Spotify: unskippable ads for them, skipped ads for us?

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• Exclusive: A few weeks ago, Podnews broke the story that Spotify is testing a "Skip ahead" ad-skipping tool for some customers. Perhaps making the most of its dominant market position, today we note that Spotify is selling its own unskippable podcast ads; and we discover that its terms and conditions gives Spotify the legal right to automatically skip everyone else's.
• The Ambies are open for entry from today. There are two new categories - best music and episode of the year - and there will be two listener's choice awards, for Best Podcast Host and Podcast of the Year. You get a discount if you're a member of The Podcast Academy.
• The New York Times focused on Inception Point AI in a front-page article in its Arts section about AI influencers. However this publicity comes at an odd time: because it appears that Inception Point AI has been rebranded as Liquify AI, "the company behind Liquid Studios". The company's new website suggests that the Quiet Please Podcast network "was never the destination", just "proof that content infrastructure works at this scale". They're now offering the same technology to other companies.
  • Technology like yesterday's episode of Jay Shetty's Biography Flash podcast - which still says it's published by Inception Point AI - gives an AI-generated error in the episode audio: "I did not find a clearly verified major personal life announcement from the past few days, and I did not see a confirmed high impact scandal or break in his public image in the material reviewed ... nothing in the gathered reporting rises above ordinary promotional noise or can be treated as confirmed biographical news."

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