Sponsored by Central Talent Booking. The Guests Your Podcast Needs - From celebrities to experts, Central Talent Booking connects you with the right guests to captivate your listeners. Learn more.

• More attention to retention will be one of the trends in podcasting in 2025, says the founder of Pod Houston, Ozeal Debastos in his yearly prediction piece for Podnews. He also predicts an audience-centric shift in the forthcoming year.
• In December, total overall podcast downloads on Buzzsprout were down 14% year-on-year. However, we’d not worry; both Spotify and Apple showed increases in download share; and we covered a few days ago that the total number of podcasts being updated is up 2.5% year-on-year. (And, if you’re getting plays on YouTube, or uploading video to Spotify, those plays never get back to your podcast host anyway.)
• From the archives: in February 2021, our Editor wrote a personal blog about “how to get another billion podcast listeners”. It reflects the fact that, while data costs are low for many in Western countries, that isn’t the case in developing countries, particularly South Africa, where at the time mobile data cost 23x the cost of the US. (To download an episode of This American Life on your mobile would have cost you the equivalent of $3.52).
  • An old article here on Podnews compares audio quality at different bitrates and filesizes. Or this page from NPR is a fun quiz. Marc Maron was once a 40kbps MP3 file; many NPR shows were 64kbps. The reason almost everyone uses 128kbps? Dynamic Audio Insertion, DAI. As Acast says: “In order for ads to be stitched into your audio file, the podcast audio files need to match the encoding of the ad audio file, and the ads are encoded at 128kbps MP3.”

Read more of today’s podcast industry news stories on the Podnews website: and get our free daily newsletter.

Classifieds - your job or ad here

• Listen to Podcast Launch Tips 🚀 — Optimize your podcast launch with tips and strategies from a full time podcaster with over 1 million downloads. New episodes every Monday wherever you enjoy listening to your podcasts.🔥🎧🔥
• 🎅 Last Chance: Podcast Movement Sale Ends TONIGHT — The Podcast Movement Evolutions Holiday Sale ends tonight! Grab your ticket now to lock in the best price of the season. Don’t wait—prices go up at midnight. Save big before it’s too late!

Gold supporters: Buzzsprout, Mowpod, Mamamia, The $100 MBA, The Podglomerate, Sounds Profitable, audioBoom, Podscribe, Audiohook, Steve Lack: Audio, Cohost, SALT, Simplecast, RedCircle, Resound, Riverside.fm, Jar Audio, Podchaser, Awesound, Evergreen Podcasts, Disctopia, Acast, Libsyn, Podpage websites, Knucklehead Media Group, We Edit Podcasts

Silver supporters: Storic Media, Audacia Audio, Bumper, PodLabs - Podcast Experimentatio, Magellan AI, Jonekiri, The Roost, Compliance Podcast Network, Frequency, Ask Ralph Christian Finance, Truefans, Red Seat Ventures, Ausha, Tink Media, Storyboard, ARN's iHeartPodcast Network Aust, Gilded Audio, Gumball, POW PR, Cloud10, Deepcast Creator, The Podcast Haven, Podium , PlayPodcast, Huberman Lab, Voxtopica, SoundStack, Podcastpage, Message Heard, Health Podcast Network, Sonic Influencer Marketing, Transistor, Ossa Collective, Blubrry, Rhapsody Voices, Oxford Road, Double Elvis Productions, Diversion Podcasts, Rephonic, Castos, Optimal Living Daily, matchmaker.fm, Wondery, Heartcast Media50, Jam Street Media, Headliner, Lemonada Media, Zvook, Podcast Taxi, Content10x, StreamGuys, Podcast Partnership, Hear.Here.Singapore, Ad Results Media, Cleanfeed, She Podcasts, Podigy, Lower Street, Revolver Podcasts, Adopter Media, Sonix, Podcast Movement, School of Podcasting, Signal Hill Insights, Edison Research

Our personal supporters: Eric Montgomery, Amy Woods, John, Armel, Oludotun Oyebolu, Mikel Ellcessor, Gene Monterastelli, Ed Sullivan, Lindsay Graham, Neil Mody, David Lloyd, Steven Goldstein, Matt Wade, tony@virtualcouch.xyz, Mirko Lagonegro, Andy Maher, Kara Silverman, Eric Hunley, Owen Grover, Liz Covart, Justin Jackson, Karen Jackson, CESLIE Armstrong, Mike R, Søren Hugger Møller, Josh Withers, Michael Dell, Eric Nuzum, Benjamin Masse, Brett Johnson, Mark Ramsey, Helene Pawlitzki, Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy, Steve Stewart, Pete Morgan, Stew Redwine, Meggan Ellingboe, Alicia Mackey Huber, Rekha Murthy, Jody Avirgan, Mohammad Ali, Joe Stone, ShEvo (Sheila Dee & Evo Terra), Buzz Knight, Stephanie Arakelian, Kerry Donahue, Tony Garcia, We Are Libertarians, Jaz Garewal, Don MacKinnon, Graeme Klass, Suzanne Schultz, Joanne Phillips, Lex Friedman, Dave Beasing, Jeremy McCarter, EarBuds Podcast Collective, Andy Bowers, Mary Dooe, Paul Vogelzang, Vanessa Harris, Charles Spivey, Niall Mackay, Brandon Schexnayder, Courtney Reimer, Tom Teodorczuk, Ken Beyer, Sam Phelps, Doug Downs, Joe Tannorella, Jenn Leask, Jeremie Mani (Podcasthon.org), Jennifer Henczel, Larry Rosin, Andi, Stacey Goers, Bryan Barletta, Gavin, Bubbe Ann Schockett, Darius Derakshan, Stefano Mangone, Dave Campbell, Cindy Howes, Chris Peterson, TWRS, Anastasia Violet Lipske, Gee Padilla

Our supporters pay for Podnews, so everyone can access. Join them today.

Image: Jason Leung