Podcast News Roundup | Facebook Shuts Down Podcasting Platform & More!
Welcome back to HeadStuff’s Podcast News Roundup, your go-to place for podcast news and recommendations. This week’s roundup looks at the shutting down of Facebook’s podcasting platform, Penn Badgley’s new podcast and Spotify’s new video publishing feature.
Facebook shuts down their podcasting platform after less than a year
According to The Verge, Facebook will shut down their podcasting platform less than one year after it launched. Creators will no longer be able to upload new shows to the service by the end of the week, and the platform will shut down altogether on June 3rd, Bloomberg reports. There are also plans to discontinue its short-form audio product Soundbites and will be removing it’s central audio hub.
“We’re constantly evaluating the features we offer so we can focus on the most meaningful experiences,” a Meta spokesperson said via Bloomberg. Facebook will be leaving it up to the podcast publishers to update their listeners.
This announcement comes less than one year after Facebook first launched their podcast product as part of a wider audio initiative. Since then, the podcasting platform has faced several problems from issues with sharing data to its users and muting podcasts with copyrighted music.
New podcast starring Penn Badgley explores the awkwardness of adolescence
You star Penn Badgley is co-creating and hosting a brand new podcast exploring the awkwardness of adolescence. In each episode, Badgley narrates a listener-submitted story from the perspective of a teenager navigating their lives at that tumultuous time.
“Recalling that period of time for me, that was when I moved to LA and started becoming an actor professionally,” said Badgley, via the Irish Examiner. “I do find myself reflecting on that time a lot, the sense of self that I developed since then because of the things I experienced and witness.”
Once he has completed reading the submitted stories, Badgley is then joined by co-hosts and co-creators Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari to chat with a guest about their own experiences.
Guests who have appeared on the show so far include Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) and Victoria Pedretti (You). Drew Barrymore and Rainn Wilson will also appear.
Video podcasts are now available in certain regions from Spotify
In an effort to broaden their reach, Spotify is now giving creators from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand the option to publish video podcasts.
Since the end of last year, Spotify has been testing video podcasts on their platform through Anchor.
In a post on the Spotify blog, they said “visual interactions allow fans to get to know their favorite podcast hosts even better, and allow creators to connect with their audiences in a much deeper way. But if you want to stick to the pure audio experience, that’s great too—video on Spotify is backgroundable for all listeners, so you can immerse yourself in the content when you want to, or simply lean back and just listen.”
In addition, Spotify revealed several accompanying updates, including embeddable videos, video bulk-replace, analytics, podcast subscriptions for video, integration with recording platform Riverside and interactivity for video.
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