Podcast News Round Up | What Am Politics? Podcast Ends Series After 5 Years & More!
Welcome back to HeadStuff’s Podcast News Roundup, your go-to place for podcast news and recommendations. This week’s roundup features HeadStuff’s Podcast Of The Week and also looks at the end of the popular podcast What Am Politics?, a potential issue for podcasters uploading to Facebook and more!
And as always if you want your podcast featured as our podcast of the week, email us at [email protected] and we’ll be sure to check it out!
Podcast of the Week
Three Castles Burning is a Dublin history podcast hosted by Donal Fallon. The show is dedicated to telling the story of Dublin, emphasising histories which may otherwise be lost to time. Episodes average around 30 minutes so are equipped for easy and quick listening. Donal’s stories will change the way you view the city, teaching us things we never knew about the Irish capital.
Donal is a great story teller, and is clearly passionate about the tales he shares. His enthusiasm keeps the listener engaged from start to finish. You can check out the latest episode below:
What Am Politics? podcast ends series after 5 years
After 140 episodes and 5 years tackling all-things politics, What Am Politics? posted the finale of the series this week. The popular show, which is part of the HeadStuff Podcast Network and hosted by Richie Nolan and Steve Byrne, dares to ask the question “what am politics?”
On Tuesday, What Am Politics? took to Twitter to confirm that this was their final episode, and thanked fans for tuning in: “You have made us both feel as warm and fuzzy as Hercules after a bath,” they said in the Tweet. “We hope you enjoy this, our final episode.”
The podcast followed Richie, the self-confessed toddler, as he attempted to learn all about politics from his politically savvy drinking buddy Steve, to break down big political issues into comedic bite size pieces.
They have covered a wide variety of topics in their time, from Donald Trump and Brexit, to Game of Thrones, Eurovision and space. Earlier this week, we listed some of the best episodes of What Am Politics? for you to check out. You can read the article here.
Their final episode, What Am Politics? (The Finale), is out now, available on all podcasting platform and at headstuffpodcasts.com.
Dancing with the Stars launches new podcast with Lottie Ryan
The new season of Ireland’s version of Dancing with the Stars kicked off on Sunday night. To accompany the popular celebrity dance competition, a new DWTS podcast will release each week to chat about the dance to the glitter-ball trophy. New episodes of the podcasts will be available every Monday and Thursday, until the show’s finale airs in three months time.
The series is hosted by Lottie Ryan, last year’s winner of DWTS. On Mondays, former DWTS contestant Brian Dowling and singer-songwriter Lyra will join Lottie to chat about the previous night’s performance. Every Thursday, Lottie will preview the upcoming Sunday night show.
The first episode is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Dancing with the Stars airs on RTÉ One and on the RTÉ Player every Sunday night at 6.30pm.
Spotify rolls out new “call-to-action cards” for podcasters
Spotify has introduced a brand new ad format for podcasters called “call-to-action cards.” This enables podcasters to place visual ads on the Spotify app while the audio ad starts to play.
Advertisers can customise the cards with images, text and clickable links.
Since these ads are played during a podcast episode, when most listeners are not watching their phone screens, the visual ads are made available elsewhere on the app. The CTA cards will therefore feature on both the episode and podcast’s show pages, allowing users to interact with the ad cards while scrolling through Spotify.
Podcasters using the CTA cards can obtain analytics based on ad clicks, allowing them to monitor the activity and engagement of the advertisement. According to Spotify, their main reason for introducing this new ad format is to increase the interactivity of podcasts. “We’re making podcast ads interactive for the first time, transforming the format from something that can only be heard, into an experience that you can also see — and, most importantly, click,” Spotify said in their announcement.
These CTA Cards were made available across select Spotify Original and Exclusive podcasts in America earlier this month, and will likely make its way to Europe in the future.
Facebook mutes podcasts with copyrighted music
We have spoken before about Facebook and issues podcasters have faced when uploading their shows to the app. Now, the Facebook app seems to be having trouble with podcasts which feature copyrighted music. According to Christina Szeman via Medium, any podcast which includes copyrighted music will have those sections playing the music muted by Facebook. She claims that this happens regardless of whether the podcaster has paid a licensing fee or not.
This will prove problematic for many shows who include licensed music in their podcasts, as they could have portions of their show or even entire episodes muted on the app. A study carried out by Pex in 2020 suggested that 17% of podcast episodes include “at least 10 seconds of music.” The study followed Pex’s announcement that it had begun scanning Apple Podcasts for shows which include music.
In 2020, Spotify introduced a new feature which allows podcast creators to integrate music that is listed on Spotify into their shows. This would mean podcasters could avoid the licensing process altogether. However this does not solve the issue if podcast producers wish to share their shows across multiple platforms.
Music rights and usage have proven to be a big issue for a variety of online media, not just podcasts. Considering the minefield that is music licensing and copyright law, it will likely take some time for this issue to be solved, if it all.
Find more podcast related content on the HeadStuff Podcast Section – News, Reviews, Interviews and How-To Guides for all you podcasters out there.
