Sponsored by SpotsNow. Want to fill more ad space? SpotsNow's AI Search routes advertisers to the right shows by audience fit, at the time of planning. Set up a free account, list your shows, and requests land straight in your ad sales inbox. Book a demo today Programmatic ads are fine - until they're not. Some companies are a little too "creative" with their categories, so they can slip past creator filters and you can get ads for things you don't want in your show. RedCircle has launched Mic Check for Programmatic Ads - a tool that checks programmatic ads have been properly categorised, so they don't get past your filters. The company estimates that 1 in 50 ads are miscategorized - and tell us that gambling ads often appear categorised as "financial planning" or "investing". Pocket Casts is now available on the big screen - as the podcast app launches a new Apple TV app. The Apple TV app is built to automatically sync with your phone's app, so you can listen in the car or on the bus; then continue listening when you get home on the big screen (and the decent speakers). Android TV is coming soon, the company says. We asked about video support, and we were told: "The app is not audio-only. HLS support is currently in beta, and we’re planning for HLS video to work on Apple TV as well." Last week, our Editor suggested that we should stop expecting podcast apps to work for free, and cut them into revenue in return for better measurement data. We've published a response from Amy Dugger, who accuses us of not wanting to report on the real issues for creators. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Want to fill more ad space? SpotsNow's AI Search routes advertisers to the right shows by audience fit, at the time of planning. Set up a free account, list your shows, and requests land straight in your ad sales inbox. Book a demo today The world's funniest podcast festival returns this October. Cheerful Earful will be in London, Brighton, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Dublin and New York from Sep 28 - Oct 28, with the largest lineup in the festival's history. Is video the future for podcasting? It depends, suggests Losh Moodaley, writing for Podnews today - the hidden economics of the price of visibility mean you might consider calculating your own video threshold: when does it make sense to add video so that it starts funding itself? In Dec 2024, the BBC World Service ran an investigation on harmful health misinformation on Steven Bartlett's podcast, and focused on claims by Thomas Seyfried. Private Eye reports that FlightStory's Diary of a CEO has welcomed Thomas Seyfried back in an episode released on Jul 16, which also acts as a fundraiser for Seyfried's work. Seyfried claims that chemotherapy and radiotherapy are little better than medieval quackery, and the real way to beat cancer is a ketogenic diet - claims that could significantly harm listeners if they followed them without real medical advice. Bartlett quietly announced a commitment to

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free The AMP Accords published what it calls "the first cross-platform measurement standard in history". The document defines a podcast, and aims to set implementation standards for attribution and exposure metrics. It argues that these standards are required to grow the industry further - and could, potentially, unlock a billion dollars in extra revenue. The document, which has been produced by twelve different companies, will now be taken to standards bodies, including the IAB. The document itself is gated content, and the website requires your email address to read it. As a service to our readers (and to protect our own business) you can download the document directly here. "It's time that we take ourselves seriously and we create some legitimate standards that make it a little bit easier for all of us to do our jobs," Oxford Road's Dan Granger, who has been driving the agreement, tells us in the Podnews Weekly Review this week. He's interviewed with Giles Martin, who is positive about the "play" definition in the document. "Spotify and YouTube both being in that ballpark, that's very meaningful for the industry and perhaps encouraging for others in the sense that already parts of (the AMP Accords) are getting some some meaningful traction." Opinion: The "exposure metrics" section of the AMP document asks for podcast apps to share a large amount of data every thirty seconds of content

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free Acast released its Q2/26 financial report. The company reported +28% sales growth - significantly, +34% in North America and +25% in Europe (growth this time last year in Europe was just +9%). The company made a profit of US$3.3mn. Total consumption is up +2%; total average revenue per listen-or-view is up +26%. The AMP Task Force paper is released later today, with a definition of a "podcast", as well as consumption metrics. Podnews will cover these on Friday, as well as reactions: if you're publishing something in response (or would like something published), editor@podnews.net SpotsNow launched curated bundles - a new way for advertisers to buy premium podcast inventory in ready-made sets built around specific audiences. It's free for advertisers, and free for networks to list their shows. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here🌱 Is Your Show Ready to Grow this Summer? — Get started with Player FM’s self-serve audience growth campaigns this Summer. Low commitment, flexible pricing, and an easy way to reach engaged listeners.Fast track your podcast success in one weekend. — Creators in the know will be at the Empowered Podcasting Conference this August. If podcast growth is your goal, this is the cheat code

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free In January, we reported on PodcastAdBlock, a podcast tool that removed ads from podcasts, selling ad-free copies of shows. It was written by developer, "adventurer and entrepreneur" Ben Bowler, who, by May, had pulled the tool down. Today, we discover, he's back - with Podtastic, a podcast app that skips the ads for $2.99 a month (none of which goes back to the creators, but up to 30% of that money will go to Apple or Google in app store fees). This app works a little differently. In our tests, the app downloads the MP3 files directly to the phone each time, and looks in our logs like a web browser (specifically, Safari v604.1), so it's going to be hard to block without blocking every web browser out there. It correctly skipped past our sponsor's ad-read in our daily podcast: but in the description, it's very careful not to suggest that it skips ads at all - just that it can "automatically skip past the interruptions other listeners skip", and it carefully doesn't mention any podcasts by name. We're curious whether this app is within Apple's App Store terms. It's produced by Freewheel Group Ltd. What does it mean for your podcast? It won't change your download numbers (they'll appear under "web browser"): it just means that the advertising will be less effective, and that advertisers will be less likely to rebook. First look: PAVE Studios has signed a furth

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free This morning, the IAB Tech Lab will release v2.3 of the Podcast Measurement Guidelines for public comment - updated for the first time since Feb 2024. The updates add "guidance around URL prefix measurement and RSS enclosure URL changes" among other things, although we will have to wait until 2027 for a version of these guidelines that focus on HLS streaming video podcasts. You've until Aug 19 to submit comments. Recognising podcast video, one change updates terminology from "listener" to "consumer" - inaccurately, in our opinion, since the existing guidelines measure neither "listeners" nor "consumers", just a combination of devices and IP addresses. It's curious timing: it comes two days before the release of the AMP guidelines, which will include a definition of "podcast", as well as measurement suggestions for actual podcast consumption, rather than downloads. The IAB's new documents will be visible from 8.30am ET today: we'll come back to this story tomorrow. Six million vehicles are now reporting live radio listening data, direct from the car radio. Radio is still listened-to by many more people than podcasting (for much longer, too), and this data may help the industry fight back against the more granular data that podcasting already offers.

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free Edison Research at SSRS released the top 50 podcasts in the US for Q2 2026. The Bill Simmons Podcast, which is now visible on Netflix, has jumped 17 positions to make it into the top 25 for the first time. British podcast The Rest Is History has entered the top 50 for the first time. (Simplecast hosts 17, Megaphone hosts 16, Omny Studio 4, ART19 and Audioboom 3, FlightCast, Acast, Blubrry, Libsyn, WNYC and WideOrbit 1) Even if Netflix won't say how well its podcasts have done, one's clearly done well: The Rest is Football has been renewed by Netflix for the next Premier League season. "No categories for video. Or ads. Or AI." That's the headline for the NYC Podcast Awards, which is now open for entries. The second season for the awards, entries start at just $75. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here📈 🚀 FREE 3 day podcast SEO challenge — Join us inside of the FREE Podcasting Business School community on Skool July 28-30th. Get 3 days of podcast growth training to optimize your podcast name/art, host description, and episode titles.Good Podcasts Grow. Great Ones Scale — Even chart-toppers need smarter growth. AudienceLift.com drives measurable expansion across Major Audio and Video Platforms. 🌟 For creators who want more tha

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free Audio remains the bedrock of podcasting, says a new report from Nielsen. 90% of monthly podcast consumers choose to listen, the data suggests, and most of podcast consumption is still audio, by a large margin. It quotes Edison Research's Share of Ear for Q1, which sys that 20% of time spent with ad-supported audio is podcasting: radio is more than three-times larger. Podcasting is continuing to grow in the UK; though Brits are disapproving of AI hosts - The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 was released yesterday by Edison Research at SSRS. UK shows are also reaching a considerable amount of Americans, the study shows. The podcast landscape in the country is very top-heavy, with the top 10 titles reaching a third of all weekly podcast consumers. The podcaster behind The Pragmatic Engineer has pulled his video from Spotify, writing a long piece on LinkedIn detailing the issues he's had, and suggesting that the company doesn't care about reliability or execution. Meanwhile, co-founder of podcast production company Podmasters, Martin Bojtos, tells the Podnews Weekly Review this week that, for a while, the #1 source of revenue for the company was video income from Spotify's partner program. The company is celebrating its tenth anniversary. The company's changes at Megaphone - to use a new ad server - take place today. > > > Read more o

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free WARC Media released a report on YouTube - which, it says, is worth $40bn to advertisers, but revenue growth is slowing down. TikTok is set to grow bigger than YouTube by the end of the decade; but Netflix is expected to pull ahead in the next eighteen months. Users spend 58 minutes a day on the platform. Podcast and video production agency The Podcast Guys is officially a Great Place to Work, after gaining certification from the workplace culture company. Certification is based entirely on anonymous survey feedback from employees. The company has offices in London and New York, with teams across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East. In the UK, the Future of Media Awards shared its shortlist. There are two podcast awards. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here🔊 Get Discovered this Summer — Grow your audience with Player FM's self-serve promotional campaigns. Reach active podcast listeners, boost plays, and gain subscribers with campaigns tailored to your goals. Start today!The Finance Podcast Your Clients Listen To — Listeners decide whether to trust you before they ever book a call. This guide shows how financial services firms turn podcasting into a client acquisition tool. Free.

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free A new study seems to show that audiobook listeners prefer some AI narrators over human voices. The study, conducted by Edison Research at SSRS, blind-tested Spoken Multi-Cast narration, and discovered that, while 31% of listeners said they'd be likely to listen to AI, after listening, that number had risen to 65%. (61% thought that the AI was human). You can hear the clips here. A separate study by Differentology, conducted for Azerion, also claims that AI-generated voices can be good for brands - especially if the accents match the part of the country where you're from. Recommendations rose 3x when people heard voices with a regional accent matched to where the listener was, like Scotland, Wales or Yorkshire. Audioboom released its H1/26 financial results. The company made a gross profit of $9.9mn, up +33% year-on-year. Revenue was up 30%; for Q2/26 they report 183 million downloads and video views, up 84% year-on-year. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad hereBook Time with Podcast Veteran John Wordock — Has your podcast stalled? Is your YouTube channel no longer growing? Need a video plan? Network exec John Wordock helps podcasters adapt to all the changes impacting our industry. Contact him today.AudienceLift: AI Podcast Growth – 12% Off Now! — Audie

Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free Podcasting has never been more interesting to advertising agencies and marketers, according to new research released by Westwood One. The study reveals that 76% of agencies and advertisers currently advertise in podcasts - a x5 increase in the last twelve years. SpotsNow has launched a new AI Search for podcast ad buyers. The tool helps buyers discover more shows that fit their target, and helps them focus on audience fit and performance. Each search also returns available last-minute inventory matched to the advertiser's audience and criteria, to help sellers fill sports that would otherwise go unsold. Podtrac has launched Podcast Promo Trades, a new free service to allow podcasters to grow shows by trading promos in other podcasts. Podtrac's Promo Platform has been used by a number of large podcasters to expand their audience and accelerate growth, the company says. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad hereWhere thinking becomes performance. — Start with a live AI conversation, shape it into a script, and turn it into content worth sharing.Podcasting builds trust. Email unlocks sales. — This case study breaks down how a show with 350 plays/ep drives $20k/mo in coaching client

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow Exclusive: Daylight Media has signed Bill Maher's Club Random - it becomes the latest show to join the network in a period of fast growth. Daylight will work with Club Random on sales and distribution; nine other shows have recently joined the platform. "Consumers simply don't have the attention span they once had." Writing for Podnews today, DAX US's Brian Conlan suggests this is a myth waiting to trip up the unwary marketer: and, in fact, the data points to consumers just making choices on where to direct their attention. A podcast app that removes advertising, ZeroAds, has measured the ads in 60,000 episodes submitted by their users. The median, the company says, is 4.3 minutes of ads per episode - 10.2% ads. But some shows are significantly more. All measured using at least 25 different episodes, iHeart's Handel On The Law is 44% ads; iHeart's Covino & Rich is 36.7% ads; iHeart's Dear Chelsea is 36.6% ads; and iHeart's The Ben Maller Show is 35.1% ads. (There's something linking all four of those and we can't think what it is.) Data in Podscribe - and our own tests - suggests that ZeroAds is significantly over-estimating the number of ads in podcasts. That's unsurprising, given it's trying to promote its product: but even Podscribe suggests that these four shows consist of more than 20% ads. > > > Read more of today’s p

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow Triton Digital has released data from its Demos+ platform, highlighting a missed opportunity between podcast audiences and ad-buyers. Its data shows that Black/African American listeners are significantly more likely than most to purchase life insurance, or to switch wireless providers. However, in spite of offering significantly better ROI for advertisers in those categories, investment in shows that attract those listeners continues to lag. Correction: We misread "Black/AA" as "Black/Asian American". This data means "Black/African American", we're told. Apologies for the error. The Webby Awards is looking for people to serve on this year's jury. They are particularly looking at expanding their expertise in podcasts (and they have plenty of podcast categories to judge every year). You can join here - there's a slot for "who recommended you", and the answer there is probably "James Cridland", Podnews's Editor. (He's an Associate Member of IADAS). A podcast studio probably isn't what you expect in a luxury resort in the Bahamas. Podnews sent Arielle Nissenblatt to take a look at Baha Mar in the Bahamas, which has worked with iHeartRadio to produce a professional podcast studio - and as she reports for us, it's an encouraging sign that podcasting is part of the guest experience at resorts like this one. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job o

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow YouTube is now the most popular service used for podcast consumption in the UK - two years after YouTube edged out Spotify in the US for the first time. Apple Podcasts is the fourth most popular in the country, after BBC Sounds, the corporation's proprietary app. The data is from Edison Research at SSRS, who present The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 in a free webinar on Jul 16. The data says 29% of weekly British podcast listeners, aged 15+, "choose YouTube as the service they use most to consume podcasts". 28% choose Spotify, 15% choose BBC Sounds, and just 10% use Apple Podcasts. This doesn't mean only 10% of podcast consumption happens on Apple Podcasts - just that Apple Podcasts isn't "the service they use most". Apple Podcasts is still #1 for podcast downloads in the UK, however. Data from OP3, analysed by Podnews and shared today, shows that 37.5% of all downloads in the country go to Apple Podcasts; Spotify gets 31.7%, while Amazon Music is at 4.1%. But, there's a big caveat: data like this doesn't measure YouTube at all; and won't measure Spotify video, or BBC Sounds. The video push from Apple Podcasts "shows early promise", reports Bloomberg in a paid article. The article suggests that shows including video are seeing higher consumption numbers. Part of that is attributed to promotion by Apple within its app. However, Ashley Carman also reports that take-up of video by creators within Apple Podcasts

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow Spotify has deepened its relationship with Amazon DSP. Now, advertisers using Amazon DSP are able to directly buy audio ads across podcasts on Spotify, globally. This opens up significant additional revenue opportunities for podcasting, Spotify says. Amazon DSP is a tool that also has partnerships with Disney+, Tubi and Hulu, and reports suggest more than $60 billion was spent by advertisers on Amazon DSP last year. Laura Mayer (Shameless Acquistion Target, ABC News, Three Uncanny Four, Midroll, WNYC, etc) released a book yesterday. Tryhard - a cautionary tale of clocking in and spinning out is a memoir of sorts, looking at our delusional obsessions with work. There'll, we suspect, be plenty to learn about the podcast industry; all the reviews tell us it's "laugh out loud, cry quietly". It's available from today in hardback for delivery; or from Apple as an e-book or an audiobook. (These links support Podnews). Good Tape has launched a new long-form review brand, Ear Stuff. The strand has done its first review on Who Blew Up The Guidestones, which launched in March.

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow Voting has opened for the speaker sessions at Podcast Movement NYC. Anyone can vote, and votes will go towards half of the 2026 agenda. There have been more than 750 session submissions. You can search and vote for them here. Tickets for the event are available - it'll be in New York, Sep 17-18. Podcast Movement NYC also announced its inaugural selection committee, which will be curating speakers based on a published evaluation rubric, to ensure quality and to reflect the breadth of the industry. The committee includes Podnews's Editor, James Cridland. Exclusive: Crossed Wires, the UK podcast festival held last weekend in Sheffield, doubled its attendance this year to 50,000 attendees, according to numbers shared with us by the event organisers. Over four days and eleven stages, the event included a number of live podcast recordings - many are now available on BBC iPlayer within the UK for the first time; more will appear during the week. We've a full catchup of what happened at the event, including plenty of pictures. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad hereFanswoon - grow your podcast the smart way — add your show, ask the consultant, and grow with a plan. Get world-class and affordable insights now by signing up for free today, using the discount code PODNEWS26 at c

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow The British Podcast Awards 2026 released its longlist - recognising 409 entrants across 27 categories. Almost half the longlist are claimed to be independent titles and talent. We see at least 53 nominations for the BBC, eleven for Audible, eight for Audio Always, Platform Media and Bauer Media, seven for Persephonica and Fun Kids, five for Rethink Audio, Sky News, Bloomberg and History Hit, four for Novel and Podmasters, three for Sony and Avalon. One notable indie who has a nomination: the 19 year-old Answer Me This!. Goalhanger, the UK's largest independent podcast company, did not enter; Global also appears not to have put their shows forward. The British Podcast Awards has announced that the final round of the Listener's Choice Award - the listener-voted prize in the competition - will be chosen using the Spotify platform. After an open vote on the British Podcast Awards website, the top 20 will move forward to a vote that requires listeners to use Spotify to make their final vote. "Any podcast currently available on Spotify is eligible for nomination". The award last year went to history podcast Betwixt The Sheets. The awards are celebrating their tenth year. Above: Deborah Frances-White, winner in 2020 for The Guilty Feminist. The Crossed Wires podcast festival has been taking place in Sheffield, England. We'll have a full round-up tomorrow. "If you're watching this because you

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow At some point 1 in 2 people will be affected by cancer. "Whenever I read that stat, I just always felt sorry for the other guy. Plot twist… you will occasionally be the other guy," says Jamie East, who releases Bad Blood: The Diary of a Cancer today. Jamie, who is Head of Podcasts at DMG Media, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in June 2025; the show, which starts today, includes real-life conversations from his doctors appointments, and an audio diary. The Escucha Podcast newsletter has published its final issue. Starting in November 2020, the fortnightly Spanish-language publication focused on podcast reviews and criticism. "The crushing emergence of AI and the shift towards video by a large part of the industry have created a significant cocktail of two things that don't interest me in the slightest", writes Pablo Fisher; but he adds "Escucha Podcast was a beautiful project, the loveliest and best thing I've done in my professional life. It led me to meet incredible people, to listen to the best minutes of audio in our language (also the worst; the selection task hasn't been easy)." Goalhanger has licensed its fiction podcast Sherlock & Co to BBC Sounds. The show currently gets 800,000 downloads each month, and will perform two sell-out live shows at London's Southbank centre later this year. > > > Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.Classifieds - your job or ad here

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow Who really listens to podcasts? Be careful with your assumptions, says numbereight, quoting from a study across five markets. Podcast listeners aren't just young; seniors are not just an edge case; and it's not just boys listening. The piece gives us the right questions to ask when planning podcast campaigns. A new remote recording service called SureTake is deliberately simple - and does one thing: high quality local audio and video recording. Aimed at editors and studios, the tool doesn't "nudge clients towards DIY tools or AI editing", it says - wonder who they could possibly mean... the company, which hails from Canada, is looking for beta testers - there's a free trial on the website. More and more people are using podcast app Overcast. Buzzsprout's platform stats for June show that podcast consumption by Overcast has increased by +28% year-on-year. Most other apps are relatively static - except Spotify, which shows a slump of -26%. (Some of this could be attributed to Spotify video, which is hosted by Spotify themselves). "Web browsers" are up by 4.4%. Transistor's stats, meanwhile - archived here - also show a 22% increase in Overcast year-on-year, and a drop for Sp

Sponsored by SpotsNow. Ask any podcast advertising question inside Claude or ChatGPT. The SpotsNow connector brings competitor analysis, campaign planning intelligence, competitor conflict vetting and new-client opportunities into the AI tools your team already uses. Try it free until July 22. Connect your AI to SpotsNow Riverside 2.0 begins to roll out today, which the company calls the biggest update in its history - with a new fully rebuilt recording studio and AI editor, social scheduling to automatically post to every channel, motion graphics in the video editor, and an upcoming MCP integration to connect AI assistants like Claude or ChatGPT (here's the waitlist). No longer just a remote recording tool, Riverside's Mac app will do in-person multicam recording too; and because you're only truly fashionable if you have your own newsletter, Riverside has added that as well, with an automatic publishing tool. The company says it's the "first agentic platform to span the entire creative workflow", and says that it takes just minutes after a recording session finishes to automatically deliver a rough cut, short-form clips, a newsletter, and a posting calendar. It's a three-week rollout, with a number of features launching today. Happy Canada Day. The podcast Gloves Off was only intended to be a limited series last year, but it's back for a new season from today, after being honoured at the Webby Awards and becoming one of the most listened-to podcasts in Canada. This year, it'll also be available in video, as well as an after show, called Cross Check; and focuses on lessons Canada could adopt to form alliances with other middle powers. One of the largest buyers of audio and podcast advertising, Ad Results Media (ARM) has been acquired by Miroma Group. No terms were given; we're told it's the biggest expansion into the US market by Miroma, "increasing