Well hello there! Welcome to the first issue of 2021. Its a brand-new year for news, notes, and stories from the podverse. Thanks so much for your support.
Amazon’s acquisition of Wondery was the last major podcast buy of 2020. Reports have largely focused on Amazon’s play for market dominance, as well as the rumored $300 million price tag. In Evo Terra’s Podcast Pontifications, the podcaster, author, and radio broadcaster offers a more relevant take for creators.
“At some point in our very near future, there will be no single dominant player in podcasting,” Terra predicts. The throne long occupied by Apple “will be destroyed in the process we’re seeing play out right now” — the continued fracturing of consumption across apps. For podcasters, distribution and discovery will change.
“With that, the digital presence of your shows outside of the various podcasting apps and directories becomes hugely important,” Terra says. “That means your website can’t suck anymore.” (Nor can any part of a podcast’s presentation.) “Let people listen where they want to listen,” but be sure to meet them.
Unlicensed music tracks are still being repackaged as podcasts on Spotify. Last week, Kristin Robinson of Variety reported that “copyright holders are left to discern whether or not they warrant action, legal or otherwise.” New story, same loophole: Spotify (and everyone else) has been aware of the problem for nearly a year.
Despite requests from copyright holders, it remains difficult to get the material removed. However, a spokesperson told Variety about Spotify’s efforts to “detect, investigate and deal with such activity.” Pitchfork got the same statement last February, though “mislabeled content” is now “intellectual property infringement.”
These cases are rarely litigated for several reasons, Robinson explains. Many ‘podcast’ tracks are remixes and mashups, so “‘fair use’ is often used to bolster [the] argument that such musical reimagining is legal.” There’s also the fact that royalties aren’t paid out for podcasts. Pirates aren’t making money, and Spotify isn’t losing it.
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