<v James Cridland> An interview with Spotify's Maya Prohovnik: the latest from podnews.net with Soundstack, offering hosting companies more value for your podcasters. We start with an exclusive today. What is the future of podcasting in Spotify? Is video necessary for every show? Why is Spotify so successful and how important is OpenRSS to Spotify? We had questions for Spotify's VP of podcast product, Maya Prokhovnik, and she had answers. <v Maya Prohovnik> I think video is definitely worth considering because it can really, at this point, improve your ability to find new audiences and help deepen people's connection to you and your show. So if you're thinking about it, I would try it out, see if it works for you. <v James Cridland> You can read the full interview from a link in our show notes and in our newsletter at podnews.net. Her interview with us coincides with a new release of Spotify's Fan Study, which focuses on video podcasts. Again we've linked to that today. There's a bug in Apple Podcasts in iOS 18, which is marking shows as played when the user hasn't actually played them. Apple Podcasts tells Podnews that the company is aware of the issue, there's a fix coming in iOS 18.1. Axios has noticed the podcast capability in Google's notebook LM. It says "anthropomorphic tech will always wow us for a time at least, but these tricks quickly become first mundane and eventually dull and passe." The tool now works with YouTube videos as well. One in three Spotify users in Spain are listening to podcasts, says new data from the company shared at a recent Madrid event called Next in Podcasts "9 out of 10 users of video podcasts watch them in the foreground," says the data. More data from that in our show notes and our newsletter at podnews.net. Wondercraft now allows you to direct its AI voices, letting you change the voice's accent, tone and even merge voices together. Podcast app Overhaul FM is the latest to support creator-made podcast transcripts using OpenRSS, the company has communicated the good, the bad and the ugly as an update to users. They add "creating a podcast app is not easy." And sports podcast company BlueWire is partnering with NFL website The 33rd Team, adding a further 11 podcasts to the network. And in podcast news in the ASIcast this week, I talked to ASI's research director Richard Marks about how I got started with the daily email global briefing on developments in podcasting and on-demand audio, and the major trends in podcasting and in audio more generally. I'll be speaking at this year's ASI International Radio and Audio Conference in Venice on November 6th. The Times tech podcast is new today, it's a new weekly global podcast that dives deep into the latest trends and innovation in technology from The Times and The Sunday Times in the UK. The Body Collective is new this week from Lemonada Media and Weight Watchers, it's co-hosted by four people. Bodge and Kate have a lot on their plate, it's a new podcast from UK celebrity Kate Lawler and her husband Bodge, and it combines food, family life and at times full-on chaos. It launched yesterday, debuting high in Apple Podcasts, it's produced by Podmasters and is with ACAST. First Question with Katie Couric returns for a new season today, produced by I Heart Podcasts. The first guests are journalist, political analyst and New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, and author and journalist Liz Plank. More political experts and cultural commentators are promised later this season. And self-described as Hollywood's coolest podcast, Are We On Air isn't just a podcast, it's Hollywood storytelling at its finest, they say. This podcast is sponsored by Soundstack. If you're a podcast hosting platform and you want to offer your podcasters more value, well adding monetization, delivery and more from Soundstack is super simple. Soundstack means more ads filled, keeping your podcasters growing and happy. You can find out more in the link in our show notes. And that's the latest from our newsletter. To read all the stories and subscribe, we're at podnews.net.