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

In the show...

Sam Sethi 0:12

I'm James Critlin, the editor of Pod News, and I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO of Tree Fans.

Bryan Barletta 0:17

This is going to be an event built for creators. We are going as heavily community sourced as possible for this.

James Cridland 0:26

Brian Barletta tells us all the tea of our podcast movement NYC, plus the rise of Patreon in the creator economy. This podcast is sponsored by Buzz Sprout with the tools, support, and community to ensure you keep podcasting. Start podcasting. Keep podcasting with BuzzSprout.com.

Patreon podcast revenue is up

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From your daily newsletter, the Pod News Weekly Review.

Sam Sethi 0:48

One of uh my predictions from our 2026 uh prediction show was that content creators would earn more from premium content than advertising. I might not be right completely, but we'll see by the end of the year. But a good start for that is Patreon has just announced that podcasters earned $629 million in 2025, James. That's up 33% year on year.

James Cridland 1:17

Yep, up by a third. Patreon's published uh lots of uh details. There's a big long article in PodNews uh yesterday. Forty-seven thousand podcasters are now earning income from 7.6 million patrons, the company says. Some of those patrons are, of course, supporters of Pod News. Podnews.net slash Patreon, thank you, uh, which keeps the newsletter free for everybody. So, yeah, I mean that is a um tremendous amount. Really good news in terms of Patreon, really good news in terms of the creator economy, that it's not necessarily relying on things like advertising. Um, now I know that this is a uh monthly subscription, which is slightly different to the whole value-for-value model, but even so I think that this is uh something just worth keeping an eye on in terms of where the future of this industry is going.

Sam Sethi 2:08

Yeah, their chief operating officer, Paige Fitzgerald, said something quite nice. I thought we only make money when creators make money, which is a really good ethos to have. One thing that stood out right at the end that I thought was worth noting on this article was that um Patreon is working on expanding its creator-first discovery network um without being onboarded to other platforms like Spotify, YouTube. Up until now, I've said that Spotify's SOA I think will go away. I don't I don't say that lightly. I have no inside knowledge, it's just my gut feel, which is Spotify will realise that Patreon's making a ton of money from the content that they're sending over to Spotify and they're not getting a cut of it. If you look at what Apple just did with the Apple API and the advertising taking that 10%, I think Spotify is gonna go, hmm, we should copy that model and we should also be making money from private content from these you know premium providers like Patreon and and Substack and others who provide premium content. And I I just think there's a there's a pot of money that Spotify is missing, and I think SOA will change. But I also think that Patrons realizing that actually we don't need to send this stuff over back to YouTube and Spotify, we're gonna keep the players inside our platform.

James Cridland 3:27

Yes, I'm pretty convinced that that might happen as well. Um, Spotify, I think, is gonna have big, big changes in the middle of the year. I keep on hearing from lots of people about big, big changes in the middle of the year. I keep on asking my contacts at Spotify, Spotify, you know, what what I'm I'm I I've I've heard another person telling me that X is going to happen. Um uh and they say there is absolutely no truth to this. And I'm there going, well, can there be absolutely no truth when yet another person has said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's absolutely happening? Um, you know, I don't know. So uh yes, I'm sure that there will be big changes in terms of uh Spotify. YouTube, I think, have their own uh service anyway, in terms of that. The world is potentially moving away from a world of advertising. And I think let's just make a wild assumption that the next 12 months is going to be a recession, um, uh given the issues with oil right now, and given all of that kind of stuff. The first thing to go in a recession is advertising money. Um, that is absolutely the first thing to go, and so hopefully, paid subscriptions is a different way, a way which is a little bit less likely to be um hurt by a recession. Um, so you know, worthwhile keeping an eye on our out on that, I think.

Sam Sethi 4:48

In terms of Patreon, one of the other things I noticed this week that was very funny was more and more shows were announcing video content, and more and more shows were announcing that they were going to either Patreon or Substack. So one of those was the BBC show Ellis James and John Robbins, who said they've launched their um production company. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago, and as of this week, they've launched their Patreon channel and they've also launched a YouTube channel, James.

James Cridland 5:14

Yes, they have, and and uh one of the reasons why they're doing this is that they have access to a new thing uh which is uh part of the BBC. It's some uh new trial that the BBC is uh running, um, which essentially allows a audio producer, an indie audio producer, as significant productions are, to be able to monetize their stuff off the BBC platforms. So you can still consume all of this stuff for free on BBC Sounds, but you can now also um get additional stuff and um and uh hear the same shows on third-party platforms with ads in. And uh yes, they're launching a new Patreon channel built around a monthly visual series called The Adventures of Ellison John. That'll be a thrill. And the first instalment is already available, it's called Mini Olympics. I'm sure that that's absolutely fine. Um uh charging for something with the word Olympics in it. I'm sure they won't get into any trouble whatsoever there. Um, but uh yes, so um uh what with Patreon, what with a YouTube channel uh as well, you know, all of that makes a lot of sense.

Interview: Bryan Barletta, Podcast Movement

Sam Sethi 6:18

All right, James. Um back in February you reported that uh podcast movement was going to be in New York. It's an exclusive on Pod News Daily. It's a week-long event in mid-September. Do you know more about it, James?

James Cridland 6:32

I do know more about it, and in fact, I thought, well, who better to ask than uh the big boss? Um, so I went to chat with Brian Barletta.

Speaker 1 6:41

I'm Brian Barletta, the founder of Sounds Profitable and the president of Podcast Movement. Uh Sounds Profitable is the trade association for the business of podcasting on a global level, and our goal is to bring the industry together and help people through networking, conversations, research, uh, and opportunities to push podcasting into bigger than podcasting spaces.

James Cridland 7:04

And by the sounds of your voice, Brian, you have been doing a lot of those conversations over the last couple of weeks. Um, podcast movement evolutions in South by Southwest was only a couple of weeks ago. Uh, how did that go for you?

Speaker 1 7:18

Uh it it was exactly what I wanted it to be. I mean, this is our fourth total year at South by and yeah, I absolutely lost my voice to the point where I couldn't make a sound on Sunday, and uh, and then had to go basically like six days later, right into advertising week Europe. Um, we had three, it was, it was really fun. Uh we had three pack days. Um the industry showed up, a ton of really interesting people that we never would have gotten at our you know, standalone event showed up. And more importantly, we made it easy for the business of podcasting and creators of all sorts in podcasting to go explore South by Southwest, which has become a major creator event uh on a global scale for more and more people to check out.

James Cridland 8:02

Yeah, it was the first event um for a while that I haven't been able to attend. And I got a lot of FOMO looking at LinkedIn, particularly, uh, of people saying what a great thing it was and all of the photographs which I've got through and all of that. So uh yeah, so it sounds as if it went it went really, really well.

Speaker 1 8:21

Yeah, I'm I'm very, very proud of that. I think the one of the fortunate things I have about being in the podcast space for so long is that uh people aren't going to sugarcoat things for me. So I haven't heard any particularly negative feedback. Um, and uh, you know, you were incredibly missed there. And I really hope now that we've announced that we will be back there next year, just as soon as South by Southwest announces the dates, which they're waiting for the Academy Awards to post their dates first. Uh, but we would love to have you be there and be part of it.

James Cridland 8:50

Well, it'll be it'll be a fantastic thing. As long as you lot stop bombing places, that would be uh that would be an excellent plan. I'm right there with you. Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure necessarily that you can that you can uh that you can uh change any of that, but still, no, uh would very much like to do that. Um any plans for next year for South by Southwest? Um is it going to is it going to grow in scale or what what are the ideas that you got so far, or is it way too early, James, and stop asking?

Speaker 1 9:17

No, I mean I think you're spot on on it. So um we really like the venue, and if we can come to terms with the venue on the things we'd like to change, we intend to stay there or similar sized. I think what's really fun about um an events company like Podcast Movement purchasing our trade association is that we don't have to operate on uh in silo for each event, having to make a certain amount of money or grow a certain way each uh year. So I would consider this event absolutely a success. Um, you know, we're we're we're waiting on the last financials, but it is close enough for me to call it that. Uh and again, this didn't have any ticket sales on there. So um it hit everything we wanted. But here's the big thing sometimes things work just because of exactly how they were set up, right? The price point, the opportunity, the um, the the all the all the different pieces on there. Um, in six years of running Sounds Profitable, I have not really raised prices. I don't think I've ever raised prices on anything, and I've only ever reduced them or made things more efficient or valuable. So my goal here is how do we keep it exactly this, but better? And what's the worst that happens? It hits capacity, and then we have to figure out what else we can do, how else we can help people grow. I think I think I'd rather get to the point where nobody can get in uh because nobody wants to leave and then figure that out the next year. So I think I think my goal is let's repeat it a few more times.

James Cridland 10:41

So uh the next uh event that I will see you is the podcast show in London, but the next big event on the calendar is what you uh announced um in uh pod news um at the end of February. Um podcast movement moving to New York City and a really interesting flagship event, which is a week-long event, if you want to attend all of it, at a place called Terminal Five. So, what are the plans for New York City?

Speaker 1 11:10

Yeah, so we have five full days there, and Terminal Five is a concert venue that has a lot of personal significance for me. I actually got my start in advertising by uh uh borrowing enough money to go to a four-day concert at Terminal Five uh when I was doing mobile app reviews. Uh and so being able to go to this venue is really, really exciting for me. Who did you see there? Uh Koheed and Cambria, whose albums are all like Star Wars-esque style stories, and uh they played them all in order to a night, and it was really fun. Wow.

James Cridland 11:44

Uh yeah, okay, forever ago.

Speaker 1 11:46

But yeah, the Android G1 had just launched. I grabbed my computer and my mini DV camera and we we drove out and just recorded videos all day long and then went to the concerts at night. Um, but the uh the events really three events. So we have it for the whole week, Monday through Friday. Um, starting with, you know, what everybody knows and loves the podcast movement. That's gonna be Thursday and Friday. So I'm gonna start from the end of the week and move back. This is going to be an event built for creators. I think that um people in the business of podcasting have pushed into different aspects of podcast movement before. And I personally have been frustrated when um there have been specific creator tracks that end up having business panels because they run out of spots elsewhere, and that's how you know people want to sponsor them and whatnot. Well, we are going as heavily community sourced as possible for this. The tickets are gonna be $200 covering both days. There should be about a thousand tickets available on sale. Um, I think we've solidified that we'll have five stages. Uh, panels will be about a half an hour long each. There'll be photo, like audio, video recordings of everything, photography, everything there. And we're trying to figure out the most accura, equitable way for people to submit uh panel ideas. Um, I'm not completely sold on a committee, but I think that's going to be part of it. I'm not completely sold on a on public vote. It ends up being a popularity contest, but it might be part of it. But we're trying to nail that down with ideally giving people as close to two and a half to three months of notice on when they're selected so that if they need any international travel or anything there, they can get that sorted and and all of those things. But this is really supposed to be an incredibly low sponsorship event. We haven't even identified um how far we want to go with perhaps like an expo type setup, but we are getting interest on that. But I think to me, this is the type of event that is many, as close to all of the panels that happen. I really want them to be things that people who are attending want to hear and of the community by the community. And so things like that can only happen if they're supported in other ways, right? Producing this event, having a thousand people in there, the infrastructure, which by the way, I've learned so much about how much events cost. And uh, you want to ever talk about scope creep and how much uh last-minute decisions can cost. I am your guy. Um, I have I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on last-minute ideas that needed to happen, but probably could have been $5,000 if I planned better.

Speaker 5 14:23

Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:23

Um the middle day, we're still solidifying, right? The podcast, the IAB podcast upfronts are going to be held separately by the IAB during that day. Uh, and we're not doing any conflicting content there. But at night, we have the opportunity with Terminal 5 being such a massive concert venue. Uh, what could we do on that stage there? So we're still fielding a few opportunities there and trying to find the best partner to allow for us to do something really to celebrate audio with everyone. That won't be a ticket event. So we're trying to figure out how that fills into everything. Everybody who's attending both of the other events, the sounds profile one, which we'll get into and the podcast movement one, will be able to go. And then how do we explore the general public and everything there too? The people who maybe just couldn't buy a ticket or, you know, want to celebrate audio. Um, the first two days are our take on uh a more professional business summit. The this is a 600-person total event. It is going to be a very tight schedule. I think more um syllabus style, right? There is going to be, you know, two anchor keynotes, uh, one at the beginning and the end of each day, uh, where everyone, all 600 people will be able to focus on one thing. And then from there, there's going to be three different opportunities to um select between uh breakout sessions or working groups or like 50 person, let's let's call it conversations in a circle, you know, uh where people really want to be part of the conversation. We're all experts at an event of this scale, um, all the way to, you know, 150 people uh sitting in an audience for um more specific and driven conversations uh in a panel. Uh when I say like there there's gonna be 600 people there, the intention is that this isn't an event that you pop in and out of or that has an open networking space because we want to start it at 10 a.m. and we want to end it at 4 p.m. It's New York. People in the business of podcasting, people in advertising know how to entertain their own guests. Uh, and we're moving away from things like sponsored happy hours and whatnot uh in that regard because we want to let people celebrate and do their own thing, and we don't want them to feel, you know, that they have to pay into something when they have their own idea. In New York, there's so many companies in New York that have their own space to do all of that. So we're really, really excited to partner there. 200 of the attendees will be buyers, those are freely available tickets. And then the other 400 tickets are a higher price point because they are sponsorship for uh the whole event, right? If you buy a ticket, your company is a sponsor for the event. Your logos can be in places on there. You're gonna have access to the attendee list, you're gonna have opportunities to connect with people and you know, book those breakfasts and dinners. Um, and you're also going to be the sponsor of the podcast movement side of the event, right? Your logos are going to be on there. There's going to be thank yous and four words related to those people that are helping make the whole week possible. The model that we're going for this is going to be $2,000 per ticket. And Sounds Profitable Partners will have the opportunity to buy tickets for the first month before they're open to the public. What we're doing there is that we're letting the Sounds Profitable Partners buy up to two tickets per company. And another perk that they have will, they can, as partners, they can choose who goes Monday versus who goes Tuesday. And then if there are any tickets left, and now that we're over, we're about 205, 207 partners total. Uh, if there are any tickets available left after that, they will be open to the public for one per company at the same price. Um, but they won't be able to pick who goes Monday versus Tuesday. So we are, you know, our partners are what makes all this possible, what allows us to take these big swings, allows us to buy a stage at Advertising League Europe and US and get panel costs down to $4,000 and just bring a whole group of people who haven't been able to push into those spaces. So we really want to reward those partners for that support and encourage more people to consider becoming a partner.

James Cridland 18:30

And and that sounds a lot of money, but actually, in terms of a proper business conference as this is, with the opportunities to uh meet and talk and everything else, that is um absolutely what those sorts of business events go for. Uh so uh in terms of that, it if if you're l listening and you're there thinking, well, podcast movement wasn't that expensive, this isn't podcast movement, is it? This is a separate event which happens to be Monday, Tuesday of the week. Podcast movement continues as normal, the creator event on a Thursday and Friday. So I think this is being done in a very in a very nice way. And of course, you can you can attend all of it, as you've said.

Speaker 1 19:12

Absolutely. Yeah, and it's it's one of those things where, you know, I think one of the ways we hit our stride was because we understood the price point sensitivity for the industry. I mean, we are competing with every other industry that's competing for attention, but we don't have the uh the comfort, I would say, with uh the cost per acquisition or cost to compete with CTV and whatnot. You know, as we push into Can Lion and Possible and these other events, like the price point gets very, very high. And so this is probably the most expensive podcast focused event. But with I appreciate your support on that and what everything you're saying there, you know, our mindset is how do we extend that to be not just a ticket but a sponsorship? And with a third of the audience being buyers and a focus on connecting people, I think that this is really great. And, you know, again, like I said, I don't like to raise prices. So the reason we're doing it at 2000, we think we can find a lot of ways to benefit people. There'll be coffee service delivered to where you are in the venue. Uh, we're gonna be feeding everybody there so you don't have to go figure out eating all of that money's already gone.

James Cridland 20:17

If if you're doing coffee, coffee in those venues, I know exactly how expensive that is. So yeah.

Speaker 1 20:24

We did that at uh at South by Southwest. We did unlimited coffee, espresso drinks and coffee, and I think it was I think several people sus subsisted solely off of that for three days. I know I was one of them. Wow. What was the what was the total bill for that? You know, here's the truth of it. It came out to about $24,000 for three days, and it was only sixteen thousand dollars for just drip coffee. So the difference of you know, eight thousand dollars for people to be able to get their latte, yeah. Like, I was like, that's a no-brainer. Like we have to do that.

James Cridland 20:58

It makes a massive difference.

Speaker 1 21:00

It really does.

James Cridland 21:00

So podcast movement on the Thursday and Friday, of course. The real benefit there is you don't have to stay in Manhattan, you can stay anywhere. Uh public transport in New York City is super good. So you can find a cheap hotel elsewhere, that's absolutely fine. And in terms of um doing it on a Thursday and a Friday, music to my ears because that means that if you're traveling to New York, you've got a weekend in New York uh as well if you want to, um, which is a fantastic uh move uh as well. So um that should be really good. When can we buy tickets for that? Not quite yet, I'm guessing.

Speaker 1 21:36

Our goal is to get all of this live for ticket sales in the next four weeks. That's uh we're really pushing forward with that. We just want to make sure that we have the website exactly where it is, and there's a few other opportunities that we're evaluating how we put up, such as being able to do your own live podcast show at night, right? We have the venue, we have the five stages, we want to figure out how to put all that together. Uh and as a small Team podcast movement uh like and sounds profitable combined is about six people. There's the event movement team too, and they help with a lot, but there's you know, a lot of this is now falling to our team. We want to make sure that whatever we put up there, it answers enough questions that we're not drowning, uh trying to support all the interests or all the uh like any confusion we might have caused.

James Cridland 22:22

Yeah, no, indeed. Indeed. Sounds uh super good. So podcastmovement.com is where to find out more information about the podcast movement side. Um, and of course, soundsprofitable.com, uh, where to find um the information about the business uh summit. While you're on, uh Brian, uh obviously we're seeing Apple Podcasts doing video um for the first time, which is very exciting. Um uh what are your thoughts on it uh now that it's live, now that people are beginning to do it?

Speaker 1 22:51

I am blown away by what it could possibly mean for the greater creator space and ownership of distribution of audio and video content. I think it's gonna be really exciting. I'm so pumped to see the uh incoming uh interest from video advertisers on there. Uh, and and I've checked out a few of the video podcasts too. We'll playing around on the ones that you've recommended uh through the newsletter and everything. Um, I think the one thing that I'm waiting for is for what it looks like on the uh technical infrastructure and server costs. Because I think that me and you have done some of this math, and I think this is very exciting. But again, just like podcasting as an industry has not had to incur a lot of the costs of a lot of other industries to win business. I think now we're entering into a space where um we understand how much YouTube moved things forward by hosting video freely and what that did for the internet and what it what it might cost individuals to host their own video.

James Cridland 23:58

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm I'm finding that fascinating. I've been playing around, playing around yesterday, um your today, um, with um trying to work out how to encode uh all of this. And so far uh I've managed to encode one simple 25 meg MP4 video file uh into uh the format that Apple Podcasts wants it, which is um it turns out to be so far 178 different files and 34 megabytes of disk space. Um and to play it, it'll be 84 file requests instead of just one. Um so it's gonna be interesting to work out the math on that and work out exactly how expensive that is uh is uh going to be. But it should unlock more revenue long time. Uh uh, certainly. I appreciate there's some Apple tax in there as well. But it should un uh but it should unlock more revenue, I'm guessing. What what what what are people um uh your your uh your partners uh saying?

Speaker 1 24:58

Well, on the Apple tax on that end, right? On the uh the the CPM fee that they're charging for it, I think the the exciting part about that is I think we will see more hosting platform or more apps, right? Uh be open to uh incorporating it if they believe they can charge that fee too. Uh because like take for example Spotify, if they implemented it, they're currently only making money for advertising on the people who host with them directly and the ability to serve ads. But with HLS and their stitchels, if they set it up that way, the app could inject into any show, not platform, but show that they have a relationship with, and then they also make money off of people serving any ads on their platform. I I think Apple really unlocked something big that makes it kind of hard for apps to push back against it. Um, on the uh the the industry side, I think there are a lot of people interested in it, and um I don't think anybody's brought it to market to sell on a like a direct sales kind of way, other than the idea of doing prefix URLs and uh uh ad delivery pixels for their video ads and being able to track it just like their audio ads, which is very exciting to them. Yeah, but I I my gut says we're gonna see some really impressive things from ads in the near future as the major DSP involved in this entire process.

James Cridland 26:25

Yeah, it's gonna be really interesting what happens there and what happens with the analytics as well as we move into a world where we can now measure how long people listen, whether people have actually heard the ads uh and all of this. Is that something that sounds profitable? Is working with the IAB uh on, or how does sounds profitable, how does sounds profitable fit into that?

Speaker 1 26:47

Yeah, I think what's exciting to me there is that this could call for new IAB podcast measurement standards, which I felt oh might not make sense to improve much more on. I think we're getting towards the point where each hosting platform kind of viewed things their own way and wanted to customize their own way. So I think this is gonna give the opportunity to revisit what metrics we do and don't want. You know, it's really hard, right? Because the feedback on Spotify, even the ones where you can serve pixels in serving video there, is that it's not the same metric as what we have in podcasting. Yeah. So I think I think what we need to see is first an adoption of the podcast first metrics of download and ad delivered, and then an exploration. Well, because because those ones also are IAB certified. HLS can be IAB certified because it's not the protocol, it's the server logs that are certified. Um and then from there, I think we need to explore what listens and ad impression look like. I think that it is not in anybody's best effort uh uh interest to push those metrics publicly before the IAB and everybody uh agrees on them. Because even if someone, even if a hosting platform takes a first stab at it and releases a killer spec on it, I think everybody else is gonna pick it apart. And it's gonna be hard to get people to agree to that because it, you know, listens will always be less than downloads. Yeah. But I think every single hosting platform that explores selling that ad inventory different between ad delivery and ad impression, especially for video, is going to have a really powerful upside on how they monetize the inventory of the people that host with them.

James Cridland 28:32

It's always uh exciting and always uh always good to uh catch up. Brian, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having me.

Announcer 28:39

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Sam Sethi 28:48

James, now this is a left field story. Um Flipboard, which is owned by Mike McHugh, or the CEO is Mike McHugh, um, have come out with a new product called Surf. Now, we've seen social media platforms like Mastodon and Threads and Blue Sky um evolve after the implosion of X. But those have become silos, and you can't really, you know, connect all the parts. If you've got a social graph in one, it's probably having to either reinvent that same social graph again or just not bother at all, which is what I've done. Um now Surf came out, and the idea of Surf is to combine social networks with text, video, and audio feeds, and those audio feeds are gonna be podcasts. So the idea is that you will have one place, one portal, one website, whatever you want to call it, um, where you can have all of your content that you want aggregated in one place. Do you think this is the right way forward, or should we be still having multiple sites and just flipping between each one?

James Cridland 29:54

I mean, essentially this is a RSS reader, isn't it? It's it it pulls in a bunch of stuff. Um uh it's pulling in um uh uh uh stuff from uh somewhere for pod news. Uh oh, RSS. Uh that's what that is is is pulling it through from. Um, but I can also see uh posts in here uh from um Steve Stewart. Now, where's that coming from? Um that appears to be Blue Sky. So yeah, so it's sort of pulling um different bits of information from different places. Uh Mastodon is in there as well, I notice, which is uh interesting. So yeah, it's just a different way of consuming um consuming stuff, pulling things together, having you know YouTube uh channels in there as well, which I think is the clever thing actually, um to have YouTube channels as well as podcasts, which are also in there, as well as RSS feeds and various other things. Um so quite nice in terms of that, and I think that that works um quite well.

Sam Sethi 31:00

Yeah, they've also called these social websites that you build conversations around. Uh it'll be interesting to see whether this uh gets any uptake. I think you were right by calling it an RSS reader, which is what it was, but obviously they've added the additional protocols of ActivityPub and the at protocol. Um the thing that I find um interesting right now is I think when we talk about hosts last week, we talked about upload once, distribute everywhere. So the idea of all the directories, but also taking social clips and maybe putting those out to these endpoints like Mastodon and Blue Sky and Threads, and that would be the role of hosts. And this seems to be the converse, which is from the creator side, aggregating all your content back into one place. I I think I can hear Todd Cochrane shouting getyourwn.com from above. Um, this is what I think they're trying to do, which is to bring all the parts that have been spread out to the four corners of the web back into one place that you can own. Similar to what Substack's doing, similar to what Supercast is doing, similar to what other uh creator portals are trying to do. And that's why I thought this was an interesting uh thing to look at.

James Cridland 32:15

Yeah, I mean, yeah, you you know, there's certainly something there. Um I find it interesting that there is a listen tab, and you can obviously then listen to a bunch of podcasts. Um, to be fair, most podcast apps don't use an algorithm either. Um, so they just give you the shows that you have um uh signed up for uh in um newest order, uh, and that's basically how that bit works. Um so there's a bit of uh of um there's a bit of um curation that has been built into this, um which I think works quite nicely. There's a a fair amount of um you know uh uh suggested um things that you might want to follow and all of that. So from that point of view, it's quite nice. Um but uh yeah, it's it's go is going to be, you know, will will it will it take over from all of the other things? I don't know because at the end of the day, quite a lot of people are driven by the amount of views people get, the amount of replies people get, etc. etc. Um, so I I'm not quite sure whether or not this is going to capture uh all of the social media folk, um, but it's a new interesting way of you know of enjoying uh content in one simple way.

Sam Sethi 33:31

Yeah, I think what they are creating is in their um documentation is the idea of a super feed aggregating everything and being able to share that feed. Uh they talk about custom domains coming, they talk about uh custom headers and colours. Um so I think they're just creating web page portals. I think Podpage does something very similar in the sense of aggregating your your podcast and allowing you to create a customized page with a domain as well. So I don't know. I think this is a trend.

Speakeasy podcast host

James Cridland 34:00

Yeah, I think that that's definitely a thing. So um yes, uh worthwhile keeping an eye on.

Sam Sethi 34:07

Now, a couple of weeks ago we interviewed the CEO from Supercast after their acquisition by Red Seat Ventures, which is part of Fox. Um now there's a new company that RedSeat Ventures is launched called Speakeasy, James. Who are they?

James Cridland 34:22

Yes, it's a podcast hosting company. Hooray! Uh everybody's got one. Um, Substack, Supercast, Patreon now. Um uh uh here's one for uh Red Seat Ventures as well. Of course, Supercast um uh have a membership platform which uh is a bit like Patreon, um, which was acquired by Red Seat Ventures earlier on, uh, as you just mentioned, and Speakeasy will be a podcast hosting company. Now, interestingly, it's an invitation-only podcast hosting company, it seems to be a special podcast hosting company for people that want something special in return. Um so uh there seems to be some uh very careful, um, you know, very careful um uh wording on the websites and all of that, basically saying, you know, we're a bit we're a bit clever, um, we're here for these particular people, we're not here for everybody. Um, but um yes, it's um you know it's it's it's uh a new podcast hosting company, and that's what everybody wants.

Sam Sethi 35:30

It reminds me of Flightcast, Stephen Bartlett's company with Rocks.

James Cridland 35:34

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, he you know, they definitely needed a uh podcast hosting company for themselves. There are benefits in that, there are downsides in that, actually. You know, if you want to um uh suddenly become a podcast hosting company, um then that's absolutely fine, but you need to um pay all of the money to get all of that stuff up and running. Um, whereas you know it's it's normally much, much easier to go with a megaphone or an ACAST or whoever it is that you might want to end up going for. Um, in this particular case, obviously there are benefits to them in pulling everything together. Um, and so you can see that being uh useful. Um, AI-powered uh analytics is one thing. Uh it says support for RSS, HLS, and video. Uh it might have support for HLS, but it's not yet um an Apple Podcast partner, so we need to wait and see when it becomes one of those. But um, yeah, you know, it's um uh yes another podcast hosting company. Hooray!

Sam Sethi 36:38

Now uh Ashley Carmen, friend of the show in Bloomberg, has a report out that she says podcast companies are starting to look a lot like record labels. And so I thought, hmm, interesting. What does she mean by that? She says the power is increasingly in the hands of the biggest talent. We see that with the acquisitions that are occurring. And she said that podcast networks like record labels support these stars in the form of distribution and monetization. But she says more of a 360 business uh view should be including fan clubs, subscriptions, merchandising, newsletters, and live events. Again, uh reinforcing my belief that we are moving to a creator portal model for content creators, not just a podcast app on its own.

James Cridland 37:26

Yeah, no, indeed. It's um always interesting to see new companies working out new ways of uh jumping into this space. And um for Red Seat Ventures to be hosting, you know, podcasts for themselves now, uh, of course, means that they have a bit more control over things as well. So um, yeah, no, I think that I I think that it makes sense.

Sam Sethi 37:49

Now, uh last week at the end of the show, um, we we wouldn't have covered this because obviously it came out after we were recorded, but open AI has acquired the popular, unknown to me, uh talk show TBPN. Had you heard of it before?

James Cridland 38:05

No, and it's it's um it's not popular, but it's popular with Silicon Valley, it's popular with OpenAI's audience, which is why OpenAI have bought it. Um now, of course, uh OpenAI are claiming that um the show will remain uh editorially independent, and of course it will, yes, absolutely it will. But OpenAI's raison d'etre is to try and convince everybody else in Silicon Valley that open AI is a good thing, um, and um uh it will be significantly easier uh if they happen to own TBPN. Um so um you you would you would presume that there's something um uh involved in them for the benefit. I mean, because the amount of money that TB that TBPN is making is I mean it's quite a lot of money, but it's chump change for open AI. Um uh I mean you know it's probably making more money than open AI is right now, but that's a slightly different different thing. So um yeah, I I yeah that I I mean so it it it is popular in uh in terms of the right the the the right people and that's about as far as it goes, I think.

Sam Sethi 39:19

Is this more about platforms or companies wanting to have direct to fan voices? I mean, I know yeah, I know podcasts are that anyway, but are corporate companies more and more realizing that going through PR and going through media companies to get their message out is probably not the right thing, and now they want to go direct to audience.

James Cridland 39:43

Yeah, I mean we are definitely seeing that. We are seeing that um people want to be in control of the message. Um, RFK, the health secretary of the US, is apparently going to be launching a podcast, which he claims is a new way to expose corruption and lies that have made Americans sick. His views have been criticized by health experts. That's about as much as I can say to be as fair and balanced as I possibly can be. Um but uh yes, and and of course, the reason why he is doing that is he believes that uh most of the media out there um isn't necessarily telling the story that he wants to be told, and so therefore he's going to do his own podcast. Um, the reform party in the UK is doing exactly that. Congratulations, US-based podcast hosting company, Buzz Sprout, our sponsor, for being the official host um of the UK Nuts of the UK Reform Party. Uh, so many congratulations for that. Why didn't they go with somebody based in the UK? Captivate. Oh no, exactly, exactly. They wouldn't have been allowed on my platform. That's well, may maybe captivate turned around and said bugger off. Maybe. Well done, Mark, if you did. And then you'd be stuck. But yeah, so I I'm sure that that is what's going on in terms of OpenAI. They are talking about it being the low hundreds of millions. Now, if it's about 200 million, then that makes it about the same sort of price as Joe Rogan. Uh, so that is a lot of money. Um, it doesn't do very well in terms of being a podcast, by the way, as well. I did go and have a look on the Podscribe dashboard and to uh to actually see how many downloads it gets. It's not an awful lot of downloads, um, but it's it is, as I say, it's a big thing when it comes to this particular industry. And um OpenAI clearly see value uh you know from it, but it's not a side quest, Sam, and let's not forget that. It's not a side quest. What's that mean? It's not it's not a side quest. Uh OpenAI got into awful trouble by going off onto these side quests. So they were very keen to point out that this was not a side quest when they bought when they spent 200 million or possibly even more million dollars on a podcast. It's not a side quest. So him buying his Lamborghini wasn't a side quest, then I none of this makes none of this makes sense. Yes, exactly. Right, okay. No, I mean, you know, so so but but but I think it does come back into wanting to control the narrative a little bit. I'm currently working on a story uh about a company, and um so far no one in the company is talking to me. Um, but I now have a uh very friendly and polite invitation to talk to a lawyer who happens to work for the company um uh about a story that you're working on, James. Okay. Um I think I've I think I've uncovered a thing. Um so so I'm treading very, very, very carefully. But I think I've uncovered a thing. So uh yeah, we will spill the tea. Yeah, well, I'll spill the tea maybe next week, maybe the week after, who knows? Um be good if it was next week for a variety of reasons, but anyway, we'll find out on that. But that again is another is another form of wanting to control what the the narrative is. No one from that company is talking to me at all. Um uh I've had a couple of replies saying I'm not authorized to speak on this matter. Um, and now I've got a lawyer who um I can only assume wants to um wants to scare me away. So um we'll we'll see we'll see where that one goes. Yikes.

Sam Sethi 43:22

I mean, openai isn't the only company buying up podcasts. I mean, Soros has bought up the Midas Touch as well, James.

James Cridland 43:30

He has, yes, um, leading an investment round in Midas Touch. We don't know how much George Soros's Soros fund management has paid for that, but what we do know is that he has um he is the majority owner of Odyssey, uh, which of course is the big podcast and radio company based in the US. Um, he also invested in crooked media uh back in uh 2020, I want to say. Um, so you know, clearly is is doing some Um investment into uh media there, apparently also interested in investing into Cumulus. Now, Cumulus is the other big American uh broadcaster which is currently uh in bankruptcy um reorganization or whatever it is it's called, chapter 11. Um, but he's not able to own both because of the rules, so we'll see what happens um there. Um, but yes, um a lot lots of investment. Um one wonders what Mr. Soros is doing, given that traditional media isn't necessarily the way to earn an awful lot of cash.

Sam Sethi 44:35

So um are you talking to lawyers as well about us, James? You know, go on, get in there, mate. What we did wrong.

unknown 44:42

Yes.

James Cridland 44:43

50 p and a Mars bar. Why is nobody investing? Why is nobody investing into this show? Well, maybe they maybe maybe they might in the future. Who knows? Maybe I'm having that conversation now. Who knows?

Sam Sethi 44:54

Now, moving on, back to Spotify, I'm afraid, James. Um, we talked about Libson and Buzzsprout have signed with Apple Podcasts to distribute HLS video. We also talked about um, you know, other companies as Ted other podcast hosting companies. But why isn't Spotify joining this party, James? What's stopping them?

James Cridland 45:17

Well, uh, yes, exactly. So, yes, if you missed the news, because we didn't cover Libsin last week, but Libsin are now uh in with Apple Podcasts, except they're not yet because they haven't actually built it yet. Um, so they've said they're in, um, but that's about as far as it goes. And actually, that goes for all of the companies, including our sponsor, uh, who are talking about HLS video. Um, they've all said that they will do it. I cannot find a single company who is actually offering that to normal customers that want to purchase that. So pretty well everybody is turning around and saying this is an invite-only thing at the moment, we're only offering it to certain people, blah, blah, blah. So that's um uh that's interesting. It's also interesting that there is no pricing out there. So clearly, um, you know, the the cost of hosting video is going to be quite high. Um, you would expect there to be a special pricing rate for video, but I have not yet seen any of the podcast hosting companies with their pricing. So um either that means everybody's giving it away for free, which clearly is not going to happen, or it means that just nobody's ready yet. Um, and that's a bit of a concern when if you're Apple Podcasts, it's a bit of a concern because actually there will not be anywhere near as many video shows as you would be hoping to get on your platform right now. So um they've still got an awful lot of work in terms of making sure that they can get as much video in their platform as as uh possible. And if people's favorite shows or people's new shows that are being marketed as video first but aren't in video in Apple, um uh if if those aren't available, um then that's going to be a bit of a problem for Apple. So um I'm I'm awaiting with bated breath the first podcast hosting company to actually offer this as something that you can sign up to today.

Sam Sethi 47:18

Yeah. Now I wanted to ask you a couple of questions because I posed this to uh Justin Jackson, the CEO of Transistor, and Ben Richardson responded as well in the group that we're in. I wanted to know will they put the HLS video playlist that they give to Apple via the proprietary API? Will they put that in the alternative enclosure? And Justin from Transistor said yes, and he has an example of that which he showed me and Ben said yes, they would be doing the same. My question to you, James, is then uh if they put the HLS video in the alternative enclosure and apps that support the alternative enclosure. Does that bypass Apple then? I mean Apple can't take a 10% tax. And what if DAI is added to those feeds? Then you've just gone past the whole of the Apple ecosystem.

James Cridland 48:15

Yeah, so there are two things that happen there. Firstly, it bypasses Apple so that you could watch that show in video in a different podcast app, and um you would be able to uh see that, and there wouldn't necessarily be that um tax, that money that you have to pay every time you show a uh a dynamic uh video. Now, uh uh I should say there are a couple of things here. Firstly, Transistor might never offer dynamic videos, um, dynamic ads in video. Uh BuzzSprout uh does not offer dynamic ads in videos. Uh BuzzSprout offers what it calls dynamic content, but that's not dynamic content in terms of programmatic stuff. That's basically uh please uh remake all of my audio with this intro on it, um, which is dynamic to a point, but it's still not really dynamic programmatic. So um with all of that, that essentially means that um uh there will be people getting involved in Apple Video right now who will never be doing any of the dynamic program you know programmatic ads that Apple wants some money from. So therefore they probably don't care about that bit, hence why they might wish to stick their stuff into alternate enclosure because that might work for them. So you've got that on one side, um, and on the other side, you know, you you've got the point that um all of these um uh companies are um are saying is that as soon as you publisher your um your M3U8, your adaptive playlist in your RSS feed, then what you're also doing is you're publishing exactly where the ads are. And so therefore it's it's it's a bit difficult if you're going to put an uh a show out there which is um supported by advertising, um uh your um the podcast app knows exactly where the ads are and can very easily skip them because it knows where they are, it knows where where how how to skip past it, uh, and that will and that will work very, very well. So there are questions there, I think, in terms of do you want to put the uh the M3 the M3U8, the HLS feed, into the alt enclosure? Because that will essentially just market where the ads are so that any podcast app can use your video but skip past the ads.

Sam Sethi 50:43

I go back to Ashley Carmen's comment about um podcast companies becoming record labels. And I I look at companies like ACast and I look at adswiz and I look at Triton who are set up to deliver high-volume uh quality ads, you know, companies like Nike and McDonald's and people like that. Um, you know, not your Joe Schmo um bottom of the basement um adverts. And I think those are the record labels that Ashley Carmen's looking at, and I think those are the companies that Apple signed up first, and I think those will be the ones that will deliver that DAI. But what will the others will will, for example, Buzz Sprout have to go and provide higher quality advertising from the Nikes of you know corporate brands in order to monetize that in the same way as an A Cast?

James Cridland 51:37

Well, but Buzzsprout has never monetized podcasts in the same way as ACAST. And I think that that that's that's the thing here. If uh, you know, I I mean I I don't want to uh because I don't know what Buzzsprout's uh plans are, but Buzzsprout right now, the only advertising that you can buy in this show um is somebody buying a BuzzSprout ad, which is a program trailer for somebody else's show, and that's it. There's no other advertising available in this show. Buzzsprout doesn't go out and sell it. Um that's very different when you're looking at rss.com, for example, with their paid uh platform, which um you know can have ads from all kinds of people in there. Um, so I think I think it's it's gonna be different for every single person in this, and there will be people like Buzzsprout in particular who will not want to sell advertising. Um, and so therefore we'll never have to pay the the Apple tax, um, but instead we'll you know still get some video into into the Apple Podcasts app. Um, but but you know, how do you charge that? Um it won't be Buzzsprout charging that in terms of advertising, so therefore it will be based on you know either a a monthly charge in terms of video um or a per you know one terabyte uh charge or whatever it happens to be. So and I think that's going to be the interesting side is actually seeing how people charge for all of this. Let's not forget that for most podcast hosting companies, the first that they knew about this, because they were very grumpy about it, the first that they knew about it was the big announcement um with the big four, uh ACast and Simplecast and um Omni Studio and the other one, um uh19. Um, it was them, yes, actually. Um uh it was it was, you know, that was the first that any of these other podcast hosting companies knew about it, and they were quite salty about that. And so they have not had long to have a think about how they're gonna do it technically, but also how they're gonna do it uh economically as well. Um, hence why I don't think that we've seen any uh numbers in terms of what people are gonna charge yet.

Sam Sethi 53:57

Yeah. I mean look, the the hardest thing about doing this show sometimes is that we are having to put the jigsaw pieces together in real time. That's how I feel sometimes. You know, we we start talking about it, you know, we we we've we've sort of drifted around talking about creator portals, we've drifted around a little bit about um advertising within it and subscription models and private feeds. And I think I can't quite get my head as into where does this all meld going forward? And I think you just said something really interesting, which is if you don't do the the advertising DAI stuff, they could just make it a 10% charge for a monthly subscription. So it might be that and I'm not speaking for Buzz Spratt, I'm just using them as an example. Buzz Spratt might say, okay, we're not gonna do DAI, but we are gonna say video is $30 a month, and um that's what you as a subscriber pay as an additional cost, and we take a percentage of that, and that's the model that that is it. I think you're right. Until we know what people charge, uh it's all up in the air. But I do think it's an interesting, fascinating time at the moment. I think the whole industry is changing.

Spotify playlists

James Cridland 55:09

I think the whole industry is uh changing very, very quickly, and I, you know, I think that Spotify will change with it. It wouldn't surprise me if Spotify by the end of the year is doing exactly the same as Apple. Um, I think that probably makes sense, and it wouldn't surprise me as well if we end up having um a slimmed down uh list of podcast hosting companies because actually uh this is going to add significant complication to everyone. Um and so uh potentially we might see a bit a bit of mergers, a bit of a bit of acquisitions going on there as well. Um, but um yeah, it's um we're we're still not quite sure what's going on, and of course, we shouldn't forget that um the fourth biggest podcast app is Amazon Music, uh, who have no um uh video plan at all. Um, and so we're not quite sure what's going to happen uh there. Um so I mean Android Authority only yesterday was talking about you could be paying for a great podcast app and not even realize it if you're already paying for Amazon Prime, a basic but solid podcast app is hiding inside your app. Really? Um but anyway, so we will we will see what happens there. But not everybody has yet jumped onto the uh video bandwagon, of course.

Sam Sethi 56:35

James, let's move on. Sorry, we we've probably got to have a jingle because it's Spotify again. Oh great. Yes, well. But actually, I saw your little Mastodon response to this, so yes, you are a very happy boy. But Spotify AI playlist for podcasts has launched. What is this, James?

James Cridland 56:53

Yeah, this is I think this is quite neat. Um now the question is will anybody ever use it? Which is a valid question, I think. But you can go into Spotify if you find the um the button to do this, and you're in a supported country and you're a premium subscriber. Uh, once you've done all of that, um, you can create an AI-aided playlist for podcasts. So you can go in there and you can type in create a podcast playlist that gives me all of the latest news about podcasting, which is what I did. And uh and it came up with uh a pod news daily podcast right at the top. Then next, then next, this very show. Wow. Uh which was very cool.

Sam Sethi 57:39

Uh and then prompt again, repeat, repeat.

James Cridland 57:43

And then and then number three was you know, sounds profitable. But anyway, uh so it ended up with a lot of a lot of these things. Um so um yeah, it was uh quite nice. Um uh I mean a fine, a fine show makes a makes an awful lot of sense. Um, but I think um uh this is a good answer to those people that say, oh, podcast discovery, and there's no podcast discovery anymore, and blah, blah, blah. Um, actually, it gave me a pretty good list uh all the way through, gave me a pretty good list of shows that I might want to go and have a listen to. So I was quite impressed actually at um the quality of the playlist that it gave me. Uh, you can see that in the pod news uh uh um newsletter on uh Wednesday, which you'll uh see me giving it a go. Um, because uh I'm in Australia where they have uh this, uh also the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Sweden. Uh uh, where's Spotify based? Oh yes. Um that would that would explain that one. Um so uh yes, no, I think it's uh I think it's a pretty good thing.

Sam Sethi 58:49

Yeah, we talked about this new uh advertising carousel that's in beta with Spotify that goes over the top of playlists. Uh I'm just uh surmising that now that they've got AI playlists for podcasts, maybe they will bring that carousel, and maybe that's a new revenue stream for Spotify to have uh people um advertise against particular playlists because now they're creating millions of different new playlists which they wouldn't have added. What do they call them? Surfaces, that's the word that the industry uses.

James Cridland 59:22

Yes, that's the word that everybody uses. Yes, I mean the the there may be a little bit of that. It may just be that they just want more people to uh uh more people listening to podcasts on their platform, and this is a nice way of doing it. You've obviously been able to do music in this way for a while. Um the same goes for uh YouTube music, by the way. The same goes, I think, now for Apple Music as well, which I think has the same thing. So therefore, you could almost ask yourself, is this going to be the next feature in the Apple Podcasts app? Um, given that if they've already done all of this hard work for Apple Music, you would have thought that it's going to be quite simple to plug it into Apple Podcasts as well. Seemingly, um, well, pretty obviously, the same team who works on the Apple Podcast app and the Apple Music app, uh, if you've ever used both of them, um, then you'll know exactly what I mean. So uh yeah, you know, so so we might see a little bit of that um uh going on. The other uh the the other interesting thing is right at the bottom of the uh of the article it said that um you will uh only be able to uh use this. There's um uh uh what what what's the phrase? There's um there are uh limits on how many times you can use this particular feature. So presumably it uses quite a lot of tokens. So you need to be careful, you know, in terms of that. Um a nice quote in there from Lizzie Hale, who is Spotify's global head of podcast editorial. They have a global head of podcast editorial. Who knew? So I have a um uh a request in uh to uh see if we can learn a little bit more from her about how podcast editorial works on Spotify. That should be interesting.

Sam Sethi 1:01:07

Now, uh TuneIn, um, it seemed to have sort of died. Now, James, what is TuneIn and why did it in 2024 uh simply close down, accepting new podcast listings?

James Cridland 1:01:20

Yeah, I mean it's a very, very big uh radio um uh app where you can listen to every radio station under the sun. Um, and it works very well for that. It's built into a lot of surfaces, uh, if I can use that phrase, um, and uh it seems to do very well. Um, but uh getting your podcast in there was a little bit harder. So it had podcasts from the big broadcasters, but that was about as far as it went. Um the podcast submission disappeared in February 2024 and took a whole year before coming back, but it is now back, which is nice. Um, you just need to go to TuneIn's broadcaster portal. Uh, broadcasters.tune in dot com is where you go uh for that. Um I was actually talking to the team this morning um and um and I said, Oh, you should have a look at the podcast index, and he said, I think we use that. I'll check, but I think we use that. So if that's the case, then good, hurrah. Um, but uh certainly this show is there. If you want to go and have a listen to this show in tune in in your Tesla, because it's um automatically in your Tesla car or on your Sonos speaker or various other places, um, then uh that is there. But I thought that that was uh pretty good news really.

Sam Sethi 1:02:38

I did uh ping the uh development team over there to see if they've got an API for automatically uh submitting as a host to the TuneIn platform. And the disappointing response was the one that I got when I had River Radio back in the day, which was basically go to that portal that you just mentioned and individually submit your show. And I thought, God, is that it? Is that the only way you can do this? Because that is not gonna help them when the hosting industry says, okay, we'll add you as an individual directory alongside Podcast Index or Apple or Spotify.

Podbean live going away

James Cridland 1:03:18

Yeah, they're not very bright in terms of that, they're not from podcasts the the the podcast world, really. Um, so they're not very bright in terms of that. They are pretty poor at talking to um whether it's broadcasters, whether it's uh journalists, whether it's podcasters. Um they are pretty poor at that. I hope that they will get better. They did speak at Radio Days Europe this year, um, and in fact, I interviewed um uh the president of Stingray Radio um on stage who owns uh TuneIn now, and he was just talking about TuneIn. That's all he wanted to end up talking about. So that was good. Um so clearly they are interested in talking more to the radio industry, and I hope that they want to talk more to the podcast industry as well. Um, I think um, you know, really it'll be worthwhile waiting and seeing whether or not they actually follow through on that. Um, they have been a just a rude company to deal with over the last five, six years, so I'm hoping that they get a little bit better.

Sam Sethi 1:04:20

Now, quick question, James. Podbean, are they related to Mr. Bean? Because they're closing down live. We talked about this last week. In a world where more people are going live, it just doesn't make any sense to me. Can you try one more time to see if you can make any sense to why Podbean are closing their live platform?

James Cridland 1:04:40

Um, I mean, I can't really. They want to focus on something else. I mean, maybe uh just nobody is using it on the Podbean platform. Um, maybe the secret of going live isn't necessarily the technology of going live, it's it's the platform that you want to consume and that your listeners want to consume the live podcast on. And maybe it's just that. Um, but yes, they are uh closing it in June. Um, it's going to be missed so much by people that one person, Joe Antonio, has filed a petition against the closure um uh trying to uh save Podbean Live. You've um don't shut down our community, blah, blah, blah. It's got 86 uh people who have signed that uh as we speak. Um, so uh there does seem to be um uh something going on there, but um if the only place that you can consume a live show on Podbean is in a podcast app from Podbean, then I'm not surprised that they're closing it down, to be honest. Um, so I think it's more a case of okay, if you are producing a live show, can you get it into YouTube Live? Can you get it into Facebook Live or into um I don't know if if LinkedIn does live, but you know what I mean? Can you can you get it into all of these different Different places. Um, if you can, it strikes me that that is the most sensible thing to do. And if Podbean didn't want to spend the time doing that, then you know, closing something down, you know, it probably makes sense to me.

Sam Sethi 1:06:15

I mean, I I still think live is where hyperlocal radio will end up. Anyway, that's just uh and music events and podcasting. But uh anyway, we'll see. But an interesting story this week was Mr. Beast, the uh YouTube um creator did a live stream challenge where he attracted, and this is a mad number, one million concurrent viewers with a live broadcast using his YouTube channel. Right. Well, yes, that there's a thing. But I think I think it it goes to show scalability, right? Yeah. One of the biggest worries I think has been in the past that you know TV would have said or radio would have said, well, we can scale because of our networks, and the web would have said, Yeah, can we scale with live? I think this proves you can.

James Cridland 1:07:00

Uh, I think you can uh uh scale with uh YouTube, yes. Uh Amazon, if you remember, had awful trouble uh a few years ago when they were trying to do live video um for football, uh, and they had awful uh trouble. Similarly, Optus uh here in Australia, they had, I think it was a World Cup or something, uh, and they were covering that, and it literally did not work. And they handed the broadcast rights to one of the uh uh TV broadcasters here because it just simply didn't work. Um, so I think yes, it'll work with YouTube because YouTube has boxes. That this is the secret about YouTube, it has boxes at every single ISP. Um, so it's not um working in the same way as pretty well everything else is. Uh they have large boxes which are caching stuff um so that you don't have that particular issue. Um, and um I I would imagine that pretty well for pretty well everybody else, it it'll still be really very hard to get the type of scale. I mean, you're talking about a million there as if that's an amazing thing. Let's not forget that you know uh live TV regularly does eight eight, nine, ten million um uh people watching live.

Sam Sethi 1:08:17

Um, and and that's still ten times as large as um, oh no, I'm not saying that TV's not able to do it or you know, or or isn't still the primary medium. I'm saying what's interesting for me is you know, that my little head about you know something like a Substack or a podcast index, uh sorry, podcasting 2.0 show, right? And with a nice cast server, you know, if you got you know a thousand people doing that would have been great, right? When you get a million people, and you're right to say it, it's YouTube's own private network in effect that's running this, not not the web really. Yeah, I mean Netflix had a massive problem with the fight that it did with um Mike Tyson, I think, or maybe it was Jake Paul, I can't remember, where it just wouldn't play and it was buffering. Um, and yet they've got their own private network and they must have a massive um capability to be able to do uh concurrent viewers, and they were struggling as well.

James Cridland 1:09:09

Yeah, no, indeed. It's not easy to do that sort of thing, and um uh uh yeah, you know, there are uh there are real scalability issues when you get to be that big. Um, so uh yeah, and you know, again, that may well be uh one of the reasons why Podbean has gone, you know what, we're not gonna we're not gonna be doing this. If they are going to feed their live streams onto YouTube and you know onto other platforms, well, that's a different conversation, isn't it? But um yeah.

Sam Sethi 1:09:45

Now two two things that grab me again, and and I will bring it back to podcasting before you edit it off the platform.

James Cridland 1:09:53

Um we'll see about that. Yes, yes.

Sam Sethi 1:09:57

YouTube is making lean back TV more interactive. So we we heard that they're launching a feature called Stations, which is basically a video hub uh that will introduce live coverage. They're gonna start with the Coachella Festival shortly. Um they're also bringing out a TV companion that pairs with your phone so it recognizes automatically that you're playing on your TV and gives you an interactive comments control feedback. That could be quite interesting. And they also are adding a feature called Ask, a video specific chatbot designed to help viewers engage more deeply. Do you think because YouTube have said that they are now the main uh display within the lounge? I mean Netflix says they're their main competitor, do the second screen capabilities and these chatbot interfaces interest you? You're a YouTube premium supporter.

James Cridland 1:10:48

Yes, I am, and I'm a bit grumpy about YouTube actually, because I went down to YouTube Premium Lite, which is available here, um, after it was covered on this show, and I went down to YouTube Premium Lite because the story that we covered was YouTube Premium Lite now includes downloads, and that's what it says on the advertising. But then when you actually go and use it, it says, Oh no, this feature is coming soon, which I think is illegal. Um, so I was a very grumpy man.

Sam Sethi 1:11:16

Is that the lawyer you're talking to?

James Cridland 1:11:18

So I I was a very grumpy man in um uh in an airport going, why can't I download any of these videos anymore? Uh for this 14-hour flight that I'm just about to be jumping onto, and uh only to find out that YouTube uh uh uh had ripped me off, basically. So I was uh rather irritated at them for that. Uh yes, I use YouTube a fair amount. Um I mean, you know, as with all of these things, the proof will be using them. The proof will be, you know, how many people actually use this, similar to that weird um uh AI playlist thing from Spotify. How many people are going to end up using that? I like the idea that these companies are trying new things, seeing what happens, seeing what doesn't, and um, you know, and roll on actually giving that a go. The one thing that I would say, and and the thing, the trick that I think YouTube is missing, is not having um a curated experience for live TV outside of the US. I'm sure that um the rights that they have for many of the channels would allow them to do that everywhere. Um, and I'm surprised that they haven't gotten that. And there are an awful lot of live TV channels already available on YouTube anyway, particularly around the news uh side. And again, I'm surprised that they haven't got a more curated experience for that sort of thing as well. But um, yeah, you know, anything that does more of that um kind of makes sense.

Sam Sethi 1:12:45

I'm wondering whether this stations is that feature that you're looking for, James.

James Cridland 1:12:50

Well, I mean, maybe, maybe. I mean, the one thing that I am looking for is um I I don't want to buy a new Apple TV until they release new hardware. Uh, any any sign of that happening soon?

Sam Sethi 1:13:02

Well, uh rumour is obviously that the WWDC, the Apple Developer Conference, is in June, uh, June the 8th, that they're going to be announcing new versions of HomePod and the new Apple TV. Um, the whole thing, from what I've read, has been held up for one reason and one reason only, and that is Siri. They can't get the Apple AI to work properly. And it's been the one thing that's held up their hardware, it's the one thing that's held up most of their um applications that they want to do. But by all accounts, iOS 27 will have the new Siri within it, uh, alongside the new iPhone 18. Um, and yeah, I'm like you, James, I'm looking for a new Apple TV. Allegedly, this will have Siri in it, the A19 chip, support for Matter, and I know you use home automation with matter. Um, and yeah, they've also got a small Apple stick allegedly coming out to replace or challenge the Amazon Fire TV stick as well. So a Square box as we know, the Apple TV, but also a small little HDMI plugin as well.

Buzzssprout downloads

James Cridland 1:14:10

Yeah, yeah. Well, if that is the um the MacBook Neo uh of the Apple TV world, it's a very, very cheap thing, um, then that might have something going for it. So um, yeah.

Sam Sethi 1:14:22

Moving on, last story then. Uh James, uh Buzz Sprout has put out their report for the total downloads for March. What's the uh what's the headline?

James Cridland 1:14:33

Yeah, well, I mean the headline is that uh total downloads uh for the Buzz Sprout um podcasts are slightly up year on year. I only really look at year on year. Uh I I think looking month on month is a bit pointless, particularly since February has 28 days and March has 31. That's uh a significant larger amount of people, you know, of days uh in March. And so therefore everybody should be up. Um so I always look year on year. Um, the big thing that uh really does uh spring out at you when you do compare year on year, though, is the amount of um web browser downloads, um, which let's face it is often how AI agents um hide themselves. Um the amount of web browser downloads has more than doubled. Um so um that is uh interesting. That's moved up to the number three uh in terms of the biggest um uh downloader. So it goes Apple Podcasts at number one with 36.6% of downloads, Spotify at number two, 27% downloads. But of course, Buzzprout isn't seeing any podcasts which are uh made in video, and also um there are no automated downloads with Spotify, and then at number three, the web browser at 13%, which is a significant increase from this time last year. Um, so I think it's all AI personally. Do you think that hosts should block the AI scrapers? Uh it's impossible because if it looks like a web browser, then it looks like a web browser. What are you gonna do? Block web browsers.

Sam Sethi 1:16:05

No, uh you can't. I mean, I agree with you. I'm but John Sperlock's got a very interesting OPOG list of all the bots. So Yeah, of course.

Events

James Cridland 1:16:14

So if if a bot is polite enough to say I'm this bot, then you can block it. Um but if they're not polite enough to say that, then you can't. And I think that's the that's the issue there. Um I'm actually I I'm actually interested in something that Cloudflare is now doing, which is if you are a bot and you have a particular thing in your accept header when you ask for a website, um, then the website, uh, if you're using Cloudflare, will automatically reply in text format only and in Markdown, um, which means that it's much cheaper for everybody, it's much cheaper for you, the website host, because you're just serving markdown to these things, much cheaper for um the bots because that's far less tokens. Um, and so much cheaper for Cloudflare because there's much less you know bandwidth. So everybody wins out of that, which I think is quite neat. I can't do that yet. Um, I wish I kind of could. Um, but um uh yeah, but the difficulty is that at the moment there are no uh laws, if you like, saying that the user agent has to be correct, and until there are those things in place, well, actually, you can type in whatever you want in the user agent, and that means that it's going to be very difficult for you to block um, you know, uh any of these things, which is hard.

Announcer 1:17:36

Podcast events on the Pod News Weekly Review.

The Tech Stuff

James Cridland 1:17:41

So uh awards and events, the Quill Podcast Awards are back for their fifth year. Nominations are now open. There are 13 categories if you want to enter those. The entries are also open for the AIBs uh 2026. It's not the IABs, that's the AIBs. That's the Association of International Broadcasters. Um, there are uh podcasts built into that. There's a gala ceremony in London on the 20th of November, but you've got until the 3rd of July to get your entries in uh for that. And congratulations to those people who are nominated in the Peabody Awards. Um, those will be announced on April the 23rd and then celebrated on May the 31st in Beverly Hills. Uh, events and uh things like that that you might be interested in. Um Hark is an excellent podcast app, and this is nothing to do with it. Uh it's uh based in the UK, is this heart, um, uh This Hark, and it's called Hark Live. It's happening in Manchester uh on April the 29th. It's a free event for agencies, businesses, and brands who want to understand more about audio. It looks quite interesting. Um uh so uh worth a peek. You'll find more details on that pod news. The Soundwave Summit is to return to Toronto in Ontario, in uh Canada in May. It's right next to Radio Days North America, so you can go to both. And there's a cheap ticket for you to go to both, um, which looks uh very good. Uh and also Birmingham's UniPod Festival 2026 is taking place on the 8th of May, supported by BBC Sounds and Amazon Music, and uh it's very good. You will be going to that, I'm assuming. Yes, yeah, I've been to the last uh three. Yeah, so I'll be going to support Nina. Yeah. Well, that all makes uh perfect sense. So exciting, even the dogs are excited.

Announcer 1:19:31

The Tuck stuff on the Pod News Weekly Review.

James Cridland 1:19:34

Yes, it's the stuff you'll find every Monday in the Pod News newsletter. Here's where Sam talks technology.

Sam Sethi 1:19:39

You say USHA, I say uh no, what do you say? You don't say USA. OSHA. OSHA. OSHA. OSHA, OUSHA. Right, they've got uh visibility ads, James. I thought ads were visible. Tell me more.

James Cridland 1:19:51

Yes, they do. Yes, they've got um OSHA visibility ads, which is essentially the ability for you to buy ads on Spotify and YouTube for your podcast. Um, which you'd think, well, why wouldn't I just go to Spotify and YouTube for that? Well, uh, because you probably want to do it in a way that understands um how these things work specifically for podcasts. That kind of makes rather more sense. Um so OSHA visibility ads is a new thing uh from them. That tool is available in uh beta today.

Sam Sethi 1:20:20

Now, Podpage, uh, which we've had interviewed in the past, and Dave Jackson recently joined, now transcribes podcasts for every episode automatically.

James Cridland 1:20:31

Uh yes, if you are an elite member, um then the transcripts are there on the website. Um, it supports speaker identification, which is nice. It supports timestamps and clean paragraph formatting as well. Um, they're also uh marked up for Google using schema, which I've been taking a peek at um for the PodNews website uh as well. Um, very cool to get um uh transcripts, of course, if you're with Buzzsprout, our sponsor, then you get those too. And those are available on your website. Go and take a peek at weekly.podnews.net and you can see what they look like. Um and Overcast as well has uh just um released their um app with uh podcast transcripts in there as well. Um it's very cool. And if you read uh yesterday's uh pod news, you will have seen that um their transcripts are being powered by a rack of 48 Mac minis rather than trusting that job to the cloud. Um that feature is available to everybody. It's something that uh Marco uh believes that should be free for everyone. So hurrah for that. It's a phased rollout if you've not got it yet. You will get it over the next week for everybody. So uh yes, very cool.

Sam Sethi 1:21:44

I was talking to a friend of mine uh about all of these different transcriptions being available, and he asked me a question. Will those transcription apps automatically turn on the explicit tag if it detects rude words within the transcript?

James Cridland 1:22:00

Oh, there's a there's an interesting question. I mean, I suppose it could do, couldn't it?

Sam Sethi 1:22:05

I just I thought, you know, i if you've got the transcript and you know that there are certain words in it, do you automatically do that?

James Cridland 1:22:14

Well, I I mean I think v uh uh uh uh from my point of view, I think the answer is fuck noes. We'll see if we'll see if that works. I've bleeped it out. I've bleeped it out, you're fine.

Sam Sethi 1:22:27

Radio stations, James, can now convert live broadcast to on-demand podcasts. What's this one about?

The inbox

James Cridland 1:22:34

Yes, um, this is a new thing. Um uh now, if you remember, uh way back when you ran a radio station, you were um recording stuff and then turning that into podcasts and sticking it out using a company called Wushka, so good that Spotify bought it and closed it down. Um so uh what uh Ozan have done, Ozan.fm, is they have produced a new thing called podcastbot.ai. What that does is um it does that but a little bit more cleverly because it's using blocked. Sorry, what blocked, it's got the word bot in it. I'm blocking it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um no, it's do it's doing it a little bit more cleverly. Um it is doing uh because it's listening to them, because it's transcribing them, and because it understands what which bits are music and which bits aren't, um, it is uh able, uh, so they say, of, for example, taking any copyrighted music out. Um it's capable, so they say, of you know, being a little bit brighter in terms of um not putting the ads in or putting the ads in or doing whatever it is that you want. Um, it does all of that stuff automatically. Um, it looks very interesting. I'd like to um have a listen to some of the shows that it is producing because that is clearly you know what one of the big hassles in producing a podcast for a radio station is to basically sit there and edit uh a recording down uh to make a podcast best of out of it. And if you can get the um something automatic to do that, then that seems to make quite a lot of sense. So hurrah for ozan.fm um and I'd like to learn more about how podcastbot.ai works.

Announcer 1:24:11

Boostergram, boostergram, boostergram, super comments, zaps, fan mail, fan mail, and voicemail. Our favorite time of the week, it's the Pod News Weekly Review inbox.

James Cridland 1:24:24

Oh, new jingle. Uh, so many different ways to get in touch with us. Fan mail by using the link in our show notes, which includes voicemail now or boosts or email, and we share any money that we make as well. Just so that you know, um, in the last seven days we got 3,286 sats in total, uh, which is rather a lot lower than we normally get. But still, uh, we got some sats. So thank you very much. Uh, if you have been streaming sats uh to this show or to the Pod News Daily.

Sam Sethi 1:24:55

Now, James, we've had some fan mail in, but excitingly, we've had some fan mail in the form of voicemail.

Speaker 3 1:25:00

Who've we got? James and Sam. This is Ralph Estep Jr., one of your favorite supporters. And I just wanted to check in with this new voicemail. And thank you so much for what you do every week. I'm out here early morning in Middletown, Delaware, on the farm walking the dog, and you are keeping me company here in the dark as we walk. So I just want to say thank you, gentlemen. Always look forward to your show every week and keep podcasting.

James Cridland 1:25:27

Keep podcasting. God bless you, Ralph Estep Jr., thank you very much for that. Uh, you are indeed one of our favorite supporters. Um, Middletown in Delaware. That sounds that sounds like a typical, a typical American uh in the middle of nowhere place, doesn't it? Yes. Middletown. The flyover state, maybe.

Sam Sethi 1:25:46

Who knows?

unknown 1:25:46

Yes.

James Cridland 1:25:47

Wow. There's a um there's a place up in uh uh up north from us, um, which is called Townsville. Uh so good they named it twice. So uh Ralphie Step, thank you uh so much. He of course is one of our um power supporters uh as well. And uh here's another one.

Speaker 1:26:06

Hi James, it's Lindsay from the Fiction Podcast Weekly, and I wanted to say hello and test out this service. I have used fan mail with the audio drummer writers independent toolkit and with Life in the Ted Lane. We did not get many responses, but I mean, I just don't understand why people didn't use it. We promoted the link. But in any case, maybe this will be a way that people will make more use of fan mail. Hope you're having a great day. Thanks. Bye.

James Cridland 1:26:40

We're having a great day, Lindsay. Thank you uh so much. And uh yes, I do believe that audio is a great way of getting feedback, and so I'm super pumped. Um the BuzzBroute team will know that I've given them uh a list of at least six feature requests around fan mail. You know, everything from please could you change the name of the file name, which is downloaded, uh, to uh rather rather less esoteric ones. But uh yeah, they are uh it it's it's such a good tool. Uh if you would like to leave us fan mail, please do. You'll find the link right at the top of our show notes. Um uh just take a peek at that. It also works absolutely fine on desktop as well if you want to use your fancy mic, um, or you can just use your mic on your Android phone or your uh or your toy phone, that's absolutely fine uh as well. So uh yes, give that a go. It's uh very, very cool.

Sam Sethi 1:27:33

Who knew that an audio feedback in an audio medium would work?

Sam and James's week

James Cridland 1:27:38

Who knew? Yes, exactly. Who knew? Uh super comments and boosts and stuff like that um uh in uh TrueFans includes uh Seth Goldstein. Thank you, Seth. Uh firstly saying that James's report card is something I look forward to every year. Uh yeah, me too. Uh I'm looking forward to crunching the numbers uh if you've not filled that out yet. I will. Would very much appreciate it if you would. Podnews.net slash report card is where to go. And he also says Podscribe is a pretty nifty service. Good get on getting them as a sponsor. I had nothing to do with it, but Seth, thank you so much. Much much appreciated. So uh yeah, thank you uh for uh that and thank you very much to our power supporters. We've got 24 of them, uh, including um uh Silas Vote, uh including Seth Goldstein, Dave Jackson, and Claire Waite Brown. Uh, thank you all uh so much for your very kind uh support there. That's going to make life um much easier when we come to drinks and things in the podcast show in London. Dave Jackson says he's coming. Yay! Uh so that should be good. Um looking forward to seeing him and a bunch of other people as well. Uh so what's happened for you then, uh Sam?

Sam Sethi 1:28:52

Well, first of all, I'm I'm busy trying to put those drinks together. So hey. Yes. Happy days. Right, so that's the first thing. Um, we're working on a bot blocker. Uh, we are looking at John Spurlock's OPORG list, and yeah, so we're gonna provide a user interface and creators dashboard to allow you to turn on or turn off those bots from scraping your content. So we'll see how that works. Um, went to see an artist last night called Brook Coombe in London. Very good. I love her dearly. Uh new Scottish soul singer. So if you like soul music, check her out. Um, and yeah, I'm very pleased. I'm I'm guesting on Sound Off with Matt Cundle and also with Norma Jean Balenki on Poppies. So look out for those when they come out.

James Cridland 1:29:38

They are very good podcasts which you should go and listen to, both of them. Uh sound off with Matt Cundle, uh, all the way from Winnipeg in Alberta.

Sam Sethi 1:29:48

He's moved. Oh, go on then. Where is he now? Uh Ontario, I wouldn't say no. He did tell me. He said to say this makes it even worse. He said, make sure you tell James I've moved and where I am. And I went, Yes, I will. And now I can't remember.

James Cridland 1:30:02

Oh no. Well, there you go. And uh I I should also tell you that in that show, in uh just before he gets to you, um, there is a mid-roll in that show. And I pop up um because Matt uh very kindly even wrote me a script and said, You want more people signing up to the Pod News Report card? And I said yes. And he said, Here's a script for you. Can you read it? And then I'll I'll stick it in as an ad. And so uh, you know, I I I rewrote it and and produced it and sent him a copy of that. So we'll find out which version he's used. Um uh so that's uh very good, but that was a super kind thing. Um, if you are listening and you are um talking to other podcasters, I would really appreciate it. Uh again, podnews.net slash report card. That would be uh very kind um because uh you know we need numbers uh to help us there. Um so yeah, very cool. So, James, what's happened for you this week? Well, uh firstly, oh yes, the pod news report card it says here. Yes, let's not forget that. Um secondly, uh I drove all the way up to uh sunny um Bundaburg um last week, late last week. Um, you are the reason why I get to drive back and I can avoid my sister-in-law. Uh so that's um so that's a good excuse for you. What was interesting is I ended up doing that in the big um in the big uh fancy car, um uh electric car. And of course, this was the first long journey that I had ever done, and I was a little bit uh worried because I was told that um doing a long drive in an electric car is terrifying because you know you're gonna run out of electricity and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. It couldn't have been any more simple, absolutely couldn't have been any more simple when I got you know sort of three-quarters of the way there. I I just asked Apple Maps for the for the closest uh charger and uh just parked it there and and um and had a pie.

Sam Sethi 1:31:59

You didn't use range anxiety then?

James Cridland 1:32:02

Absolutely none, absolutely none. And then of course I I get there and the Murdoch papers are all um they they had because it we it was a holiday weekend, the Murdoch papers all had, you know, these idiots in their electric cars, look at them queuing for the um tiny amount of chargers which are out there, what idiots they are. Um uh it's almost as if um the Rupert Murdoch papers are getting their money from the mining um companies, because uh there was absolutely not a problem. Every single uh charging point that I went to, uh and I went to four, I think in total, were all absolutely fine to get onto um and worked absolutely fine. So, you know, typical uh Rupert Murdoch, uh trying to scare everybody away from electric cars in this particular case. Um he's still alive. I mean, uh unfortunately, yes, he is still alive, just he's hanging on. Um yeah, I I think I think he's 98. I think he's 98, but his mother lived to uh even even older. Um so I think his mother lived to 103, I think. Um so yeah, unfortunately that is gonna is gonna carry on. Uh, I did read a book recently called The Men Who Killed the News, and it's all about people like Rupert Murdoch, but also many other people as well, and all of the all of the things that they have done and all of that. He's 95, by the way, at the moment, born uh in 1931 in Melbourne. Yes, well, I mean, yeah, absolutely. Gosh, yes, that book was uh amazing. I had no idea. Tony Blair, what a naughty man you are, Tony Blair. I had no idea. Good lord. Is that the affair? Yes, yes, exactly. That didn't come out, did it? Anywho, uh, so yes, so that was fun. And um, no, apart from that, um uh that that has basically been uh my week. Nothing more exciting than that, but um, I'm looking forward to um uh hopefully doing uh a few more archival stuff. So I write um um uh a bunch of um stories about um the history of podcasting. Uh I'm currently working on a um a piece all about the Microsoft Zune, uh which was a thing which played podcasts. Um do you know who the podcast business manager for Zune was? No, Rob Greenley. Oh yeah, so there we are. He ran the entire thing. Um if you want to know, his uh email address was rob at zoom.net, uh and the only way to get your podcast into uh the Microsoft Zoom was to email him. Because guess what? The official submission process built into the desktop software didn't reliably filter for valid podcast feeds with media enclosures. Genius. Microsoft, you've you've you've um you've ticked off another one there. Um so uh yeah, so that was um so that's good. But uh also I've reached out to the editor of Podcast User Magazine, which was a magazine, PDF magazine, that came out in the UK in about 2005, 2006, 2007, and absolutely fascinating. So um what I'm hoping to do is hoping to be able to host all of those um and um maybe do a little bit of AI in terms of um please could you give us a you know a sample of what's in here and um you know maybe use a little bit of AI for that, who knows? Um but yeah, super, super exciting. So hopefully that will um happen in the next couple of weeks. And that's it for this week. All of our podcast stories, of course, taken from the Pod News Daily Newsletter at Podnews.net.

Sam Sethi 1:35:47

You can support this show by streaming Satch. You can give us feedback using the Bussprout thumbnail link in our show notes, and that voicemail works really well. You can send us boosts or you can become a power supporter like the 24 Power Supporters at weekly.podnews.net.

James Cridland 1:36:03

Yes, and our music is from TM Studios. Our voiceover is Sheila D. Our audio is recorded using CleanFeed, and we edit with Hindenburg. And we're hosted and sponsored by Buzz Sprout, start podcasting, keep podcasting.

Announcer 1:36:16

Get updated every day. Subscribe to our newsletter at podnews.net. Tell your friends and grow the show. Support us and support us. The pod news weekly review will return next week. Keep listening.