Podcast News Roundup | Spotify And Amazon Express Interest In Acquiring Audioboom & 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 return of The Podcast Show, the announcement of the Shore Script Fiction Podcast finalists and more!
As always if you host a podcast and want it 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
The Two Norries is an Irish podcast covering themes across the social and health sphere with a particular focus on addiction, drug use, crime, and recovery. Both hosts James Leonard and Timmy Long are in recovery from addiction and have been through the criminal justice system but are now in recovery and started up this podcast to help and inspire others.
Leonard and Long chat to various guests to discuss aspects of addiction, mental health and related topics to spread awareness to listeners who might be struggling. Most recently, they have spoken with emergency physician and author Dr. Chris Luke, Ger Kearney and Gary Wade about their movie Standing Up, based around Dyslexia, and Director of the Construction Industry Federation, Conor O’Connell.
Spotify and Amazon Express Interest in Acquiring Audioboom
According to Sky News, Amazon and Spotify have expressed interest in acquiring Audioboom. The two multinational companies both considered placing bids for the podcasting group in recent weeks, with a potential for either to make formal offers by the end of this month. Sky News reported that a number of other multinational media companies have shown interest in approaching Audioboom about a possible takeover.
Audioboom, a UK-based podcasting group, allows podcasters to host, distribute and monetise content through their platform. Since podcast popularity rose over the pandemic, they have a market value of over £275 million (almost €328 million).
Speaking of acquisitions…
Spotify Acquires Chartable and Podsights
Spotify announced yesterday, February 17th, that it has acquired two podcast technology companies, Chartable and Podsights. Chartable provides publishers and agencies with tools allowing them to measure their analytics and aid in audience growth. Podsights allows brands and agencies to better measure and scale their podcast advertising.
Spotify has been making moves in the podcast advertising space since the launch of their Streaming Ad Insertion in 2020, and the introduction of their Spotify Audience Network and call-to-action cards. “We’re taking a big step in upleveling digital audio measurement and insights to help the entire industry scale to new heights,” Spotify said in their announcement.
With these acquisitions, Spotify has promised advertisers improved measurement for podcast advertising and aid publishers with growing their business using insights and promotional tools.
In other news, Podnews were quick to spot plenty of things happening with podcast shows and competitions this week…
Tickets now on sale for The Podcast Show 2022 in the UK
Delegate passes are now available for The Podcast Show 2022. This international festival marks Europe’s biggest gathering of the global podcasting community. The festival takes place between 25th and 26th May at The Business Design Centre at Islington in London.
The show is aimed at independent podcast creators, established industry professionals, business leaders and podcast fans. Over the course of the two days, there were will be talks, podcast live shows, exhibitions, an opportunity to pitch your podcast, space to gain audio and broadcast career advice and more. Speakers include Fearne Cotton (Happy Place), Niall Breslin (Where is my Mind?) and James Cooper (My Dad Wrote a Porno).
You can find out more about the show and what is on offer by visiting their website.
2021-2022 Shore Script Fiction Podcast finalists announced
Shore Script have announced a list of 15 finalists for their Fiction Podcast Competition, in which writers are invited to submit scripts for their fiction podcast idea.
The 15 finalists’ scripts will be put before a panel of judges. Devised of industry professionals, the panel includes Zack Akers (creator of Limetown), Julie Shapiro (executive producer at Radiotopia), Richard Senque (creator of Visionaries) and David Henning (executive vice-president of QCode Media.)
You can find the full list of finalists here, along with a brief description of each script.
But that’s not all…
The Ambies announce their 2022 nominees
The Ambies (Awards for Excellence in Audio) celebrate audio by awarding podcasts which stand out from the crowd by highlighting unique stories, or providing entertainment, information, storytelling and expression. This year, the Ambies return for their second annual awards ceremony. Co-hosts Ross Matthews and Nikki Boyer (2021 Podcast of the Year winner; Dying for Sex) will present the awards, which will be live-streamed over Twitch.
Nominees have been revealed on The Ambies website in a variety of categories, including Podcast of the Year. Members of The Podcast Academy now have one month to listen to the nominated podcasts in their assigned categories and vote for their favourites. Winners will be announced during the live stream of the awards on March 22.
Find more podcast related content on the HeadStuff Podcast Section – News, Reviews, Interviews and How-To Guides for all you podcasters out there.
