlimited team members to your podcast. So if you've got lots of different people who are working on your podcast with you, then

Sam Sethi: 40:35

band.

James C: 40:35

you no

Sam Sethi: 40:35

You

James C: 40:35

longer

Sam Sethi: 40:35

know.

James C: 40:35

need to share usernames and passwords. You can give everybody their own usernames and passwords and that's a good thing. Well done by Sprout. That's an excellent plan. There's a new space for announcements where changes have been made to the podcast name Space, which Dave Jones has added, will link to that in the show

Sam Sethi: 40:54

Well,

James C: 40:54

notes as well. And some interesting stuff going on with podcasts. Sam

Sam Sethi: 40:59

yeah, pocket casts have clarified their pricing changes. So they're saying that the price hike, which

James C: 41:04

Hmm,

Sam Sethi: 41:04

we talked about last week, is for new subscribers only. So if your grandfathered in, I guess you're not going to get a price change,

James C: 41:11

yeah, which is nice. So if

Sam Sethi: 41:12

you

James C: 41:13

you're already

Sam Sethi: 41:13

already.

James C: 41:13

subscribed and you're paying and you're paying 14.99 a year, which went up in January, then you're not going to have to pay $40. It'll still just be 1499. So that's not a bad plan. But they've also released episode search within their app, which is a very good thing and a good addition. So you can search for people's names and stuff and find out all of the shows that they have been mentioned on in terms of the episode search. And there's a long, tedious blog post all about how they managed to achieve that and what database structure that they needed to change in order to achieve that. But if you would like to read it, then be my guest. You'll find

Sam Sethi: 41:54

I

James C: 41:54

that

Sam Sethi: 41:54

will.

James C: 41:54

in the

Sam Sethi: 41:55

I will.

James C: 41:55

show notes as well. Yes, you'll be reading it because

Sam Sethi: 41:59

Yes.

James C: 41:59

that would be

Sam Sethi: 41:59

No,

James C: 42:00

ideal. That would be ideal for you.

Sam Sethi: 42:02

while

James C: 42:03

Mark

Sam Sethi: 42:03

it was

James C: 42:03

Cuban,

Sam Sethi: 42:03

on the

James C: 42:03

the man now going,

Sam Sethi: 42:05

I said it was on the roadmap. So now I'll go and find out how to do it now instead.

James C: 42:08

Yes,

Sam Sethi: 42:08

Now much better.

James C: 42:09

well, yeah, you might. You might as well. Mark Cuban,

Sam Sethi: 42:12

But

James C: 42:12

the man with the big teeth. He

Sam Sethi: 42:14

he

James C: 42:14

has

Sam Sethi: 42:14

has

James C: 42:15

confirmed

Sam Sethi: 42:15

concerns

James C: 42:15

$25 million in funding for Fireside, not down

Sam Sethi: 42:18

about

James C: 42:18

Benjamin's

Sam Sethi: 42:18

that

James C: 42:18

fireside, but Mark Cuban's fireside Fireside these days is all about streaming

Sam Sethi: 42:23

streaming

James C: 42:23

video.

Sam Sethi: 42:23

video.

James C: 42:24

And if

Sam Sethi: 42:24

And

James C: 42:24

you

Sam Sethi: 42:24

if

James C: 42:24

look

Sam Sethi: 42:24

you look

James C: 42:24

at

Sam Sethi: 42:25

at

James C: 42:25

their

Sam Sethi: 42:25

the band

James C: 42:28

paid for clip very clearly paid for journalist stories, then almost all of them say incorrectly compared with companies like clubhouse. Well, I mean, given that they were directly comparing themselves with companies like Clubhouse when they launched, that's a bit strong. But still where we are. That said Fireside does have $25 million

Sam Sethi: 42:55

funding,

James C: 42:55

in funding whereas Clubhouse has just made more than half of its total staff redundant. So maybe they're not like clubhouse at all. Ad

Sam Sethi: 43:03

I

James C: 43:03

Press has also

Sam Sethi: 43:03

think

James C: 43:04

launched a new podcast hosting company or a new podcast hosting solution, I should say, on cast a podcast. Now, if you remember, cast a pod dot org is

Sam Sethi: 43:13

what

James C: 43:13

where you

Sam Sethi: 43:13

you.

James C: 43:14

can get the open source cast of pod code and you can host your own on your own server. And that's all lovely. But surprise, surprise, there are some people that don't want to do that. And so if you don't want to do that, but you want to use Cast a Pod, which is an excellent podcasting 2.0 ready tool, then you can just sign up and pay a monthly fee at Cast upon Tor.com, which is very clever.

Sam Sethi: 43:37

Mm. Well done, Benjamin. Now, a couple of weeks ago we talked about the new podcast Standards Project and we talked about who was involved and what was happening. And one of the companies that stood out was Acast after my interview with Lizzy Pollitt. And I said to Lizzy, could you get one of your people to come on and tell us about what you're doing with the podcast and this project? So she currently got Chris Kwami Roden, who's their principal engineers, come on and tell us what they're doing with the Podcast Standards Project.

Chris Quamme Rhoden: 44:07

for a little bit of background on the way that Acast looks at the Podcast Standards Project, it's really a group of several organisations coming together and aligning on a variety of standards to implement as a group. There's a classical chicken and egg problem. Any time that you've got open standards, especially when we have two distinct sides of mirrors of that standard where you really want to make sure that the consumers are ready to consume the new standard and the consumers really want to make sure that the publishers are ready to publish the new standard. And so the Podcast Standards Project is really just kind of a building of a consortium, building of a group of people that because there are more of us, it's a little bit easier to move the needle in terms of adoption. Any cost is just one of the people that have signed on to participate and implement some of those standards and sort of align on which of those standards make the most sense to implement in what order as a group. And I think that's correct. So with a cross hat and your role in mind, what, if any, so far of the standards have you implemented at a cost? Sure. So we've implemented and deployed support for the podcast, locked tag on ingest, so we won't import feeds that have that locked tag in place. And then we've also got implemented but not deployed support for a couple of other tags, obviously the podcast namespace and we've got a bit of a process to go through to get everything out and live. We've also got the funding tag implemented for our customers that are using a cast plus. And then there are a couple of others that are on the roadmap transcripts are coming soon. There's some special challenges at Acast because of our use of dynamic audio and the way that we implement dynamic audio that make it difficult for us to do timestamped information appearing in the feed. But we are coming up with what it is that we can do to support that. And there's definitely a few other things that are on our radar as well. Now that's really cool. I mean, I o. Transcript being a big one, given how much you as a colleague use transcripts for a lot of your conversational advertising and keyword targeting, the other ones, I guess the easier ones to implement are things like the person tagging. How do you or who does? Is it your role to determine what tags to add? So I mean, within Acast, we have a number of stakeholders that sort of determine roadmap. Definitely engineering plays a role in figuring out what makes sense to implement. Engineering's perspective is largely on level of effort, but also we can weigh in, but that's largely down to the product side of the organisation. Okay. So one of the other tanks that I think most of the independent podcast platform players are excited about is value for value. And you said you support the funding tag. Do you think you would extend that out to the value tag as well? I don't think that we've got any immediate plans that I would be able to talk about. So beyond the Podcast Standards Project, again, Acast are looking to be a member of the community when you bring new ideas into this project. Yeah. So obviously Acast has a number of initiatives that we've tried in the past that may be interesting and valuable as a starting point. From my perspective, from watching and I do watch the various podcasting 2.0 efforts especially and including the podcast namespace work. It's fast moving and experimental and it's not something that I think we're likely to benefit by asking people to slow down and we're really excited to see that work developing. But I would personally like to be more involved. We've got a lot going on all the time. I think that the best thing that we can do as an organisation is to implement the standards where they make sense and maybe help provide guidance on how to support the scale and the technology that ACAST has, which is somewhat unusual in the space. Still, I mentioned the transcript tag being difficult to implement in RSS feeds. Another example is chapters where we do support 83 V2 chapters with dynamic audio, but it would be impossible for us to implement that at the feed level because we don't have any idea at the time that the feed is generated where those timestamps are going to be, right? So I think that input can come later. From my perspective, I don't know if that answers your question, but we're excited. Like we are absolutely watching and aware of the work that's going on. It's moving at a pace that I think is really exciting and I don't want to slow it down now. It is very exciting. I think we're moving into Phase seven, the company world Interface seven now outside of the podcast, name Space one of the other areas that everyone's talking about in 2023 is AI. And again, is this something that Acast is embracing? Yeah. So as El-P mentioned, there are certainly A.I. techniques being used in terms of the conversational targeting and it is an area of future investment. I mean, A.I. is being used all over the place where there are A.I. techniques being used to actually produce the transcripts. A.I. techniques are being used for converting those transcripts into meaning in order to support conversational targeting. And then we also are able to use AI in a variety of other ways to help us with better targeting for content. So it's an area of continued investment at ACAST. And I think that there's some more exciting stuff to come on that front. Cool. Chris If anyone wants to find out more about what's going on, where they cast, where, where they go, yeah, check out a cars.com and there's a lot of new stuff coming out all the time. It's an exciting time for us. Chris, thank you so much. Thank you. Sam. It was great talking with you.

James C: 50:33

Chris Cuomo wrote in from Acast. If you are sitting with bated breath waiting for Oscar, marry from Fountain, he will be on next week. Not this week, but good things happen to those who wait. there are some awards coming up on the same.

Sam Sethi: 50:52

Yeah, the 18th annual People's Choice of Podcast Award is now open for registration until the end of July. The registration fee is unchanged from last year. I don't know what that was last year, so I get a check and anyone can enter wherever you are. So it sounds like an international podcast award.

James C: 51:09

Yes. Which is a good thing. I think the registration fee is only $50. So I don't think it's it's a massive thing. This is the one that Todd Cochrane runs.

Jingles 2: 51:18

Don't leave me, Todd Cochran.

James C: 51:19

You've actually got until the end of July if you want to enter that and it's well worth doing. Pod News is a media partner and you know, well worth entering that. And then there are people's choice votes where the people go to do the voting and all kinds of stuff. So all of that is going on, which is nice, in terms of events for people to go to the say podcast to drinks on May the ninth in Melbourne, in Victoria. Am I going to it? No, it's

Sam Sethi: 51:50

Oh,

James C: 51:50

in Melbourne.

Sam Sethi: 51:51

I don't know.

James C: 51:52

So

Sam Sethi: 51:52

I couldn't tell you the geography of Australia.

James C: 51:54

yes, no, it's a three hour flight away.

Sam Sethi: 51:58

Oh,

James C: 51:58

So

Sam Sethi: 51:59

okay.

James C: 51:59

I doubt that that is going to happen. But yeah, really good to see that coming back again. There was a melbourne podcasters meetup which I did go to once, which was great fun to go to, but that has been relatively quiet for the last couple of years. and Adam Jeffrey, who was one of the originals, who planned that, has now brought this idea of just getting together in a pub, which sounds like a good plan. So if you're in Melbourne, then firstly my commiserations. But secondly, May the ninth is is the day and it's at the Albury bar in number one Flinders Walk, wherever that is. So well-worth going to. Also pod pitching at City University is happening

Sam Sethi: 52:42

Mm hmm.

James C: 52:43

as well on May the ninth where you can watch city journalism

Sam Sethi: 52:47

Okay.

James C: 52:48

students pitching their projects to top industry commissioners from places like the BBC and listen and rethink audio and history hit. So that's a good thing. You're going to that, aren't you?

Sam Sethi: 53:00

I am indeed looking forward to and hoping to interview Toby Doris as well from this. And so, yes,

James C: 53:05

Yes,

Sam Sethi: 53:06

that'll be cool.

James C: 53:06

which would be good. The next time I leave the house will be not quite literally. The next time I leave the house will be in about an hour's time. I'm off to watch Dylan Moran too, doing some stand up,

Sam Sethi: 53:17

Thanks.

James C: 53:17

but the next time I leave the house to fly somewhere will be a couple of weeks going to the New Zealand podcasting Summit, which is in Auckland on the 30th of May. Tickets are still available to that. If you would like to

Sam Sethi: 53:29

You.

James C: 53:30

take part, then you should be.

Sam Sethi: 53:32

You should

James C: 53:33

You

Sam Sethi: 53:33

be

James C: 53:33

can find out more information at POD news, dot net slash events. There is also, of course, the podcast show in London, which is happening towards the end of May. If you want to use the promo code pod news, then you can save money on pretty much everything that's available there, including the preview night line up, which is which is also happening. One thing that they did do is that they announced

Sam Sethi: 53:58

announced

James C: 53:58

an international

Sam Sethi: 53:59

the international.

James C: 53:59

an international industry advisory panel, which I thought was a really clever idea. So basically they've got a large set of international folk who they can use to basically make sure that the podcast show 2023 is a great show for international people as well, which I thought was a really clever plan. So

Sam Sethi: 54:18

Oh,

James C: 54:18

many congratulations

Sam Sethi: 54:19

congratulations

James C: 54:19

to them. Hopefully

Sam Sethi: 54:20

to them.

James C: 54:20

this time next week we'll have somebody on from the podcast show 2023

Sam Sethi: 54:23

More

James C: 54:24

to tell us more about who is speaking. But I can

Sam Sethi: 54:26

speaking.

James C: 54:26

tell you

Sam Sethi: 54:26

But

James C: 54:26

that

Sam Sethi: 54:26

I

James C: 54:27

I

Sam Sethi: 54:27

can

James C: 54:27

will

Sam Sethi: 54:27

tell

James C: 54:27

be

Sam Sethi: 54:27

you

James C: 54:27

speaking.

Sam Sethi: 54:27

that I will be speaking

James C: 54:28

They give me a much larger room

Sam Sethi: 54:30

finally.

James C: 54:30

this year. I know a much larger room, 400 people. So I really want that filled because otherwise it be really, really embarrassing. So I think

Sam Sethi: 54:39

I

James C: 54:39

I'm the first

Sam Sethi: 54:40

think

James C: 54:40

speaker on the first day, although it's not yet on the website. If you are going to the podcast show 2023, please come to my gate because otherwise it'll look embarrassing. So that should be very good. And also I'm in Toronto at the beginning of June for radio days. North America and podcast movement in Denver in the middle of August as well. So, so many events happening and of course this ahs to Pod news live in Salford in Greater Manchester is on the 13th of June. Tickets are on sale for that pod news dot net slash live. We would love to see you there. We will have

Sam Sethi: 55:19

that

James C: 55:19

a full list of our speakers and what they'll be talking about and everything else in the next few days. Pod news dot net slash live. Would love to see you if you are in the north of England or maybe even if you're not in the north of England. Do come along and see us. Pod news dot net slash live is where to get tickets.

Sam Sethi: 55:39

I'm now further afield. September is the British Podcast Awards, and they've announced that the host of How to Fail, Elizabeth Day, has been announced as the chair of the judges. There is a massive roster of judges I'd just like to point out over 40. It felt like I didn't actually count and I still didn't make the cut. James, I No one knows me. No one asks. No one ever cares. I've got to change my agent. Well, let's think. I don't have an agent. Maybe that's the problem.

James C: 56:07

Maybe that's it.

Sam Sethi: 56:08

Yes.

James C: 56:09

Maybe that's it. But

Sam Sethi: 56:10

What's

James C: 56:10

yes.

Sam Sethi: 56:11

your agent like? It sounds like he does a good job or she does

James C: 56:13

Yeah,

Sam Sethi: 56:13

a good job.

James C: 56:14

I, I, I don't have one either. So

Sam Sethi: 56:16

Oh, well,

James C: 56:16

yeah.

Sam Sethi: 56:16

they go

James C: 56:17

There, there there is. I think there's

Sam Sethi: 56:18

through

James C: 56:19

a thing,

Sam Sethi: 56:19

everything.

James C: 56:19

but yes,

Sam Sethi: 56:19

They get

James C: 56:20

I have to say I am asked quite often will you be a judge in these awards. And I turn around and I say no because I literally don't have the time and I would much rather do a good job or not to a job at all. So I will normally point people towards other people that I know will do a good job. But but yeah, but the British Podcast Awards are one of the good ones. You've until the 18th of May too. And so we

Sam Sethi: 56:42

very.

James C: 56:42

could enter this very show, couldn't we,

Sam Sethi: 56:45

We could, apart from

James C: 56:46

if

Sam Sethi: 56:46

the fact

James C: 56:46

we.

Sam Sethi: 56:46

that who owns the British Podcast Awards and we'll never win

James C: 56:50

Oh yes, there is always that. Yes, it's run by Pod Pod, which is apparently a podcast newsletter.

Sam Sethi: 56:57

an

James C: 56:57

Um, so anyway, there are more events both paid for and free at Pod news. If you're organising something, then you can tell the world about it too. It's free to be listed. Pod news, dot net slash events.

Jingles 2: 57:08

Pod news lie where the podcast industry connects. Get your tickets now at Pod News start PCMag slash live.

Jingles: 57:17

Booster. Graham Booster Graham. Corner Corner Corner on the Park News Weekly Review.

James C: 57:24

Oh, it's my favorite time of the week. Yes. We've got lots more booster Graham Sam, which is very excellent.

Sam Sethi: 57:30

yet. Nathan Garth. Right. Have I got that right? Have I got that wrong?

James C: 57:32

Garth write

Sam Sethi: 57:33

Garth Right.

James C: 57:33

Garth

Sam Sethi: 57:34

Well,

James C: 57:34

Right.

Sam Sethi: 57:34

get

James C: 57:34

Garth

Sam Sethi: 57:34

it

James C: 57:34

Right.

Sam Sethi: 57:34

right.

James C: 57:35

Garth Right.

Sam Sethi: 57:35

I'll just get about the show to He could put me right. Thanks for adding update frequency to the news RSS feed. I hope it proves a nice progressive enhancement that doesn't require all hosts to get on board before apps make it available to listeners. So did you at it, James?

James C: 57:51

yes, I added the update frequency

Sam Sethi: 57:52

Get

James C: 57:53

to the pod news RSS feed. It was, it was very easy and the clever thing

Sam Sethi: 57:57

that?

James C: 57:57

that Nathan had done is that he had already written an example for what a daily podcast that's updated on weekday would look like. So it was just a case of copy and paste.

Sam Sethi: 58:10

Hmm. You go

James C: 58:11

So if you host yourself, then you can put anything

Sam Sethi: 58:14

like

James C: 58:14

you like in the RSS feed. So that's what I did.

Sam Sethi: 58:16

that.

James C: 58:16

But now

Sam Sethi: 58:16

Now

James C: 58:17

I

Sam Sethi: 58:17

I'm

James C: 58:17

would agree with that. So I think

Sam Sethi: 58:19

like

James C: 58:19

that that's a good thing. And I think also the pod role, uh, tag is also a good thing. And Dave Jones has quite rightly pointed out that we kept on saying pod follow last

Sam Sethi: 58:31

the

James C: 58:31

week.

Sam Sethi: 58:31

way. Oh.

James C: 58:32

We didn't, we didn't mean that we meant pod role model.

Sam Sethi: 58:34

Hmm.

James C: 58:35

That's the one that we meant. And it's very good. Thank you for 5150 SATs. Is that is that a special

Sam Sethi: 58:42

It is.

James C: 58:43

SATs special.

Sam Sethi: 58:43

It is.

James C: 58:44

What

Sam Sethi: 58:44

It is

James C: 58:44

was that then?

Sam Sethi: 58:45

it's a Van Halen tribute,

James C: 58:48

Oh,

Sam Sethi: 58:48

isn't it? Or

James C: 58:48

God.

Sam Sethi: 58:48

something

Jingles: 58:49

So tell me, why can this be?

James C: 58:53

thank you, Dave. That's very kind.

Sam Sethi: 58:55

Nick said Fountain is waiting for you. Joe Rogan, He sent his two one, two, one SATs. Yeah. Fountain If you can get Joe Rogan

James C: 59:04

Yes.

Sam Sethi: 59:04

on there. Well done, mate. That would be a massive boost.

James C: 59:08

Yes. That looks like neck master from Fountain.

Sam Sethi: 59:11

Yeah,

James C: 59:12

And yes, if

Sam Sethi: 59:13

you're

James C: 59:13

Joe Rogan, I mean, wouldn't that

Sam Sethi: 59:15

right.

James C: 59:15

be amazing if Joe Rogan stopped going with Spotify and ended up moving to value for value? I mean, he knows Adam Curry, so who knows?

Sam Sethi: 59:26

Mm.

James C: 59:26

Might be a plan. But yeah, that would be an amazing thing. Somebody called

Sam Sethi: 59:31

I

James C: 59:31

I love Sushi says excited to hear Oscar. Mary will be on with you next time And we really mean next time Time Sending

Sam Sethi: 59:38

will

James C: 59:39

a boost as a test from the newest

Sam Sethi: 59:41

do

James C: 59:41

fountain beta. Ooh,

Sam Sethi: 59:42

an ego

James C: 59:42

News fountain Beta 1000 SATs. Thank you. I love sushi. And Shireen from the Mere Mortals podcast with all these weird names you are trying to pronounce. Trying to pronounce. It's time you started picking up a second language and then asks whether a Spanish version will be coming soon. No, there is already a Spanish version of a podcast newsletter that you can get. It's called Nota Pod Hoy, except it's probably not pronounced that way. And it's put together by a nice man called Melvin, who's very nice and does an excellent job. So go and read that if you want to read your podcast news in Spanish, but don't stop obviously reading Pod news or the Podcast Business Journal because that would be bad if you get value from what we do. The POD News weekly review is separate from pod news, separate from pod news, and Sam and I share everything from it. We really appreciate your support so we can continue making this show genuinely. You can become a power supporter if you like. Weekly dot Pod news dot net. If you a credit card, jump in there or you can use the Apple podcast subscription, Apple echo slash pod news. You can support us with stats by hitting the boost button in your podcast app too. And if you don't have a new podcast out with a Boost button, then you should probably get one pod news dot net slash new podcast apps will help you find a new app. I would recommend fans because it's quite good. And also I'm an advisor now. What's happening for you this week? Sam?

Sam Sethi: 1:01:05

it's been a busy week, but before I do dive into it, Naomi Mellor was due on the show a couple of weeks ago to talk about the Podcast Publishing Awards and also the International Women's Award. But I didn't know why she didn't show up and sadly I do now. She was unfortunately in a car accident. So we wish her a speedy recovery and hopefully we'll have on the show when she recovers in a few weeks time.

James C: 1:01:28

Yes,

Sam Sethi: 1:01:29

So Naomi, get well.

James C: 1:01:30

Yes, exactly. And Naomi, get well, your your you've just been to Nick Hilton's. Well, as we record, you're going to go to Nick Hilton's bad podcast, his club in that They're London. Are you

Sam Sethi: 1:01:42

I am indeed. So that's the middle of the city. And yes, that will be great. I also

James C: 1:01:49

is

Sam Sethi: 1:01:49

spoke

James C: 1:01:49

he running

Sam Sethi: 1:01:49

with

James C: 1:01:49

one of the podcast? The podcast show. Do you know?

Sam Sethi: 1:01:52

no, he's not he's not going to be there this year. He's flying

James C: 1:01:56

Rubbish.

Sam Sethi: 1:01:56

away with his wife. So, yes,

James C: 1:01:58

Rubbish.

Sam Sethi: 1:01:58

he's off

James C: 1:01:59

Can you not can you not cancel that honeymoon stroke?

Sam Sethi: 1:02:03

holiday.

James C: 1:02:03

You know, holiday.

Sam Sethi: 1:02:04

Yeah,

James C: 1:02:05

Yeah,

Sam Sethi: 1:02:05

well, he could, but I don't think he'll I think. And finally the locks changed and the door

James C: 1:02:09

yeah,

Sam Sethi: 1:02:09

locked. So, yes,

James C: 1:02:12

yeah.

Sam Sethi: 1:02:12

had a good old chat with Jess

James C: 1:02:14

You know.

Sam Sethi: 1:02:15

from she podcast Ariel and Lauren, who will be at the London podcast show. We're trying to squeeze them in to the show, the nice people at the Echo Show thinking about it. And if not, hopefully if we do a pot news alive and this show, basically we'd love to have them on the status. So we'll see. We'll certainly have Ariel and Lauren doing something with us at the show.

James C: 1:02:39

Well, that should be good. You've also been chatting about podcast, text and

Sam Sethi: 1:02:44

Yes,

James C: 1:02:45

webhook with Tom Rossi from Boss Sprout. I noticed that he

Sam Sethi: 1:02:49

I

James C: 1:02:49

has

Sam Sethi: 1:02:49

know.

James C: 1:02:49

put a new idea into the, the new podcast namespace GitHub, which is a good idea in terms of the UX and not too dissimilar to the good idea that I put forward a year or so

Sam Sethi: 1:03:06

Not far

James C: 1:03:06

ago.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:06

off it.

James C: 1:03:08

But still, and apparently you're testing it in pod fans, which is nice.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:12

Yeah.

James C: 1:03:12

Yeah.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:12

And it works really simple. It works really well. So again, like it's like the pot thing,

James C: 1:03:17

Hmm.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:17

you know, it was just simple, quick. We implemented it in a day and it works. And the the Is Not Cool podcast takes tea. We're thinking of calling it podcast verify or verification

James C: 1:03:28

Yeah.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:30

and it's a one off. There's no tokens. So it's a really simple click bang verifies

James C: 1:03:35

Yeah.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:36

it, comes back. Job done. No, let me put my email back in. Let me then publish my RSS feed again. Let me wait for it to update.

James C: 1:03:43

Very

Sam Sethi: 1:03:44

Blah,

James C: 1:03:44

nice.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:44

blah, blah.

James C: 1:03:44

The UX is the

Sam Sethi: 1:03:45

Yes

James C: 1:03:45

it is the important thing. So it's nice

Sam Sethi: 1:03:48

indeed,

James C: 1:03:48

and you're on the podcasting 2.0 show tonight.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:51

Leon AM Yes, well, I say I am.

James C: 1:03:54

Hmm.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:54

Let me just clarify that. It depends if Adam's teeth are in or not.

James C: 1:03:59

Yes.

Sam Sethi: 1:03:59

Yes, he's had a very painful period where he's had some surgery, so there wasn't a show last week. I am due on tonight. But if if it doesn't go out, maybe I'll be on in another week. But if I am, it'll be tonight. Yes,

James C: 1:04:12

Yes. No indeed.

Sam Sethi: 1:04:13

James. Now, come on. That's my busy week. What's happened for you?

James C: 1:04:17

I've had a relatively busy week. I was on the Grow my podcast summit with all kinds of other excellent speakers, so that was fun. I'm on a bunch of different podcasts as well, none of which I can quite remember at this exact moment. But still you go. But yes, it's been it's been an interesting be busy week. There's been a couple of things that I've

Sam Sethi: 1:04:39

A

James C: 1:04:39

enjoyed

Sam Sethi: 1:04:39

couple of things.

James C: 1:04:40

doing. One of them has been reviewing the new mono sound capsule, which is a little sort of device, two and a half grand, little sort of device that you can record shows with. And I have to say that was a really impressive piece of kit, although two and a half grand, it kind of ought to be. But I also ended up reviewing the Sennheiser profile mic, which is Sennheiser's first USB microphone for podcasters, and that is a great microphone as well. Really, really good. Quite cheap in terms of a microphone, I think from memory it's 129 USD, but sounds fantastic as you would expect from Sennheiser that make a lot of really good pro audio gear. So yeah, it's it's quite interesting sort of playing around with tools and stuff that people are sending me to review. So that's been quite a nice thing.

Sam Sethi: 1:05:33

am

James C: 1:05:33

So I've rather enjoyed doing that. So yes, and the only other thing I've been doing is basically being grumpy in

Sam Sethi: 1:05:40

from the

James C: 1:05:40

various radio

Sam Sethi: 1:05:42

radio.

James C: 1:05:42

industry publications about AM radio, which has been, which has been an entertainment. But that's I suppose that's my other hat.

Sam Sethi: 1:05:51

They got.

James C: 1:05:53

So there we are.

Sam Sethi: 1:05:54

Anyway,

James C: 1:05:54

Anyway, that's it for this week.

Sam Sethi: 1:05:57

thank you to our guests, Chris and Nick. And if you'd like to give us feedback using email, send it to weekly output news dot net or send us a boost. Scram, which we prefer. If your podcast app doesn't support, boost and grab a new one from Pod News dot Net Forward slash new podcast apps

James C: 1:06:15

There's not long left to get your prog news live tickets. It's where podcasting connects in Manchester in June. You can get those at pod news, dot net slash, live a whole day of great ideas and great networking. Music is from Studio Dragonfly. I voiceover is Sheila D and we're hosted and sponsored by Buzz Sprout Podcast Hosting Made Easy.