Hey podheads, hereâs issue #46.
Same old shit!
Iâve no idea why this keeps happening, but it feels every now and then someone decides to write an obtuse piece about the rise of podcasting. Last month it was Jennifer Miller with her NYT piece titled âHave We Hit Peak Podcast?â and this week it was the cover of Variety Magazine. The feature piece on the web by Tood Spangler and Brent Lang titled âHow Conan O'Brien and other top hosts are driving the podcast revolutionâ predictably raised the ire of the podcasting community. The articleâs title was later changed to âHow Conan OâBrien and other top hosts are tapping into the podcast revolution.â
The subtitle on the cover ââConan OâBrien is among a new wave of podcasters helping to transform the niche medium into a viable businessâ is particularly doltish for writers who frequently cover the podcasting beat. The responses to the tweet say it all
A short thread by Aaron Mahnke of Lore Fame
The idea that podcasts only took off because of big names like Conan jumping on the bandwagon is just stupid.
Itâs not me, even Marc Maron had an issue with the Conan being labeled a ârevolutionaryâ and visited Conan on his show to sort it out.
Barbarians at the gate
Sara Fisher over at Axios published an interesting piece on all the venture capital action in the podcasting space.
Venture capital money is pouring into podcast companies, with roughly 3x times as many deals being brokered today than 10 years ago.
Looking to the future
Justine Moore, Olivia Moore penned a piece in TechCrunch in the wake of Podcast Movement looking at the biggest trends playing out in podcastland.
Spotify watch
Spotify seems to be testing podcast playlists and stories for playlists.
Spotify Launches Daily News Podcast El Primer CafĂŠ with Colombiaâs El Tiempo Newspaper
Disney watch
Disney Music Group is launching a podcast called âFor Scores.â The show will feature film, TV, and game music composers.
The first run features Henry Jackman, who scored Disney's Wreck-It Ralph and Big Hero 6 among projects; Harry Gregson-Williams, who scored the doc Penguins and is at work on the upcoming live-actionMulan film; Pinar Toprak, who become the first woman to score a film in the Marvel cinematic universe with Captain Marvel; and Alan Silvestri, who discusses his work on all four Avengers films.Â
iHeart watch
There were 58 mentions of the word âpodcastâ in the iHeart earnings call with plenty of Spotify comparisons. Here a a few interesting highlights:
We also carry more than 250,000 podcast on our iHeartRadio platform from our own iHeartRadio original shows and other major podcast publishersÂ
We've seen growth of more than 300% in podcast listeners on the iHeartRadio app in the last year
We've also been able to substantially increase the performance of existing podcast using our unique radio promotional capabilities on our platform. For example, Disgraceland went from 100,000 downloads in the last month it was published on its former platform to two million
We do have the biggest podcast of all time Stuff You Should Know, which just had over 1 billion downloads and always remains in the top of the charts week in and week out over the years
Podcasting has been a very important strategic move for our company and this quarter iHeart's podcast network's unique monthly podcast audience is up 277% year-over-year faster than any other major company
Digital revenue growth of 32.8% was primarily driven by a growth in podcasting as well as our other digital offerings
WrestleMania
WWE is teaming up with Endeavor Streaming to launch a podcast network.
The pact expands WWE's relationship with Endeavor; it already works with Endeavor Streaming to power the backend technology of its WWE Network direct-to-consumer platform. Endeavor Audio, meanwhile, already works with superstars Brie and Nikki Bella on their show, The Bellas Podcast.
Bytes
James Cridland on Google Podcasts
What makes a good culture podcast â and what are the pitfalls? - Fiona Sturges/FT
Defining our Mission: PRX and PRI One Year Post-Merger - Kerri Hoffman
Why Is Joe Rogan So Popular? - Devin Gordon/The Atlantic