James Cridland: 0:00

It's Friday, the 15th of September 2023.

Speaker 2: 0:04

The last word in podcasting news. This is the Pod News Weekly Review with James Cridland and Sam Sethi.

James Cridland: 0:13

I'm James Cridland, the editor of Pod News, and I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO of PodFans In the chapters. Today, podcast downloads are going up Clarita Spies, adtech Service, arts, ai and Podcast One launches on NASDAQ. So how's it doing Plus?

Naomi Mellor: 0:30

you'll have to excuse my husky tones today, but I am Naomi Mellor, the co-founder of the International Women's Podcast Awards, and I'll be joining Sam today to talk about this year's awards.

James Cridland: 0:39

She will. This podcast is sponsored and hosted by Buzzsprout. Last week, 3,045 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 on the 27th of September Not long now to grab your tickets. Podnewsnet slash live.

Speaker 2: 1:04

From your daily newsletter, the Pod News Weekly Review.

Sam Sethi: 1:09

OK, James, let's start off. You gave us a little teaser here. Podcast downloads are going up. What do you?

James Cridland: 1:16

mean. Well, they are going up. According to Pod Track and Pod Track, which is now measuring about 10% of all all podcasters out there, they reckon that August saw a 7% increase in global downloads over July, which is good. Good to see numbers going up. Obviously, I heart podcasts still number one for podcasts because Pod Track doesn't measure Spotify or Sirius XM, which are both larger I would have thought. But good to see that Libsyn's advertised cast also saw an increase of 27% of global downloads month on month as well. So I think there's some good numbers coming out of that. I think Sounds good.

Sam Sethi: 1:55

Now, james, I thought I'd just give you a little teaser, Get to you warmed up for this podcast. Oh yeah, so what goes down but never goes up, james.

James Cridland: 2:06

Go on Rain.

Sam Sethi: 2:10

Now the other one is what goes up but never goes down, I don't know helium Age. Anyway, back to the facts of this podcast.

James Cridland: 2:20

I just thought Very nice, Thanks Dad.

Sam Sethi: 2:24

Yes, new Corner, dad Corner. No, we won't do that one. We won't do that one. Now, it's not just downloads, james, though is it? What else is going on?

James Cridland: 2:32

No, it isn't. So data from SMI, which is a very interesting company. They capture actual agency invoicing data. They have agreements with all of the big agencies. They say that podcast ad spend also increased quite nicely. In quarter two it increased 57% year on year, which, if you compare that with total digital audio, that's up 6%. So podcast ad spend doing very, very well and in fact it's the biggest category going up across all of advertising, particularly host read podcast placement spend is up 91% year on year in quarter two. Wow and so, yeah, so some pretty good numbers coming out of that and given that that is actual agency invoicing data, perhaps we are seeing a nice rebound and perhaps large podcast companies can start spending again. Who knows? Ooh, ok, maybe they'll sponsor us.

Sam Sethi: 3:26

No, did I say that loud Now? More good news for the podcast industry, though, james. I think podcast one goes onto the NASDAQ this week or last week. Yes, very good.

James Cridland: 3:39

I don't know whether you saw podcast one ringing in the NASDAQ opening bell. I did yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Would you like to hear an exciting man doing exactly that? Go ahead.

Rob Ellin: 3:49

This is an exciting time for this company. This is an exciting time for the industry. We see growth in podcasting growing. I'm very thankful to be here and to have my partner, kit Gray, here and my team here, and I want to thank everyone and I can't wait to ring the bell.

James Cridland: 4:06

Yes, rob Ellen, the CEO there, kit Gray, by his side. There are a few big podcasters there as well. I saw Jordan Harbin during the background. Also, apparently, the folks from Gals on the go were there as well. I have to say, as a podcast company, you'd thought that'd be better at back. Timing was about a minute of hanging around until the bell was wrong, but that, according to the NASDAQ video archive, seems to be a thing that they do. So there you go, but, yes, very exciting, and it's a good thing for them. They call it the first podcast company to float on a national stock exchange in the world, which probably comes as a surprise to ACAST, who, of course, have floated on the stock home share market. But still, there we are. And, yeah, all very exciting, wasn't it, Sam?

Sam Sethi: 4:53

Yeah, all very exciting except there were a couple of red flags that flew up for me. In the press release it says Live One will own around 80% of shares, but then Rob, who sounds like he came out of the soprano, said that basically there would be a 33% shareholding of podcast one by the owners, and that 33% is a trigger number for me because that is board control. So I'm not sure where the 80% and the 33% sit in. So that's a bit of a trigger. And then whoever's underwriting this float must be very worried because if it came out at $8 on Friday, it closed at $2.63 on Wednesday evening. So it's trajectory is not good. And then when you look at live ones actual trajectory over time they started out at just under well I'd say it was under $100 and it's now floating around at $1 and $8. I mean again, I'm not convinced. It seems a very odd deal. There's something that in my water says there's not something quite right with this.

James Cridland: 6:13

Yeah, it's a weird one, isn't it? Watching numbers that were supposed to have been around $8 being $2.63, I'm not quite sure, to be frank, what's going on there? Obviously, if you look at some of the social media coverage, then quite a lot of people this week have been pointing out new videos from people like Theo Vaughn and others who have been pointing out that Live One and Podcast One haven't paid some of the money that they think is owed to them. It's really a conversation with Cast Media, which is a different company, but nevertheless that seems to have rubbed off a bit onto Live One and Podcast One. Probably not the best time to go public, but who knows what the future will bring, obviously.

Sam Sethi: 7:04

Well, again, I guess we'll watch. If the share price continues in a downward trajectory, or sometimes straight after a float, the VC's take their money fast and then it has a dip and then it comes back up. So fingers crossed for them, but something doesn't feel right to me. That's all I'll say.

James Cridland: 7:22

Yes, so just a little bit weird. Rob Ellen was interviewed a couple of weeks ago in the podcast business journal podcastbusinessjournalcom. If you want to go and find out a little bit more about that Now look, talking of deals, deals, deals.

Sam Sethi: 7:37

there's been a few more deals in the market, James, what's been going on?

James Cridland: 7:41

Yes, quite a few sort of interesting deals Sirius XM Barometer and Arts AI working together for a brand suitability and safety tool. I think it was based on a tool called AB Daily, which they announced in May, but it's basically a tool that allows them to give reporting mid campaigns so that advertisers can correct and optimize a ad buy. So that's quite nice. Magellan AI also launching new things, a tool to expand campaigns with similar shows. So if one particular podcast is working very well for you, then it will recommend a couple of other podcasts that have very similar audiences, which kind of makes sense.

James Cridland: 8:20

Luminary partnering with Acast If you remember, luminary launched quite some time ago with a little bunny emoji saying podcasts don't need ads. Well, it turns out that they do. After all, six of their exclusive shows available wherever. You get your podcasts monetized by ads using Acast and Acast Plus Access as well. But of course, the big deal is Claritas acquiring AdTech Service Arts AI. So I spoke to Eric Lundberg in Malaysia last week. Eric wasn't in Malaysia, but I was talking to him about what the future was there and he was very excited about it, and we have a full interview in the podcast business journal today.

Sam Sethi: 9:06

Podcast businessjournalcom is where to go and read that interview with Eric In other news, I just noticed a really interesting tweet from a friend of the show, dino, sofos Per Sipfonica, the podcast producer of the news agent Dua Lipa at your service and their new, very new political currency, which is clearly going after the rest is politics, has signed with the talent agency WME, which sounds very exciting.

James Cridland: 9:34

Yes, and Dino Sofos, of course, speaking at Pod News Live in London on September the 27th, as is Lizzie Pollock from Acast. You can learn more about the luminary deal. Perhaps, who knows, podnewsnet slash live for your tickets there. Yeah, you know, per Sipfonica seems to be doing very, very well launching political currency yesterday to former treasurers of the UK George Osborne, who was a proper chancellor, who was part of government and everything else, and then Ed Balls, who was shadow chancellor at the same time, and they appear to be best friends. So there we are, so it's very clearly aimed at. The rest is politics, which is, you know, again has Alistair Campbell and Rory at Stuart on there. So you know very clearly.

James Cridland: 10:23

Moving into that, I wonder how much political currency will harm the news agents, which is a show that Per Sipfonica makes for global. So that'll be an interesting thing to hear what Dino Sophos is actually saying. The other thing that I would note about political currency is that it's a brand new show from Per Sipfonica which is for the first time branded Per Sipfonica, because the news agents isn't Norse Dua Lipa. So it's for the first time actually branded Per Sipfonica and it's being monetized through Acast. So it'll be interesting to see how all of that works.

Sam Sethi: 10:56

But we will learn a little bit more, no doubt on September the 27th at Pod News Live yeah we can also ask Jack Davenport what he thinks of it as well, because he'll be there and he's the producer of. The rest is politics, so yes, oh yes.

James Cridland: 11:09

Well, that will be excellent, wouldn't it?

Sam Sethi: 11:10

So they'll both be on stage at some point. Maybe they'll be together, who knows? Well, it's up to you, that's true. Yeah, oh God, help me Right. Moving on, then, celebrating Women's Voices in Audio Storytelling, there's a new magazine out, james.

James Cridland: 11:27

There is. It's called Sound Sorceresses. Thank you very much for making a really easy to pronounce name for a magazine, but it's a magazine which will showcase the talent and innovation of women working in audio storytelling. It launches on October the first, and you can sign up for it now. It's a really interesting thing, serving as a place to find women excelling in their digital storytelling craft, so they say. But that's not the only bit of news around celebrating women's voices, is it Sam?

Sam Sethi: 12:01

No, On Wednesday, a wonderful name, mimella, held a online virtual conference called Global Resonance Women's Voices Across Borders, with some wonderful speakers Laurie Martin is certainly, who I know very well, Molly Jensen from Afri Pods and Ria Jeddeed from Spotify as well. So I mean, what I thought would be good is to reach out to Naomi and find out how that went, but also to ask her what's happening with the upcoming International Women's Awards.

Naomi Mellor: 12:32

I'm just going to put this out there and say to everyone in advance I'm suffering with a bit of a stomach cold and I do not normally sound like this sound may tell you otherwise, but I decided this morning that I was just going to come on because this had been in the diary for a while and it is time sensitive on pod news. So apologies, I sound like a complete husky and I'm absolutely full of gold. But I am completely delighted to be here, as ever, chatting to my lovely friend Sam, and I can't wait to share some stuff with you guys.

Sam Sethi: 12:58

So the 100 Fags a Day you've given up now, thank you, that's all I'll say.

Naomi Mellor: 13:03

We can laugh about these things, sam, it's fine.

Sam Sethi: 13:07

Now look, let's get back to some more serious or more interesting things. Let's put it that way as I said, you ran an online event this week, the Global Resonance Women's Voices Across Borders but tell me what it was about and why you thought you wanted to do it.

Naomi Mellor: 13:21

Yeah.

Naomi Mellor: 13:21

So I'm going to give a really big credit to this event, to Christine Job, who is an American woman living in Madrid, and she approached me several months ago about running a subsidiary event to the International Women's Podcast Awards this year, and at the time I was quite caught up with a few other things and, as it then happened, in the aftermath of the International Women's Podcast Festival not happening and she podcasts live having to be cancelled and Africa PodFest having to be cancelled this year, we decided, christine and I, to run an hour long session last night, which was a webinar, a panel webinar open to everybody across the world, featuring panelists and speakers from a number of different countries, and we spoke a lot about a number of issues around the podcasting sector, from independent creators to people working in the industry.

Naomi Mellor: 14:17

We talked about different challenges in different locations and the panelists were just completely brilliant. Christine hosted it and if anyone hasn't listened to her podcast, it's called Flourish in the Foreign. It's about people relocating abroad and flourishing in their lives there, and she is just an amazing host and she was brilliant leading the session last night as well. So who was on the panel?

Sam Sethi: 14:39

Remind me.

Naomi Mellor: 14:40

So we had Molly Jensen, who is the CEO of Afri Pods. So, if anyone who hasn't come across them, they're based in Nairobi, in Kenya, and they are central in the African podcast landscape. We had Laurie Martinez, who is the CEO of Ocenta Studios. She runs multi-lingual podcasts and she has been really amazing at developing and producing and translating podcasts into a lot of different languages. Imre Elmorgan, who runs Content, is Queen and many of your listeners will know, is the director of the International Women's Podcast Festival in London. And Raya Hadid, who has worked for a number of different platforms. She runs her own podcast, has previously been a part of the Google Podcasts and PRX Creator Program. She is from Lebanon and currently is living in Dubai.

Sam Sethi: 15:28

Great panel. Now you mentioned something there about other podcast events struggling to get out. We talked about her podcast with Jess Kaufman. Why is it that these events are struggling? Are they struggling because they aren't sponsors? Are they struggling because people perceive them to be women-only events? Are they struggling because the economic market is just struggling? What do you think it may be?

Naomi Mellor: 15:56

I think you're probably looking at a combination of all three actually, sam, to be honest, certainly for the International Women's Podcast Awards, we get a number of emails each year saying can men attend? Can men enter? I work with women who I love and who I really champion and I really want to enter their work. Can I do that? And I'm like yes, come through the door. We love anybody who is supportive of everybody in the industry, and I think you and I talk about this frequently, but it's about making podcasting open, inclusive and for everybody, and I think the global economic situation has put the willies up quite a lot of people.

Naomi Mellor: 16:34

It's no secret that some countries, some industries, are potentially not doing as well as they were. People are nervous. There is a general feeling of nervousness about economics, and I don't think that is constrained to the audio sector. I think people who are at the independent and grassroots and let's call it bedroom end of podcasting which was, let's face it, all of us during the pandemic have suddenly seen that their time is being squeezed and pressured by their family, their normal job, their return to life and living as we all did previously, and I think all those things together have made this situation just a bit more challenging and we are very fortunate for the awards that we have some really, really wonderful companies who have been with us for a while and who support us absolutely to the hilt. And I make no secret of the fact that I've worked with shore since I was.

Naomi Mellor: 17:34

I am a nobody in podcasting but since I came on the scene and they took a massive gamble on me, well, when I first started the awards, I came into podcasting and, having no experience and no background in that, and I talked frequently with the people who come into podcasting because they love it and they come from other sectors and I was one of those people. And you know there are companies who gamble on events and they gamble and in some situations that relationship continues and sometimes it doesn't, and that's okay and there are often really valid reasons for that. But I think having those companies who are prepared to support events and situations and initiatives that are not perhaps at the front of the mainstream and if the independent podcast awards have started this year I know Captivate and Mark Asquith, a great friend of yours, are deeply involved with that as well and it's initiatives like that that we love to see and they need support, and whether that's sponsorship to help it run yes, undoubtedly we need that, we 100% need that. But we need people to show up, we need people to enter, we need people to take part and we need people to turn up.

Naomi Mellor: 18:50

And you know, pod News Live is the same and you and I are in the same boat on that, sam. You need people to want to be a part of what you're offering and I think that is not as challenging as ever, but this year it seems to be in focus. Let's put it that way, sam.

Sam Sethi: 19:06

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people you and me, event organizers in general put our heads above the parapet and we take the risk and we take the time to do it. It's not like we're going to make well, most cases not even make a profit. I mean, most of us are trying to make break, even at best and hopefully not lose at worst, and often it's done to try and you know, move the industry forward by helping everyone understand that the bigger picture of what's happening or focus on a certain topic and, again, as you said, show is critical. Even if it means just buying your, you know, x pounds ticket or X dollars ticket and just being a participant, it does help and I don't know how that's going to change. I think we all are busy post COVID again and we're all a bit tighter with money. So being selected is going to be the thing.

Sam Sethi: 19:59

But, you know, let's be positive about it. I do think there is an upswing in the market. I do think advertising is going to come back. I do think, looking at the industry across the board, I think, although we are seeing job cuts, we are seeing increases in profitability and revenue maybe not profitability, but certainly revenue. So maybe 2024, 2024, we'll see maybe bouncing back Now let's focus on something much more positive though the International Women's Award. What date is it and when can people enter?

Naomi Mellor: 20:29

I'm just going to add something, one thing to what you just said which is the other thing about those live events is that you're creating space for people to meet one another, and I went to Pod News Live in Manchester and loved it. I met people there that I'd never met before, and I love meeting independent creators and people who are at the top of the game and have been for donkey's years and, I think, understanding the opportunities that can come from that. I have got a young woman working with me who I met at Pod News Live. She's phenomenal Hi, emma, if you're listening, she's amazing. And I had met her before, actually at the International Women's Podcast Festival, and I said to her you're great, do you want to do some bits and pieces with me? And she's amazing, and so, and I think having this space is to get together and we consider the International Women's Podcast Awards as much something else to be an opportunity to meet people in a friendly fashion where everyone is welcome I think is of vital importance. So, to go back to your previous question, this year's awards are on Monday, the 6th of November. We are holding them at the Conjure it again in London, which is where we had it last year, one of the things that I take a lot of pleasure in, and we did hold a meet up in February this year just at a bar in London. But I really like to encourage people who consider themselves not inviteable to most other things, because I just think, if you want to come but you don't go to networking events because you hate the idea of it, or you hate the idea of going to a podcasting related event because you think that everyone knows each other, or you think that people won't talk to you, those are the people that I'm like. Come to the International Women's Podcast Awards. Come to the next Pod News Live. If you email me in advance and tell me that you would like to meet somebody from a certain company or a certain sector, or just somebody who produces an independent podcast about, I don't know, windsurfing, we'll see what we can do. We might not be able to help you, but we might, and I really love that. So we're really looking forward to this year's International Women's Podcast Awards.

Naomi Mellor: 22:32

As I said, monday, the 6th of November the entries are open currently and they are open until a week on Friday, so that is Friday, the 22nd of September. We have had plenty of entries already. There's always a mad last-minute rush, you'll know yourself. It's the same with tickets, it's the same with entries, it's the same for everything. Everybody the last couple of days is like, oh my god, it's closing. So we're fully anticipating having plenty more next week as well, but you've got a week in a day or it'll be a week as from tomorrow, and that would be lovely to hear from you.

Naomi Mellor: 23:06

For the first time this year, we are also accepting entries in languages other than English, and Sam and I were speaking about this, about the podcasting world outside of North America and Europe and outside of the English-speaking sector in particular. We are so Anglo-centric and I am really, really, really excited and determined to platform podcasts in languages other than English as well, so we are accepting those. So if you know anybody who produces a podcast in another language, do pump them in our direction. And the last thing I should say is that we do also have a bursary, courtesy of our friends at Amazon Music. I'm wondering where we offer free entry to anybody that needs it.

Naomi Mellor: 23:49

This is unexclusive, no questions asked. We are really lucky and we love this, because often we are told finances are a barrier to smaller and particularly independent producers coming forwards, and often people are entering a podcast where it's a host, a producer, editor and market here of one, and we love to hear from those sectors as well. So, yeah, that's where we're at at the moment. Sorry, that was a lot of information, sam, and a lot of waffle with my terribly husky voice.

Sam Sethi: 24:21

Look, naomi. Thank you so much. Look forward to seeing you out at Pod News Live that's in a couple of weeks time and in the interim, make sure you go and enter for one of the awards and make sure you buy a ticket if you don't enter. So there's the two things that you have to do.

Naomi Mellor: 24:38

Yeah, you do. The tickets are not on sale just yet, but they will be in the next couple of weeks. All the details for entry are on our website. We only have 11 categories, but there is something for everybody. We're very small awards and we love having support from across the world. We have had entries from 18 different countries before. Wherever you are, we don't really care whether you're the UK, the US or beyond. We would love to hear from you. So, sam, thank you so much.

Sam Sethi: 25:03

Very welcome. Remind everyone what's the URL for the website.

Naomi Mellor: 25:08

It's wwweverybody-mediacom forward slash awards.

Sam Sethi: 25:15

Excellent, Naomi. Thanks. See you soon.

Naomi Mellor: 25:17

Thank you, Sam Pod News.

Speaker 2: 25:19

Live where the podcast industry connects. Get your tickets now at podnewsnet slash live.

James Cridland: 25:29

Yes, Naomi Miller will be there as well, so looking very much forward to that. Let's go and have a quick look around the world then, shall we? Sam?

Sam Sethi: 25:37

Yeah, germany. Now this was a good one. I actually sent this to my German friends. In Germany, when Germans drive, they mostly listen to music, but 23% listen to spoken content, including podcasts, according to a survey for a fuel company odd survey. But there you go Around. 76% of drivers turn the volume down when they're parking. Test the data and also says that 22% sing along loudly, 19% hum, but 48% enjoy themselves internally which I thought was the best thing Without showing it on the outside world. I just thought that is so German.

James Cridland: 26:12

I mean, yes, so, german, I'm enjoying myself internally without showing it off to the outside world. Yes, don't mention the wall. I think we got away with it once. So, yes, it's a wonderful research going on about podcasting cars and actually, you know, podcasting in cars is a real opportunity. Edison Research released some data this week as well, showing that, although, if you remember, we mentioned around live and linear being beaten now by on demand audio, that's not the case in the car, in the car, very much linear platforms still in charge. 76% of all listening to audio in a car is to something which is live and linear, only 24% to on demand platforms such as music or podcasts. So there's a clear opportunity there. You would have thought I wonder how much of that is just bad UX in terms of making it easier to listen to podcasts in a car.

Sam Sethi: 27:15

I don't know Well if our friends at Apple would allow progressive web apps to be supported through carplay, we might actually get better UI. But there you go.

James Cridland: 27:24

Well, yes, well, there's a thing Also in Germany ACAST announcing a strategic partnership with Zebra Lution, which is a big German podcast producer. Acast hosting and distributing the company's shows and also, obviously, selling programmatic advertising and stuff like that, which is nice. Denmark Podster We've mentioned Podster in a couple of shows recently and Danish podcast translation company Podster is to release a German language version of a Portuguese hit true crime podcast. They're working with a bunch of these individual podcast companies to basically translate and produce new versions in different languages of hit shows, which is a very clever idea. They're working with ACAST on that as well. So from ACAST, lizzie Pollert, the new chief communications and brand officer, will be speaking at PodNews Live in London September 27th. Podnewsnet slash live to get your tickets, so it'll be interesting to hear what they end up saying.

Sam Sethi: 28:26

Yeah, and also, just as a little bonus, Ross Adams will be on this show next week talking about their partnership with PodScriber.

James Cridland: 28:32

Excellent. That's more of a bonus. That's a whole new headline, so thank you for that. And finally, some data that I saw last week, actually at podcast day. Asia Podcasts are the most influential channel in Singapore, according to ACAST. They released the Sounds Smart Asia 2023 study. Over half of Singaporean podcast listeners make a purchase after hearing a product advertised on a podcast, which is nice to see in this part of the world. Timmy Sitanko was the speaker from ACAST in Kuala Lumpur last week and was very good to end up seeing, so that was good.

Sam Sethi: 29:16

You think about the number of times we've mentioned ACAST. They might sponsor this episode, let alone sponsor the show Seems to be dominating this week, anyway.

James Cridland: 29:25

Well, if yes, they are, they're a big company and they deserve it. Yes, hooray, I think let's take a look at some people news Andrew Golis or Golis or Golis I've no idea how to pronounce his name but the good news is I don't need to worry anymore because he's leaving New York Public Radio, which owns WNYC Studios as chief content officer. His last day is today. Bye. If you want to find out more information about Andrew and about what he did at the company over the three years that he was at the company, then read Sky Pillsbury's the Squeeze, which has a lot of information about him which I can't work out is actionable or not.

James Cridland: 30:08

So let's not go too far, yes, but still, there you go. So that's interesting. Also interesting is John Lansing, who is the CEO of NPR. He's to step down at the end of the year. He's retiring, so they're looking for a new CEO of NPR. Fancy it? No, no, no, no, thanks, no, I don't blame you.

James Cridland: 30:30

Audience measurement company Nielsen is laying off 9% of its global workforce. That's potentially more than a thousand people. They're a large, large company and that's not the first layoffs that they've been making over the last year or so, as I'm very aware of other people, other good people, that used to work for Nielsen who now no longer do so. So, yeah, if you're looking for audience research people, then that's certainly one to have a look at. What else is going on? Herb Scannell, or Scannell. He is CEO and president of Southern California Public Radio. They own LAist studios and the LAist radio station in Los Angeles. He is to retire and Amy Pilevski has joined Realm as senior account manager. She joins from Disney and ESPN. I think Realm is one of those companies to keep an eye on, very much focusing on audio fiction which, as we know, is the evergreen category for podcasting. So we're worth keeping an eye on that. If you're looking for a job, then Pod News has podcasting jobs across the industry and across the world. It's podcasting's largest jobs board. They're free to post as well.

Speaker 2: 31:42

Podnewsnet Jobs the tech stuff on the Pod News Weekly Review.

James Cridland: 31:50

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. Sam, you have piled loads and loads and loads of graphs into our show notes, so I'm looking forward to you explaining them in audio form. Go.

Sam Sethi: 32:05

Well, the audio forms are very simple. Olby, the digital wallet, made over one million lightning payments in August. It's an all-time high for them. Olby's first month, in fact, of making that and what I wanted to do with the chart, and obviously I will put this in the chapters. So if you have a pop-up that supports chapters, you will see the charts. You see, the trend is dramatically upwards and I think that's the key point that I wanted to get across. People are wondering okay, I've heard you and others say oh, it's just a circular motion of me giving stats to you and you giving it back to me and then me giving it to Adam and Adam gives it to somebody else, etc. Well, I actually think this chart shows that the overall stats payments through the Olby network is starting to grow and we are beginning to see that flywheel start to move. So that's why I thought I'd share it with you.

James Cridland: 33:00

Yeah, no, that is definitely looking good, and you've also shared Stacker News. What is Stacker News?

Sam Sethi: 33:08

Yeah, it's a wonderful news service, like Hacker News, but they use Satoshi's as micro payments as well and they continue to grow at record pace. They had a record month of 575 page views, up from 281 page views. And again it's just a good chart showing the arrow of direction in people paying for news and using stats. And again I'm just trying to give a flavor. I think we're beginning to see digital wallets and people understand this micro payment model and value for value and the charts hopefully back that up with the fact that more news and more podcasts and more payments are going through the system.

James Cridland: 33:54

Yeah, there's a lot of payments going through from that. I'm using Nostra occasionally you can find me on there, james, at critland, and I keep on noticing people posting kind of blog posts, I guess, and getting zaps from that. And it occurred to me and a lot of other people that perhaps, given that blogs use RSS as well, you could use value for value in some way shape or form in including sat payments for blogs as well, I guess.

Sam Sethi: 34:28

Yeah, a great podcast episode from friend of the show Kyron Down this week he was talking about actually part of it was about using blogging and micro payments and William Kenny, aka the bearded tech, is looking to start a blog index using the RSS 2.0 namespace. And he reached out to me actually because we at the pod fans of created an internal. I mean, we're not looking to commercialize it as a package, but we use the person tag, we use boostergrams, we use zaps and again, he was very keen to understand what I'd done and why we're using the medium tag as blog. And then it dawned on me and actually this is what Wave Lake's just done, right with music. So they've just created a RSS for music. Well, why don't we create an RSS platform for blogging? And yeah, so I think William and I are going to be exchanging some notes and hopefully William will be starting a RSS 2.0 blogging platform for everybody.

James Cridland: 35:31

Yeah, very interesting, worthwhile taking a peek on. And, of course, pod news is kind of both, because it's a blog with all of the right lightning information as well as a podcast pod newsnet, slash RSS. So, yeah, there's a thing, some new features for the podcast namespace. Podcast pinning is a thing. What's that, sam?

Sam Sethi: 35:55

So Spotify, a couple of weeks back, came up with a proprietary feature where you could highlight a starting point episode that you might want people to listen to. So instead of just your trailer, you might say actually, episode X is the one I really want you to come in on this, you know, if you want to get a flavor of what I'm doing. Dave Jones and it's been an ongoing conversation Daniel J Lewis and various others have been promoting or proposing this for a while, but Dave came out this week called podcast pinning the idea of being able to put a podcast episode at the top of your list. It's a bit like the pod roll. It's really simple to do. We've implemented it already on pod fans. I'm actually going to ask you, James, to implement this in your RSS feed so we can test it. But yeah, really super idea that it just says look, here's the episode. I like most that. If you've never heard this show before, have a listen to this one first.

James Cridland: 36:53

Yeah, so pinning is one thing and obviously what Spotify have also implemented is something which is the pod roll, which is very similar thing, of recommend me other stuff available on Spotify in their particular case, but recommend me other shows that that I might want to recommend to my audience. And I think you know I was listening to the Buzzsprout team on Buzzcast, our sponsor, and they were talking very much around. You know Spotify could be doing all of this through Open RSS and they're not, and they really could be doing all of this through Open RSS. So it's a bit disappointing in many ways that they haven't actually bothered to end up doing that. So I quite like the idea of showing Spotify. Look, here is your proprietary feature, but it works everywhere, not just in Spotify. Why don't you implement this instead? So I'm quite a fan of that.

Sam Sethi: 37:52

Hmm. Well, talking of Spotify, daniel Eck put out a tweet that said they've launched their newest feature called Daylist, a playlist that evolves with you throughout the day. Again, I assume it listens to what music you're listening to and then the playlist just suggests is new or different stuff to listen to throughout the day. It's not a bad idea. It's a dynamic playlist. I also thought that this would be great for podcasts if they would extend it further.

James Cridland: 38:21

Well, it sounds like a brilliant idea and an idea that YouTube music has had for the last two years. So well done, spotify. Another triumph Podcast hosting company rsscom has added a dump of new features that possibly don't want me to call it a dump, but still there we are enhanced collaboration for teams, so if you work on a podcast with other people, you're not sharing logins anymore. Also, updates to podcast pages to make those work better. They have a new evangelist called Joe Casabona, who has released a video all about those features as well. I'm an advisor.

Sam Sethi: 39:02

It's a pretty nice tool, so many congratulations to rsscom and yeah, if you want to hear also Alberto, the wonderful Alberto from rsscom. He did a great interview with Cameron who lives in the woods, who we had on the show a few weeks ago no surnames allowed. He and Alberto did a great interview with Adam and Dave about IPFS and certain class. But the interesting thing was Alberto said that rsscom isn't a hosting company.

James Cridland: 39:34

Yes, well, there you go, well, I suppose. Yeah, I mean, I suppose hosting is really easy to do. It's all of the additional stuff that goes with that which is the more complicated thing. But yes, they are most certainly a technology company, not a hosting company. I would have thought. What else is going on? Fountain is out with beta support for music, with a brand new interface for music there. New web and desktop versions of Fountain are also in the works and out soon. I'm an advisor for them too.

James Cridland: 40:06

Audia has released a new version of Fader, which is a podcast app and also a radio app that gets rid of the commercials and replaces them with something else, which I don't fully understand. But they're talking about buying new companies towards the end of the year as well. Audia, to me, is quite close to Live One in that kind of bewildering world of finance and everything else. There's a company called AI Jingle Maker which enables you to make DJ drops and station IDs and podcast intros, and all of that using AI, of course, and they work in just a few seconds. They don't sound too bad, to be fair. And what's the best transcription software for podcasters? Transistors just in Jackson has compared a bunch of those, and I also uploaded some additional transcripts of his test files to him so that he saw how Whisper worked as well. But that's a good article which you'll find in the pages of pod news earlier on this week.

Speaker 2: 41:11

Podcast events on the Pod News Weekly Review.

James Cridland: 41:16

Oh yes, it's time for some events and lots of interesting events. There's a brand new event called PodCon MX, which has been announced for Mexico City in early November. It's presented by rsscom and I will be there very much. Looking forward to being in Mexico City in early November, so that should be a nice thing. There's the British podcast awards, of course, happening on September, the 28th. Sam, you will be handing over an award, will you not?

Sam Sethi: 41:47

I will be. I'm not sure what it is. I think it's the news award. So, yes, I better not drop it.

James Cridland: 41:52

whatever it is, yes but I believe it is a news award, because I basically said yeah, if we're handing one over, if it's pod news handing one over, then the news category. I mean obviously, but they're never going to give us that, I thought, but seemingly they have. I mean, they may well change their mind, but still, there you go. So I could do a runner.

James Cridland: 42:12

James and yeah, why not? Yeah, that sounds like a winning plan. The day before, of course, is pod news live, which we'll get onto in just a second, and the audio production awards 2023 are open for entry. You've got a week to get your entries in there, organised by Audio UK, so if you're doing anything in the UK, then that is a good thing. So talk live to me Sam. What's the latest from that? I thought we were, but okay.

Sam Sethi: 42:48

No, the latest is ticket sales are great. We're very excited it's coming up. It's less than two weeks away now, so if you want to come to the old BBC building which James used to work in and see where he worked, you won't have to do that. But yes, but it is at Soho house. It's in the top floor. It's very lovely and, yeah, I highly recommend coming to podnewsnet forward slash live. As we said throughout this show, lots of great speakers Morton Strungern from Podimo, stefan Russell from PodEx. The list of speakers again you can see on the website at podnewsnet. Forward slash live is the who's who really of what's going on.

James Cridland: 43:30

Yes, I'm very much looking forward to the event. I'm trying to work out exactly where it is in the old television centre. I think I only went to the television centre about three times when I worked for the corporation back in 2007 to 2009. I went to the BBC club twice, which was lovely, and I'm guessing it's not in that area. I'm guessing it's somewhere else. But, yes, I'm quite looking forward to that, of course, being somebody who lives in Australia.

James Cridland: 44:02

Now I am staying in Earl's Court, which you'll appreciate, because that's where all the Australians historically have always been in London. So, yes, so that'll be good. Booked my hotel last week. I'm also at the International Journalism Forum in Athens in Greece later on that week, which is hilarious, because I'm not a trained journalist, don't really know what I'm doing, so that should be fun for everybody concerned. I'm on a panel, apparently about podcasting. I'm not sure what it is I'm going to be doing yet because I don't think I've been told, but that should be good. There are more events, both paid for and free, at Pod News virtual events or events in a place with people, and if you're organizing something, tell the world about it. It's free to be listed at podnewsnet slash events Boostergram corner corner corner on the Pod News Weekly Review.

James Cridland: 44:58

Oh, it's our favorite time of the week, sam, and that's not just because we're nearly out of time for this podcast. No, it's because we've got loads of Boostergrams that have come in, haven't we?

Sam Sethi: 45:09

Yeah, I mean the first one was from user 4232, 1474, 14248740. Nice, yeah, anonymous, basically Great show. Love to hear about value for value. Sent us 500 sats. Thank you very much.

James Cridland: 45:24

Excellent, that's very kind. Ainsley Costello gave us thanks and all of that 2,100 sats. Thank you, ainsley Costello. Lightning is heart sign, she says Exactly. And also Adam Curry himself 100,000, no, 100,000 sats. Now that really would be a big baller. 10,000 sats, that's still nice, thank you, adam. Thank you for the Ainsley and Sam Means interviews which he listened to us in bed last week.

Sam Sethi: 45:58

He may well be listening now.

James Cridland: 46:00

Good night, Adam he may well now be listening in bed as well. Yes gosh, Trying to get that out of my head, the Tone Wrecker sent us a small row of ducks 222 sats. Appreciate hearing from Ainsley about her experience so far and getting more Wave Lake insights from Sam Means. I really enjoyed the Ainsley interview last week as well. It was really good. She is so excited and she can really see this being part of the future for her industry, so really really good, I thought.

Sam Sethi: 46:41

She's got her head switched on, I have to say, and she's got good parents behind her as well. Now Jean Bean sent us in another row well, a longer row of ducks, 222 sats. I'm particularly enjoying the show this week, especially the interviews, thanks.

James Cridland: 46:55

Jean yes, thank you, jean. And Oscar Merry from Fountain, who sent us 50,000 sats oh yes, great interviews with Ainsley and Sam. Send any artists you know to Wave Lake, he says, and of course you'll be able to play those tracks directly in Fountain any moment now. Thank you, oscar. That's very kind of you. And Dave Jones responded to my feature request and has fixed it.

James Cridland: 47:25

The music chart, the podcast index top that chart is of now most numbers of boosts over the past seven days and it does show a list of sats. And I got a bit confused with that list of sats. They are the historical amount earned all time. So that's how that works. I am wondering whether or not there's a programmatic list of those, because I was thinking wouldn't it be interesting to make something which was a chart show, you know, like Bruno Brooks or Casey Kasem depending on which side of the pond you're having a listen to us on a bit like that, but completely automatic, generated through dynamic audio insertion. I thought that would be really quite fun to do. So I'm kind of up for that if I can get the programmatic information about what's in the charts and the various IDs and stuff. But that would be pretty cool, wouldn't it?

Sam Sethi: 48:23

Bruno lives in my village. Do you want me to go and ask him if you'll co-host it with you?

James Cridland: 48:27

Because, of course, bruno Brooks lives in your village, because everybody lives in your village, he does it just happened to know.

Sam Sethi: 48:34

Yes, he does. I'll tell you what I'll tell you what so?

James Cridland: 48:42

I last spoke to him a while back. He left me a message on my mobile phone. It was hi, james, it's me, bruno Brooks. And I thought wow, there you go.

Sam Sethi: 48:54

Ready to watch stereo top 40. You got the look. Get the highest climber at 19. Here's a new entry for five star number 18.

James Cridland: 49:02

But of course, he ran an internet radio station way, way, way back in time, which I think is called Net FM, which was broadcasting from studios which are right next to where the podcast show in London is actually based, so in one of those little buildings next to the Islington show, you know, conference center thing. And yes, he was very, very in touch with what the future might have been and was ever so slightly ahead of time. But Net FM was always a good plan. So, yes, I've got. Yeah, Bruno Brooks. Anyway, not that I'm going off on one.

James Cridland: 49:53

If you get value from what we do, please do support us. We really appreciate your support. All of those people who have sent us boosts, that's a lovely thing. You can support us with sats by hitting the boost button in your podcast app. If you don't have one, podnewsnet slash new podcast app will help you find a new app. Have our pod fans or maybe fountain, who knows. And you can also support us if you have a credit card which is burning a hole in your pocket and then you can go to weeklypodnewsnet Find out why it's burning. First of all, that would be a good plan and secondly, visit weeklypodnewsnet and become a power supporter PWR supporter. See what we did there, and that would be awesome and very helpful too, Sam, and I share everything from it. And I tell you what when you're putting on a big event like Podnews Live, you need all the support that you can get. So many thanks to you if you have supported us. Now what's happened for you this week, Sam? Well, as.

Sam Sethi: 50:53

I said earlier, we've added support for the new namespace tag podcast Ind. I'll be putting up some images of that later. But more importantly, my youngest daughter went to uni this week, so I'm feeling a little bit sad. Took her up on Monday and yeah.

James Cridland: 51:09

Is it very quiet at Castle Sethi?

Sam Sethi: 51:11

now it is quieter. Yeah, we've still got our eldest has gone to uni and come home, so we've still got one hanging around, which is quite nice. But, yeah, it is for any parent who's had their children go off to uni, it's exactly that same feeling. It's just the next stage for them, but it is also a happy and sad moment. So, yeah, so a bit of that. And then, yeah, another sad moment coming up. I'm going to be having a birthday on Monday. So, yes, oh is now?

James Cridland: 51:39

is this the birthday where you get the special card that you can get on to buses?

Sam Sethi: 51:43

Not quite, james. No, no, no, no. You might get there before me, but who knows, I don't know what Australia's age group is no, this is a non-descript one, so it's fine, I don't have to worry. Yet I'm sort of midway through my 50s, so I'm okay, I'm surviving.

James Cridland: 52:00

Are you doing anything exciting for your birthday?

Sam Sethi: 52:02

No, nothing Absolutely boring, as far as I'm aware. No, the big one is my wife's going to be turning 60 next month, so that's the big one.

James Cridland: 52:09

So everything? Oh, she'll be delighted that you've told the world on this podcast.

Sam Sethi: 52:13

She doesn't ever do anything for her. There you go, I've told everyone now.

James Cridland: 52:19

Wowzers. So there you go. And it was Adam Curry's birthday very, very recently as well, wasn't it? Do you share the same birthday month we?

Sam Sethi: 52:26

are Virgos. Yes, we are fellow Virgos.

James Cridland: 52:29

That's where the similarity probably ends.

Sam Sethi: 52:31

I mean, I used to say I was a DJ, but really I wasn't. It's a bit like you saying you're a journalist.

James Cridland: 52:40

Well, many, many congratulations for Alex's birthday on Monday. I will buy you a proper drink when I see you next. That would be a good thing, james, what's happened for you this week, then Go on. Well, I've closed down a website, so that was nice. Podevents is no longer. That used to be where the events system was based for the Pod News website. Not quite sure why. I set it up as a separate website, but yes, but no longer. So that has been moved over and hopefully I've managed to get rid of all of the bugs in doing that. Podjobs will follow very, very shortly. Podjobsnet will follow over into that, so that everything is under the Pod News umbrella. So that will be a good thing.

James Cridland: 53:25

And if you're having a quiet time of it at home, so are we, because our daughter is off on school camp. So she's been away for the last three days and it's been blissfully quiet. It's been lovely. So it's local trivia night tonight at the local bowls club, which is as close to we get as a pub. So we're off there tonight. So that should be good. So I'm looking forward to that.

James Cridland: 54:00

And also, I learned some new Australian phrase this week. I was listening to Australian radio. Would you like to hear my this brand new Australian phrase? Go for it. So the bloke was on and he was talking to I think he was talking to a policeman or something and he was saying so this new policy that you've got, this new policy, is it entirely Ridgey Didge? What? What Ridgey Didge? Is it entirely Ridgey Didge? Could you imagine that on NPR? You know you're listening to. All things considered, tell me, secretary General, is that entirely Ridgey Didge? It's no, it's never going to work, is it? But yes, ridgey Didge, something solid. It means kind of, yeah, it means all above board. It's very similar to fair dinkum and I would like to frankly understand what the difference is between Ridgey Didge and fair dinkum. So answers on a postcard, please, or, even better, on a boost.

Sam Sethi: 55:00

Or we can ask your mates at the trivia tonight.

James Cridland: 55:04

Yes, because most of those are proper Australians, apart from the Belgian man, yes, and the person who lived in Switzerland for a long, long time and so her phone is in Swiss French, which is very confusing if you're trying to help her join the Coffee Shop WhatsApp Group, because, yes, we have a Coffee Shop WhatsApp Group. I feel as if I'm sharing a little bit too much now.

Sam Sethi: 55:28

It's the rock and roll lifestyle you have there, James.

James Cridland: 55:31

That's clearly what it is. Anyway, that's it for this week.

Sam Sethi: 55:36

You can give feedback to James and I by using email to weekly at podnewsnet or send us a boost to Graham, which we prefer. If your podcast app doesn't support boosting, grab a new one from podnewsnet. Forward slash new podcast apps. What are you waiting for?

James Cridland: 55:51

What are you waiting for? Indeed, our music is from Studio Dragonfly. Our voiceover is Sheila D. We use clean feed for our main audio and we're hosted and sponsored by Podnews Live and Buzzsprout. Podcast hosting made easy. I'm Bruno Brooks.

Rob Ellin: 56:09

Many thanks for listening and whatever you're doing tonight, have a nice night.

Speaker 2: 56:16

Get updated every day. Subscribe to our newsletter at podnewsnet.

Rob Ellin: 56:22

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Speaker 2: 56:27

Weekly Review will return next week. Keep listening.