New Chapters for Apple Podcasts and Travis Kelce
Hello! Clara here, Neil’s off working in the U S of A and the throuple have let me at another newsletter. Greetings from a freezing London, I’m sitting here with two jumpers and the heating on. But what I do love about the change of season is number one: Gravy. I always feel too weird having a roast when it’s roasting outside. Now I can make up for all that time lost by filling my Yorkshire puds with gravy. Number two is telly. There’s such pressure of summer to be social outside, to read in the park or go to a Lido. But now, I trade all of that in for some trash TV. Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating is my current guilty pleasure. Watching a guy called Septimus act the entire ‘Not me, not Hermoine, yooooou’ Harry Potter scene on a date with pop icon Jamelia, filled my soul with so much joy for mindless telly.
Beavis and Butthead
It was announced that Amazon’s Wondery network had signed Superbowl superheroes Travis and Jason Kelce’s ‘New Heights’ podcast for a whopping $100 million 3-year deal, making it one of the most lucrative deals in podcasting history.
Podcasts are now listened to by 183 million Americans and the access to that sheer volume of audience is also reflected in Alex Cooper’s ‘Call Her Daddy’ $125 million deal with SiriusXM and ‘Armchair Expert’ Dax Sheppard’s $80 million deal with Wondery.?
Just to be super cynical, but ‘New Heights’ probably has Travis’ girlfriend to thank for their rise. While the lads enjoyed success with the podcast when it launched back in 2022, now that Travis and Taylor Swift have reached stratospheric levels of fame – I can’t help but think that a lot of their audience must be Swifties tuning in for the Taylor goss more than any NFL insights.?
Regardless of how I feel about ‘Tayvis’ it’s a good example of how podcasting is used to push boundaries and be a part of an integrated media plan. ‘New Heights’ will sit amongst NFL broadcasts and Travis’ new game show “Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” on Amazon Prime Video, with lots of cross promotion across the platforms. Seriously synergetic!
Apple Podcasts
It wouldn't be September if Apple didn't release a new operating system. iOS 18 arrives next week, and Apple Podcasts are getting some updates. Much like how YouTube uses markers, Apple Podcasts will now have chapters, and they will be linked in the episode description so you can easily scoot through episodes and find content. They’ve improved their search experience (finally!), and you can now also share a ‘time stamped link’. What does that mean? Well, now you can share from a specific moment of an episode so your pal jumps straight into the conversation. While all rather subtle changes to the platform, they are much needed and very welcome.
AI Podcast
To help you study, you can now use AI to create ‘lively’ podcasts using Google’s NotebookLM app. You fire all your research into the app, then it generates a podcast with two AI hosts. The bots will “summarize your material, make connections between topics, and banter back and forth”. It’s to help you engage with your notes and revise better. Listen to a podcast instead of blankly staring at a textbook? Honestly, kids these days have it so easy!
Our recommends this week are..
领英推荐
Beckie Bird questions her brain...
“Dangerous Memories” is an investigative, documentary-style podcast produced by Tortoise Media. The strange yet addictive series follows a group of young, affluent women, each grappling with their own mental health struggles, who turn to "healer and life coach" Anne Craig for guidance. Despite being recommended by various women in the creative and art world, there is something more sinister about the relationships that develop. Anne becomes controlling and gradually dominates the lives of these women, eventually causing them to cut ties with their families and friends. ? The podcast series revisits these events through interviews with three young women who were manipulated into believing false memories. Host Grace Hughes-Hallet explores whether it’s truly possible to implant memories by consulting with experts. The result is a fascinating, albeit unnerving, listen. ? Questions arise regarding Anne’s motivation. Is it a coincidence that many of these women come from wealthy families, some with royal connections? Or does she genuinely believe her methods are helping them? These questions remain unanswered, and I doubt they ever will be. I appreciated how the real-life stories unfolded, with each episode provoking new questions and offering plenty of food for thought. If I had to be critical, there were a few unedited silences that left me reaching for my phone, thinking it had paused. Additionally, the host’s delivery felt a bit slow at times, though that might just be my TikTok-conditioned brain struggling to maintain focus! ? Overall, Dangerous Memories is a captivating listen about women whose lives were profoundly impacted by one person’s influence for many years. It provides an unsettling glimpse into the power dynamics at play between Anne and her followers, raising important questions about trust, control, and the vulnerability of those seeking help. ?
Martin Poyntz-Roberts isn't feeling Blue this Monday...?
Finally, series 2 is here. At the end of the last series a singer named Ian Curtis had just committed suicide on the eve of his band’s first tour of America. ? This is the true story of the greatest rock and roll band, the greatest electronic band ever?to walk the planet. And if you disagree, I’m sorry (not sorry), but you’re wrong. ? The series begins with New Order rising from the dead soul of Joy Division, and their journey towards becoming electronic pioneers. The band travel to New York to work with legendary producer, Arthur Baker and find themselves thrust into the NYC club scene, all flamboyant white jumpsuits and club gear, about as far from the dark trench-coat doom of the rain-soaked streets of Manchester. Once you’re experienced that, how do you ever go back? They sign to Quincy Jones’ label, Quest, and off they go… ? Episode 2 has just landed, and if you don’t enjoy tales of excess, deviance and incredible music, then check you even have a pulse. You may well be dead.
What have we been listening to this week?
Literally any podcast that has dissected the Harris vs Trump debate. I’m requoting Alastair Campbell to family, paraphrasing Emily Matlis to friends and chanting ‘They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets’ down the aisles at Sainsburys. In an absurd 90mins, you had one candidate prepared and calm and the other petulant and belligerent. While the theatre of American politics is addictive. I found myself suddenly at saturation. So, I quickly turned the dial to another member of the Campbell clan and fellow podcaster Grace Campbell and her show Late To The Party for a different type of party politics.
What have we been doing this week?
Watching Bridesmaids. Maybe because I’m getting married in two months, maybe it was my tender Sunday state after going to a wedding, but this rewatch hit different. Not only is it a lol a minute, but the reason it resonates with so many girlies, is that it confronts the effect marriage has on female friendships.?
In marking my matrimony, I’ve been marvelling at the sisterhood that surrounds me. From our nostalgia to our new futures ahead, I just can’t figure out if I feel lucky or unlucky that one of my bridesmaids didn’t hallucinate on a plane to Vegas screaming ‘I’m reeeeaaaaadddyyy to paaaarrrrrtaaaaay’.