0:00

It's Friday , the 24th of January

0:02

2025 .

0:04

The last word in podcasting news

0:06

. This is the Pod News

0:08

Weekly Review with James Cridland

0:11

and Sam Sethi .

0:13

I'm James Cridland , the editor of Pod News .

0:15

And I'm Sam Sethi , the CEO of True Fans .

0:18

In the chapters today how Apple Podcasts

0:20

works in China and the rise of

0:22

the manosphere . This podcast is sponsored

0:25

by Buzzsprout , with the tools , support and community

0:27

to ensure you keep podcasting

0:29

, start podcasting , keep podcasting

0:32

with buzzsproutcom . From your

0:34

daily newsletter , the Pod News

0:36

Weekly Review .

0:39

Now , James , it's been a quiet

0:41

news week , I think , generally across

0:43

the podcast sphere . I wonder if anyone else

0:45

is sucking up all the news . But

0:48

that aside , you've

0:51

got a very interesting story about how Apple

0:53

Podcasts works in China . Tell me more

0:55

.

0:55

Yes , published today . In fact , I

0:59

was given the wink by

1:01

someone who contacted

1:03

PodNews through their Proton

1:05

encrypted email , so

1:08

I had a quick chat with them and

1:11

a couple of other people who are based in China

1:13

. So it's quite difficult to have these sorts

1:15

of conversations . But , yes

1:18

, it turns out that the way that Apple podcast

1:20

works in China has changed a

1:22

bit , which is interesting . So the

1:24

way that it used to work is it was

1:26

just a specially selected list

1:28

of shows , so some shows were available , some shows

1:30

weren't , and that is essentially how Apple

1:33

Podcasts works in China

1:35

, because the Cyberspace Administration

1:37

of China , which is the media regulator

1:39

kind of in that country , kind

1:49

of in that country were very keen in making sure that only the right sort of material was

1:51

available . Anyway , it turns out that Apple have made a couple of different changes

1:53

. One change is that they

1:56

can now pull individual

1:59

episodes off , so you can

2:01

listen to , for example , the Lex Friedman

2:03

podcast , and

2:05

22 of their most

2:07

recent episodes simply

2:09

aren't available in China . Tucker

2:12

Carlson spoke about Xi Jinping

2:14

, vivek Ramaswamy spoke

2:17

about China . Noam

2:19

Chomsky spoke about Chinese relations

2:22

with the US . All of those episodes

2:25

are not that

2:28

available in China , but the rest of it is

2:30

, which is really interesting , because that's not a

2:32

thing that Apple Podcasts has actually done

2:34

before . All Apple Podcasts tell

2:36

us is that only

2:39

selected shows are

2:41

available there . The other thing

2:43

, though , which is probably more important

2:45

, is that it always used to be the case that

2:48

if you just push your RSS feed

2:50

into Apple Podcasts and you say , ok

2:53

, just take a look at this RSS feed , apple

2:56

Podcasts will pull that

2:58

RSS feed in and show you

3:00

the show . So , if you remember from

3:02

way back when that nice Alex

3:04

Jones do you remember his show

3:06

InfoWars , which was taken off

3:09

Apple Podcasts all the way back in 2018

3:11

? Now there was a really easy way of getting past

3:13

that you just plug in the RSS feed and away you

3:15

go . It seems that

3:18

Apple Podcasts in China

3:20

won't even do that , so the only

3:22

way that you can even listen to an

3:25

RSS feed in Apple

3:27

Podcasts in China is if it's

3:30

already been approved for the Apple Podcasts

3:32

directory . So , really

3:34

, really interesting , and what I ended up doing , sam

3:36

because you know that I would I ended

3:38

up building a tool that

3:42

actually checks and it works

3:44

on every single show . But

3:46

what I said in the Pod News

3:48

article was I

3:50

will leave it up to you to work out how to use it for

3:52

your show , because I don't particularly want

3:54

to link to it from every single show's podcast

3:57

page because that would be silly . But you

3:59

can work out . Am I banned

4:01

in China ? Am I banned in Cambodia

4:03

? Am I banned in Cambodia ? Am I banned

4:06

in Belarus ? You

4:08

can do all of that , and

4:10

are any specific episodes

4:12

of mine banned ? So , for example

4:15

, I've now got this tool which lets

4:17

you have a look at the Joe Rogan experience

4:19

, for example , which is available in

4:22

China , but , again , not

4:25

some episodes . Donald

4:27

Trump is not allowed in

4:29

China , but also other dangerous subversives

4:32

, like Dr Phil has

4:34

also been taken on .

4:37

Don't get me down that road , Please

4:39

move on , oh well there we are .

4:41

So yeah , so it was just really really interesting and

4:43

we can talk about this , because this show , the Pod News Weekly Review , is not are . So yeah , so it was just really really interesting and we can talk about this , because this show , the Pod

4:45

News Weekly Review , is not available in China

4:48

. I discover why . What have you

4:50

said ? What have I said ? And nor is the

4:52

Pod News Daily , and it really

4:54

isn't a case of what we've said and what we haven't

4:56

said . It's the reverse . This

4:58

show hasn't been allow-listed

5:01

into the Chinese directory

5:03

. That's basically how that works . So

5:05

, yeah , so there's a bunch of shows which

5:08

you know are in there . Weirdly , crime

5:10

Junkie , that's

5:17

absolutely fine . The Daily Show Ears Edition from Comedy Central

5:19

, but not the Daily , you know . So , yeah , so if you are curious

5:21

and you couldn't work out how

5:23

to change the URL on the page

5:25

, you can have a look and see if your

5:27

favourite show has been censored

5:30

in China . And

5:33

yeah , it was just a really really interesting

5:35

piece of work , just sort of digging in

5:37

and working out what's available and what

5:39

isn't .

5:40

So how do you get listed ? What would we have

5:42

to do to change our status

5:44

?

5:45

I think that would be very difficult . I

5:48

think we have to make sure

5:50

that we don't talk about anything to do with China

5:52

. So too late , but

5:56

I think also yeah

5:58

, it's just specific there

6:00

is a content check that all of the podcast

6:02

apps have to do there

6:04

, and there are only really three podcast

6:06

apps in China these days . There's

6:09

Apple Podcasts , of course , there's

6:11

one called Cosmos and there's

6:13

one called Himalaya , which , of

6:15

course , himalaya used to be a very big

6:17

thing here , but is no

6:20

longer so . Yeah , so I don't

6:22

think there's any particular chance of us being

6:24

available there . I have to say , though

6:27

, having a look at Apple Podcasts in

6:29

other countries , apple Podcasts

6:31

really does not censor or remove

6:33

really anybody . There

6:36

was a story a couple of years ago that Russia

6:38

had asked Apple Podcasts to take some

6:40

shows out . Those shows are back in

6:43

, so far as I can see , to take some shows out . Those shows are back in so far

6:45

as I can see . So I mean , even the BBC is

6:47

available in Russia , which

6:50

I thought was very interesting , and there's a bunch

6:52

of things you know . Podcasts

6:57

you know about gay people are available in the United

6:59

Arab Emirates , where homosexuality is illegal

7:01

, for example . You know Radio Free Malaysia

7:04

, which is very critical about Malaysia

7:06

and comes from London , is

7:08

available on the Malaysian

7:10

app store and so on and so forth . So actually

7:12

, apple are really doing virtually no content

7:16

manipulation

7:18

here , apart from in China , where they kind of have

7:20

to , because that's what the Chinese government

7:22

has essentially told them to

7:24

end up doing .

7:25

You say they don't , but let's wait

7:27

and see . I mean , after our friend

7:30

Mr Zuckerberg's recent

7:32

work and Mr Cook's appearance

7:34

at the inauguration , let's see . Let's

7:37

see what happens next .

7:37

Well , yes , let's see what

7:40

happens there . I would say , by the

7:42

way , that the iTunes API

7:44

still works fine , so you can still actually

7:46

access that . It defaults to the US

7:48

, so you

7:50

can actually access that . But , of course , the podcast

7:53

index is available , which is

7:55

a sensor-free thing , although

7:58

, of course , access to RSS feeds

8:00

and to audio files may not not work depending

8:02

on where you are .

8:03

The Pod News Weekly Review . With

8:05

Buzzsprout Podcast hosting

8:08

made easy .

8:10

Well , now moving on , James , you've got another

8:12

story here . There's

8:14

so much I could say .

8:16

Moving on James . Yes .

8:20

I don't want to get banned First ever podcast

8:22

to be banned on the podcast index . I don't want that

8:24

. Now story

8:26

two .

8:29

What's this one about ? Ashley Carman , and it's looking

8:32

at the manosphere , those big podcast hosts who

8:34

all managed to interview

8:47

Donald Trump at the end of last year

8:49

. But actually Bloomberg

8:51

has done this really well researched article

8:53

, very , very well worth reading

8:55

. All about how those

8:57

podcasts have you

8:59

know , essentially helped the

9:02

Republicans get in , but are also

9:04

now building support for Donald Trump's

9:06

political agenda now that he is in office

9:09

. How the network operates

9:12

, how it all intertwines with

9:14

one another I

9:16

guess you could call it a big conspiracy theory

9:18

if you were thinking that way , but

9:21

certainly all of the data is there . It's a fascinating

9:24

story , really , really interesting , about how

9:26

intertwined some of these big shows

9:28

are . I don't know if you saw the

9:30

inauguration of Donald

9:33

Trump last weekend and actually standing

9:35

in the room while Donald Trump was being sworn

9:37

in was Joe Rogan Really , which

9:40

is an incredible thing . So

9:42

, yeah , it's a really really good article , which

9:47

is an incredible thing . So , yeah , it's a really really good article . That was in Thursday's

9:49

Pod News newsletter and there's a gift link in there

9:52

which , if Bloomberg haven't blocked it , allows

9:55

you to read the entire thing and is

9:57

well worth reading .

9:59

It is very obvious that there was a

10:01

bro culture . I

10:03

mean , I heard a lovely term called the

10:05

bro-ology now as

10:07

a collective noun to describe

10:10

all the people who run the communications

10:13

run the networks . They

10:15

were all on parade for Donald and

10:18

, yeah , we know the podcasts

10:21

that you know were pushing his agenda

10:23

.

10:24

So , yes , I

10:28

mean it's interesting . I mean , you know , clearly there

10:30

were podcasts as well , pushing the

10:33

Democrats' agenda as well . You know

10:35

, I don't necessarily think there's anything necessarily

10:38

wrong with getting behind one particular ideology

10:41

, but it is fascinating just seeing

10:43

how all of these shows have interlinked

10:46

and they've interviewed the same people

10:48

and they're

10:51

all you know . I mean , one of the points that the

10:53

article makes is they're all being hosted

10:55

by people who call themselves comedians or

10:58

, you know , journalists , but are

11:00

actually , you know , proper

11:03

. You know they have a political axe

11:05

to grind and they are using their

11:07

podcast to help them do

11:10

that . So it's just a really interesting yeah

11:12

, a really interesting read . But you

11:14

know , doubtless the same is happening on the other side

11:16

as well .

11:18

My favourite new network is Zateo , now

11:20

run by Mehdi Hassan , and they've

11:22

got Naomi Klein . They've

11:24

taken on a whole bunch of interesting

11:27

people . Carol Cadwallader , she's

11:29

joined their network as well . She was the one who

11:31

exposed the Facebook Cambridge

11:33

Analytica . It's a really interesting network

11:36

if you want open , honest reporting

11:40

. I really like Zateo .

11:41

Yes , yes , well , certainly

11:43

open reporting . I

11:47

mean , who knows ?

11:48

Yeah , no , it is left leaning and biased

11:50

that way . Okay , fair enough .

11:52

We all have our biases , and

11:57

I think what frustrates me

11:59

slightly more is

12:02

large organisations the BBC claiming

12:05

that they're not biased . They are biased . Everybody

12:08

is biased , because everybody has a

12:10

human view of the

12:12

world which differs from other humans'

12:14

views of the world . It's just whether you recognise

12:17

that bias , you know , in you . You

12:19

know , is I think a thing ? But yeah , the one thing that I am is is I think

12:21

a thing , but uh , yeah , um

12:23

. The one thing that I am , though , um , uh

12:26

, trying to um keep an eye on

12:28

is um uh companies

12:30

, large companies , using the , the

12:32

mainstream media , as

12:34

a way of um uh , as a

12:36

way of uh trying to promote their stuff

12:39

. I don't know if you saw , but earlier on

12:41

this week there was a new podcast

12:43

from iHeart , and this new podcast

12:45

it's all about Donald Trump and it's the 47

12:47

Morning Update with Ben Ferguson , and

12:50

in the press release it said you

12:52

know , we're promised unfiltered insights , exclusive

12:54

interviews and the honest commentary

12:56

you won't get from the mainstream media

12:59

. Now , this is published by iHeartMedia

13:01

Sam , which reaches nine out of 10 Americans

13:03

every month . It's got

13:05

a greater reach than any other US media company

13:08

. It is the literal definition of

13:10

mainstream media . So how they

13:13

can claim that . Oh no , we're not . The mainstream media

13:16

is astonishing

13:18

. So yeah , I'm

13:21

quite keen to just look and

13:23

watch what's going on there as well .

13:25

Let's move on to some real podcasting news

13:27

then , James , shall we ? Yes , let's .

13:35

The UK's Sports Social podcast network

13:37

has partnered with a German company called Wakewood . Tell me more , yeah , so Sports

13:39

Social is a very well-regarded sports podcast network

13:41

in the UK sports

13:47

podcast network in the UK . They understand what they're doing from a rights point of view as well

13:49

, because sports , of course , is full of rights negotiations and everything

13:51

else . They're now working with Wakewood , which

13:54

is a big German podcast studio , to essentially

13:56

help them do that sort of thing as well

13:58

. So that means that the

14:00

shows that they're making in the UK they can export

14:02

into Germany . The shows

14:04

that Wakewood are making in Germany they can export

14:07

into the UK as well . There's

14:09

obviously a lot of people who follow the Bundesliga

14:11

in the UK . There's obviously a lot of people

14:13

that follow the English Premier League . Is it still

14:15

called that ? It

14:18

?

14:18

is yes .

14:19

You can tell I don't care In

14:22

Germany .

14:23

I'm glad you're still up on that soccer . Yes

14:25

, yes , keep it going .

14:27

What is it ? Liverpool ?

14:31

You just only have to look at the top of every league and

14:33

you'll see Liverpool , what Arsenal . It's fine , it's not a problem Anyway

14:35

. No , you have to look further

14:37

down to find them .

14:39

Yeah , much further down .

14:40

Man United . You can't even see anymore now .

14:47

Anyway . So it is interesting seeing Sports Social doing a bit of work there and actually

14:49

branching out which is worth looking at and talking about sports

14:51

networks . The Locked On Sports

14:54

podcast network in the US

14:56

is doing really well . They published some figures

14:58

during the week 358 million

15:00

listens and views in 2024

15:02

, which is an increase of 20%

15:04

year on year . Their sports channels

15:07

for college sports grew by over

15:09

50% on

15:11

the year . They

15:13

emailed and they said that their projected total

15:15

listens and views in 2025 will

15:18

be over 400,000

15:20

billion and

15:23

I said are you sure about that ? And

15:25

they said , oh , no , sorry , I mean over 400

15:27

million , but even so , over 400 million

15:29

is a pretty good number . It is

15:32

yeah , yeah . So they're doing well

15:35

and I think you know the Lockdown

15:37

Podcast Network I spoke to David

15:39

Locke that runs it last year . You know that seems to be going

15:41

really well and you know clearly an awful be going

15:43

really well and you know clearly an awful

15:45

lot of growth going on there .

15:47

I can see the two networks maybe in the future combining

15:49

. You know , given that one's stateside one's

15:52

now combining European

15:54

networks as well , you just can see

15:56

a sort of evolution into the future

15:58

of maybe a one conglomerate , maybe .

16:00

Yeah , that would certainly be interesting . And

16:02

I think you know Sports Social , from memory

16:04

, is owned by Communicort , which is a pretty large company

16:07

both in the UK and in

16:09

Ireland as well . So Communicort

16:11

would certainly have they've done , they've leaned into live sports

16:13

as well .

16:30

So you had the Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson catastrophe just

16:32

before the new year and then you've got them

16:34

now getting NFL games . Amazon's

16:38

doing in the UK lots and

16:40

lots of Premier League football now and

16:42

I think you're beginning to see live sport

16:44

being a way that these streaming

16:46

networks are hooking people in . I know Sky

16:49

Sports in the UK was

16:51

only keeping the Sky numbers

16:53

up because they have that Premier

16:56

League and they pay more and more to keep it and

16:58

they might lose that and if they did I

17:00

think everyone would just abandon ship on Sky . So I

17:02

think it's the hook now that's keeping

17:04

everyone in .

17:05

Yeah , and I think sport is certainly something that

17:07

is keeping actually more of TV

17:09

alive Over the break

17:12

. Foxtel , which is the Sky

17:14

equivalent or the DirecTV equivalent

17:16

here in Australia , foxtel

17:20

was sold by Murdoch and

17:22

has been bought by now . Is it pronounced Darzen

17:25

or Dazen ? D-a-z-e-n

17:27

, which is a

17:29

big sports network in

17:31

the US . They have essentially

17:34

bought all of Foxtel

17:36

. So that's a very clever

17:38

move from that point of view , because

17:40

Foxtel owns all of the rights

17:42

for all of the big sports shows

17:45

here in Australia

17:47

and also in New Zealand as well

17:49

. So quite a clever move , I think

17:51

, from that point of view .

17:53

Now , not all sports networks work . Vnu

17:56

, which was a combined ESPN

17:59

, fox and Warner Brothers discovery

18:01

. They've abandoned ship . That

18:03

was a joint venture for sports and

18:05

streaming and that's gone away now .

18:07

Yeah , so not everything good

18:09

. And , of course , cnn and

18:12

MSNBC announcing an awful lot of job

18:14

cuts this week as well .

18:16

Now the Roganomics

18:18

effect seems to be taking hold

18:20

around the world . The Lex

18:23

Friedman show is now going to India

18:25

and he's going to be interviewing

18:27

Narendra Modi , the Prime Minister

18:30

of India , which is a

18:32

big thing . That's going to happen in February , but

18:34

also in Australia , james , they're

18:36

going to be interviewing your Prime Minister as well . Who's

18:39

that ?

18:39

Yes , there's a federal

18:41

election this year at some point

18:43

, probably April or May , because , unlike

18:45

America , which has

18:47

an election every four years

18:50

like clockwork , and then spends three

18:52

months doing nothing

18:54

, seemingly waiting

18:58

until somebody else comes in , it's

19:00

not really how it works in most

19:02

other countries and here in Australia , at some

19:04

point we will have a federal election this

19:06

year . The current Prime Minister , Antony

19:08

Albanese , has already

19:10

been on . He's been on the Squiz

19:13

, which is a big independent podcast

19:15

organisation here

19:18

, and he

19:20

did a relatively lacklustre

19:23

interview on that show , but

19:25

nevertheless , you know nice to end

19:27

up seeing it .

19:31

It was about an hour long and is available in that particular feed as well . I think

19:33

only Labour can form government in our own right after

19:36

the next election . I can't

19:38

see any path for

19:40

Peter Dutton and the

19:43

Nationals for that matter to

19:45

get to 76 .

19:48

Are we seeing any of the money from

19:50

advertising now trickling into these big

19:52

podcasts ?

19:53

yet In

19:55

terms of election advertising and

19:57

that sort of thing I've not seen it yet and

20:00

in fact that is one of the questions that I've asked

20:02

the likes of PodScribe and

20:04

other people if they're

20:06

able to spot political

20:08

advertising spend

20:27

online is actually going to go down for everybody because there is no big sporting event

20:29

but also there is no big election going on , and so of course that sucks

20:32

quite a lot of the money out of the market . So

20:34

, similarly , I suspect

20:36

that , yeah , you know , we

20:38

will hopefully see in the

20:40

countries where there are elections of course

20:42

, no elections going on in India right

20:44

now because Modi ended up winning kind of

20:47

the election last year but

20:49

certainly where there will be elections

20:51

, and that's this year , both in Western

20:54

Australia but also in Australia

20:56

on a federal level , you know

20:59

you would imagine that there would be a fair

21:01

amount of money piled into that .

21:03

That there would be a fair amount

21:05

of money piled into that . Now

21:10

, moving round to the UK friends of the show , who I know very well Zara Anita , paul

21:12

and her husband , aaron Morris were on Dragon's Den here in the UK , which is , I

21:14

suppose , the equivalent to Shark Tank , and

21:16

they've got a product called Chopperty , which is basically

21:19

video editing using AI

21:22

, so you can find any bit of information

21:24

within a video very quickly . They

21:26

were on the show on last

21:30

week and they got

21:32

accepted for money from

21:34

Peter Jones , which was quite exciting Turns

21:37

out .

21:37

Do you know , peter Jones ?

21:38

I do actually know Peter Jones . Yes , he

21:40

does live in our village and his daughter plays netball with my daughter .

21:42

So yes , sorry , I do know him .

21:42

Wow Jones , yes , he does live in our village and his daughter plays netball with my daughter . Oh , brilliant

21:45

yes . Sorry , I do

21:47

know him

21:49

.

21:49

You knew there would be a connection , wouldn't you ? So

21:55

this choppity sounds quite interesting . I mean

21:57

automated video editing clearly

22:00

a little bit different to automated audio

22:02

editing , but still , it

22:04

will be interesting to see how

22:06

that works , and I gather that they are showing

22:08

the thing off in London

22:10

next week or so .

22:12

Yes , February the 6th , and we

22:14

are going to get Zara on next week to talk

22:16

about what they did . As it turns

22:19

out , peter Jones afterwards

22:21

it's all TV , isn't it ? He accepted

22:23

the offer on TV and then afterwards

22:26

they refused the offer , so they didn't

22:28

get the money .

22:29

Oh well , there you go .

22:31

It's actually a tactic now that a lot

22:33

of startups are using , which is to get onto that

22:35

show , accept the

22:37

money from a dragon if they do

22:39

get it and then refuse it Because

22:41

the amount of equity that

22:43

the dragons demand as

22:46

soon as there's an interesting product , oh yes , we'll take 60 to

22:48

your company for 10 000 pounds . What

22:50

you know ?

22:51

yes , it's not worth it but the pr

22:54

is really good . This is something , sam , you should be doing

22:56

with , uh , true fans . You should . You should be going on

22:58

there and you should be talking to somebody like stephen bartlett

23:00

and you should be saying stephen , give , give us your money

23:02

, give us your money . That's what you should be doing

23:04

. Just you know , see if you can do that

23:07

Just for me . Africa

23:09

, apva the

23:11

Association of African Podcasters

23:14

and Voice Artists they've published their 2024

23:16

report , which is really interesting . It's an

23:18

organisation that's across Africa , which is

23:20

a big place , and

23:23

they've been doing a lot of work around podcasting

23:25

and things . It's an organisation that I

23:28

think needs a little bit more support from the

23:30

likes of us . So

23:32

, and interestingly , africa Podcast

23:35

Day is on February the 12th , so

23:37

there's a thing , something for us to

23:39

celebrate . If only we were an

23:41

African podcast , but

23:43

that's going on .

23:44

The other thing that's going on , James , is the BBC's

23:46

moving into New Zealand . What's going

23:48

on there ?

23:49

Yes , lucky BBC . This is BBC

23:51

Studios . They signed a

23:53

sales representation deal here in Australia

23:56

with ARN's iHeart in

23:58

November time , I think , and

24:00

they've just signed a deal

24:02

with NZME , which is a large

24:05

media company which also owns the iHeart brand

24:07

in New Zealand , so

24:09

they'll be able to sell advertising

24:12

within the BBC's shows

24:14

there . So they've been doing

24:16

a fair amount of that sort of thing . As a side

24:19

note , that means that the BBC will probably appear

24:21

in the New Zealand podcast ranker

24:23

as well , if that was still going , because

24:26

I did actually notice that the

24:28

New Zealand podcast ranker appears to have stopped

24:30

. From what I can work out , it's

24:33

certainly not being updated on that website anymore

24:35

, so maybe I've missed something

24:37

. Who knows ?

24:38

So what is the BBC's strategy ? I mean

24:40

, it's been sort of we've

24:43

seen that they've got exclusives here in the

24:45

UK , they have delayed release into

24:47

RSS , but across the world

24:49

they're talking about advertising . Then there was talk

24:51

about the BBC adding advertising

24:53

into the UK and that took a big backlash

24:55

. Where do you think the BBC is going in

24:57

2025 ? What's your opinion

24:59

?

24:59

So I have written a personal blog

25:01

post about all of this , which is basically

25:04

that the BBC at the moment has a really messy

25:06

, messy strategy

25:09

. But what they are going

25:11

to do , I think , is that they are

25:13

going to make the BBC Sounds app , which

25:15

is their own domestic app

25:18

for radio music and podcasts . They're

25:20

going to make that a UK-only

25:23

app , so we're going to stop

25:25

getting access to that across

25:27

the rest of the world and instead

25:29

what we will get access to

25:31

is all of those shows

25:33

in Apple Podcasts

25:36

, premiums , subscriptions and

25:38

other places as well broadcasts

25:40

, premiums , subscriptions and other places as well and

25:45

each individual country will be able to sell the ads

25:47

using the Triton technology , which Triton already has . So

25:49

I suspect that we will see a fair amount of

25:52

that going on . The

25:55

downside is that I think that that

25:57

will also cut off BBC

25:59

domestic radio for the rest of the world , so

26:02

the only BBC radio output

26:04

that we'll be able to hear is the

26:06

World Service , and

26:09

it wouldn't surprise me if that happened

26:11

. I would understand why that would happen

26:13

, even if I wouldn't be particularly happy about it

26:15

, but I think that's what their plan

26:17

is . So probably by the end of quarter

26:20

two , you can expect that

26:23

it'll be really obvious . The BBC

26:25

will be a large commercial

26:27

player , the rest of the world and

26:30

in the UK , continuing on with the

26:32

BBC Sounds app and

26:34

their own stuff there . That's

26:36

what I think is going to happen . So we've

26:39

not got long until I'm

26:41

either proved

26:43

right or hideously wrong . I

26:46

should have added that as a prediction , shouldn't I , for

26:48

the prediction show , and then I would have got

26:50

a guarantee . Well , you can do what .

26:52

I do , and just pick one up off the

26:54

floor and just throw it out there More AI

26:56

will be used in podcasting

26:58

.

26:59

I will be used in podcasting Staying

27:01

in New Zealand . The Between Two

27:03

Beers podcast has been filched

27:05

from NZME's iHeart

27:07

to Acast and

27:13

they've done a multi-year deal with them , which is good . Interestingly , acast saying that

27:15

that partnership includes ad and sponsorship

27:17

opportunities on the audio podcast

27:20

, video podcast and associated

27:22

social channels . If you thought that Acast

27:24

are only selling podcast ads , think

27:26

again , because they're selling a bunch of those

27:29

other things .

27:31

Now , inspector Cridland

27:33

, just before Christmas , you were

27:35

sleuthing around in Italy . What were you

27:37

doing and what's happened since sleuthing around in Italy ? What were

27:39

?

27:40

you doing and what's happened since . Yes , this was the story

27:42

that we covered just before Christmas about LicenseSync

27:44

, which was a collection agency

27:46

which was sending invoices

27:49

of . They didn't send one to me , but

27:57

they did send a few to people that I'm aware of , sending invoices of about 7,000

27:59

US dollars to podcast directories just for listing podcasts that

28:01

they claimed to represent . And

28:04

I did a little bit of digging , talked to

28:07

a lawyer or two about

28:09

it and wrote a piece about

28:11

it , and essentially all of the people on

28:13

that website that said that they were supporting

28:15

that particular company weren't , and

28:18

it all looked a little bit dodgy . It looked a bit

28:20

like a racket . Anyway

28:23

, I went to have a look at their website the

28:26

other day because I was curious

28:28

as to whether or not they had changed anything

28:30

, and their website has been suspended

28:33

. They have clearly not

28:35

paid their bills for that

28:37

, so perhaps they've gone away , which

28:40

is probably a good thing .

28:42

Well , talking about you sleuthing

28:44

at the beginning of last year you

28:46

were talking about also a company called Audia

28:49

. What's been happening with Audia ?

28:51

Yes , they launched a

28:53

podcast app that strips the ads

28:55

and , if you remember , they said

28:57

that . You

28:59

know , yeah , we're just going to strip the ads out of podcasts

29:01

and you will

29:03

pay . You know the listener will pay us , you

29:06

know , I don't know , $4 a month and

29:08

we'll strip the ads out and we might share

29:10

some of that with some of the podcasters , but we probably

29:13

won't , you know , and all of that

29:15

, and that's basically about as far

29:17

as it's got . Anyway

29:20

, they have launched a new

29:22

share offering because they need

29:24

some more money , but in the documentation

29:26

that comes with that new share offering

29:29

are all of their accounts , which is fascinating

29:32

. So I went digging into the accounts

29:34

. Here's how their accounts worked

29:36

for the first nine months of 2024

29:39

. Total operating expenses 5.6

29:42

million US dollars . The

29:45

chairman , ceo and CFO

29:47

all got , in

29:49

total , just over a million

29:51

dollars worth of money

29:53

in salaries and in

29:56

share options . So a million

29:58

dollars went into the

30:00

salaries of those three people , and

30:03

the company's total revenue , though , during

30:05

that time , was nothing

30:07

at all Zero , absolutely

30:12

nothing . I mean , how you

30:14

can go ? I am fascinated . I

30:16

mean I know that OpenAI is doing much the same thing

30:18

, but how can you go to

30:20

the market and say we think you should be buying

30:22

shares in our company . We are earning absolutely

30:25

nothing . We're paying ourselves a million

30:27

dollars in terms of salary

30:29

for the C-suite alone . I

30:33

mean , how can you possibly

30:35

do that ? It's just bizarre .

30:37

This is the Peter Thiel School of Marketing .

30:39

I mean Peter Thiel fundamentally said

30:41

to you now careful because he's he

30:44

is very , very , very legally

30:46

written .

30:46

The book it's fine , he's written the book about this it's

30:48

not contentious good , all right um

30:50

, and you know , there's several vc

30:52

agencies in the us , uncorked

30:54

capital being one who's run by two friends of mine

30:57

. Um , their view is

30:59

in the way I said it . Peter Thiel

31:01

says you go for zero

31:04

revenue if you have to , but

31:06

you go for market share , so you undercut the market

31:08

, you do everything to get market dominance and

31:11

then you turn on the revenue tap and

31:13

you never know . They may have

31:15

turned around to their investors and said look

31:18

, we see an opportunity to

31:20

strip out the ads . We will give

31:22

a few shekels back to the creators

31:24

, but we'll keep the majority . It

31:26

might take us three years to get to the point where

31:29

we see revenue , but if you

31:31

invest in us over the long term not

31:33

the short term we might be able to turn

31:35

the market on its head . Now that may be their

31:37

pitch to VCs or

31:39

investors , or in their share document

31:42

. I don't know . I haven't read it , but

31:44

there is a school of thinking

31:46

that , you know , don't make revenue

31:48

. Look at Amazon . They made no

31:51

profits , they didn't issue sorry

31:53

, they made revenues and profits , but they didn't issue

31:55

dividends while they were growing

31:57

. And you know , obviously shareholders

32:00

were like , well , I want my dividends . And

32:02

Bezos was like no , you can't have dividends

32:04

, your share value increases all you're

32:06

going to get from me . And of

32:08

course , he reinvested everything back into Amazon

32:10

and grew rapidly . So there is a model

32:12

out there that says you don't have

32:14

to make profit , but in this case , not

32:17

making revenue is a

32:19

bit worrying .

32:20

It's not making revenue is the thing , isn't it

32:22

? I mean , you know , not making profit

32:24

is one thing , but

32:27

I think not making any revenue

32:29

whatsoever , just

32:31

, you know , a zero , in fact it was

32:33

a dash , you

32:36

know , is just fascinating

32:38

. So

32:40

yeah , I just found that really

32:42

really interesting . But

32:45

yes , but still . But there we are .

32:47

All I'd say is caveat . Emptor by

32:50

a . B1f . Yes , yes , exactly

32:52

. Now moving on to people

32:54

and jobs . James , I saw two jobs listed

32:56

on your brand new jobs board that

32:58

were very interesting , from a company called

33:00

Libsyn . What are they doing ?

33:02

Yes , so there is a job going

33:04

for Director of Podcast Strategy

33:06

and Operations and a job

33:08

going for Director of Creator Partnerships

33:10

. Now , I thought that Creator Partnerships

33:13

was Rob Walsh's title

33:17

, but it turns out that no

33:19

, rob Walsh is CEO .

33:21

CEO no .

33:22

New title CEO no no , no , it's

33:24

certainly not CEO , because they've got a new

33:26

CEO . No , rob Walsh is

33:29

Vice President of Enterprise and Platform

33:31

Partnerships

33:33

and I'm convinced that he used

33:35

to be podcast partnerships or

33:38

creator partnerships in the past

33:40

. So interesting new

33:44

people going there . You

33:47

know Libsyn has gone through quite

33:50

a hard bit of shrinkage

33:54

over the last year or year

33:56

and a half . So nice to see

33:58

that they are growing again , so that's

34:01

good . They were speaking , of course , at Podcast Expo

34:03

both Rob and Brian Cottington

34:06

, who is their video designer and

34:08

editor as well , and

34:10

of course , dave Mansueto was

34:13

inducted in to

34:15

the Hall of Fame as

34:17

well . He was the co-founder , so

34:20

all of that is good . Also

34:22

, going on in people and jobs John Morris has

34:24

been hired as chief product officer at Soundstack

34:27

Now . He used to work for Odyssey

34:29

and before that , wide Orbit , which

34:32

was a podcast hosting company

34:34

of its own , and before that he worked

34:36

for Abercast . And I remember with

34:38

Abacast when I was at Virgin Radio 20

34:40

years ago . Abacast was an amazing thing

34:42

where it was for live broadcasting

34:44

. But because

34:46

bandwidth costs so

34:49

much in those days , this

34:51

would be a little plug-in that would go into

34:53

Windows Media Player and it would

34:55

automatically share the stream

34:57

that you were listening to peer-to-peer

35:00

, so that if anybody else on your network

35:02

wanted to listen to that live stream

35:04

, then they would just connect to your machine rather

35:06

than connect outside , you know , using

35:10

another connection outside . So

35:12

, yeah , some fascinating , you

35:14

know history there . But John , now working

35:16

for Soundstack and soon on this show , I believe . But John now working for

35:18

Soundstack and soon on this show , I believe Rocky

35:21

Thomas , who's their chief strategy

35:23

officer , will be on

35:25

to talk to us about all of that .

35:27

She will . She will indeed , just trying to tie

35:30

her down for a date . That's all , as they say

35:32

. Now moving

35:34

on awards and events . What's

35:36

happening in the world of awards and events , james

35:38

?

35:38

Well , we had an exclusive with the 2025

35:41

schedule for On Air Fest , which

35:45

is the most expansive lineup ever . It's in Brooklyn , february

35:48

the 19th to the 21st

35:50

, and all kinds of people being

35:52

involved . There are tickets available on the

35:55

website . Also

36:00

going on the iHeart Podcast Awards , march the 10th at South by Southwest , by the way , quite

36:02

a few interesting people speaking at South by Southwest

36:04

as well , which

36:06

everybody from Scott Galloway

36:09

, david Duchovny , mark

36:12

Maron and so on

36:14

and so forth . So a bunch of some

36:16

quite interesting people speaking

36:18

at South by Southwest in some way shape or form

36:20

. Quite interesting people speaking

36:22

at South by Southwest in some way shape or form

36:24

. Also

36:30

going on Evolutions in Chicago , unipodfest

36:32

2025 in Birmingham in early April and

36:39

PodCamp Toronto , which is next month . Now , podcamp 2.0 is your thing

36:41

and that's in London , the day before the podcast show in London . What's

36:44

going on with PodCamp 2.0 then , sam ?

36:46

So we are still moving

36:48

forward . We've got two big new sponsors to announce

36:50

next week for you . I'll be sending you a press release

36:52

before James , so you will have the exclusive

36:55

. And we've got two new big speakers

36:57

as well I want to announce , but I've got to confirm

36:59

them today . So , yeah

37:02

, no , very excited , it's really taking

37:05

shape . We've got also I think

37:07

I mentioned last week Julie Costello and

37:09

the whole of the Costello army coming

37:11

over for a concert

37:14

. So that's all in full gear now . That's

37:17

full planning ahead . And I just realised 2.0 days

37:20

on , uh , the 20th . So it's very

37:22

nice , it's 20th of may , which

37:24

I think is 2.0 day .

37:25

So oh nice . Oh , I see what you've

37:27

done there .

37:28

Yes , very nice so , um

37:30

, all good , all good . Um

37:32

, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do at the pod camp

37:34

in toronto . Um , but

37:37

again , I don't think it's similar

37:39

to what we're planning on doing with PodCamp 2.0

37:41

. The Tech Stuff on the

37:43

Pod News Weekly Review .

37:46

Yes , it's the stuff you'll find every Monday in the Pod News

37:48

newsletter . Here's where Sam talks technology

37:51

. What is in here , Sam

37:53

? Are you going to talk about Spotify a lot ?

37:56

I'm sorry , it's not a lot , but

37:58

I mean , look , look on the bright side

38:00

, it wasn't in the main stories , it was further

38:02

down this week , right , okay , eventually

38:06

we'll drop it off the bottom . It won't appear at all , but

38:08

at the moment , pocket

38:11

Casts version 7.8 has come

38:13

out with added support for podcast descriptions

38:15

that contain HTML .

38:24

I didn't think it was a big thing , but you know , it's nice to see that there's new features coming into

38:26

Pocket Cast . Yeah , it's a nice thing . It seems to be something that a listener has done , has gone

38:28

into the app , has gone into the app's open . You know source code and

38:30

added that support . So

38:33

, very good , it should have been in there all along

38:35

, if you ask me . But Spotify is doing

38:37

a ton of very interesting things , as you say

38:39

. So now you can filter

38:41

your Spotify library to show

38:44

only podcasts and courses

38:46

. So

38:49

is that in addition to just podcasts

38:51

?

38:52

It is indeed yeah , they've been trialling

38:54

in the UK .

38:56

Oh yes , look , it's in mine as well . Podcasts and courses

38:58

.

38:59

If you keep your eyes out , you know . You

39:01

don't use Spotify , though , do you ? No , you use YouTube

39:04

Music .

39:04

I'm using Spotify at the moment , actually , so

39:07

yes so there it is . Podcasts

39:09

and Courses yes .

39:12

And Courses being new . Of course . They

39:14

did trial it in the UK last year

39:16

and what they've now done is they've

39:18

rolled out courses for everybody

39:20

and I think again that's

39:22

another revenue stream that they're bringing on

39:24

. I think it's quite exciting what they're doing

39:26

. We did a trial with

39:28

a pod home Barry and myself last

39:31

year to test medium equals courses

39:33

. It works . We have a payment

39:35

mechanism . It uses both fiat

39:39

and sats as a mechanism for payment and

39:41

it all works . We just haven't had any adoption

39:43

from it , but it's good to see now maybe , that Spotify

39:46

courses is available . Other people

39:48

begin to look at how they can put their courses through

39:50

RSS as well .

39:52

Very good , very nice . They've also

39:54

added a few other things . There's a create

39:56

button for some people not

39:58

for me which

40:00

allows you to create a playlist

40:02

and a folder , but also create a

40:04

jam with your friends and

40:08

create a blend , compare

40:10

your tastes with friends . No

40:12

idea , yeah , I'm not sure . No idea how that bit

40:15

works .

40:16

Interestingly , should we do ours , james , yours

40:19

being Kylie and mine being Bruno Mars . We'll see

40:21

what the blend is and , interestingly , Shall .

40:22

We do ours , james , yours being Kylie and mine being Bruno Mars

40:24

. We'll see what the blend is . Well

40:28

, I mean , I would just say that I have friends on

40:30

Spotify , and seemingly I have three friends on Spotify , one

40:33

of which is a

40:35

guy who used to work in Australian radio who I

40:38

haven't seen for four years . A

40:40

guy who used to work in Australian radio who

40:42

I haven't seen for four years , one of which is a guy that I

40:44

used to quite like at the

40:46

BBC , but he's turned , oh , he's turned

40:49

. And then one of which is some

40:51

guy called Sam Sethi , with

40:53

actually a decent photograph there

40:55

, sam , which is very

40:57

good . It

41:00

makes you look a little bit like a saint . It's quite a fun little photograph

41:02

that you should use that more . Anyway , yes , so

41:04

I can spy into your music

41:06

, but I

41:08

don't have access to this blend thing , so

41:12

there'll be none of that going on here

41:14

, but I noticed that Chris

41:16

Messina certainly does

41:18

. So , yeah , so Spotify is still

41:21

doing a bunch of things . They are talking about

41:23

educational courses coming

41:26

to the US

41:28

. I don't necessarily see any courses

41:30

and I'm not quite sure how I would get in to see

41:32

the courses here

41:35

, but I can certainly

41:37

see that . I mean , it definitely

41:40

now says podcasts and courses . So

41:43

yeah , who knows whether that'll change

41:45

to shows and courses relatively soon

41:47

as well ?

41:49

We will see . There's an interesting article

41:51

as well . If anyone wants to read more about what

41:53

Spotify is doing In the Wall

41:55

Street Journal , they

41:57

have Spotify's head of editorial Journal

42:04

. They have Spotify's head of editorial , sulina Ong , whose team curates thousands of playlists

42:06

and discovers new artists . So yeah , if you're interested in reading more about what

42:08

they're doing . Sorry , that was the Wall Street Journal , not the

42:10

New York Times .

42:11

Yes , Very nice . You've

42:14

also noticed that Apple have some

42:16

new terms in

42:19

the new Apple Store app

42:22

, which says

42:24

something around AI

42:28

and data . Now

42:31

, the Apple Store app just

42:33

remind me , the Apple Store app is the app

42:35

that you use when you go into an Apple Store

42:37

and you want to buy something without having

42:39

to find somebody with a blue T-shirt . That's

42:43

the app , isn't it ? So it's not

42:45

data , you

42:47

know . It's data about the

42:50

things that you are buying , not

42:52

all of the rest of your data

42:54

in your Apple iCloud account

42:57

.

42:57

I'm assuming . Well , it's a case of

42:59

if they're starting here , where are they going to go next

43:01

? Right ? And the obvious one is the App Store . Right

43:03

, that'll be the next one , and also the Apple

43:06

Podcast apps . I think this is a safe

43:08

way of starting it and seeing what the feedback

43:10

will be from people going Apple

43:12

no , no , no or okay , we're not

43:14

bothered .

43:15

There's been a lot of pushback . I notice that

43:19

the latest version of Apple Photos

43:22

automatically looks

43:25

in the background to work out whether or not

43:27

you're at the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel

43:29

Tower or you know , or

43:31

the Houses of Parliament or wherever

43:34

you happen to be , and it

43:36

is doing that with a bit of AI

43:39

, but it is also sending portions of

43:41

your photographs back to Apple , from what

43:43

I understand , and

43:48

quite a lot of people have become rather upset about that . So , yeah , clearly

43:50

Apple is sort of trying , you know , playing around

43:53

with this sort of thing . Well

43:55

, yeah , I mean , I still think they are pretty

43:57

good , I mean certainly in terms of

43:59

Google . They're pretty good in terms of

44:01

that , but even so , it's just a

44:03

little bit of a slippery slope , but

44:06

still , there we go .

44:09

Now , another story I saw was from Castapod

44:11

, benjamin Bellamy . They've done something really

44:13

interesting Now . Benjamin has been a big advocate

44:16

of ActivityPod from day one , and

44:19

what they've done is they've taken all their

44:21

shows and they've integrated

44:24

them with activity pub with a one-click

44:26

follow option , which is really neat now . So

44:29

what you can do is go on to cast a

44:31

pod , go and see your favorite show , and

44:33

now , instead of having to cut and paste

44:35

the name of the show

44:37

and then put it into your master don the

44:39

client and then follow it there , you can

44:41

now click the follow button and

44:43

just say what instance you're on . In

44:45

our case , my case it's podcastindexsocial

44:49

and it instantly then

44:51

starts me following one

44:53

of their shows . So very simple . It

44:55

uses a um . I

44:57

had to look at how they did it and I am

44:59

going to mention we will replicate it , because it's

45:01

a very clever way of doing it . There's an

45:04

authentication instance . That's

45:06

all you have to do with the activity pub , and

45:08

then what you do is it allows

45:10

you to follow it via a nice little

45:12

button rather than having to cut and paste everything

45:15

around . So , yes , very well done , benjamin

45:17

.

45:17

Yes , that's very good . If you want to follow your favourite

45:19

podcast on the Fediverse , by the

45:21

way , go to the Pod News website

45:24

, search for your favourite podcast and

45:26

press the little Fediverse

45:29

icon and you can do much the same

45:31

sort of thing for any podcast under the sun . But

45:34

clearly , from the CasterPod point of view , they're

45:36

not just linking to the podcast

45:39

, to the podcast index , um fediverse

45:41

stuff . They're actually doing it for themselves , because

45:43

every single caster pod show

45:46

is on the fediverse by itself

45:48

, which is very neat now

45:50

you had a story , james , about an alternative

45:53

podcast namespace for

45:55

audio fiction .

45:56

What was this one ?

45:57

about . This is a very

45:59

strange thing that

46:02

someone

46:04

has come up with the idea

46:07

of looking at

46:09

what the new podcast namespace

46:11

is all about and going , oh well

46:13

, that looks good , but we are AudioFiction

46:15

podcast and we are special and we deserve

46:17

our own namespace with

46:20

all kinds of additional tags and additional

46:22

features . And so they've

46:24

just built one

46:26

, and it's everything

46:28

from doing

46:31

formats

46:33

, whether it's a role-playing game

46:35

or a drama or somebody reading

46:37

a book . It

46:39

talks about how it's been

46:41

written , it talks about whether it's completed

46:44

yet . Well , that kind of already exists , but they've

46:46

sort of grown that a little bit who

46:49

the voices are , who the

46:51

narrators are , all this kind

46:53

of stuff . So

46:55

it looks really good . But

46:58

I have to say , the audio fiction

47:00

world in podcasting is

47:02

essentially , in my experience

47:05

, after seven or eight years of

47:07

writing about this space , the

47:10

audio fiction world in podcasting appears

47:12

to be a number of people who are

47:14

very aggrieved and angry about everything

47:16

, hissing by the sidelines , saying we're

47:19

not taken seriously enough , nobody

47:21

wants to play with us and

47:23

the rest of the industry never deal with

47:26

us , and

47:33

then all of a sudden do something like this , which you know , I mean , had they come to speak with

47:35

Dave or with Adam or with anyone else involved

47:37

in the new podcast namespace . Most

47:39

of this stuff could have been incorporated into that . I mean , you

47:41

know , most of this stuff could have been incorporated into that . I mean , you know

47:43

, most of this stuff is useful for

47:45

any podcast . You

47:48

know , has it been written , is it scripted , is

47:50

it improvised or is it machine generated ? Well

47:52

, that would be useful for any podcast , not just

47:54

an audio fiction one . So

47:56

I do wonder whether it's , you know , another case

47:58

, I'm afraid , of audio fiction sitting

48:01

there in a in a quiet , dark

48:03

room , going nobody wants to talk to us , without

48:07

actually reaching out and trying to talk to other

48:09

people , which seems a little bit strange . Think

48:11

anybody has actually used it in terms of both

48:13

a podcast app or indeed a podcast host . But

48:25

if they are , you know , I'd love to know about that . But

48:27

yeah , it's just a very strange

48:29

choice , I think to

48:32

you know , jump in and go . Well

48:34

, we're just going to do our own thing all over again

48:36

.

48:36

I did look at it and , yeah

48:39

, it's got some more features and functions around

48:41

specifically to do with audio fiction

48:43

, but , as you said , they just could have reached out

48:45

. It could have been integrated with what we're doing in the podcasting

48:48

2.0 . Yeah , there is a lot of overlap

48:50

and adding another namespace

48:52

doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me to what we're

48:55

doing with . Certainly with TrueFans

48:57

we wouldn't be looking at this at all .

49:02

Yeah , yeah , and just , you know , some of it fits

49:04

very nicely in with everything else . I

49:06

mean , you know , it'd be great to , instead

49:08

of having an explicit tag which is on

49:10

or off , to be able to actually say , okay

49:12

, this is suitable for children , or this is suitable

49:15

for young adults , or this is only

49:17

for an adult audience , all that kind

49:19

of stuff . Really good , really helpful

49:22

, useful tags

49:24

for any podcast . So

49:26

I don't really understand what the deal is here

49:28

in terms of , you know , it's just an audio fiction

49:31

thing , but still , but

49:33

I've linked to it and you know people

49:35

have hopefully taken a look at that and

49:37

seen if it's , you know , for

49:39

them it wouldn't be the last , you

49:43

know additional namespace for

49:45

the podcasting world . But

49:48

yeah , I think good things happen when we work

49:50

together .

49:52

Two quick things for you . James . Media RSS

49:54

, which came out of Yahoo , I think many years

49:56

ago . That still exists

49:58

, I think . Is it only YouTube

50:01

that supports it , or does Spotify as well

50:03

?

50:05

YouTube certainly supports just

50:07

one thing , which is

50:09

media thumbnails . And

50:11

yeah , so that is the way that

50:13

you give a 16 by

50:16

9 image to YouTube is you

50:18

put it in a media thumbnail and use the media

50:20

RSS ? As far

50:22

as I'm aware , I think OmniStudio support that

50:24

. I'm not aware of

50:26

any other podcast hosting

50:29

company that supports the media RSS

50:31

namespace , but

50:33

it certainly exists , yeah is it worth going

50:35

back ?

50:35

I mean , I've never , I've not really looked at it properly

50:37

. Is it worth going back into it ? The reason

50:39

I asked that question is you went back into

50:42

the original rss 2.0

50:44

spec and you were talking about

50:46

comments as a tag that

50:48

existed and it was like , oh okay , maybe

50:50

there's other tags . We should go and have a look . Maybe

50:53

we've overlooked . Or I think there was a

50:55

very interesting conversation on

50:57

the future of podcasting with Daniel J

50:59

Lewis and Dave Jackson about . You know , they

51:01

want cross app comments , the famous thing that

51:03

we all want in the podcasting space

51:06

but they can't seem to

51:08

get that yet and they were

51:10

thinking that that comment field that you highlighted

51:12

was one of the things that might be a

51:15

way forward . Now , if that's the case

51:17

, is there anything in the media

51:19

RSS that we should be going back to and saying , oh

51:21

yeah , we should take that out of it or we should

51:23

adopt that ?

51:27

Yeah , I mean I don't want

51:30

to go too far into

51:32

what we should have done , too

51:38

far into what we should have done , but you know , I mean the media RSS specification includes

51:40

complete comments . Whether or not it's the right thing to do to put into

51:42

the full RSS feed , I

51:44

don't know , I would suspect not

51:46

. But it also includes things like

51:49

licenses and

51:51

it includes things like rights to

51:53

enable you to do various things

51:56

with , and credits

51:59

, and you know I mean it's got

52:01

credits for , you know , author and composer

52:03

and director and editor and all that kind of stuff

52:05

that the people tag does

52:07

. In many ways , what we ended

52:10

up doing when the new podcast

52:12

namespace appeared is

52:14

there wasn't necessarily , I think , the

52:16

due diligence there of going back

52:18

into both the original RSS

52:20

spec and also into this and going

52:22

, okay , what exists anyway , and

52:25

I think quite a lot of it is just wanting to just pull

52:27

everything into one namespace

52:30

that we control . You know that we obviously

52:32

have access to namespace

52:35

that we control . You know that we obviously have access to , but I do think that there's

52:38

definitely stuff that we could be using , you know , out of this , had

52:40

we looked at , for example , the media thumbnails

52:42

tag , the thing that YouTube

52:45

is using prior to doing the podcast

52:47

images tag , which is useless , which nobody

52:49

is using and which still hasn't been rewritten

52:52

. So far as I'm aware , then

52:54

people might actually be using that particular tag

52:56

, but I'm unaware that

52:58

that has happened . I'm unaware

53:00

that pretty well . Anything has actually happened

53:03

in terms of that and those new comments

53:05

that I was talking about . I've

53:08

heard nothing more in terms of whether

53:10

or not it's still a good idea and whether

53:12

or not anybody would like to take

53:14

that further . So

53:16

I think you know there are some people

53:18

that would quite like cross out comments . I

53:21

think most people don't really care , and

53:23

that's fine too .

53:24

I think people do care . I think people

53:26

want it , I think it's it's . It

53:28

feels like a very obvious way of

53:30

integrating all of the apps together as a

53:33

first step . I don't think people

53:35

can find a route through it , though . That's the

53:37

problem , yeah , I mean uh

53:39

, unfortunately , or fortunately depends on which way you

53:41

want to look at it . You know , fountain and true

53:43

fans have taken separate directions . Um

53:46

, obviously , oscar's going down the nosta road , we're

53:48

going down the activity pub road . Never the twain shall

53:50

meet , it feels right now . And

53:52

I don't know . And

53:54

actually , to be brutally honest

53:57

, we're so up against the coalface doing

53:59

other things . It's not a priority

54:01

right now . You know it just isn't .

54:03

Yeah , yeah , no , I think you're

54:05

right and I think you know . Yes

54:08

, it does seem as if all

54:10

of a sudden , the wind has gone out of quite a few people's

54:12

sails . Seem as if all of a sudden , the wind has gone out of quite

54:15

a few people's sails , you know , in

54:22

terms of new things , and perhaps we won't . You know , it's just gone a little bit quiet in terms

54:24

of innovation , and probably part of that is due to Adam

54:26

and Dave obviously working on their new

54:28

project . You know , which

54:31

is an important thing too . Yes

54:43

, it's our favourite time of the week . It's Boostergram Corner , and you can get us messages

54:45

all over the place . There's a little link in

54:47

our show notes for you to send us a

54:50

message . Dave Jackson from the School of Podcasting

54:52

has done that and he says I vote

54:54

to put the full interview into this

54:57

feed , the full interview into

54:59

this feed . You have chapters and a fast forward

55:01

button . Then I can choose to listen or not

55:03

, without extra episodes or feeds

55:05

. Who cares what the length is , in my

55:07

honest opinion . Thank you , dave . Talking

55:09

about that email , weekly at podnewsnet

55:12

, stephen Goldstein from Amplify

55:14

Media has sent

55:16

an email saying his second

55:19

New Year's prediction has been blown , that

55:22

James and Sam will never go more than 130

55:24

minutes with their podcast . Yes , it was a long one . Think

55:26

it was more than two hours , though I think he's um

55:28

we've

55:34

never done a rogan , I don't think

55:37

it was . I think it was one hour 40 , 40

55:39

minutes or so .

55:41

Uh , last time I think we've had three interviews

55:43

in the show . Yeah , that has

55:45

pushed .

55:46

That was one hour 40 minutes or something

55:48

like that . I think . I think that was fine , but anyway

55:50

, I mean he won't be listening by by this point

55:52

. So um so point . So it's fine

55:54

we can ignore him . And 100

55:56

sats from the late Bloomer actor , david

55:58

John Clark . And he says my streaming

56:01

sats was off . Oh no

56:03

, so sorry team . Anyway , he

56:05

says welcome to 2025 . I feel it'll

56:07

be a big year . I think you

56:09

accused him of being a secret member

56:11

of the SAS or something last time

56:13

. I think you accused him of being a secret member of the SAS or something last time .

56:15

He keeps saying he's going off . It's

56:18

now just an in-joke . He keeps saying he's going off

56:20

to camp and he'll be away on exercise

56:22

. I'm like that sounds very

56:24

secretive . The late bloomer actor sounds like

56:27

you're .

56:28

You know what you tell the world but

56:31

really you're just going off on exercise with the SAS . I don't understand

56:34

what's going on there , but anyway , he says he's not quite SAS , but I can

56:36

run with that to keep the real secret there

56:40

you go , maybe he's a . Navy SEAL

56:42

or something .

56:44

Yes , I don't know .

56:45

Talking about David John Clark , he sent a

56:47

prediction , didn't he he

56:49

?

56:50

did , and it fell through the cracks

56:52

somehow , James .

56:55

It did . It fell through the cracks because of you know , boring

56:57

administrative things , but

56:59

we thought , since we don't have anybody

57:01

else on the show this week

57:03

other than us two , we

57:05

thought that you might want to hear the prediction

57:08

. That nearly didn't make it , so here

57:10

with his prediction for 2025

57:12

, the late bloomer actor , David John Clark

57:14

. Hi , my name is .

57:15

David John Clark . I am an actor and

57:18

also host of the podcast , the Late Bloomer

57:20

Actor , as well as a huge

57:22

advocate for PodU's Weekly Review , hosted by

57:24

James Cridland and Sam Sethi , of course , and

57:27

a huge fan of True Fans

57:29

for my podcast listening . I've

57:31

been asked to give my podcasting highlight

57:34

for 2024 , as well as my predictions

57:36

for 2025 . On my

57:38

show I chat to acting industry guests

57:40

that I have met on my journey , but

57:42

this year was a standout , was my end

57:45

of year special , with 11 incredible

57:47

podcast hosts that I listened to , both

57:49

acting and podcasting . We explored

57:51

the intersection of acting and podcasting in ways

57:54

I never expected . Two major

57:56

themes that crossed over both realms was

57:58

the idea of community and the concept

58:00

of storytelling . The

58:02

highlight among so many this year was

58:05

to have the honour to feature James Cridland and

58:07

Sam Sethi from Pod News Weekly . Their

58:10

insights into the world of podcasting , from trends

58:12

to technologies , were invaluable for

58:14

both podcasters and listeners and

58:16

actors themselves . Their dedication

58:19

to innovation in podcasting continues to shape

58:21

the industry . For two stalwarts

58:23

of the podcasting industry to find time to be on

58:26

my little show was just absolutely

58:28

fantastic . So that is certainly

58:30

my highlight for 2024

58:33

, as I said , amongst so many , but

58:36

absolutely fantastic for those two gentlemen to come

58:38

on my show and we had just

58:40

some wonderful conversations that

58:42

just crossed over with everyone , so that was fantastic

58:45

. Now for my predictions

58:47

for 2025 , well

58:49

, I don't know how many of us are very good at

58:51

predicting Certainly not in

58:54

predicting the value of Bitcoin

58:56

, but that's another discussion . Fortunately

58:59

for me , my prediction

59:01

is the same for both the acting world and podcasting

59:03

world . I predict that AI will continue

59:06

to influence both industries For

59:08

acting , not just in tools like self-taping

59:11

platforms , but also in creating new opportunities

59:13

such as virtual actors

59:15

or AI-enhanced coaching

59:17

. Similarly , in podcasting

59:20

, ai will play a significant role , I

59:22

feel , in personalized recommendations , automated

59:25

editing and even generating dynamic content

59:27

tailored to individual listeners

59:29

. So that could be good For

59:31

actors and podcasters alike . The key

59:33

challenge will be maintaining authenticity

59:36

and a human connection in the digital-driven

59:38

world . I talked about that a lot

59:40

with Sam . So this

59:42

intersection of AI , acting

59:45

and podcasting highlights how

59:47

both fields can leverage technology without

59:49

losing the heart of storytelling . Again

59:51

, that was a big discussion point

59:53

in my end of year special , as well

59:55

as throughout the year for all my

59:58

guests . You know , the

1:00:00

scariest part of this prediction for both

1:00:02

industries , I feel , is the replacement

1:00:04

of the human . We're already seeing

1:00:06

it in virtual actors , as I mentioned , or

1:00:09

now the prolification of AI-generated

1:00:11

podcasts , with hosts that an

1:00:14

observant listener could call out as AI . That's

1:00:16

what scares me . I

1:00:19

wish everyone listening an awesome 2025

1:00:21

. I do also predict many positive

1:00:23

changes along the journey , so that's what I'll

1:00:25

be focusing on , and I hope

1:00:27

you do too . James and

1:00:30

Sam , thank you very much for everything you've done

1:00:32

this year on your show and

1:00:34

everything you do in the podcasting world . It

1:00:37

doesn't just affect podcasters

1:00:39

, as I've hopefully shown today

1:00:41

. It also reaches out to

1:00:43

so many other people and

1:00:45

so many people that don't even know how

1:00:47

this industry affects themselves

1:00:49

. So thank you very much , happy New

1:00:52

Year and all the best for 2025 , people Cheers

1:00:54

.

1:00:55

Well , thank you for sending that through . If

1:00:58

, ms Eileen , if you would like to send through

1:01:00

a prediction , then you're more than welcome as

1:01:02

well . But , yes

1:01:05

, predictions , of course , to everybody

1:01:07

who was on the sensational

1:01:09

16 . Those are our

1:01:11

power , power supporters , the 16 people who are

1:01:13

helping us every single month with the

1:01:15

uh , with giving us some value back from

1:01:17

the value that , uh , we appear

1:01:19

to be giving them . Um , david

1:01:22

john clark , of course , james burt , john mcdermott

1:01:24

, claire wake brown , miss eileen

1:01:26

smith , uh , neil velio , rocky

1:01:29

thomas , jim james , david marz , si

1:01:31

Jobling , rachel Corbett , Dave Jackson

1:01:33

, mike at the Rogue Media Network , matt

1:01:36

Medeiros , marshall Brown and Cameron

1:01:38

Moll , and Sam and

1:01:40

I share any money

1:01:42

that comes in this way in between

1:01:44

us and it doesn't go to anybody else in the big pod

1:01:47

news headquarters

1:01:50

.

1:01:51

None of it goes , yes , Well , apart

1:01:53

from that person we've just sacked for letting

1:01:55

that administrative issue go through

1:01:58

. Yes , none of it goes to our

1:02:00

security team ?

1:02:01

uh , our cleaners ? Uh , none of it goes

1:02:03

to uh , to uh

1:02:05

. The accounts team ? Uh

1:02:07

, yeah , it's uh , it's all there , um

1:02:10

yeah yes , we

1:02:12

don't pay ourselves no , that's absolutely

1:02:15

true . So what's happened for you this week , sam

1:02:17

, other than all of that ?

1:02:18

um , well , we , we , you know we we're still pressing

1:02:20

ahead with new features and functions . So

1:02:22

, um , one of the things that you may

1:02:25

well be aware , we've tried to simplify the verbiage

1:02:27

around podcasting 2.0 , certainly

1:02:30

for the user community that

1:02:32

I'm trying to address . So I'm

1:02:34

not a fan of Boost

1:02:36

and Boostergrams . It adds more

1:02:38

vocabulary that I think people are not aware

1:02:40

of and I think people understand what

1:02:43

a like is and what a comment is , and I think

1:02:45

that's such a simpler way for people

1:02:47

to get on board . So we

1:02:49

have renamed Boostergrams to Supercomments

1:02:52

and I think it falls in line with

1:02:54

what YouTube do with Superchats . And

1:02:57

one of the things I was talking on

1:02:59

the podcast in 2.0 show with Adam and Dave

1:03:01

was , you know , we will be integrating

1:03:03

XMPP chats into TrueFans

1:03:06

for live shows and

1:03:08

, yes , we will call those Superchats . So

1:03:10

Supercomments and Superchats . So , yes , that's

1:03:13

the way that we're going forward anyway

1:03:15

with what we used to call Boostergrams

1:03:17

Very nice .

1:03:18

I think that makes a bunch of sense . Just get rid of

1:03:20

as much of the jargon as possible

1:03:23

. Whenever you have jargon

1:03:25

in something , it just slows it down for

1:03:28

new people to get involved . So I

1:03:30

think that that's

1:03:32

a very good thing . And

1:03:34

you've added something

1:03:37

called True Fans Support . What's True

1:03:39

Fans Support ?

1:03:40

Yeah , now , one of the things

1:03:43

that you do , I know , with

1:03:45

the Pod News Daily . You've got a

1:03:47

link out , I

1:03:49

think , to your PayPal account , is

1:03:51

it ?

1:03:52

It's to Patreon . Yes .

1:03:54

Yes .

1:03:55

Yeah , absolutely , podnewsnet slash Patreon

1:03:57

. By the way , if you would like to have that Now , if

1:03:59

you've got a URL in

1:04:01

the funding tag , then we

1:04:04

obviously honour that .

1:04:07

We will just put an icon on your podcast page and when a fan clicks on it , they

1:04:09

will go to wherever you've asked them In

1:04:11

your case , patreon . Some people have PayPal , other

1:04:20

people have buy me a coffee , but we also noticed that probably 90 percent of the podcasts

1:04:22

that we have in true fans or more do not have anything in

1:04:24

the funding tag , and so we've

1:04:26

just given an option now where you can turn

1:04:29

on and we do it by default the

1:04:31

funding tag within TrueFan

1:04:33

. So now what happens is you

1:04:36

will click that button if you want as

1:04:38

a fan , and it will then pop up and say do you want to

1:04:40

pay $3 , $5 , $10 ? So

1:04:42

we do it in fiat currency or you can switch

1:04:44

that to sats if you prefer , and

1:04:47

the fan can then give you a monthly subscription

1:04:49

. What's the difference ? We don't have to pay the

1:04:51

Apple 30% tax and

1:04:53

we don't take 12% , which will Patreon

1:04:56

take . So we do only

1:04:58

a 5% . That's our fee

1:05:00

and everything else goes directly to

1:05:03

the creator , and that's how we've

1:05:05

integrated it .

1:05:06

Yeah , no , it looks . It looks very

1:05:08

smart , so that's a . That is a nice

1:05:11

plan . I

1:05:13

like the idea as well that the creator only

1:05:15

gets the money if they deliver new content , because you're

1:05:17

kind of pushing people to create new stuff

1:05:20

. That's something that may be

1:05:22

a discussion at some point , but

1:05:26

it's a nice starting point to

1:05:28

actually start with there , I think .

1:05:32

What's been happening for you , James ?

1:05:34

Well , I'm still waiting for my brand new car . It's

1:05:37

going to be very exciting . Should get it next

1:05:39

week if everything works well

1:05:41

, it

1:05:44

got the rest of the family .

1:05:45

Is it coming from China ?

1:05:47

Weirdly it is coming from China

1:05:49

yes , because that's where it's been built , but

1:05:52

it comes down on a boat to far

1:05:55

north Queensland , basically at the top of

1:05:57

Queensland . That it could possibly get to , presumably

1:06:00

because it's the closest

1:06:02

place to China if

1:06:05

you're on a boat and

1:06:08

from there I think it's just chucked

1:06:10

on the back of a lorry and then driven all the way down , but

1:06:12

it's a long way far north Queensland

1:06:15

. I mean it takes

1:06:17

something like 20 hours to drive up to Cairns , let

1:06:19

alone anything else . Anyway

1:06:22

, should have it this time next week , unless

1:06:25

something has gone hideously wrong , in which case you

1:06:27

know , we'll find out . But yes , so

1:06:29

that has been going on . If

1:06:32

I'm sounding ever so slightly different , I mean I shouldn't

1:06:34

be , but if I am , that

1:06:41

is because we moved the office around last weekend the biggest amount of work

1:06:43

ever and I still haven't quite finished . My

1:06:45

side , the wife , is delighted

1:06:48

, but I still haven't finished quite

1:06:50

my side .

1:06:50

Where are you in the garage now ?

1:06:55

still haven't finished quite where you in the garage now , uh , still still in the same room , but

1:06:57

um , uh , I'm now facing a wall , uh , and she's now facing a wall , but

1:06:59

actually it means that we've got an awful lot more

1:07:01

space and the camera lines are better

1:07:04

, because you know video and all that kind of stuff

1:07:06

. So , yeah , so it's going . It's um

1:07:08

, it's interesting , but it's just um , yeah

1:07:10

, you know how it is when you have to unplug everything

1:07:13

and plug it all back in again and not

1:07:15

everything works again . And

1:07:18

yeah , so that's been entertaining

1:07:20

. What else is going on

1:07:22

? I've got some new logos for a new thing

1:07:24

that I'm launching in early February

1:07:26

. New thing , new thing

1:07:29

, yes , and I said to the partner

1:07:31

that I'm working with on it . I said I

1:07:34

can do the tech , that's fine , but

1:07:36

I can't do any graphical layout

1:07:38

because it'll just look as if a bank

1:07:41

has done it . It'll look like pod news and you don't want

1:07:43

that . Yes , so I've

1:07:45

got a beautiful , colourful logo which I'm looking

1:07:47

forward to integrating Very

1:07:49

nice . So that's a nice thing . And I speak to you , sam Right , very nice , so that's a nice

1:07:51

thing . And I speak to you , sam Right

1:07:54

, after 53 years of

1:07:56

successfully avoiding any

1:07:58

form of exercise , I

1:08:02

speak to you after the

1:08:04

second gym

1:08:07

appearance that

1:08:09

I have made . Are you in shock ? Yeah

1:08:12

, it's not fun that

1:08:18

I have made . Are you in shock ? Yeah , it's not fun . Yes , the doctor has said

1:08:20

that unless I want my bones to crumble away , I need to go

1:08:22

and do exercise and go to a gym , and so that's what I've

1:08:24

been doing . And yes , and it's

1:08:26

very , very bizarre , isn't

1:08:30

? the dog walk sufficient ? Sadly

1:08:32

not , no , dog walk is not

1:08:34

sufficient exercise for stopping

1:08:36

your bones from crumbling

1:08:39

away . So , yes , you do need to do

1:08:41

much more exercise

1:08:44

. It involves weights and things

1:08:46

, and it's all very confusing and I frankly

1:08:48

don't know what I'm doing . But

1:08:50

anyway , they're all very positive

1:08:53

and polite doing . But anyway , they're

1:08:55

all , they're all very , they're all very positive and polite . And uh , by the time I leave

1:08:57

to uh to fly to uh to uh switzerland , and then won't

1:09:00

be there for a week or so , uh

1:09:02

, I'm sure that they'll begin to miss me , uh

1:09:05

, but still , but uh , yes , gosh you'll

1:09:07

be talking creative at me next .

1:09:08

I can see it now I will absolutely not

1:09:10

.

1:09:11

I'll actually not . It's what's been quite funny . So

1:09:13

I basically said look , um , I

1:09:15

suppose I have to come here , because the doctor

1:09:18

says I have to come here because otherwise my bones , will you

1:09:20

know , crumble away . But I

1:09:23

won't be able to see whether or not I'm having any success

1:09:25

with that at all . But I said is

1:09:28

there a way that you can get rid of my belly ? And

1:09:31

so that's what they're currently

1:09:33

aimed on . At least I'll see something if

1:09:36

I see that . But gosh . Anyway

1:09:40

, on that bombshell

1:09:42

and on that bombshell . That's

1:09:44

it for this week . All our podcast stories

1:09:46

taken from the Pod News Daily newsletter . You can

1:09:48

subscribe to that at podnewsnet

1:09:50

. And by all means , all means for this podcast

1:09:53

, go hard on the five stars . Sorry

1:09:55

, I'm getting fine . Yeah , I know

1:09:58

he keeps changing scripts

1:10:00

. I've copied that from somebody else right

1:10:02

.

1:10:02

I didn't think it mattered .

1:10:03

I thought ratings and reviews didn't matter oh

1:10:06

well , that may be a story for next time .

1:10:08

Oh right , okay moving on , then you can

1:10:10

support this show by streaming sats . You can give us

1:10:12

feedback using the Buzzsprout fan mail

1:10:14

, like Dave Jackson did . The link is

1:10:16

in our show notes . You can send us a boostogram

1:10:18

or become a power supporter , like the

1:10:20

Sensational 16 at weeklypodnewsnet

1:10:24

. Who's going to be sweet 17, ? James , I wonder

1:10:26

.

1:10:27

Yes , who is going to be number 17

1:10:29

? Go on weeklypodnewsnet

1:10:31

, it might be you . Our

1:10:33

music is from Studio Dragonfly . Our

1:10:35

voiceover is Sheila D . We use clean

1:10:38

feed for our audio . We edit with Hinderberg

1:10:40

and we're hosted and sponsored by Buzzsprout

1:10:42

. Start podcasting , Keep

1:10:44

podcasting . Get updated every day

1:10:46

. Subscribe to our newsletter at

1:10:49

podnewsnet .

1:10:52

Tell your friends and grow the show and support us , and support us . The

1:10:54

Pod News . Weekly Review will

1:10:56

return next week . Keep listening

1:10:59

.