NEW YORK CITY — Top podcast listening service Stitcher has launched a lineup of original podcast programming, with a handful of popular shows joining together to form a new network. Shows on the new Stitcher network are available for free everywhere listeners access podcasts, including iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Soundcloud and Stitcher itself, and are supported through advertising.

The offering is part of Stitcher’s long-term strategy to build a robust library of content that is free and supported by advertising to complement its subscription-based offering, Stitcher Premium.

Stitcher’s inaugural lineup includes listener favorites:

• “Katie Couric” features the award-winning journalist and TV personality and co-host Brian Goldsmith in candid, unscripted conversations with some of the biggest names in news, politics and pop culture. Recent interviews include Dan Taberski, creator of hit podcast “Missing Richard Simmons”; entrepreneur Tony Robbins; actor Alec Baldwin; and comedian Samantha Bee. “Katie Couric” joins Stitcher from Earwolf.

• Top food podcast “The Sporkful,” a long-running series hosted by Dan Pashman, launches as a Stitcher show on April 17. “The Sporkful” isn’t for foodies, it’s for eaters. Each week, Pashman talks with entertainers and regular folks about food and, in the process, learns more about them as people. Past guests have included Rosie Perez, Amy Sedaris, Jim Gaffigan, Alton Brown and Margaret Cho. The podcast was recently nominated for a James Beard Award and a Webby Award.

In new episodes, Pashman talks to actor Kumail Nanjiani about why he thinks all Islamophobes should try Pakistani food; recreates Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks’ pancakes recipe; explores the science of taste memory at the new Broadway production of “Sweeney Todd”; and tracks down a famous sandwich shop in Aleppo, Syria. Listen to the trailer at sporkful.com/stitcher.

• Documentary filmmaker Tally Abecassis launched the second season of “First Day Back,” a serialized, non-fiction show about coming back from something that changes you, on April 11. In the new season, Abecassis unfolds the story of Lucie Paquette and Gerry Madaire, lovebirds who were together for 13 years, until the fall of 2010, when she shot and killed him. Abecassis follows Paquette after her release from prison as she reconnects with family, gets a job and deals with the emotional aftermath of Madaire’s death.

• “The Longest Shortest Time,” the award-winning parenting show for everyone, is also making the move to Stitcher from Earwolf. Host Hillary Frank takes a broad view of parenting, examining topics ranging from birth stories to parents’ relationships with grown children and adults’ decisions on whether or not to even have children. The podcast, which has been named a “best of” by TIME, The Atlantic and Slate, is back with new shows on April 12, with an episode featuring actor and comedian Rob Huebel talking about his daughter’s 117-day stay in the NICU after being born nearly four months early. This season also has Frank diving into issues including the pressure of dating with the purpose of finding the father of your children; the rising trend of egg freezing; and multi-cultural parenting.

• Season two of “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know,” a live-journalism game show hosted by Stephen J. Dubner, author of the “Freakonomics” books and creator of “Freakonomics Radio.”

Stitcher also has several new series in the pipeline, including an as-yet-untitled reading podcast with actor LeVar Burton (of “Roots,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Reading Rainbow”).

“We want people to think of Stitcher as not only a great listening platform but also a home for a rich offering of original audio programming,” said Jenny Radelet, executive producer of original content for Stitcher. “We’ve already produced almost 50 original shows available exclusively on Stitcher Premium. Expanding our roster to include free, ad-supported shows felt like the next logical step.”

“Creating new content under the Stitcher brand helps us do a couple of important things: continue to serve Earwolf listeners the best comedy shows in podcasting; and create a new destination for well-produced programming of all kinds — journalism, smart talk shows and investigative reporting,” said Chris Bannon, chief content officer for Midroll.

With the addition of the Stitcher network, Midroll now represents 300 shows for advertising, including over 40 that are owned-and-operated. Contact Midroll for more information about advertising opportunities.

STITCHER LAUNCHES SLATE OF ORIGINAL PODCASTS was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dear Stitcher Listeners,

I am thrilled to introduce Stitcher Premium. It’s a great new way for Stitcher listeners to access top-notch, truly premium audio content that you won’t find anywhere else.

With this service you get access to hundreds of hours of original, exclusive and ad-free shows, curated especially for people who love podcasts. You get it all right in the same Stitcher app you already know and love.

Stitcher Premium is the place to find critically acclaimed and cutting-edge podcasts starring top talent. It’s the audio equivalent of peak TV from HBO or Netflix.

There’s the tense football drama “FRUIT,” produced by Issa Rae, the breakout star and creator of HBO’s “Insecure.” The New York Times and the producers of “Welcome to Night Vale” agree that the atomic era noir “A Night Called Tomorrow,” created by and starring James Urbaniak (“Venture Bros.,” “Difficult People”), is one of the top fiction podcasts. Fans of Monty Python will love the madcap comedy adventure of “The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium,” starring Jemaine Clement from “The Flight of the Conchords.” And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Stitcher Premium is home to the entire archive of all Earwolf shows, from chart-topping favorites “Comedy Bang! Bang!” and “How Did This Get Made?,” to deep cuts, such as “U Talking U2 to Me?” (with U2 as actual guests!) and “The Andy Daly Podcast Project.” Plus hear every single episode of “WTF with Marc Maron,” including essential interviews that defined podcasting, with personalities like Robin Williams, Louis CK, and President Barack Obama.

On top of that Stitcher Premium has more than 120 albums from Aziz Ansari, Maria Bamford, Kevin Hart, and more. Plus, hear exclusive bonus episodes from chart-topping shows, from the improv comedy of Superego to the insightful “Game of Thrones” analysis of “Game of Owns.”

New shows and episodes are added every single single week, so you’ll never run out of funny, informative, moving and thrilling audio.

Stitcher Premium is only $4.99 a month, and there’s nothing new to install. All these great shows are available right in Stitcher when you subscribe.

At $34.99 an annual subscription to Stitcher Premium is the best deal, saving you 40% off the monthly price.

You can take Stitcher Premium for a test ride now. Get a 1-week free trial when you sign up for a monthly plan, or get a one month free trial with an annual plan (seriously, this is our best deal).

I’m really certain that you’ll love Stitcher Premium. But I also want you to know that the free Stitcher service isn’t going anywhere. We’re grateful for the support of every Stitcher listener and we want you to know that we’ll continue to offer the best podcast listening platform, with a ton of new stuff in store for 2017. Stitcher will always have an enormous selection of free podcasts, and the app will stay free, as well.

I’m very excited for you to try Stitcher Premium, and I’d love to know what you think. Send us your feedback, including what types of shows and features you’d like to see added in the future, to: feedback@stitcher.com

Thanks,

Todd Pringle
Stitcher General Manager

Introducing Stitcher Premium was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At Stitcher, we do our best to help you discover and listen to the latest news, sports, and entertainment — anytime, anywhere. With more than 65,000 shows to choose from, Stitcher helps you stay connected, informed, and entertained.

More than 65,000 shows. That’s a lot of shows! That’s why we’re excited about NPR’s newest podcast, The Big Listen. There are podcasts about how to make a podcast. Then there’s The Big Listen, which is about as meta as a podcast can get: it’s a podcast about podcasts.

It’s actually already in its second season; last season was originally produced by affiliate station WAMU in the D.C. area before NPR picked it up for national distribution. Each week, host Lauren Ober offers up a generous serving of “podcast delights,” introducing you to hosts you may or may not already know, helping you discover more of the tens of thousands of quality shows out there today (and available for listening right here on Stitcher!).

As they succinctly put it, “The Big Listen helps you curate your perfect playlist.” What’s great is if you’re listening to the show on Stitcher (and your hands are free), you can look up show recommendations and save those that pique your interest in real time.

Episodes 1–6 are available now. Take a listen and tell them what you think: @hearbiglisten & @oberandout (feel free to tell us, too: @stitcher)

Or leave them a voice message with your podcast recommendations:
202–885-POD1

Happy listening!

It’s a podcast about podcasts: The Big Listen from NPR was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Own an Amazon Echo yet? If you don’t, you should — it’s an amazing device for your home that responds to your voice and does everything from play music to turn on your lights. We’re big fans at Stitcher and are excited to announce that you can now add Stitcher to your Flash Briefing news summary!

The Flash Briefing feature lets you ask your Echo “What’s the news today?” and have it respond with headline news from a variety of sources — now including Stitcher! To add Stitcher to your Flash Briefing:

1. Open Amazon’s Echo app Alexa on your phone and select “Settings”

2. From the Settings screen, tap “Flash Briefing”

3. At the top of the Flash Briefing settings screen, select “Get more Flash Briefing content”

4. On the Flash Briefing content screen, either scroll to find Stitcher or use the search box at the top of the screen. Tap Stitcher.

5. On the Stitcher skill page, tap “Enable Skill” and you’re done!

Next time you ask Alexa for the news you’ll hear headlines from premier sources like NPR, USA Today, Associated Press and more, similar to those you currently see on your Front Page in the Stitcher app, updated multiple times per day!

If you want to send us feedback on how it’s working for you, have suggestions for the type of content you’d like to hear in Flash Briefing or anything else, shoot us an email at support@stitcher.com.

Enjoy!

Stitcher is now available for the Amazon Echo! was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For the past 43 weeks, the Washington Post’s Presidential podcast has chronologically featured each president of the United States, leading right up to this year’s main event — the general election. Host Lillian Cunningham, editor of The Washington Post’s On Leadership section, set out to explore how our nation’s previous presidents have “confronted decisions, handled crises and redefined the role of commander-in-chief.”

In this week’s episode, political strategist David Axelrod and biographer David Maraniss examine President Barack Obama’s search for identity — and how that quest has paralleled America’s own complex reckoning with race.

Listen to the episode on Stitcher.

Be sure to tune in on November 9th, when Presidential releases a much-anticipated final episode.

Presidential from the Washington Post: Barack Obama, our nation, and race was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

More Serial

How the music of Serial was created

In this episode of Slate’s Spoiler Special series on Serial, music composer Mark Phillips talks about his creative process and composing the music for Serial.

stitc.hr/1xb1ZEz

An Interview with Sarah Koenig on Slate’s The Gist

On The Gist, Mike Pesca asks Sarah Koenig about reporting on a story without knowing the end.

http://stitc.hr/1vZJ1tV

Slate’s Spoiler Special

Slate’s Spoiler Specials are not reviews of current movies, but “postviews” — audio critiques meant to be played AFTER you’ve seen the film. Movie critic Dana Stevens leads discussions of twist endings, plot holes, and other secrets you won’t read in the reviews. It’s the kind of discussion you have with friends as you’re leaving the theater. Slate dedicated a series of episodes to Serial.

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/slates-spoiler-specials-14530

Serially Obsessed — an unofficial podcast about Serial

A former criminal prosecutor, a public radio producer, and a hardcore skeptic who perform comedy together sit down to talk about their obsession with the podcast Serial. Every Serially Obsessed episode focuses on an individual episode of Serial.

www.stitcher.com/podcast/serially-obsessed

More Crime

Criminal

Criminal is a podcast about crime. Not so much the “if it bleeds, it leads,” kind of crime. Something a little more complex. Stories of people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, and/or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.

www.stitcher.com/podcast/criminal

The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio

Crime fiction was once a popular genre on radio. Dive into the best crime radio stories from ‘40s and ‘50s.

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-great-detectives-of-old-time-radio-podcast

More true stories

The Moth

True stories told live. The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Moth shows are renowned for the great range of human & social experiences they showcase. Each week, The Moth podcast features the best of the stories told live from Moth stages across the country and delivers them in this beautiful radio program, available on demand in Stitcher’s Society & Culture station.

www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-moth-podcast

Snap Judgement

Snap Judgment is a hot new show from NPR Radio that showcases the raw opinions and storytelling skills of Public Radio Talent Quest winner Glynn Washington.

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/snap-judgment-npr/npr-snap-judgment-podcast/

Radio Diaries

First-person diaries, sound portraits, and hidden chapters of history from Peabody Award-winning producer Joe Richman and the Radio Diaries team. From teenagers to octogenarians, prisoners to prison guards, bra saleswomen to lighthouse keepers. The extraordinary stories of ordinary life. Radio Diaries is a proud member of PRX’s Radiotopia network.

www.stitcher.com/podcast/npr-radio-diaries-podcast

Storycorps

StoryCorps is a national nonprofit that records the stories of everyday people and preserves them at the Library of Congress. Hosts Michael Garofalo and Nadia Reiman share stories and conversations from StoryCorps’ recording booths. Updated weekly.

www.stitcher.com/podcast/storycorps-podcast

10 amazing shows and audio stories to listen to now that Serial is over was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When the team at This American Life announced they were going to produce a new, digital-only show, we knew it would be successful. On Stitcher we see the benefits of audience cross-pollination in seeding new shows with an initial set of listeners. With This American Life’s new venture Serial, we knew the team could tap into their large digital and terrestrial audience to give their first spin-off a lot of listening from the start. However, Serial’s success has exceeded any expectation imaginable. The show climbed to the top of the Stitcher List quickly and continues to crush each week’s audience numbers with steady, strong growth. We decided to dig into data, hoping to expose consumption patterns specific to Serial. For instance, we found most of the listening happens within the first two days of each episode’s release — which confirms how addictive the show is.

But the most interesting behavior we noticed is the rate at which listeners binge on episodes. We compared Serial listening to similar shows, and the results mimicked the way many people consume popular television shows.

Binge Listening: Moving Beyond Television

According to Netflix, 76 percent of TV streamers say watching multiple episodes of a great TV show is a welcome refuge from their busy lives. We looked at three shows and measured how people listened to each program’s initial six episodes to assess how many episodes people consumed in a single day. Six episodes in, 21 percent of Serial’s listening behavior matched our definition of binge listening. As a point of comparison, Alex Blumberg’s new StartUp Podcast, which is also serialized, saw 12 percent of listeners binge. Looking at non-serialized shows like WNYC’s Death Sex and Money, bingeing behavior drops to only three percent of listeners. Serial is proving that podcasts listeners are just as inclined to binge on episodic radio shows than on TV series.

So what makes Serial so binge-worthy? There’s obviously the high caliber of production and journalism that the TAL team brings to the show. But we think it’s a combination of Serial’s true crime subject matter, serialized storytelling format, and television-like length and frequency that together have made Serial the most successful show on Stitcher. These are ingredients for success we believe other audio producers can learn from.

Subject Matter: Bringing Crime’s Mass Appeal to Audio

Serial’s execution is gripping, mostly thanks to the genius storytelling of This American Life’s production team, but also the combination of two universally appealing frames: a high school drama and a real-life murder mystery. Sarah Koenig tells the true story of a pretty, popular female student who was allegedly strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend. Serial is Koenig’s investigation of whether Adnan Syed, the convicted murderer, actually committed the crime for which he is currently serving a lifetime prison sentence.

Crime has alway been an addictive genre across all media; Americans have been obsessed with crime and prison culture in TV, movies and literature for decades. Crime-related television programming like NCIS and Criminal Minds regularly find a place on primetime TV’s top rated shows. Services like Hulu and Netflix have also taken on creating their own original programming geared toward drama and crime loving viewers. But in audio, nobody has taken advantage of the genre’s mass appeal. On Stitcher, there are very few crime focused programs and none of them have appeared on the Stitcher top 100 list.

Telling a Story, Serially: Following in the Footsteps of Great Entertainment

Serialized storytelling isn’t something that has been widely tried in the audio space in recent years. Radio drama once ruled the airwaves, but disappeared with the advent of television. Since the invention of the podcast, there has been some experimentation with a serialized episode format, but none have really broken through; less than three shows in Stitcher’s top 100 list followed this storytelling model before Serial was released this fall. Many shows have had underlying themes that carried episode to episode but almost none followed just one story.

Serial’s success using this format suggests the long-form, episodic story consumption that has driven the success of TV shows such as The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones works for podcasts as well. The Serial team tapped into this consumption trend both from a storytelling perspective and from a marketing standpoint, making its episodic structure a major element of its communication around Serial by noting the story is “told week by week” in its tag line and at the beginning of every single episode.

Length and Frequency: Tapping into Existing Media Consumption Habits

Another show that has seen success in using a serial format but hasn’t had quite the same mass appeal is Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. In one set of serialized storytelling, Carlin’s four-part Blueprint for Armageddon episodes saw week over week listening numbers climb like Serial’s.

However, one thing that may have prevented it from quite as big mass appeal is episode length. Each episode was over 90 minutes long, which based on Stitcher research can often be intimidating length of time for to new listeners to commit to. Serial’s episodes average around 42 minutes, which allows it a lower barrier to entry for new listeners as it takes about the same time to watch a TV show with similar content. Also, the frequency of Carlin’s Hardcore History episodes isn’t weekly. Serial listeners are accustomed to a weekly release at the same time and day of week, which allows for an easier habitual behavior in consumption to occur and keeps the show in front of people’s memory. It also allows for anticipation to build and discussion to happen weekly. Fan groups know their excitement will be fed in a specific time frame and which is shared and builds inside of digital communities; another important factor in the show’s success.

Serial’s success has to do with many things: exceptional storytelling, a gripping true crime story, and a smart narrative structure that leaves its audience desperate to hear more. While each story calls for a specific format and narrative structure, there are a number of elements podcasts producers can leverage to increase engagement on their shows. Serial, for instance, forces people to listen to every single episode of the show in order to understand the story. What’s most exciting about Serial’s success is the fruition of an idea we always thought to be true here at Stitcher: audio has the potential to be just as appealing as more mainstream mediums like television.

Binge Listening is the New Black was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today, we are excited to announce that podcast industry leader Midroll Media is acquiring Stitcher. We think it’s a perfect fit that together will equal much more than the sum of its parts.

For those unfamiliar, Midroll is a podcast production company and advertising network that is changing the face of digital audio. It’s a company we at Stitcher know well and have been impressed with over the years. It is the parent company of the Earwolf network and its top-ranked comedy podcasts; the Howl premium subscription service, available at howl.fm and via apps for iOS and Android; and the Midroll advertising network, representing over 200 of the world’s largest podcasts. With offices in Los Angeles and New York City, Midroll was founded in 2010 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company.

We are looking forward to joining the Midroll family, combining its leadership in great audio storytelling and advertising with our consumer product and development expertise. We’ve got some great things in store.

For Stitcher listeners, it’s business as usual. You’ll continue to have access to the world’s best audio through our apps and we are excited about innovations we have planned for you this year. For our advertisers and content partners, we look forward to sharing an expanded portfolio of opportunities to help you reach the audiences you’re seeking. Stay tuned!

Questions? Reach out to us at info@stitcher.com.

Read the full story here.

Stitcher is now part of Midroll! was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today we’re excited to announce that Stitcher is CarPlay enabled! We were honored to be selected by Apple as a launch partner and have been working diligently with them to complete the development process. CarPlay support is now available as an update to Stitcher in the App Store — you can download it here or on your iOS device.

CarPlay is supported currently in some Pioneer aftermarket stereos (and in new Ferraris if you are lucky enough to have purchased one recently) and is coming soon to a variety of new cars — you can learn more about it and see which auto manufacturers have committed to delivering CarPlay on the Apple website here. It’s easy to use and will feel very familiar to any iOS user (and Stitcher listener!).

Adding CarPlay to our supported platforms, which include over 50 models from Ford, GM, BMW, MINI, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, Volvo and more, is a big step in our automotive integration plans and we hope you’ll be able to give it a spin soon in your CarPlay enabled vehicle!

Stitcher, Now Available for Apple CarPlay was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From Stitcher to Deezer, Our Journey was originally published in Stitcher Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.