After three years at Stitcher, Drew Welborn is returning to where his career began. He has rejoined the talent agency William Morris Endeavor. He becomes a digital talent agent for WME. Welborn joins from Stitcher where he most recently was VP-Head of Programming and Development. Prior to joining Stitcher in 2018, Welborn was an agent at the Billions Group. Prior to that he was an agent at UTA. The Hollywood Reporter says Welborn started his career as a talent agent in the WME mailroom.
Blubrry says it plans to roll out a new statistics platform for its users by year-end. “I have asked the team to bring tools and resources to the platform to provide tangible service and insights that will help you grow your podcast,” CEO Todd Cochrane says in a blog post to the hosting company’s users. Cochrane says it is the latest move in a two-year effort inside the company to make its products and services easier to use. The new statistics platform will be introduced in a series of updates that he says will extend into next year. “And while these will make everyone in the industry sit back and say, ‘wow,’ it is only the beginning of what we have planned to help you grow your shows,” Cochrane teased.
Wolf Entertainment’s Dark Woods scripted podcast is set for a television adaptation. Deadline reports Universal Television is developing the series for the small screen. Its sister company has previously adapted Dr. Death and Dirty John for television. The Dark Woods podcast stars Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Ant-Man), Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire), and Reid Scott (Veep). The fictional story tells about what happens when the body of a young volunteer is discovered in the middle of the California redwoods. Wolf Entertainment is the production company of famed TV producer Dick Wolf.
Pod1 is a new link in bio service created specifically for podcasters. It says it will create a landing page from a podcast RSS feed that a creator can then add other links to. A syncing feature will automatically showcase the latest episode. Pod1 says videos can also be embedded directly onto a profile and feature recent episodes. All links are tracked, alongside views and plays with Pod1 making several charts available to users.
The Berlin-based short form audio platform Beams that allows people to share voice recordings and listen on the go says it has raised a total of $6 million in seed funding, half of which was raised in recent months in a round led by U.S.-based TheVentureCity along with angel investors including Kal Vepuri and Elan Lee. It also received additional cash from Redalpine, Mangrove Capital Partners, and Wavemaker Partners. “We couldn't be more excited as we truly believe this is the time to innovate in the short-form audio space,” the company said in the announcement. Beams was founded last year by former Spotify, Soundcloud, and N26 employees. It enters an increasingly crowded space that also includes Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and Spotify’s Greenroom, among others.