It’s gradual at the moment in podcast world, however there’s excessive drama occurring in podcast-adjacent spheres. Immediately, Twitter hamstrings Substack, and Pandora fails to show there’s a comedy cartel. Let’s get into it.
Twitter goes after Substack now
It’s at all times one thing, proper? Final night time, studies began rising that Substack customers who tried to embed tweets of their tales had been unable to take action. Immediately, customers on Twitter discovered that they might not retweet, like, or reply to tweets that hyperlink to Substack. Whereas persons are discovering some workarounds, the change makes Twitter just about unusable for Substack creators, who’ve come to depend on the platform to share tales and construct readership.
It’s the most recent strike by Twitter CEO Elon Musk towards the media and a stunning one at that. Musk usually reserves his ire for mainstream shops like The New York Instances and NPR, each of which he just lately kneecapped on the platform. However the Substack factor seems to be linked to his fixation on competitors fairly than crucial protection. Musk has not but commented on the state of affairs, however the transfer towards Substack and its creators seems to be in retaliation for Substack’s introduction of a Twitter-esque characteristic referred to as Notes.
“We’re disillusioned that Twitter has chosen to limit writers’ means to share their work,” Substack founders Chris Finest, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Seth stated in an announcement to The Verge. “Their livelihoods shouldn’t be tied to platforms the place they don’t personal their relationship with their viewers, and the place the foundations can change on a whim.”
For higher or worse (and proper now, it’s for worse), Substack is inextricably tied to Twitter. A lot of its prime creators had been in a position to construct their Substack followings by constructing massive Twitter followings. And Substack has ambitions to change into for podcasters what it has been for impartial writers. Final 12 months, the corporate made a giant present of bringing over a few of Patreon’s prime podcasters and launched an audio intensive. I wouldn’t say that Substack is consuming Patreon’s lunch at this level, but it surely has change into sufficient of a presence in podcasting that these audio creators will really feel the damage from this transfer by Twitter, as effectively.
I might hope that Musk just isn’t in a position to have the impact he desires to, however Substack is reportedly on financially shaky floor as it’s. After spending closely on expertise contracts, the corporate introduced in adverse income in 2021, in line with The Data. Nevertheless, the corporate maintains that this excessive spend was momentary.
“Within the interval 2020 to 2022, we centered on progress. Specifically, throughout this era we made aggressive investments to amass writers who had massive readerships so we might kickstart the expansion of the Substack community. This effort introduced tens of tens of millions of readers into the system,” Substack spokesperson Helen Tobin informed Scorching Pod in an announcement. “We anticipate this community, now rising below its personal steam, to make sure that our revenues proceed to develop and provides Substack buyer retention benefits in a aggressive market.”
Whether or not it could actually proceed to develop with out Twitter’s attain stays to be seen. As for creators (each audio and never), they could be compelled to choose between Substack and one of many many different e-newsletter platforms on the market — till Musk finds a motive to go after these, as effectively.
Pandora loses this spherical towards the comedians
As you would possibly recall, SiriusXM-owned streamer Pandora is in the midst of a messy lawsuit with a lot of high-profile comedians, together with Lewis Black and George Lopez. The comedians allege that Pandora streamed their comedy albums with out acquiring the right licensing for the albums’ underlying content material (in any other case often called publishing rights). Pandora tried to strike again by accusing the comedians and the rights administration organizations that symbolize them of forming an anti-competitive cartel. This week, a federal decide dismissed Pandora’s countersuit.
Pandora argued that as a result of the rights administration organizations Phrase Collections and Spoken Giants symbolize “must-have” content material from comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan, they had been trying to kind a monopoly. The decide disagreed. “Saying a defendant has market energy as a result of they management licensing rights for a gaggle of well-liked comedians, with out extra, is barely barely higher than saying the defendant has market energy as a result of they management licensing rights for a gaggle of humorous comedians,” he wrote. “Each statements might very effectively be true, however neither is adequate to state a monopolization declare.”
Okay, so, why must you care? Primarily as a result of now that this countersuit is out of the best way, it clears the trail for comedians to forge forward with their copyright go well with. That go well with relies on the concept the licensing requirements utilized by the music world — through which a chunk of music accommodates two completely different copyrights, one for the recording and one for the underlying composition — ought to apply to spoken phrase audio, as effectively. Comedy albums are maybe probably the most analogous to music, however the precept might probably be utilized to different types of spoken-word audio content material, similar to podcasts. (It’s not a coincidence that Spoken Giants represents podcasters, as effectively).
If Pandora is ordered to pay for back-royalties to the comedians, it can set a precedent for different audio streamers. And if that very same precept is utilized to podcasts, it might essentially change the economics of how podcasts operate on streamers and the way podcasters receives a commission. However (and this can be a huge however), it can take some time for this to play out within the courts.
I’m out. Have an excellent weekend.
