Whats up, everybody. I’m right here at present whereas Ariel is out. No, I’m not listening to Regular Gossip but, however I do have somebody in my life who will recount the episodes to me beat by beat. Final yr’s episode in regards to the sweater and the holiday sounds bonkers. (Slate really did an interview with the present’s producer, Alex Sujong Laughlin, about how they make the episodes so hooky; she describes the sweater as “form of like a totem for the episode,” which I discovered fascinating.)
Right now, extra fallout from funds cuts, TikTok continues to be making hits, and many fascinating podcast stats.
NPR cancels its fall fellowships, whereas Spotify retains its internships up
NPR made one other lower to a significant early profession program this week, canceling this fall’s Kroc Fellowships, which might have accepted three current graduates to a paid year-long program of “hands-on coaching in audio and digital journalism.” This system has run for 17 years, and NPR says lots of its former fellows proceed to work on the community and member stations.
“We perceive the significance of this program and the chance it offers for the subsequent era of journalists,” NPR spokesperson Isabel Lara tells Scorching Pod. “We hope to reinstate this system sooner or later.”
This system was canceled “to be able to tackle present monetary challenges,” Lara mentioned. This comes after NPR canceled its summer time internship program in December as a technique to tackle the $10 million in funds shortfalls the group is presently going through. The Kroc Fellowship program is “funded instantly out of NPR’s annual working funds and it isn’t instantly funded by distributions from the endowment” made by Joan B. Kroc, for whom this system is called, Lara mentioned.
Whereas three roles is just not essentially an enormous lower within the scheme of issues, NPR’s choice to chop internships and fellowships for 2023 will completely be damaging to the pipeline of expertise seeking to break into the audio business. NPR boasts on its internship web page that, as of June 2020, about 1 out of 6 of its workers got here by its internship program, together with some high expertise.
In a bizarre twist, Spotify appears to be taking the other strategy because it slashes prices: the corporate closed all full-time job openings as a part of its layoffs on Monday, excluding 26 summer time internships, which stay open, as famous by Podnews. The internships vary from information evaluation to engineering and product design.
– with reporting from Ariel Shapiro
TikTok continues to be making hits
I’d been questioning if TikTok’s hitmaking powers had fallen — it’s been some time because the platform blew an artist up as meaningfully as Lil Nas X or returned an album in as splashy a style as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours — however possibly these powers are simply getting extra dispersed. Stereogum noticed that Mac DeMarco’s 2019 track “Coronary heart To Coronary heart” debuted on the Billboard Scorching 100 this week, years after its unique launch. The explanation? TikTok, after all.
A brief melancholy clip from the track has been utilized in TikTok movies some 100,000 instances, with the highest 5 movies alone accounting for greater than 50 million views. The clips normally function two characters: one particular person feeling remoted, the opposite offering a significant second of recognition. It’s all very candy. Right here’s one about cats for all you cat folks. (And me, I’m sorry.)
TikTok has, after all, helped to propel loads of different songs: tracks like Harry Types’ “As It Was” and Lizzo’s “About Rattling Time” have been large in current months. However these artists have been already mega hitmakers — there’s no means they weren’t going to chart, and TikTok felt extra like a mirrored image of music tradition than its personal chamber of style and hitmaking. DeMarco is under no circumstances an unknown artist, however he’s very a lot taking part in in a unique league than Types. I don’t know that I could make sweeping predictions about the place TikTok’s tastemaking talents go subsequent, however I wouldn’t be stunned if mainstream artists proceed to crowd out a few of the area that helps smaller artists to chart.
One factor I’m discovering actually fascinating as compared: Netflix appears to have the ability to make songs go viral now. Final yr, it was Kate Bush by way of Stranger Issues. This yr, it’s Woman Gaga. Her 2011 track “Bloody Mary” hit the Billboard Scorching 100 earlier this month after showing in Wednesday.
Podcast downloads have been up 20 p.c in 2022
Right here’s some promising information: podcast downloads elevated by 20 p.c from 2021 to 2022, with listeners downloading a mean of 5.6 episodes per week. That’s in accordance with the brand new year-end podcast report from Triton Digital, which says a mean of three.8 hours of fabric is being downloaded per listener.
There’s a ton of fascinating stuff within the report, and I’d completely advocate giving it a learn — you’ll be able to scroll by it in only a few minutes. However listed below are a handful of highlights I discovered fascinating:
-94 p.c of podcast listening is occurring on cell. On the flip facet, sensible speaker listening has fallen by half since 2020. (To be truthful, we have been all caught inside, so I think about the numbers spiked.)
-Apple Podcasts accounts for practically 53 p.c of all downloads, remaining the undisputed obtain powerhouse.
–However downloads ≠ listeners, and Triton’s measurements present 3x extra listeners on Spotify than on Apple. These two companies mixed account for half of all podcast listeners, per the report. (The “downloads vs. listeners” debate round how adverts are offered is for certain to rage on.)
-Information, comedy, and true crime are the largest three genres for podcasts. However one draw back of stories reveals: their again catalogs get means much less traction than different classes. Absolutely half of downloads for “well being and health” pods come from their again catalog. That’s environment friendly!
-The highest 5 gross sales networks, by obtain, are Stitcher, NPR, Audacy, Wondery, and Cumulus.
That’s all for at present. Ariel can be again tomorrow.
Correction: Within the electronic mail, I initially wrote “downloads ≠ listens” and “greater than 3x listening” about Spotify vs. Apple. It must be “listeners.”
