James Cridland

Amazon to Shut Down Wondery Podcast Studio, Reorganize Audio Business As podcasting becomes video-oriented, Amazon is shuffling Wondery into Audible and a new “creator services” team while cutting approximately 110 staff members

Amazon to close Wondery. 110 people to lose their jobs, including Jen Sergeant.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Time to Kiis goodbye in Brisbane? How about Gold 97.3? Or even Gold 97.3 4KQ?

Perhaps #Brisbane might escape Kyle & Jackie O after all - I think there’s an obvious thing for ARN to do in this #radio market, and it’s to bring back a known brand, but on FM this time, with “Gold 97.3 4KQ”.

james.cridland.net/blog/2025/fe...

They’re not in the app. They are listed as hyperlinks hidden in the audio FAQs, which open a web page. You’ll not find them in the app’s search or anything else. A hidden link is not “in the app” in my definition!

Hi, Kate. If you used it in the UK in the past 30 days, it should have worked just fine. Mine lets me stream OK from Australia, and I only “visited” the UK once for ten seconds last week.

Make sure it’s updated in your App Store, and I bet it’ll work for you next time.

Today, I've learnt the Danish for "A note to remind myself of something" - a word we don't really have in English. Thank you!

How to listen to BBC Radio outside the UK If you're a fan of BBC Radio 4, or BBC Radio 2, or even BBC Radio Leeds, here's how to listen

Just published: How to listen to BBC Radio overseas

And, some FAQs answered, and why they shut it down in the first place.

Most interestingly, I learn: 4.8mn people a week use BBC Sounds inside the UK. Just 320,000 people a week used BBC Sounds outside the UK.

james.cridland.net/blog/2025/ho...

That's nice to hear. Did they have me on there as well?

So - no evidence that “triple j thought the Bee Gees weren’t Australian”. You’re just a bit salty that they weren’t in the chart.

Everyone could vote. Even you. Perhaps your inability to spell the Bee Gees was part of that - or, perhaps, that the band isn’t really played that much these days.

I don’t actually have an issue with Dead to Me being delayed release.

The News Quiz being on delayed release is farcical, mind you!

There are very few shows on delayed release in this way.

Any evidence for that Bee Gees story? Or is it just that they weren’t in the list?

Crowded House were formed in Melbourne and the majority of the founding members of the band were Australian. Nick Seymour was born in Benalla, Victoria.

@james.crid.land ouch about the 28 delay in podcasts

ID checks in UK and Australia to listen to podcasts Spotify and YouTube may have to ask for ID checks before you listen

Trouble ahead for podcasters - Spotify now needs ID checks in the UK if you're marking your shows "explicit", meanwhile YouTube (even YouTube Music) is to be banned in Australia.

Oh, I appear to be juxtaposing stories of data leaks and VPNs. And, of course, this image.

podnews.net/update/id-ch...

Yes, that sounded good. Here's that statement.

podcast.voice.api.bbci.co.uk/rss/audio/p0... - this is the RSS feed of the podcast.

Seems that as long as you have accessed from a UK IP address in the past 30 days, BBC Sounds magically works. It’s working fine on my phone after I spent two minutes on a UK VPN.

The BBC app has no access to any on-demand content. That is a podcast.

This is why Today isn’t available on-demand - or PM - because neither are available as a podcast: just on-demand.

You can also see this by trying to follow on-demand links on the UK website - they kick you to a .com 404 page.

With respect, if you run the wrong app store for your location, that isn’t the BBC’s fault - and you will have plenty of complicated issues.

It isn’t available on-demand. It remains not available on-demand.

It has been available as a podcast for years.

The BBC app has live radio, and podcasts. That’s all. No catchup radio at all (partially because they monetise podcasts, and don’t monetise catchup radio).

Agree. They can use TuneIn, Apple Music, or many other apps.

But the listener confusion of having the BBC app available in the UK would be massive; and since it contains ads wouldn’t be allowed anyway. If you’re running the “wrong” App Store for your country, tough, I think. Sorry.

I think that there are only a very small set of delayed podcasts now. Most of those are available via BBC Premium Podcasts (the pay-for Apple Podcasts subscription).

As for #2 - massive confusion would ensue. You can listen through the web anyway - the BBC app is almost entirely a web wrapper.

My daughter is a massive fan of YouTube Music, which we pay for. Um…

Meanwhile, in Australia, the government has just banned YouTube for anyone under 16.

Feedback Listen to the film audio show Feedback from BBC Radio 4 in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Overcast and other podcast apps

Just interviewed for Feedback (tomorrow 3.30pm on BBC Radio 4, and podcast), talking about the good reasons for the BBC Sounds switchoff internationally, the messy, not-good replacement of it by the BBC app, and what happens next. Let's see what got past the edit!

podnews.net/podcast/iasfq

This is AMAZING. Wow. If it did DAB as well...

Wow, so the BBC app doesn’t even work with a subscription? Genius!

ABC Radio Brisbane celebrates 100 years on-air And the BBC switches BBC Sounds

Fun to be with the ABC for their 100th birthday in Brisbane. My Radioland newsletter links to more on that, plus a radio group using AI voices and more on the BBC Sounds app.

james.cridland.net/blog/2025/ab...

A LinkedIn post claiming Podnews reported some impressive industry figures. I wondered why I hadn’t made them a lead story.

I looked in Podnews, but didn’t find them.

I should be flattered that AI is hallucinating Podnews stories, but I can’t help but wonder what that means for my credibility.

Thanks for reporting. Yes, I agree. @auphonic.bsky.social (or Buzzsprout's tools) are not moving the chapter points after removing the filler words. Reporting as a bug to Buzzsprout.

Apple Music's new AI auto mix: examples It's mostly brilliant, mostly. And occasionally terrible.

Apple Music has a new segue-thing that mixes songs together. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's terrible. Here's some audio so you can hear it working (or not!)

james.cridland.net/blog/2025/ap...

It appears to load fine, then there’s a pause while something else loads, and then chucks you out. My work-around (show it a UK IP address via a VPN once) seems to continue to work. I guess if you’ve ever used a UK IP address with your BBC account in the last thirty days it’ll work?