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• Spotify has launched Creator Milestone Awards, which will be given to podcasts that reach particular streaming levels on Spotify. It’s the first time Spotify has publicly revealed streaming numbers for podcasters across the platform. Like YouTube, award recipients will be hand-delivered a physical Spotify plaque.
  • Gold (500mn+ lifetime streams) includes Joe Rogan, Crime Junkie, Armchair Expert and Last Podcast on the left, but also two German podcasts. One of those, Gemischtes Hack, only has 285 episodes: so each episode has been played an average of 1,750,000 times, just on Spotify. (And even more impressive, when you know there are only about 120mn native German speakers.)
  • There are 13 Silver (250mn+ lifetime streams) awardees, including Call Her Daddy and The Daily, two Spanish podcasts, one German and one Portuguese.
  • There are 83 Bronze (100mn+ lifetime streams) awardees. Podcasts in “emerging markets” get Bronze after just 50mn+ lifetime streams.
• SiriusXM has pulled its video versions of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy from Spotify along with other Unwell Network shows. The shows will be viewable on YouTube and the SiriusXM app. Cooper posted on Instagram saying that you can watch on YouTube “for free”.
• How do you make podcast advertising work better? Don’t make the ads dull and boring. Ads that have emotion or are otherwise interesting can work more than six times better than boring ones, according to a set of research compiled by Westwood One’s Pierre Bouvard. There’s a PDF, a video, and a white paper to download.

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NORMANITY - The newest must listen AUDIO MUSICAL — Normanity is a satirical interrogation of corporate corruption and the fragility of our aspirations, conducted with quirky humour and real heart. On the Wireless feed on MONDAY! Sing along why dontcha

• PodOps has added AI Blog, a new feature to turn audio into written articles.
• McDonald’s fries? Less tasty than they used to be - that’s a scientific fact, apparently. Los Angeles only has 14 public bathrooms. EarBuds published Top Podcast Fun Facts of 2024 - facts that people learnt from podcasts. One fact is to have a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar diluted in a glass of water before every meal, which is supposed to prevent blood glucose spikes, but probably only works because it makes you feel rough as a dog.

• Jonathan Pascoe has joined UK production company Listen as Executive Producer. He joins from MTV and Comedy Central, and has also worked at BBC Radio 2 and UK station Heart.
• The Podglomerate has hired Perri Gross as Manager of Marketing and Audience Development. She joins from SiriusXM.

• What is the history of podcasting? From the Podnews Extra podcast, enjoy twelve minutes of clips of some of the earliest podcasts, including how the name came about.

• With Airwave: NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast comes from the Nerds - your resource to make the most of your personal finances, while cutting through the clutter and misinformation of today’s economic news and advice. You’ll get clarity on strategies to help you build your wealth, invest wisely, shop for financial products, and plan for major life events.
• Audioboom has renewed its partnership with the ten year-old podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. The weekly show features QI researchers Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray as they uncover and share the most bizarre, extraordinary and hilarious facts they’ve discovered.
• The Rest Is History is being made into a TV show by Wheelhouse. "Our show has always been about making history accessible, intelligent and entertaining, and we’re thrilled at the chance to bring our favourite stories to life on screen. This partnership with Wheelhouse will allow us to make history unforgettable for a whole new audience", said the hosts.
• CBC's Sea of Lies from Uncover is new this week, and has taken more than a year to produce. It's about a Canadian con artist who committed most of his crimes in the UK over a five-year period. A tale of murder, stolen identities, fine art, a diaper stuffed with gold bars, and a crime solved by a Rolex watch. From rural Canada to coastal England, he lied and deceived at every turn.
• Ideal for Gen Z and young Millennials, Heart to Hustle launched earlier this month, and highlights the journeys of people who have transformed their side hustles and creative passions into fulfilling careers. Today's guest is Marcus Collins, a marketing expert and author, who describes the cultural forces that inspire people to buy, do, and become who they are.
• Kaushal Niroula and Danny Garcia drained their victims' bank accounts and upended their lives. The two men masqueraded as real estate moguls, art dealers, bankers, and even royalty as their web of manipulation crossed academia, immigration, and finance. They scammed anyone they could — including each other — until they committed the one crime they couldn’t con their way out of: murder. True Crime News Presents: American Hustlers is new this week, with Audacy and Telepictures.
• El Chapo escaped after his associates dug a tunnel into his jail cell. American bank robber John Dillinger escaped twice; once with a fake pistol carved out of wood, and once while he managed to create a diversion. These are some of the greatest escapes in history, and Greatest Escapes is new today from iHeartPodcasts and FilmNation Entertainment. It's hosted by Arturo Castro.

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