How to do the deadlift exercise.

Technology to aid you in living a blue zone lifestyle, a long and healthy life.

Taking the right vitamins depends on your liffestyle and the enviroment you live in.

Healthy lifestyle tips to help you save money and improve your finances.

Right types of foods to eat depeniding on the type of exercise workout being done.

Four different protein foods you should include in your everyday meals, daily diet.

Daily decisions and lifestyle activity choices to improve your overall health and well being.

Find out how you can lead a happy and healthy life by managing diabetes.

Learn how to improve and achieve happiness in your life with these suggestions.

Regardless of activity or sport, young athletes are vulnerable to overworking their bodies and dropping the ball on recovery.

Ways to improve your well-being and health with these suggested lifestyle tips for a healthier body and healthy life.

Deciding on a perfect-fit yoga mat for your practice can be a difficult decision given the options. Here are a few things to consider, such as thickness, texture, material, and yoga styles.

Pickleball is taking the country by storm; luckily, a real storm doesn’t have to keep you from playing. Learn the difference between playing inside and outside.

Effective ways of achieving sustainable and significant weight loss by prioritizing whole foods and balanced nutrition, regular exercise and physical activity, medical support, and sustainable habits.

Options to enable you to lose weight and improve your health using medical weight loss procedures, methods that are science-based and custom-made to meet your exact specifications.

Determining the right life alert device for seniors or disabled individuals who live alone, have mobility issues, or have chronic medical conditions to ensure safety, independence and peace of mind.

One of the strangest things you’ll find in this industry is what we call ‘account reps’. These are folks who are hired by companies to promote their websites. They’ll come at you via email or ICQ or through your blogs, they dont care. sometimes they’re evil However every so often you’ll [...]

Meanwhile, the biggest advantage management holds up for growing podcasts is improved engagement on the platform. But since Spotify doesn't disclose average time spent per user on its platform, investors may be left guessing how the company is doing. So, what is the best indication of whether or not the podcast investments are paying off?

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As 2019 moves to a close, Spotify is giving its yearly version of the personalized Spotify Wrapped, as well as a unique one that showcases your listening records through the last decade.

That indicates your Wrapped will add the songs, artists, albums, and podcasts you found on Spotify in 2019, plus the artists you streamed across the past decade, by a My Decade Wrapped option.

Spotify Wrapped extends to add your favorite music from the decade, plus podcaster metrics

Spotify, the Swedish music and audio streaming giant, has extended its reach further into the growing podcast market with its formal acquisition of the Ringer, a US sports and pop culture platform.

Although Spotify announced the acquisition at the beginning of this month, more details of the deal emerged this week in a filing with the Security and Exchange Commission.

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Spotifys continued investment in podcasts appears to be paying off, after the company reported that podcast listening has increased by 200 percent year-on-year in its fourth quarter earnings today. The company says it now has over 700,000 podcasts on its platform, and that over 16 percent of its users now listen to podcasts. Spotify says the amount of users paying for its premium tier increased to 124 million.

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Like so many people throughout the country, we at NPR's Student Podcast Challenge are working from home right now. And after months of teaching students how to make a homemade podcast, we put our skills to the test: The latest episode of our podcast was recorded from our bedrooms.


Host/producer Lauren Migaki recorded a podcast from her home/pillow fort studio.

We used pillow forts (just like in our how-to video!), bulky headphones and special, professional-grade microphones. But don't let the equipment discourage you — with just a couple tweaks you can use essentially the same setup: Replace the headphones with earbuds, and the mics with a mobile device like a cell phone or tablet, and you are ready to go!

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In the wake of a seismic deal in the podcast industry that will see top host Joe Rogan bring his show exclusively to Spotify for a reported $100 million, Apple — which will lose distribution of Rogan’s show come 2021 — is revamping its own podcast approach.

According to Bloomberg, Apple — an early distribution platform for podcasts that is also the largest hub for the medium stateside — is now seeking an executive to lead development of original audio series. The exec would report to Ben Crave, Apple’s head of podcasting.

Over the last 18 months, Spotify has been pushing to expand its platform from a music-streaming service to all types of audio. Podcasting has been a major focus, and led CEO Daniel Ek to acquire companies like Gimlet, Anchor, Parcast, and The Ringer, as well as sign exclusive contracts with big names like the Obamas.

Spotifys latest deal could accelerate the growth of its podcast audience. The Joe Rogan Experience is coming to Spotify, and will be exclusive to the platform by the end of the year. That is a big blow to Apple, which sports the most popular podcast listening app.

After Spotifys recent string of podcasting deals, it is kind of weird to see a podcast acquisition where Spotify is not involved. E.W. Scripps has been shopping around its Stitcher podcast platform for a couple of weeks, and it looks like it found a buyer in SiriusXM.

Sirius will pay around $300 million for the unit. That is a hefty return for Scripps. It originally bought Stitcher in 2016 for $4.5 million, combining it with its $50 million Midroll Media acquisition from the year before.

Still, $300 million is a good deal for the premium podcast platform, a specialized podcast advertising network doing sales for over 300 podcasts, and the owner of two podcast content networks, Earwolf and Stitcher Podcasts.

That compares to Spotifys acquisition of The Ringer earlier this year, for which it reportedly paid between $141 million to $196 million.

Spotify on Wednesday said its monthly active user count reached 299 million in the most recent quarter ending June 30. That is an increase of 29 percent year-over-year and brings the streaming giant just shy of that 300 million MAU milestone.

Taking a closer look, we see that Spotify finished the second quarter with 138 million premium (paying) subscribers, up 27 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. The company said its Family Plan continues to be a big driver of performance and further plugged the expansion of its new Premium Duo subscription offering for couples.

Spotify has leaned heavily into its foray into podcasts and rolling out features and announcements at a pretty swift clip. Last week, the company announced it is introducing video podcasts to the mix with support for multitasking, meaning you can continue to listen to a video podcast uninterrupted while doing other things on your device. And earlier this week, Spotify announced support for simultaneous podcast and listening streaming for Premium users and up to five friends—a hot tool right now in the streaming service world as well, as many of us are distanced from friends and family.

This week Amazon announced the launch of a podcast service integrated with Amazon Music, along with a slate of exclusive celebrity-driven shows. After nipping around the edges of podcasting in its Audible audiobook subsidiary for a few years, Amazon is jumping into the market—with its competitive sights set squarely on Spotify. Amazon’s emulation of Spotify’s podcast model has implications for the future of podcasting as a business.

Spotify started moving into podcasts about five years ago. This was the first phase of a campaign to diversify its business beyond music, reducing its exposure to competition from much larger companies that do not depend on music as a single input good.

The COVID-19 restrictions that many countries had to endure forced many people to seek alternative forms of entertainment. One such form is podcasting which has grown in popularity over recent years. According to the most recent financial reports, Spotify reported that 21% of the monthly active users (MUA) have engaged in at least one podcast in the past month.  Data presented by Stockapps.com breaks down the rise of podcasting.

Spotify Records 5% Increase in Podcast Engagement between Q4 of 2019 and Q2 of 2020

The Joe Rogan Experience – the title of Rogans podcast, was the highest-earning podcast of 2019 with revenue of $30M. In September 2020, Joe Rogan officially began his podcasting contract with media giants Spotify, which will eventually see his entire library of content migrate to the platform. The deal is reported to be over $100M.

Spotify has been expanding its podcasts catalogue as they continue to see strong growth in that particular segment. The rate of consumption of podcasts has been growing by triple-digit percentage numbers for the last few years. In Q4 of 2019 16% of Spotifys monthly active users engage in podcast content, by Q2 2020 that number had jumped to 21%.

On Tuesday, Spotify, the audio streaming behemoth, announced another acquisition. It struck a deal to buy Megaphone, a podcast ad tech company that works with thousands of content publishers, including Disney and Spotify itself. The $235 million purchase positions the Swedish company to become a dominant player in the podcast advertising business.

The deal with Megaphone is just the most recent example of Spotifys aggressive expansion into podcasting through a rapid string of acquisitions. In 2019, it purchased the premiere podcast production network, Gimlet Media, and later snapped up Parcast, which specializes in true crime shows, and bought The Ringer, a media company focused on sports and pop culture.

Podcast-listening has skyrocketed over the past couple of years. In fact, it’s quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing mediums, with forecasts predicting the number of podcast users to exceed 160 million by 2023.

Do you have a niche?
Podcasts that focus on a specific niche or subject matter tend to perform better and garner more regular listeners than those covering broad topics.

Do you have the time?
Although the best podcasts come off as being off-the-cuff conversations, the truth is that a lot of time and commitment are involved in bringing them to life.

Do you want to raise your profile or make money?
Podcasts can be great tools for raising your thought leadership profile, but if monetization is your primary goal, you will probably want to invest your time and money somewhere else.

Spotifys $100 million-plus Anchor acquisition is seemingly paying off. In data released today as part of its annual Wrapped look-back on the year, the company says Anchor, which makes podcast creation software, powered 80 percent of new podcasts on Spotify this year, meaning the software contributed more than 1 million shows to Spotify’s catalog in 2020 alone. Overall, Anchor powers 70 percent of Spotifys total podcast catalog, or around 1.3 million out of over 1.9 million shows.

Spotifys $100 million-plus Anchor acquisition is seemingly paying off. In data released today as part of its annual Wrapped look-back on the year, the company says Anchor, which makes podcast creation software, powered 80 percent of new podcasts on Spotify this year, meaning the software contributed more than 1 million shows to Spotifys catalog in 2020 alone. Overall, Anchor powers 70 percent of Spotifys total podcast catalog, or around 1.3 million out of over 1.9 million shows.

Anchor-hosted shows account for more consumption of third-party podcast content on Spotify than any other podcast hosting or distribution provider
Spotify says Anchor’s top five markets in 2020, by total number of shows, were the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Great Britain. In Indonesia, Spotify signed nine shows to become exclusives. Meanwhile, the fastest-growing markets, looking at the average monthly increase in new shows, are India, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Indonesia. India accounts for nearly 40,000 Anchor-made shows and has been growing at an average of 22 percent month-over-month increase in 2020.

Podcasts exploded in 2020. People created nearly 900,000 new podcasts last year, according to Chartable, and hungry listeners couldn't get enough. Listenership in the U.S. grew 90%, and it grew even faster in other countries tracked by the podcast measurement company.

One thing that stood out in Chartables data is how dominant Spotify has become, thanks to its strategic podcasting acquisitions. And despite the ongoing consolidation in the industry, it may have built an insurmountable lead in most areas of podcasting from the creative, advertising, and listening sides of the equation.

Every year at this time, Edison Research and Triton Digital publish the results of a study called The Infinite Dial that tracks the use of digital audio and related media in the United States. It’s a study that dates back over 20 years—it got its name from the digital radio that was introduced at that time—and is well-respected for the rigor and consistency of its methodology. This year’s study shows how the pandemic has changed digital audio consumption habits. It also shows a few surprises in the streaming music sweepstakes.

The 2021 Infinite Dial results show that the use of online audio—including digital radio, AM/FM internet streams, podcasts, and music services—has plateaued at 68% of Americans ages 12 and up. But there are clear winners and losers, and they don’t merely reflect pandemic-related factors such as people staying at home.

One big winner is podcasting. Growth in podcast listenership shows no signs of tapering off, as monthly listenership continues its linear growth path to 41% penetration, up from 37% in 2020. Growth is particularly high in the 12-34 age bracket, more than half of whom now listen to podcasts regularly (while the 35-54 bracket levels off around 40%). Podcast listenership is also getting more racially diverse, with nonwhite listeners now at 43%, up from 37% last year.

For those of us who are iPhone users, I asked Jimmy Atkinson at Edu-Tastic to share a list similar to the one I posted for you yesterday but for the iPhone. Here it is! (The link to the webpage is: http://toponlineuniversityreviews.com/2009/25-essential-free-iphone-apps-for-lifelong-learners/

by Miranda on July 14, 2009

11. Speeek!: Contains over 1,500 useful phrases while traveling overseas. By simply talking into your iPhone in English, Speeek! will find the phrase and speak it in Chinese.
12. Events Finder: Provides events from multiple event sources, such as Upcoming, Eventbrite, and TicketStumbler, all in one application.
13. iSayHello: Speak German, English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish or Polish. Choose your language course and off you go with the language travel guide. This easy-to-use talking travel dictionary with superb audio output is more of a vocabulary trainer and dictionary than a translation program.
14. New York on Tap: New York on Tap was designed to help people find great bars in New York City. It’ll also help you locate the nearest subway and help you figure out where to go next.
15. Payless Car Rental: Rent a Car using your iPhone. Travelers can view, modify, or cancel their reservation using the iPhone. "Call to Book" button connects the customer directly to Payless Car Rental’s call center.
16. Bell Hop: Find photos, information, rates and more on this fast, easy-to-use lodging mobile search.
17. London Travel Guide: Packed full of cool features our London Travel Guides are everything you that would expect from an electronic tour guide, only it’s free.
18. Good Food: GoodFood by Goodrec is the best way to find great places to eat! See what other users love and hate.
19. TripIt: Use your iPhone to access your TripIt itineraries whether you’re online, offline or in airplane mode. TripIt is the best way to organize and share your travel plans. Forward your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com, and TripIt automatically creates a master itinerary for your trip, with detailed information about flights, hotels, rental cars and much more. It also includes maps, driving directions and local weather.
20. SushiGuru: Take SushiGuru with you to sound like a pro when you order sushi. SushiGuru provides you with a searchable database of over 200 entries of Japanese and English names of sushi and sushi rolls.

21. Art. Learn all about great artists and their works with this factbook app that also lets you quiz yourself to see how much you are learning.
22. Art Gallery Premium. With over 7,500 works of art in their database, you can bring up your favorite famous work of art on your iPhone or browse to learn about artists you might not know.
23. Art Envi Deluxe. Like having a giant museum in your phone, this app contains works by famous artists as well as specialized categories such as Japanese art.
24. Kaleido. While not high on boosting knowledge, any art lover will appreciate taking photos and creating kaleidoscope effects with them.
25. Photo Lab Daily. This free version allow you to take a photo with your iPhone and once a day you can use the Photo Lab tools to enhance your photos. There is a version available for a fee if you want to do more than one a day.
26. MyPaint Free. Finger paint on a blank canvas or use one of your photos from your photo roll to find your artistic talent with this app.
27. Pencil Pusher. This app allows you to draw as if with a pencil. Write, erase, choose from a variety of backgrounds, choose colors, and more.
28. Bonsai. Learn the traditional art of bonsai care with this app that provides you the opportunity to adjust water, trim the tree, and monitor its overall health.

29. Taber’s Medical Dictionary. Touting 30% more medical terms than other medical dictionaries, this one offers definitions, photos, Patient Care Statements, and more.
30. Registered Nurse. Any nurse studying for the NCLEX exam will love this app that provides a practice exam that tests you in over 20 different subjects.
31. Normal Lab Values. Medical professionals or anyone interested in learning more about laboratory results will appreciate having normal values readily available.
32. Medical Drugs. This app provides detailed information on hundreds of pharmaceutical medications.
33. Diagnosaurus DDx. With over 1,000 diagnoses, anyone can perform differential diagnosis quickly and easily with this app.
34. MedCards. This app replaces the laminated cards physicians carry around and also allows anyone interested in learning to have instant reference to such things as EKG values, Mental Status Exam guide, Snellen chart, and more.
35. MedAbbreviations. Get over 13,000 medical abbreviations with definitions, explanations, a search feature, and more.
36. Skyscape Medical Resources. Find all kinds of medical information such as drug information, evidence-based clinical information, medical calculator, and a med-alert based on a specialty of your choosing.
37. Human Atlas. Geared for medical professionals, patients, and consumers, get a 3D explanation along with over 150 common medical treatments and conditions.
38. Medical Exam. Whether you are studying for your medical exam or just want to have a profound knowledge of medicine, this app helps you learn from 14 different categories.

39. Where to Golf: Gives golfers all the information about a golf course and how to get there. Whether on business, on vacation or in your home town, you’re only a touch away from finding the course you’re looking for.
40. Tetris: Take Tetris for a spin on your iPhone and iPod Touch to experience new twists and enhanced graphics. Drag, Flick and Poke your way through 15 challenging levels.
41. Sudoku: This application has more than 10,000 puzzles. So enjoy one of America’s favorite games, but try to get some work done, too.
42. Crossword: This is a very thorough Crossword application with various levels of difficulty.
43. Word Warp: Make words out of the six jumbled letters provided at each game’s start.
44. Cube Runner: Think eSnakei for current generation telephones. Boatloads of fun, just don’t run your boat into the cubes.
45. Topple: Topple is a quick, tower building game that is theoretically simple yet surprisingly addictive.
46. Trism: A little bit like Bejeweled meets Tetris, Trism stands alone as a distinctive, fun and brain-taxing challenge.
47. Wurdle: a Boggle-like word game available in the iTunes app store. The game is jammed-packed with features, challenging, and most of all, it’s fun.
48. 400 Free iPhone Games: The perfect cure for boredom. This go-to site has 400 free games, from logic cames to old-school arcade games.

49. USA Factbook Free: This reference packet is great for anyone in a civics, history or political science course that covers the U.S. Access key documents, lists of the flags, state capitals and other stats.
50. Stars: Anatomy students can use this tool as a resource when studying constellations.
51. The Chemical Tough: Lite Edition: View the periodic table when you download this free app.
52. Formulas Free: This app brings you free calculus formulas.
53. iQuotations: Look up quotes to use in papers or just as general inspiration.
54. Math Ref Free: Get free reference packs for geometry, algebra, trig, derivatives and more.
55. AllTheCountries: Get facts about literacy rate, economy, population, area and more for every country.
56. Your Rights: Use this app for political science courses or just as backup when you get into trouble at school.
57. iTranslator: Study abroad students and panicked foreign language students can use this tool to connect to Google Translator, Babel Fish or Free Translation.
58. Quickpedia Lite: This app makes it easier and faster to use Wikipedia.

59. Jourist Visual PhraseBook English. Use this visual aid with 20 different languages to help you show the person what you mean. It also include the written phrase in both English and your target language.
60. iTranslate Ultimate. Translate words between English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian, then have the words repeated back to you in the target language with this app.
61. Translator with Voice. Get translations in 34 different languages with voice support on most of them.
62. DragonDian. Use this dictionary to draw Chinese characters to quickly and easily find an English translation.
63. WordPower Lite – Italian. This free app gives you one Italian word a day to practice and master by listening to audio, recording and playing back your own voice, and using flashcards.
64. iSpeak Spanish. Translate between Spanish and English with this app that also allows you to hear words spoken in high quality English and Spanish voices.
65. Gengo Flashcards – French. This app uses visual cues and the voices of native French speakers with flashcards to help you learn French. Take a picture of any object, then add the French and English words to it, and you have created your own flashcard to add to the stack.
66. Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook. Whether traveling or learning Japanese, use this app to get over 600 written and spoken Japanese phrases.
67. Byki German. Learn German in no time with this app that includes native speakers, quizzes, and a phrasebook.
68. WordPower – Thai. Listen to 2000 Thai words for proper pronunciation and see the words and phrases in three versions–original Thai, Romanized, and English.

69. Inquisitor: This super fast search tool also makes suggestions for your searches.
70. Last.fm: Search music, artists and more with Last.fm for the iPhone.
71. Repairpal: This app will help you find auto repair shop and support.
72. Job Search: Indeed.com’s search application lets you find jobs by location and job description.
73. SearchMe: SearchMe is a new way to search the web on your phone. Unlike all other search engines that return a bunch of links, SearchMe lets you see a "coverflow" of pages that match your search results.
74. U.S. Historical Documents: U.S. Historical Documents contains over 100 of the most influential documents in U.S. history and they will be stored directly on your iPhone/iTouch. Quickly and easily find any text from any document with the fastest and most powerful search engine available on the iPhone.
75. 3GPS OS 3.0: 3GPS OS 3.0 tells you how fast, high and where you are. Whether you’re climbing a hill, touring or running a marathon, with 3GPS OS 3.0 your iPhone shows your current altitude, speed and course.

Fairy tale marriages do exist. It is just that they are quite rare. We studied couples who married happily every after to discover their secrets.

Extensive research, and up-to-date facts about obese children and its health issues. An easy-to-read book with practical advice that can make a difference. Plus free bonus book of hints and tips to improve your child's eating habits.

DesktopMates are animated human like characters that live on your desktop as your personal interactive companion & assistant capable of speech & doing tasks for you using Microsoft Agent and Artificial Intelligence Technology ... Free Start Up!

COVID-19 caused a lot of changes in the workspace over the past few years, especially when it comes to remote work. Many companies had no choice but to allow employees who didn’t absolutely need to be physically present in the office to work from home. While this is something...

The post Does Remote Work Really Work For Employers? Spotify Thinks It Does appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Have you ever met an adult who didn’t know how to do a basic life skill that you thought should have been obvious? It’s amazing sometimes what people aren’t taught when they’re kids. If you don’t want any of your kids to be that occasionally helpless adult, make sure...

The post 25+ Basic Life Skills Parents Need To Teach Their Kids appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

I am self employed in the construction industry and recently made a switch from the field into sales. I had some salesman on staff that could never really create the numbers i needed. My whole life i always told myself i would stay in the field doing the physical work. However the last few months...