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• Spotify announced a set of new features for creators at its Now Playing event in Los Angeles, with Gustav Söderström announcing its podcast (and video) hosting platform has been renamed to Spotify for Creators. Eligible creators in the US, UK, Canada and Australia are able to join the brand new Spotify Partner Program, which earns money from podcast audio ads (both on and off the platform), and, from early next year, revenue based on how much your video podcast is streamed by Premium users. (The videos will appear uninterrupted and ad-free for those users).
  • Eligibility for the Spotify Partner Program requires you to use Spotify for Creators to host your podcast (or Megaphone in some cases); and you need at least twelve episodes, 2,000 unique Spotify users in the last month, and 10,000 streamed hours in the last month. (YouTube, by comparison, needs 1,000 all-time subscribers, but 4,000 streamed hours in the last year.)



• Spotify also announced that it’s now possible to upload video clips and video thumbnails for every episode.
  • The event happened in Spotify’s Los Angeles studios, in front of around 150 creators including Stephen Bartlett, Meghan Trainor, Jay Shetty, Emma Chamberlain and Don Lemon. Halsey played an acoustic set and there were a number of sessions. In one of them, when asked what his favourite thing about podcasting was, Geoff Chow, Head of Podcast Studios at The Ringer, said that it was that podcasts are open. (Admittedly, after saying that his favourite thing about podcasting was Bill Simmons.)
  • Podnews is here as a guest of Spotify.



• On Tuesday, Spotify announced its Q3/24 financials. The company reported record income, record gross margin of 31.1%, and revenue up by 21% year-on-year. It made $32mn profit in the quarter, and is on course to post a yearly profit for the first time. Spotify is now used by 640 million active users every month.
  • Ad-supported revenue, including advertising in podcasts, grew 6% year-on-year. However, yield appears to be an issue: the company noted that “podcasting advertising was driven by growth in impressions sold, partially offset by softness in pricing.“

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• Edison Research revealed the top 50 podcasts in the US, by total audience, for Q3/2024. Our list includes links to listen; 21 of the top 50 are hosted by Spotify’s Megaphone.


• iHeart Media is laying off up to 500 people. A large number of radio people affected have been documented by radioINSIGHT; we understand there have been cuts in some of the company’s podcast businesses too.


• BlogTalkRadio is to close on Jan 31. One of the earliest podcast and live-streaming hosts, it launched in January 2006. It merged with Spreaker in August 2017; Voxnest bought Spreaker in 2018; iHeart bought Voxnest in 2020. Most recently it’s been part of Triton Digital. In August this year, it hosted 3,293 podcasts.


• Samsung Podcasts has emailed licensing partners to reveal that it is to close on Dec 1. The service was latterly known as “the listen tab on Samsung Free or Samsung O”. It launched in March 2021.


• The Locked On Podcast Network has added the Locked On NBA FAST channel, a sixth FAST TV channel on YouTube, Local Now and Zeam, with Amazon Fire to come shortly. The channel carries daily episodes from Locked On NBA video podcasts.
  • The company as a whole saw a record listens+views figure in October of 37.5mn - almost 10% higher than September.



• Acast now represents the TED Audio Collective for ad sales, hosting and distribution. TED Talks Daily, the flagship show of the network, is currently a top 40 podcast in the US. TED moves from PRX and Soundrise. The deal covers everywhere outside Australia and New Zealand, where ARN’s iHeart is currently partner.


• New US podcast consumption data from AnalyticsIQ suggests that YouTube is the most popular place for podcast listening, with 59% of people saying they’d listened to a podcast on it in the past three months. Comedy is the #1 podcast category; 23% say they’ve bought products because of a podcast ad. Not given in the report: the survey was undertaken in Q1/24 (which explains why 16% of listeners say they were using Google Podcasts, which closed in March).


• The Podcast Marketing Academy released its Podcast Marketing Trends report for 2024. It contains a lot of data to allow you to compare your podcasts with others. It’s the latest report to make note of the disruption caused by Apple’s iOS 17 changes.

Focus

Where were you when Donald Trump was declared winner of the 2024 election? And where were you a few hours later when the German government coalitioncollapsed-the same day? If you’re interested in politics and in events shaping our world, and if you’re interested in what Trump 2.0 and a weak Germany means for the future of geopolitics - then DW Berlin Briefing should be right up your alley. The new video podcast on all things German politics and the German view on events worldwide was launched on November 8.

Join the three hosts, Nina Haase, Michaela Küfner and Richard Walker, as they offer you a unique perspective on Germany’s role in today’s rapidly changing world.

Listen and subscribe to Berlin Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever else you get your podcasts. A new episode every Friday.

Tips and tricks

• Why can’t I see my YouTube plays in my podcast host? Because they’re measuring different things, probably. We dive in.

Podcast News

• Permission To Shine, the show dedicated to highlighting humble, inspiring people, has reached episode #50. The 50th guest is Eric Byrnes. He spent 11 years in the MLB, holds a Guinness World Record for golfing 420 holes in 24 hours, completed a triathlon across America, author of 3 books, completor of the Western States 100 race, and is founder of the Let Them Play foundation -- emphasizing the importance of kids getting active.
• What does a day in the life of Austin TX sound like? To make 24 Hours in Austin, which launches today, twenty audio producers spent 24 hours in different Austin locations - recording peoples' stories. The show kicks off today, spending 24 hours in 6th Street.
• At least one-third of residents in the Navajo Nation — the largest Indigenous tribe in the United States — need to travel miles to get water for drinking, bathing, cooking and cleaning. New from ABC Audio this week, Reclaimed: The Lifeblood of Navajo Nation chronicles the Navajo Nation’s generations-long fight for water rights — a battle that has reached a critical turning point with a landmark bill in front of Congress that, if passed, would create critical infrastructure that diverts water to Navajo communities.
• REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana is new this week from Ballen Studios and Wondery. Each week, the show pulls back the curtain on what once was classified information - exposing the secrets and lies behind the world’s most powerful institutions. Say it ain't so!
• The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior is a co-production of the Australian ABC and RNZ, exploring the Greenpeace ship's last voyage before it was bombed and sunk in Auckland harbour, killing a photographer. Hosted by writer, podcaster and comedian James Nokise, the story follows the fallout - scientifically, politically, and socially - from the nuclear tests at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands, home to the people of Rongelap Atoll. It's new this week.
• After three years, host Nikkiesha McLeod and producer Jeremiah Lee McVay are producing the 2nd season of When We See Each Other, their podcast that features mainly BIPOC, trans, queer, and non-binary artists talking about their work, their creative processes, their identities, and their lives. The show originally ran during the pandemic.

Today’s most important question

What even is a podcast? After all the talk of video yesterday, we didn’t go to this session at Spotify’s Now Playing - we know the answer already.

(Thumbnail image: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Spotify)

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