Air Canada partners with Audible in flight

Air Canada today became the first airline to offer Canadian Audible Original Audiobooks and Podcasts and more in its in-flight entertainment (IFE) system, further expanding its product offering to travellers. Through premium and dynamic audio storytelling, Audible provides Air Canada’s customers immersive, relaxing entertainment during their travel journey onboard all while 30,000 feet up in the air.

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Spotify's dilemma over white noise podcasts

Spotify's algorithm has been promoting podcasts with white noise content, such as waves, vacuums, and fans, to its listeners who use them to relax or sleep. An internal document reveals these podcasts account for three million hours of consumption every day. And some creators supposedly make up to USD 18,000 a month using Spotify's free hosting software Anchor.

However, Spotify is reportedly not happy with this situation, as white noise podcasts are less profitable than other types of programming. The company considered removing them or replacing them with "comparable programming" that would save USD 38 million a year. Some users and creators noticed that their white noise podcasts had disappeared for a while, but Spotify denied any intentional action. The company said it still has white noise podcasts on its platform.

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Amazon Prime members can access the entire Amazon Music catalogue, but only in shuffle mode

Amazon Prime gets a pretty sweet perk for music lovers. (At least those without a music streaming subscription yet.) The company now gives its Prime members access to its 100 million-plus song catalogue instead of the curated two-million song library before. Of course, there's a condition. You can only play songs in shuffle mode. If you want to select specific albums or tracks, you'll need to get an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. That tier gives you access to lossless HD music playback, Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio support, and more.

But on top of this, Amazon Prime members are also getting access to many ad-free podcasts, new Amazon Exclusives podcasts, and a refreshed Amazon Music app.

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YouTube experiments with podcast page

Source: 9to5Google

YouTube has somehow turned into a platform where podcasts are distributed, and the company is starting to optimize that experience. There's now an Explore page for Podcasts. It's not showing up for me yet. But it's under the YouTube.com/podcasts URL. It's linked to the existing Explore page alongside: Trending, Music, Movies & Shows, Live, Gaming, and more. 

Right now, it's just letting you browse through regular video thumbnails that takes you to the regular player on Android. It features large buttons and shortcuts to like, save, and adjust playback speed. YouTube will probably optimized the experience for users over time, but it's unclear if it'll make its way to YouTube Music. We're expecting Google to fold in its Google Podcasts app within YouTube instead of keeping it as a separate app.

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