Podnews Weekly Review
The last word in podcasting news.
Every Friday, James Cridland and Sam Sethi review the week's top stories from Podnews; and interview some of the biggest names making the news.
Support the show at https://weekly.podnews.net - or hit the boost button! Sponsored by Buzzsprout: podcast hosting made easy.
Podnews Weekly Review
Apple's web app - from Podcast Movement
James wanders about at Podcast Movement while chatting with Sam about the latest podcasting news.
Resilient Earth RadioWelcome to RESILIENT EARTH RADIO where we host speakers from the United...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Connect With Us:
- Email: weekly@podnews.net
- Twitter: @jamescridland / @podnews and @samsethi / @joinpodfans
- Lightning/NOSTR: ⚡james@crid.land and ⚡sam@getalby.com
- Mastodon: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
- Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
- Get Podnews: podnews.net
It's Friday, the 23rd of August 2024.
Speaker 2:The last word in podcasting news. This is the Pod News Weekly Review with James Cridland and Sam Sethi.
Speaker 1:I'm James Cridland, the editor of Pod News in Washington at Podcast.
Speaker 4:Movement and I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO of TrueFans in the UK.
Speaker 1:In the chapters. Today, apple Podcasts launches a web app. What does it mean for statistics? Spotify, fountain and True Fans are all building podcast social networks. Fountain integrates with Nostra, true Fans integrates with Activity Pub, and OSHA launches a new AI tool called OSHA Intelligence. This podcast is sponsored by Buzzsprout, with the tools, support and community to make sure you keep podcasting, start podcasting, keep podcasting with Buzzsprout. With the tools, support and community to make sure you keep podcasting, start podcasting, keep podcasting with Buzzsprout.
Speaker 2:From your daily newsletter, the Pod News Weekly Review.
Speaker 4:Right, james, let's cover the big story of the week then. Apple Podcasts is now on the web. What happened? Go on tell me.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's very exciting, isn't it? Apple Podcasts now on the web. They launched a web app for the Apple Podcasts app. You can access it right now at podcastsapplecom. So it's a web app that basically works on everything, and they were very coy in their press release and they said that it works on every single device, but of course, that means that it works on Android phones, and it works on Android phones pretty well, as a PWA we would call it. So now you can access podcasts through Apple Podcasts on your Android phone, but more than that, you can, of course, buy premium podcasts as well, which of course, is a very interesting thing, I think.
Speaker 4:So obviously Apple are paying Google 30%, then, correct?
Speaker 1:No, they don't need to, because, of course, Apple doesn't actually pay any money. Because they don't need to? Because it's a web app, and I think that's the clever thing. It's not an app that's available in the App Store. It's an app which they've made available just as a website. So they very cleverly circumvented the Google Podcasts or the Google Play 30% tax, and this is Apple doing it. So I think that that's quite funny and I'm surprised that they haven't actually said a little bit more about that.
Speaker 4:Well, the current version doesn't have support for transcripts, chapters or downloads. You still can't rate or review podcasts. I thought the interesting thing was, if you try to, if you use it on an Apple device, if you have the podcast from Apple, it will load the app store version, not the website version.
Speaker 1:Yes, it will indeed, because you can do a little bit more on an app. Still, one of the problems that they've got is, of course, chapters. Apple currently only supports ID3 chapters, and so therefore, that means that chapters won't work on a web app. That's why the podcast namespace has an alternative chapters feed. So no chapters. I'm surprised that they haven't got any transcripts. I don't know quite what the deal is there. I'm sure that they might come back to that, but yeah. But you know they've got pretty well everything in there. No downloads, of course, and maybe that's going to be one of the interesting things.
Speaker 4:One of the things that Apple has done. It means that they can now get rid of iTunes for Windows. James, is that?
Speaker 1:true, yeah, I mean. So it'll get rid of a few things, a few sort of legacy things, and one of those is most definitely iTunes for Windows, which still exists, of course. It's still a way of listening to podcasts on your Windows device, and that means that this will go away, one would assume at some point. I think you still need iTunes for audiobooks, but not for anything else. So I think that's as far you know. They must be really looking forward to getting rid of that. So that's a good thing and, of course, yeah, so it's a clever move on Apple's part.
Speaker 4:Now, this isn't the first web app that they've produced. They've recently done the Maps web app and they've also got a version for Apple Music and Apple TV. James, why are they doing this then? Why are they moving all of?
Speaker 1:their apps to the web. Well, I think some of that is working on, you know, just sort of having a look and a see on what they can do in the web. But of course that breaks them out of any issues with Google. It means that they are the controller of their own destiny. They don't have to get apps approved by Google, and perhaps this is good news, because if Apple are taking web apps seriously, then that means that web apps are going to be taken seriously on iOS and other platforms as well. So hopefully that's good news for everybody concerned.
Speaker 4:Now Apple have also, in the EU, got to open up the market for alternative app stores, and that's happening right now and that's leading to a restructuring, it looks like in Apple. Vp Matt Fisher is leaving in October and there'll be now two groups one running the official app store from Apple and the other one to use the alternative app stores app store from Apple and the other one to use the alternative app stores. Again, I think they're trying to do what they're being told to do by the EU, but all of the things we talked about last week, with all of the derisory amounts that you have to pay even if you don't use their app store, I don't think this is actually going to fix the problem.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, I think that there's, you know, there's certain. I mean there's clearly a ton of benefits in avoiding having to get everything done through an app store and perhaps it does help them in terms of the European issues that they're currently having. I mean, you know, it was always. The original plan was everything was going to be in the web browser, and it was, I think, because the web browsers weren't good enough back when iPhone launched, that we've ended up having an app store anyway, so I'm quite excited if we can get more web apps actually working there.
Speaker 4:So do you think they're going to kill Flash 2, the App Store? Are they going to go fully web?
Speaker 1:I think they're absolutely not going to kill the App Store and I think, given the amount of money that the App Store actually makes, I wouldn't have thought that that's going to be a thing at all.
Speaker 4:Now I had a look around for various people's comments, so somebody said good start, but if you have any shows from Patreon or Patreon or the like, they won't show up on the web.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know about that. I've not actually tried that. So that would be private RSS feeds working in the web. I've not actually tried that, but yes, that wouldn't surprise me feeds working in the web.
Speaker 4:I've not actually tried that, but yes, that wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 1:Somebody else said has this been stuck?
Speaker 4:in their outbox for 20 years.
Speaker 1:I thought that was quite funny.
Speaker 4:Well, Apple is slow at everything. And is this how Apple finally decommissions iTunes or Windows, which is what we said? Podcasts and audio books were the last things still handled by iTunes. Somebody, quite nicely, though, did put so. Does this mean James Crillin's bet with Adam Curry only pays off James?
Speaker 1:Well, yes, that would be nice, wouldn't it? I think I should be able to claim my bet with Adam because, frankly, this is an app, is it not? I think I should be able to claim that bet, but Adam has said no. The terms were quite clear. It's an Android app, so, yes. So it looks as if Adam's not going to be paying out, which is a bit of a shame, but there we are.
Speaker 4:Oh well, time will tell Now time will tell.
Speaker 1:I should tell you where I am, by the way, because you're probably wondering why there's so much noise in the background. I'm wandering around in the convention centre in the podcast movement. Somebody actually sent a very nasty email the other day saying there's too much noise at the back of the podcast daily podcast and I can't listen and I've unsubscribed. So apologies if you don't like noise here I'm actually standing. You wouldn't believe it, sam, but I'm actually standing in the Buzzsprout stand right now. Right, can you believe that?
Speaker 4:Well, thank you to our sponsors. I've got Jordan, that Well thank you to our sponsors.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you to our sponsors, indeed, and I've got Jordan Blair here from the Buzzsprout team. How's it been for you?
Speaker 5:Oh, it's been wonderful, James. I've had a lot of fun this year.
Speaker 1:I ended up at your event yesterday. I got a tattoo, I got all kinds of stuff. Has it been fun meeting all of the podcasters?
Speaker 5:Yes, it's been so much fun and you did not get a real tattoo. Let's be like super clear about that. But yes, we were giving out some temporary tattoos to our attendees of the party, and so a lot of people at the podcast movement are tatted up today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, mine is off already, I'm afraid.
Speaker 5:Oh, mine's still on. I guess I didn't scrub hard enough.
Speaker 1:Well, it's really good to see you. Thank you for your support, as ever, and lots and lots of badges here. We should get some badges for Sam, really, and send them back.
Speaker 5:Yes, absolutely, we will do that for you, sam.
Speaker 4:Just James. So you know Jordan prefers podcast movement to Christmas.
Speaker 5:Really? Yes, I do. Podcast movement is my favorite week of the year.
Speaker 1:All good. Thank you, Jordan.
Speaker 4:There you go.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's move on to the next story.
Speaker 4:So how is this Apple podcast going to be measured, then, by stats companies in terms of downloads, in terms of listens? How is it all going to work?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad you asked of downloads in terms of listens. How is it all going to work? Well, I'm glad you asked so in terms of that, because essentially it's a play in a browser. Some podcast companies are listing it as a browser play because they think that that's the correct thing, so a Chrome or Firefox or anything else. Some podcast companies are listing it as Apple Podcasts, including Buzzsprout. Some podcast companies are listing it as Apple Podcasts, including Buzzsprout. Some podcast companies are listing it as Apple Podcasts Web Player, which should be pretty cool. I believe that Apple want you, kind of want you to list it as Apple Podcasts Web Player. So list it slightly separately, because it's useful to know what's coming from an app and what isn't, but I think it's not particularly useful just to say that it's a Chrome or a Firefox play.
Speaker 4:Now? Transistor and Captivate have done well with that. How will OP3 deal with this?
Speaker 1:OP3 is already dealing with it correctly in my view, which is they're putting it under Apple podcasts. You can see the web plays separately, but they're putting it under Apple Podcasts. You can see the web plays separately, but they're putting it correctly under the Apple Podcasts banner and, frankly, if that means that we get an extra 20% plays in Apple Podcasts, then great and it'll go onto the Apple Podcasts bottom line and that should be a good thing.
Speaker 4:Well, moving on, james, a story in TechCrunch that caught my attention because of what's going on with other podcasting 2.0 apps. Spotify, it said, is no longer just a streaming app, it's a social network. Now the story basically was talking about Spotify having launched comments a few weeks ago, and it was also talking about it has polls and Q&As and various other things, and it's simply saying that the Spotify app is shaping up to be a social network. And the reason is Chris Messina, a friend of the show, who loves reverse engineering, lots of early betas has discovered a whole new set of strings that are available in the iOS app beta. So it says on your profile, people can see who's following you. It says people can see who recently listened to your profile. No friends on Spotify available, so, it seems. And I could go on and on.
Speaker 4:There's more, yeah yeah yeah, it seems that Spotify is building what they had originally with the music and Facebook integration much more now into a social element within the app itself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I wonder whether this is actually coming back to what Spotify was really good at about 10 years or so ago, which is you could link to your Facebook account and you could see what your friends are listening to on the Facebook account, and I'm just sort of assuming that that's how that works. But yeah, I mean, you know it would be good, wouldn't it, if Spotify was to add a bit more sort of you know, help your friends discover new music type of stuff. Of course, that exists already in YouTube music. It did once exist in Apple's services, but not anymore. Apple had that social network. Do you remember? It was a while back.
Speaker 4:No, I don't actually. Yeah, it passed me by. It was called Ping, but I wouldn't even remember it. It just came and went.
Speaker 1:Exactly. So that makes sense, but I think what would be ideal is if Spotify was to do the same as YouTube does and have an API into those comments so that podcasters could actually see all of the comments together in one place.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think this is the next step of discovery, and I think they'll add it to podcasting as well, so you'll be able to say James is playing X podcast or Sam is playing Y podcast, if I follow you as a friend.
Speaker 4:I think that's a natural move forward. So, friend of the show, oscar Merry, has just launched Fountain 1.1, both available on iOS and Android, and they've rebuilt it from the ground up with Nostra support. And I met with Oscar for lunch actually on Wednesday and we were talking about what he's doing and basically it's a social network element. So if you're on Fountain listening to a particular podcast, you can actually then broadcast out to your Nostra end relay what you're listening to or you can leave a comment in your Nostra relay that goes back into Fountain. So again, again, another social element to podcasting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, there's a bunch of that and I think you know Fountain has always been a pretty social service and you know I do think that social is the future. The thing that concerns me about Spotify's version is that it's obviously closed and a proprietary thing with no API. This is better, obviously, because it's using an open platform. Unfortunately, it's using an open platform like Nostr, which is very geeky and possibly impenetrably geeky for most people. I think what would be really good is to see a podcast app, maybe a web app, using something which is a bit more open, like the Fediverse, what Mastodon runs on.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much, nicely teed up.
Speaker 1:That was a softball to you there. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we as True Fans have been working last week and this week on integrating True Fans with the Fediverse. So you can now go to truefanssocial, you can do a search for your name, you can follow your name and later this week we will be publishing your activity out and that means you'll be able to also see comments in and out from the Fediverse into True Fans. So, thank you, I think this is the way forward as another way to help all podcasts, not just in TrueFans, I think Fountain as well, and I think in Spotify. I think this trend of being able to see what your friends are listening to and be able to then interact with that and maybe leave comments. This goes towards the fabled cross app comments eventually, anyway, certainly with what we are doing at TrueFans and with Fountain. So, yeah, it's a nice step forward, james, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's certainly useful to do and it's a useful you know. I think it makes a bunch of sense for everybody just to see, okay, how can we open up these comments. We can't have 25 different apps with 25 different sets of comments, because there'll be hardly any comments in any of them, and so actually that's not a particularly helpful thing. So I think making it easier, making it more straightforward, I think would make for a bunch of a bunch of sense there yeah, I mean the way that oscar's done it.
Speaker 4:He's attached a podcast guid to every comment. We are going to be able to find those guids and actually bring them back into true fans and we're going to reverse that so that oscar can take the comments out of true fans. And we already do it for clips and obviously you can do that for podcasts and episodes. So I think the podcast GUID is going to be the core element that enables us to start to share content between apps rather than keep it within the walled garden.
Speaker 1:Yes, no, I think that all makes a bunch of sense, and the more open we can be in terms of comments, you know, I think that that would be a good plan. I appear to be standing in front of the Blueberry podcasting stand we have. Todd Cochran is here. You're on the Pod News Weekly Review, do not swear and Mike is here as well. Are you tired, todd? Has it been a tiring few days for you?
Speaker 7:No, not at all. We've been good talking with podcasters and it's been a different kind of event.
Speaker 1:A different kind of event. You've been very upset about the lack of carpet, haven't you?
Speaker 7:Well, the carpet's one thing, but really what we're seeing mostly is folks have been creating podcasts for a long time. We haven't talked to a lot of new creators, but that's okay. It's kind of the way shows go from time to time.
Speaker 1:And, mike, you're a veteran of these things as well have you been talking to a lot of the customers that you're supporting?
Speaker 9:Oh yeah, definitely talking to some customers actually moved some customers from one place to another. A couple of them here.
Speaker 1:Where from? Come on Spotify Spotify. Spotify is the correct answer. Is there a correct answer? Good to see you, folks.
Speaker 4:Nice.
Speaker 1:So, sam, you were talking about the Hollywood Reporter and they've been talking about apps as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, in the 100 most influential people in podcasting, which sadly no one outside the USA made. One of the other questions they asked was about what apps should do going forward and I looked at all the feedback from various people and it was just very disappointing. You can read it online on Pod News Daily.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:It was very myopic. It was very much along the lines of if they asked Henry Ford what they want, they all would have said a faster horse. They don't know what they want and I thought Steve Jobs' quote was much more appropriate Give the customers what they want. And I thought Steve Jobs quote was much more appropriate give the customers what they want. But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do, and I think that's the job of people like myself and Oscar and other podcasting 2.0 developers, because I don't think if we said you want remote items, do you want wallet switching, do you want micro payments? I don't think any of that lot would have said yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, although I'm not sure how many of that lot would say yes anyway. But yes, but I know what you mean. Yeah, I mean everybody just went on the lazy trope of, oh, discovery could be better, and yeah, I don't think that that was particularly helpful, to be honest.
Speaker 4:No, Now I don't know if you saw, but Acast have opened their new London studios and they're back in the old street.
Speaker 1:Yes, which looks all beautiful. I saw a photograph I've not covered this yet in the Pod News Daily. Or maybe I have today, friday, who knows. Or maybe I have today, friday, who knows. But yes, really interesting to see them spending a little bit more money on that. Ross Adams is here and is wearing, very strangely, wearing some kind of New York, I don't know baseball, basketball gear. Don't really understand what he's doing there. But, yeah, so good to see him yesterday. And Acast are here, but they just have a little booth for meetings. They're not doing any sort of, you know, pressing the flesh in terms of creators as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah well, ross supports a football team in London called Spurs. I'm sure he's trying to forget that because they never win anything.
Speaker 1:Oh well, you know there's Spurs for you. Shall we talk to somebody else, do you think? Go for it. Let's talk to somebody else and say hello to Rob Greenlee. Hello, Rob, Hello James, You're on the Pod News Weekly Review. Do not swear. Wow, I'm honored. It's wonderful to be here. How has your conference been? It's been great to see you. You've been in meetings all the time, I think.
Speaker 9:Yes, I try and talk to people when I'm at a conference. Yes, it's been very good.
Speaker 1:Podcast movement is always a fun place to be, so, yeah, no, it's good. Do you think it's busy? What's your sort of view of the, of the, of the how the industry you know is actually going?
Speaker 9:well, I think, uh, with the economy the way it is, I think what's happening here may be indicative of that. So it's been a little slower than past podcast movement events and and I think there's definitely indications of a little bit of a pullback in the industry. But maybe some of the changes that are going on are healthy too.
Speaker 1:You're with. I've just interrupted a meeting. You're with Reggie from Amplitude Media Partners. Who are Amplitude Media Partners, reggie?
Speaker 3:We are an ad sales company. Who are Amplitude Media Partners? Reggie, we are an ad sales company, so if you have a podcast, you're to the right size. You can help monetize your podcast with Amplitude Media Partners.
Speaker 1:And I saw you and your colleagues earlier on in the day. Things going well for you. I keep on seeing new people starting at your organization.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are continuing to expand, and not just people that work with us, but also podcasters that are working with us. It's nice to kind of get to see some of these people in person that you don't normally get to talk to, whether it be agencies, podcasters and talking to Rob. Here we were discussing some of the latest technology or advances or changes coming in the podcasting world, so it's great to grab some of this information that you may not get unless you see them face-to-face and you get a chance to talk to them and expand upon these ideas.
Speaker 1:Well, it's really good. I will let you carry on talking, thank you. Thank you so much, cheers. So, sam, you have news about sad news from Africa.
Speaker 4:Sadly, yeah, africa's Podfest, the Pan-African Podfest Festival, is to close After five years. The organization worked with over 4,000 podcasters in Africa and advocated for African podcasting on the world stage, and that is not good news. But, melissa, hopefully we'll find new sponsors, new investors, maybe it'll rise as a phoenix, but right now Africa podcast is closing.
Speaker 2:The Tech Stuff on the Pod News Weekly Review.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's the stuff you'll find every Monday in the Pod News newsletter. Here's where Sam talks technology. What have you got for us this week, Sam?
Speaker 4:Let's rush through this one. James Dave Jones, the Pod Sage himself. He's close to formalising a new tag, so the podcast licence tag is now looking like it will be ratified. There's been a lot of work in the background with Julie Costello and RSS Blue and True Fans, so it's all ready to roll out. So good luck, Dave, with pushing that one forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a big piece of work. A big piece of work. Also, podcast hosting company OSHA launched an AI tool called OSHA Intelligence. I ended up doing a live demo of that only the other day as well. The CEO, maxime Piquet, was in the audience, as I was the first person to do a live demo of that tool, and I think he had crossed fingers, as did I, that the conference Wi-Fi would actually hold out. So that was fun, but it's pretty good. It's very similar to the Buzzsprout co-host AI tools Buzzsprout, of course, being our sponsor and it's a pretty good setup. I think probably the big difference is that you do your transcript first with it and then you can go in and correct your transcript and then you can say please give me a title, and that, theoretically, should give you a better result. Not sure how much better result it gives you, but it was certainly, you know, good to see a different approach in terms of that sort of AI.
Speaker 4:So, james, I keep hearing about podcasting. Seo will be improved by using tools like this. How will that work?
Speaker 1:Well, because OSHA is very keen in the whole podcasting SEO world and OSHA basically sees podcasting SEO as being their thing. They've done a lot of research on how to be number one in search results in Apple Podcasts, for example, and number one in search results for Spotify, and so they've pushed a bit of their know-how into the prompts for the AI. So it basically is using words and tags and things that it knows will work quite well, which is quite a clever plan on their part.
Speaker 4:Nice. I'll have to try it Now. Moving over to Holland, then our friend Barry from Podhome. He announced that they've added dynamic audio to anywhere in your episode.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's very cool, yeah, adding audio visualizers and stuff like that. He's clearly working very, very hard. No, he's doing fantastically, so it's worthwhile checking that out at podhomefm.
Speaker 4:Now Mitch Downey, who is the developer and CEO of Podverse, took a hiatus. He's back and he's building a new version of Podverse. As we mentioned last week, he posted that previously Podverse had 19 tables in its database. It will now have 97 plus tables. He says the explosion is largely the result of using more join tables and we're adopting as many podcasting 2.0 features as we can in the new database. So good luck, mitch, with that one.
Speaker 1:Yes, no, he's working super hard at that and it's great to see him back and great to see him working really hard on that.
Speaker 4:Headliner, who we use to post this show to YouTube, has now announced that they can do automatic audiograms to Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, and the folks from Headliner are here and they're very pleased and excited about that. I saw Neil Modi from Headliner earlier on in running shorts because he was about to go out for a run, so that was quite funny in seeing him there and you were about to join him.
Speaker 4:James, I was not about to join him.
Speaker 1:No, that absolutely was not going to happen, but it was fun to catch up with him and Alyssa and the rest of the team. They're working on tons of things, so it's great to end up seeing that I'm in front of the Captivate stage at the moment. Captivate have been giving away some beautiful T-shirts which look as if they've all gone. Danny.
Speaker 10:They disappeared yesterday. The last ones went today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you've got badges and you've got your quite nice podcast launch newsletters and things. How's it been going for you?
Speaker 10:It's been a really great show. We've had a lot of new users come up or potential users, people like Raf that's used us for years, since day one, and just connecting and meeting with people has been really good.
Speaker 1:There have been some people on this very show indeed saying that it's been a little bit quieter than they would have have liked. What? What's your sort of thoughts on that?
Speaker 10:it has seemed quieter, as in numbers I feel, and it's a more open space planning than the last year's event. So it feels like because it's more open plan there's less congestion, you know, after talks etc. So it has been a bit more relaxed, a bit more chilled vibe. But I've heard that as well that there's not been as many people maybe this year from an attendance point of view, but it still seems a lot. And when are you going home? I'm going home tomorrow morning into the afternoon.
Speaker 1:Oh, excellent, so there may be a chance for a beer this evening. Maybe, Danny Brown from Captivate YouTube has updated the company's API tools, which I thought was really exciting.
Speaker 4:Well, glad you found it exciting. I just tried to understand what they were doing, James. They allow you to now mark a playlist as a podcast and they allow you to add a square image. Didn't think it was that exciting.
Speaker 1:No, but what that essentially allows you to do is it allows you to add from a podcast host, allows you to add a podcast directly onto YouTube without logging into YouTube Studio. So, from that point of view, super useful for the podcasters, certainly, and you know, so you can see that that's going to be quite helpful for them. So, basically, if you're a podcast host, like Buzzsprout or whoever, that one button that says submit to YouTube will now just work, which is a pretty good thing. So I was quite pleased with that. I caught up with one of the folks from YouTube who was also very, very pleased in terms of that, and I think that they saw that as being a real benefit, which is good. I'm with somebody else, sam, I know I'm just taking you all over the place. You know, when you go into Riverside and you log in and there's this happy, smiling, bearded face that's Stephen Robles. I'm on the Riverside stand. You're on Pod News Weekly Review. Do not swear. I don't know why I'm saying that because you know we can swear if we like.
Speaker 8:How's it been for you? It's been a great conference. Got to do a panel and a talk and meet lots of great people talk about video podcasting, so it's been wonderful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been a busy time. Are lots of people talking about video podcasting? Now? Is video podcasting the thing.
Speaker 8:It's the thing. I started a new show this past January. It's about eight months old and about a third of our audience is just watching it, and so if you're looking to start a show or you have a longstanding show, you're looking to grow. It is the way to do it today.
Speaker 1:It's been good to see you again and good to have you on the panel yesterday. I hope you had a great time. There's all kinds of goodies that you've had on here, including some very nice mic muffs. If only I had a microphone that was big enough for the mic muffs. If only I had a microphone that was big enough for the mic muffs. But there we are. Good to see you. Pleasure to James Sam. Oslo open standard for location media. What's all that about?
Speaker 4:Well, I'm still a little bit confused, but it's from our friends at Spooler. They've released a new open standard for location media. I think what they're looking at this is not really aimed at podcasters and it's more aimed at people who do guided tours and basically outdoor locations. I looked at the spec and I can't quite see why they didn't submit that to the podcast standards or to the podcast index 2.0 group, because I think it's not that different to to what's in there and it can be adapted. But again, I guess they've got their own reasons. But it also reminded me of ian forrester from the bbc r&d, who released a similar technology called smile, which is part of the w3c, which stands for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, which uses the phone's GPS and location data to deliver different elements of a podcast based on your location. So I'm sort of confused as to why they've come up with their own standard, but maybe it's a version that we need to look at more closely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I chatted with James Boggs. We went out for a bizarre southern fried chicken thing and I talked to him about that and I think he was a bit unaware of OpenStreetMap and the benefits that perhaps a tie in with OpenStreetMap would do. But a lot of his work is around very specific location-based media stuff that isn't necessarily podcasting, and so I think you know I was chatting to him about the thoughts behind the podcast location tag. He's seemingly much, much more interested in that now. So maybe there may be some movement there, but they very much see the future as being location-based media, which is a really good, good thing nice.
Speaker 4:Now one last thing, james uh at podcast movement, a company called code adx has announced, uh, a new platform that connects podcasters with shopify.
Speaker 1:Don't know if you've bumped into them yeah, I haven't bumped into them, but I've bumped into somebody that's worked with them. Uh, in terms of that, um, code adx is essentially a tool that links in with Shopify stores. So if you want to sell stuff, then it's a really easy way to get up to 15% commission on that. So that's a pretty clever plan. Their press release was very clear. They were basically saying only 1% of real podcasters make real money and we would like to democratize that a little bit more and help that grow. So I think, um, yeah, it's nice to see, uh, you know, shopify.
Speaker 4:Um, oh, not nice to see code adx building that kind of that kind of thing in yeah, I think merch stores are going to be the next thing that you'll start to see a lot of the podcasting 2.0 apps build. I know talking to Oscar about what we were doing and what he's up to watch. This space is all I will tell you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know indeed.
Speaker 2:Boostergram, boostergram, corner, corner, corner On the Pod News Weekly Review.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's our favorite time of the week. It's Boostergram Corner. And my technical expertise paid off, Sam. I was able to log into a computer the other side of the world and find out whether or not we got any boosts, which is nice. So just before we dive into the boosts, I'm just going to say hello, because I've not yet said hello to Michelle from the Podcast Academy. You're on the Pod News Weekly Review. You can swear if you like. There you go. How does that work? How's it been for you?
Speaker 6:It's been great. It's lovely here in National Harbor, Maryland, with great views, lots of energy, lots of face-to-face interaction. It's great to see many of our members and to talk to everyone about the upcoming 2025 Ambi's. Where did this year go?
Speaker 1:And you can enter the Ambi's now, can't you?
Speaker 6:That's correct. Our best pricing on Ambi submissions goes from now until September 16th and we accept submissions until November 22nd.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, Always, always selling. But yes, absolutely. Why not have you found it busy or kind of a little bit tucked away in a corner here? But has it been okay?
Speaker 6:We are in a corner, but our members and our board of governors have been shouting us out, so people keep coming to find us and saying how can I be an Ambi's Blue Ribbon Panel judge? And the first answer to that is, of course, go to thepodcastacademycom and join.
Speaker 1:I'm going to leave you now before you sell anything else, Michelle, thank you. Thank you so much. It's been good to see you. Boosts we've got 2,222 sats from Martin Lindeskog. What does he say?
Speaker 4:James, thanks for the information regarding Apple Podcasts on the web. My tweet reply on Twitter was funny remark about Safari browsers. How are things at Podcast Movement?
Speaker 1:Well, I think you can tell how things are at Podcast Movement. What else have we got, Sam?
Speaker 4:1,000 sats from C Brooklyn. I've just deleted my Apple Podcast app from my phone. It's not podcasting 2.0 compliance. Yeah, I think. Well done to you, c Brooklyn. I wish more people would follow suit, but hey, slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.
Speaker 1:Yes, 200 sats. From John McDermott, who says I would like to thank Rob Walsh for his comments on podcasting 2.0, because James riffing is what reminded me to switch apps this week. Okay, next problem for the 2.0 space. I had no idea what a good boost is. Yes, 200 sats is not a good boost, but nevertheless it's a boost, john, so thank you for it. He adds sorry if I'm cheap, I mean well 222 to sats from Gene Bean.
Speaker 4:Yay, I'm glad to have improved your life via Home Assistant. I think that's your garage, James, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yes, that's my garage lights and various, uh, other things. He also asks regarding the multiple information sources from bumper. Do they integrate in information from streaming sats or boosts in any way? I ask because they they represent active engagement from a listener. Um, the quick answer is no, they don't not yet. Um, they do interact with op3 though, and op3 does that if you add OP3 to your splits, so you can kind of do that within the OP3 world, which should exist in the bumper world, but, of course, very, very small.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's the third element that I was talking about. Yeah, it's the third element that I was talking about. So Bumper does listen time percent complete, but they don't do value paid and I think we will see value paid as the third metric that people will start to look for when they want signal from how people are listening to your podcast.
Speaker 1:Indeed. Let's say thank you to our magnificent seven those are our power supporters who come to weeklypodnewsnet and very kindly give us some money Cy Jobling, rachel Corbett, dave Jackson, mike Hamilton, matt Medeiros, who was going to be here and then his flight was cancelled so he's not here, which is a big shame. I was looking forward to meeting him, marshall Brown and Cameron Moll here, which is a big shame. I was looking forward to meeting him, marshall Brown and Cameron Moll, and that's all very kind. Sam, and I share the value that you give us from this very show. It doesn't go into the big PodNews pot, so all of your help is very, very much appreciated. If you get value from this show, either hit that boost button if you're using a new podcast app, or go to weeklypodnewsnet, which is where you'll find all of the support that Buzzsprout can give us. So what's been happening for you this week, sam?
Speaker 4:Well, as I kept saying throughout the show, me and Oscar Murray had an unconference meeting up in London at Liverpool Street. It's great to catch up with Oscar actually, actually because we both have very similar thoughts, we have very similar challenges and we are trying to make our apps work better together. I think what Oscar's released with his integration with Nostra and what we're releasing with our integration with ActivityPub takes us one step closer to, as I said earlier, the cross-app comments, but not just cross-app comments. There'll be other data points that we can share between our apps and, of course, we'd love to get the other podcasting 2.0 apps involved. So, yeah, good to see Oscar, very cool.
Speaker 4:And you've been listening to a book. Yeah, tom Webster's new book. The Audience is Listening and I thought, well, you know what, I'll let Tom read the book to me. I thought, well, you know what, I'll let Tom read the book to me. So I went on to Audible and I had a listen to it. It's a very good book. It asks the questions that you should ask. Really, if you're starting out in a podcast, you know not how long is your podcast or what mic you should use. But why am I doing this podcast? Who is my audience. What do I do if you know I want quantitative or qualitative information. So I think he's done a really good digestible, very quick listen. So I highly recommend if you want the audiences listening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good book, Well done. He's done a couple of sessions here. Those sessions have been pretty full, so it's all good, so, james what's happened for you this week.
Speaker 1:Well, as you can tell, I've been here, helped by Qantas that managed to cancel one of my flights on the way here, so I had to fly three hours in the wrong direction. Oh no, to then fly three hours back again. So that was handy. That's not really what you want, but yeah, I've been enjoying being here, enjoying taking photographs and stuff which you might have seen at the bottom of the Pod News Daily for a couple of shows a week, and great also to see so many people. We started with Jordan from Buzzsprout, we're going to end with Albin. How are you.
Speaker 11:Hey, james, great to see you Having a great time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know it's been good, hasn't it? I've been very impressed.
Speaker 11:You have some fancy T-shirts which you've been handing out, but you also have staff T-shirts as well, yeah, Kevin made a bunch of shirts and he had a shirt of the day assignment, so we all had to make sure we were color coordinated, yeah it's been good and your Buzzsprout tattoo is still on, I noticed. And you've washed yours off. The sponsorship didn't make it permanent, I guess.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. I think maybe we need that, maybe we need that, but still, yeah, and we should make sure that Sam gets some beautiful badges. Sorry, sam, what is it that you would like to say?
Speaker 4:Two questions for Alban. Is he wearing a watch, and how many? And also what nudity did he watch on his flight?
Speaker 11:I'm not wearing a watch, I've got a whoop. I find it embarrassing to wear the double wristbands. Sorry, what is it? A whoop, a whoop, just a fitness tracker. This is not a sponsor, but definitely everybody at Buzzsprout seems to have one. And then I didn't watch anything on the plane. I read a book. So yeah, no nudity. So how are you going?
Speaker 1:to a watch bar, and did you? Sam says, are you going on a watch bar? Of course, that was where we had the Buzzsprout meetup last night.
Speaker 11:I was informed Other people found that bit on Buzzcast funny. I still do not find it to be that great. There were lots of sports watching and a ton of people came up and showed me their watches just to troll me after I said that was a ridiculous idea. So lots of Rolexes, lots of expensive watches last night.
Speaker 1:Well, it was a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much, and thank you for your support as well, albin, and that's it for this week. If you enjoyed the podcast, the newsletter's better. You can find it at podnewsnet and the Pod News Daily, wherever you get your podcasts, and there are normally longer interviews in the pod news extra podcast as well, although, as you can tell, not this week.
Speaker 4:No, you can support this show with such. You can give us feedback using fan mail, which is in our show notes, or you can send us a booster gram our music is from studio dragonfly, our voiceover is sheila.
Speaker 1:Our audio works today through Clean Feed and the slightly dodgy Wi-Fi, and we're hosted and sponsored by Buzzsprout. Start podcasting, keep podcasting.
Speaker 2:Get updated every day. Subscribe to our newsletter at podnewsnet.
Speaker 3:Tell your friends and grow the show and support us, and support us. The Pod News Weekly Review will return next week.
Speaker 2:Keep listening.