Joe Rogan controversy updates/Non-English podcasts at forefront/Increasing podcast ad spend in 2022
Dear Readers,
The podcast industry has been in chaos for the past few weeks. Something that began from an open letter by 270 medical staff has now snowballed and reached the music industry.
If somehow, you’ve been able to dodge the Spotify and Joe Rogan hiatus, then you have a lot of catching up to do. Read on to find out what you’ve missed.
Scoops of the week:
1. Here’s a quick walk through the Joe Rogan controversy.
Since then, another issue has risen. India Arie, an American singer and songwriter, shared clips of Rogan using racial slurs more than 24 times. Joe has apologized in his exclusive show; however, he believes his words were taken out of context.
Following this, Rogan has removed 113 episodes from his show, according to a monitoring site. A leaked note by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to Spotify’s staff states that Rogan has, in fact, removed the episodes himself. In the note, Ek apologizes to the staff and commits $100M “for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.”
As a part of the podcast industry, we believe that while freedom of speech is vital in the audio space, there should also be a clear line as to what is right and what is unacceptable. Let us know your stance on this hiatus in the comments.
2. It’s a good time for the non-English podcast listening audience as companies like Vice Media Group, iHeartMedia & Tinkercast are actively ramping up podcast production in languages other than English.
Platforms and publishers are using a variety of approaches, from translation to duo-language production and investing in podcasts produced specifically for non-English audiences.
Of the 600,000+ podcasts that launched in 2021 & tagged a language, 53% tagged a non-English language.
In 2020 and 2021, the top five most popular languages, after English, were Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian and German.
3. Audible is adding new Hindi audiobooks in partnership with Wattpad, the online reading platform.
Audible didn't reveal India stats but Shailesh Sawlani, Vice President of Audible India, states that India remains one of the fastest-growing marketplaces for Audible.
4. If you missed the 2022 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, here’s a list of all the winners.
The Podcast of the Year award went to You’re Wrong About, a Buzzsprout podcast hosted by Sarah Marshall.
5. A latest report by WARC hints at increased podcast ad spending in 2022. The findings are based on a survey of more than 1,350 marketers. The report shows that 54% of marketers claim to increase their investments in podcasts in 2022.
6. Apple Podcasts has released a guide on how to use Chapters.
Apple Podcasts support Chapters embedded in MP4 MP3, AAC files. Creators can browse & navigate to segments of an episode and enjoy chapter-specific artwork.
In the episode ‘Lara’s Bingle’, the hosts apologized to her and sent her flowers, although the note created an awkward moment for both the florist and Lara.
Interesting reads!
Here’s a unique and comprehensive look into how you can measure the ROI of your branded podcast.
Instead of raiding your listeners with multiple links, get a universal link to your podcast to share with your audience.
Find out how proper mic techniques and placement can improve your audio by 10 folds.
Did you ever wonder how people find your podcast in apps? Here’s a brief look at which platform is indexing what.
That’s it for this week folks! We’ll see you again with some more interesting reads! You can always write back to us. We’d love to hear from you. Until then, we hope you stay safe, stay happy and stay creative!
Happy Podcasting!
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