A really joyful holidays to you all! The information is sluggish, and the meals is fried. I made the very best latkes of my life (of anybody’s life?) this weekend and likewise ate 4 Peter Pan jelly donuts within the span of 24 hours. It actually is essentially the most great time of 12 months.

On that be aware, now we have a modified Hot Pod schedule for the subsequent two weeks. We’ll have a Thursday situation for HP Insiders and be off Friday. Next week, we’ll solely be publishing on Wednesday. And I’m not saying that I hope you don’t learn any of them, however I do hope you’re taking some well-deserved time with family members and away from the web.

Today, Spotify flirts with an Anchor rebrand, and Angela Merkel loves true crime. Who knew?

Anchor could also be getting a rebrand

Spotify merely loves a consumer survey, and this time, it’s about the way forward for Anchor. According to a report from TechCrunch, a survey was despatched out to contributors within the Spotify for Podcasters program proposing bringing its options and Anchor’s beneath the identical umbrella.

The survey contained a pattern announcement, which mentioned: “Anchor and Spotify for Podcasters are now Spotify Creator Studio, the all-in-one platform for creators of all kinds (and sizes) to express themselves and find success on Spotify.”

Spotify acquired podcast host Anchor in 2019, and it has been a key software for build up the platform’s podcast library of 4.7 million shows. It is the place lots of Spotify’s novice exhibits begin out, with occasional success on the charts. But Anchor, which has lengthy been the highest podcast host out there, is starting to slip. In November, 21.6 p.c of all podcasts have been created on Anchor. That nonetheless places it far forward of the runner-up (Buzzsprout, which captured 9 p.c of all podcasts created), however that’s down from its almost 26 p.c market share in April. Spotify for Podcasters, in the meantime, gives stats (together with a Wrapped) for customers who add their podcasts to Spotify with one other host, similar to Buzzsprout or Libsyn.

The proposed new setup would break the customers down into primarily the 2 similar teams: “unhosted” (fka Spotify for Podcasters) and “hosted” (fka Anchor). It doesn’t appear as if a lot would change. Unhosted customers would get some stats and have the ability to publish Q&As and polls, that are presently solely obtainable to Anchor customers. Hosted customers would preserve the core instruments of Anchor — creation of podcasts and video podcasts, dynamic promoting, and subscriptions.

So if little is functionally altering, why rebrand in any respect? It is actually cleaner to have Spotify’s foremost podcast software bear the corporate’s title. Maybe it additionally creates a clearer pathway to lure podcasters who use outdoors podcast hosts. I additionally suspect that branding everybody beneath the Spotify Creator Studio will permit extra room for creativity when offering stats on the podcast enterprise.

Either manner, it could not occur any time quickly — or in any respect (we’re nonetheless ready on HiFi, y’all!). “At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of surveys and tests in an effort to improve our user experience,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement to Hot Pod. “Some of these end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning. We have no news to share on future plans at this time.”

Music startup Duetti is constructing a catalog for the TikTok period

Blockbuster catalog offers could have slowed in latest months, however the streaming period has revealed the lengthy (and generally surprising) lifetime of songs. Janko Roettgers wrote for The Verge a few startup based by former Tidal executives that’s snapping up the rights to older songs which have the potential to explode on TikTok and Spotify.

“The proposition: Duetti will buy the rights to songs that it has identified as already performing well on streaming services,”  Roettgers wrote. “The company then further milks those songs with the help of playlists, influencer partnerships, and other forms of optimization and, over time, buys rights to additional songs from artists it partners with.”

We have seen the method again and again with previous songs discovering new life, like with Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” But whereas many catalog offers have centered on songs that have been at all times iconic, Duetti is utilizing information to establish deep cuts which have potential to explode. Roettgers’ piece is an effective have a look at how streaming is altering the music panorama and redefining what it means to be successful. 

Angela Merkel makes uncommon public look on true-crime podcast

Angela Merkel has stored a reasonably low profile since stepping down as chief of the free world, however she has emerged to visitor on German podcast Are we Talking about Murder? This is a chaotic selection, and I like that for her.

That’s all for now! See you subsequent week.