Optional Out – from AdExchanger’s Optimizing the News
YouTube has announced a new setting that will allow creators to opt into having their content used for AI model training. According to TechCrunch coverage, the new setting in the creator dashboard includes a list of 18 companies partnered with YouTube to train their generative AI models, including Adobe, Amazon, Anthropic, and OpenAI. Given the trend of platforms quietly launching AI scraping as an opt-out feature, this YouTube feature reportedly requiring conscious opt-in is a welcome change.
$1,000 for listing a podcast: examining Licensync by James Cridland
A deep dive into the actions of Licensync, a company in Italy sending multi-thousand dollar invoices to podcast directories for listing six Italian podcasts. Podcasts which are already openly available. Cridland lays out the details of the company’s scheme, how that’s not how podcasting works, and calls for a trade association to tackle issues like this as an industry. Beyond that, though, the existence of this piece proves what has been built with Podnews: a way for journalists to hold bad actors accountable and bring visibility to what they’re doing. This isn’t the first time Podnews has covered a bad actor, but it is a fresh example why Sounds Profitable is a sponsor of Podnews and why we encourage others to subscribe and consider becoming a financial supporter. With support, journalists like Cridland can continue tackling important work in the industry.
Coverage of influencer agencies branching out into the world of talent management, as well as developing AI tools and connected TV integrations to attract existing talent managers and brands into signing more deals with their signed talent. As generalized influencer agencies become talent management, podcast networks will likely feel similar pressure as the industry grows. In a world where anything and everything can be a podcast, networks will benefit from doing talent management and getting their hosts out in the world beyond their existing audience.
As for the rest of the news…
- Lower Street’s Brand Podcast Summit, a free virtual event on January 14th and 15th, will feature an exclusive debut of Signal Hill Insights’ 2025 Branded Podcast Benchmark Report.
- AI-powered podcast discovery platform DeepCast has secured additional investment from Automattic and Idealab.
- Magellan AI has published their top podcast advertisers chart for November 2024, featuring Etsy, Uncommon Goods, and Bartesian as the three biggest ‘movers and shakers’ in podcast ad spend last month.
- Podcasts have cemented themselves as part of the talk show circuit when promoting movies, such as Timothée Chalamet appearing on Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend in an interview facilitated by Central Talent Booking.
- Podimo has published a report tracking 2024’s global trends in podcasting and audiobooks.
- Dear Media is putting on a Let’s Be Honest live tour of four major cities in March.
