Sirius acquisition of Pandora

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/24/siriusxm-to-buy-pandora-in-all-stock-deal-valued-at-3point5-billion.html

This may a big deal with big impact on the streaming audio and podcasting space. Back in January, I had written a comparison of the two companies, noting that SiriusXM had already started to invest in Pandora:

http://shashonpod.blogspot.com/2018/01/whats-in-pandoras-podcast-box.html

I'll have some more thoughts on what this may mean later.

#samedayplays

This entry is more like a few listening recommendations than observations about the podcasting medium and business, but it’s been some time, and this inspired me to write. As a comprehensive and extensive podcast listener, it’s a rarity for me when a new podcast episode drops that is so compelling that I have to listen to it on the same day it appears. Marc Maron’s WTF has had two just about a month apart recently.

Seeing that Jay Leno appeared on August 6, I had to listen that same day. The prospect of Leno being interviewed by Maron, a candid but fair host with an ingrained stake in comedy as an art form and a business, about the slings and arrows Leno has taken from the comedy community, struck me instantly as likely to be compelling.

The episode didn’t disappoint. Maron related his own discomfort at appearing on Leno’s “Tonight Show” in the introduction to the interview, and how Leno chatted with him backstage before that taping, knowing that Maron, especially as a frequent Conan O’Brien guest, might have issues with him. Maron was genial and respectful with Leno, to get the ball rolling, and ended up covering ground about Leno’s past, and great stories, like Leno getting a reaction out of a largely incapacitated Rodney Dangerfield in the hospital before he died.

At the same time, Maron pulled no punches about Leno’s controversial fractures with Letterman and Conan, but again, in a respectful way, getting Leno’s side of these stories in a way no one has heard before.

And it looks like Maron has another #samedayplay in store, with a Paul McCartney interview that just dropped today, September 6.

The only other closest thing to a #samedayplay right now that I can think of might be dependent on your interest in politics and history. That’s the new second season of “Slow Burn,” about the Clinton impeachment (the first season covered Nixon and Watergate). A documentary podcast that drops weekly, like “Slow Burn,” can become a #samedayplay if you happen to be getting into it right as it’s premiering from week to week. And “Slow Burn” is uncovering new wrinkles of the Clinton impeachment story that most people haven’t heard before.