Caroline Crampton
Caroline Crampton is a UK based journalist who has been writing about podcasts since 2014. Her journalism has appeared in publications including the Guardian, Lenny, the New Statesman and the Millions. She is a regular speaker and media commentator on the state of the podcast industry.
Career Spotlight: Hana Walker-Brown
Hana Walker-Brown is an award-winning documentary maker, composer, producer and writer based in London, where she currently works as an executive producer at Audible. In this edition of Career Spotlight, Walker-Brown talks to us about pointing the microphone in the right direction, adversity as a theme, and using your big ‘ol Doc Martens to keep […]
Insider: September 6, 2019
– The closure of the BBC iPlayer Radio app will begin on 16 September
– NPR names veteran media executive John Lansing as new CEO
– Acast has become the latest publisher to switch to using IAB v2 guidelines for measurement
Closed Captioning
Back in July, Audible announced a new feature called “Captions,” which uses automated transcription to produce read-along text that appears on a smartphone screen while an audiobook as playing. The company pitched this very much as an “educational” resource, pledging to offer free access to students and schools as well as providing the option to […]
A legal skirmish between Audible and book publishers over text captioning is a harbinger for future audio world conflicts.
Crime Junkies Update
There’s been an escalating development with the plagiarism accusations levelled against the Crime Junkie podcast by reporter Cathy Frye, who initially alleged in a comment on the podcast’s Facebook page posted on 15 August that her copyrighted investigative series “Caught in the Web” had been used “almost verbatim” as the basis for an episode about […]
Insider: August 30, 2019
Acast has received €25 million in financing from the European Investment Bank as part of an unusual “quasi-equity” deal. Wait, what? Also: Ximalaya, plus Spotify-Anchor integration
Let the Music Play
Music on podcasts has been, especially in the amateur and semi-pro space, a problem basically since the medium has existed. Podcasts are by default distributed and consumed globally, and therefore there’s a really complicated tangle of different copyright laws and jurisdictions to unravel if you are going to try and correctly licence commercial music for […]
Wanted: Podcast Broker
I bang on all the time here about the differences between podcasting in the UK and the US. The tldr version is this: the fundamental differences between US public radio and the BBC, the lack of venture capital money, and so far the non-existence of major UK podcast networks, as well as disparities of scale […]
August 22, 2019
Conan invents podcasting, Disney Music Group, Podcast revenue now accounts for one third of Barstool’s business
PodPass: Open vs. Closed
It’s becoming increasingly common to monetise podcasts via a direct connection with listeners, whether that’s from merchandise, donations, live events or bonus or ad free content. Big networks and publishers are doing it (eg Wondery Plus, Stitcher Premium, Slate Plus, etc) and independent creators are too (via Patreon, Memberful, or other solutions). The tech required […]