Apple Podcasts grows in Japan nine times faster than average
Apple is using fresh figures to show that Apple Podcasts is growing fast in Japan. The numbers arrived with the launch of its Creators We Love program there.
Japan outpaces the global rate
According to Apple Podcasts, listener growth in Japan is running nine times growing nine times faster than worldwide, and both audience and plays are up by double digits. New Japanese show launches on the platform are up 70% year on year. More than four in five new shows come from independent and non-traditional creators.
Apple is marking the launch with a free event next Friday that features two of the country's biggest shows.
Shure's spatial microphone shows up at the FCC
Shure is about to launch a spatial audio microphone called the MV360P. Its FCC filing reveals a rechargeable microphone with a built-in SD card that supports "360 degree sound." An app lets users tune the sound after recording.
RØDE is also close to a launch, according to an FCC application. The NTH-50 Wireless is a Bluetooth take on the NTH-50 headphones the company already sells. Per the quick-start guide, it comes with an app and takes phone calls. It also works wired, over a 3.5mm cable or directly through USB-C.
Nomono opens its speech tools
Nomono has added an API and an MCP Server so anyone can use the speech-processing technology behind Nomono Studio. The tool isolates and cleans voices to broadcast standards and follows people when they move. It also works with other hardware, not only the Nomono Sound Capsule.
A map of Brazilian podcasts
In Brazil, researchers at Rio de Janeiro State University built a narrative podcast map covering more than 200 podcasts across the country. Users can search by the narrated territory, meaning where a show is about, and by the production territory, meaning where it is made.
Podnews describes it as a manual version of what the podcast:location tag in open RSS makes possible. The podcast radar built on that open data currently lists 17,632 podcasts around the world.
Source: Podnews