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NEWS: 

• Spotify expands Podcast Subscriptions globally and now includes 20 price points from $0.50 to $150 and a way for creators to download subscribers' contact info  —  Just a few months after launching support for podcast subscriptions to U.S. creators, Spotify today is making the service available to creators in global markets.
  
  
• There are now more than 1,000 channels in Apple Podcasts. Podnews has discovered 293 paid subscription channels so far.
  
  
• Audiobooks are coming to Spotify - the company is to acquire Findaway, an audiobook distributor. Findaway will “enable Spotify to quickly scale its audiobook catalog”. It’s experimented with audiobooks before: adding classic books, and a bespoke category for spoken word. (There are already more than 3,900 audiobooks on Spotify).
  
  
• Medium is getting into audio, acquiring audio-based learning platform Knowable. Warren Shaeffer, co-founder of Knowable, will join Medium as the Vice President of Audio. (Evan Williams, Medium’s CEO, was co-founder of Odeo, an early podcast company.) 
  
  
• Oprah Winfrey was on Clubhouse, but only 23,000 people listened. 
  
  
• Meanwhile apps or logins are no longer required to listen on Spotify Greenroom. And - genuine question - has anyone heard from Mark Cuban's Fireside Chat recently? 
  
  
• The New York Times says that 'misleading covid-19 talk goes unchallenged’ on podcasts (and on radio). The article criticises iHeart, Spotify and Apple.
  
  
• Sounder has launched an “Audio Data Cloud”, which aims to analyse audio for advertisers to learn more about content of podcasts: including topic analysis, brand safety and automated summaries.

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