Podcasting Boom: Paid Subscriptions, New Funding, and Industry Updates (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: The latest from our daily newsletter at podnews.net. Paid podcast subscriptions seem to be having a moment. Breaking points. A podcast and YouTube show has seen 10,000 paying subscribers in just two days using Supercast. The company tells PodNews that their top 10 publishers are earning more than $9 million in annual recurring revenue from paid subscribers on the platform and that their growth rate is outperforming Substack's early published milestones. Red Circle has landed $6 million in funding. The company monetizes podcasts, selling podcast subscriptions as well as host red ads or programmatic advertising. The company says many of their podcasters are earning six figures annually. And Kallin, a social podcast app, has raised $12 million in funding. It appears to be a clubhouse-like service. Spotify has a new podcast executive, Julie McNamara, a former executive vice president and head of programming at Paramount+, will become Spotify's new head of U.S. studios and video operations. Twitter has confirmed that it's working on a tipping process using Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. It's of interest for podcasters because it uses the same technology as value-for-value listening, including boosts. Podcast index Dave Jones tells us, if every Twitter user has a Lightning wallet, the listener-on-boarding problem gets solved overnight. Now the coffee you drink can help podcasting. A new podcast, which I can't mention here because it's rude, has announced a partnership with indigenous-owned Native Coffee Traders located in New York on the Poots Patuck Reservation. It's a new way to simultaneously support the show and the indigenous community. You can buy the coffee on their website, which we've linked to, including their name, in our show notes and our newsletter today. In Canada, CBC has announced its Quarter 3 21 podcast slate, including a trilogy exploring strands of radical extremism in North America. Blue Wire and Winbet have announced a number of new podcasts. Blue Wire's studio, The Win, in Las Vegas, is due to open next week. In France, there's a new music license for podcasts from SESEM. Prices start at about 15 U.S. cents per subscriber per month, and the license doesn't cover you, as we understand it, from using any sound recordings, though. And Clean Feed has launched new studio tools for podcasters and broadcasters, including audio buttons to allow sound effects, intro music, or jingles. And in podcast news, I hear things. The weekly podcast from Tom Webster focuses on iHeartRadio's Sunday Night Podcasts and whether podcasts on the radio is something that works. Podland this week looks at how Google Podcasts is going and includes a Boostergram corner. It's hosted by me and Sam Sethi. How Cool Is This?, a five-minute podcast that talks about how cool your ideas are, just published its 100th episode. How To has a new host, Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist and a New York Times bestselling author. The Media V Awards were presented in Cologne in Germany. The winner of the Best Podcast Awards went to Technikaufs Uhr, a podcast for audio engineers. What if instead of being on the brink of disaster, we're on the cusp of a better world? What Could Go Right? features Progress Network founder Zachary Carabell and executive director Emma Varver-Lucas and a diverse panel of experts to discuss the central issues of our era. And the best podcast ever has just launched in Australia, no pressure, with journalists Kumi Takuchi and Michelle Stevenson, who, due to a lockdown in the country, have yet to actually meet each other. They'll chat politics, social media, books and music. And that's the latest from our newsletter. For all the links, we're at podnews.net.