Podnews Daily - podcasting news

Audioboom, a podcast host and monetisation platform, has reported that its revenue for 2018 nearly doubled, and expects another 50% increase this year.

RAJAR, the UK radio and audio measurement company, have released their MIDAS research for Q4 2018, which contains research about multiplatform use of audio including a large amount of data about podcast use.

Pacific Content, the company behind the new Facebook Podcast Three and a Half Degrees: The Power of Connection, have written up nine marketing lessons for your podcast, working with Facebook’s team. The post includes some savvy use of offline media (coffee cup sleeves, aimed at commuters) and some extra-clever use of Facebook itself.

Podcast host Anchor claims that the number of podcasts carrying ads doubled last month, thanks to Anchor Sponsorships. The company is also keen to point out that they power 40% of all new podcasts (and it’s estimated that they have 70,000 shows).

Spotify now has 200m global active users, up by 10% over the past six months. 87m of those are paying customers. Morgan Stanley says users listen for 4.4 hours a week - Apple Music is 3.7m. However, 50% of Spotify users say that all the podcasts they want aren’t on the service. Notwithstanding this, it’s the #2 most popular podcast app.

More podcasts were launched in 2018 than ever before, says Pacific Content’s Dan Misener after examining the numbers. He adds that the number of podcast episodes has doubled every year since 2016.

Closed-captioning is coming to Google Podcasts: a forthcoming version of the app will include the option to produce an automatic live transcript on-screen, enabled with a CC button.

The BBC plans to make one of its podcasts exclusive to their own app, which annoys some listeners; meanwhile, Spotify describes the benefit of exclusivity for their platform

How many top 10 radio advertisers are also top 10 podcast advertisers? None are, it turns out. Wonder why?

New places for Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon and Spreaker stuff was all announced at the consumer electronics show.

The total number of smart-speakers has increased by 78% in the past year: and 21% of people in the US now have one. New data from NPR and Edison Research, from a survey conducted after the Dec 2018 holidays, shows a marked increase in ownership of smart speakers.

What Next, Slate’s daily news podcast, launched today at a new time of 5am. It had a short pilot period at the end of last year, and undertook surveys of their audience to tweak the show. It’s hosted by Mary Harris, formerly of WNYC.

We spotted an ad for Senior Product Manager - Podcast Advertising, working at Spotify's New York office.

Kanye West has said that he’s “spoken with Joe Rogan and a podcast is coming soon”. The musician had been complaining that the media didn’t want a serious interview about mental health issues.

A popular Danish podcast nearly scuppered the trial of its subject.