I don’t understand why articles like this get pushed out by the Podcast press as “new ideas”. Dynamic ad insertion has been around for YEARS now. Just because this guy at Spotify just discovered it, doesn’t mean other companies haven’t been doing this for years.  AND if you’re looking for the answer as to why independents are so fearful of bigger media companies coming in - it’s because of this vertical integration model where one company controls the creation, the hosting, the distribution and the monetization. How will the independent fit into that vertical if it doesn’t benefit the one company??? https://medium.com/301re/midroll-and-omny-finally-converge-f48c33370566 (https://medium.com/301re/midroll-and-omny-finally-converge-f48c33370566) New player to the game: Facebook?: “Audio services also seem ripe for disruption, the people said. The wealth of information that Facebook has on users from its News Feed could easily provide a personalized listening experience, they suggested.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/technology/facebook-npe-team.html?auth=login-facebook&login=facebook (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/technology/facebook-npe-team.html?auth=login-facebook&login=facebook) Is Google really focused on what is going to help podcasters find more audience? Is this really going to move the needle? http://www.insideradio.com/podcastnewsdaily/searching-podcasts-gets-easier-on-google-assistant-devices/article_6586e1f6-1aad-11ea-b2a4-63757c3dc23f.html (http://www.insideradio.com/podcastnewsdaily/searching-podcasts-gets-easier-on-google-assistant-devices/article_6586e1f6-1aad-11ea-b2a4-63757c3dc23f.html) Sponsor: Sleep with Me Podcast - https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com (https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/) The Strange History of Pogs - http://mentalfloss.com/article/54202/weird-history-pogs (http://mentalfloss.com/article/54202/weird-history-pogs) This is super interesting data re: Daily News Podcasts: https://rainnews.com/podspec-12022019-advertising-daily-news-podcasts/ (https://rainnews.com/podspec-12022019-advertising-daily-news-podcasts/) Pacific Content shows research that says podcasts are getting shorter, about 2mins shorter than last year...but there are weird spikes in their data that make me question their methods. Would add that split out via Apple categories is interesting to see that Tom Webster’s “highly polished crap” categories are the longest podcasts.: https://blog.pacific-content.com/podcast-episodes-got-shorter-in-2019-69e1f3b6c82f (https://blog.pacific-content.com/podcast-episodes-got-shorter-in-2019-69e1f3b6c82f)