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* [Apple plans to make its own exclusive podcasts](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-16/apple-plans-to-bankroll-original-podcasts-to-fend-off-rivals). Bloomberg reports that Apple has "reached out to media companies to discuss buying exclusive rights to podcasts". It's initially unclear what this means for the iTunes API that many other podcast apps use, or, indeed, for Android users.
* For an indication as to how important podcasting is for competitor Spotify's investors, their stock price [fell by 3%](https://www.businessinsider.com.au/spotify-stock-price-reaction-to-reports-of-apple-original-podcasts-2019-7?r=US&IR=T) following the news.

* The folks behind [Single File](https://podnews.net/podcast/1423453445) have released their podcast as... [a cassette](https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/ce41w5/a_first_of_its_kind_we_released_a_podcast_episode/). In the comments, we learn many others have been released as a "USB tape", a USB key that [looks like a cassette](https://audiobooksontape.com/).

* US sports network [ESPN is to launch a morning podcast](https://podnews.net/press-release/espn-daily); it's to start in early October. The company have also said that their podcast users have grown 10% year-on-year.

* A minority shareholder of Libsyn says it has succeeded in forcing the company to [convene a special meeting](https://www.secinfo.com/d14D5a.y5U36.htm). Camac, which owns 6.5% of Libsyn, wants to replace the board of directors and change the company's corporate governance. Shares in Libsyn closed [up almost 5%](https://www.google.com/search?q=libsyn+stock+value) yesterday on the news, at a five year high. (Don't worry, though - people called Rob are expected not to be affected by this news).
* Libsyn has released a new version of their software (update 419). It only impacts those starting new podcasts, and is aimed to help those users.

* Jack Rhysider has published [four ways to check the popularity of a podcast](https://lime.link/blog/4-ways-to-check-the-popularity-of-a-podcast/). One trick is to use Castbox, he says, which shows both total subscribers _and_ total downloads of a podcast.
* As an aside, Castbox lets you claim your podcast, and add your social media and other links to it. [Here's us](https://castbox.fm/channel/id1110410). Search for your podcast and hit the "claim" button.

* Spotted - [pocinaudio](http://pocinaudio.com/about), a searchable database of people in colour involved in the audio industry.

* [Podyssey has announced a new curated playlists feature](https://medium.com/podyssey/you-told-us-we-listened-announcing-curated-playlist-a0f4b6cde9f6). "Now you can simply share your Podyssey profile with friends and they can see all your different lists!"

* [Will increasing your bitrate mean more listeners?](http://podcast411.libsyn.com/will-increasing-your-bit-rate-equal-more-listeners) Libsyn's Rob Walch wrote a piece back in 2016, backed by data, and mentioned in [The Feed](https://podnews.net/podcast/668413144) this week. Surprisingly, Rob points out that [WTF](https://podnews.net/podcast/329875043) with Marc Maron is encoded at just 40kbps (at a sample rate of 22.05kHz).
* From earlier this year, we published [a page with lots of different bitrates and sample rates](https://podnews.net/article/audio-quality-comparisons), so you can hear - or not - the difference.

* [Southern California Public Radio has launched LAist Studios](https://podnews.net/press-release/laist-studios), which "will focus on developing podcasts on issues specific to Los Angeles" CA, USA.

* Anchor has written [how listeners can support podcasts by their friends and family](https://medium.com/anchor/how-to-support-the-podcaster-in-your-life-aa07e0152ed7) - a