Why podcasts appear to cover Ukraine Young this morning, I wrote an article for The Verge about why so much coverage for Ukraine takes the form of emerging podcasts. The work required to report and produce a show is not easily condensed to match the dizzying speed of the news cycle, however NPR, The Telegraph, independent groups and others have amassed resources. Many of these groups have reason to believe that this commitment is worthwhile – and many of them have many of the same reasons to think so. Many, after all, have quickly launched new podcasts in the past, and some have even managed to reuse streaming after their expiration to help bolster future efforts. I would love if you checked out the article on the site. It is an interesting trend, with some historical precedent and some future predictions. Spotify closes all services in Russia Late Friday, Spotify announced that it would suspend service in Russia over the country’s new law designed to stifle accurate coverage of its invasion of Ukraine. Spotify expects to close in early April. “Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation that further restricts access to information, restricts free expression and criminalizes certain types of news, endangers the safety of Spotify employees and possibly even our listeners,” said a Spotify spokesman. asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation. Spotify previously suspended paid access to its service in Russia, losing about 1.5 million paying subscribers. However, it has maintained the widest online service to date, in the name of free flow of information to residents. This is the latest move by Spotify in response to the invasion, reflecting the general actions of other major tech companies such as YouTube and Apple. In early March, Spotify closed its local offices in the country (a move with possible long-term consequences) and removed Russian state-owned RT and Sputnik stores from the platform. Spotify is testing a podcast tracking stream On Friday afternoon, I noticed a change in the Spotify app: an entire podcast tab was added at the bottom of the screen. A Spotify spokesman said the company was systematically testing such updates – some remaining and some not – but that “they have no more news to share right now”. Well, you’re lucky, because I’m doing it. This tab, as it stands at the moment, is not a place to pick up your recorded shows or downloaded episodes, but it is a rather sparse page intended to introduce you to new ones. The page allows you to drag vertically through cards of different performances, without a clear order of what will appear next. When an episode focuses on the screen, a snippet of its sound starts playing and the page appears to suggest a combination of episodes from shows you have subscribed to and non-subscribers. Following is a screenshot recorded by hashtag inventor Chris Messina, who aptly describes this interface as “TikTok style”. As for the real discovery, the episodes that are shown, at least for me, are mostly from shows I’re listening to right now. Otherwise, they are already living in the “Popular to ____ listeners” section on the Home tab. The feature appears to have emerged from the acquisition of Podz by Spotify, a podcast tracking application, which it bought for about $ 50 million last year, according to TechCrunch. Since Spotify does not have a similar TikTok for music discovery – and considering how valuable the main navigation property is – this is a significant move, one that is in line with the company’s quest for a podcast spot. It’s also a look at what real-time transfers on the platform might look like. During audio playback, dynamic transcripts flash on the screen, something Spotify has not yet made available on all shows – and hopefully a preview of the wider feature that follows. Flow companies, however, have given us reason to expect transfers to be less stellar when they do occur, and this is certainly no exception. The caption on the screenshot above, which says “this is a little hot to look at”, comes from the sound of two speakers. He should read “This is a lot of watching”, as one person says it, and “It’s”, as it is said by the other. Instead, it sounds like Yoda. IHeart and Sirius move away from the radio Yesterday, we got two more podcast developments from companies that made a name for themselves by doing something different from podcasts: SiriusXM just announced its first streaming channel dedicated to a podcast and iHeartMedia announced a brand new podcast company. Both companies continue to push the extremes of their radio reputation and both of these moves are in line with this trend. SiriusXM’s new channel, “Freakonomics Radio Network”, will broadcast both the recently released episodes of the Freakonomics Radio podcast and those from its archive, as a podcast feed but scrambled and always open. The channel will also include episodes from other shows in the Freakonomics podcast brochure, such as People I (Mostly) Admire and Without Stupid Questions. This differs from other SiriusXM offerings which, yes, include podcast hosts but assign them to brand new shows with more traditional forms of live radio. IHeartMedia enters its own recent non-radio effort with Collab, launching a separate podcast studio called Curativity that is said to be “creator-centric”. will start with family-friendly material, led by an established creator. Two existing series, Kids Animal Stories and Kids Short Stories, are the first to be named on the Curativity network, while a third, the recently announced Spyology Squad, will premiere next week. All three come from the children’s sound personality, Mr. Jim, whom I do not know, but these children certainly appear. About Being Independent And last week, Krista Tippett announced that both she and her long-running On Being show would leave public radio, switching to an independent model, and go down her weekly routine. The ability to maintain a schedule, transfer it, and modify it is similar to the freedom that many public service employees have expressed in their desire to leave the field. While this should not be taken for granted, it is at least an example. In a letter to the stations that broadcast On Being (almost 400 in total), Tippett wrote that public radio has been inherent in the existence and development of the show since it started under a different name almost 20 years ago. “We will always understand ourselves as colleagues and family for you,” he wrote. “Indeed, we would love to find ways to work with you and your communities through our work beyond this time, and we will be contacting you more precisely later this year.” Despite their respect for the radio, sometimes people have to flex their creative muscles – or just take a break. “After hosting 52 weeks of programming a year for almost 20 years, I’m ready to move to a more sustainable pace and open up space and time for writing, public engagement and new extensions of our content to the emerging world,” Tippett wrote. I heard that. Googling the “pirate language for goodbye” did not bring anything, so I guess Aria will not sign like that today.
