Deezer sells Stitcher to E.W. Scripps

Less than two years after Deezer bought podcast app Stitcher, the streaming music service is selling it off to media company E.W. Scripps for US$4.5 million. The Stitcher team will be joining Midroll Media, a podcast producer and advertising network. At the moment, Deezer says podcast content will be available on their platform. For how long, we can’t say. According to Scripps, Stitcher has 8.5 million registered users and is installed in 50 models of cars. The company didn’t say though how many active users the service has. Stitcher believes this acquisition will help both advertisers and content partners with “an expanded portfolio of opportunities” to help reach their target audience. We can’t say yet how they’d do that though.

Source: Engadget

Apple meets with top podcasters to discuss the format, share issues

There’s been a resurgence of interest in podcasts lately and Apple knows they have to take advantage of its popularity. What the tech giant did is talk to the top podcast producers about the issues they have with Apple when it comes with the format. The exact details weren’t disclosed but things like how iTunes has fallen behind to supporting the medium were talked about. These include how producers aren’t able to earn revenue from subscription downloads or the lack of data and analytic tools when it comes to number of listeners and duration of plays. There are also poor sharing and promotion features for social media and the producers only have a single employee to contact when it comes to solving issues or working on promotions with iTunes.

Apple hasn’t made any promises for the podcast creators to hold them on but the representatives who were at that meeting then talked to iTunes chief Eddy Cue afterwards to relay the feedback. Cue said in a statement to the NY Times, “We have more people than ever focused on podcasting, including engineers, editors and programmers. Podcasts hold a special place with us at Apple.” We may or may not see changes soon. We’ll just have to wait.

Source: New York Times | Via: SlashGear

Spotify to bring video and podcasts to you soon

Whether you’ve been looking for video content or podcasts on Spotify or not, the music-streaming service is bringing the feature to you soon. The new plans were announced back in May but we seem to be getting a more definite timeline now. Spotify will start rolling out to Android app users this week with iOS users getting the new features by the end of next week. The company is testing it out in four markets initially—the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, and Germany. They have partnered with the likes of ESPN, Comedy Central, the BBC, Vice Media, and Maker Studios to bring these new formats into the apps.

According to Shiva Rajaraman, vice president for product at Spotify, the content will consist a lot of short clips but with a mix of original, music-themed series like what Tastemade plans to do on the platform. They wanted to keep these short and compartmentalized so you can check the programs out at different intervals. Think thematic videos like “News of the Week” or “Laughs at Lunch.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

Pocket Casts introduces Web player for podcasts

If you are looking to continue listening to podcasts while you’re on your desktop, Pocket Casts is making things easier for you with its new Web player. It syncs with the Android and iOS versions of the app, which means you can see the podcasts you’ve subscribed to. It also shows you what you’ve listened to and what’s in progress. Of course, it will help you find new things to listen to as well. The great thing about the Web player is it will pick up where you left off with the mobile apps. However, if you’re looking for more advanced features, you won’t find that there. Plus, you have to be willing to shell out US$9. You can try it out for free with the app’s 14-day free trial.

Source: Lifehacker