Sounds Profitable: Recent Episodes
Sounds Profitable
The pace of change the podcast industry is undergoing is staggering. The implications for podcasters, hosting providers, podcast listening app developers, and advertisers and agencies are enormous. And so is the growth potential. Presented as a companion to the weekly newsletter of the same name, our podcast provides you with direct access to our narrated articles, interviews with industry experts, bleeding-edge research, and can't miss industry news recaps. That Sounds Profitable, right?
Assumptions and conventional wisdom will be challenged. Easy answers with no proof of efficacy will be exposed. Because the thinking that got podcast advertising close to a billion dollars annually will need to be drastically overhauled to bring in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars podcast advertising deserves.
Today in the business of podcasting: upcoming webinars from Sounds Profitable, an influencer is ending her 5-figures-a-year podcast, a Bloomberg report on the companies advertising on conservative podcasts, and GQ interviews Bill Nighy for his new advice podcast.
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Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: new IAB report on the creator economy, closing the sound gap, and how journalists can maximize connection with podcasting.
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Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: today is the last day to submit to the Podscape winter update, Tom Webster discusses building a brand to sell with your podcast, IAB Australia announces first 2026 event dates and survey, The Podglomerate presents 22 industry leaders looking back at the year and forward to the next, tracking how loyal your podcast audience is, and Eventbrite partners with Listener.com.
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Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: the Podscape deadline is fast approaching, a look at Happy Dad seltzer and what it means for podcast branding, is video creating two different types of podcasting, podcasts are a highlight of Defector's annual income report, and what to do when a podcast reaches critical advertising mass.
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Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Submit to the Podscape (Deadline is end-of-day November 21st)
A look at what happens when the creators themselves are the brand.
Written and narrated by Tom Webster
Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Eventbrite announces new integration with Listener.com, Apple Podcasts reveals the Top Podcasts lists of 2025, Oxford Road releases the November ORBIT report, and iHeartRadio rolls out short-form video clips in their app.
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Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: The deadline to submit to The Podscape is this Friday, Cloudflare outage plays havok with the internet, The Hollywood Reporter and Spotify post the hour-long roundtable with Golden Globes Best Podcast nominees, IAB Australia confirms dates for early 2026 events and survey for Audio Advertising State of Nation, Digidal looks at the growing sophisitication of influencer marketing, and Local Files Club brings a new twist to audio fiction monetization.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: audio remains the primary mode of podcast consumption, how loyal is your podcast audience?, PAVE teams up with Katheryn Nicolai for special live event, the State of Podcast Business, and CRA announces CRA Audio ID.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Podcast Movement Evolutions is going to SXSW next year, Netflix is looking to have a big library of video podcasts, the Independent Podcaster Report, how YouTube podcasts can help with AI search, and USC report finds podcasting's diversity problem at the top of the pack.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: seven headlines from across the industry as we have another special "oops all quick hits" episode. The links to all of which can be found here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: USC study finds top podcasts skew male and white, Spotify and NMPA open a portal to license audiovisual rights, Lower Street and Podcast Marketing Academy publish a report on the cost of audio podcasting vs video, Netflix wants at least 50 video podcasts when they launch, and Threads beefs up how podcast links look on the platform.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Netflix is looking to make their own video podcasts, The Podcast Host has a survey of indie podcast creators, and Eric Nuzum pitches maybe podcasts don't need vocal credits at the end of episodes.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: the Podscape is taking new submissions, Netflix is shopping around for video podcast licensing, Livewire Labs has a new list of top podcast hosts by episode share, SiriusXM's Q3 report is here, and local radio is getting into podcasts.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Netflix reportedly is looking to license SirusXM Media video podcasts, Podscribe has new industry rankings, Amazon grows their relationship with iHeartMedia, and brands are expected to decrease open web display ads by 30% in response to AI search overviews increasing zero-click searches.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Apple has automated chapters and links for podcasts coming, Spotify reports their Q3 earnings (Video podcasts are expensive), and Fox Entertainment acquires a romantic comedy audio fiction production house.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: the Podscape is now taking submissions for the Winter edition, Netflix eyes licensing iHeartMedia podcasts, Acast publishes their Podcast Pulse study, Magellan AI has their quarterly benchmark report, and Robert Tuchman discusses AudienceLift's Publisher Data Transparency feature.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: the top podcast hosting companies by episode volume, advertisers push holiday spend earlier this year, City Cast recalibrates, how local radio can leverage podcasting, and SiriusXM's Q3 earnings report.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Triton Digital launches AdBuilder AI, YouTube Shorts earn more than longform videos per watch-hour, new report argues top-of-funnel brand awareness influences purchase decisions more than thought, and China now requires influencers be qualified in certain fields before speaking authoritatively on several topics.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Amazon has laid off some Audible corporate staff, IAB looking to define AI transparency for ads, Acast's CEO on video podcasting, how AI search is changing brand discovery, and Nielsen's summer data on audio listenership.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: ad tech survives on floating cash, Spotify revamps Apple TV app, Oxford Road finds why advertisers are holding back spend, and Netflix's Spotify choices lack comedy.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: brands are paying more for ads that do less, the rise of c-suite podcast hosts (and why), creators are seeing brand deals later and later into Q4 than usual, how to harness audio podcast clips well on social media, and YouTube's TV presence might be plateauing.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: content creators are taking over mainstream medai, a blindingly obvious opportunity for podcast revenue growth, how collaboration makes The Hidden Third possible, how Pantheon Media and Spooler came together, and the NRF finds Americans are gearing up to spend a healthy amount this holiday season.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: YouTube sponsorships are on the rise, BBC Sounds has their Q3 report, Audacy has a new State of Audio, Solar ran ads in a theater chain, and a new report finds e-commerce sites don't see much conversion from ChatGPT referals.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Adam Bowie on the Spotify Netflix deal, how YouTube's dynamic brand insertion tool could change upfronts in 2026, Netflix's Still Watching report, and 11 lessons for podcasting from SXSW Sydney.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Podcasting's reach has grown quite a bit over the years, but several fruitful demographics still remain untapped.
Written and narrated by Tom Webster
Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Spooler and Pantheon discuss their collaboration, why Netflix should buy Spotify, a look at audio's discussion during Programmatic I/O in New York, what Joining a netowk does (and does not) do for your podcast, and the IAB is moving NewFront 2026 to earlier in the year.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: the collaboration that goes into making The Hidden Third, using research as your podcast creative partner, legacy media's dismissive attitude towards content creators might be their downfall, media buyers are anxious about setting 2026 budgets given 2025's volatility, and U.S. consumers expect to spend upwards of $900 on average this holiday shopping season.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify distributes video podcasts to Netflix and Samsung TV Plus, LiveRead.io and Companion discuss their collaboration, NYU students discuss AI generated podcasts, and how advertisers were advertising to advertisers at Advertising Week New York.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify launches first FAST channel, ICE ads keep appearing on incongruous content in streaming services, advertisers advertise to advertisers at AWNY, an op-ed on South African podcast advertising, and the Signal Awards winners are now live.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
A breakdown of the simple psychology behind Dax Shepard’s interview style.
Written and narrated by Tom Webster
Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Measurement is having a moment at IAB Upfronts, MrBeast launches clipping company, the divide with content creators and AI, Netflix's $1,600 subscribers, SSRS acquires Edison Research.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify to air video podcasts on Netflix, LiveRead.io and Companion talk collaboration, students discuss AI generated podcasts, new EU law on political advertisements, and YouTube introduces AI powered multimodal measurement.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: what happened at Advertising Week New York, Tom Webster talks parasocial relationships with podcast AI ads, Spotify is now integrated into ChatGPT queries, and an interview with Greg Glenday.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Amazon is taking over Microsoft's DSP, Tom Webster on how AI could be used to leverage existing parasocial relationships, a conversation with Acast CEO Greg Glenday, why Poppies Studios is opening a creator studio near Burbank, and podcasts seem to be a popular lunch activity given listen-time trends.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: how creators are becoming power brokers at events like Advertising Week New York, Spotify talks the power of fandom, Twitch could be video podcasting's training ground, and iHeart might be making a play for Audioboom.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: ChatGPT debuts Spotify integration, Alex Cooper's new creative agency lands Google as first client, and reflections on what new generative AI video tools mean for content advertising.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Flightcast debuts, ICE ads appearing more places that one wouldn't expect, PodcastOne's fiscal Q2 report is live, 8 out of 10 people in Spain listen to podcasts regularly, and what videos AI search engines seem to flock to.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: the Podcast Movement Archive is now live, Spotify names co-CEOs as Ek steps down, how to block bad ads, IAB Podcast Upfront developments, rise of the creator conglomerates.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: Podcast Movement 2025 panels are now live for free on YouTube, the 83rd Golden Globes eligibility only includes the top 25 podcasts for Best Podcast, shifting ad dollars to podcasting increases reach without increasing cost, and Prebid has HTTP GET integration and server requirements up for public comment.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: PRX has acquired Soundrise, Spotify has a lot of new news, Rooster Teeth joins the growing community of creator-owned publishers, SoundStack launches HLS streaming capabilities, and coverage of Podcast Upfront influencer discussion.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Daniel Ek is stepping down from CEO of Spotify, YouTube creator conglomerate executives share intel, a tease of today's Podcast Upfront, what podcasts and milkshakes have in common, and a new podcast category comes to Tribeca Festival.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: tariffs are causing brands to back away from the US (something podcasting could leverage), a defense of journalism in podcasting, how press-shy stars are finding their way to podcasts, the IAB upgrades their podcast ad revenue outlook for podcasting, and Pew Research has new podcast audience data.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: podcasting is maturing and changing landscape, Canada's growing podcast audience (including new Canadians), how short-form clips might be cannibalizing podcast audiences, Amazon signs SiriusXM to AmazonDSP, and YouTube is soon to test out their own version of dynamic ad insertion for video.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: podcasting's maturation and what comes next, Canadian podcast listening continues to grow, and Heavyweights is back with a new season from Pushkin.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: YouTube is soon to demo their own version of DAI, the top 10% of Americans are doing almost half the spending, and the untapped potential of serial shortform dramas.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Amazon's DSP signs with SiriusXM for audio, explaining the SlopAds fraud scheme, and industry execs discuss the communication needs of premium content.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: social media clips pose potential cannibalization issue, Morrissey on saving the open web, podcasting exempt from UK "less healthy foods" advertising restrictions, marketers are squeamish about Q4, and how Nairobi is a Gen Z hotspot for Kenya's podcasting scene.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: the industry mourns Todd Cochrane, what's happening at IAB Podcast Upfront, what Amazon's Wondery downscaling means for creative value, and how creatives are using CTV deals to increase sponsorship rates.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of pdocasting: remembering Todd Cochrane, what creatives don't get about executives, Google's court filing suggests open web is in "rapid decline", what Amazon's turn away from narrative podcasting opens for the wider industry, and Locked On grows advertiser partnerships with Magellan AI.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: how Gen Z is shaping sports media, a look at YouTube's new culture and trends report, how transparency is influencing influencer sponsor pay, and On Air Fest/Work x Work announce a rebrand.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Let's take a moment to reflect.
Written and narrated by Tom Webster
Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: the industry mourns the loss of Todd Cochrane, IAB announces Podcast Upfront plans, and a reflection on how gen-AI might impact media's profit capabilities.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: creators are leveraging their CTV channels for higher-value sponsorships, Washington State's new digital ad sales tax isn't fully formed yet, NYT is shutting down their Audio app and moving everything over to News, Brazil's podcasting "sleeping giant" is no longer asleep, and AdImpact's predictions for 2026 midterm election ad spend.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: The Podcast Landscape 2025 report is here, big-name podcast live events prove lucrative, YouTube is at the top of the streaming pile for Nielsen's July version of the Media Distributor Gauge, and a look at podcasting's presence at Advertising Week NYC.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: a look at podcasting's presence at Advertising Week NYC, The Podcast Landscape 2025 is here, streaming investments are up but buyers drive a hard bagain, and the hidden costs of launching a YouTube presence.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: a lot of money is going to into creator marketing but not as much is making it to the creators, mainstream media is hungry for star podcast talent, and key findings from industry conversations at Podcast Movement Dallas.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Podcast live shows are a real money-maker, the creator economy has some measurement roadbumps to clear, talent managers are finding they can't redline contracts for influencers as much, Edison's top 25 podcasts quarterly report is here, and YouTube tops TV watch chart for sixth month running on Nielsen Media Distributior Gauge.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: The Emmys recognizing YouTube video podcasts as talk shows might save the Talk Show category, Tom Webster debuts data from The Podcast Landscape 2025, Chartable has an official death-date, and Spotify has a new messaging service in its app.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Chartable has a death-date, two surprising facts about platform consumption, Australia has a new advertising benchmark study, YouTube takes Hype global, and a look at a kids' podcast that got demonetized.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: The Trade Desk redefines SSPs as resellers, an interview with Ozen.fm co-founder Rodrigo Tigre, Taylor Swift set a Guinness World Record with her podcast album debut, and an interview with Casuals host Katie Nolan.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Essential news for today in the business of podcasting: YouTube has been quietly sharpening contrast on random YouTube Shorts, Spotify launches an in-app messaging feature, Acast launches Ads Academy, and a roundup of some webinars happening this week.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify's increasing Premium rate, the changing landscape of paid search placement, YouTube podcast elegibility would be a ticket to rejuvinating talk show award categories, and what Black culture means to modern brands.
SiriusXM's survey.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable merges with Podcast Movement, podcast audiences want choice, a look at news podcast listener demographic changes, YouTube is making it easier for collaborator brand deals to give credit to everyone, and what podcasting left on the table during the Taylor Swift album announcement.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: The Podcast Standards Project shows how video can easily become a part of open RSS podcasting, Tom Webster debuts new audience data at Podcast Movement, and Signal Hill Insights has a new report on News podcast audiences.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: What likely depressed Spotify's ad business this past quarter, YouTube adds a collaborator-focused update to Shorts ads, and Wondercraft has a new conversation-based AI to quickly produce content.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable and Podcast Movement merge, Dentsu is opening a podcast network in India, and Billboard looks at the numbers for Taylor Swift's last podcast appearance.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: Taylor Swift debuted her new album's name and artwork on a podcast, a look at the resiliency of audio storytelling, Tom Webster reflects on the "video is everything" media narrative, an update to The Podscape is here, and Oxford Road has a new report on the lift provided by running ads on YouTube podcasts.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: the new Podscape is now here, Jen Moss writes about the decline of audio storytelling being exaggerated, Tom Webster reflects on podcasting's flexibility in the video age, and The Hollywood Reporter has a special issue just for podcasting.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Oxford Road has a new study on YouTube podcast ad lift, Taylor Swift's album announcement on a podcast is about to happen, marketers are finding podcasts ads rock (because they do), and the ad industry has an entry-level problem for college grads.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Despite what scary headlines may say, video and audio podcasting have a more symbiotic relationship than one might think.
- Written and narrated by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
- Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: sports podcasting has grown so much video podcasts are starting to look like independent TV studios, podcasting remains a bright spot of iHeartMedia's earnings calls, Taylor Swift uses a podcast to announce her new album, and Procter & Gamble uses an audio fiction podcast to promote a new version of Downy.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Age of Audio to be screened in the Sounds Profitable lounge @ Podcast Movement, how B2B startups are using podcast ads to grow, regulatory bodies in the UK argue YouTube is so big its advertising should be regulated like a broadcaster, Seattle's audio drama scene is booming, and The Hill publishes an op-ed about how MeidasTouch Podcast is outpacing The Joe Rogan Experience.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: Amazon announces restructuring of Wondery, Spotify adds Audiobooks Plus add-on to US market, a look at podcasting's ability to plus-up social media ad buys, and a look back at what might have went wrong with Meghan Markle's podcasting efforts.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster on how podcasts compliment social media marketing campaigns, video podcasting grows at Audioboom, and industry responses to Wondery's restructuring.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: a reminder of the Sounds Profitable job board, Spotify launches Audiobooks Plus in the US, Theo Von interviews Hank Hill, and podcast advertising's ability to drive fans to action.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
New data from Sounds Profitable about how podcasts influence action could also suggest a symbiotic relationship with social media.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
* Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Ofcom has new UK listenership numbers, Spotify is raising its price in overseas markets, reactions to Bloomberg's Wondery closure article, and Xiaomi unveils new open source AI voice model for cars and appliances.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Wondery podcast studio is shutting down, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down, SiriusXM reports healthy podcast growth in Q2, and why most Americans were never particularly interested in Meghan Markle's podcasting efforts.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
This week in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable has a new study focusing on how podcast audiences drive action, Magellan AI has a chart of their top movers and shakers in the podcast ad world, Spotify wants fans to "Read like they Listen", audio fiction is becoming a strategic IP play for Hollywood talent, and Astronomer hired Maximum Effort to address the Coldplay situation.
Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Magellan AI has their June top spenders report, how influencer marketing has evolved over H1, TikTok to track audiences after they click out of the app, and podcasts are becoming more of a strategic IP play for actors.
Find links to every article mentioned by heading to The Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to go straight to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable has published a new report called Driving to Action, Andreessen Horowitz is looking to pay $400k to build out a podcast network, how broadcasters are adapting to young sports fans' desire for instant clips and highlights, and a Fox affiliate in Grand Rapids is the latest Scripps TV station to assign designated neighborhood reporters.
Find links to every article mentioned by heading to The Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to go straight to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify promotes audiobook listening with music language, a Reddit thread on /r/podcasts strikes up conversations about egregious pre-rolls, why settle for likes when brands can foster love, and Google rebuffs Pew report claiming AI summary search results are causing a decrease in clicks to webpages.
Find links to every article mentioned by heading to The Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to go straight to today's installment.
Today in the business of podcasting: Acast crosses milestone with the U.S. becoming their highest-contributing single podcast market, Maximum Effort produces a satirical comedy ad for Astronomer, and Adweek looks at the growth and hiring spree happening with smaller, indie ad agencies.
Register now for our upcoming webinar!
Find links to every article mentioned by going to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or click here to go direct to today's issue.
This week in the business of podcasting: Why Sharon Taylor argues podcasting is losing sight of its audio roots, what Tom Webster learned from the longest-running one-person show in Vegas, an interview with OpusClip's Louis Roberts, and what the death of TheLate Show means for podcasting.
Find links to every article mentioned by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to go straight to today's entry.
Today in the business of podcasting: a look at Spotify's "super-listeners", what Tom Webster learned from a magician that applies to podcasting, and the Just for Laughs festival is awarding a Podcast of the Year during this year's festival.
Find links to every article mentioned by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to go straight to today's entry.
Today in the business of podcasting: Apple details how they protect listener privacy in listening reports, Steve Goldsten writes on how podcasting has largely usurped the classic late-night talk show, Sharon Taylor argues why video podcasting narratives leave audio behind, and an interview with OpusClip's Louis Roberts.
Find links to every article mentioned by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to head straight to today's entry.
Audience engagement is the true magic that makes shows stick, who better to learn from than actual magicians?
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
* Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Register for Sounds Profitable's next research webinar.
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: what the death of The Late Show might say about linear TV in general, a look at Joe Budden's income streams, advertising awards race to tighten up generative AI guidelines after Cannes Lions, Spotify launches Audiobooks+ in European markets and Canada, and 6AM City seeks to automate local newsletter production with Good Daily's AI.
Find links to every article mentioned by heading to The Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here for today's episode post.
Today in the business of podcasting: Apple Podcasts have new listener reports (and Dan Misener has a suggestion for a future one), The New York Times looks at the audience of multi-hour chat podcasts, an overlook at how public broadcasting is impacted by the Senate rescinding $1b in funding, Nicolle Wallce's MSNBC podcast now is aired on MSNBC proper, and Sounds Profitable won the 2025 Content Marketing Institute award for Best Data Storytelling.
Find links to every article mentioned by heading to The Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here for today's specific post.
This week in the business of podcasting.
- Audioboom has acquired Adelicious
- Selling the health & fitness podcast mindset
- Content creators shut out of the Emmys for a second year running
- The power of podcast search optimization
- Google is indexing Instagram
- Video podcasting and YouTube production is creating jobs in an otherwise hurting Hollywood.
Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post for today's episode.
Today in the business of podcasting: SiriusXM launches an ad-supported tier, Audioboom acquires Adelicious, how Kids & Family podcasts are perfect for the "nag factor", content creators once again left out of the Emmys, and Acast reports on a podcast campaign run for KFC in Australia.
Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post for today's episode.
Today in the business of podcasting: Google is now indexing Instagram, Ausha's Jennfer Han talks about a recent BBC Studios case study, Digiday looks at the creator industrial complex, and IAB Tech Lab is working on an intiative to monetize LLMs scraping content and give control back to publishers.
Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post for today's episode.
Today in the business of podcasting: Audioboom posts profit in Q2, CMOs seek stability and cutting out the middleman with content creator marketing, and the LA Times covers the burgeoning video production job market caused by the rise of YouTubers and video podcasting.
Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post for today's episode.
This week in the business of podcasting:
* There's preservationists who want to save the soul of podcasting, there's growth advocates that welcome the YouTubeifiaction of podcasts. Tom Webster argues both are right, and that binary might be hurting podcasting's ability to preserve its "soul."
* The Podcast Host and Alitu CEO Colin Gray talks about the sort-of surprise that was seeing Alitu on stream during Apple's WWDC presentation, as well as his experiences over 15 years of working in podcasting.
* YouTube is preparing a crackdown on mass-produced and repetitive video content with some wording updates to the guidelines that run their monetization program.
* Spotify has ensured pod.link's future by giving the company back to Nathan Gathright, the original developer.
Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post for today's episode.
Today in the business of podcasting: how podcasting can preserve its spark whiel growing into video, how Alityu ended up on screen at WWDC, YouTube's preparing to crack down on reuploaded/generated content, Jasmine Crockett addresses the need for media-savvy politicians for podcast appearances, and two major AI players working on their own browsers to challenge Google's search engine dominance.
Find links to every article mentioned in the newsletter version of today's episode, which you can find right here in The Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: The Streaming Wars looks at how "watch hours" can be turned into a valuable metric, The Podcast Exchange announces it is filing a Notion of Intention in Canadian bankruptcy court, Signal Hill Insights looks at three common reasons host-read ads fall short, and WPP issues profit warning as Q2 perfomance falls below expectations.
Links to every article covered can be found in today's issue of the newsletter, available here on SoundsProfitable.com
Preservationists fear video stealing podcasting’s soul, growth advocates celebrate YouTube driving more to the medium. Thing is, they’re both right.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
* Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: podcasting is booming in India, Moonbug has a study into how parents consume ad-supported media, Spotify is giving pod.link back to its original developer, an explanation of the Spotify-approved generative AI "band" Velvet Sundown, and Triton Digital has a new annual study on Canadian podcast listner behavior.
Find links to every article mentioned in today's episode post on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Amazon's DSP is selling Roku inventory, a case study of a podcast that lowered downloads but upped audience engagement, Spotify Jam has been updated in Android Auto, and YouTube calls for UK government to embrace content creators.
Find links to every article mentioned in today's episode in this post on SoundsProfitable.com
This week in the business of podcasting: the power of Health & Wellness and Self-Improvement podcast consumers, how podcasting can cover demographic blind spots, lessons from Cannes Lions, and YouTube content coming to Spotify video.
Links to every article mentioned can be found here on SoundsProfitable.com.
Today in the business of podcasting: unlocking the power of purpose-driven podcasting, how podcasting can cover demographic blind spots, non-podcast video on Spotify, and how indie agencies are competing with holding companies for creatoe measurement and ad tech.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: YouTube is a great place for podcasters to get visibility but not necessarily the perfect fit for every podcast, companies weigh in on the Spotify Partner Program after six months of operation, how under-represented sports are using advancements in tech to build their own streaming stack, what demographics are thriving in Germany's podcasting scene, and YouTube gives a peek behind the recommendation algorithm curtain.
Find links to every article mentioned, including signup for tomorrow's webinar, right here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: what podcasting gets right about attention, smart TVs rise the second-most-used device to consume podcasts, Crunchyroll has a new companion podcast produced with Sony, why there's a CPM slump growing in the CTV market, and AudioUK calls for UK government to enshrine podcasts.
Find links to every article mentioned - and our webinar signup, here on SoundsProfitable.com
This week in the business of podcasting: Influencers grab some spotlight at Cannes Lions, how news podcasts covered the breaking news of the U.S. bombing Iran over the weekend, two senators allege Spotify is using a loophole to pay lower music royalty rates, a coalition of Canadian podcasting companies band together to ask the government to consider podcasts CanCon, and Tubi is adding hundreds of episodes from YouTube creators under their Tubi for Creators project.
Find links to every article mentioned, including the webinar signup, right here on SoundsProftiable.com
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster looks at the power of live events hold for podcasting, we look at news coming out of Cannes Lions, and things are looking up for digital audio going forward in 2025.
Register for the next Sounds Profitable webinar here.
For links to every article I mentioned, visit the episodes' page on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: the under-utilized benefits of podcast live events, creators are in the conversation at Cannes, reducing risk as download popularity drops, Amazon has doubled their Prime Video ad over 18 months, and researched-back strategies for high-impact marketing as a nonprofit.
Registration for the upcoming webinar can be found here.
All of the links mentioned in today's episode can be found here on this episodes' page at SoundsProfitable.com.
Today in the business of podcasting: Audion and xpln.ai's report shows blending digital audio with in-video audio increrease brand recall and message recall, Reuters and the University of Oxford have new study about news content, SiriusXM is partnering with Innovid for better MMM, CNN is rebranding CNN Audio to CNN Podcasts, and WhatsApp is adding ads for the first time.
Catch every link mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster talks tracking pixels, Paul Riismandel talks YouTube's place in podcasting, Amazon adds private auctions to Prime Video, and Apple adds some new features to Apple Podcasts during WWDC.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
Tracking pixels are awesome at what they do, but like any tool there's also a way to misuse them and podcasting should remain conscious of that.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
* Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in a special episode of The Download we're covering nine stories rapid-fire in an "Oops, all Quick Hits" spectactular. As a result, you can find links to every piece mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: a more nuanced look at YouTube's place in podcasting, Australia's ad market, the global ad forecast, and how Google AI is impacting search traffic.
Find links to every article mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Apple's announcements from WWDC, YouTube has backed off of removing videos via moderation, Acast boosted interestin EuroMillions with a podcast, and what the Creator's Caucus intends to do.
Find links to everything mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable will be at Cannes Lions, Wondercraft co-founder Oskar Serrander explains Convo Mode using Convo Mode, Amazon adds private auctions to Prime Video, a look at how podcasting is doing on Patreon, coverage of Sounds Profitable's latest study, and Spotify lays off 15 podcasting positions at The Ringer and Spotify Studios.
Find links to everything mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
This week in the business of podcasting: Sound Profitable's latest study shows podcasting trust is at an all-time high, HLS could be the future of RSS, and NPR's CEO writes an open letter to Congress about funding for public media.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Why podcasting's advertising advantage is bigger than we thought, The Trade Desk looks at audio's effectiveness in Australia, and Gartner has a new annual CMO survey.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
The latest edition of The Advertising Landscape shows podcasting's biggest fans are also paying a lot of attention.
Written and narrated by Tom Webster
Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Digiday covers Sounds Profitable's latest study, Spotify is prepping to add podcast inventory to their ad exchange, and NPR's CEO writes an open letter to Congress about public media funding.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
LAST CALL: Tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. EST the second chapter of The Advertising Landscape, the largest study of podcast advertising effectiveness in the U.S., will debut in a live webinar hosted by Tom Webster. Register now to grab your virtual seat and get the report sent directly to your inbox after the presentation.
Today in the business of podcasting: The Podcast Standards Project pitches HLS streaming as the future of RSS, MarketingBrew looks at advertisers' hesitance to book True Crime, and Kast Media emergeces from bankruptcy proceedings at an operating profit.
Find links to every article mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: American Public Media puts successful Brains On! Universe podcasts up for sale, RadioInk covers Sounds Profitable reserch, IAB Australia finds podcast advertising continued growing in Q1, and JAR Audio explains how they sell podcast productions to decision-makers.
Find links to every article mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
This week in the business of podcasting: insights from Podcast Show London, Tom Webster looks at podcast advertising's (lack of) gender gap when it comes to recall, a roundup of upcoming webinars, and Ofcom has a new podcast survey for UK listenership.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster talks about the lack of a gender gap in podcast advertising recall, Spotify adds new discovery features for podcasts, Nielsen has their new annual marketing report, Horizon Media is opening up a public RFP, and Netflix has teamed up with BBC Studios for a new comedy podcast hosted by Jimmy Carr.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: I've got a rundown of a ton of upcoming webinars, making the case for making the case for spoken word audio, and CMOs' outlook for the year after Q2.
Find links to every article (and webinar) mentioned by heading here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: reflections from Podcast Show London, Spotify experienced a short outage, Adam Bowie looks at the new Ofcom podcast listener report, and Shopify tops the Q1 2025 top podcast ad spender chart for Australia.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
From an undisclosed hotel room in Islington, Bryan Barletta debuts the Ad-Sales Partner Ecosystem and shares how you can get your company involved.
Find the full article, infographic, and submission link here on SoundsProfitable.com
* Written by Bryan Barletta
* Edited and Narrated by Gavin Gaddis
This week in the business of podcasting: a slew of international podcast listenership data, Spotify iOS users can now buy audiobooks direct, Amazon joins the Prebid party, and Sounds Profitable has a webinar coming up in a couple weeks.
Find links to everything mentioned at the newsletter page, available here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Australian digital audio ad revenue is climbing, multiple new reports show UK podcast listenership continues to grow, and Amazon has officially enabled access to Prebid.
Find links to every article mentioned right here with today's newsletter post on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: the IAB has open comments for their new Digital Advertising Agreements, Digiday covers the growing popularity of video podcasting with advertisers, Channel 4 is bringing their content to Spotify video podcasting, and Edison Research drops their quarterly UK top 25 podcast chart.
You can find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify can now sell audiobooks directly in the iOS app, what the business of podcasting can learn from the New York Times' profile of Kara Swisher's podcast deal, and Apple Podcasts has new templates and a Canva partnership to help podcasters present their shows well.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: a roundup of Podcast Show London resources, an interview about Amazon Music putting podcasts on a billboard in Times Square, Spotify is changing how they'll display view counts on podcasts, and agency executives expect sports to be a big player in this years' upfronts.
For links to every article mentioned, please visit here on SoundsProfitable.com
This week in the business of podcasting: we're prepping for The Podcast Show London, Tom Webster talks how to make your podcast events Events, Bumper talks about podcasting's need for a metric more inclusive than the download, and YouTube has launched a new weekly podcast chart.
Find links to every article mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: what Bryan Barletta is doing at Podcast Show London, how to make Podcast Events special, YouTube now has a weekly podcast chart, how creator platforms are building out tech infrastrucutre to appeal to agencies, Toyota's branded podcast play with Latino audiences, and Acast introduces talent-voiced ads.
Find links to every article mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
A look at the power of doing live events for podcasting as an industry, as well as individual podcasts.
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster looks at what we can learn from podcasting biggest (and smallest) fans, Owl & Co estimates the podcasting industry made $7b last year, Patreon is changing their iOS app to work with new legal ruling, a caution against podcasting with intent to be on TV, and a roundup of Q1 financial reports.
For links to every article mentioned, visit here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster talks about the great podcast divide, Jerry Kolber talks about the folly of podcasting with aims to end up on TV, and Paramount has no intentions of going back to old-school Upfront plans.
Find links to very article mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
A look at the demographics of podcast audiences who are the medium’s fans… as well as the opposite.
Credits:
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Gavin Gaddis and Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Today in the business of podcasting: Digidayl ooks at the rise of CTV podcast consumption, Owl & Co. estimates the 2024 global podcast revenue total is double previous estimates, and Andrew Goldsmith talks comedy and why it's one of the best options for brands looking into podcasting.
For links to every article mentioned please visit here on Sounds Profitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: PodX makes their first U.S. acquisition with Lemonada Media, Patreon will update its iOS app to allow non-Apple payment methods after recent court ruling, Spotify now will publicly display play count on podcast episodes, and a roundup of Q1 financial reports from the past week.
Find links to every article mentioned here on SoundsProfitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify is adding podcasts to SAX this quarter, WARC report looks at how brands are gaining ground with audio advertising, a look at just how sturdy Rogan's grip on podcasting charts is, and Mark Zuckerberg teases a potential future Meta product that'd cause some big waves for the advertising industry at large if it was adopted.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster talks podcasting's Smart TV consumers and what they can teach us about cross-platform consumption, Edward Fuller details how podcasting can better entice games marketers, Ben Robins recaps the Power of Podcasting Showcase hosted by AudioUK, and Paul Riismandel discusses a distinct lack of discussion of branded podcasts outside of podcasting spaces.
Find links to every article mentioned right here at Sounds Profitable.com
Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster writes about the intricacies of smart TV podcast consumers, US ad spend jumps nearly 8% in March, LinkedIn is courting content creators for video series, and SAG-AFTRA is making moves to bring content creators into the fold.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Digiday reports from the first day of Possible in Miami, Deloitte charts media trends for this year, Paul Riismandel talks branded podcast content possibilities, and British + European marketers are hedging their ad spend in the face of new U.S. tariffs.
For links to every article mentioned, visit here on Sounds Profitable.
Smart TVs are increasingly popular tools for accessing podcasts, but what does that actually mean for the medium?
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Today in the business of podcasting: Sound Insights founder Ben Robins reports from the Power of Podcasting Showcase, Spotify's Q1 earnings report is here, and the IAB has a new report on ad spend's growth for digital video.
Links to every article mentioned are available here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: how podcasting can get game marketing on board, Spotify's partner program payouts so far, and YouTube upped their Q1 ad revenue 10% year over year.
For links to every article mentioned, visit here on Sounds Profitable.
Essential news for this week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster talks about stickier podcasting, podcast industry growth last year, Chrome's cancelled third-party cookie prompt, and video podcasts could be coming to Netflix soon.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: building a full theater instead of just a stage, YouGov's data on global podcast listenership, Omny Studio's new benchmarks for 2024 podcast downloads, and Cumulus Media is leaving NASDAQ early next month.
All articles mentioned can be found here on Sounds Profitable.
Essential news for today in the business of podcasting: Hernan Lopez discusses podcasting's global income, Google is not launching third party cookie permission promps, and a look at YouTube's cross-platform strategy.
For links to every article discussed, visit here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: branded content rebounds as a top source of publisher revenue, a look into why ad creative is in decline, and Magellan AI's 2024 review + 2025 preview.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: IAB's Internet Advertising Revenue Report shows strong growth, coverage of The Advertising Landscape, The New York Times looks at the contendors for "The Oscars of Podcasting", video podcasts are likely to appear on Netflix in the near future, and Spotify + video feature heavily in Coleman Insights + Amplifi Media report on the state of video podcasting.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
This week in the business of podcasting: Surveying the Podcast Advertising Landscape, Podcasters Caught in Copyright Crossfire. The IAB Podcast Upfront Up and Moved, and “Live” is thriving in television.
For every article mentioned, visit here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Podcast advertising's multimedia multitool functionality, CTV transparency a growing concern, and the rise of "link in bio" affiliate marketing.
Find links to all articles mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
The Advertising Landscape shows that not only is podcasting an option for advertisers, it's a rare multitool in a world of single-use options.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Today in the business of podcasting: The Advertiser Landscape is now here, Spotify experienced a global outage today, why YouTube podcast ads matter, 77% of companies have increased ther influencer spending this year, and Nielsen provides a look at TV's growth last month.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: An interview with The Fantasy Footballers, creators rethink their revenue mix, the IAB has moved this year's Podcast Upfront, a look at parasocial relationship-courting "podcast girlies", and a Coworking interview with Christian Swain.
Find links to every aritcle mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Podcasts caught in the crossfire of a legal spat with Spotify, publishers are relying less on total ad revenue as a measuring stick, tweens are hosting podcasts, young Americans follow partisan lines when it comes to podcast listening, and your audience doesn't need you anymore.
Reminder: The next flagship study from Sounds Profitable debuts THIS Wednesday, April 16th, at 2 p.m. EST in a live webinar hosted by Tom Webster. The Advertising Landscape is the largest survey ever fielded on podcast advertising effectiveness in the U.S. Be among the first to see information from the first part, and receive the slides directly once the presentation is over, by registering now!
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
From this week in the business of podcasting: The Impact Spotify's Video Has on Publishers, Podscape Biannual Update is Coming and Submissions are Open, Why Podcasts Should Think Like a Network, and Nickelodeon x Starglow.
Links to every article mentioned can be found here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: A look at the downsides to how Spotify handles video, Wondery looks at podcasting fandom power, and Libsyn looks back at themes throughout Evolutions by Podcast Movement.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: The Podscape is accepting submissions for the summer update, Audioboom posted their Q1 earnings, a clip from The Ramsey Show podcast made the top three branded Shorts of last week, and nominations are now open for the Quill podcast awards.
Find links to everything mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable launcehes Coworking segment, new Veritonic and Audiomob study looks at the efficacy of audio ads in mobile games, podcasting is asking the wrong questions about vidoe, and Gen Alpha's propensity for luxury items.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster talks about a popular data point being mis-represented, Dan granger debuts a new defintiion for "a podcast," Podnews publishes the results of their annual report card, and SPotify has an ad exchange.
Find links to every article mentioned right here on Sounds Profitable.
Today's essential news in the business of podcasting: Podnews published their annual report card for podcast hosts, IAB Australia notes the growth of affliate and partnership marketing, subscriptions and live events are now in the top five revenue generators for publishers, why podcasts are playing a bigger role in brands' creator strategies, and Spotify debuts their own ad exchange and AI ad generator.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Oxford Road publishes a new defintion for podcasting, Jeff Ulster looks at why Canadian podcast consumers gave podcasts a try in the first place, industry leaders discuss growing a podcast audience, and Sound Insights rounds up March's podcacst research.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster debuts findings from the biggest study in podcast advertising efficacy in the U.S., Digiday looks at the potential of advertising downturn caused by hype, Radiocentre gives a look at podcast growth in the UK, YouTube is on track to outpace Disney in revenue estimates, and the winners of the 2025 Ambies.
Links to every article mentioned, as well as signup links to the Sounds Profitable event in May and Tom Webster's upcoming webinar, can be found here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: video podcasting on Spotify, brands go Switzerland, and big moves in sports podcasting.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the Business of Video Podcasting LA Summit, a new user experience for audio and video, and gaming looks at podcasts.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: YouTube updates view counts, Spotify's Partner Program expands its reach, and why Gen Z is moving away from TV.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: a new podcasting report from Japan, Acast invests in Australia, and RSS is updating its distribution.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: India is investing in influencers, open ad auctions bleed money, and the 4th annual Signal awards are open.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how audio and video data gets combined, gen Z and video podcasts, and YouTube's new ad test.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how podcasting can stay special, getting the full picture with podcast data, and how super fans spend.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: ten years of Amplifi, the growth of podcast fandom, and creators lift all ships.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the debate around ads on streaming, YouTube ads a Podcast tab, and the house of insights.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
As podcasting veers towards becoming a subgenre of video rather than a thriving audio industry, Tom Webster looks back at an example of what happens when you strip everything unique off a beloved icon..
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable.
For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: ad forecast revisions, no escape from AI, and behind the YouTube curtain.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: super fans are super spenders, podcasters vs influencers, and YouTube shorts grow further.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how brand fans listen, making podcasts stickier, and the creator economy at SXSW.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
The industry has come a long way, but the podcast consumption experience hasn’t and is starting to show why we need a more ‘one button experience’ if we want to grow the audience pool.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable.For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: commercial audio reaches critical mass, the power of branded podcasts, and ad supported streaming.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the left's rise in political podcasting, audiobook publishing from Spotify, and YouTube usage drops.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the creator economy at SXSW, Crime Junkie's controversy, and audio layoffs.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: free session audio from SXSW, podcast ads are safe from tariffs, and where the left and right are going in podcasting.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: podcasting takes Texas, diving into the News podcast listener, and what to do with your audience data.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: podcasting takes Texas, diving into the News podcast listener, and what to do with your audience data.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: grading Spotify's pivot to video, highlighting AdOps in a new podcast, and building from the influencer playbook.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Tom Webster highlights actionable takeaways from Sounds Profitable’s latest research.* Written and narrated by Tom Webster * Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable.
For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Joe Rogan's decline, inside news podcast listeners, and new developments in immersive audio.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a MIDAS report, cost-cutting in podcasting, and advertisers block the Oscars.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: a look at the News podcast listener, reviewing On Air Fest 2025, and solving subscriber churn.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Aussie audio roundup, YouTube tweaks midroll, and indie agencies bet on tech.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: solving subscriber churn, ad click efficiency, and industry opportunities.
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Gavin Gaddis recaps their On Air Fest experience and reflects on the importance of carrying the flame for podcasting.
* Written and narrated by Gavin Gaddis
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable.For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the new Shorts ecosystem, the rise of alt measurement, and the evolution of brand partnerships.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: YouTube's new tier, brand safety relevance, and big moves from the BBC.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: examining podcasting by zip codes, branded podcast performance and measuring that performance, and on Wondery and SirirusXM opting out of rankers.
Sign up for the webinar here.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: podcasts not prepping for video, what you listen to, and new Edison research.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: behind the branded podcast, opting out of podcast rankers, and podcast syndication.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify struggles with ads but might be winning with video, and the new slow creator fund.
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Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting: On Air Fest is coming next week, SXSW is on the horizon with the biggest podcasting footprint yet, another earnings call roundup, and YouTube just hit the milestone of TV watch-hours beating out both Desktop and Mobile.
To that note: are you attending SXSW? We’ve created an incredibly short form so we can know who’s coming along. We’d love to see you there.Catch all the articles mentioned on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Bryan Barletta interviewed the minds behind On Air Fest, Acast reports its first profitable year, YouTube viewing on TV passed mobile and desktop, Mediavision finds podcasting is growing healthily in Sweden, and a look at ad buyers maturing how they use podcast advertising in multi-channel campaigns.
Find links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: audio's growth in Australia, how to measure video's growth, and why campaigns should go omnichannel.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: what the push to video is missing, Fox gets into true crime, and new moves from Wondery.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: cost-effective advertising, why your business needs DEI, and learning lessons from the golden arches.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Spotify struggles to win with video, why brands are going regional for the big game, and how DEI makes a better business.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Spotify's earnings call, takedowns on the platform, and the future of signal noise.
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In a two-part one-part article, Tom breaks down the business podcast consumer and looks at
podcasting’s cost-effective reach.
The Business Podcast Consumer Study
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable.For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Youtubers reinventing with podcasts, Triton Digital's 2024 Australia report, and the market's race for flexibility.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: podcasting in Türkiye, can podcasts be found without TikTok, and ad spend on the rise.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: listening grows, targeting the niche, and how Americans are using phones at work.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Google goes open source, why podcasting is set to grow, and power in the niche.
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Is audio consumption on the decline? Certainly not for podcasts.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable.For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: podcasters could join the White House press, how podcasting drives commutes, and why audio podcasts reign supreme.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Alex Cooper moves to YouTube, brand safety shakeups, and what Americans use their phones at work for.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: how podcasts won the election, Sundance's place in the market, and innovations in audio investment.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: tracking the podcast election, business podcast buyers, and meeting buyers where they are.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: video doesn't equal audio, buyers are listeners too, and pre-pandemic listening patterns.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the election podcast circuit, Netflix raises prices, and why diverse audiences are a gold mine for podcasts.
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If you bring buyers into your medium’s audience and tell them how good your medium is, they’ll buy it.
Video link.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable.
For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: ad spend snapshots, on demand audio on the rise, and more podcast elections.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: cracking the case of true crime listeners, the business podcast consumer, and what's new for On Air Fest.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: another edition of Oops, All Quick Hits.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Welcome to the Sounds Profitable podcast, where you'll find audio versions of our weekly thought leadership articles, daily summaries of vitla news for those in the business of podcasting, and a Friday roundup of important stories you might have missed (along with why they matter to podcasting).
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: On Air Fest aims high, Audioboom's 2024 trading update, and YouTube's new Shorts.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the myth of ad-free podcasting, a new campaign at LAX, and predictions for 2025 influencer marketing.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: prioritizing podcast ads, a Capital one lawsuit, and 2025 goals for podcasting.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: an affiliate code scandal rocks creators, the rise of the small influencer, and the business of business podcasting.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the business of business podcasting, new show renewals, and meta ad changes.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the Podcast Promotion Landscape, podcasts take over TV, and an M&A surge set for 2025.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: an influencer marketing scandal, how audio fuels research, and the pivot to video continues.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: predictions for 2025, elections results could shape brand activism, and the future of TikTok.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: The Case for Making a Case for Spoken Word in 2025, Italian Podcast Licensing Invoices, and Industry Experts Predict Podcasting in The New Year.
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For the final Download daily upload of 2024, here's what you need to know: Tom Webster talks the most important thing podcasting should talk about next year, more brands are using influencer creative in programmatic ads, Right Side Up has predictions for next year, a look back at this year's big ticket podcast deals, and Triton Digital's Canadian podcast ranker.
Find links to every article mentioned today at Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: On Air Fest grows ever-larger for 2025, James Cridland examines TuneIn's layoffs and cost-cutting, the IAB collects examples of best practices in podcasting, AdExchanger talks tired trends of 2024 advertising, and principal-based media buying is growing more popular.
Here's something different: a podcast campaign to keep people home for the holidays! So many people are one crisis away from becoming unhoused, like Keoni Washington, a young boxer who lost his mom to COVID and had to provide for his brothers. The podcast Sharing Stories gives a window into their lives and how one-time rental assistance helped them through a tough stretch. They're encouraging other podcasts (like yours!) to spread the word about rental assistance this season -- like by running a “PSA” in place of an ad. More info here!
For links to every article covered, catch the newsletter version of the episode here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: YouTube's opt-in AI training feature, Italian company sends spurious invoices for podcast listings, and influencer agencies are dipping their toes into talent management.
Here's something different: a podcast campaign to keep people home for the holidays! So many people are one crisis away from becoming unhoused, like Keoni Washington, a young boxer who lost his mom to COVID and had to provide for his brothers. The podcast Sharing Stories gives a window into their lives and how one-time rental assistance helped them through a tough stretch. They're encouraging other podcasts (like yours!) to spread the word about rental assistance this season -- like by running a “PSA” in place of an ad. More info here!
Find links to every article mentioned and subscribe for the newsletter version at Sounds Proftiable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: CoHost has 28 podcasting experts' thoughts on 2025, Buzzfeed has sold First We Feast and what that means for M&A, IAB Tech Lab rebrands Seller Defined Audiences, the ANA finds programmatic sinks are slowly being fixed, and EV TV spend is down and it's because of Gen Z preferring digital.
Find links to every article mentioned and full coverage here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: true crime listeners, online car shopping's podcast potential, and a history of Kiwi podcasting.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: true crime listeners, new features in iOS 18, and streaming plans for 2025.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: an online car dealership from Amazon, the history of podcasting in New Zealand, and the shrinking podcast middle class.
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Tom Webster shares some pearls of wisdom from twenty years in the oyster of podcasting.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: 2025 podcasting predictions from Joni Deutsch, Alex Cooper's getting into hydration, and BetterHelp holds their spot as top podcast advertiser in Australia.
Register now for The 2024 True Crime Podcast Listener Landscape Report from Libsyn and Sounds Profitable!
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: true crime can win advertisers, the trillion dollar year, and health and wellness ad restrictions.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: podcasting on rented airwaves, walled gardens going up, and fostering podcast growth.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: some more super quick hits plus a special offer.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: paywalling podcast journalism, breaking down audio barriers, and Spotify wrapped.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: YouTube leads in podcast discovery, global ad spend tops 1 trillion, and the DOJ takes on tech again.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify's video policy, mobile shopping trends, and podcasting's global promise.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: some Thanksgiving-friendly quick hits from podcast news.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: podcasting growth in Australia, new M&R, and more SEO spend to come in 2025.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: implications of Spotify for Creators, a report on video's rise in podcasting, and how brands are getting creative with podcast ads.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify for creators, AI sludge, and the rise of video podcasting.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: layoffs in sports podcasting, redefining creativity in podcast ads, and Apple's top podcasts in 2024.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Amazon music has added Audible, a YouTube liaison opens up about the algorithm, and top podcast advertisers.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Spotify pushes for more video, Facebook switches to views, and new FDA advertising standards.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the new home of podcasting on Spotify, the effectiveness of podcast advertising, and Amazon slashes its U.S. spending.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
This week, Tom offers a section of his new book, The Audience Is Listening, on marketing in the “real world”
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify's Q3 earnings report, infleuncer spending blocks from the election are over, M&A is up, and subscriptions are looking to be an area of focus for publishers in 2025.
Register now for the live webinar on Wednesday, November 20th, at 2:00 p.m. EST.
Catch the full write-up of today's episode on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: iHeart's third quarter, new media moves on, and Podpage's new listener survey.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: tracking podcast tracking, audio and video prime, and The Podscape is back.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the ad industry redefines influencing, big questions in brand safety, and The Podscape opens submissions.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the Super Bowl sells out, tracking podcast tracking, and lessons from advertising week.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a new UK podcast ranker, Q3 earnings from SXM, and how marketing executives are prepping influencers for the election.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: new FTC crackdowns on false advertising, better podcast marketing, and shoppers are starting holiday prep earlier.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the curiosity gap and now to cross it, getting audio and podcasting on your brand's media plan, and what emotion AI can do for advertising as we know it.
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It’s one thing to use generic descriptions to explain a song or podcast, but there’s power in creating curiosity with a recommendation.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a new FTC law cracks down, podcasting advertising transcends audio, and why Prime Day could be different this year.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a report card on beauty brands, why influencer marketing has gotten risky, and new partnerships.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a report on podcast watch time, how to get your podcast on platform lists, and election anxieties drive consumer purchasing.
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This week Bryan Barletta guested on the Media Roundtable podcast, here's the episode! Original description for the episode is as follows:
The Media Roundtable is back! This week, we're making waves in the podcasting world with a groundbreaking announcement that's set to reshape the industry.If you haven’t heard, Oxford Road and Veritone One, under Insignia Capital Group, plan to join forces to form the world's largest podcast and creator-based video agency. Starting immediately, Oxford Road’s CEO & Founder, Dan Granger, will lead both organizations.So with an eye to the future, Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road & Veritone One) sat down with Conor Doyle, (President, Veritone One) and Bryan Barletta (Founder & Partner, Sound Profitable) to talk through the big deal and why it’s such a big deal.The excitement in the room is palpable as Conor and Dan go from competitors to collaborators. They’re talking value-alignment, industry impact, and how it’ll help CAOs. Let’s dig in.
"Brands haven't really had a collective voice. And they're the ones paying everybody's bills. They should be at the top of the food chain."* Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road & Veritone One)
Values are Everything 💯- In early conversations, it was clear that Insignia was not your typical private equity group. Their alignment of values (transparency, not being defensive) and a proven agency track record showed the Oxford Road and Veritone One teams that a deal wasn’t just possible, it made all the sense in the world.
Empowering Brands with a Collective Voice 📣 – One of the most significant benefits is giving brands a stronger voice in the industry. Bryan notes, "There's an opportunity for brands to have a bigger voice... Now being in a situation where we can challenge that and have that conversation with just the buyers." This forthcoming merger positions the newly combined agency to advocate more effectively for advertisers, shaping industry standards to better meet their needs.
Unmatched Expertise and Resources 🚀 – Integrating Oxford Road's innovation and international traction with Veritone One's advanced technology and data capabilities, creates a powerhouse of expertise. Conor highlights the excitement of "setting the laser pointer" on new industry challenges, leveraging their combined strengths to drive growth and efficiency for clients.
Strengthening Industry Partnerships 🤗 – Addressing concerns about consolidation, both Dan and Conor reassure that relationships with advertisers and media partners remain top priority. As Conor says, "We do not exist without either of those relationships... We're joined at the hip to make this work." The combined entity will aim to enhance collaborations that benefit publishers, creators, and brands alike.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: video's role in podcast discovery, new acquisitions in podcast tech, and spotify's new SAX.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: does video drive discovery, digital listening continues to grow, and the MMM debate.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Spotify Ad Exchange, how agencies are using GenAi, and why streaming services are being bundled with your groceries.
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Even when looking at audiences who are ride-or-die for audio podcasts, video plays a key role in the modern podcast discovery process.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: new acquisitions, Americans warm up to advertising, and the top spenders in podcast advertising.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: audio is popular in Germany, Spotify video ads get verified, and Amazon launches generated ads.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: a look at video and audio-focused podcast audiences, opportunities in Kids and Family, and podcasting grows up.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: audiobook growth, This American Life gets premium, and Southwest under pressure.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the first single debuted on a podcast, more "Questions To...", and breaking into the Gen Z sphere.
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The first of a two-part exploration of how audio-first and video-first podcast audiences consume their favorite content.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: podcasting grows up, kids and family opportunities for advertisers, and Spotify expands its audiobook reach.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Wondery moves to merch, candidates go on a podcast tour, and why we need to promote podcasting.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: a call to promote podcasting, presidential candidates take on podcasts, and a new Wondery collab.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: influencer relationships in athletes, more dispatches from Advertising Week, and podcasters on tour.
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A significant amount of people simply stop listening to podcasts once they finish the show they’re listening to. Tom Webster talks about what can be done to rectify this.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Narrated by Gavin Gaddis
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: more coverage of the presidential podcast tour, Audible's Spanish anniversary, and how Walmart is utilizing podcasting.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: presidential candidates take the mic, the story of SmartLess, and news from Advertising Week NYC.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: what Liquid Death can teach podcasting, podcasting’s coming to Advertising Week, and updates to Apple Podcasts.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: why audio-only should stay special, can't-miss panels at ad week, an update to Apple transcripts.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: podcasting gears up for advertising week, why election season shouldn't put off brands, and how brands are using podcasts to network.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Apple Podcasts' new "Series" feature, why YouTube ads are getting unskippable, and new requirements from Nielsen.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Chartable to sunset, how the news business can stay sustainable, and what demographic brands are missing.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: connecting with potential listeners, video podcasting goes talk show, and Meta AI spells trouble for advertisers.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the potential of the Persuadables, Spotify's new synced feeds feature, and fintech taps influencers and more for ad campaigns.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: layoffs at Paramount audio, new features on YouTube, and optimizing the news with AdExchanger.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the top movers and shakers in podcast advertising, paywalled back catalogues at NYT podcasts, and more outlets shift their strategies.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: FTC takes on privacy practices, working to stop violent content online, and the second wave of podcasting's deals.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: amplifying women in podcasting, what registered voters are listening to, and how the olympics shook out for broadcasters.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: women in podcasting, the sports revolution coming to audio, and YouTube's new Hype feature.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the listening habits of registered voters, an ad-tech antitrust lawsuit may hurt YouTube, and the future of TV briefing.
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Most top podcast charts skew heavily male, and the average podcast audience is backsliding in comparison to the population. How do we fix this?
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Coca-Cola takes a stance on the open web, international advertising in Australia, and CEOs' favorite podcasts.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: ad load during elections, BBC Sounds serves up the best, and Spotify continues to move to video.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how elections are doing the influencing, an IP switch, and why women's sports is continuing to rise.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable at four, podcasting goes for influencer deals, and the case for quality over quantity.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Podscribe's new tracking solution, Amazon drives streaming prices down, and how creators are influencing the election.
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Bryan Barletta looks back on four years of Sounds Profitable, and where we can go next.
* Written and narrated by Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the state of audio advertising, big data's checkup, and demand for womens sports continues to grow.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: how the election is influencing influencers, YouTube's new AI tools, and tensions could rise in sports podcasting.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a new study of how brands see podcasting, political spending spikes, and growth in Australian podcasting
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: IAB and MRC collab, what to expect from fall marketing, and the French.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a podcast boom in the Middle East, Spreaker Create in Beta, and podcast advertising rates in August.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a new study release from Cohost and Sounds Profitable, political ads about to boom, and Chartable is back up
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: brand safety in the modern age, new data from Sounds Profitable, and celebrity podcasting deals.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a new study from Sounds Profitable, Edison Podcast Metrics UK, and podcasting in the creator economy.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: how to conduct an audience survey, brands fear culture wars, and Netflix is still courting advertisers.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Kelce deals, Magellan AI's top spenders, and the importance of host chemistry.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster's keynote at Podcast Movement, the case for hard news, and the modern race for fact checking.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: a recap of Podcast Movement, new FTC rules for creators, and gross ad spend spikes.
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It’s been a busy week for the Sounds Profitable crew at Podcast Movement 2024. Let’s go over some highlights from this week and what they mean in the big picture.
* Written and narrated by Gavin Gaddis
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster's keynote address, podcasting at advertising week, and TV viewing in an upswing.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Thrumm launches at Podcast Movement, Kristin Myers joins Sounds Profitable, and Alex Cooper signs new deal with SXM.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: new FTC regulations hit influencers, Apple podcasts launches on the web, and why Google ads are showing up on X.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the danger of rising podload, GARM's gone, and podcasting in the fourth estate.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Chartable outages, the danger of rising podload, and the White House's first creator conference.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify can display EU pricing, a new AI voice deal, and breaking down influencer marketing.
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A look at the precarious position of news publishers, and how podcasting can fit into propping up the Fourth Estate.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
You can register now for the live debut webinar, coming to a screen near you at 2:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, August 28th.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: getting ready for holiday shopping, a peek at the Podscribe performance benchmark for Q2, and youth labor laws.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a SLAPP lawsuit backfires, the Paralympics get special attention, and Apple's new web cleanup tool.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Olympic athletes are scoring on social media, Adalytics' report challenges verifiers, and the rise of history podcasts.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: securing niche audiences across the board, local ad spend on the rise, and Spotify outages.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: where politics is putting its ad dollars, retailers struggle to identify site visitors, and how to grow your audience.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: what new online privacy bills mean for advertisers, video podcasting gets the spotlight, and NYT Audio goes open.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: what ad skipping means to podcasters, YouTube and brand safety, and the possibility of browser regulation.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the hidden cost of ad skipping, more q2 analysis, and why standardization is a marketing challenge.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: megaphone gets IAB certified, Google's new Performance Max updates, and a look into Europe's podcast market.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Q2 advertising benchmarks for podcasting, why video creators are cautious about AI, and the question of web browser regulation.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how brands are handling the Olympics, Acast's growth trajectory, and the truth about third-party cookies.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: a Q2 advertising roundup, Google set to (maybe) keep cookies, and why influencers are upping their rates.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: back to school shopping, a first look at Critical Role's new show, and growth in micro-influencer rates.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: a newly branded Spotify ads manager, a roundup of Q2 earnings, and what Black podcast fans are listening to.
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Podcasting is brimming with opportunities, and we’re aiming to help others know how to find them. From free webinars, to good old print media.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Google might keep cookies, Spotify's Q2 earnings, and what is MMM?
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: new ethics guides for AI advertising, audio's role in women's sports fandom, and a check-in with ads on Netflix.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: why brands are courting sports stars, a new podcast for the Deaf/HoH community, and why your podcast could use an edit.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: an update from Australia, why ad buyers are going programmatic, and increases in podcast accessibility.
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This week Tom Webster provides an exercise in trimming the fat from your podcast.
* Written and narrated by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: how platforms are dealing with a spike in misinformation, the problem with podcast subscriptions, and Prime Day's help from audio.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: soccer takes the states by storm, sports streaming fragments, and the rise of the feature-length video essay.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how ads are being bought on misinformation sites, the cyclical nature of sports, and how advertisers are preparing for Gen Alpha.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: creator startups see big gains, the ad industry goes to court, and CNN launches gigital subscriptions.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: This American Life returns to NPM for ads, Cannes Lion courts creators, and DTC advice for growth.
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This week Tom Webster explains the lessons podcasting can learn from man's best friend.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Narrated by Gavin Gaddis
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: new rewatch podcasts build hype, how to reach LGBTQ consumers year-round, and why women's sports are the best bet in content.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: ads bought on misinformation sites, avoiding the cyclical nature of sports podcasts, and tonies new open feed.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how the most effective logos leverage audio, Cannes vs Vidcon, and the ugly truth of media business.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how brand fans are shaping culture, what users really come to Instagram and Tiktok for, and Wells Fargo's best practices for influencer marketing.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: why news producers are turning to podcasts, updates from Vidcon, and how podcasters are pivoting in the wake of its gold rush.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: how many ads listeners expect, music groups team up to sue generative AI, and what radio's past can teach podcasting's future.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Acast highlights political shows in anticipation of the current UK election season, the effects of Time dropping its paywall one year later, and how publishers are pitching women's sports to interested advertisers.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the New York Times plans to paywall its podcasts, Edison Research's new 2024 UK Consumer study, and what to expect at the upcoming VidCon.
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This week Tom Webster shares his favorite insight from the latest Sounds Profitable study, Ad Nauseum.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Apple TV+'s new dual-language podcast partnership, record labels take music-making AI to court, and a report on streamers' mixed efforts to keep subscribers.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: how sports podcasts elevate brands, YouTube's new ad tracking service, and 'Office Ladies' podcast plans network move.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: podcast ROI outperforms in new study, a Cannes correspondance roundup, and shifting ad dollars as influencers launch their own brands.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Amazon unveils Ad Relevance, how Immediate Media is growing its paid podcast audience, and Oracle to end all of its ad products.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: podcast listenership grows worldwide, how Apple's podcast transcriptions came to be, and Spotify's new in-house creative agency.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: the latest research study from Sounds Profitable, podcasts' hidden audience, and Spotify's new video podcast uploads.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable's findings on ad frequency, how advertisers are misinformed about industry misinformation, and Forbes' first creator upfront.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a hidden side-hustler audience, IAB's upcoming "Nothing will be thesame" conference, and Kosar sues podcasting company over a ceremonial bet.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: how the Food and Beverage industry has an opportunity with podcasting, YouTube's pitch to advertisers emphasizes creators' "star power", and the NBA finals create a hot ticket for advertisers.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Audacy's new survey on cross-platform podcast advertising, Spotify rolls out video feeds for all podcasts, and how podcast budget cuts are causing producers to pivot.
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Megaphone will work recertify its IAB status, Spotify launches a partnership with streaming service Nebula, and a new Canadian legislation is set to tax foreign streamers.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: how tolerant audiences really are of podcast advertising, a new memo for SAG-AFTRA members regarding AI, and how Gen Alpha kids are sharing brands with their parents.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: a new Canadian legislation will tax foreign streamers, Discord partners with TuneIn to bring live radio to the platform, and Colgate launches the first ever UK podcast advertising campaign.
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This week Tom Webster breaks down the upcoming Sounds Profitable study Ad Nauseam and what questions it aims to answer about podcast advertising.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Newton Schottelkotte
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify’s and Nebula are partnering to bring video essay content to the platform, why retailers hate that you buy big things on your laptop, and the pros and cons of publishers’ AI licensing deals.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify’s Megaphone will return to IAB certification, Triton Digital's 2024 Canadian podcasting report, and publishers and advertisers push back against Apple's new "web eraser".
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Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: addressing Spotify's place in podcasting, aging out age demographics, and lessons from the podcasting scene in MENA.
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This week Bryan Barletta takes a step back and looks at Spotify's place in podcasting not as a peer to the industry, but as the global multi-platform corporation it is.
* Written by Bryan Barletta
* Edited by Tom Webster
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable interviewed several industry leaders on the show floor of Podcast Show London, a look at how podcasting takes on licensing, Spotify debuts new Austalian statistics for podcasts, and the rising problem of over-attribution in advertising.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full writeup here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify publishes trend data, Signal Hill Insights looks at the behaviors of business podcast audiences, PMPs are making a comeback in programmatic, and the Hasbro/Audible deal has produced a Peppa Pig podcast.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Spotify gets rid of price floors for SPAN, are political ads a good fit for podcast audiences, streaming's 2024 Upfront mirrors podcasting, and advertisers are under-investing in Hispanic audiences.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify has debuted a transcript pilot and listen data, RAJAR has Q1 stats for audio consumption in the UK, and Digiday looks at the Q1 revenue of five major publishers.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify is removing price floors for SPAN, Digiday finds marketers are more invested in programmatic than agencies, Brian Morrissey argues audio is the last refuge of autheticity in the AI age, and an online hub provides database of podcasts looking to be optioned by audiovisual adaptations.
Find links to every article covered and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Several big outlets covered the new IAB Podcast ad revenue report, Julie McNamara to step down from Head of Spotify Podcast Studios, Horizon Next partners with Claritas' ArtsAI on proprietary cross-platform measurement framework, and Adelaide is expanding their AFP platform to include audio attention measurement and activation capabilities.
Find links to every story mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: The IAB debuts 2023 podcast revenue study, the global growth of podcasting, the importance of not ignoring 55+ demographics, and a roundup of podcasting’s Q1 reports.
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Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: The IAB has published the new U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study, Tom Webster talks about shfiting podcast advertising to incldue 55+ consumers, Eric Nuzum writes on the importance of making one's audience the foremost concern from the beginning, programmers hope lower ad volumes will earn more viewer time, and what to expect from this year's TV upfronts (according to buyers).
Find links to every article mentioned as well as the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: The golden age of podcasting is just beginning, Acast 'on track' to full-year profitability, marketers seem optimisitic about advertising budgets, Nickelodeon releasing slate of preschool-targeting kid's podcasts, and You Didn't See Nothin' wins Pulitzer Prize.
Find links to all articles mentioned and the full write-up here at Sounds Profitable.
While podcasting is popular with younger demographics, the biggest growth potential lies in audiences aged 55 and up.
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the IAB Podcast Upfront is this Thursday, Veritonic releases new study into the branding potential of phone hold music, audio's brand-building capabilities, and how walled gardens make buying ads harder for both retail media and podcasting.
Find links to every article mentioned and find the full write-up here at Sounds Profitable.
Here's waht you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: New study on podcast listening in the Phillippines, YouGov data on global podcast listening, possible reclassification of marijuana still keeps it off limits for radio and TV (but not podcasts), pharmaceutical companies dip their toes into influencer marketing, and incumbent prime mnister Justin Trudeau is incorporating podcast appearances into his political strategy.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: The IAB Tech Lab introduces new guidelines for podcast measurement, Magellan AI publishes the top podcast advertisers of March and a Q1 podcast advertising benchmark, sports advertising is on the rise (and podcasts are a good opportunity), and Tom Webster shares a bounty of useful research to show podcasting is the safe bet.
Find links to every article discussed and read the full write-up at Sounds Profitable.com
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: The IAB Tech Lab has finalized Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2.2, brands chase football marketing momentum, news orgs are done begging for ad dollars, Spotify makes its NewsFronts debut, and Audible tests lower-priced plan as a possible response to Spotify's audiobook offering.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.com
For brands looking to earn attention, podcasts are proving they can deliver in a media landscape littered with noise.
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: City Casts and the value of local focus, a new report on podcast listeners in India, Magellan AI's Q1 2024 podcast advertising benchmarks, Right Side Up's guide on measuring success for influencer marketing campaigns, and The New York times covers podcast companies building out their video shooting capabilities.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's waht you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: SiriusXM has posted their Q1 earnings report, Pierre Bouvard covers the 24/18/58% rule, travel advertising is taking flight, brands are looking to stretch beyond TV in sports advertising (and podcasting looks to be a good fit), and a new university has introduced a podcast course into their curriculum.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Magellan AI's top podcast advertisers of March, YouTube Shorts advertising revenue is trending upwards, the IAB predicts social video will overtake CTV this year, Visa's global head of content speaks to influencer marketing, and big retail brands get into DTC marketing, opening a new avenue for podcast advertising.
Find the full write-up and links to everything mentioned right here on Sounds Profitable.com
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting: Spotify has left the IAB, That Was Us ups the cadence on rewatch podcasts, IAB UK shares data on podcast growth, a new listener habit report from Japan, and GroupM reclassifies a good portion of YouTube as CTV.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up (along with today's Data Snapshot) right here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Otonal has published a new survey of podcast usage in Japan, Acast has a new annual report, YouTube's CPO talks video podcasting, and the MRC releases an invalid traffic guideline update.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up (along with today's Data Snapshot) right here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: IAB UK's new ad spend report shows podcast spend increased 23% y-o-y, Signal Hill Insights debuts new benchmark study for branded podcasts, eMarketer shares five key stats on marketing fatigue, and Campaign covers podcasting's global growth.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up (along with today's Data Snapshot) right here on Sounds Profitable.
What does capturing the existing fanbase of a recently-ended program look like in podcasting? We speak with actors Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, and Chris Sullivan, who are launching as an episode-by-episode rewatch podcast of This Is Us, rapidly upping the normal rewatch podcast cadence of nearly a decade.
- Written by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
- Edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: marketers underestimate creative's impact on sales effect, podcasters chosen for UK general election coverage, CoHost publishes new report on podcast agencies, Spotify has published their Q1 earnings, and the winners of this year's Webbys are now live.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here at Sounds Profitable.com
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify is no longer in the IAB, GroupM to reclassify some YouTube ad revenue as CTV instead of digital, Global is launching Dax ID, how video can widen podcasting's footprint, and ARM breaks down how podcast advertising is effective.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here at Sounds Profitable.com
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: U.S. creator funding surges, advertising space for the opening and closing Olympic ceremonies is sold out, The Sports Audio Report teaser has promising data for podcasting, and Rebecca Lavoie shares tips for reframing podcasting's place in the media ecosystem of a public radio station.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here at Sounds Profitable.com
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: how UK podcasts navigate the country's election cycle, the latest on Sirius XM's upcoming Sports Audio Report, and James Chandler on why advertisers should include podcasting in their media plans this year.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full writeup here on Sounds Proftiable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Adam Bowie goes over Ofcom's latest podcast survey, The Information finds US creator funding surges for the first time in two years, NAB panelists say appetite for digital audio advertising is growing, and Lower Street is hosting a Brand Podcast Summit ticket giveaway.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full writeup here on Sounds Proftiable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: the IAB publishes their 2024 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, Morgan Stanley weighs in on the proposed ARN acquistion of SCA, and Digiday breaks down WTF is the American Privacy Rights Act.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full writeup at Sounds Profitable.com
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: what to expect from the 2024 IAB Podcast Upfront, Jordan Harbinger's three lessons to podcast advertisers, Rebecca Lavoie's tips for public radio station podcast success, and NBCUniversal reports they've sold out all digital and linear ad inventory for the 2024 Paris Olympics opening and closing ceremonies.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full writeup at Sounds Profitable.com
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: CBS's success with 48 Hours and how broadcast-to-podcast works best, this week in podcast acquistions with The Roost and Neon Hum, The Breakfast Club flexes podcastings' journalistic might, Signal Hill Inights tests the power of 'talent-read' ads, and Gen Alpha's getting into sports.
Find links to every article mentioned, the full write-up, and subsribe to the newsletter version here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Bryan Barletta interviews Gumball CEO Marty Michael about the company's new Campaign Builder, Substack announces new Spotify integration, Radiodays North America to feature a seperately-ticketed podcast summit, the hard numbers on YouTube Shorts, and why women are driving True Crime's growth.
Find links to every article mentioned, today's Database Snapshot, and the full writeup on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: CBS finds podcasting success with 48 Hours, what ID5's fundraising means for podcasting, Signal Hill Insights tests the power of "talent read" ads, and Steven Bartlett teams up with Telling Media co-founders to launch Flight Studio.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up, including today's research database snapshot, right here on Sounds Profitable.
Being overly restrictive of what ‘counts’ as a podcast could lead to the medium going the way of the blog. Tom Webster’s keynote presentation from Evolutions by Podcast Movement breaks down how we can embigify the industry.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: The Roost has been acquired by Night Talent Management, Podcasting's open internet heritage, the lack of serial in Serial, Gen Alpha's growing sports fandom, and the trouble with trying to change TV upfronts.
Find links toe verything mentioned and the full write-up on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Podcast Moevment has published the 2024 Evolutions keynotes on YouTube, The Breakfast Club's recent interview with Eric Adams shows podcasting's power for hard-hitting questions, and Digiday looks at the factors that could affect ad tech M&A this year.
Find lnks to everything discussed and the full write-up on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster breaks down highlights from The Ad Bargain, The Joe Rogan Experience boosts Gary Clark Jr.'s Spotify numbers, retail media networks are starting to see the appeal of audio, and over 50% of surveyed Americans are cord-cutters.
Find links to everything covered in this episode and read the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster breaks down five important data points from The Ad Bargain, KANTAR publishes podcast advertising guidelines for the Netherlands, and more than half of US TV watchers are cord-cutters.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up at Sounds Profitable.com
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Sound Profitable's newest study The Ad Bargain is now live, industry KPIs show YouTube leads for social media advertising attention (with podcasting in second place), where Gen Alpha consumes content, and why performance marketers are shifting priorities to brand-building.
Find links to everything mentioned, as well as the full write-up, on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: audio and retail are getting in tune with one another, advertisers are suing Meta for allegedly inflating ad viewership, the utility of podcasts like Lex Fridman's, insights from leaders at the top of podcasting, and Evan Shapiro's take on the 'creator economy' and how it's evolving.
Get links to every story mentioned as well as the full write-up on Sounds Proftiable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Anyone can buy traffic but building audience is harder, How the New York Times approaches podcast discovery and growth, YouTube to host Creator Workshop, Gary Clark Jr. experienced the Joe Rogan bump, and podcasters explore diverse revenue streams.
Register now for The Ad Bargain's debut webinar.
Catch links to everything mentioned in this episode and the full write-up on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Audible rides audio boom with big investments, the issue with DTC brands courting influencer investors, GroupM to double investment commitments in women's sports, and why true crime podcasts are great for advertisers.
Find links to everything discussed and the full write-up on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting, brought to you from the floor of Evolutions by Podcast Movement: The 2024 Ambies happened last night, Signal Hill Insights shares the podcast listening habits of influential exeutives, why marketers need to embrace the funny when it comes to podcasting, how to turn a comedy podcast into a comedy documentary, and Indigenous Screen Office pairs with Acast.
Find links to everything mentioned in today's episode and the full writeup on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the busines of podcasting: Sounds Profitable will be returning to Evolutions by Podcast Movement with the Partner Lounge and two public panels, Podcastle's U.S. survey finds which podcasts are hot with politically-attentive respondents, eMarketer finds poltical ad spend is nearly triple what it was in 2016, and Spotify is testing video-based learning courses in the UK version of the app.
Find links to everything mentioned and the full write-up here at Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: March Madness TV ads are sold out, RedCircle launches new tool for host-read programmatic ad management, RadioDays Europe talks podcasting’s power, and advertisers are skittish on TikTok spending after recent political developments.
Find links to every article mentioned in this episode and the full write-up here on our website.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: LibSyn is rebranding AdvertiseCast to Libsyn Ads, Bryan Barletta's article on owning pocasting's responsibility to audiences, a Podimo survey shows Finns are 62% likely to pay a premium for podcasts, and why Super Fans are something brands should prepare for.
Catch links to everything discussed here on Sound Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Ad Results Media announces platform-agnostic programmatic host-read ad management tool, a server anomaly that caused millions of dollars in false bids last week, BBC to potentially run ads on podcasts accessed on third-party platforms in the UK, Spotify is launching a new Ad Studio product, and TikTok's podcast boom might be a bust.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Podcasting has long dealt with double standards when it comes to adtech problems that are part of larger systemic problems. The industry is in a position to establish a higher quality baseline than others who get away with murder.
* Written by Bryan Barletta
* Edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: March Madness men's games all but sold out of ad inventory, how third-party cookie deprecation will change ad buys, teens use YoUTube on a daily basis more than TikTok, how advertisers are reacting to TikTok's shaky future, and Amazon's opportunity in the cookie-free future.
Find links to everything discussed and the full write-up right here on Sounds Profitable.
Today in the business of podcasting: a report from Radiodays Europe, news podcasts and ad buyers aren't seeing the anticipated election cycle bump yet, Rich Greenfield proposes streaming needs to spend more time on time spent, The Ringer's union wins generative AI protections in contract, and Kast Media has filed for bankruptcy.
Find links to every story discussed, and a full write-up, all here on Sounds Proftiable.
This week in the business of podcasting: Bryan Barletta talks about building a better umbrella for podcasting at conferences like SXSW, Edison Research's Share of Ear data shows how much time podcasting takes out of an average hour of ad-supported audio listening, reflections on SXSW for podcasting, Apple has published new resarch on humanizing word error rates in podcast transcripts, and Digiday explains WTF is server-side ad insertion.
Read the full write-up and get links to everything mentioned right here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: My Cultura plans for major growth, the power of Alex Cooper's fandom, Joe Rogan's return to YouTube podcasting is a successful one, abd the case for longer brand lift studies.
Catch links to every story mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Edison data shows podcasting takes up 12.2 minutes of the average hour spent listening to ad-supported audio, iHeart publishes the winners of the 6th annual iHeartPodcast Awards, IAB data shows Gen Z is the most likely generation to spend money on premium apps and services that used to be free, Digiday explains what server-side insertion is and what it does video (spoiler alert, podcasting has done it for years), and AdNews publishes their 2024 Agency Map.
Find links to everything covered right here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: 2024 is looking up for indie podcast company acquistions/partnerships, SiriusXM isn't sweating lower Pandora numbers, and Flightpath debuts a new way to do "faked-in" host-read ads.
Find the full write-up and links to every article mentioned here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: iOS update adds Apple Podcast transcripts, a roundup of podcasting Q4 earnings calls, it's time for licensed music to enter podcasting, automated transcription and translation isn't quite ready yet, and PRX debuts new fundraising resources for local radio stations.
Find links to everything covered and the full write-up on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster writes about how it's time for the music industry and podcasting to embrace each other, a new podcast festival is coming to the UK this spring, Rooster Teeth is shutting down (but The Roost will continue on), and the parasocial power of political podcasts.
Find links to everything discussed and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Apple Podcasts launches transcripts in-app, Right Side Up's analysis of $3 million worth of podcast advertising, PRX expands their digtial fundraising resources for local radio stations, and a new study from Morning Consult shows trust in audio has jumped in the past four years.
Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.
Tom Webster reflects on a talk he gave this past week in Nashville, and music’s place (or lack thereof) in the podcasting industry. There’s room for great innovation and growth with properly licensed music and podcasts, and it’s time to make it happen.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: KS&R releases the Podcast Frenzy report. Jen Soch of GroupM talks about how podcast advertising is changing digital ad strategies, Digiday looks into the rocky start of AI-powered podcast translations, and reps from The New York Times and Vox Media discuss their podcast strategies.
Catch links to every article mentioned and find the full writeup here on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: A new batch of earnings calls rounds out the financial data for major podcast players in 2024, and numbers look good. IAB Australia publishes new report showing the state of podcast ad investment Down Under. Podcast CPMs increase inf Feb. on AdvertiseCast's tracker. Newsguard has launched new automation tools to "fingerpint" political disinformation, and CoHost is running a survey of professional podcasters.
Find links to everything discussed, as well as the full write-up, on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting:
- How Podcasting is Making ITself Known at SXSW "Trojan-horse style"
- Radio and Podcasts Deliver Decision-Makers to B2B Marketing
- Podcasting’s Place in Advertising as Google Closes the Cookie Jar
- Keeping Audio Ads Simple for Better Attention Metrics
Get links to every story covered, quick hits, and data from Podscribe, all on the episode's Sound Profitable post.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Edison Research discusses data showing podcasting's share of ear trends higher in urban areas than rural, podcasting's place in a post-cookie advertising future, and Ad Results Media announces their Pro platform.
Find the links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on our site.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
- Radio Connects finds podcast growth continues steadily upwards with Canadian respondents 18+
- A recent report from Veritonic and RealEyes finds ads with too much complexity or too little volume for the voiceover lose attention faster. Normalized audio shows higher returns.
- Criteo predicts $30 to $40 million in signal loss due to the death of third party cookies. Krystina Rubino of Right Side Up weighs in to give a podcasting perspective.
- Guideline reports the US ad market has continued an upward trend since April of 2023.
For links to everything covered in today's episode, please visit the episode post on Sounds Profitable.
Today on your daily recap of news in the business of podcasting: Cumulus Media's Pierre Bouvard highlights how podcasting brings B2B marketers to descision-makers at comapanies, the future of TV upfronts is programmatic + audience data, and podcast advertising grew 21.7% in Australia last year.
For links to everything covered, the quick hits, and the full write-up, click here.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Digiday covers why media companies are pushing podcasts at this year's SXSW "Trojan-horse style," Spotify's Head of Sales for the UK and Northern Europe talks about the company's long-term ad goals, and Brian Morrissey talks the pivot to performance with Dotdash Meredith's CEO.
Links to every story discussed, as well as the full writeup, can be found on this episode's post at Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting. As always, links to every story discussed can be found in this episode's full write-up, available here.
Our top stories:
Edward Fuller'sGuide to Making the Most of SXSW as a Podcast Professional
Tom Webster Pitches AI as a Podcast Cohost
Spreaker Supporters Club Announced
New NPR SVP of Podcast Strategy Sees an Optimistic 2024 Ahead
And in our quick hits:
* 2024 Marketing Trends Report. A new report from Quill and Carney collects dozens of sources to provide a snapshot of current and potential future marketing trends.
* PodPod to be merged with Campaign. The PodPod brand will be retired and sister publication Campaign will take over live events like the British Podcast Awards and Podcast Advertising Summit, as well as increase its own coverage of audio and podcasting news.
* Spotify joins ACPM. Megaphone is now compliant with French local measurement standards. For more information on the ACPM, see The French Exception on Sounds Profitable.
* Marketers are chronically underinvesting in brand by Ashley Regan. Australian radio has a recurring issue of marketers running trial brand campaigns that are too short to show their true ROI.
* Audacy Receives Court Approval of Reorganization Plan. With the approval, Audacy can move forward on ending their Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Here's what you need to know for today in the busienss of podcasting: PodPod will be merged into Campaign, Tom Webster writes on using AI as a podcast co-host, why Temu's Super Bowl ad is a sonic branding success story, and US scripted TV numbers dropped last year.
Find links to every story covered, as well as the full write-up, on Sounds Profitable.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting. Top stories include Barometer and Next Broadcast Media teaming up to create a podcast brand safety tool for Arabic podcasts, 2024 political ad spend could affect advertising overall, Audacy receives approval for reorganization plans, and the top podcast advertisers for January.
Find links to all articles covered and the full write-up on Sounds Profitable.
A lot has been said about AI replacing human-made content. This week Tom Webster proposes a person-first future deploying AI-powered tools where they work best: as a support structure.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Edward Fuller writes about how to take full advantage of the podcast-heavy SXSW sessions this year, why NPR's Collin Campbell sees opportunity after a turbulent 2023, marketers are underinvesting in radio brand campaigns, and more.
Find links to everything covered in today's episode, as well as the full write-up, here.
Here's what you need to know from today in the business of podcasting. Spreaker introduces new Supporters Club, Quill publishes 2024 Marketing Trends Report, Spotify embraces French podcasting, Business Insider looks at ad load on video streamers, and Adelicious' Andrew Goldsmith talks about the importance of targeting 50+ demographics.
For links to all stories covered, check out the full writeup on Sounds Profitable.
This week in the business of podcasting we collected all of the revelant news for podcasting in the world of Super Bowl advertising, branded content was on the rise as new ad product growth in 2023, and the subtle key to podcasting's persuasiveness. Find all of the links to articles discussed and original reporting done by The Download in the website version of today's episode, which can be found here.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Analysis Shows How Important Digital Audio Is Becoming For Retailers
Pepsi sat out the Super Bowl broadcast this year. That’s because it was everywhere else by Alyssa Meyers
Sports Podcasts Have Best Video Opportunity Survey Finds.
The Creator Economy: Boom Not Bust by Ross Adams
…as for the rest of the news: a new hub for the next generation of audio journalists in Canada has launched, Veritonic has launched the self-serve Brand Lift Pulse, Audiohook has announced partnership with Sounder to enable episode-level contextual targeting for podcast ads, and AdsWizz has announced the launch of synthetic voice ads on AudioGO.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Most B2B content marketers have trouble creating the right content for their audience by Meaghan Yuen
The Value of Measuring the Upper Funnel for Podcast Ads by Paul Riismandel
The Top 50 Podcasts in the U.S. for Q4 2023 from Edison Podcast Metrics
…as for the rest of the news: Meghan Markle has signed with Lemonada to distribute the royal couple’s Archetypes podcast plus develop a new podcast, and Business Insider takes a look into how MrBallen became a true crime podcast empire.
Miles of article inches have been written about podcasting’s persuasiveness, but NPR’s Body Electric takes audience engagement to a new, physical level.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Podcast Consumers Engage With Social Media And Listen To Episodes Within A Day Of Release by Lauren Vetrano
Most publishers grew their ad offerings last year, with a focus on branded content
Authentic Multicultural Narratives Create True Diversity in Audio Advertising by Antonio Francisco Lewis
Subscriptions, Not an Endangered Species
SiriusXM to Lay Off 160 Employees, About 3% of Workforce
Research Database Snapshot
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Acast expects short-term impact on listens from Apple update by Ella Sagar
This Year’s Super Bowl Is All About Reaching Gen Z by Alyssa Boyle
Slate reports best year by Max Tani
Perfection Thwarting Progress: Response to IAB Tech Lab's Missive on Google's Privacy Sandbox By Catherine Perloff
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting:
The following stories feature reporting specifically by The Download:
How Much Podcasting Does a 30 Second Super Bowl Spot Buy?
Accreditation for Black-Owned Publishers in Podcasting
The Trade Desk to Lowball SSP Price Floors
Brand Marketing Grows, Performance Shrinks in WARC Data
And also from The Ankler: YouTube’s Place in Streaming
Quick Hits:
Reintroducing Podcasting by Tom Webster. The upcoming Sound Summit at SXSW, an official day for podcasting, will act as a way for podcasting to re-introduce itself to brands and agencies that might’ve only last encountered podcasting in its adtech infancy.
Spotify Reports Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings. Paid subscribers are up, raising one million over guidance numbers. The company expects their podcasting arm to turn a profit by the end of the year.
Podcast benchmarking: How did your downloads compare in 2023? By Sharon Taylor. The benchmarks present what count as ‘good’ download numbers for ap podcast, divided into percentiles.
The Art of Podcasting with Joe Rogan and His New Multiyear Spotify Partnership. The Joe Rogan Experience has renewed its contract with Spotify for hosting and distribution, but the former exclusive has now returned to open RSS distribution.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
The Trade Desk Plans To Lowball SSP Floor Prices
Podcast benchmarking: How did your downloads compare in 2023? By Sharon Taylor
The New York Times expects ad revenue to continue to decline in 2024 by Sara Guaglione
Warner Music to Cut 600 Positions or 10% of Staff by Ashely Carman
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
More than a third of marketers will increase their brand marketing investments this year by Meaghan Yuen
Meet Podcast X-Ray by Dan Misener
Toyota Signs Eli Manning and Brock Purdy as National Partners and Announces Plans for Super Bowl LVIII as The “Official Automotive Partner of the NFL”
AI-powered podcast ad producer AudioStack raises £2.5m
If someone peeked into podcasting in the late 2010s, they would’ve seen an industry in ad tech infancy in comparison to podcasting’s capabilities now. The official Podcasting Sound Summit at SXSW will help re-introduce the industry and show off its new capabilities.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Netflix's Threat Isn't in Hollywood. It's YouTube by Entertainment Strategy Guy
Here’s what a $7M, 30-second Super Bowl ad can purchase in digital media in 2024 by Kimeko McCoy
What People Are Doing When They Aren’t Listening To Your Podcast by Steven Goldstein
Spotify Reports Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Spotify’s Multiplatform Strategy, Rogan Going Public
WTF is accreditation for Black-owned publications? By Sara Guaglione
AdvertiseCast Marketplace Podcast Advertising Rates
…as for the rest of the news: Andrew Goldsmith has been promoted to CEO of Adelicious, BBC Sounds has publisher their Q4 report, and the Hollywood Reporter has published the full list of nominees for the 2024 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, the winners of which will be announced live at a particularly podcast-heavy SXSW.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting:
Apple Podcasts Debuts Automatic Transcript Generation
Alex Cooper’s ‘Call Her Daddy’ Podcast Ends Spotify Exclusivity
Lessons From The Brand Podcast Summit
Triton Digital’s U.S. Podcast Report, 2023
New Direct-to-Consumer Podcast Advertising Report
Quick Hits:
Knowing Half the Battle in Podcasting by Tom Webster. Half the battle of podcasting is keeping up with changes to the audience, and this week Tom looks at the “neglected half” of the work.
Wondery Announces Original Podcast Black History, For Real. The new podcast, produced by DCP Entertainment, is a weekly series breaking down the lesser-known events and individuals that have shaped Black culture.
ESPN Podcasts to Air Weekday Afternoons on ESPN2. Five video podcasts produced by ESPN will be aired on their second channel as part of a seasonal content initiative, filling the 2-3PM EST time slot Monday-Friday.
The Free and Open Ad-Supported Internet. A new IAB study that looks into the feelings of internet users when it comes to advertising’s place online and how it keeps certain sites and services free to use.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Alex Cooper’s ‘Call Her Daddy’ Podcast Is No Longer Exclusive to Spotify by Caitlin Huston
98% of Global Marketers for Direct-to-Consumer Brands Say Podcasts are Effective in Reaching Consumers, Acast Study Finds
RAJAR Data Release, Q4 2023
Still Waiting For That Cookie To Crumble? We’re In The ‘In-Between Years,’ Says IAB CEO David Cohen by Sarah Sluis
…as for the rest of the news: As for the rest of the news… Audacy is set to lay off 25% of employees from Pineapple Street, Digiday shares thoughts from attendees of IAB ALM, and the spring thaw comes early as AdAge covers which agencies might be buying (or bought) after a slow 2023 for M&A.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
The Free and Open Ad-Supported Internet
Brand Podcast Summit Keeps the Focus on the Audience by Jeff Vidler
In rocky digital advertising landscape, advertisers reconsider direct mail by Kimeko McCoy
Digiday+ Research: Publishers held onto their staff and titles last year, even as traffic fell by Julia Tabisz
…as for the rest of the news: SXM Media signs $100+ million three year exclusivity deal with Smartless, Acast’s Megan Davies talks about AI’s role in podcasting, and Triton Digital’s Sharon Taylor has published predictions for podcasting’s 2024 from nine industry leaders.
With apologies to G.I. Joe, half the battle of podcasting is not the changes in technology, but keeping up with changes to the audience. Tom Webster digs into the “neglected half” of the work of podcasting.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Apple’s New iOS 17 Software Is A Positive Step For Podcast Advertisers And Content Creators John Wordock and Pierre Bouvard
Triton Digital US Podcast Report 2023
Audiobooks Are Booming. Spotify Wants in on the Action by Alexandra Alter
The Results Are In: Here’s What Americans Streamed in 2023 by John Koblin
Amazon rolls out ads on Prime Video by Jasmine Sheena
…as for the rest of the news: Ari Paparo interviews Spotify’s Per Sandell to discuss the company’s targeting and adtech, Linkfire announces Engaged Listeners metric for Apple Podcasts, branded podcast production Pop by Pacific Content launches, and MediaPost interviews Ad Results Media's Gretchen Smith about podcast advertising.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Transcripts on Apple Podcasts
ESPN Podcasts to Air Weekday Afternoons on ESPN2 Starting January 29 by Alex Feuz
George Carlin’s Estate Sues Podcasters Over A.I. Episode
…as for the rest of the news: Amazon dethroned BetterHelp as top podcast spender on Magellan AI’s December tracker, and Wondery debuts a new toy line inspired by Wow in the World.
And Podfront comes to PodMov.
Monday, March 26th, Sounds Profitable has partnered with Podcast Movement to present the inaugural Podfront, an upfront-style event bringing brands and publishers together. Hosted by Tom Webster and Bryan Barletta, the event runs 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with food and beverage provided.Whether you represent a brand that’d like an invite, or a publisher who’d like to participate, check out the official Podfront page!
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting:
Sounder Debuts Open APIs For Transcription
How Podcast Networks Are Testing Out AI
Analysis of 28.5 Million Podcast Reviews on US Apple Podcasts
Not All Video Podcast Ads Are Created Equal
Quick Hits:
The “Why” of Your Podcast by Tom Webster. This week Tom shares an excerpt from his upcoming book, focusing on figuring out the all-important detail of why someone listens to a podcast.
Paramount Won’t Return to TV’s Upfront Week in New York by Brian Steinberg. Despite CBS usually being a big-ticket player in flashy New York upfronts, Paramount Global is taking this year to focus on intimate in-person meetings with select advertisers.
SCOOP: Are awards worth it for Canadian podcasts? by Kattie Laur. A deep dive into confusion and controversy surrounding last year’s Signal awards.
Brands Are Getting Shy On DEI, But Reaching Diverse Audiences Is Still Good Business by Anthony Vargas. Minority-owned publishers have a big hurdle to overcome, as despite regularly providing higher ROI than more generic competitors, buyers aren’t finding their inventory in the first place.
Manifest Media Announces Strategic Partnership with Realm to Expand its Creative Influence in Podcasting. The collaboration aims to bring Manifest’s catalog of new and upcoming audio fiction to Realm’s platform.
Ossa Announces 2nd Event In 10-Part Series On Creators and Podcast Advertising Partners. The session will focus on where to find podcast hosting services and tips on evaluating the best one for a given podcaster’s needs.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Unlocking the Value of Audio Content: Why Open APIs Are a Game-Changer (featuring Bryan Barletta, Partner at Sounds Profitable)
The “Why” of Your Podcast by Tom Webster
More gambling ad spend goes to TV than all other formats combined by Sara Lebow
NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era by David Folkenflik
…as for the rest of the news: Audacy projects ambitious revenue growth in streaming and podcasting for the year, and Paramount announces Jon Stewart will return as executive producer and Monday host of The Daily Show.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Most streaming music tracks do not reach monetisation threshold by Ella Sagar
Brands Are Getting Shy On DEI, But Reaching Diverse Audiences Is Still Good Business by Anthony Vargas
Why Personalized Ads Go Wrong And How To Do Them Right by Hana Yoo
…as for the rest of the news: Magellan has published their rankings of top podcast advertisers for December 2023, Brian Morrissey reflects on what media publishing might look like if the current billionaire-supported model falls apart, and Sounder has a free live webinar next Tuesday with Bryan Barletta on open APIs.
Since the beginning of podcasting, people have yearned to know exactly why someone does or does not listen to their podcast. Tom Webster reflects on what answering a “why” can uncover.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
How podcast networks are testing AI tools for faster translation, ad sales by Sara Guaglione
I analyzed 28.5 million Apple Podcasts star ratings by Dan Misener
Paramount Won’t Return to TV’s Upfront Week in New York by Brian Steinberg
Are awards worth it for Canadian podcasts? By Kattie Laur
LUMA: 2024 Will Be Better For M&A (No, Seriously This Time) by Allison Schiff
Sound will no longer be an afterthought
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Not All Podcast Ads are Created Equal. Here's Why by Kedric Walls
Sports has a Gen Z problem
Are Podcasts Cool (Again)?
Hot Pod Interviews NPC Podcast Chief Collin Campbell
…as for the rest of the news: amplifi’s Steven Goldstein writes The Truth About Podcasting’s Measurement Makeover, PodBean’s final free live event of “Podcast Launch Month” is this Thursday, and healthcare is projected to invest over $36 billion in U.S. advertising this year (which podcasting could get a cut of).
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting.
Podcast Download: Disconnect Between Ad Creative and Audience Expectations
TikTok on Skippable Ads, Becoming Search Destination
Communication is Key in Podcasting
Podcasting Grows at SXSW
Quick Hits
While they may not be top story material, the articles below from this week are definitely worth your time:
* The 25th Hour by Tom Webster. This week in the Sounds Profitable newsletter, Tom explains how Duolingo, rocks, and sand can help podcasting reach potential listeners who feel they don’t have enough time for podcasts.
* Podcasting Pioneer Shares His 3 Biggest Tips for Success . This week on How Success Happens, Bryan Barletta joins to discuss how companies can set themselves up for success when dipping their toes into podcasting.
* Australians downloaded more than 1 billion podcasts in 2023. According to the December Australian Podcast Ranker from Triton Digital and Commercial Radio & Audio, Australia's top 200 Australian podcasts were downloaded more than a billion times last year, representing a 26% year over year increase.
* Can programmatic help podcasts find the money? By Damian Fowler. Programmatic advertising made up 1 in 10 revenue ad dollars for podcasting last year, while forms of other digital media had 9 out of 10 come from programmatic. This piece looks at ways programmatic could have a path forward in increasing its growth rate with podcasts.
* Flightpath Premieres First-of-its-Kind Campaign Prediction One Year Into the Future. Flightpath’s new availability engine aims to elevate transparency and control, as well as allow advertisers and creators to plan up to a year in the future with confidence.
* ALIVE Podcast Network and Barometer Partner to Drive Equitable Monetization for Black Creators and Media Owners. The new partnership between ALIVE Podcast Network and Barometer aims to challenge historical disenfranchisement faced by creators of diverse backgrounds.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
The 25th Hour by Tom Webster
Podcasts are key tool for TV discovery, research shows by Adam Shepherd
Amy Poehler to Keynote at Podcast Movement Evolutions
TikTok gains favor among Gen Z over Google for searches by Jeremy Goldman
Daily Beast Podcast Secretly Records Paul F. Tompkins, Reframes Discussion
…as for the rest of the news: WARC Media predicts global ad spend will break $1 trillion this year, Marketing Brew gives a “way too early” look at cookie-less internet browsing, and ExchangeWire asks several experts for their predictions on podcasting and digital audio this year.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Podcast Ad Creative Disconnect Revealed In Cumulus Media And Signal Hill Insights’ Podcast Download by Pierre Bouvard
Australians downloaded more than 1 billion podcasts in 2023
Can programmatic help podcasts find the money? by Damian Fowler
…as for the rest of the news: Headliner reflects on 2023’s statistics and feature launches, Signal Hill Insights discusses how YouTube and video will grow podcasting this year, and Bryan Barletta appears on Entrepreneur’s podcast How Success Happens to talk about setting companies up for success in podcasting.
Tom Webster explains what rocks, sand, and Duolingo can teach podcasting in how we frame listening statistics and audience behavior.
* Written by Tom Webster
* Edited by Bryan Barletta
* Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
* Hosted by Spreaker
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
The incredible shrinking podcast industry by Max Tani
TikTok reports non-skippable video ads may harm engagement by Nicola Agius
How children's privacy laws complicate connected TV tracking practices by Tim Peterson
S&P says advertisers have resumed spending
iHeartMedia Announces Return of ‘The iHeartPodcast Awards’ with Live Event in Partnership with SXSW on March 11, 2024
…as for the rest of the news: PodPod reports Audioboom has hit 35% year-over-year revenue growth, Flightpath premiers campaign predictions that can project one year into the future, Magellan AI adds attention metrics with Adelaide, and Pushkin appoints Gretta Cohn as CEO.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Podcast Acquisitions & Investments - 2023 Industry RecapSXM Media’s Digital Audio Research RecapYouTube Launches RSS Feed IngestionBranded Music and AuthenticityQuick Hits: 5 Strategies For Podcast Expansion In A Zero-Sum Audio World by Steven Goldstein. Recent Edison Research data shows daily time spent listening to audio content has remained stable for a decade. Goldstein discusses strategies for podcasting to grow in a world where a listener’s time is largely already accounted for.iOS 17 by Pete Birsinger. The Podscribe CEO has written an explainer on how iOS17 changed auto-downloading behavior and how it will likely impact campaign performance for podcasts. For more reading on the subject, we recommend Livewire Labs’ regularly-updated data on download performance since iOS 17’s release.Content Mood Targeting from SXM Media. Publishers working with SXM can target music-listening audiences based on the mood assigned to millions of songs in a growing library of cateogorized music, as well as submit their own music to be assigned mood tags.The Untapped Potential of Audio in Retail Media Networks by Joshua Yamuder. Triton Digital’s Director of Partnerships and Programmatic Marketplace promotes digital audio as a must-have inclusion for retail media networks looking to diversify their marketing mix.Since the last issue of The Download there have been two podcasting bankruptcies of note: Audacy and Voxalyze
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:Podcast Acquisitions & Investments - 2023 Industry Recap by Bryan Barletta
Ambassador Ads are going away.
The Untapped Potential of Audio in Retail Media Networks by Joshua Yamuder
If music marketing is a gateway to culture, brands must navigate carefully, execs say
…as for the rest of the news: The recently-canceled podcast Death, Sex & Money from WNYC has been revived by Slate, and if you’re interested in more coverage of marketers seeking authenticity in their campaigns: check out Digiday’s piece on brands shifting their approach to influencers.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
YouTube officially allows creators to publish podcasts via RSS feeds by Reem Makari
After a tough year, podcast execs say 2024 will bring in new advertisers amid stiff competition for listeners by Sara Guaglione
Libsyn CPMs down 6% for 2023 by Adam Shepherd
Can Programmatic Audio Rise In The Charts In 2024? by Hana Yoo
…as for the rest of the news: Lower Street has announced their speaker lineup for a free brand podcast summit on January 24th, Adam Bowie looks at Edison’s top 25 podcasts in the UK from Q3 2023, and AdExchanger looks at programmatic CTV’s expected evolution for the year.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Sounder Analysis: NPR's News Podcasts Significantly Safer for Brands than General Population of News Podcasting
Content Mood Targeting
5 Strategies For Podcast Expansion In A Zero-Sum Audio World by Steven Goldstein
How Will Contextual Advertising Fare When The FTC Revises Its COPPA Rule? by Allison Schiff
…as for the rest of the news: iHeartmedia and Magnite join forces to launch a new marketplace, AdLarge signs exclusive sales partnership with Fable & Folly, Audacy files for bankruptcy, USG Audio scales back Universal’s podcast development, and Voxalyze announces a shutdown of their services due to lack of investment.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Streaming audio twice as “authentic” than TV for advertisers. Podcasts? Nine times. by Brad HilliOS 17, a writeup by Pete BirsingerWhy Gen Z’s biggest podcasters are working from bed by Lilly SmithThe 5 trends that will shape sports marketing in 2024 by Alyssa MeyersMusic streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale by Mark Kleinman…as for the rest of the news: Signal Hill Insights shares three potential game-changers from their 2023 research, Cumulus Media signs a deal with BiggerPockets, and iHeartMedia is launching a politically-focused podcast network.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Disney nearly sold out Christmas sports ad space in early December.Simplecast Announces YouTube IntegrationSmartLess Proved Celeb Podcasts Can Mean BusinessYouTube Postpones Co-Viewing Measurement PlanQuick Hits: What marketers need to learn from breakthrough brand IP like Barbie, Nike, Super Mario Bros. for 2024 by Kristina Monllos. Digiday interviews several people in the advertising industry to get their take on the near-future of branded content in a post-Barbie world.Here's What's Missing From Netflix's Data Dump, According to Ad Experts by Bill Bradley. While the new What We Watched report from Netflix has some useful data covering the past six months, ad buyers would prefer smaller, more frequent batches of data with more targetable information than one giant batch every six months.The Crucial Timing of Ads. RedCircle sketches out the ebb and flow of ad spending throughout a typical year to give podcasters an idea of what strategies they should pursue in the early months, the summer, and the busy holiday season at the end of the year. What Worked in 2023: Brands in Podcasting by Annalise Nielsen. Pacific Content interviews several industry professionals to talk about valuable lessons learned in branded podcasting this year.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:Simplecast adds YouTube integration for automatic uploads by Adam ShepherdWhat marketers need to learn from breakthrough brand IP like Barbie, Nike, Super Mario Bros. for 2024 by Kristina MonllosHere's What's Missing From Netflix's Data Dump, According to Ad Experts by Bill Bradley…as for the rest of the news: Podimo has secured €44 million in combined funding, and eMarketer finds most TV and video ad buyers require at least three(!) forms of data currency.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Welcome to the ad-free internetSpotify's Push Into Audiobooks Sparks Concern Among Authors by Ashley CarmanThe Crucial Timing of AdsMedia Buying Briefing: Here are five media agency trends to watch in 2024 by Antoinette Siu and Michael Bürgi …as for the rest of the news: Rain News shares the audio-related highlights from Nieman Labs’ 2024 predictions, and Marketing Brew covers how Agencies of Record could become a thing of the past.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: IAB Releases First-of-Its-Kind Research Report on the Creator Economy Advertising OpportunityWhat Worked in 2023: Brands in Podcasting by Annalise NielsenYouTube postpones co-viewing measurement plan by Tim PetersonAd Trends In 2024: Digital Deceleration, AI Rising, More Ad-Supported Streaming…as for the rest of the news: Tink Media has launched Podcast Group Therapy to offer podcast marketing strategies in tight-knit online sessions capped at 10 participants, new Association of Online Publishers report shows subscription revenues are beginning growth to a flat digital publishing market in the UK, and Magellan AI publishes their top movers and shakers in podcast advertising for November.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Disney is almost sold out of Christmas NFL, NBA, and Rose Bowl ad inventory by Alyssa MeyersMailchimp cancels podcast after refusing to work with union producers by Ariel ShapiroHow Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes’ ‘Smartless’ Proved Podcasts Can Mean Big Business by Addie MorfootBehind the scenes of SiriusXM’s rebrand by Alyssa Meyers…as for the rest of the news: Podnews has launched a fun tool to find which Netflix series has similar performance to your podcast’s based on recently-published Netflix watch data, and IAB Australia has announced the 2024 IAB Australia Audio Summits sessions.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Sound You Can See: Podcasting’s Video DilemmaEdison Research, Cumulus Media publish Q3 Share of Ear StudySpotify Inks Podcast Deal With Warner Bros. Discovery for CNN, HBO and More Shows by Caitlin HustonTeens social media platform choices are shifting.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Sound You Can See: Podcasting’s Video Dilemma49% of global marketers predict increase in podcast ad spending by Adam ShepherdAudio Is One Of Agency Giant WPP’s Top 10 Trends For 2024.Realm inks deal with Adelicious
Sound You Can See, our latest research on the role of video in podcasting, presents a compelling picture of a single audience, choosing audio or video depending on their mood and environment. Tom Webster breaks down the ten things you need to know from this important study.Sound You Can See Webinar* Written by Tom Webster * Edited by Bryan Barletta * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: TikTok Sunsets Podcast FeatureTeens are more online than ever, but platform preferences differ: report by Jasmine SheenaPodcasters & Advertisers: Meet Your New Audience by Paul RiismandelThe Specialist DSPs Giving Omnichannel Giants A Run For Their Money By James Hercher…as for the rest of the news: McDonald’s has committed to supporting diverse podcasting for another two years, and Brian Morrissey discusses podcasts as ‘nuance media’ on The Rebooting Show.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Edison Q3 2023 “Share Of Ear”: AM/FM In-Car Listening Surges To Pre-Pandemic Norms, Spoken Word Grows To Highest Level, And Pandora and Spotify Are Down by Pierre BouvardSpotify Inks Podcast Deal With Warner Bros. Discovery for CNN, HBO and More Shows by Caitlin HustonTikTok, gaming, and AI will define the advertising landscape in 2024, report says
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting. People are watching longer TikToks. What does that mean for competition with YouTube? by Sara LebowA look at holding company 2024 ad spending forecasts by Antoinette SiuFrom Unicorns to Zombies: Tech Start-Ups Run Out of Time and Money by Erin GriffithWhat creator Anna Kai looks for in a brand partner by Katie Hicks…as for the rest of the news: Livewire has published an update to their tracking of iOS 17 auto-download changes in Apple Podcasts, and Spotify’s CFO Paul Vogel is now slated to leave the company in March (a decision made shortly after Vogel sold over $9 million in Spotify shares on the same day as the layoff news last week).
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting: The Fastest Growing Languages in PodcastingPodcast Download Fall 2023, Cumulus Media and Signal Hill InsightsSpotify Announces LayoffsANA Study Finds Nearly 2/3rds of Ad Dollars Never Reach Intended AudiencesQuick Hits: The Partial Attention Economy of Video Podcasting by Tom Webster. Surveyed podcast audiences say they’re media-agnostic when it comes to how and where they consume podcasts. Tom examines what this means for podcasting. Speaking of video and podcasting, don’t forget to register for Sound You Can See: Podcasting’s Video Dilemma, which debuts in a free webinar at 2:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday, December 13th. Libsyn Unveils November 2023 Podcast Advertising Rates, and 5 Developments to Watch in 2024. Along with the latest AdvertiseCast average CPM for a 60 second podcast ad, CRO Dave Hanley shares five things to keep an eye on next year. Deloitte: Audio Market to Surpass $75 billion in 2024. In addition to the overall number for audio advertising, Deloitte predicts podcasting has a fair amount of untapped potential for per-user revenue growth. Podcasts aren’t as doomed as they look. But some of the best ones are by Scott Nover. A look at the last year for Spotify, as well as big-picture reflection on the issues facing more cost-intensive journalistic and investigative podcasts.Podcast Companies Begin to Advertise Like Hollywood Studios by Katie Deighton. Wondery is taking a page out of the Hollywood playbook, promoting the new Grinch podcast with a pop-up event in a Los Angeles mall.
What Are the Fastest-Growing Podcast Languages? by Becca Butcher‘We have to test or you’re dead next year’: Overheard at the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit by Kayleigh BarberPodcasts aren't as doomed as they look. But some of the best ones are by Scott NoverOnly around a third of ad dollars reach ‘intended audiences,’ ANA finds by Ryan Barwick…as for the rest of the news: Tidal announces a layoff of 10% of its staff, and more Digiday coverage of the Programmatic Marketing Summit in which a panelist breaks down integrating programmatic tracking into the creator economy.
When asked if they listen to full podcast episodes, watch full episodes, or watch clips, audiences surveyed gave a resounding “yes.” Tom Webster breaks down what that means for podcasting and how we should act on it.* Written by Tom Webster * Edited by Bryan Barletta * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Spotify Cuts 1,500 Jobs, CEO Ek Says Streamer Must Be Leaner by Lucas ShawDeloitte: Audio Market To Surpass $75 Billion In 2024.Libsyn Unveils November 2023 Podcast Advertising Rates, and 5 Developments to Watch in 2024…as for the rest of the news: NPR hires former Gimlet executive editor Collin Cambell to oversee podcast strategy, PodPod reports the BBC is investing more in podcasting as part of a digital pivot, Marketing Brew examines why advertisers are excited about attention metrics, and Horizon Media has outlined 10 Gen Z subcultures for marketers to think about when targeting campaigns.
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting: RAJAR: UK Podcast Weekly Reach Has Doubled Since 2017Ad Revenue Growing Faster Than ExpectedPodcast Guesting Drives Defector SubscriptionsBranded Podcast Enables Better Coverage, Connection With FansQuick Hits:Putting Success In Your Way With Video by Tom Webster. With the growth of video podcasting, it’s time to re-examine how podcasting thinks about audiences watching podcasts instead of listening. Tom Webster breaks down the differences, and how the two aren’t mutually exclusive.Age of Audio: A Tale of Modern Audio Storytelling. Podcast producer Ronald Young Jr. has published a trailer and IndieGoGo campaign to fund the completion of a documentary about the evolution of narrative audio in podcasting, featuring interviews with notable podcasters like Ira Glass, Avery Trufelman, and our very own Tom Webster. How audience-first creative is amplifying audio and video campaigns for 2024 by Alex Donics. Spotify’s global director of demand marketing talks through the power of effective advertising and highlights the key ingredient of a well-produced, authentic ad creative. Realm & IGN Strike Podcast Deal Including Scripted Adaptation Of Justin Roiland Videogame ‘High On Life’ From Squanch Games by Peter White. Audio fiction production company Realm has signed a deal with IGN to produce podcasts based on video game IP. Given the size and connections of IGN, this could lead to a whole new niche of licensed audio fiction based on video games. New Podcast Audience Profiles Now Available for Publishers in the Australian Podcast Ranker. Triton Digital and Commercial Radio & Audio have announced new podcast audience profiles are now available with the launch of Podcast Metrics Demos+
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Strong online sales show Black Friday was an ‘omnichannel event’ by Alex VuocoloAd revenue is growing faster than expected, per analyst by Ryan BarwickDigiday+ Research: Publishers’ programmatic revenue didn’t shake out the way they’d hoped, but it’s still a bright spot How audience-first creative is amplifying audio and video campaigns for 2024 by Alex Donics…as for the rest of the news: The trailer and IndieGoGo campaign for Age of Audio: A Tale of Modern Audio Storytelling are now live (spoiler alert: Sounds Profitable’s own Tom Webster makes an appearance), Magellan AI has published their October 2023 top movers and shakers in podcast advertising, and AdExchanger proposes programmatic CTV is in its ‘consolidation phase’ (a phase podcasting has already experienced and matured from).
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Podcasting’s Multiplatform Imperative by Steven GoldsteinInnovid study examines impact of measurement and optimization gaps across CTV campaigns by Antoinette SiuGoogle’s Search Partner network comes under fire in research underlining brand safety vulnerabilities by Ronan ShieldsWhy Chili’s brought back its baby back ribs jingle by Alyssa Meyers…as for the rest of the news: MediaPost reports the ad market has grown for its fourth consecutive quarter, the 2023 edition of Spotify Wrapped is here, Signal Hill Insights’ Jeff Vidler discusses what makes podcasts a unique ad medium, and we’ve got a bushel of Apple charts: Podnews has aggregated the top Apple Podcasts show around the world, and Adam Bowie breaks down the U.S. top Apple chart to compare it to similar rankings from other sources.
With the growth of video podcasting, it’s time to re-examine how podcasting thinks about audiences watching podcasts instead of listening. Tom Webster breaks down the differences, and how the two aren’t mutually exclusive.* Written by Tom Webster * Edited by Bryan Barletta * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Auddia Announces Intent to Strip Ads From PodcastsDigital audio ad spend in Australia up 16.2% September quarter 2023Realm & IGN Strike Podcast Deal Including Scripted Adaptation Of Justin Roiland Videogame ‘High On Life’ From Squanch Games by Peter White…as for the rest of the news: Apple shares the most popular podcasts of the year, and Adam Bowie takes a look at the RAJAR Midas report.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Rajar Midas: podcasts double weekly reach in six years by Ella SagarThe shifts that will impact 2024’s video ad landscape by Jennifer KingDefector Annual Report, September 2022 – August 2023How Trader Joe’s, Erewhon, and H-E-B, have cultivated a cult following Women more disengaged with news than men…as for the rest of the news: The Podcast Show 2024 is now accepting session and speaker submissions until Friday, December 8th (and in case you were wondering: Sounds Profitable will be in attendance), Livewire Labs has published an in-depth analysis of the impact of auto-download changes to Apple Podcast in iOS 17, and AdNews interviews Spotify’s head of sales for Australia and New Zealand.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: A secret Google deal let Spotify completely bypass Android’s app store fees by Adi Robertson and Sean HollisterBrand safety concerns mount as X (formerly Twitter) pulls out of MRC audit by Krystal ScanlonNewsGuard’s Whitelist Of Ukrainian Publishers Aims To Combat Wartime Misinformation by Anthony VargasRoku And Unity Want To Prove CTV Is A Performance Channel by Alyssa BoyleWorking From Home Spurs Ad Block Rates to Rise by Trishla Ostwal…as for the rest of the news: SiriusXM Media SVP and Head of Ad Innovation Lizzie Widhelm is on the latest Digiday Podcast, and PodPod has signed Spotify as a headline partner for their Podcast Advertising Summit, set to take place in London on January 25th.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:Forecast: Double-Digit Online Ad Growth For Both 2023 And 2024.Spotify Audience Network expands to five new global markets by Reem MakariSystem1: New Study Reveals How Audio Personalities Drive Advertising Effectiveness by Pierre BouvardAmazon joins pack offering deals a week ahead of Black Friday by Alex VuocoloCost of living is squeezing the entertainment budgets of Australians…as for the rest of the news: JAR Audio breaks down why podcasts should be guided by engagement instead of conversions, SoundCast is deepening ties between audio and mobile gaming advertising, and Pew Research Center finds Americans favor digital for news while print is at an all-time low.
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting: The Spoken Word Audio Report 2023YouTube Debuts New AI Content PoliciesSaving TikTok Songs to Spotify With New IntegrationAd Engagement Declines With Lack of RepresentationQuick Hits:* Spotify’s podcast and audiobook discovery will get a boost from Google Cloud’s AI by Amrita Khalid. Google Cloud’s Large Language Models will be used to scan all podcasts and audiobooks on Spotify to improve metadata and discoverability. * Podcasting Lessons From Dogs by Tom Webster. This week Tom reflects on why podcasts with multiple hosts need an Abbot to their Costello. A traffic cop to direct the flow of conversation when need be. * How I got 10x YouTube subscribers by adding video to my podcast by Ashley Hamer. A step-by-step account of Hamer adding video production to her existing podcast Taboo Science and how optimizing her YouTube channel boosted YouTube algorithm attention. * Sound You Can See: Podcasting’s Video Dilemma. On Wednesday, December 13th, Sounds Profitable will debut their latest study, which dives into consumer perceptions of podcasts on video and how they continue to drive the future of this medium. * Global signs exclusive podcast distribution and licensing deal with iHeartMedia by Reem Makari. iHeartMedia podcasts will be distributed on the Global Media app in the UK and Ireland, while Global podcasts will be distributed in the U.S. on iHeartRadio’s app, along with iHeartMedia monetization. * Triton Podcast Ranker: October 2023. 48 Hours climbs two spots to enter the top 10 in 9th place, pushing Conan Needs a Friend down to #10.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:Spotify’s podcast and audiobook discovery will get a boost from Google Cloud’s AI by Amrita KhalidYouTube intros new AI governance policies. AI helps enforce them by Brad HillThe case for and against brand safety by Seb Joseph and Krystal ScanlonDefining Premium Video - How VAB and Comcast’s FreeWheel are Trying to Settle TV Industry Debate by Jack Neff…as for the rest of the news: PodPod covers how to hit the mark with GenZ podcast listeners, and Triton’s newest batch of podcast rankers have arrived, including Australia’s top 100 showing Hamish & Andy has held its #1 spot for six months running.
What is the “future of audio business?”Today on the podcast, we’re excited to feature Bryan Barletta’s recent guest interview on Podcast Perspectives, the weekly show produced by our friends at The Podglomerate (the podcast firm specialized in producing, distributing, and monetizing podcasts for high-profile clients including Freakonomics Radio, PBS, NPR stations, Harvard Business School, and more). Podcast Perspectives brings on audio leaders and industry executives to walk through the biggest news of the day and to go deep on topics that podcasters need to know - like IP and rights issues, ad tech, podcasting’s role in media at-large, and more. Listen to more episodes of Podcast Perspectives and follow the podcast:https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives/
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Acast Inks Global Partnership with Proximic by Comscore for Cookie-Free Podcast Targeting Across More than 100,000 PodcastsLack of representation in ads causes disengagement in majority of UK audienceWhy Advertisers Should Care About Hitting The Right Note With Hispanic AudiencesGlobal signs exclusive podcast distribution and licensing deal with iHeartMedia
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: 2023 Podcast Trends Report from Megaphone and SpotifyLess Is More: Reduce Audio Ad Copy Word Count And Improve Effectiveness, According To Colourtext’s Jason Brownlee by Pierre BouvardYou Can Now Easily Save Songs to Spotify From TikTok With a Simple TapHow Agencies are Adapting to Marketers’ Increased Focus on the Creator Economy by Aleda Stam and Brian BonillaAs for the rest of the news… Advertisers are finding broken links to dead channels in their YouTube Select reports, and SXM has launched a rebrand with fresh new visuals and the return of its long-absent dog mascot Stella
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spoken word audio report (NPR / Edison Research): Record high consumption; podcast share growing; AM/FM unbeatable in the car by Brad HillAs the strikes end and Hollywood gets back to business, what happens next for advertisers and ad buyers? by Kristina MonllosAmericans to brands: look inward before weighing in on politics by Alyssa MeyersHow I got 10x YouTube subscribers by adding video to my podcast by Ashley Hamer…as for the rest of the news: SoundStack hires digital audio vet Michael Fischer, the nomination deadline for The Ambies is November 17th, Spooler has launched a map tool allowing podcasters to mark locations mentioned in a podcast on an embeddable map, The Podcast Marketing Academy has published a new marketing trends report, Spotify has revamped their connected TV app with more features and a UI similar to the desktop and mobile versions.
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting: Study Looks into Podcast Listener’s Consumer VerticalsSuper Bowl 54 Ad Space is Hot, As Are Sports Podcastsebiquity: 60% of Brands to Increase 2024 Ad BudgetsQ3 Podcast Earnings RoundupQuick HitsWhile they may not be top story material, the articles below from this week are definitely worth your time:* Making The Case for Podcasting by Tom Webster. Tom tackles the ever-present problem of making an appealing pitch for podcasts to non-listeners. * Integration Powerhouse: Podbean and Descript Simplify Podcast Publishing. Next Thursday, November 16th, Podbean and Descript will host a free hour-long webinar. * Podcasters Can Better Connect to Their Audiences With the Insights From Our Latest Fan Study. The study includes findings about the busiest time of day for podcast listening, and the efficacy of cross-podcast promotion. * Adaptive Podcasting - open source release. The BBC’s Research and Development has published research and an open-source tool investigating the concept of dynamically-built podcast episodes based on listener data.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: SiriusXM Lowers Price, Reboots to Take on Streaming Music Rivals With “Human-Curated” Focus by Alex WeprinMedia Briefing: In 2024, publishers and buyers say events and niche media will win ad dollars over scale by Kayleigh BarberPodcasters Can Better Connect to Their Audiences With the Insights From Our Latest Fan Study…as for the rest of the news: Veritone has posted their Q3 results, and Insider breaks down the difference between brand safety and brand suitability.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: 200,000+ Audiobooks Are Now Available to Spotify Premium Listeners in the U.S.Branding Investment in Podcasting Doubles, Magnifying Focus on Brand LiftSixty percent of major brands plan to increase their ad budgets in 2024, new research showsTwilight of the brands by Brian Morrissey
Tom Webster tackles the ever-present problem of making an appealing pitch for podcasts to non-listeners.* Written by Tom Webster * Edited by Bryan Barletta * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.Summary
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: What types of podcast listeners are which types of consumers? By Brad HillAcast’s US bet pays off with 55% net sales growth in North America by Reem MakariConsumer attention and ad spend are mismatched. Where does that leave advertisers? By Sara LebowThe Top 50 Podcasts in the U.S. Q3 2023 from Edison Podcast MetricsBrands Still Test Interactive Voice Ads Years After Launch by Stephen Lepitak…as for the rest of the news: BBC Studios grows its audio unit, The Hollywood Reporter covers a big investment in athlete-hosted video podcasts, and Succession takes home top podcast at the AdWeek Podcast Awards.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: CBS is ‘virtually sold out’ of ad slots for Super Bowl 58 by Alyssa MeyersAdaptive Podcasting - open source release from BBC Research & Development?LeVar Burton Wants to Be Heard by Laurel Graeber…as for the rest of the news: Attention vendors are trying to bring measurement tools currently available in other fields (like podcasting) to YouTube, and continuing the theme of major news sources covering podcasts: a recent Washington Post article on Julia Louis-Dreyfus heavily sources her Lemonada podcast Wiser Than Me.
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting:Amazon launches interactive audio adsConsumer Shopping Habits Forecast 2019 NumbersMarketers to spend holiday budgets (mostly) in NovemberThe Implications of Spotify’s Audiobook RevampQuick HitsSounds Profitable launches branded podcast directory in partnership with Lower Street by Reem Makari. As announced in Bryan Barletta’s article on Wednesday, Sounds Profitable has partnered with branded podcast production company Lower Street to create Brands in Podcasts, a public directory for branded audio.Are my podcast downloads declining because of iOS 17? by Dan Misener. A breakdown of how to answer three important questions about the health of one’s Apple Podcasts audience and how to track it as wider iOS17 adoption changes auto-download behaviors.The Jar Audio Podcast Landscape featuring Sounds Profitable Research. JAR Audio breaks down key findings from the Sounds Profitable study The Podcast Landscape, which took a look at how listener perceptions of podcasting. The JAR breakdown looks at the study from the perspective of a marketer working with branded podcasts. Digiday Programmatic Selling Strategies: Navigating identity, deals and making the most of CTV and video. Thursday, November 16th, Digiday Editor-in-Chief Jim Cooper will host a virtual forum with marketing experts to discuss programmatic campaign strategies for 2024. The forum is produced in partnership with U of Digital and registration is free.Startup Series: Introduction to Podcast Advertising by Ossa Collective. On Wednesday, November 8th at 2:00 p.m. CST OSSA will host a live virtual event kicking off their ten-part series demystifying the world of podcast advertising.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable launches branded podcast directory in partnership with Lower Street by Reem MakariMarketers to spend most of holiday budgets in November: report by Alyssa MeyersIP addresses may not be the post-cookie data solution adtech wanted by Ryan Barwick …as for the rest of the news: Forrester Research finds CMOs are far less dour about Q4 than they were last year, Audioboom celebrates breaking one billion advertising impressions, and Tenderfoot TV acquires production company Resonate, the company behind the hit podcast Up and Vanished.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: BetterHelp And Amazon Lead Monthly Ranking Of Top Podcast Advertisers. [Source]Radio beats TV: Audacy describes an audio blueprint for advertisers by Brad Hill [Source]BBC Sounds Quarter 3 2023 [Source]How podcast networks use existing feeds to improve engagement and discoverability for new shows by Sara Guaglione [Source]…as for the rest of the news: AdvertiseCast has published their average cost-per-thousand impressions for a sixty second podcast ad in October, and MarketingBrew covers the various Halloweeny activities advertisers got up to last month.
How big is the branded audio space? What’s the best way to find the top production companies, the brands they represent, and what categories are gaining the most traction in the branded podcast space? Brands in Audio.* Written by Bryan Barletta * Edited by Tom Webster * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Gen Zers can recognize brands based solely on ‘sonic memes,’ report says by Alyssa MeyersAre my podcast downloads declining because of iOS 17? by Dan MisenerThe Smartest Decision Spotify Has Made In Years by Eric NuzumFor all its gains, podcasting still in early catch-up (IAB part 2) by Brad HillAs for the rest of the news… Digiday covers why Cirque du Soleil is leaning into influencer marketing (including a branded podcast from JAR Audio), a new forecast predicts TV ad viewership could fall 24% by 2027, and The New York Times’ Joy Robins appears on the Digiday podcast to discuss ad business, including the NYT returning to programmatic now that the industry has matured and given the company renewed confidence in the tools.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Amazon launches interactive audio ads on both ad-supported Amazon Music and Amazon Publisher Direct on Alexa in the U.S. [Source]Consumers are celebrating (and shopping for) the holidays like its 2019 by Alyssa Meyers [Source]Ad-tech firms and political agencies prepare for another year of spending heavily on CTV by Marty Swant [Source]The JAR Audio Podcast Landscape featuring Sounds Profitable Research by Roger Nairn and Laurissa Cebryk [Source]Digiday Programmatic Selling Strategies: Navigating identity, deals and making the most of CTV and video [Source]
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting:Less is More: ARM’s Podcast Ad Break StudyBrand Safety, Programmatic Growth, and DAI Dominance in IAB ReportWondery Podcasts to Air on CTV ChannelsNetflix Lightens Ad LoadQuick Hits: * How Branded Podcasts Might Be One Key To New Listeners by Tom Webster. The potential reach for podcasts about favorite brands is about 106 million Americans 18+, according to The Power of Brands in Podcasts: A Podcast Landscape Study. * Good Tape, Issue 1 now available. The first issue of a new print industry magazine featuring journalism and cultural criticism of podcasting is now available for order. Readers of The Download can get 10% off with promo code SP10. * Archives to Earbuds: Podcasts for Cultural Institutions. This coming Monday, Jessica Alpert of Rococo Punch will moderate a panel of experts, hosted by The Podcast Academy and presented by the Leo Baeck Institute. * Here’s how our top podcasts of the year get listeners to stay by Karen Burgess. Pacific Content takes a look at five branded podcasts that successfully use storytelling to not just perform well as branded content, but as podcasts in general. * McDonald’s jingle, 20 years later by Alyssa Meyers. A history of the fast food jingle that’s still going strong two decades later, showing the power of well-curated sonic branding. * YouTube Culture & Trends Report 2023. 55% of respondents watch content that no one else they know watches, indicating the trend of hyper-personalized content is growing. Good news for podcasting! * CoHost Announces the Launch of its Prefix That Aims to Demystify Podcast Audiences for Brands and Agencies. The new prefix provides both advanced audience demographics and B2B analytics that track what companies are listening to the podcast.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: What is the Optimal Number of Ads in an Audio Ad Break? by Lisa Prentis JacobsU.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study 2023: Drivers, Strategies, and Tactics for GrowthYouTube Culture & Trends Report 2023…as for the rest of the news: -AdExchanger shares what they overheard at the Prebid Summit, MarketingBrew shares what they overheard at Advertising Week, and Maria Novikova shares her top ten podcasts to stay abreast of news in adtech and marketing tech.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Mobile phones are the most popular devices used to shop, report says by Alyssa MeyersHow brands can engage with the next generation of sports fans by Alyssa MeyersIn pursuit of profit, Spotify looks to AI rather than original content for its podcasting future by Ariel ShapiroSound To Screen: How To Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck by Steven Goldstein…as for the rest of the news… next Monday Jessica Alpert of Roccoco Punch is moderating the webinar Archives to Earbuds: Podcasts for Cultural Institutions, and Signal Hill Insights’ Jeff Vidler discusses takeaways from the newest Sounds Profitable study The Power of Brands in Podcasts.
This week, Tom Webster takes a look at Brand Fans, and how branded podcasts could actually grow the overall audience for podcasting. * Written by Tom Webster * Edited by Bryan Barletta * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Wondery launches three podcast FAST channels on Amazon Freevee by Sara Guaglione [Source]DTC Brands Experiment with Programmatic Podcast Ads but Find Mixed Results by Phoebe Bain [Source]Here’s how our top podcasts of the year get listeners to stay by Karen Burgess [Source]McDonald’s jingle, 20 years later by Alyssa Meyers [Source]As for the rest of the news… Spotify’s Q3 earnings show a surprise operating profit, and MarketingBrew gives 7 main takeaways on influencer marketing from Advertiser Week New York.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Apple considers selling more podcast ads by Ashley CarmanNetflix’s Answer To Subscriber Churn? Fewer Ads by Alyssa BoyleThe 25-year-old media planner and the screenshot industrial complex by Brian MorrisseyHow major podcast players are moving ‘beyond’ audio formats by Ella SagarCTV Ad Targeting Is Getting More Advanced – But Data Quality Is Not by Alyssa Boyle
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting:The Power of Brands in Podcasts, A Podcast Landscape StudySpotify’s Dave Byrne on brand safety, suitability measures.Study: listener prefer relevant podcast ads, more forgiving than with music.YouTube RSS Integration and AdvertisingQuick Hits:* Confused About Video? The Listeners Aren’t! by Tom Webster. While the question “what is a podcast” can lead to complicated responses from podcasters, respondents to The Podcast Landscape study are pretty confident in what qualifies as a podcast. * YouTube passes Netflix as top video source for teens by Kif Leswing. A long-running Piper Sandler study finds for the first time ever YouTube has passed Netflix as top video source for teens. Given the many podcasts Netflix has commissioned, one wonders how much teen traffic they’d regain if those podcasts were also available in the Netflix app. * Brands are taking notice of Gen Alpha by Jasmine Sheena. Given existing legislation makes existing targeting methods difficult as the oldest Gen Alpha member is 13, brands are resorting to more creative projects to meet younger audiences where they’re at, which could include the rising popularity of Kids & Family podcasts. * ARN takeover bid for SCA by Chris Pash. If successful, the acquisition bid would lead to Australia having two national media organizations with independent ownership of each other. * Streaming-powered tools come to Spotify from PodNews. The new system will allow users to upload and monetize video podcasts on Spotify, access enhanced analytics reporting, and use a new clickable promo system to cross-promote an episode with other podcasts on Spotify.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:Confused About Video? The Listeners Aren’t! by Tom WebsterMeet the MillennialsPublishers pitch their methods for growing and engaging audiences to marketers by Sara GuaglioneTV Measurement Is Transforming – But Buyers Need More Transparency by Alyssa Boyle…as for the rest of the news: As for the rest of the news… writer Will Page expresses concern that many authors still don’t know how Spotify’s royalty structure works for audiobooks, and Edison Research’s Share of Ear for in-car listening shows AM/FM radio consumption drops 21 percentage points for respondents whose primary vehicle has Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Streaming-Powered Tools Coming to Spotify [Source]ARN takeover bid for SCA by Chris Pash [Source]Dave Byrne on Spotify’s “Sensitive Topics” Tech [Source]Why publishers are the new brand ambassadors by Kayleigh Barber [Source]…as for the rest of the news: a new AdExchanger Talks episode pleads with brands not to add terms like ‘Israel’ and ‘Hamas’ to keyword blocklists, and a new 30 second Allstate ad stresses ‘there’s a podcast about that.’ According to Magellan AI data, Allstate’s current estimated podcast ad spend for the year is a hair over $61,000 as of the end of September.
While the podcast industry frequently debates what qualifies ‘a podcast’, data from The Podcast Landscape shows podcast listeners have a pretty consistent idea. Tom Webster breaks down that data and what it can mean for YouTube as the biggest place for podcast discovery. * Written by Tom Webster * Edited by Bryan Barletta * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:YouTube Podcasts in the UK and The Youtube Advertising Conundrum by Adam Bowie [Source]Some Black-owned publications push back on MFA reform amid declining traffic by Kayleigh Barber and Sara Guaglione [Source]Why the time is now for agencies to establish a B2B arm by Jason Pollock [Source]…as for the rest of the news: YouTube launches new AI-powered tool to target popular videos related to specific cultural moments, and a new Crowd React Media study finds 63% of sports audiences engage with radio and/or podcasts.
Audio ads can be effective, but only if they’re not disruptive: report. By Alyssa Meyers [Source]“Without margin, there is no mission” by Ariel Shapiro [Source] What does the narrowing range of streaming service CPMs mean for advertisers? By Paul Verna [Source]YouTube passes Netflix as top video source for teens by Kif Leswing [Source]Brands are taking notice of Gen Alpha by Jasmine Sheena [Source]
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Joint Statement on the Continued Integrity of the Download MetricHow Spreaker Detects OutliersThe Latino Podcast Listener Report 2023Breaking down Canada’s new podcast platform registration form.Quick Hits: Nearly Half of Data Use for Ad Targeting is Wrong by Jack Neff. A reminder to those in the podcast space to work with partners that are meticulous in both their accuracy and purging what they find to be inaccurate.TV and film producers prepare for potential post-strike production logjam by Tim Peterson. A predicament that could lead to more new productions being piloted as podcasts while they wait for the post-strike traffic jam to clear.Advertisers will spend $84 billion on ad fraud this year: report by Ryan Barwick. Problems like this exist in all mediums, but podcasting has an opportunity to collectively prioritize high-quality, vetted advertising inventory.Podchaser Brings Radio’s Relied-On Airchecks feature into 21st Century for Podcast Advertisers. Airchecks, adapted from the radio measurement standard, allow for podcast planning and campaign management in Podchaser.Audio Ad Data Breakthrough: Sonnant & Podder Merge Content Signals + Audience Demographics. The two companies have partnered to combine Sonnant’s content data with Podder’s demographic analytics.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Joint Statement on the Continued Integrity of the Download Metric by Bryan BarlettaKeep Calm and Detect OutliersThe bots have come for podcasts by Max TaniAd-free viewing is getting more expensive by Kelsey SuttonAs for the rest of the news… the IAB has released a podcasting buyer-seller checklist, Marketing Architects CEO Angela Voss breaks down why CTV isn’t working for performance marketers, and to round this out we have a double-dose of verification: both Podchaser and Magellan AI have implemented the radio measurement staple of airchecks into podcasting, highlighting the increased demand for verification in the industry.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Nearly Half the Data Used for Ad Targeting is Wrong by Jack NeffHispanic Audience Measurement Requires Nuance. We’re Still Using Blunt Instruments by Hana YooTV and film producers prepare for potential post-strike production logjam by Tim Peterson…as for the rest of the news: Signal Hill Insights Paul Riismandel shows how one can measure streaming audio alongside podcasts, Acast’s Megan Davis writes about the company embracing women podcasters in Saudi Arabia, superstar HGTV couple Chip and Joanna Gaines are launching a podcast network in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery’s The Roost, Digiday Research collects their CMO Strategies in one place, and MarketingBrew looks at the modern evolution of the marketing jingle: custom TikTok audios.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting. The Latino Podcast Listener Report 2023Advertisers will spend $84 billion on ad fraud this year: report by Ryan BarwickHot Pod: Breaking down Canada’s new podcast platform registration formMeasurement issues still plague the business, but agencies hope their solutions help marketers by Antoinette Siu and Marty SwantAs for the rest of the news… YouTube has launched podcast functionality for YouTube Music in the UK, Rooster Teeth is pivoting video focus from YouTube as their self-hosted videos show 5-10x the ad revenue, Spreaker is building a site to provide up-time monitoring of podcast hosts and tracking prefixes in real time, Audible is named Company of the Year at the Signal Awards,
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Dentsu, GumGum, Iris.tv build video keyword targeting capability Advertising Campaigns for Hispanic Audiences Outside OctoberAcast and Henkel. Adweek. YouTube’s Current (and Potential Future) Place in PodcastingQuick Hits: * Why Branded Content Could Be Bigger Than You Think by Tom Webster. In this week’s Sounds Profitable newsletter, Tom takes a look at the potential for brands and podcasts, and how data shows they have even more room to grow. * The Power of Brands in Podcasts to debut October 18th. The free webinar debuting Sounds Profitable’s latest study, looking into the listeners of branded content and how to engage them, will be at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, October 18th. Registration is available now. * Why Now is a Great Time to Make Money With a Podcast by Robert Tuchman. Coverage of a panel with representatives from Hubspot, Quill, Amaze Media Labs, Conde Nast, and Adalyst Media. * Amazon Music launches Podcast Previews in several global markets by Reem Makari. The Podcast Preview program, a podcast discoverability tool that displays hand-selected podcast clips to news listeners based on contextual data, is now available outside the US. * Why Spotify is Growing its Connected TV Ad Business by Parker Herren. Spotify has partnered with Roku, the first step in establishing the Spotify CTV Partner Network to serve audio ads in the Spotify app available on smart TVs. * Libsyn Unveils September 2023 Podcast Advertising Rates; Enhances Brand Safety Measures with ComScore Technology. The average cost per thousand impressions for a sixty second podcast ad increased in September to $22.91, a 3.8% month-over-month increase that breaks a three-month downward trend.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Why Branded Content Could Be Bigger Than You Think by Tom WebsterWith New Ads Targeting Black And Latino Voters, Biden Campaign Sees Radio As 'Trusted Messengers.'Podcast ads on Amazon DSP will now offer Amazon Audiences to self-service advertisers in the UKSocial media traffic to top news sites craters by Sara Fischer…as for the rest of the news: the Google antitrust case heats up as the DoJ accuses them of illegally increasing prices, and Digiday covers DTC marketer’s reinvestment in Meta and Google after Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency crackdown.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Brands Are Slowly Going Always-On With Hispanic Audiences by Catherine Perloff https://www-adweek-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.adweek.com/media/brands-always-on-hispanic-audiences/amp/Rising podcast ad rates break 3-month trend in September by Brad Hill https://rainnews.com/advertisecast-podcast-ad-rates-september-2023/Acast and Henkel Celebrate Conversations about Hispanic Hair Care in Podcast Advertising Campaign https://soundsprofitable.com/press-release/acast-and-henkel-celebrate-conversations-about-hispanic-hair-care-in-podcast-advertising-campaign/Spotify Subscription Audiobooks by Ben Thompson https://newsletters.feedbinusercontent.com/ed5/ed52a4f4c1b19038d15e614edcd5abf7da805d78.htmlGive Your Brand the Gift of Reach and ROI this Holiday Season https://20817577.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/20817577/Confidential_Veritonic_2023_Holiday_Infographic_Final.pdf
Tom Webster takes a look at the potential for brands and podcasts, and how data shows they have even more room to grow.* Written by Tom Webster * Edited by Bryan Barletta * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:Streaming video, music among Gen Z’s most popular media activities by Sara Lebow https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/streaming-video-music-among-gen-z-s-most-popular-media-activitiesFree Podcast Program Coming to Classrooms with TinkerClass. http://tinkercast.com/press-release/Profiting from Hate: Platforms’ Ad Placement Problem https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/profiting-hate-platforms-ad-placement-problemWNYC Parent to Cut 12% of Work Force by Benjamin Mullin https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/business/media/new-york-public-radio-job-cuts-wnyc.html
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: DENTSU BRINGS KEYWORD BUYING TO CONNECTED TV TO IMPROVE BRAND SAFETY AND TARGETING by Jack Neff https://adage.com/article/media/dentsu-brings-keyword-buying-connected-tv-improve-brand-safety-and-targeting/2519186Amazon Music launches Podcast Previews in several global markets by Reem Makari https://www.podpod.com/article/1839177/amazon-music-launches-podcast-previews-several-global-marketsACA study reveals the three factors driving the best returns in advertising https://www.adnews.com.au/news/aca-study-reveals-the-three-factors-driving-the-best-returns-in-advertising/type/yafNewsYouTube and Podcasts by Adam Bowie https://www.adambowie.com/blog/2023/09/youtube-and-podcasts/Why Spotify is Growing its Connected TV Ad Business by Parker Herren https://adage.com/article/media/why-spotify-growing-its-connected-tv-ad-business/2519016
As for the rest of the news… Steve Pratt’s newsletter series interviewing Tom Webster focuses on defining your podcast’s audience, Hot Pod interviewed two people fluent in Spanish to review Spotify’s voice AI translations pilot program, and MarketingBrew looks at how to create an effective affiliate marketing campaign for this holiday season.
Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting:Apple Podcasts Updates with iOS17 https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/09/over-100-new-podcasts-from-top-apps-and-services-launch-on-apple-podcasts/Spotify Announces Voice Translation https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-09-25/ai-voice-translation-pilot-lex-fridman-dax-shepard-steven-bartlett/Hispanic Audiences Love Audio, But Spanish Less of a Factor https://www.insideaudiomarketing.com/post/hispanics-remain-big-audio-users-but-nielsen-says-language-is-less-a-factor-than-in-the-pastGetting “Dabblers” to Embrace Podcasting https://www.insideaudiomarketing.com/post/hispanics-remain-big-audio-users-but-nielsen-says-language-is-less-a-factor-than-in-the-pastQuick Hits: SXSW x Podcasting by Bryan Barletta. Bryan announces the Sounds Profitable Business of Podcasting event on March 9th, 2023, inside SXSW. Tell Me a Story: What Podcast Format Works Best for Brands? By Annalise Nielsen. Pacific Content and Signal Hill Insights team up to examine what kinds of branded content have the best impact. Spoiler alert: edited narratives cause more brand lift than unedited chat-casts. How the industry can support Queer podcasting by Reem Makari. PodPod offers an extensive look into how the industry can meaningfully support queer podcasting.Realm Acquires Lipstick & Vinyl Podcast Network. The acquisition joins Realm’s 6,000+ hours of content with Lipstick & Vinyl’s slate of popular unscripted podcasts targeting women in the 20s and 30s. AdLarge Partners With Barometer to Uphold Brand Safety & Suitability. The partnership will enable AdLarge to monitor their podcast portfolio with Barometer’s AI-powered brand safety and suitability platform. Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music by Sarah Perez. Next year Google Podcasts will join Stitcher in the big podcast app farm in the sky as it’s retired to incorporate all Google audio services into YouTube Music.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Influencer agency adopts brand lift metrics across campaigns to address measurement challenges by Antoinette Siu https://digiday.com/media-buying/influencer-agency-adopts-brand-lift-metrics-across-campaigns-to-address-measurement-challenges/Everything In Store for Podcast Listeners and Creators This International Podcast Day https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-09-28/international-podcast-day-transcripts-chapters-show-pages-global/AdLarge Partners With Barometer to Uphold Brand Safety & Suitability https://soundsprofitable.com/press-release/adlarge-partners-with-barometer-to-uphold-brand-safety-suitability/
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: How attention metrics is tuning into audio investments by Michael Bürgi https://digiday.com/media-buying/how-attention-metrics-is-tuning-into-audio-investmentsGoogle Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music by Sarah Perez https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/26/google-podcasts-to-shut-down-in-2024-with-listeners-migrated-to-youtube-music/Helping More Podcast Listeners Get the Podcast Habit by Jeff Vidler https://signalhillinsights.com/helping-more-podcast-listeners-get-the-podcast-habit/YouTube is axing its ad-free Premium Lite subscription plan by Antonio G. Di Benedetto https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/25/23889917/youtube-premium-lite-subscription-discontinued-retired
As for the rest of the news… PodPod offers an extensive look into how the industry can meaningfully support queer podcasting, and new eMarketer growth shows that despite cooling growth, connected TV is lifting the programmatic market.
Pack your bags, because the Business of Podcasting takes center stage this year at SXSW.Credits:* Written by Bryan Barletta * Edited by Tom Webster * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Over 100 new podcasts from top apps and services launch on Apple Podcasts: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/09/over-100-new-podcasts-from-top-apps-and-services-launch-on-apple-podcasts/Hispanics Remain Big Audio Users, But Nielsen Says Language Is Less A Factor Than In The Past. https://www.insideaudiomarketing.com/post/hispanics-remain-big-audio-users-but-nielsen-says-language-is-less-a-factor-than-in-the-pastTell Me a Story: What Podcast Format Works Best for Brands? By Annalise Nielsen. https://blog.pacific-content.com/tell-me-a-story-what-podcast-format-works-best-for-brands-a92ec2f0ee23Household spending on streaming is going down by Kelsey Sutton https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2023/09/21/household-spending-on-streaming-is-going-downAs for the rest of the news… we’ve got a double serving of Spotify for you today. First: AdWeek covers how a Spotify campaign in Mexico is leveraging Gen Z’s sudden love of corridos, and Spotify has a few more details about their AI voice translation pilot program.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Spotify Announces Voice Translation: https://twitter.com/eldsjal/status/1706325294481576006Podcast Executives Say the Industry Has a Fraud Problem by Ashley Carman: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-09-22/podcast-executives-say-the-industry-has-a-fraud-problemMaking the case for investing in audio ads in 2024 by Alexandra Samet: https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/making-case-investing-audio-ads-2024Hollywood isn’t letting go of audio any time soon by Amrita Khalid: https://newsletters.feedbinusercontent.com/ae8/ae8dee115349ff41d836ba70ea6e793576c63a5b.htmlAmazon is sticking ads in Prime Video shows and movies unless you pay more by Jess Weatherbed: https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/22/23885242/amazon-prime-tv-movies-streaming-ads-subscription-date
As for the rest of the news… Audacia Audio’s Kym Treasure breaks down why audio should be in your multi-channel marketing strategy, Adweek finds Americans don’t like advertisers using AI marketing on them unless it comes with a price discount, Edison Research has published their chart of the top 25 UK podcasts, and takeaways from Digiday’s Publishing Summit focusing on attention metrics, engagement, and the importance of proving advertiser’s return on investment.
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting: Pierre Bouvard: AM/FM Radio and Podcasts Could Recapture Lost TV ReachDigital Ad Spend Showing Promising Recovery After Recession FearsFTC Warns Against “Blurred Advertising” When Marketing to KidsCDC Reframes Flu Narrative Using Digital Display and Audio Campaign
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: The CDC Uses Digital Advertising To Reframe The Narrative Around Flu Vaccines by Hana YooThe Three Eras Of Podcasting by Steve GoldsteinThe Joint Industry Committee Forges Ahead With Currency Certification by Alyssa BoylePrize draws and 'over-sampling': How researchers are hunting media's missing audiences by Ella Sagar
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:FTC recommends brands avoid “blurred advertising” when marketing to kids by Ryan BarwickApple’s expanding ad ambitions: A closer look at its journey toward a comprehensive ad tech stack by Ronan Shields and Seb JosephHolding Apple Accountable: The Future of the Internet Economy Depends On It by Dustee JenkinsGoogle Antitrust Trial: Ad Targets Tweaked to Meet Revenue Targets, Exec Says By Leah Nylen
Tom reflects on the many people who would gladly listen to podcasts, if we could tell them exactly what podcasts actually are. A podcasting Got Milk moment.Credits:* Written by Bryan Barletta * Edited by Tom Webster * Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis * Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Digital Ad Spend Showing Promising Recovery from Recession Fears.[Digiday Source] [Digiday Podcast] [AdExchanger Source] [Adweek Source]IAB launches foundational industry training programs[Source]2024 will see the highest political ad spend of all time: report by Jasmine Sheena[Source]The State of Video Monetization Report[Source]…as for the rest of the news: SXM Media CEO Jennifer Witz teased the upcoming revitalized version of the SXM app during an investor conference, and AdWeek breaks down why it’s difficult for SSPs to filter out made-for-advertising content.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: AM/FM Radio And Podcasts Can Recapture Lost TV Reach Due To Writers/Actors Strike As 22% Of The Heavy Linear TV Audience Say They Will Watch Less TV This Fall by Pierre BouvardThis Is Not My Beautiful Host Read Ad. How Did I Get Here? By Paul Riismandel. Substack writers are launching podcasts on the platform to ease reliance on ad revenue by Sara GuaglioneNASA to release first full season of Spanish-language podcast by Reem MakariAs for the rest of the news… Steve Pratt talks to Tom Webster about why you don’t deserve an audience, Nairobi News reports the top podcasts in Kenya according to Spotify data, and eMarketer data shows that despite reaching 11% of US adult daily media time, only 4.9% of US ad spend is forecasted to go to audio.
Bryan Barletta joins E.B. Moss in this episode of Insider Interviews, also featuring Paul Riismandel from Signal Hill Insights and Ken Lagana from Audacy, about taking a holistic approach to the business of podcasting and what it takes to approach podcasting as a unique medium and leverage all aspects of it to drive growth.Visit the Insider Interviews website for more on this episode: https://insiderinterviews.blubrry.net/2023/09/06/a-holistic-approach-to-podcasting/Read about it on theCustomer: https://thecustomer.net/why-a-holistic-approach-to-podcasting-drives-listener-engagement-and-brand-value/
Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting. Over half of business owners are daily podcast listeners, study shows by Reem MakariHow Claritas Aims to Bring Google and Meta AI Marketing Capabilities to Other Forms of Media by Jack NeffAudible to produce Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff podcast with original cast, Kc Wayland directing.An advertiser’s guide to the Justice Department’s case against Google’s search empire by Ronan ShieldsQuick Hits:Ad-technical Difficulties by Bryan Barletta. To celebrate three years of Sounds Profitable, Bryan has a slice of humble pie and discusses ways podcasting needs to improve to meet buyers where they want to be. Coleman Insights launches AscendFM brand lift service. AscendFM will track and prove the effectiveness of radio, podcasting, and streaming audio advertisement campaigns. Bear Grylls and Coyote Peterson Announce New Show “Circumnavigate” with Backyard Ventures to Handle Sales. The new show, sponsored by Outdoors.com, will feature the two survivalists “virtually traveling the globe” to interview adventurers and athletes. First Cannabis Ads Coming Soon to Spotify by Thomas Edward. Cresco Labs Inc., a Chicago-based marijuana company, is investing 15% of their marketing budget into Spotify podcast ads geo-targeted to Illinois. California bill would crack down on data brokers by Ryan Barwick. A breakdown of what the upcoming Delete Act could mean for data brokers in California. Influencer spend is growing faster than social ad spend by Sara Lebow. New eMarketer data shows influencer spending outpaced social ad spend last year for the first time, and isn’t slowing down.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:Top ten popular podcasts consumed in affluent households by Brad HillOriginal Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars returning for new Audible series about Spike by Sydney BucksbaumInclusion as Innovation: How These Marketing Leaders Stay Ahead by Leaving No One Behind by Jason NotteMarketers prioritise measurement but aren't evaluating key metricsHow Brands Can Learn To Stop Worrying About Brand Safety And Love The News by Allison Schiff…as for the rest of the news: Bryan Barletta celebrates three years of Sounds Profitable with a slice of humble pie and ideas to invigorate the industry’s relationship with buyers, Coleman Insights launches AscendFM brand lift service, Politics.co.uk writer James Hanson reflects on the growing popularity of political podcasts, Inside Audio Marketing looks at more data from the Nielsen Podcasting Today report, AdWeek covers why marketers are paying more attention to attention-tracking, and Insider data shows five industries that will increase digital ad spend faster than the national average.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Influencer Spending Forecast To Grow Double-Digits This Year by Inside Audio Marketing
The Economist adds podcast subscription tier by Sara Fischer
An advertiser’s guide to the Justice Department’s case against Google’s search empire by Ronan Shields
Max Stays Minimal
This year we’re celebrating Sounds Profitable’s third anniversary with a nice slice of humble pie as we reflect on the current state of podcast adtech.
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Special Appearance by Theo Barletta
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
How Claritas Aims to Bring Google and Meta AI Marketing Capabilities to Other Forms of Media by Jack Neff
NPR adjusts to revenue realities with flat budget projections for -23/24 by Brad Hill
Marketers focus on search, discoverability as social media use evolves by Kristina Monllos
Creators function like standalone media channels by Jasmine Enberg
Here's What Buyers Really Thought About the 2023 Upfront by Bill Bradley
…as for the rest of the news: BBC Sounds head of metadata and publishing management Emma Conneely shared tips and pitfalls to avoid when promoting a new podcast, studios are turning to influencers to promote content while struck celebrities can’t, and MarketingBrew explains what the Delete Act could mean for data brokers in California.
Essential news for today in the business of podcasting:
Over half of business owners are daily podcast listeners, study shows by Reem Makari
The Podcast You Want to Make
Influencer spend is growing faster than social ad spend by Sara Lebow
First Cannabis Ads Coming Soon to Spotify by Thomas Edward
Why Facebook, Google And Amazon Are Embracing Media Mix Modeling by John McDermott
YouTube is going to remove some ad controls for creators by Jay Peters
…as for the rest of the news: Reuter’s CRO Eric Dantez appears on the Digiday Podcast to discuss political advertising and AI’s role in the company, Universal Music Group has reached a deal with French music streamer Deezer to pay high-traffic artists more per-stream, Digiday covered sports streamer DAZN’s cautious journey into programmatic advertising, and an agency expert shares 5 current ad trends to pay attention to.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
July 2023: Top spenders, movers and shakers in podcast advertising
Can the Benefits of Digital be a Rising Tide for All Audio? By Jeff Vidler
CTV ad sellers are pushing more content-related signals into the programmatic bidstreamby Tim Peterson
TV’s Nielsen complaints get louderby John Ourand
…as for the rest of the news: Five late-night talk show hosts have launched a Spotify podcast which will use all proceeds to pay staff of their respective shows who are affected by the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike, Australians 10 and up are now listening to an average of 13 hour of commercial radio per week, and children’s financial literacy podcast Million Bazillion is launching an educational live show visiting middle schools across the US.
After talking to so many Podcast Movement attendees last week about how to grow their audience, Tom Webster asks a hard question - should you make the podcast you want to make?
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
“Share Of Ear” Q2 2023: Podcasts And AM/FM Radio Represent The Vast Majority Of Time On The “U.S. Ad-Supported Audio Clock,” Podcast Growth Surge Continues, And Spotify’s Usage Growth Does Not Benefit Advertisers by Pierre Bouvard
Wondery, Dr. Seuss Enterprises Ink Deal for Slate of Original Kids Podcasts by Abbey White
Streaming’s big pain point: there’s too much stuff to watch by Kelsey Sutton
The Podcast Landscape Webinar with Tom Webster (August 30th, 3:00pm EST)
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting.
As streaming wars heat up, nearly three in 10 US internet households are canceling services to save money by Jeremy Goldman
Audible partners with Nickelodeon to launch Are You Afraid of the Dark? companion podcast by Reem Makari
The Floor Plan
A Jolly Holiday For Retailers Previously Anticipating Q4 Recession by Corinne Casagrande
And for the rest of the news… ARN’s CEO speaks to the network’s digital audio success and importance of regional content, Digiday takes a look at what Q4 will look like for video ad inventory that didn’t sell during this year’s upfronts, eMarketer says attention metrics are the ‘next frontier’ for digital ad measurement, and publisher CROs tell Digiday auto, travel, and luxury advertisers are at the forefront of an ad revenue rebound this year.
Here's what you need to know this week in the business of podcasting:
Three updates to Apple Podcasts
Advertiser Perceptions: Podcast Advertising Consideration and Spending Intention Grow to Nine-Year High Among Agencies and Marketers
Older Adults Make Up Just 4% Of People Featured In Ads
Changes coming to Spotify for Podcasters
And in Quick Hits:
Exclusive: SXM Media partners with The Trade Desk and HUMAN by Reem Makari. SXM Media will add support for third-party audibility measurement to programmatic campaigns bought through The Trade Desk. HUMAN, a fraud sensor network accredited by the Media Rating Council to detect invalid traffic, will be a traffic validation solution for Adwizz’s marketplace inventory.
Triton Digital Announces YouTube Integration with Podcast Metrics. The new integration adds YouTube views of podcast episodes into the Triton Podcast Metrics dashboard, allowing publishers to keep track of both podcast downloads and YouTube performance.
PodcastOne readies public offering in September by Brad Hill. The listing of PodcastOne is based on the valuation LiveOne received in February that gave PodcastOne a market range of $230 to $274 million.
weekly insights 8.23.2023 on-demand audio passes linear audio. Edison Research has found that as of Q2 2023, on-demand audio makes up 50.3% of daily time consuming audio.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Embracing YouTube: A Must for Today’s Podcasters by Steve Goldstein.
Older Adults Make Up Just 4% Of People Featured In Ads by Karlene Lukovitz
Legacy TV Faces Challenges: Maturing Streaming, Lack Of A Future Ad Vision by Wayne Friedman
Adalytics Claps Back With Evidence Of Behaviorally Targeted Ads Served In Kids Content On YouTube by Allison Shiff
Here's what you need to know today in the business of podcasting.
Changes coming to Spotify for Podcasters
PodcastOne readies public offering in September by Brad Hill
Product placements can drive searches and purchases, research finds by Kelsey Sutton
Frozen's Story Will Continue In a New Podcast by James Whitbrook
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Triton Digital Announces YouTube Integration with Podcast Metrics
Westwood One - Advertiser Perceptions: Podcast Advertising Consideration and Spending Intention Grow to Nine-Year High Among Agencies and Marketers
PodPod Exclusive: Nearly 90% of comedy podcast listeners have a parasocial relationship with their hosts.
Stepping Into Barbie’s Heels: Is a Branded Content Renaissance Coming? by Sam Anderson
Here's what you need to know today in the business of podcasting.
Three updates to Apple Podcasts
Exclusive: SXM Media partners with The Trade Desk and HUMAN
Barry Hott on Instagram Reels over-serving ads
Spotify hits record number of users worldwide but struggles to monetize growth
Former UTA Agent Launches Kids and Family Audio Company With Agency Backing
And for the rest of the news… Variety covers a star-studded new podcast with ad sales handled by Gumball, publishers are seeing per-subscriber revenue increases amid ad revenue decline, and both Digiday and The New York Times covered allegations that YouTube’s adtech is serving ads specifically to children, in violation of the Child Online Privacy Protection Act.
Stories covered this week in the business of podcasting:
Acast Announces Podscribe as Global Preferred Attribution Partner.
Shifting Share of Ear: A nine-year comparison of radio and podcasts by Brad Hill
Mattress Firm's Branded Podcast Drives In-Store Sales with iHeartMedia by Catherine Perloff
Amazon is quietly building a publisher-focused ad product team to grow its $37 billion ad business by Lauren Johnson
Quick hits:
Making a Podcast People Hate by Tom Webster - Using data from the upcoming Sounds Profitable study The Podcast Landscape in America, Tom demonstrates the power of making a podcast for a hyper-specific target audience.
Descript Acquires SquadCast. Squadcast’s remote recording tech will be implemented in Descript to allow the service to offer podcast recording, editing, and publishing in one service. Previous Squadcast customers will be able to switch to Descript at no additional cost.
Triton Digital Releases the July 2023 U.S. Podcast Ranker. Highlights include SXM Media at #1 in Top Seals Networks for July and NPR News Now retaining the top spot in podcast downloads.
PodcastDb and Sonnant Partner to Create the First Ever Podcast Advertiser Directory. The directory will enable advertisers to find contextually-suitable podcast advertising opportunities.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Acast Announces Podscribe as Global Preferred Attribution Partner.
(Read more on the subject: In Defense of Third-Party Podcast Solutions.)
What former Spotify exclusives ‘Armchair Expert’ and ‘Anything Goes’ can reveal about audiences by Amrita Khalid
The FTC updated its endorsement guidelines for the first time since 2009—and some people have questions by Katie Hicks
…as for the rest of the news: Edison Research’s Q2 edition of the podcast network ranker is here, and Australian broadcaster SCA’s revenue fell 3.7% but audio assets continue strong performance.
Here's what you need to know today in the business of podcasting.
Why Podcasters and Publishers Should Lean into Ad Measurement by Paul Riismandel
Acast Supercharges US Leadership
This year’s upfronts deals, broken down by Kelsey Sutton
Tom Webster shows off data from the upcoming study The Podcast Landscape in America and discusses the power of focusing a podcast to a specific audience over generic broad-reaching topics.
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know from today in the business of podcasting:
Descript Acquires SquadCast
Top 15 podcast advertisers in Australia
Google Repays Advertisers After Report of Low-Quality Ads by Garett Sloane
Dentsu Reports Sequentially Lower Q2 Growth, Cites Tech And Financial Slowdowns by Joe Mandese
…as for the rest of the news:And for the rest of the news… YouTube is revamping how linking off-site will work, and Brian Morrissey discusses the next wave of B2B media (which sounds like a perfect fit for podcasting).
Here's what you need to know today in the business of podcasting.
Amazon is quietly building a publisher-focused ad product team to grow its $37 billion ad business
Shifting Share of Ear: A nine-year comparison of radio and podcasts
Mattress Firm's Branded Podcast Drives In-Store Sales with iHeartMedia
And for the rest of the news… Audacy debuts new study The Rise of the Cross-Platform Listener. Digiday breaks down key differences between Gen Z and Gen Alpha for brands, and American Public Media and Audacy have terminated their partnership a year early.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Why Are More Than Half of Podcasters Still Not Publishing Video?
Connect Patreon to Spotify and Stream Your Favorite Podcasts in One Place
How ad tech’s measurement titans are pivoting to attention and activation
Indie agency census reveals expected areas of ad spend growth
And for the rest of the news… Digiday has a guide for what’s in and what’s out in influencer marketing for 2023, and this week’s issue of The Rebooting reminds us all that the media business is still hard.
What you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
KQED snatches up Snap Judgment and Spooked by Amrita Khalid
Podcast networks report Q2 revenue growth, with positive signs for continued improvements in 2023 by Sara Guaglione
CTV Buyers Are Still Struggling to Know Where Their Ads Ran by Catherine Perloff
…as for the rest of the news: Arrow Media has been appointed Acast’s commercial partner for Queensland, Australia, and new eMarketer data suggests web publishers are ‘fighting over a pie that is barely growing.’
While podcasting has had several 'song of the summer' moments since Serial's smash success in 2014, in recent years those mainstream attention-getting moments are dominated by one polarizing figure.
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
“True potential” in Sirius XM podcast bizby Brad Hill
Why concerns of influencer marketing oversaturation are overblown by Kristina Monllos
When Podcast Apps Miss The Mark by Steve Goldstein
How soft is the ad market, really? By Ryan Barwick
…as for the rest of the news: Eric Nuzum reflects on what makes a good podcast host, Sean Howard explains yield optimization and what it means for podcasting in Flightpath, and Forbes covered a new QCODE audio drama starring Chris Pine and Troian Bellisario.
Here's what you need to know in the business of podcasting for August 7th.
Why some publishers are reducing their podcast slate to try to grow their audio businesses
Magnite And FreeWheel Link Up In The Name Of Interoperability
Acast to focus on automation to ‘create value’ for advertisers
Top 3 podcasts in U.S. remain the same over two years
The Media Rating Council is angling for better clarity in an era of compounding complexity
And for the rest of the news… Digiday’s new Media Briefing presents the case for, and against, paid subscription trials. Digital subscriptions are a bright spot in otherwise down Q2 for Gannett. And, in a surprising turn after announcing their partnership with Spotify, ad group WPP cut their full-year growth forecast from 3 to 5% down to 1.5 to 3%, citing low spending from tech clients and delays in tech-related projects.
This week's stories:
Audio Ads Outperform Video for Attention and Brand Recall, Dentsu Study Finds.
The ad slowdown (or lack thereof) gives the industry reason to hope
the kids podcast listener report
Quick Hits:
Introducing The Download by Bryan Barletta
The Download is now a daily podcast, covering news important to the business of podcasting Monday through Thursday, with the usual weekly recap continuing on Fridays.
NAVA posts info for SAG-AFTRA strike.
The National Association of Voice Actors has released a one-sheet clarifying what types of work NAVA actors can or cannot do during the SAG-AFTRA strike.
SiriusXM is betting big on its next-gen app by Amrita Khalid
The much-teased new SiriusXM app is set to debut this fall and was brought up during the recent Q2 earnings call.
WPP & Spotify Announce First-of-its-Kind Global Partnership
British communications and advertising holding company WPP is now in a global strategic partnership with Spotify to give its clients access to Spotify’s ad products and scaling capabilities.
Here's what you need to know for Thursday, August 3rd.
Inside Audio Marketing - Katz: Target Consumers With Messages That Relate To Where They Listen To Radio.
RainNews - Quantifying brand marketing uncertainties and risks, Veritonic says audio is paramount
Spotify - WPP & Spotify Announce First-of-its-Kind Global Partnership
MediaPost - TV 'Ad Intolerant' Viewers Still In The Minority, Study Finds
Here's what you need to know for Wednesday, August 2nd.
Podcast Company Realm Acquires Kid-Focused Pinna as Industry Consolidates by Ashley Carman
SiriusXM is betting big on its next-gen app by Amrita Khalid
Good Karma Brands to run operations, sales for ESPN Radio by Andrew Bucholt
As strikes halt Hollywood projects, the TV ad industry is on the line by Kelsey Sutton
Future of TV Briefing: How top streamers’ ad prices have trended in this year’s upfront negotiations by Tim Peterson
Bryan announces the newest evolution of The Download: a daily newsletter covering the essential news for the business of podcasting.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Audio edited by Gavin Gaddis
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Stories covered:
The Fully-Produced Podcast Ad: Are we leaving attention on the table?
Spotify's Q2 Earnings Call
Your favorite TV rewatch podcast is here to stay - but don’t expect any new ones.
Quick Hits:
Only Be Kind by Tom Webster
This week, Tom writes about the legacy of Frank Cody and a life philosophy he brought to radio that podcasting would do well to implement: Only be kind.
NewsGuard Launches 'Made-For-Advertising' Service In Response To ANA Study by Joe Mandese
To combat the rising issue of made-for-advertising sites siphoning programmatic ads, NewsGuard has introduced the ability to create whitelists of non-MFA sites and blacklists to exclude known MFA content.
Audio Amplified: Harnessing the Power of Branded Podcasts
The new white paper from Quill focuses on the utility of branded podcasts as high-value content that resonates with audiences, establishes trust, and positions creators as industry leaders.
Veritonic and Acast Partner to Highlight What Success Sounds Like Around the World for Podcast Ads Bought Programmatically
New research from the two companies compares and contrasts of audio creatives from programmatic campaigns around the world.
Tom Webster reflects on the life of someone important to both him and audio in general, as well as a valuable lesson we can learn from how he thought about life.
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Stories covered:
U.S. podcasters are attracting more international listeners
Why a ‘podcast election’ is unlikely
Ad overexposure on CTV hurts streamers as much as brands.
Quick Hits:
Will Podcast Ad Revenues Double by 2025? Not Without These Five Things by Tom Webster.
Podcasts draw devoted audiences, but ad spending lags by Catherine Wolf.
The Rumors of Podcasting’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated...Redux by Eric Nuzum.
Why Podcast Ad Creative is Pivotal, Now More than Ever by Paul Riismandel.
Cracking the Code: Gen Z Engagement through Audio Advertising by Mariam Ahmad
Tom Webster looks at our most recent study, The Podcast Opportunity, and provides five key findings that point the way towards making podcasts a more vital part of ad spending.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Articles covered:
Breakdown of FTC Endorsement Guidelines
YouTube Tests Crackdown On Ad Blockers
This LinkedIn article could have been a video podcast.
Quick Hits:
Spotify hits the 100,000 mark for video podcasts
MediaMath Files For Bankruptcy, Owes Hundreds Of Millions.
mowPod Supercharges Self-Serve Platform with AI-Powered Ad Copy and Precision Targeting
Articles covered:
The Podcast Opportunity
SXM Shuts down Stitcher
Film and TV have collapsed over the last decade.
Quick Hits
Long Read- Podcasts, a hot advertising medium by Ruby Derrick
ThePodcastHost.comPublishes ‘IndiePod Manifesto’ Off the Back of Independent Podcaster Census Data
Acast Unlocks Largest Self-Serve Marketplace of Podcast Influencers For Media Buyers
With the upcoming release of Sounds Profitable’s study The Podcast Opportunity, Tom reflects on the idea of podcasting being considered ‘neither fish nor fowl’ in the advertising world.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Articles covered:
Quick Hits:
- Registration is openfor next week’s Sounds Profitable webinar for the upcoming study The Podcast Opportunity: Buyer Perceptions of Podcast Advertising. The presentation is on June 28th at 3p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The new study uncovers the latest thinking from buyers on the current state of podcasts advertising, and the strengths and weaknesses of buying the medium.
- In a bonus video from this week’s Product Deepdive, Podscibe’s Amelia Coomber demonstrates a new tool in the platform that uses ChatGPT, trained with the GARM framework, to generate a risk assessment for the podcast. The content rating system generates a visualization that shows what content is flagged, an automatic summary of what was said, and timestamps to check out the offending content directly.
- Streaming Audio and YouTube Measurement now offered in Magellan AI. As of last week, Magellan AI supports the measurement of streaming audio campaigns, as well as podcasts. Advertisers can now confirm impression delivery by channel and measure ad performance through custom KPIs. Magellan also launched the ability to measure YouTube impact.
- Acast launches new tech integrating publishers’ paywalls with podcast platforms. The tech, dubbed Acast+ Access, will enable paywalled news outlets to produce podcasts that are siloed and only accessible to those who pay for the site’s premium subscription.
- Ausha Launches Ausha PRO, a new sub-brand dedicated for Branded Podcasts. Ausha PRO includes the features of Ausha with the added benefits of enhanced support, advanced customization of promotional materials, multi-user access for collaborative management, and platform configuration performed in-house by Ausha staff.
This week, Tom looks at some recent data on popular podcast genres from Pew in light of Spotify parting ways with Meghan and Harry and their podcast Archetypes. What can we learn from the past about the future of celebrity podcasting?
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
This week's stories:
Podcast listeners well disposed to political ads (Veritonic)
Let’s Think about Podcast Consumers, Not Just Listeners
Can A Million Ads Simplify Hyperlocal Audio Ads By Creating Even More Of Them?
Partner Events:
“Demystifying Brand Lift: Measuring How Audio Ad Campaigns Resonate with Listeners.”
“How Creative Testing Drives Success in Audio.”
“The Podcast Opportunity: Buyer Perceptions of Podcast Advertising”
Quick Hits:
- What AI Will Never be Able to Do That People Can by Scott Klass. With AI discourse focusing on the hypotheticals of replacing on-air talent, SoundStack CMO Klass addresses the need for a human experience in the customer service side of advertising.
- Is the podcast bubble starting to burst? by Nick Bonyhady. A look at podcasting’s listener growth (and recent lack thereof) in Australia, showing there’s less of a balloon and more of a new normal catching up to the statistical anomaly of the surge in new podcasts spurred by pandemic.
- Podsights goes free-to-use and rebrands as Spotify Ad Analytics by Reem Makari. Rebranded to Spotify Ad Analytics, the platform offers free pixel tracking and has expanded to more countries. Brand lift studies are still Spotify app only, but are included for free with campaigns that meet a minimum spend and reach threshold.
- Podscribe Launches Automated Ad Scoring The new tool, powered by ChatGPT, automatically grades the quality of ad reads on a scale of 1 to 10 using criteria like how clearly the product was endorsed, and how personalized the recommendation was.
- Narrativ Launches Mobile App Open Beta. Generative AI startup Narrativ generates audio versions of news articles and monetizes via audio ads. The mobile app currently hosts content from several collegiate newspapers and will soon incorporate national news and Associated Press articles.
Programmatic ad placement has been stuck on the waterfall for long enough. It’s time to lay the foundation for Header Bidding in podcasting.
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Assembled with Spooler.fm
- Hosted by ART19
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
Articles covered:
Spotify to Slash Podcast Workforce, Combine Parcast and Gimlet Studios in New Round of Cuts
“How Do We Pivot?”: Podcasting Turns to M&A and Cost-Cutting
Why advertisers are reconsidering keyword blocklists as brand safety approaches to hard news
Growing Up with Podcasts: The Gen Z Podcast Listener Report
The State of Audio Technology Report
Is YouTube Eating Podcasts? Cumulus Media And Signal Hill Insights’ Podcast Download – Spring 2023 Report
Hot Pod coverage of audiobook surveys.
Quick Hits
- iOS 17: What’s new for Apple Podcasts. During the 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced upcoming changes in iOS 17 that will impact Apple Podcasts. Search filters, episode art, and a new listening experience are among the new features. Developers currently have access to a beta, while public beta testing is slated for later this month.
- Podcasting’s Biggest Opportunity by Tom Webster. Podcasting is becoming more competitive and less collegial every year. Is that a good thing, a bad thing, or just inevitable? Tom Webster suggests there is still an important job we all need to collaborate on first.
- Triton Audio Marketplace Expands Basis Technologies Partnership to Support Advertising Across Digital and Broadcast Radio Segments. The new arrangement aims to enable marketers to streamline and consolidate content across all audio segments (podcasting, streaming, and terrestrial broadcast radio) via the Triton Audio Marketplace.
- Canadian Branded Podcast Agency Seeks Bad Reviews for its New Show. JAR Audio’s new ‘tell all’ about the branded podcast industry, pitched as part advice column and part sketch comedy, is asking be ruthlessly critical of the show during its upcoming launch window.
- Finally: the Sounds Profitable press release portal is now open! You can now submit your press releases directly to Sounds Profitable via the new portal at SoundsProfitable.com/press. In fact, the last two Quick Hits are pulled directly from our press release section. Head over now and amplify your podcast industry-related news and announcements.
This week Tom Webster demonstrates how even seemingly small pieces of data can have big implications if given the right context and a story.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Spotify layoffs, TikTok Podcasts feature spotted in the wild, exclusivity deals seem to be losing luster, and Buzzsprout launches premium subscriptions.
Spotify lays off six percent of workforce.
Manuela: We start today on a dour note, but it’s the largest story to happen this week and bears covering. This Monday Spotify CEO Daniel Ek announced the company is downsizing six percent of its workforce. Chief Content and Advertising Business Officer Dawn Ostroff is also leaving the company. Todd Spangler’s coverage of the announcement for Variety does the math on what six percent actually means.
“The layoffs will eliminate nearly 600 jobs; Spotify most recently reported having 9,800 full-time employees worldwide as of Sept. 30. The company estimated that it will incur approximately €35 million-€45 million in severance-related charges.”
In the Tuesday issue of Podnews, editor James Cridland notes that in addition to the layoff announcement, Spotify’s job website has removed all open full job positions. As of this writing the site only has 23 open positions, all of which are internships. From Spangler’s article:
“Employees who are getting laid off will on average receive about five months’ salary in severance payments, per Ek’s memo. In addition, all unused vacation time will be paid out to any departing employee, and all terminated employees will be eligible for outplacement services for two months.”
Ostroff was a big name behind a lot of Spotify’s big-ticket podcasting acquisitions. Between her departure and the overall downsizing, this news seems to signal Spotify is down-shifting into treating podcasts like it has treated music. It’s not necessarily the end of Spotify expanding into podcasting, but they likely will be focusing on expansion without owning content.
New TikTok Podcast feature appears
Arielle: Last Wednesday Sydney Bradley and Dan Whateley of Business Insider published new details in the months-long windup to TikTok officially getting into podcasting.
As covered as far back as the October 10th episode of The Download, there has been a breadcrumb trail of evidence the social media platform has intentions of launching some form of podcast listening application. In December of 2021 TikTok users were prompted to complete a survey gauging user interest in both listening to podcasts and creating podcasts. In May a trademark was filed for an application called TikTok Music, which listed podcasts as a form of audio that could be played in-app.
Then, this last October, Podnews got word bots associated with TikTok’s parent company were spotted scraping publicly-available RSS feeds. Clearly TikTok was up to something.
Now, Business Insider has discovered an unannounced feature has been added to some TikTok accounts allowing users to play video hosted on TikTok as a podcast, a distinction which allows users to browse other apps or lock their phone while the audio continues to play. This is a similar functionality to one YouTube has had for Premium subscribers for years and last year was testing enabling it for all users to promote podcasting listening in certain markets.
As Bradley and Whateley’s reporting suggests, once podcasts are implemented, TikTok could be primed to become a serious Spotify competitor.
Exclusivity deals lose appeal
Manuela: Last Friday Tyler Aquilina , writing for Variety, published a piece that became somewhat prescient in hindsight: Circling back to the topic of podcast companies expanding by acquiring podcasts: Podcast Exclusivity Is Quickly Becoming an Outdated Strategy. From the intro of the article:
“If it’s still too early to declare platform-exclusive podcast deals dead as we move into 2023, it’s becoming ever clearer that this business model is likely not long for this world.”
Aquilina’s piece presents several data points suggesting the exclusive podcast strategy, most typified by Spotify acquisitions in recent years, is falling out of favor. The article cites reported frustrations from producers who signed big-name deals and went exclusive, including the Obamas choosing not to renew their exclusivity deal with Spotify last year.
One interesting data point is that of the Rogan Twitter Bump, the short-term engagement boost relatively smaller guests on The Joe Rogan Experience get in the week after appearing on the podcast. According to data collected from Social Blade by The Verge, JRE guests with fewer than 500,000 Twitter followers started to experience far smaller influxes of new followers starting December 2020, the month JRE went Spotify-exclusive. Conversely, podcasts that leave exclusivity to wide release are reporting more success in open podcasting. Aquilina reports he was given data from Acast that shows Spanish-language podcast Se Regalan Dudas has seen its listens increase 56% over their first year after leaving Spotify exclusivity. From the end of Aquilina piece:
“Podcasting remains a growth business, even if that growth is decelerating. But as in any maturing market, business practices must shift with the times — and in this case, that means the walled gardens are going to start opening up soon.”
Buzzsprout to implement premium subscriptions
Arielle: Back on January 12th we reported on Apple launching Delegated Delivery, a feature from which several podcast hosting providers can allow their users to upload content to their Apple premium podcast from the dashboard of said host.
The initial rollout included Blubrry, Libsyn, Triton Digital’s Omny Studio, and RSS.com, with Acast, ART19 and Buzzsprout named as the next in line to get the feature in the coming months.
In a surprise twist, this week Buzzsprout announced their own premium podcast subscription offering. Dubbed Buzzsprout Subscription, the feature allows podcasts hosted on the platform to process payments from subscribers. Currently, users can choose between a Patreon-style pricing structure that gives audience members custom incentives, such as a shoutout in an episode, to a more Apple-like paywalled feed.
Revenue collected from the subscriptions can be applied to pay for Buzzsprout hosting fees or converted to cash via a Paypal transaction. As it stands, Apple Podcast Subscriptions pay out 70% of their revenue for new subscribers, with the revenue share going up to 85% payout for subscribers who have stuck around for a full year. According to Tuesday’s Podnews, Buzzsprout Subscriptions is a flat 85% payout.
With this new feature implementation, as well as the availability of Buzzsprout Ads, it’s becoming far more difficult to think of a reason why someone hosting on Buzzsprout would need to leave their dashboard to accomplish something for their podcast elsewhere online.
Quick Hits
Arielle:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
AdTheorent Is Using Machine Learning To Predict Effective Inventory by Allison Schiff for AdExchanger. In which Schiff breaks down a new application that uses machine learning to score programmatic inventory based on probability the impression will lead to a desired outcome. Application of this tool to podcasting, or any media, would be incredibly interesting.
Here are the brands starting 2023 with new CMOs by Minda Smiley for MarketingBrew. While there are no directly podcasting-related companies getting new CMOs in this article, new CMOs often mean new perspectives and interest in new channels. Don’t be surprised if your kids are listening to a Chuck E Cheese branded podcast by this time next year.
P&G looks to replicate $65m success after taking media planning, buying in-house in fabric care by Julia Cannon for Digiday. A piece covering Procter & Gamble’s in-house media planning and buying strategy saving millions over a year. Brands bringing things in-house means fresh eyes and direct access. More contacts overall, but direct to the people that it matters to.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tom took a look back on all of the great research that was done at Sounds Profitable in 2022 and came up with a handful of the most impactful data points. Here are his three favorite data points from 2022!
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Opportunity in Kids podcasting as recession looms, Podcasting’s ‘recession era’, some audio publisher’s teams still growing in 2023, and Paul Riismandel joins Signal Hill Insights.
Podcasting’s Recession Era and how podcasters are approaching it.
Manuela: This week our first segment is going to cover a variety of articles centering around an overall theme: podcasting’s reaction to the recession in early 2023. To kick things off, we continue a throughline of covering how the Kids & Family category has quickly evolved into a juggernaut. Over the first half of 2022 the genre made itself known as a force to be reckoned with over several big deals and signings.
Now as the recession looms, along with doom-and-gloom articles about said recession, big-name deals are becoming more scarce. Tumble Media CEO Lindsay Patterson has worked in kids podcasting for years and likens the 2022 surge to being invited to a party late. Kids & Family has arrived just in time to find the host is taking down the decorations. From her January 11th Medium post:
“With a general pullback on spending on podcasts, it’s likely that companies will be hesitant to invest in strategy and content for kids, who require a new approach to audience development and monetization. It’s a different model than “grownup” podcasts. But the good news is kids’ podcasts may be a welcome guest at other parties — and in many other industries. There are choices. Nay, there are opportunities.”
Patterson proposes Kids & Family’s relative newcomer status to the wider industry leaves it plenty of unpursued avenues that are already well-tread ground for others. Her article touches on concepts like adapting existing kid-friendly IP to podcasts and pursuing new platforms. Interestingly, she points to nonprofits, grants, and research studies as potentially viable funding paths. Patterson speaks from experience, having partnered Tumble Media with a non-profit organization to win a grant. The partnership has been funded to spend three years studying how both listening to and making podcasts can engage blind and sighted students in the classroom.
“In a way, the warnings and scrutiny of the podcast industry makes me more optimistic than ever before about the kids’ space. We can take a clear eyed look from the outside, and see how kids’ podcasts can and should be better.”
Patterson’s suggestions of creativity and adaptability come at a good time for smaller creators, as even larger presences in podcasting are beginning to feel the effects of hiring and investment freezes. This Wednesday the Hollywood Reporter published a piece by J. Clara Chan titled “Podcasting’s Recession Era: Dealmaking Gets More Selective in Slower Ad Market.”
Chan begins the piece with a big-picture view of investments made by major players in the industry before setting the article’s goal answering the question: “What will podcasting’s next era look like during a recession?”
Her article begins with a focus on the deal-making side of the industry, sourcing two anonymous dealmakers and their observations of industry performance in recent months. Big companies seem to have covered their bases on wide demographics. Chan gives the example of Spotify’s coverage of Gen Z and millennial women with acquisitions of Call Her Daddy and Emma Chamberlain’s Anything Goes. \
BIPOC Podcast Creators co-founder Tangia Al-awaji Estrada gives a perspective from a smaller, independent side of the industry:
“It feels a little bit premature at this stage because we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but it does feel like there’s some panic in the air. We’re seeing companies who’d normally be investing in up-and-coming talents, indie creators — smaller companies are pulling back and saying, ‘Well, we’re not doing that right now. We’re not doing that at all.’ So, there’s definitely a feeling like folks are holding their breaths to see what’s going to happen.”
Last Friday Sara Guaglione, writing for Digiday, published a piece covering the phenomenon of smaller production houses growing as larger entities condense their audio teams. A tally of jobs on sites like Indeed with the word ‘podcast’ in the description shows there has been a downward trend of open positions since the peak in May of 2022. Still, companies are hiring.
“A number of media companies posted new podcast job openings this month. Vox Media, for example, posted a job opening this week for a $200,000+ executive producer position for its daily show “Today Explained.””
Guaglione also points to Tenderfoot TV, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal as places that are actively growing their audio teams.
Returning to the Hollywood Reporter piece, we reach the advertising side of podcasting. The conclusion reached by J. Clara Chan’s reporting will be a familiar one to loyal followers of The Download. In general, advertisers are pacing themselves from brand awareness campaigns and doubling down on direct response and prioritizing sales conversions.
The piece ends with a final sentiment from Al-awaji Estrada, quote:
“Podcasting is going to be just fine. I really believe that podcasting is still so young that a huge market change isn’t going to blow up the entire world. There’s going to be some tightening of the belts, probably, across the board. But by the time we come out of this thing, I think we will have seen podcasting continue to grow through the recession.”
Paul Riismandel joins Signal Hill Insights
Shreya: For this segment we’re covering something of personal significance to Sounds Profitable. Last Thursday podcasting veteran Paul Riismandel joined Signal Hill Insights as the company’s new Chief Insights officer. From the Signal Hill press release:
“At Signal Hill, Riismandel will help solidify the company as a critical independent third-party voice providing industry-wide and custom research solutions. He will focus on furthering innovation in podcast measurement, combining ad effectiveness, creative analysis, and audience insights, in order to help partners and the industry at large understand how best to serve both listeners and advertisers, together.”
Having overseen hundreds of ad effectiveness studies since 2014, Riismandel takes research seriously. From his blog post on the Signal Hill website last Thursday:
“I cannot overstate the importance of independent third-party research in the development of any media platform. That said, publishers are a fundamental driver, and many invest in internal research, done with integrity, to build their business. In turn this elevates the whole medium.”
For those newer to Sounds Profitable, Riismandel is a big figure in the company’s history. It was him who got Midroll Media to become a day-one Sounds Profitable partner back in September of 2020. Now, in 2023, we’re thrilled to be partnering with Riismandel and everyone else at Signal Hill Insights in producing more independent third-party research.
Quick Hits
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles called Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Magellan AI launches Spanish language podcast prospecting and competitive intelligence tool, a press release provided via Podnews. With their new Spanish language support, Magellan AI already has data on Spanish-language ads from more than 2,000 advertisers in the US.
A better way to measure podcast success: Listen Time by Jonas Woost for Bumper. In which Woost tells the story of YouTube switching from using views as a metric to ‘watch time,’ and suggesting a similar update to the podcasting industry as an alternative to the download.
A Tale of Two Bytes: Prefix vs. Host-based analytics by John Spurlock for Livewire Labs. An excellent explainer on why third-party analytics download stats might be different from the downloads reported by one’s hosting company.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We’re off to the races in 2023, and we’re taking you with us.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Megaphone’s weekend of outages, AdvertiseCast Publishes average CPM of 2022, Apple debuts Delegated Delivery, a software engineer teases adblock for iTunes, and The Podscape 2023 is live.
Megaphone has Weekend of Outages
Manuela: We start from a story from the holiday break. On Monday, December 19th, Podnews editor James Cridland reported on a weekend of outages for Megaphone. According to Megaphone documentation, the outage started sometime before 11am Eastern on Saturday the 17th for producers. From the website:
“We are currently investigating an issue that is impacting content delivery. During this time end listeners most likely will not be able to download podcast episodes. We are working to fix this currently.”
Within two hours the case was updated to reflect the playback issue. At 10am the following day a second outage started, this time as a “podcast playback” issue that ran for over 12 hours, leaving megaphone podcasts effectively offline until 11:56pm Eastern. One of the larger major hosting platform outages of the year.
This incident marked the sixth time in 2022 Megaphone was temporarily unavailable to podcast listeners.
AdvertiseCast Publishes Final Podcast Advertising Rates of 2022
Shreya: AdvertiseCast rang in the new year with a January 1st update to their monthly AdvertiseCast Marketplace Podcast Advertising Rates. A quote from AdvertiseCast CRO Dave Hanley in their press release:
“2022 was a breakout year in podcasting. Podcasts have become mainstream with explosive growth among younger and more diverse audiences who are embracing niche genres and new ways of listening.”
December’s overall average CPM was $23.57, a 4% drop month-on-month. With this new information, AdvertiseCast now has the data to generate an overall average for the year. The average CPM for podcasts in AdvertiseCast’s observed population was $23.87 for a sixty-second ad spot, a 2% increase from 2021.
The three highest-CPM categories in December were, in ascending order, Business, Education, and Technology, with Technology podcasts pulling an average CPM of $27.
Software dev wants to make podcast ad blocker, charge money for it.
Manuela: Last week a Portland, Oregon-based software engineer Micah Engle-Eshleman announced his intentions to build something that, if fully developed, would change the industry: Adblock, but for podcasts. From adblockpodcast.com:
“Finally, a podcast app that skips ads! Adblock Podcast detects and skips ads on all iTunes podcasts.”
While light on concrete information, the project appears to be a web-based application that would detect and remove any advertisements embedded in podcasts served through Apple Podcasts, erroneously referred to by the branding Apple retired six years ago. The project will be a paid service with a vaguely-defined intent to use an undefined portion of money collected to directly pay podcasters via revenue share.
On paper, Engle-Eshlerman is proposing his web app would create a new, more profitable way for podcasters to be compensated for producing their shows. He’s quoted in last week’s Podnews as saying he hasn’t figured that part out yet.
Which feels apt for the entire project. How would it skip ads? How would a web app produced by one person handle the complexity of paying out millions of individual podcasts? Why are podcasters supposed to be excited that they have to let a stranger’s product rip out their ads and give them a percentage of what it collected that month? If a podcast that’s on a network has its ads skipped, does that podcast get the check or does the network?
At best, Podcast Adblock is a cautionary tale for bloggers and reporters covering podcast beats. Just because an email contains something that looks sensational doesn’t mean it’s worth giving air. Podcast Adblock has many telltale signs of being vaporware. A paid service based Adblock, a service that has been available for free in one form or another since 2002. From someone with no podcasting bona fides who still calls it ‘iTunes.’
Apple Podcasts launched Delegated Delivery
Shreya: This Tuesday Apple announced the implementation of the Delegated Delivery beta, which will allow podcasters to publish content to their Apple Podcast Subscription from the dashboard of select hosting services. From the blog:
“With an active membership to the Apple Podcasters Program, creators can now generate API Keys from the Account tab of Apple Podcasts Connect, which they can share with their hosting provider to allow them to publish content on their behalf. Once enabled, creators can submit new free and subscriber shows, publish new subscriber episodes, and continue to publish free episodes to Apple Podcasts from their hosting provider dashboard.”
Currently the beta enables podcasters on Blubrry, Libsyn, Triton Digital’s Omny Studio, and RSS to try out pushing episodes directly to their Apple subscribers. More hosting providers are slated to be added to the service throughout the year, with Acast, ART19 and Buzzsprout mentioned by name as the next in line for addition.
Removing the extra chore of logging in to a separate dashboard makes the act of producing an ad-free feed or bonus content even more attractive. Apple premium subscriptions were already popular before, it's easy to see Delegated Delivery could likely help make them defacto practice for podcasts with substantial footprints on Apple Podcasts.
First 2023 edition of The Podscape now live.
Manuela: Before we get into the Quick Hits, we wanted to briefly spotlight something new from a collaboration between Sounds Profitable and Magellan AI. The first 2023 edition of The Podscape is now live. The sizeable infographic is built from taking inventory of podcasting’s companies, agencies, services, and anything else that could be classified. From the Podscape description:
“From content creation to hosting services to media planning, agencies, and media sales - download The Podscape to better understand how some of the biggest players fit together on one page.”
The 2023 Podscape is free to download and currently accepting feedback. 2022 was a busy year in podcasting and the goal of The Podscape is to create as accurate a snapshot as possible. Any notable exclusions or needed corrections should be directed to podscape@Magellan.ai for the next edition, currently slated for sometime in February.
Quick Hits
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
LiveOne to spin off PodcastOne into public company, Slacker possibly next by Kurt Hanson for RainNews. This short piece includes a source link to the SEC filing from LiveOne indicating the upcoming spinoff.
Podcast Vet Laura Mayer To Lead Podcast Creative At ABC Audio from PodcastNewsDaily. Exciting closure for listeners of Shameless Acquisition Target, as host Laura Mayer has landed a choice role at ABC Audio after selling the RSS feed to her year-long podcast project.
NPR’s Student Challenge is Back from NPR. For its fifth consecutive year, the NPR Student Podcast Challenge will run from January through April, encouraging middle and high-school students to produce podcasts in hopes of winning the grand prize of a $5,000 scholarship.
The best and worst campaigns of 2022, according to industry creatives by Kelsey Sutton, Ryan Barwick, Minda Smiley, and Alyssa Meyers for MarketingBrew. A fun weekend read, this look back at the previous year features some pivotal moments in online marketing. From catchy songs about plant-based chicken nuggets to people in neon t-shirts being creepy at baseball games, 2022 had a wide variety of campaigns.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Join Bryan in kicking off this year with a review of the notable acquisitions and fundraising that happened in 2022.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
ChatGPT and other new forms of chatbot are already able to credibly write like humans, and it’s getting harder to tell who - or what - writes any given blog post. This week, Tom explains why this is a good thing for podcast creatives, and not the apocalypse.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Amazon advertises podcasts offline, Twitter dissolves its Trust and Safety Council, Automakers phasing out AM radio, and a roundup of new research published this week.
Amazon pushing podcasts offline.
Manuela: This Monday Podnews covered Amazon Music’s new physical-space advertising campaign for their Best of 2022 podcast selections. The best-of collection has prominent placement on the front page of Amazon Music, and now the streamer is promoting it in England and France. From Editor James Cridland’s coverage:
“In London, ads will be appearing for the next two weeks promoting ten of the top podcasters. The company also carried audio ads within the Wondery network for the chosen podcasts, and produced social media assets.”
The ads in London primarily take the form of projected billboards on blank brick walls, along with a more traditional advertisement for the podcast +44 on a digital billboard in Waterloo station. In Paris, poster-sized digital placements for Amazon podcasts were spotted at Gare du Nord, the busiest train station in Europe.
Twitter Trust and Safety Council Dissolved
Arielle: Continuing the trend of a lot happening in a short amount of time at Twitter, the social media giant has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council. Originally booked to meet this Monday, members of the council told the Financial Times the meeting was canceled via email with only an hour’s notice. From Dave Lee’s reporting:
“The council was created in 2016 to solicit advice from dozens of experts and external organisations on how Twitter should tackle harassment, mental health issues and child exploitation, as well as suicide prevention. But in a note sent to members on Monday, the social media company said the council was no longer the “best structure” to gain outside insights on its policies.”
The dissolution of the council comes four days after three prominent members resigned, citing concerns over the leadership of new Twitter owner Elon Musk. From the trio’s group statement:
“We are announcing our resignation from Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council because it is clear from research evidence that, contrary to claims by Elon Musk, the safety and wellbeing of Twitter’s users are on the decline.”
One of the largest social media platforms has quickly become a problematic place for advertisers. Meanwhile, as data from the new Sounds Profitable study Safe and Sound attests, podcasting is uniquely positioned to welcome them to a brand-safe and suitable environment.
As the study’s data attests, podcasting’s opt-in nature creates an environment where programs that feature offensive or uncomfortable content largely have an audience of listeners who are fine with such content. And, more importantly, they tend to have audiences who are supportive of brands who sponsor that podcast. Listeners also tend to be forgiving for outlier examples of offensive content if they prefer podcasts that don’t discuss such things. From the study:
“Regular listeners to otherwise non-offensive shows will highly likely return to the podcast after a single episode featuring uncharacteristically offensive content.”
As advertisers begin to shy away from brand-unsafe places like Twitter, podcasting finds itself uniquely-suited to be a leader in brand safety and suitability.
Automakers sundown AM Radio in New Vehicles
Manuela: On December 1st, Senator Edward J Markey of New York sent a letter to the CEOs of several major automotive brands in the US, including Toyota, Volkswagen, and BMW. The letter strongly urges them to reconsider the growing trend of not offering AM radios in new electric vehicles.
Why is this a trend? Here’s James Gilboy’s explanation from a July article for The Drive:
“So are highly complex EVs incompatible with one of the oldest, simplest electronics? BMW and Volvo told me it was due to audio quality problems rooted in electromagnetic interference, of which EVs' drivetrains produce a significant amount. Cars' engines and other complex electronics have always made EM interference, but low-wattage static is relatively easy to shield against. It's not as simple with EVs that may pull hundreds of watts from their batteries, generating far more interference, reducing audio quality to a level both BMW and Volvo told me they consider insufficient.”
Gilboy goes on to say he finds it difficult to take that explanation without a grain of salt, as US automakers circumvent the EM signal problem without issue. A common thread Gilboy notes is the manufacturers who have phased AM out of EVs tend to have strong roots in European markets.
“The frequency has largely been superseded by the DAB format, which is a more advanced form of radio broadcasting with better audio quality and choice of stations. AM radio stations and their listeners are all but gone in Europe, so European carmakers may not need to include technology that many of its customers can't use.”
Understandably, the radio industry isn’t happy with this trend. Gilboy points to the Edison Research stat from 2018 citing 45% of radio listeners only listen to the radio in their car. Senator Markey’s letter ends with three questions asking automakers to give definitive answers as to whether they intend to fully stop offering AM and/or FM radio in future vehicles. If so, his followup questions press them to provide reasoning as to why. He provided a self-imposed deadline of December 22nd for answers to these questions.
Research Roundup: Podchaser, Podsights, Bumper.
Arielle: ‘tis the season for more data. Usually we round out the episode with a collection of articles called Quick Hits, but this week we’re switching it up. Hopefully you saved some room after reading Safe and Sound, as we’ve got three new podcasting research studies to share.
First up: Yesterday Podchaser published a new report titled What’s the Best Day to Publish a Podcast? The study uses six months of data from the top 50 thousand podcasts to segment data by genre.
For those wondering: the most popular day overall for a podcast to release is tied between Wednesday and Thursday, at 17.4%. Monday and Tuesday bring up second place with 17% share of episodes each. Saturday brings up the rear as least-popular, with only 7.1% of podcasts released.
Up next: The newest edition of the Podcast Advertising Benchmark Report from Podsights is here and contains good news. This newest report, compiled from nearly 11 billion impressions from 4.2 thousand campaigns, cites the average purchase conversion rate has increased 19% since last quarter.
Finally, a new blog post from Bumper seeks to answer the age-old question of whether or not to post a podcast during the last week of the year. Published this Tuesday, Bumper published their findings from a team-up with Simplecast that examined both podcast episode publication rates and listenership data from the final week of December in 2021.
Bumper started with a sample size of 988,235 podcast episodes from Apple Podcasts, all published in December 2021. They were then sorted by release date to form a graph depicting release cadence by day throughout the month. For comparison, Bumper did the same with data provided by the Simplecast team from the same period.
The two graphs reflect similar patterns: a visible dip in publication cadence during the final week of the year. The blog then goes on to discuss starts, stream, and play data from two podcasts that volunteered their data from the same time period, which examines if anyone is listening to podcasts during that final week of the year. From the blog:
“Your reaction to this data is a bit like a Rorschach test. You can see in it what you want: an excuse to skip a week, or an opportunity to try and stand out from the crowd during an otherwise quiet period.”
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Brand Safety and Suitability are among the hottest topics in podcasting. But how do the listeners feel? That’s Tom’s topic in this week’s Sounds Profitable.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Building an app for podcast listeners is a tough sell in this world where Spotify and Apple are so dominant. But Realm has been in the game for a while and have a dedicated fan base – both of the app they launched years ago and the content that’s contained therein. In this episode, Bryan Barletta speaks with Rachel Prisock, head of data and engineering at Realm, about building, maintaining, and utilizing the app as an audience engagement and measurement tool.
Listen to learn about: (5 bullet points)
- How Realm got its start in podcasting
- Why the app model works for Realm (but isn’t as successful for other publishers)
- How Realm might evolve
- Realm’s strategy for partner content
- The role of the Super Fan in their stratefy
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Rachel Prisock
- Realm
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta and Arielle Nissenblatt
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
- Edited by Reece Carman and Ron Tendick
- Assembled by Spooler Media
- Hosted on Omny Studios
- Additional help from Gavin Gaddis
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Sounds Profitable publishes brand safety and suitability study, Edison publishes top podcast networks by reach, Libsyn unveils November 2022 podcast advertising rates, Spotify unveils its top five podcasts in Wrapped, and GroupM and Magna predict a ‘durable’ ad market next year.
Sounds Profitable publishes brand safety and suitability study Safe and Sound
Manuela: We begin today’s show with something close to home. Yesterday Sounds Profitable debuted its latest research project, Safe and Sound. The first-ever study of brand safety and suitability from the listener’s perspective.
“Safe and Sound surveyed a representative sample of 1093 podcast listeners to find out what they consider ‘offensive,’ what they are tolerant of, and how they view the brands that support podcast content when it pushes their boundaries.”
The study delivers a wide range of findings, ranging from bombshells like the idea political ads are unpopular with audiences - regardless of political party - to taking the temperature of what audiences consider most offensive. Spoiler alert: people dislike racist language.
That said, it looks like offensive content might not be as toxic to a podcast’s overall image as initially assumed. When asked how they felt about brands that advertise or sponsor a podcast where a guest or host said something offensive or uncomfortable, an average of 30% of respondents said their feelings about the brands had not been changed.
When presented with the situation of a podcast someone regularly enjoys having an uncomfortable or offensive episode, 49% of respondents said they would stop listening to that particular episode but continue listening in general, while 31% said they’d continue listening to the outlier episode regardless.
The data suggests podcast-listening audiences take a more holistic approach to offensive content on podcasts they already have a relationship with. In general, listeners appear to not hold a single out-of-character episode against a podcast they’re familiar with.
Edison Top Podcast Networks
Shreya: This Tuesday Edison Research published the Q3 edition of U.S. Top Podcast Networks, by Reach. Listeners of The Download might remember Spotify took the lead back in Q2, just edging out SiriusXM Media. This last quarter SiriusXM has overtaken Spotify and returned to the top, leaving the top five at SiriusXM Media, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Audioboom, and NPR, with Wondery eyeing the top five from sixth place. From the Edison blog post:
“Within the top ten, the biggest jump in rank goes to Wondery/Audible/Amazon Music, up two rank positions, propelled in part by their acquisitions of major shows like Morbid and My Favorite Murder. Bubbling below the top ten, WarnerMedia gained three levels in rank, now up to 14th.“
Once more SiriusXM takes the top spot, but not without Spotify having broken their streak of having been at the top since Edison first started publishing top network by reach reports.
Libsyn Unveils November 2022 Podcast Advertising Rates
Manuela: Continuing our unplanned theme of discussing data, let’s take a moment to talk about CPM.
Last Thursday Libsyn published the November edition of their monthly CPM rate roundup from AdvertiseCast.
“The Company releases the figures to empower the podcaster and advertiser communities to readily monitor market pricing and provide greater insight into podcasting advertising as a monetization vehicle. The data is derived from actual sales data across AdvertiseCast’s network of over 3,000 shows, including more than 225 exclusive podcasts.”
Rates are continuing to increase, little by little. Last month the average CPM rate was $24.75 for a sixty-second ad spot, up 78 cents from the October average and a 6% year-over-year increase from November 2021.
The report notes that the lower end of the spectrum contains fiction, television, and news content, averaging in the low twenties. On the high side, however, a familiar face for listeners of The Download. We’ve covered the meteoric rise of Kids & Family podcast content multiple times and its popularity continues into this November. The top four highest-earning categories in November are:
Technology and Health & Fitness, tied for third place at $26. Science at $27. And at the top of the leaderboard, Kids & Family at $28, over three dollars higher than industry average.
Spotify Wrapped is here, including its top podcasts
Shreya: Some of you might have noticed a deluge of vibrant colors and boasting about listening habits last Wednesday, as the annual Spotify Wrapped dropped. Kimeko McCoy, writing for Digiday last Thursday, explains how big this yearly infodump has become:
“It’s an awareness campaign that utilizes user data to serve up users’ favorite songs, albums and podcasts to be shared across social media platforms via the app, engaging more than 120 million users last year, according to Spotify. This year, Spotify has launched its Wrapped presence in Roblox, with the goal of tapping into an even bigger audience.”
What originally started as a year-end recap in 2015 has grown to a marketing event large enough to necessitate a custom presence in one of the most popular online games. Since entering the podcast space, Spotify has also begun publishing a Podcast Wrapped.According to Ariel Shapiro in last week’s issue of Hot Pod, the top five podcasts on Spotify this year are, in descending order:
The Joe Rogan Experience
Call Her Daddy
Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain
Caso 63 (in all languages)
And, finally, Crime Junkie.
This year only two of the top five podcasts aren’t Spotify exclusives, though one of those two is set to become an exclusive early next year. Only the highly successful Crime Junkie breaks through the blockade of podcasts with strong Spotify ties.
Shapiro attributes this to Spotify’s ability to promote in-ecosystem properties like Caso 63 and its English adaptation Case 63, while podcasts that release on multiple platforms have to deal with divided metrics. Anything Goes performs well on Spotify, but it doesn’t necessarily translate to similar performance on Apple Podcasts. While it got third place on Spotify for the year, Shapiro notes Chamberlain didn’t make it into Edison Research's top fifty most-listened-to podcasts report for Q2. From the newsletter:
“The list, therefore, tells us more about Spotify’s strategy than it does about the overall market.”
GroupM and Magna’s Global Ad Forecasts Predict A Durable Ad Market
Manuela: For our final story today we bring up a bit of good news n the face of a recession that we’re either already in, or about to enter (depending on who you ask). Hana Yoo, writing for AdExchanger, covered reports from both GroupM and Magna this Monday.
“Global advertising revenue grew 6.5% in 2022 and is projected to grow 5.9% in 2023, according to GroupM’s global year-end industry growth forecast. Meanwhile, Magna’s December global ad forecast predicts 4.8% growth in 2023 after 6.6% growth in 2022.”
Yoo notes that these projections are lower than earlier forecasts. Revised versions to meet current numbers, such as Magna’s earlier prediction of a 6.3% growth for next year. Still, as Yoo reports GroupM’s official line is they’re looking at 2023 with ‘conservative optimism.’ From the article:
“And Magna is on the same page. Although we’ll likely see “a slight slowdown in advertising revenue growth in an uncertain economic environment,” said Luke Stillman, Magna’s SVP and group director of global market intelligence, growth should reaccelerate during the second half of the year.”
In addition to forecasting overall growth, GroupM also anticipates retail media to grow from 101 billion to 110.7 billion in revenue next year. They also note CTV’s particular resilience during COVID and its upward trends, even while paid TV subscriptions slip.
Forecasts for next year aren’t cloudless skies, but they’re also not trending towards thunderstorms just yet.
Quick Hits
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
What’s going on in audio advertising? Spotify grows, podcasts go global, and radio is a safe bet, by Shreya Feger for Insider Intelligence. A brief three-point breakdown of insights into the state of audio advertising and predictions for next year.
Rephonic analyzed its podcast database to share opportunities for podcasters on Patreon, from last Thursday’s issue of Inside Podcasting. A brief breakdown of Rephonic’s blog post detailing their findings regarding podcasting on Patreon.
Magellan AI Taps Experian to Improve Attribution by Magellan AI. A brief press release explaining their new partnership with Experian to use the Experian Identity Graph to power Attribution by Magellan AI.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Just what is a Sounds Profitable DeepDive, and what have they covered this year? What drove Bryan Barletta to create them in the first place? Read on to find out.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Samsung Free app issue causes spike in downloads, Transistor joins email spam prevention movement, How streaming TV is bracing for the recession, and Spreaker debuts two new offerings, one of which sounds like a cool robot.
New auto-playing Samsung app spikes downloads.
Manuela: Our top story this week, fitting for a holiday weekend, is one of collaboration and teamwork against all odds. Last week Samsung launched the Listen tab on Samsung Free, a media streaming app pre-installed on every Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
When clicked on, the Listen tab would open a full-screen player with a three second timer. If not manually stopped within the three seconds, the app would begin to auto-play segments of featured podcast episodes, with each episode in the queue pre-downloaded for instant play. This auto-downloading and auto-listening lead to podcasters seeing a sudden spike of listens coming from the Dalvik user agent.
Like something out of a heartwarming holiday special, the podcasting community came together on a long weekend to work together and solve the problem. In the Sounds Profitable Partners Slack channels, employees of Audioboom, Triton, Spreaker, and others jumped into threads to discuss how to handle the issue.
James Cridland’s Monday edition of the Podnews segment The Tech Stuff details why a download spike from Dalvik isn’t necessarily an easy fix. Cridland says:
“Some podcast hosting companies have blocked the “Dalvik” useragent entirely. However, blocking Dalvik - even with the Samsung model numbers - will also block, among other things, Google News’s audio player, which uses an identical audio useragent. At least one app powered by Podcast Index also uses this generic Dalvik useragent along with PodcastAddict, and Indian podcast app Gaana also retains Dalvik in its useragent.”
Luckily, there’s a happy ending to this Thanksgiving story. Multiple employees on a holiday weekend managed to get the attention of Samsung, a company only just now entering podcasting, and get the problem fully solved. According to Podnews reporting, Samsung Free content partner Acast has since demonetized any traffic from the Dalvik user agent, and a fix to the app to prevent any future download spikes is set to be published soon.
What could have been a massive headache for many people was quickly resolved fully without any half-measure bandage fixes, all on a holiday weekend, thanks to the cohesiveness of the community. That we can certainly be thankful for.
Transistor joins email spam prevention movement.
Shreya: Back on November 3rd we covered Buzzsprout’s announcement that they were removing email addressed from podcast RSS feeds. Presented as the company ‘fighting back against email spam,’ Buzzsprout only inserts a podcaster’s email address into the feed on request to verify the feed with other services and platforms.
On August 22nd Apple Podcasts announced updates to RSS feed requirements in 2023, including the end of support for the ‘owner’ tag.
“The owner tag and its contact information, including email, will no longer be recommended.”
In addition to Buzzsprout embracing the email-free future, Podbean and - most recently - Transistor have joined the cause. From their blog post this monday:
“Unfortunately, because podcast feeds are public, spammers can scrape these email addresses and use them to send unwanted emails (like pitches for guests to appear on your show).”
Meanwhile, yesterday’s Podnews published an alternate take on this move to prevent email spam. The Canadian Podcast Awards told Podnews they neither agree with nor support the removal of email addresses from RSS feeds. From yesterday’s issue:
“We do not have any plans at the moment to support feeds without contact information.”
Email spam has become a growing problem in podcasting. Back in July, James Cridland published the results of an email spam-trap he’d created in the Podnews RSS feed. Over the course of three months his experiment received 240 unsolicited commercial emails.
Similarly to Buzzsprout, Transistor has removed email addresses from the feed by default, but include a tool to manually reveal it for verification purposes. In addition, they now have a verification code entry field designed to work with Apple Podcast’s new code-based verification system.
A new verification method that, hopefully, will help ease the concerns of objecting organizations like the Canadian Podcast Awards.
How streaming TV is bracing for a recession
Manuela: Depending on who you ask, the next recession is either here already or fast approaching. On November 17th Maia Vines, writing for AdAge, published a piece detailing how streaming television is battening down the hatches. From the article:
“Brands have already started to re-prioritize where they are placing their ad dollars, said Lisa Herdman, senior VP and executive director of strategic investments at RPA.”
Heather Stewart, General Motors’ general director of global media and marketing services presents a contrasting opinion: she expressed concern advertisers might be talking themselves into a recession with reactions to false indicators.
After over a decade of consumers demanding the death of the traditional model of cable television bundling providers together, the a la carte model has begun to slip as multiple platforms come under control of media conglomerates. Currently Paramount, Warner Bros. Discover, and Disney either already group multiple services into one bundle or are planning on offering one in future.
A proposed path to soothe worries during economic downturn is commerce-enabled TV and interactive ads. Netflix VP of advertising sales Peter Laylor told AdAge:
“One thing that I think is a great opportunity is maybe a dual-screen experience, and people have experimented there, but the research shows that the vast majority of people have their phone with them when they're consuming TV streaming content.”
Even with new tactics and status-quo breaking experiments like bringing one-click-buy options to streaming TV in US markets, there’s a consistent throughline to how streamers are prepping for a recession: they’re making things simple for the consumer.
A task podcast advertisers have been refining since the format required listeners to manually copy an MP3 file to an iPod.
Spreaker debuts first-party data audience segments, MAGDA brand safety tech.
Shreya: Time for a special Spreaker segment, as the platform has made two large announcements while we were gone on holiday break and it’s time to get you up to speed.
Starting on the 17th, they announced a new first-party data for high-impact audience segmentation and targeting solution that is now available for both programmatic and direct sales on the Spreaker network. Martín Haro, Data and Insights Lead at Spreaker says in the press release:
“Now with Spreaker’s first-party data audience segments, our solution ingests data through AI and machine learning from real listeners’ listening patterns, behaviors, and podcast content, which has enabled us to build specific audience segments that have proven to be 3X more accurate than third-party data.”
Then, yesterday, the platform followed up with a brand new tech with a cool name:
“Spreaker, the global leader in programmatic ad tech, today announced its first-to-market M.A.G.D.A technology to increase quality in programmatic advertising. This unprecedented technology is set to transform programmatic podcast advertising, adding a layer of control to protect content creators.”
In addition to sounding like a cool robot sidekick from an 80s movie, M.A.G.D.A bridges a gap in brand safety and suitability. Advertisers are well-covered on their end, now Spreaker can provide an extra layer of protection from the publisher side.
Blocking IAB categories to avoid certain kinds of advertisements works pretty well, at least until a campaign is mis-categorized. Spreaker has now solved for that. From the press release:
“M.A.G.D.A technology works by transcribing programmatic ads that go through the Spreaker ad marketplace in real-time. Spreaker has created machine-learning models to auto-categorize ads. In addition, the technology can also detect miscategorized ads. For example, if a political ad is miscategorized as fast food M.A.G.D.A will flag this for rectification.”
What does the M-A-G-D-A stand for? The name serves a dual purpose. First, it stands for Machine Augmented Guard for Dynamic Advertising. Spreaker explains:
“However, Magda is also a member of the Spreaker team. She was the first person to work on ad quality control for the company, and today Spreaker has an entire division dedicated to ad quality spearheaded by Magda herself—the company felt it fitting to name the technology after her.”
In addition to having a touching name dedication, M.A.G.D.A is a fascinating piece of tech that provides a much-needed bit of security in an industry very much concerned about brand safety and suitability.
Quick Hits
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Can We Stop It With The Brand Safety Double Standard Already? By Allison Schiff for AdExchanger. An opinion piece that addresses a proposed double-standard advertisers have with brand safety concerns. Schiff points out the same brands skittish about serving ads on journalistic content featuring negative stories are prominently featured in between bouts of serial killer-crafted gore on her nightly watch-through of Criminal Minds on Hulu.
Google and iHeartMedia allegedly paid radio talent to promote the Pixel 4—without ever giving them the phone, according to the FTC, by Ryan Barwick for MarketingBrew. Barwick covers the details of a recently-settled case in which the FTC alleges iHeartMedia gave on-air talent scripts for testimonies about how much they loved using a Google Pixel phone they had never actually used.
The Cumulus Media & Signal Hill Insights Podcast Download Fall 2022 report is now available. This year features special focus on the growing prevalence of podcasts with video elements. This includes a finding that 28% of consumers prefer actively watching a podcast with a video component.
The Last Yard - the blog post that started it all, by Adam Curry, published to Podnews. Thought lost for years, a copy of Adam Curry’s 2001 blog The Last Yard has been discovered on the Wayback Machine and duplicated by Podnews with permission. A piece of industry history, Curry’s post lead to a meeting with Dave Winer that lead to the creation of podcasts.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Multitude Productions has an impressive array of podcasts, resources, events, and more going for them. In this episode, Bryan Barletta speaks with Multitude CEO Amanda McLoughlin about building the company, how they handle relationships with advertisers, scaling, and so much more.
Listen to learn about: (5 bullet points)
- Why Amanda believes CPA ads are a win-win
- The Multitude Podcasting Conference
- How Amanda and team build engaged audiences
- Why Multitude can’t scale tenfold (but maybe that’s a good thing)
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Amanda McLoughlin
- Multitude Productions
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta, Arielle Nissenblatt
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
- Additional support from Gavin Gaddis
- Compiled by: Spooler Media
- Edited by: Reece Carman and Ron Tendick
- Hosted on: Omny Studios
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Bryan comes at things from a different perspective, specifically that of the ways that the podcaster and audience interact. From how we convert a follow to a subscriber, to weighing and prioritizing each subscription solution from both the podcaster and listener perspective, and most importantly to exploring the upper limits of what we can accomplish under a subscription offering.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Sounds Profitable Deep Dive, Bryan Barletta is joined by SoundStack CEO Jon Stephenson to embark on a three-part journey through what the audio-as-a-service company has to offer. Tune in to learn how the SoundStack platform makes podcast hosting/distribution, broadcast-to-podcast, and monetization really simple.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This Week: Apple Podcasts is using machine learning to tag episodes, IAB to require annual recertification, Edison Research shares Share of Ear Q3 statistic, and Headliner announces automated YouTube integration.
Bumper Discovers Apple Podcasts Assigns Topics Automatically.
Manuela: This Tuesday Bumper co-founder Dan Misener posted a new discovery that explains how Apple Podcasts can recommend individual podcast episodes based on topics discussed. The example Misener uses is an episode of Today, Explained which, if one opens the web page source on Apple Podcasts, is tagged with twenty topics ranging from broader concepts like ‘world politics’ to individual names of celebrities and politicians mentioned in the episode.
The catch? Those keywords and topics do not appear anywhere in the episode description or RSS feed. The only way to assign them to that particular episode is a transcript. From the article:
“Here’s my best guess: Apple is using machine-generated transcriptions, then applying natural language processing techniques like topic modeling to generate lists of relevant topics on an episode-by-episode basis.”
According to Misener’s reporting, the current top 250 podcasts on Apple Podcasts consists of 70,094 episodes. Approximately 63.5% of those episodes are currently tagged with topics generated by Apple.
“Here’s my best guess: Apple is using machine-generated transcriptions, then applying natural language processing techniques like topic modeling to generate lists of relevant topics on an episode-by-episode basis.”
The topics are also ranked with a per-episode relevance score and appear to be integrated into the Apple Podcasts search function. Misener tested this by searching the phrase ‘war in Donbass,’ which he had seen as a tag on Today, Explained. Apple Podcasts returned an episode of The Inquiry that discusses the issue at length, but also does not specifically include those keywords in the title or description. This suggests the assigned topics influenced its search ranking.
As Misener says in his breakdown of what this means for podcasters, the implications of this automated topic system are numerous and all signal better relevancy in podcast discovery. SEO now goes far beyond what they chose to include in RSS feeds.
In response to the Bumper article, Podnews has quickly developed an episode topic viewer. Visitors can type in the name of a podcast and choose one of the 20 most recent uploads to see what topics Apple has assigned. That is, if it has been assigned any at all. Unfortunately the Sounds Profitable feed has not been fed through their machine learning, so we don’t know what Apple thinks last week’s episode of The Download is about.
IAB to require annual recertification.
Shreya: Last Thursday Podnews reported the Interactive Advertising Bureau is now requiring annual re-certification from podcasting companies. The information came from a note Podnews editor James Cridland discovered on the IAB website. From the IAB post:
“As podcast listenership increases and the technology to support that listenership improves, the podcast technical measurement capabilities are continuing to evolve at a rapid pace. As such, and to be aligned with other industry auditing programs, IAB Tech Lab is updating its compliance program to require annual recertification. “
The post then cites the fact several complaint companies were certified on the 2.0 version of the standards but have not re-certified under 2.1. As of this podcast 12 of the 25 companies on the IAB list are certified for 2.1. \
For context: version 1 of the Measurement Technical Guidelines was released in September of 2016. Version 2.0 released the following September. Version 2.1 released five years later, finalizing in February of 2022. The bulk of the updates in 2.1 involve guidelines blocking the Apple Watch user agent to prevent duplicate download stats.
Members of the audio committee and the tech lab were not briefed on the upcoming changes prior to Cridland’s reporting on this story. Using numbers available on the IAB website, the original Podnews report cited the cost for annual recertification at $45,000, split between a $35k certification fee and $10,000 annual membership fee.
The page has since been updated to reflect previously un-announced, cheaper certification prices. Now the cost of initial certification is $17,500 for non-members and $12,500 for members. Recertification will cost $8,750 and $6,250 for the same respective categories.
Reducing the price for certification is a step in the right direction, creating more competition and reinforcing standards that others are likely to flaunt when compared against those who decide to merely be IAB compliant instead of IAB certified.
An issue remains the recertification itself, as the process has had a life cycle of six years between 2.0 and 2.1 with no commitment whatsoever to improvements in the certification process to drive interest into certification. Third party solutions like Podtrac have been shown to receive special accommodations that allow them to uphold questionable behaviors. The most recent example of such behavior being Podtrac’s honoring of downloads for iHeartRadio podcasts generated by auto-playing web players into video game ads, classifying them as legitimate.
Going forward, we hope the IAB standard is applied consistently, updated with more regularity, and accessible to as many companies in the space as possible.
Podcast reach with people 13+ growing, Share of Ear shows.
Manuela: Last Thursday Edison Research published a bit of data from the Q3 Share of Ear that shows good news for the growth of podcasting. The issue of Weekly Insights opens with fond recollections of Cliffhanger, a popular price-guessing game segment on the game show The Price is Right. The game featured a model of a mountain climber making his way up a cartoon mountain based on correct or incorrect bids made by the contestant.
A mountain not unlike the positive trending growth represented in the graph
“In 2014, the first year of the Share of Ear survey, podcasts reached 5% of those in the U.S. age 13+. As of our most recent data, Q3 2022, podcasts now reach 18% of those age 13+ in the U.S. — a 20% increase in the past year (Q3 2021), and over three times the reach of 2014. The years in between show a steady growth in reach. There have been some fluctuations in podcast reach from quarter to quarter as we saw the beginning and end of quarantine restrictions, but this graph that shows the climb of podcast reach should be encouraging for the podcast community.”
Headliner Releases YouTube Auto-Upload
Shreya: This Monday the Headliner blog posted a video and short article announcing their newest feature.
“YouTube has become one of the hot ticket items in podcasting, and for good reason. Each month over 2.6 Billion people go to the site and watch videos. YouTube is a great place to get your podcast in front of new audience and increase your listenership. If you want to get your podcast on YouTube, but have a bunch of older episodes that you’d like to upload, this feature will save you tons of time.”
In addition to Headliner’s normal offerings that allow podcasters to generate animated video clips for social media from their podcast audio, Headliner subscribers at the Pro and Enterprise level can now create a template that will then automatically generate a full-episode video and upload it to the podcast’s YouTube channel.
This automation comes at the perfect time as YouTube pushes its interest in podcasting and podcasters, small and large, comes to terms with sizable backlogs of audio-only content.
Fundraiser Roundup
Manuela: Occasionally when there have been a few stories involving fundraising in podcasting and podcasting-adjacent companies, we graduate them from Quick Hits into their own small segment. Today we have two success stories to round out our coverage of news from the past week:
Last Wednesday Swedish audiobook and ebook subscription service Storytel announced they have raised 400 million krona, equivalent to 37 million US dollars.
Then, on this Tuesday, French digital audio and podcast monetization startup Audion announced they have raised six million euros in Series A funding.
Quick Hits
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Alex Blumberg is leaving Spotify. A tweet from New York Times reporter Ben Mullin last Tuesday announced the Gimlet Media and Startup star has left Spotify, where he has worked on Gimlet since its $230 million dollar acquisition in 2019.
Goodbye Podland, hello to Podnews Weekly Review. On November 4th the Podnews Weekly Review published its 100th and final episode, technically. The feed has been rebranded to Podnews Weekly Review, starting with its first episode last Thursday.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Podcasts and Audiobooks are crossing the streams of spoken word content - what else is possible? This week, Tom Webster looks at ideas for hybrid non-fiction content that could open up whole new sources of revenue.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Why sports podcasts are a slam dunk for podcast advertisers, our quarterly earnings roundup, how the buy-side of advertising defines ‘premium’ content, how podcast advertisers are embracing Latino podcasting, and Netflix launches their ad-supported tier.
Why sports podcasts could be a slam dunk for advertisers who know how to navigate the in-demand space
Shreya: There’s no denying the synergy of sports and advertisers during regular game seasons, but a new article from MarketingBrew’s Alyssa Meyers highlights how podcasts can easily fill that gap the rest of the year.
“The sports podcast genre is among the top five most popular in the US, according to Edison Research, and the percentage share of ad revenue for that category more than doubled from 2020 to 2021, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.”
Several of Meyers’ sources stress that sports is one of the most in-demand podcast genres for ad buyers. Steven Abraham, president of the Oxford Road, said the agency’s biggest clients are interested in the space due to its reach with an active and engaged audience.
“A good sports-podcast media plan includes both, according to Abraham. Major shows that cover entire leagues or sports news in general can provide the benefit of reach, but fan-led shows that focus on specific teams tend to be more targeted and affordable, he said.”
Regardless of a show’s popularity, the CPM of a sports podcast has the benefit of flexibility even in the off season. Locked On Podcast Network CEO David Locke reports listenership spikes more during off-season times like trade deadlines than during important games during the normal season.
Traditional media has spent decades refining their infrastructure around courting sports fans when players are on the court. Podcasting has the flexibility and staying power to capitalize on sports fandom’s dedication for their favorite pastime and make sporting content a perennial avenue for advertisers.
Podcasting Companies Post Q3 Earnings
Manuela: It’s time for what’s becoming a quarterly event here on The Download: quarterly earnings reports are here!
Most of what we’re reporting on today has been released in the past week, but in the interest of gathering everyone together, we’ll open with Spotify. As we covered back in October, Spotify shares dipped after their earnings call, in which CEO David Ek announced price increases coming in 2023.
In good news for Big Green: they report 456 million monthly active users, up 20% year over year, 195 million of which are paying subscribers, representing a 13% year over year jump.
iHeartMedia is up 7% year over year on revenue, with a Q3 total of $989 million. Their Digital Audio Group revenue hit a 23% year over year increase, with podcast revenue hitting $91 million dollars.
On Wednesday Veritone posted their Q3 financial report. $37.2 million in revenue with 64% year over year growth.
Audacy’s financial report shows total revenue down 3.8% year on year. Their Digital revenue, including podcasting, made $62 million in the quarter. As Podnews James Cridland reports, this is up 2% year on year but 10% down quarter on quarter. Cridland also said:
“The company is threatened with stock market delisting; stock hit a record low of $0.27 yesterday.”
Acast’s Q3 has been positive with revenue up 21%, amounting to $29.8 million USD when converted from Krona. In their significant events recap they list the Podchaser acquisition, the partnership with Wondery to translate and record successful podcasts in Italian, and their agreement with rep The New York Times and sell UK ad space on NYT podcasts.
They also note Amazon functionally purchasing all ad space on Acast podcasts through the deal struck just after the reporting period so Amazon can run Acast shows ad-free for Amazon Music subscribers.
How the buy-side of the ad industry is now defining ‘premium’ content
Shreya: On Wednesday Ronan Shields, writing for Digiday, published a piece covering how the buyer side of the market is defining premium ad content and the general mood of the industry in regards to the looming threat of recession. The piece quotes panels from multiple relevant conferences in New York City last week.
“Just about everyone in the industry is bracing themselves for a recession with swinging cuts to advertisers’ budgets expected, fellow panelists Jesse Fisher from Horizon Media and GroupM’s Esra Bacher offered insights into how marketers would make budgeting decisions. They both pointed out how priorities will delineate depending on whether they are an emerging or mature brand.”
Fischer predicts smaller brands will focus more on awareness campaigns instead of focusing on ROI.
“But if you look at a more mature brand, you know that’s really well positioned… they might shift spend into more measurable channels and types of activations because they really want to make sure that if they’re spending a million dollars, they’re able to see $1.1 million in ROI.”
Programmatic Investment Lead at GroupM Esra Bacher suggests marketers and media agencies have evolved enough to withstand the brunt of an anticipated economic downturn better than the 2008 recession that lead to sweeping cuts.
While DSPs and premium publishers are using tools like The Trade Desk’s OpenPath to form direct relationships, media agencies are similarly getting together with supply-side platforms. An anonymous source at Brand Safety Week told Digiday:
“It’s not possible for us to talk to 10,000 publishers, but it is possible for us to talk to 50 SSPs. So, we might look to see how much we’re spending with, say, 10-15 publishers via DSPs, and then look to see which SSPs have unique supply, unique data… and transparency on things like show-level data…”
Podcast listening by US Latinos is on the rise. Are ad dollars following suit?
Manuela: Back in August the third annual Latino Podcast Listener Report from Edison Research was published, as dedicated listeners might remember from our coverage. The report delivered promising news, including the statistic that 59% of US Latino adults have listened to a podcast at least once.
This past Wednesday Alyssa Meyers, writing for MarketingBrew, covered both the highlights of the report and how the podcasting industry is adjusting to the rise in Latino audiences.
Latina Podcasters Network and Latino Pods CEO Rita Bautista says their stable of 40+ podcasts broke six figures in ad revenue so far in 2022, working with brands like Ulta Beauty, Pfizer, and Gold Peak. The network does not run prerecorded ads, preferring host-read copy to ensure authenticity.
“There’s absolutely a lot of interest in the Hispanic opportunity by many advertisers,” said Jesus Lara, president of Univision Radio, including its Uforia Audio Network. “There’s other advertisers that will need a little more education.”
Lara stressed that authenticity has to be paramount when building ad creative. Ad Results Media VP of media operations and analytics Lisa Jacobs says she advises brands to only write copy in another language if they have someone fluent around to work on the translation. Jacobs told MarketingBrew this might seem self-explanatory, but there have been situations in the past where someone used Google Translate to try and convert copy to another language.
Bautista says she’s seeing brands follow the advice of people like Jacobs, though there is room to grow.
“The needle is moving. It’s not moving as quickly as it needs to be, but…I do commend these companies that we've been working with for trying their best, and making sure that they are working on these efforts, and asking for feedback, and looking towards the right types of networks to advertise with in order to get this right.”
Brands advertising on Netflix include Louis Vuitton, Subway, and Duracell
Shreya: Previously we’ve covered Netflix’s moves into making its cheapest tier an ad-supported one. Last week the platform officially launched the tier, charging $6.99 for ‘Basic with Ads’ in the US, as well as eight other countries. MarketingBrew’s Kelsey Sutton reports the ad loads are capped at four to five minutes of advertising per hour and the formats are pre-roll and mid-roll.
Sutton and others from MarketingBrew used accounts on the new tier to catch the new advertisement breaks in action.
“Brands we spotted while watching Gilmore Girls and Ozark included everything from luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., and Bulgari to tech brands like Beats by Dre and Google. Apartments.com, Best Western, Booking.com, Cadillac, CeraVe, Duracell, Michelob Ultra, and Subway were also spotted in the mix.
Sutton reports the exercise found an average of three ad breaks per episode amounting to around 60 seconds total of midroll plus the preroll that ran before the episode began.
“It remains to be seen how many of Netflix’s ~223 million global subscribers will opt to watch with ads. In a poll last month, most Marketing Brew readers said they’d keep their existing ad-free subscriptions, but 14% each said they’d either sign up for Netflix on its ad-supported tier for the first time or switch their existing ad-free subscription to the ad-supported tier.”
The new service isn’t quite plug-and-play just yet, as Netflix has to renegotiate licensing agreements with studios before it can run advertisements on their properties. They also appear to still be working on implementing the measurement tools produced by their partnership with DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, and Nielsen.
While Sutton mentions some advertisers are waiting in the wings to gauge the public’s reaction to the new tier, it’s clear plenty of big-name advertisers are interested in buying ad space on premium content. Netflix’s CPM for their new ad slots has been reported between $60 and $80. It’s exciting to see both the interest and the price holding in a buyer’s market.
Now to see if Netflix can deliver long-term. For now we can only watch, both literally and figuratively.
Quick Hits
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
The holiday campaigns have begun- here’s what we’re seeing so far by Katie Hicks for MarketingBrew. A breezy breakdown of what tact major brands are taking with their holiday season campaigns this year, with trends developing around addressing inflation and families celebrating together.
These Are the Salaries Warner, Amazon and Sony Offer For Audio Jobs by Ashley Carman for Bloomberg. Last week’s issue of Carman’s newsletter Soundbite features a look at salaries for a variety of companies working in audio now that New York City has passed a new law requiring good faith salary ranges on open positions.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s the episode about: If you’re a long time podcast listener, you’re probably familiar with promo codes. In this episode, we discuss how impactful they really are. And, is it possible that they could have even more impact for listeners, publishers, and advertisers? Tom Webster proposes an upgrade. Arielle Nissenblatt and Bryan Barletta are here to discuss with it with him.
Listen to learn about:
- A promo code that’s been living rent free in Arielle’s head for 5+ years
- Why promo codes work for publishers
- A possible upgrade to the promo code system we know and love
- Whether or not this potential upgrade would be as impactful for advertisers as it would be for publishers and listeners
- How this discussion ties into our recent research studies, After These Messages and We’ll Be Right Back
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Tom Webster
- Article discussed
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
- Podsights
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta, Tom Webster, Arielle Nissenblatt
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
- Produced by: Reece Carman and Ron Tendick
- Assembled by: Spooler Media
- Hosted by: Omny Studio
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Tom continues his thoughts from last week about what Podcasting can learn from Radio’s worst mistakes.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Amazon Prime users get ad-free podcasts and music, Buzzsprout combats email spam, new ad placements at Apple cause brand safety issue, and a roundup of the three new podcast research studies.
Amazon Music adds entire music catalog, ad-free podcasts.
Manuela: On Tuesday David Pierce, writing for The Verge, covered the changes coming to Amazon Prime subscribers.
Previously, Amazon Prime members had access to a limited batch of 2 million songs from Amazon Music’s extensive library. Now they have access to all 100 million songs in a limited shuffle-only capacity, similar to how a Spotify free account currently works.
The big change makes the Amazon Prime music offerings comparable to a free Spotify account. However, Amazon Prime members also get ad-free access to a fair few major podcasts. This includes podcasts produced by Amazon-owned companies like Wondery, as well as podcasts produced in partnership with outside companies, including NPR, ESPN, and the New York Times.
“Amazon is also working on podcast discovery. It’s rolling out a new feature called Podcast Previews, which seems to be something like trailers for podcast episodes. You’ll be able to listen to “a short, digestible soundbite” before deciding to dive into an episode, which Amazon thinks could help discovery.”
Pierce says the feature is billed as being “swipeable” and summarizes it as ‘Tinder for podcasts.’
Sounds Profitable asked several large publishers and hosting platforms for their percentage of downloads from Amazon Music. All were below 1% of monthly volume. Giving Amazon’s over 250 million Prime subscribers ad-free access to podcasts might bring that percentage up soon.
In addition to the Prime members, those who pay the $9 monthly subscription fee for Amazon Music Unlimited but do not have Prime get access to the ad-free podcast listening and Podcast Previews tool.
Buzzsprout ‘fighting back against email spam.’
Shreya: This Monday, Buzzsprout posted a short update announcing a significant update to how they’re distributing RSS feeds.
“Email spam has increasingly become an issue for podcasters. Spammers and bots routinely scrape RSS feeds to collect podcasters' email addresses and send them junk emails.”
The inclusion of a producer’s email in the RSS feed has been a mixed bag in recent years. As Buzzsprout says, making it easily available leaves the door open for companies scraping data to create massive databases of email addresses specifically to cold-call in hopes of selling something relevant to podcasters.
On the other hand, anyone who has produced a podcast knows the RSS email is an integral part of the process, with many platforms sending an email to that address with a verification link to prove the person claiming they own the RSS feed is legitimate.
Buzzsprout’s solution to that issue is simple: a new button has been added to the dashboard that puts the account owner’s email back into the RSS feed for 24 hours, enough time to verify the podcast
Barring any teething troubles with the 24 hour temporary email addition process, it seems like Buzzsprout has found an elegant solution to an inelegant problem.
Apple’s new ad placements immediately caused a brand safety crisis
Manuela: As covered in past episodes of The Download, Apple has been interested in expanding advertising offerings on its platforms. This Monday Insider Intelligence’s Daniel Konstantinovic posted coverage of a brand safety speedbump Apple encountered when rolling out new ad locations on the App Store.
One of the new ad spots is in the “you might also like” section recommending similar apps, allowing advertisers to promote their own app. On the 25th when the ads went live, users began to notice inappropriate advertisements appearing on the platform. The chief example of this provided in the article is an ad for the game Jackpot World - Slot Machines on the page for RecoverMe, a gambling addiction management app.
“The influx of gambling ads led to an outcry from developers, who didn’t want their apps associated with such services, and prompted Apple to indefinitely pause ads in the gambling category.”
Podcasting is no stranger to this kind of hiccup. Back in May, Spotify experienced an issue with their implementation of ads on podcast pages, leading to one Wild Turkey whiskey ad getting served to every podcast on the platform, including those about substance abuse and alcoholism, causing a small social media firestorm.
Growing pains happen with large platforms rolling out changes like this. In-depth rules and hands-on verification helps reduce issues when rolling out a new moving part, like ads on every app listing. Apple is looking into expanding similar ads into Apple Podcasts.
It’s best to keep aware of how these changes happen and be comfortable reporting on them as they happen. Apple certainly doesn’t want their own version of Spotify’s whiskey snafu, but it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye out when ad changes debut on any platform.
Podcasting Research Roundup
Shreya: Over the past week three new studies relevant to podcasting have been released, so before we close out with Quick Hits here’s a brief rundown of what has just hit the airwaves.
The IAB New Zealand has published The Evolution of Audio 2022, built with data collected from 95 survey respondents in late August and early September.
“Respondents are decision makers or influencers in the allocation of marketing
spend across audio advertising including media buyers and publishers and sales
Teams.”
The survey came back with promising data, including several metrics reflecting New Zealand ad buyers have used ads in broadcast streaming and podcasting more than their Australian counterparts.
Then there’s The Spoken Word 2022, from NPR and Edison Research. This edition comes with a special focus on younger demographics and how they interact with spoken word content. The study found a 214% increase in spoken word consumption in the 13 to 24 year old demographic compared to data from 2014.
According to The Spoken Word, an estimated 131 million people in the US over the age of 13 listen to spoken word content on a daily basis, an increase of 26 million over eight years.
And finally, the Q3 version of Magellan AI’s Podcast advertising benchmark report is here. The report examined over 78,000 episodes of popular podcasts to get a snapshot of the state of podcast advertising.
Notable findings include 1,878 new brands or products advertised with podcasts for the first time this quarter, a 2.6% increase quarter over quarter in podcast ad ok spending, and 36% of ads were thirty seconds in length.
Quick Hits
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Audiences say advertisers shouldn’t avoid hard news, like war or COVID by Ryan Barwick for Marketing Brew. The results of a survey published by the Trustworthy Accountability Group and the Brand Safety Institute suggest audiences are of the opinion ads should be served on all high-quality journalism, regardless of story content.
TikTok developer ByteDance is hiring someone for Podcast Business Development. Two weeks ago we covered the breadcrumb trail of evidence showing TikTok is taking steps to get into podcasting in the near future. Recently, a job posting has appeared on the ByteDance website aiming to hire someone with at least five years of podcast licensing or podcast digital business development experience.
Market Enginuity Podcast Group becomes Soundrise, offering a “revenue-focused partner for values-aligned podcast partners.”
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week we kick off a two part series on the lessons that podcasting can take from radio's struggles.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: A birds-eye view of how podcasting is doing political ads this year, Spotify stock drops after announcing price increase, podcast companies discuss diversity at Advertising Week and the IAB Upfront, and a massive new Nielsen study shows podcast ads universally boost brand metrics.
How podcast networks are making their own rules for political advertising—and how they differ from one another.
Manuela: Midterm elections are approaching fast in the United States and that means political ads are on the rise. This Wednesday MarketingBrew’s Alyssa Meyers published an article giving an overview of how different publishers and networks are handling the sensitive issue.
“Political advertisers, including candidates and advocacy groups, have expressed interest in podcasts, according to several network execs, but not all networks want to play ball. And because the FCC doesn’t regulate political ads in podcasting, the rules are left entirely up to platforms and networks.”
iHeart, Wondery, and Vox declined to comment on Meyer’s story, but those that did gave a wide variety of responses and opinions. Cadence13 has always been open to political ads, for instance. That said, the decision on whether or not to run any particular cause or campaign is left to the individual hosts of Cadence13 original podcasts. Spotify has flipped the switch to allow political ads again, having banned them after accusations of spreading disinformation during the 2020 presidential election. Curiously, both Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts do not directly mention political advertising in their ad policies.
Due to government regulations, NPR cannot run political ads on terrestrial radio. CEO Gina Garrubbo told MarketingBrew NPR chooses not to run political ads on other platforms. Meyers continues:
“Execs from other podcast networks told us they’re starting to see increasing interest from political candidates and issue-based organizations, and though they’re open to these opportunities, some don’t have formal policies in place yet.”
Shira Atkins, co-founder and CRO of Wonder Media Network, has taken the approach of allowing political ads but only as part of sponsored content or via baked-in host-read. She says the network has gotten pitches from PACs and candidates, but some have blanched at the idea of handing over creative control to a host instead of running an ad produced by the campaign.
“While political ad dollars aren’t flooding the podcast space the way they are CTV, as the industry continues to grow, its political ad policies will likely continue to evolve and solidify, even if they differ across networks.”
If there’s one clear consensus in the world of political advertising on podcasts, it’s that there currently is no consensus.
Spotify Shares Slip 10% After CEO Says Price Hikes Coming Next Year
Shreya: On Wednesday Denny Jacob, writing for The Wall Street Journal and reposted to MarketWatch, published coverage of the Spotify’s Tuesday earnings call. The results were a mixed bag for Spotify.
“For its third quarter, Spotify reported 456 million monthly active users, up 20% from a year earlier and above the company's guidance. Paying subscribers, Spotify's most lucrative type of customer, climbed 13% to 195 million, also exceeding the company's expectations, thanks to promotions and household plans.”
That said, Spotify also posted a Q3 loss of 195 million dollars. Spotify Premium has cost $9.99 since the service launched in 2011, but CEO Daniel Ek says that’ll change some time next year. Spotify shares fell 10% after the announcement.
Podcast companies want to increase diverse content—but say they need better ad budgets to do so
Manuela: Time for another article from MarketingBrew’s Alyssa Meyers, this one published on Monday. In it, she covers conversations about the podcasting industry stemming from Advertising Week New York and the IAB Podcast Upfront last week.
“Part of the push for more diversity in podcasting is about getting creators from different backgrounds behind the mic in the first place. Conal Byrne, CEO of the iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group, said that podcasting, like other mediums, has a problem with representation, but that there are efforts underway to “course-correct.”
Meyers cites the Edison Research’s 2022 Infinite Dial to demonstrate that the average makeup of the regular US podcast listeners - 53% men and 59% white, has declined in recent years. She also notes the diverse makeup of podcast hosts is outpacing wider US population statistics, using statistics from The Creators, a study published by Edison Research and Sounds Profitable on June 28th.
Conversations about diversification also raise questions about brand safety.
“During Acast’s panel, global head of ad innovation Elli Dimitroulakos said that brand-safety tech can be imperfect as well, because it “has been built by people with preconceived notions or biases.”
Dimitrioulakos provides the example of a retailer avoiding any instance of the word ‘bomb’ in an attempt to distance themselves from any content to do with war, but in the process unrelated content like discussions of bomber jackets are caught in the crossfire.
“Or “if I say ‘a bomb lipstick,’ I’m not talking about a weapon,” added Brooke DeVard Ozaydinli, host of the Naked Beauty podcast.”
Tenderfoot TV co-founder and president Donald Albright says advertisers should be prepared to invest in the industry and support the diversity they want to see in the industry.
“Black content is what creates the culture, all culture, so invest in that,” he said. “Put the money in it, and also pay a premium on it. Don’t just pay the normal rate, pay extra, because you’re reaching a very targeted market that’s going to set the trends. That should be more valuable.”
New massive Nielsen study finds podcast ads universally boost brand metrics, long ads work.
Shreya: On Wednesday Gillian Follett, writing for AdAge, covered a new Nielsen study purported to be the ‘largest ever’ study of podcast ads.
“The study, titled “Podcast Ad Effectiveness: Best Practices for Key Industries,” consolidates the findings of 610 separate studies conducted by Nielsen to measure how ads inserted into podcast episodes affected several performance metrics, including brand familiarity, brand affinity and brand awareness. It also measured consumers’ intent to search for more information about the brand; purchase something from the brand; or recommend the brand to others.”
The individual studies cover a period of four years and involved over 147,000 respondents, leading to the claim this is the largest ever study of podcasting advertising effectiveness. This claim was made by study commissioner Magna, an investment and intelligence unit of IPG Mediabrands.
One notable bit of data is the finding that ads longer than 35 seconds drive better results than shorter creatives. Magna executive VP and managing director of audience intelligence and strategy Brian Hughes suggests this is due in part to the tendency for longer creatives to be tailor-made for podcasting. Shorter ads have a higher likelihood of being repurposed from another medium - such as radio - while longer ads likely have been built with podcasting in mind.
“Additionally, podcast ads largely had the same impact whether they were read by the podcast host or they came from the brand. In fact, custom ads—which typically involve the host sharing their personal experience with the brand, according to Hughes—were generally less effective than those that didn’t feature the podcast host. The report points out that “custom content may not be worth the price of creation given it lags in performance.””
It’s also worth noting with both the results we’ve covered and the rest in the article that Nielsen’s methodology actually suppresses positive results, in a way. Respondents aren’t actually listeners of the podcasts they’re being tested with. It then stands to reason that if a result comes back positive in this study, the results are likely even better with an individual podcast’s actual audience.
Quick Hits
Manuela:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’ve named Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Pocket Casts Mobile Apps Are Now Open Source by Yael Rubinstein for Pocket Casts. This one does what it says on the tin: podcast listening service Pocket Casts announces their decision to make both the iOS and Android versions of their mobile apps open source.
SoundExchange wins $9.7 million judgment from Slacker/LiveOne for unpaid music royalties by Kurt Hanson for RainNews. A brief rundown of the background behind the case and its outcome.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s the episode about: Arielle Nissenblatt chats with Sounds Profitable partners Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster about the two year anniversary of Sounds Profitable. Learn about our content initiatives, our research, our partnership opportunities, and how you can get involved at every stage.
Listen to learn about:
- What it means to be a Sounds Profitable partner
- Where we think Sounds Profitable will be in another two years
- Our upcoming research initiatives AKA what we’ll be exploring next
- The next iteration of The Creators, our research study about podcast creators
- How you can best utilize Sounds Profitable’s resources for continuing education within your company
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Tom Webster
- Article discussed
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
- Podsights
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta, Tom Webster, Arielle Nissenblatt
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
- Produced by: Ron Tendick and Reece Carman
- Assembled by: Spooler Media
- Hosted by: Omny Studio
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does it mean that several podcasts paid to have their podcasts downloaded in a mobile app? Let’s break down the issue at hand, where things went wrong, and what we as an industry can do to solve it.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: TikTok spotted scraping podcast feeds, YouTube launches audio ads and host-read ad service, Internet radio platform Live365 to distribute through TuneIn On Air, the Spoken Word Audio Report debuts next week, and Digiday research shows publishers are warming more to programmatic.
Evidence suggests TikTok to explore podcasts.
Manuela: TikTok is coming to podcasting, or at least it looks to be that way from the breadcrumb trail of hints the company has left behind over the past year.
Most recently, in Monday’s edition of Podnews, James Cridland reported podcast hosting company Audiomeans has spotted a
“new bot that is scraping our feeds, starting October 11th.”
The host also provided Podnews with details about the bot scraping their feeds that ties it back to TikTok.
Back in May the social media giant registered a trademark for a new service titled TikTok Music, which happened to include a provision for podcast content. Further back still, in the last week of December 2021 all TikTok users got a notification prompting them to take the ‘TikTok Podcast experience survey’ that collected listener-focused data, as well as audience metrics if the person filling it out identified as a producer.
With questions like “if TikTok is going to launch a podcast feature, which of the following do you think will lead to a positive podcasting experience?,” it’s no surprise we’re seeing signs they’re building something podcasting related almost a year later.
YouTube launches audio advertisements, service for host-read podcast spots.
Arielle: This Monday YouTube announced a launch of audio-only ads, including ways to allow advertisers to specifically target podcasts, music, and those using connected TVs. This feature was beta-tested in 2020 but has now gone live globally. Sheila Dang covered the announcement for Reuters.
“The streaming video platform said it will expand audio advertising globally to allow brands to market to people who use YouTube to listen to music or podcasts.”
It should be noted, as of this writing the YouTube podcasts homepage is still unavailable outside the US, though the announcement of global audio ads suggests this will change soon.
Then on Tuesday MarketingBrew’s Alyssa Meyers covered further development on the story as YouTube brought host-read ads into the mix.
“YouTube BrandConnect, its branded-content platform that connects creators with advertisers, is piloting a program that offers video ads read by podcasters, signaling YouTube’s continued interest in expanding its footprint in the podcast world.”
The BrandConnect system will allow brands testing the program to op into 60 or 90 second host-read ad segments that exclusively appear on the YouTube version of the podcast. The spots will either include video of the host reading the copy or a custom title card with audio overlay. BrandConnect managing director Lori Sobel mentioned skincare company Neutrogena has implemented the tool to run a campaign on the The Financial Confessions.
In the future BrandConnect has intentions of using audience insights to pair brands with creators.
Live365 signs TuneIn On Air distribution deal.
Manuela: Last Wednesday Soundstack’s Live365 platform announced a distribution agreement with TuneIn. Broadcasters on Live365 premium subscriptions now have access to the TuneIn On Air, opening up access to the platform’s 30 million US-based people using the TuneIn mobile app on over 200 connected devices, including integrations with automotive systems by Tesla and Volvo. A quote from TuneIn CEO Richard Stern:
“This partnership with Live365 fits perfectly within our mission to reinvent radio for a connected world and democratize access to radio for broadcasters large and small. We believe great conversations are driven by the power of the human voice and we know our listeners rely on us to stay connected to the issues that matter to them most via our content catalog. We're thrilled to help more broadcasters reach TuneIn's expansive audience."
This partnership comes at a time when traditional radio listenership is dropping. Last month Tom Webster, in an article for Sounds Profitable, wrote about the most recent Edison Research Share of Ear study. In recent years there has been a slow decline in Americans 13 and up listening to audio on AM/FM radios, while listening time on mobile devices has grown in almost direct correlation.
“I am certainly not the only person to write about this, but radio has as much of a hardware problem as it does a “software” issue. Other than your car, it is getting harder and harder to even buy a broadcast radio receiver. Some mobile phones do offer radio tuners, but Apple has famously rebuffed all attempts by radio lobbyists to include one in the iPhone. And so, as you might guess, AM/FM’s Share of Ear on mobile devices is comparatively quite small, indeed--in fact, today that share is markedly smaller than the share allocated to podcast listening on mobile devices.”
Bringing radio to those mobile devices eliminates the issue of limited access to hardware. TuneIn is a standout example of a service modernizing the radio listening experience and making it accessible from mobile devices. Thanks to their roster of connected devices including automotive systems like Tesla and Volvo, their version of portable radio even can take over one of the last bastions of AM/FM hardware.
The Spoken Word Audio Report 2022 Launches Next Week
Arielle: Mark your calendars, NPR and Edison Research are set to release the 2022 version of the Spoken Word Audio Report on October 27th. The study will explore:
“specific types of spoken word content, various spoken-word platforms, and devices used to consume spoken word content. With young people in the U.S. listening to spoken word audio more than ever, this year’s study includes a special focus on Gen Z consumption.”
Vice President of Edison Research Megan Lazovick and Lamar Johnson, VP of Sponsorship Marketing at National Public Media , will present the study via webinar at 2pm Eastern Standard Time. Registration for the webinar is live and a link is available on the Edison Research blog post announcing the event.
Digiday+ Research: Direct-sold ads lose favor with publishers, while programmatic ads make gains
Manuela: The tide appears to be shifting more in favor of programmatic advertising. This Monday, Digiday deputy managing editor Julia Tabisz covered a survey of 200 publisher professionals conducted by Digiday+ Research over the first and third quarters of 2022. Their findings show a growing difference between money made from direct-sold ads and programmatic.
“While programmatic ads still make up a smaller portion of publishers’ revenues on the whole than direct-sold ads, publishers see potential in programmatic, Digiday’s survey found, which could affect how publishers prioritize their businesses through the end of this year and into next. For instance, the percentage of publishers who said they will put a large or very large focus on building the programmatic part of their business in the next six months has risen from fewer than a third (32%) in Q1 to 43% in Q3.”
The survey found the percentage of publishers who self-identified as getting a large or very large portion of their ad revenue from direct-sold ads fell from 59% in Q1 to 45% in Q3. On the flip side, publishers who got a large portion of ad revenue from programmatic ads only shrank from 32% to 30% from Q1 to Q2.
“Digging a bit deeper into how publishers manage their programmatic ads business, it turns out that the open market is the biggest source of publishers’ programmatic revenue — and it’s growing.”
Longtime listeners of The Download have heard this before: programmatic isn’t a dirty word, and an excellent tool when used properly, and we love to see wider industries embracing it.
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Arielle:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
5 Reasons Brands Shouldn’t Sleep on Co-Listening by Melissa Paris for SXMMedia. SiriusXM, in collaboration with Carat and Edison Research, has published their second co-listening report as a follow-up to their 2018 study on co-listening.
Announcing Independent Attribution by Amelia Coomber for Podscribe. Podscribe has launched their independent third-party attribution pixel for podcast advertising.
The Same People Who Listen To Podcasts Also Stream CTV by Allison Schiff for AdExchanger. Schiff covers the similarities podcast listeners share with connected TV audiences, including data from Acast, The Trade Desk, and Nielsen.
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There are around four million podcasts in the world today - but how many are you actually competing with? The answer is much smaller than you might think.
Credits:
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Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
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This week: ESPN to potentially partner with DraftKings, Podcasting unions make headlines, Netflix confirms two independent measurement companies, advertisers reflect on 2023 spend, and two new podcasting hosts arrive in the US.
ESPN Nears Large New Partnership With DraftKingsManuela: Last Thursday Ed Hammond and Crystal Tse of Bloomberg covered an anticipated deal between ESPN and sports-betting firm DraftKings. According to an update to the piece, DraftKings’ stock rose as much as 8.8% in response to the news on Friday.
“ESPN has already invested heavily in sports gambling, though it has steered clear of taking actual bets. The broadcaster has betting-related shows such as Daily Wager and marketing deals with DraftKings and Caesars Entertainment Inc. where links to the sportsbooks are integrated into ESPN’s website. Disney also acquired a stake in DraftKings as part of its acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets in 2019.”
Disney has long avoided gambling in pursuit of upholding its wholesome family image. As Bloomberg points out, none of the Disney cruise ship fleet have casinos aboard, nor are Disney characters licensed to slot machine manufacturers. Clearly, their attitudes appear to be changing as they search for a sports betting partner for ESPN.
Sean Russo, Research Manager of Magellan AI, offered this when asked about the growth of sports betting and adjacent categories:
“As of August, the Fantasy Sports industry is up 22% year to date, although historically spending in the industry has peaked in September. Last year spend more than doubled between August and September, primarily driven by brands like Fanduel and DraftKings”
ESPN is a major podcast network and sports betting, as well as its cousins like fantasy sports, continue to climb in popularity. If this deal comes to fruition, it could be a big deal indeed.
Podcasting gains new union, hears from two recently affected by Spotify layoffs.
Shreya: In this first segment we have two stories fitting in a theme of organized labor in podcasting. Last Tuesday, Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios announced last Tuesday that roughly 75% of their proposed bargaining unit signed up to officially join WGA East. Ashley Carman reported for Bloomberg:
“The employees said they’re looking for increased transparency around pay, rights to their intellectual property, protection against favoritism at work and improved health insurance, according to the letter.”
Later in the week, the utility of unionizing was highlighted when Spotify pruned their walled garden. Last Thursday Tech Crunch’s Lauren Forristal reported on Spotify canceling multiple shows at once from two of the four Spotify in-house content production companies. Three podcasts from Gimlet and eight from Parcast are either canceled effective immediately or set - in the case of Horoscope Today - scheduled to end in the second quarter of 2023.
Spotify also announced this would cause “less than 5% of layoffs of Spotify’s podcast staff.”
Last Friday both the Gimlet Union and Parcast Union took issue with that number in an official letter posted to Twitter.
“Yesterday, Spotify blindsided both Gimlet Union and Parcast Union with at least 38 layoffs across their studios. Spotify has said in the press that these layoffs constitute less than 5% of people working on original podcasts. That number is misleading. The reality is that each bargaining unit organized with the Writers Guild of America, East has lost about 30% of its members. These are not small cuts, they are massive restructurings.”
The two unions go on to highlight Spotify’s internal reasoning for canceling the podcasts was due to low listenership, which the unions argue was in large part due to decisions made by Spotify itself.
“Their decision to make most of Gimlet’s and Parcast’s shows Spotify Exclusive caused a steep drop in listeners - as high as three quarters of the audience for some shows. Yet the company did little or nothing to staunch the bleeding. Shows languished without marketing support, and teams were not given clear audience goals to meet.”
Netflix strikes measurement deals ahead of new ad-supported tier
Manuela:On Monday Garett Sloane, writing for AdAge, reported on some updates to the ongoing story of Netflix prepping for the launch of their ad-supported tier. As covered in the September 8th episode of The Download, details were scarce about the tier beyond its possible price point and the streamer’s CPM goals.
“... Netflix has been asking for high prices for its ad inventory, at least $60 CPMs—cost per thousand views—while only offering limited targeting possibilities and no third-party measurement, according to people familiar with the situation.”
Now Netflix has announced they’re working with both Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify to act as that third-party measurement. A measurement executive speaking to Sloane anonymously believes implementation of the two services should be relatively easy for Netflix.
Netflix signing two big-name third-party companies to give credence to their measurement stands as another example of why a certain podcasting platform’s decisions come off as odd. Spotify, when in a similar position of needing brand safety and ad measurement as Netflix, chose to not only work with one third-party company, they strongly inferred the partnership intended to create a proprietary brand safety tool.
Surveyed advertisers discuss where they’ll potentially spend differently in an uncertain 2023.
Shreya: Much talk has been had about the uncertainties of how things will look in the future as the economy has a will-they-won’t-they relationship with a recession. This Wednesday MarketingBrew’s Ryan Barwick brought some numbers to the table that demonstrate just how uncertain the industry is. The following numbers are the result of a survey of 43 advertisers run by the World Federation of Advertisers and their media research company Ebiquity. 41% expect to keep their 2022 budgets, though as Barwick says in the article:
“29% said they expect a decrease in their budget. The remaining 29% said they expect to see an increase.”
While 43 might seem like a small sample size for a survey, it’s worth noting those companies account for $44 billion in ad spend. 28% said they’d increase performance advertising, while 21% aim to increase their share of brand advertising. 40% of respondents would up their share of flexible or biddable buys.
““With uncertain times ahead, it’s clear that brand advertisers seek more tactical agility in terms of trading and shifting budgets throughout the year, versus annual upfront commitments,” Ruben Schreurs, chief product officer at Ebiquity, wrote to Marketing Brew.”
New Podcast Hosts Cross the Atlantic
Manuela: Two new podcast hosting services have hit the US markets this week. First: podcast recording and editing application Alitu has announced Alitu Hosting, making the service all-in-one. According to Jacob Anderson, head of Growth at Alitu:
“We started building Alitu four years ago with one mission in mind: to offer the clearest path to sharing your voice and making an impact on the world, making no compromise over control and creativity. Whether that’s making one person laugh, or lifting an entire community, we want to offer the help you need to achieve your purpose.”
This Tuesday French hosting service Ausha announced the rolling out of their service in the US on their official blog.
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Platforms used for listening to podcasts in Poland in 2022 by Statista. We make a point of discussing podcasting performance around the globe. With that in mind, here’s a snapshot of data showcasing what podcast consumption looks like in Poland.
Acast Talks Layoffs, It’s U.S. Moves, The Ad Market, And Why It’s Selling ‘The Heart.’ by InsideRadio. Coverage of Acast’s recent earnings call, including higher-ups talking through their strategies, layoffs, and revealing Acast only sold 28% of their ad inventory in 2021. In the interest of clarity, it’s worth keeping in mind InsideRadio is owned by competitor iHeartMedia.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As interest in podcasting continues to surge, so does the expectation that podcasting adheres to norms established in other advertising channels. Today, frequency capping takes the center stage.
Podscribe DD: https://soundsprofitable.com/article/podscribe
Thoughtleaders: https://soundsprofitable.com/article/thoughtleaders-intelligence Sounds Profitable Podscribe A deep dive into Podscribe: critical intelligence for podcast advertisers.
Dec 17th, 2020 Sounds Profitable ThoughtLeaders Partner Intelligence Solution Elsie Bernaiche, Director of Sales at ThoughtLeaders, joins us for our latest product deepdive into the ThoughtLeaders Partner Intelligence Solution.
Credits:
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Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
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This week: Podcasting overtakes talk radio, CPMs increase, video game ads counting as podcast downloads, and Publishers test personalizing newsletters.
Podcasting overtakes talk radio, CPMs increase
Manuela: For today’s first segment we’re going to cover two recent pieces about industry growth. First, Kurt Hanson’s Rain News recap of the Audioscape 2022 talk by Cumulus Media executive Pierre Bouvard. The biggest eye-catching number from Bouvard’s presentation of Edison Research media involves how the 18-34 age group spends their weekly time listening to talk or personality-driven audio content. Terrestrial radio has been overtaken in this bracket, with podcasts taking 60% of those listening hours.
“Even within the older demos of 25-54 and 35-64, podcast listening’s share of talk/personality listening is high — 47% and 39%, respectively, with those numbers up nearly double and more than triple, respectively, compared to five years ago.”
Continuing the trend of good news from new data, Libsyn’s Advertisecast has published their Podcast Advertising Rates 2022 report. The presentation is compiled from reporting data provided by 2,985 podcasts. Podnews editor James Cridland reported on Monday:
“There has been a jump in the average CPM for podcast advertising, according to Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast: the average is now $24.35, the second-highest on record. It’s up 3.7% month-on-month, or 5% year-on-year.”
Podcasting continues its upward climb. More listener share over radio and growing CPMs sounds like a good thing to us.
A follow-up on video game ads counting as podcast downloads.
Shreya: Last week we covered Ashely Carman’s piece covering podcast companies, most notably iHeartRadio, purchasing downloads via mobile game ads. In a follow-up piece covering industry reactions posted last Thursday, Carman got official comment from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
“The standards are in a continual state of review,” said Eric John, vice president of the media center at the IAB. “We’re trying to ski to where the puck is going ultimately, and we’re going to make standards to match the industry’s needs.”
On the same day Podnews reported a response from Podtrac explaining why the gaming ads only playing 20 seconds of an episode of were counted as full downloads.
“It’s our understanding they appear as browser traffic without a unique user agent (or [unique] IP address). These downloads don’t have a material impact on the publisher rankings including the rank order of the top publishers.”
Then, in related news, HotPod reported on an InsideRadio piece covering Podtrac suspending its weekly data newsletter after iHeart stopped sponsoring the project. The decision was reportedly made over a month ago. According to HotPod, the last data tracker email they’d received was published September 13th, while the last one with iHeartRadio branding had been sent August 15th.
Since the HotPod publication went live, InsideRadio - a company owned by iHeartMedia - has pulled their Podtrac story.
Publishers test personalizing newsletters with varying degrees of success
Manuela: Last Wednesday Digiday’s Sara Guaglione reported the experiences of publishers who experimented with using tools to generate personalized newsletters for subscribers. We’re covering it here as the tools and methodology involved might just be of interest to podcasting. From the article:
“As companies like The New York Times and The Washington Post experiment with personalizing their homepages to get readers to consume more articles, publishers are also tweaking newsletters to serve readers’ specific interests and behaviors — but to varying degrees of success.
The piece opens with the success story of The Telegraph, which has run the personalized newsletter Headlines for a year. Each time a newsletter needs to be sent, an algorithm selects vertical-specific content recommendations based on browsing history, including making sure to not recommend articles the subscriber has already read.
The Telegraph reports higher click-through rates, page views per click, and time spent on the website from Headlines subscribers vs. their standard hand-built newsletters. In contrast, publications like The Toronto Star have tried similar things and found little to no results. Newsroom director David Topping told Digiday:
Most newsletter subscribers “seem pretty happy getting what everyone else got,” Topping said. The personalized newsletter drove engagement for a “niche audience” who wanted tailored recommendations but it wasn’t “necessarily something that’s going to move the needle,” he added.”
Niche audiences are a thing podcasting does well. The recommendation tech used to create these newsletters could be of use in the podcasting industry. An individual news podcast could build itself live akin to how Spooler allows The Refresh to add new segments on the fly. Except, with a recommendation engine, a news podcast could be constructed of only segments the recommendation tool knows the listener would enjoy.
Or, scaled up to an entire production house or network, the same tech could be applied to give bespoke RSS feeds to subscribers that only dole out episodes of podcasts that company produces that the listener would enjoy. An elegant solution for the existing logjam of either dozens of individual RSS feeds for a stable of similar podcasts, or one feed containing multiple different shows.
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for Quick Hits, our roundup of articles that didn’t make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Numbers games by Brian Morrissey for The Rebooting newsletter. An excellent op-ed discussing how recent focus on having writers create content that generates subscriptions to a publication is the modern version of prioritizing writing that generated page clicks. Both overlook the meaty day-to-day content that keeps readers coming back. An excellent piece of opinion about an industry next door to podcasting.
What are the Top 10 Alternative ID Solutions and How Should You Use Them? By Andrew Byrd for Admonsters. For those looking to get into some deep-level tech discussion, Byrd details ten privacy-focused Alternative IDs to future-proof for the day when Google eventually kills third party cookies.
Political advertising is propping up a slow ad market by Jeremy Goldamn for InsiderIntelligence. Political ads are a hot-button topic for podcasting, but there’s no denying it’s a midterm election year and spending is only going up between now and November.
Hit Songs Are Staying on the Top Charts Longer Than Ever by Lucas Shaw for Bloomberg. A companion piece to last week’s Quick Hit from The Guardian, Shaw details how modern streaming analytics are making top charts stagnate. Where a person who buys one CD a quarter and listened to it 500 times didn’t affect charts in the 90s, that same listening habit can keep artists afloat for years on Spotify.
How ad tech aims to build back better by Ronana Shields for Digiday. We’re four years into a post-GDPR world. Shields covers the current state of adtech and privacy via discussions had at the first in-person Dmexco conference since 2020.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
With the release of We’ll Be Right Back, part two of After These Messages, Tom Webster has a few questions about promo codes. Is it time to change how we use them?
Credits:
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- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sounds Profitable is two years old this month! Founder Bryan Barletta talks about just how far we’ve come in 24 short months, and where we are headed next as we continue to serve our mission to push podcasting forward and set the course for the future of the audio business.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Podcasts found using mobile game ads for downloads, a trio of new pixels announced, and the Independent is reframing programmatic for advertisers.
Podcasters Are Buying Millions of Listeners Through Mobile-Game Ads
Manuela: Our first story is a big one! This Tuesday, Bloomberg’s Ashely Carman published a piece reporting on the discovery that podcast companies are serving podcast players as ads in mobile games.
For those not hip to mobile gaming: free-to-play mobile video games traditionally generate revenue by interrupting gameplay on a regular basis with a skippable ad, with the option to watch a 20 second unskippable ad in exchange they receive beneficial in-game items, or more attempts to play that day. Instead of serving a video ad, which is one of the more common uses of these platforms, some companies are serving a web player that plays the an episode of a podcast. The ads are timed, requiring the app user to interact for often 20 seconds or more, which is more than enough time to download an entire 1 hour podcast through progressive downloading. That download and every ad in that download would be seen as legitimate by current IAB podcast standards, even though the app user was prompted to move out of the ad and back to the game after the timer ended.
Ad fraud detection company DeepSee’s August examination of ads in the popular game Subway Surfers spotted podcasts from the New York Post, independent podcaster Scott Savlov, and iHeartMedia. Carman interviewed Corey Weiner, CEO of Jun Group, a company specializing in placing ads in mobile apps. The starting rate for Jun Group placement is a $27 CPM for one of the 20 second ads. Jun Group’s main podcast client is iHeartMedia.
“According to a person familiar with the effort, the radio company, which bills itself as the top podcast publisher globally, has shelled out more than $10 million and gained approximately 6 million unique listeners per month through these ads since 2018."
During the last week of August, half of the top ten trending podcasts in Podtrac were iHeart productions that hadn’t uploaded new episodes in weeks, if not months, according to Carmen. Podtrac is an industry ranker that only measures podcasts that opt into their platform’s prefix analytics solution, and recently independent developer John Spurlock identified that Spreaker from iHeart had added the prefix to podcasts on their platform en masse.
Yesterday Podnews published exclusive info regarding iHeart rankings:
“Are these plays counting for iHeart’s “#1 for podcasting” Podtrac ranking? Podnews analysis confirms that the embedded podcast players used,as documented by DeepSee, makes a call to Chartable and a call to Podtrac.”
Podnews editor James Cridland then links to Podnews coverage of a 2018 story in which iHeartMedia was busted embedding podcasts on the websites of hundreds of affiliate radio stations, inflating play counts.
The core problem that led to this story existing lies in the fact that there are minimal requirements for podcast players and not requirements for reporting transparency to podcast advertisers. Podcast players like Apple are Spotify are safe to trust as one can be 99% sure it’s coming from their apps. Even web player traffic is generally trustworthy given it’s assigned less inventory in general. That said, it’s time for the industry to figure out stricter guidelines for web players and more obligations to our advertisers.
It’s not immediately clear what the finite details of a solution will be, but if all the big players in the industry came together for the sake of transparency they can build something. Something that would get publishers and advertisers alike reevaluating what inventory is or isn’t valuable based on where it’s played rather than simply if it’s played.
Pixels Galore - Podscribe and Gumball launch podcast analytics, and Magellan launches attribution
Shreya: Time to increase your resolution, several new pixels have recently arrived in podcasting. First up: a little trip to the past. Back on August 11th Podscribe announced third party impression verification. Or, in their words, third pod-y impression verification. Once users get the pixel to their publisher they will receive real-time downloads.
“As early publishers in all other seasoned media forms discovered, 3rd party verification both facilitates and is required for significant scale.”
The new verification comes designed to automatically sync to Google Sheets, allows for flagging of campaigns if suspicious data starts coming in, and GARM methodology brand safety monitoring.
Flashing forward to last Thursday, our second pixel comes from Magellan AI with their new Attribution by Magellan AI. With the new Attribution tech both advertisers and publishers will have details like campaign performance and pacing at their fingertips within the Magellan AI dashboard.
“We are helping brands and agencies complete the entire buyer’s journey in one seamless location to enable them to scale with ease as the podcast industry exponentially grows,” said Cameron Hendrix, CEO and co-founder of Magellan AI.
And for the final pixel, a bit more recent: This Tuesday Gumball, adtech division of the podcast network Headgum, announced a new feature titled Gumshoe.
“Prior to Gumshoe, host-read ad measurement and verification were archaic, requiring podcasters to provide screenshots to verify impressions and download data. Gumshoe, which works with most major hosting platforms and is compatible for both embedded and dynamic ad formats, now digitizes this function to add increased communication and transparency.”
How The Independent is getting brands on board to advertise against breaking news
Manuela: This Monday Digiday’s Kayleigh Barber covered a talk by The Independent’s SVP of U.S. publication, Blair Tapper, about the fight to sell inventory as a publication covering breaking news. In a world where huge negative stories are breaking on a regular basis, a publication that doesn’t have subscriptions to rely on has to ensure skittish advertisers have confidence in where their inventory is being served.
According to Tapper, 75% of The Independent’s ad revenue in the U.S. comes from programmatic ads. Given news is a commonly-avoided category, her team has focused on recontextualizing programmatic in a way that combats advertiser’s negative preconceived notions.
“Programmatic advertising makes up approximately 75% of The Independent’s advertising revenue in the U.S., according to Tapper. But because news is such a highly avoided category by many advertisers, her team has been working to reframe the idea that buying programmatically means losing control over where and when a display ad gets placed.”
“There used to be this misnomer that programmatic was just all of these underground pipes [that spit out ads like] magic. I really believe that’s not the case. Programmatic is still a human business, it’s still a human sell — it’s just a different way of buying inventory. And so if you can humanize the programmatic relationship, I think a lot of the objections to news go away.”
In addition to that, Tapper spoke to fighting against rudimentary lists of blacklisted keywords that accidentally catch false positives. An example given is if the keyword “shot” were to be blocked to avoid serving ads on school shootings, it also eliminates any sports articles that describe a player taking a shot at a goal.
“To remedy this, Tapper’s team works with IAS, Ipsos and NewsGuard to try and contextualize the articles affected by keyword blocking.”
It has been said before on The Download and we’ll say it again in future: Programmatic is not a dirty word, it’s a tool that works as well as you use it.
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s five great reads are:
Has streaming made it harder to discover new music? By Alexis Petridis. Discoverability in podcasting is a common conversation topic. This op-ed discusses how modern music discoverability has a habit of playing things safe, to the point the charts frequently feature old songs brought to temporary viral fame due to television and TikTok.
Why Kochava says it doesn't want to settle with the FTC by Ryan Barwick. Back in our September 8th episode we covered the beginnings of the FTC lawsuit against data broker Kochava. Barwick is reporting on the story again and, spoiler alert, Kochava’s still not backing down.
‘Harder to dispute’: Ebiquity CEO on why advertisers are slowing spending in the Google-Facebook duopoly by Seb Joseph. While Google and Facebook are doing just fine for themselves, ad dollars are beginning to slow down as a myriad of factors combine to rumble the social media giants.
Digiday+ Research: What are publishers’ priorities heading into Q4? By Julia Tabisz. Back in Q1 Digiday surveyed publishers on where their business priorities lay over the next six months. Now they’ve run the same survey again for Q4.
The Chaos Of Privacy Compliance In The US by Alyssa Boyle. Boyle interviews Dominique Shelton Leipzig, partner at Mayer Brown on the proposed American Data Privacy and Protection Act, as well as potential new rules from the FTC.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Serial and the importance of content curation, Spotify launches audiobooks, Spanish-language TV is surging, why Wonder Media Network won’t use programmatic, and SirusXM is no longer the biggest podcast network by reach. Let’s get started.
Serial and the importance of content curation.
Manuela: Last week news broke that prosecution would petition for the release of Adnan Syed, whose case was the subject of the first season of Serial. Since then Syed has been officially released. In the interim conversation regarding the case and the part Serial played in popularizing it reached a boiling point on social media. On Friday the 16th attorney Rabia O’Chaudry, host of Undisclosed and the person who originally brought Syed’s case to the attention of Sarah Koenig, tweeted an analogy for how Serial fit into the narrative of Syed’s release:
“Imagine you ask someone to help renovate your house. Instead they set fire to it. The story about the fire brings thousands to your aid that rebuild your house.”
Media critic and true crime aficionado Rebecca Lavoie quote-tweeted O’Chaudry to start a thread with an important lesson to be learned from Serial.
“I have previously heralded Serial as a seminal piece of media and even made a podcast originally based on reviewing it. But given the facts of the case, Rabia’s analogy is precise. Serial doesn’t hold up. And its biggest crime is its abandonment of its own reporting.”
Lavoie details several sections of the popular podcast that contain outdated or inaccurate knowledge with seven years of hindsight that, due to the podcast’s popularity, are still being discovered by brand new podcast listeners with. No warnings or amendments have been placed on the original season of Serial.
“I am not saying that Sarah Koenig et al have an obligation to report this story forever. But…the owners of the Serial feed (now [The New York Times]) have an absolute obligation to point news consumers to the latest… news.”
Lavoie points to dynamic ad insertion tech and how it could be used to retroactively place a warning giving context without having to manually update each episode’s file. Given last year’s scandal with Caliphate, the NYT is no stranger to retroactively adding disclaimers to its own in-house reporting.
Lavoie argues they have the same level of responsibility to maintain legacy feeds. Even the most popular true crime podcast in the industry is not above poor reporting or claims that were later disproven by new evidence. Despite being seven years old, Serial’s popularity means statistically it’s still someone’s first podcast in 2022.
Spotify Offers Audiobook Service with 300,000 Titles
Shreya: This Tuesday Spotify announced the launch of their audiobook platform.
“Starting today, Spotify listeners in the U.S. will be able to purchase and listen to more than 300,000 audiobook titles—making our platform a true all-in-one destination for everyone’s listening needs. And we’re excited to launch audiobooks with a brand-new user interface that’s geared specifically for listening to audiobooks and fits them seamlessly alongside the music and podcasts you already listen to and love.”
The new audiobook interface includes an in-app purchase screen to buy each individual audiobook. Most popular audiobook platforms, like Audible or Libro.fm, use a monthly subscription system that gives users a set amount of credits to exchange for audiobooks at a rate that costs less than purchasing them retail. Spotify’s model requires a Premium Spotify membership for the ability to purchase audiobooks.
Press materials include a series of four screenshots depicting the purchase of Colleen Hoover’s novel It Ends with Us for $13.99, on sale from a normal listing of $17.99. This pricing is in lockstep with the average retail cost of the same book at popular audiobook providers Google Play, Kobo, and Audible if the user is not a subscriber. With this addition Spotify is now a one-stop shop for the casual user. While it might not attract many users specifically for the audiobook functionality, any user who listens to music or podcasts with Premium has the ability to buy audiobooks and listen without leaving the app they’re already paying for.
Spanish-Language TV viewership surges despite mishandled metrics, lackluster representation.
Manuela: As is becoming common on The Download, this segment will discuss two articles that are closely related. First off: Spanish-language TV Viewership is Surging by Kelsey Sutton for MarketingBrew. The headline leads into a subheader explaining the surge is accompanied by poor measurement leading to under-investing. Now things are turning around.
“We’re sure you’ve heard it about a million times: linear TV viewership is, on average, not looking good. But there’s one segment of old-fashioned TV whose outlook seems downright rosy. Spanish-language TV networks, including mainstays like Univision and Telemundo, are on the upswing, growing daily audience reach even as many other major networks are seeing steady declines.”
Dan Reiss, EVP and chief growth office at TelevisaUnivision told MarketingBrew Univision has seen an increase of brands on-air of more than 200 over the past two years.
One of the benefits of podcasting being a younger industry than other media is it can learn from their mistakes and adjust earlier on when it’s easier to do so. Just last month Edison Research’s Latino Podcast Listener Report dropped, revealing 59% of the U.S. Latino population have listened to podcasts. Podcasting is a diverse field and should be treated as such from the ground up. To that note the final quote from an AdExchanger piece featuring Orci CEO Marina Filippelli:
““Gen Z can smell bullshit from a mile away – they know whether or not creative was produced by somebody like them,” Filippelli said. “Representation needs to take place not just in front of the camera, but behind the scenes.”
Why Wonder Media Network won’t sell its podcast ad inventory programmatically
Shreya: This Tuesday Kayleigh Barber published a piece distilling an interview on the Digiday Podcast into article form. The interview features Wonder Media Network co-founder and CRO Shira Atkins enthusiastically explaining why the network refuses to carry programmatically-served ads, instead choosing a more bespoke approach. Not only are ads produced in-network, they’re permanently baked-in.
“But on the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast, Atkins said she still believes that programmatic is “a tragedy for the podcasting ecosystem at large.” Her team does not sell any of its ad space programmatically. Instead, the podcast network uses its branded content studio to make bespoke audio ads, which Atkins said creates memorable ads that listeners are less likely to skip over.”
It’s worth noting the difference between content provided by programmatic methods and the tool of programmatic advertising itself. High quality memorably ads like those produced by Wonder Media Network for baked-in use can be served programmatically through direct deals that operationalize and improve the process for both buyers and sellers.
NPR, for example, does this currently with great success. Programmatic distribution is a tool, not a particular flavor of advertisement.
“We don’t [carry programmatic-sold ads] because the reason that we’re able to demand such high CPM [or sell flat rate deads] is that we’re selling embedded ads in perpetuity. It makes me feel like an old lady whenever people ask me about this, because they’re like, ‘I can’t believe you don’t do dynamic ad insertion.’ But it works for us.”
Host reads, baked-in, and dynamic ad insertion are all excellent tools that podcast audiences are receptive to, and companies like Wonder Media Network are an excellent example of how the power of the podcasting industry can allow individual facets of the industry to exist and thrive on their own.
Sounds Profitable’s first research study - After These Messages - has the data to back up the efficacy of host-read ads. The study shows the audience preference for host-read ads over generic announcer-read ads, which Atkins conflates with programmatic, is much smaller than one would expect.
Spotify hits the top of Edison
Manuela: For our final story I don’t have to summarize the info, as they do it for me.
“This week Edison Research publicly announced the ranking of the biggest podcasting networks through the second quarter of 2022, based on Edison Podcast Metrics survey of over 8,000 weekly podcast listeners age 18 and older.”
For the three years Edison Research has done this report on podcast metrics, SiriusXM Media has held the top spot of the U.S. Top Podcast Networks, By Reach report. This last quarter the top contender was unseated by the relative newcomer. As of Q2 of this year Spotify is the #1 network by reach. They’ve gradually risen up the charts over years, using a combination of acquisitions, licensing deals, original content, and a fertile walled garden to grow the platform.
As of this last quarter the top five now reads Spotify, SiriusXM Media, iHeartRadio, Audioboom, and NPR.
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Athletic Greens gives us the scoop on its podcast advertising strategy by Alyssa Meyers of Marketing Brew.The article features company CRO Jonathan Corne explaining their strategy of carefully selecting podcasts to sponsor with intent of establishing a long-term relationship.
‘Gaming is very much here to stay’: Why Axe body spray is taking a bigger swing at esports marketing by Kimeko McCoy of Digiday. Axe isn’t a stranger to sponsoring esports outside the US, but the company is renewing its efforts at home and getting into TikTok. Which is to say influencer marketing, a thing podcasting is very good at.
On that same note: Roblox will be one of the first major platform to launch in-game ads by Daniel Konstantinovic of InsiderIntelligence. For anyone without a kid: Roblox is a big deal. Arguably bigger than Minecraft. Allowing outside advertising without locking it to the game’s internal currency is a big step.
RIP Broadcast TV? Legacy Broadcast Execs Say Not Just Yet by Alyssa Boyle of AdExchanger. A breakdown of the new trend of broadcast TV getting into streaming media by simulating traditional always-running broadcasts.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of Sounds Profitable: Arielle Nissenblatt and Tom Webster sit down to discuss Podcast Movement, the Sounds Profitable Business Leaders Summit, and most importantly: an update on Tom’s dog Walnut.
Listen to learn about:
- Dynamic ad insertion and video trends among our sponsors.
- Tom’s Podcast Movement takeaways.
- What happened at the Sounds Profitable Business Leaders Summit
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: “When things don’t seem settled in the space, try to organize as best you can with other voices and take strong positions.”
Links:Bryan Barletta
Arielle Nissenblatt
The Download
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
Credits:
Hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
Produced with Spooler.fm
Hosted with Omny Studio
Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We talk a lot about the unique content advantages in podcasting, but one key to growing the medium with an older audience might be even simpler.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Analyst predicts programmatic will get podcasting to six billion in ad spend, the new iOS update takes care of AppleCoreMedia, Apple announces virtual neighborhood for Latine Heritage Month, brand-lift studies are catching up with the times, and kids content is booming for Paramount+.
Programmatic advertising could make podcasting a $6 billion industry by 2026
Manuela: In last Friday’s Hot Pod Insider, Ariel Shapiro covers B. Riley analyst Daniel Day’s newest publication about the industry. His most attention-grabbing prediction, as the headline spoils, expects podcast ad spending to be up to six billion dollars within four years.
It’ll be an uphill battle to get there. Shapiro points out the potential downsides of programmatic without the right data and infrastructure by recalling the infamous Wild Turkey incident. Back in May Spotify accidentally ran an ad for budget whiskey on every podcast on the app simultaneously, leading to a social media firestorm as users posted screenshots of the most inappropriate examples of podcasts to pair with Wild Turkey. Day is of the opinion more detailed location data will be a game-changer that avoids such issues in future.
“Small and mid-sized businesses really have almost entirely sat out podcast advertising to date,” Day told Hot Pod. “These advances in geo-targeting and programmatic allow mom and pops and local, regional businesses to access this medium in a way that they couldn’t before, absent reaching out to like some local sports or news podcast. Now, they can target audiences listening to some big national podcast.”
Day points to iHeartMedia putting significant investments into podcasting, as well as podcasting making up a larger portion of the company’s revenue each year, as examples of the growth he projects in action.
iOS 16: What’s new for Apple Podcasts
Shreya: Last Wednesday Apple published an update blog detailing some of the new features coming with their iOS 16 update.
The update comes with some creature comforts for the user, such as more prominent placement of the sleep timer button and better Apple Watch integration for podcasts. There’s also a bit of housekeeping noted, in case you missed the multiple emails over the past few weeks:
“Show and provider titles will continue to be displayed alongside show artwork on the Library and Search tabs, so make sure your show’s metadata is up to date and that your artwork includes your show’s title for the best experience.”
The most important feature of this update for the business side of podcasting isn’t mentioned in the update blog, though. This update brings the change to AppleCoreMedia user agent that’ll shift how we view Apple’s footprint in podcasting. As covered in our June 10th episode, this will lead to far less confusion as to what traffic is actually coming from Apple Podcasts. Those who didn’t report ACM will no longer underestimate traffic from Apple, and those who labeled all traffic from ACM as Apple will get a more balanced look at just how much traffic is coming out of Apple.
For those that are code-savvy, we’ll include a link in the show notes to the official Apple developer page for the updated user agent key.
Apple Podcast launches "El Vecindario" collections.
Manuela: On the subject of Apple: This Monday an email sent by Apple announced their plans for Latine Heritage Month, which runs from today through October 15th.
“Later this month, Apple will showcase the abundance of Latine created content across genres, formats, and languages – and spotlight many great creators. Apple Podcasts has created a special destination, titled El Vecindario, that honors the spaces where Latine communities come together and conversations originate.”
El Vecindario, the neighborhood in Spanish, will showcase Latine-created content covering multiple genres, formats, and languages.
Influencer marketing brand-lift studies are improving
Shreya: Last Friday Marketing Brew’s Phoebe Bain used the release of the Association of National Advertisers’ organic measurement guidelines for influencers as an excuse to discuss how brand-lift studies have matured.
“Out of more than 1,000 Marketing Brew readers surveyed last month, about one-third said they think measurement for influencer marketing has “evolved significantly” over the past two years.”
A useful tool to track that rapid evolution is the brand-lift study. Bain spends a good portion of the article explaining the basics: two groups are asked questions about something, with only one having experience with that thing. Any differing answers or familiarity expressed by the second group is quantified as - you guessed it - brand lift.
Old-school brand-lift studies would ask simple questions regarding information retention, or whether the audience wanted to buy the product in an ad. Modernized studies take into account the changing media landscape, especially with the popularity of influencers.VP of marketing at creator management platform Grin Ali Fazal explains to Marketing Brew:
“With an influencer marketing brand-lift study, questions go a level deeper. Those questions might focus more on brand affinity, or how consumers feel. For example, “is the brand cool? Is it viral? Is it modern?” These questions focus less on what consumers remember, and more on a brand’s overall or social appeal. In an influencer marketing brand-lift study, he said, the questions focus on the full picture rather than just the ad itself. “This measures the true depth of impact that creator marketing has,” he said.
Why should the business side of podcasting care? Podcasting is influencer marketing. In a world of pixel-based brand attribution and walled garden ad solutions, people are finding their options are missing the mark for influencer and podcaster alike. Brand lift studies by companies like Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights, Veritonic, or Nielsen can help fill that gap.
How kids shows are boosting Paramount+
Manuela: Last Thursday Kelsey Sutton published a look at how kids’ content is performing well at Paramount+. While Paramount+ is separate from Paramount’s podcasting ventures, The Download has been covering the boom in kid-friendly podcasting since our March 18th episode. Paramount’s experiences reaffirm that family and kid-oriented content drive engagement.
“When it comes to streaming, parents will go without eating before disconnecting something that entertains their kids,” Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon, said Tuesday at the Bank of America Securities 2022 Media, Communications, and Entertainment Conference. “Kids content is an amazing, amazing retention tool for us.”
The streaming platform has done well for itself since the CBS All-Access rebrand. Currently Paramount+ reports 3 million paid subscribers.
“Kids’ programming on streaming can also help fill the audience void as linear viewing continues to drop off. “If you take our linear share and the audience for kids that we’ve picked up on Paramount+, we actually have more audience and share of kids 2–11 than we’ve had in years when you combine them both,” Robbins said.?
As reported back in March, studies show the Kids & Family categories have grown 20% since last year and there’s reason to believe poor categorization of content is causing a lower number than the industry is actually experiencing. Kids content is doing quite well, as any parent will tell you.
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
Class Photos by Skye Pillsbury, for The Squeeze.
Pillsbury holds a mirror up to diversity on the business side of podcasting by compiling yearbook-style collages of the big podcasting company’s leaders and known executives with deal-making power. A must-read.
Introducing The Mullet Career Strategy™ — Creativity & Business by Steve Pratt.
Pacific Content co-founder Steve Pratt announces his upcoming venture titled The Creativity Business, a strategy firm aimed at helping creatives learn better business and businesses learn better creativity.
17 Stats That Reveal the Power of Podcast Advertising and Host-Read Ads by Connie Chen.
In addition to quoting our After These Messages study, senior manager of content management at Gumball Connie Chen brings a bundle of research to back up the efficacy of host-read ads.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 22nd is officially the last day of Summer, making our third and final article in our Programmatic Summer series absolutely not late to the party.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: We learned something interesting about Netflix, Cross-promotions work but you might be doing them wrong, Anchor continues to be the top podcast host by episode share, and the FTC sues a data broker.
All we know about Netflix’s ad plans so far
Shreya: Once again we bring you an article that doesn’t feature the world “podcast”, but could have big implications for the industry. Last Friday Kelsey Sutton published a brief roundup of all the news about Netflix that had dropped during the week. The world learned about polarizing new ad-supported tier, charging between $7 to $9 a month. We also learned they’re targeting 15 and 30 second spots for preroll and midroll ads.
“The flurry of reports helps provide a better picture of how Netflix is strategizing the rollout of its ad-supported tier after eschewing Madison Avenue for years. There are still many unknowns, including what kind of metrics the service will provide to measure ad effectiveness. Even without all the details, media buyers are buzzing with anticipation.”
Podcasters and advertising folk alike should take note of how much Netflix is paying per thousand impressions. According to Sutton the streamer is paying $65 CPM, with expectations of that going up to $80 in future.
With those rates in mind for the biggest streaming platform, average podcast CPM is fair to underpriced in comparison.
Do Cross-Promos Work? Hell Yes, But You Are Likely Doing Them Wrong…And We Can Fix That
Manuela: On Monday Eric Nuzum published an issue of The Audio Insurgent that aims to introduce podcasters to a vital lesson learned while conducting research for terrestrial radio nearly two decades ago.
Nuzum is of the opinion that on-air and in-episode content promotion is frequently misunderstood and often poorly executed. This and the next two issues of Audio Insurgent are dedicated to covering the three Rs of program promotion: Reduction, Repetition, and Real Content.
In 2004 Nuzum conducted a study for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting titled ON-air Program Promotions Insight Study, a study of cross-promotion in the radio industry so helpful he continued to get messages asking where to find the study long after the original webpage hosting it had decayed.
For this newsletter series he has done some light editing and uploaded the entirety of the 18 year-old study to Google Drive for preservation.
“Yet despite its age, it can still be very effective and useful to all audio professionals today. But the whole project boils down to one simple sentence: A well-constructed message, delivered to the right listeners often enough for them to recognize it, can increase listening.”
His issue on Reduction stresses the importance of stripping fat from a promotion and ensuring it isn’t airing in a block of multiple other promotions that could distract from the message. An example given from when the promo study was first conducted is Nuzum playing a promo for A Prairie Home Companion. The promo rapid-fire announced the town, state, college auditorium in said town the performance would take place at. Following that, three musical acts and the name of the famous News from Lake Wobegon segment.
“Immediately after playing it, I would ask those in the room to name a single artist or location mentioned in that promo. On a rare occasion, someone could remember “Iowa”--but most times, no one could remember anything. And these people were (supposedly) paying attention.”
Top Podcast Hosting Companies by Episode Share (August 2022)
Shreya: Last Thursday Livewire Labs updated their substantial snapshot of the industry via episode share.
“One of the ways to measure the health of the current podcast ecosystem is to measure the number of new episodes published in a given period. We look at every single new podcast episode published (about 1.6 million in August 2022, up 5.4% from last month) and identify which podcast hosting company it belongs to.”
One of the first things that jumps out about both the list of hosting companies by new episode share and the ranking of hosts by new episodes published in August is the gulf between first and second place. In a ranked list of 234 podcast hosting services Anchor dominates first place at 22.9% of new episodes published. Buzzsprout showed gains in solidifying a strong second place at 9%.
Livewire’s data pairs nicely with the Podnews podcast hosting change tracker, which observes RSS feed hosting changes across the system’s sample size of over 73,000 podcasts. Over the past week 211 podcasts changed from one hosting service to another, 26 which moved from various other services to Anchor. Pundits are fond of depicting Anchor as a dumping ground for single episode or dead podcasts due to their free tier, but they clearly are attracting a lot of new creators.
A sociologist on what advertisers should know when they use health data
And:
FTC picks fight with data broker
Manuela: Over the past week Ryan Barwick of Marketing Brew has published two closely-related articles covering the use of data collected in a healthcare environment for advertising.
First, yesterday’s article features an interview with Mary F. E. Ebeling, an associate professor of sociology at Drexel University and recently-published author of a book on the effects of collected data on individuals’ lives. Ebeling provides an anecdote of how a child she lost to miscarriage in the real world continued to live a false life through parenting-related marketing emails.
“Though it’s near impossible to audit a digital ad—how, why, or where it was served—Ebeling connects the experience to her research in the healthcare industry, where patients rarely know they’re feeding “massive databases maintained by healthcare providers and public and private insurers, or payers—often called data ‘lakes’ and ‘oceans.’”
With Ebeling’s account in mind, we look back to last Friday when Barwick covered a much-publicized lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission.
“On Monday, the agency brought a lawsuit against Kochava, a data broker, for allegedly collecting and selling location data “that can be used to trace the movements of individuals to and from sensitive locations” like reproductive-health clinics and places of worship.””
The suit comes several weeks after a preemptive lawsuit from Kochava towards the FTC. Barwick details the two businesses within Kochava in its data marketplace and measurement service. Kochava argues the user is forewarned when they initially agree to share their location data with the third-party apps they purchase the data from. The FTC, clearly, disagrees.
“By the end of the week, many were wondering: Why Kochava? And though we don’t know the answer yet, the FTC’s lawsuit could put the entire location data collection industry under the microscope.”
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Shreya:Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
The Ambies, the flagship award program of The Podcast Academy, designed to celebrate excellence in podcasting in the same way the MPA celebrates film with the Oscars, is now taking nominations. In addition, they've also announced a membership program sponsored by Spotify to enable independent creators to submit.
WQXR hires a podcasting chief by Laura Holt.Music remains one of the most untapped categories in podcasting. WQXR is a great example of a station that produces its own content and has access to a number of resources for original content, which is the key to making music podcasting work in a world where licensing music under copyright is still financially not viable in podcasting.
Apple is staffing up its ad business by Ryan Barwick. This might not be breaking news for dedicated audience members of The Download, but it is crystal clear confirmation that apple is fully embracing its advertising business.
The BBC Shares podcast stats by Podnews. A recent talk at Radiodays Asia in Malaysia featured rare info about the BBC’s daily download data, the show in question’s audience profile, and comparison to other podcasts.
Finally, in accordance with The Download’s love of sharing news of podcasting’s performance on a global scale: Otonal has published Podcast Report of Japan, a survey of podcast usage in Japan in 2021.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of Sounds Profitable: Bryan Barletta is joined by Stew Redwine in observing the anniversary of the first audio advertisement in 1922. How have things changed over a hundred years? What even was the first ad?
Listen to learn about:
- The origin of audio advertising
- How audio ads have grown since.
- What we can learn from the evolution of audio ads
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: “History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.” - Mark Twain.
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Stew Redwine
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
Credits:
Hosted by Bryan Barletta & Arielle Nissenblatt
Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
There's a lot of received wisdom that says host read ads beat announcer ads in podcasting. But is this always true? Could it even be a false choice?
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Podcast ad spending goes strong despite recession fears, YouTube and Twitter launched dedicated podcast spaces, advertising questions what to do if premium users choose not to see ads, and a look into why DTC ads haven’t fallen off as expected.
Podcast Ad Spend isn’t Slowing as a Recession Potentially Looms.
Manuela: Marketing Brew’s Alyssa Meyers brought good news last Wednesday. Things are looking up for the podcast ad spending despite, shall we say, less than ideal economic conditions.
Over on the general advertising side of things, it’s a bit bleak. On August 18th Daniel Konstantinovic, writing for Insider Intelligence, covered the worst month of ad spending in two years.
“July saw ad spending go through its worst monthly decline since July 2020. Ad spending contracted 12.7% year over year in July, per MediaPost and Standard Media Index’s US Ad Market Tracker.”
Several potential causes of this dip are proposed, most of which are interlinked to some degree. Relaxing of pandemic restrictions and the return of larger social gatherings has increased commuting and free time away from screens. Meanwhile, even while the jury’s out on whether we’re technically in a recession, Konstantinovic points out a Brand Keys statistic showing 70% of consumers believe they’re in a recession and thus are cutting back on spending.
Perhaps spending wasn’t great in the general advertising space, but podcast ad spending continues to boom regardless.
“Some of the biggest audio companies reported growth in podcast ad revenue for Q2 despite a softening ad market, and buyers responsible for major audio budgets told us they’ve yet to see a significant retreat from podcasting, indicating that the sector could continue growing regardless of the state of the economy.”
It’s also worth keeping in mind which data we’re looking at and how we’re looking at it, as Magellan AI’s Sean Russo explains:
“We took a look through a few different lenses. When you look at year-over-year spend in July in podcasts, we’re seeing a 19% increase. If we look at Q2 YoY we’re seeing a 48% increase. Worth noting that looking at month-over-month June to July we saw a 7% decrease. So, the bottom line on what we’re seeing is that podcast ad spend continues to grow at a healthy clip YoY, though we did see a minor pullback from June to July.”
YouTube and Twitter Launch Dedicated Podcast Sections
Shreya: It’s time to follow up on two developing stories we’ve covered in recent weeks, as two giant social media platforms have now rolled out sections dedicated to podcasting.
Last Thursday Twitter started the rollout of the new dedicated Spaces tab.
“Integrating podcasts into Spaces, where audio conversations happen on Twitter, is another way we’re continuing to invest in audio creators. To do this in a simple and intuitive way that allows listeners to simply hit play and go, we started with a redesigned audio experience in the Spaces Tab.”
Twitter remains an important space for podcasters to both promote and network. With the addition of podcast functionality that’s native to the app they’ve removed some of the friction between the promotion of a podcast and the potential audience member actually listening.
On that same note: last Monday YouTube launched a dedicated page for podcasts, though only for users in the United States. As covered by Sarah Perez in TechCrunch, the url for the new page was discovered ahead of formal announcement. Despite their thunder being partly stolen, YouTube’s shown a promising amount of dedication to the industry.
“Last year, YouTube hired a podcast executive, Kai Chuk, to lead its efforts in the space and has been offering cash to popular podcasters to film their shows, reports said. This March, a site called Podnews leaked an 84-page presentation that detailed YouTube’s podcast roadmap. In the document, YouTube revealed it had plans to pilot the feature by ingesting RSS feeds. It also mentioned a new URL, YouTube.com/podcasts, but the link didn’t work at the time.”
A quick note from script writer Gavin: yes, that bit of the quote with the phrase “a site called Podnews” hurt me too.
In addition to what Perez covered in the quote, it’s also worth remembering YouTube has recently announced a partnership with NPR to bring their shows to the platform. It’s safe to say YouTube is one of the big companies that is taking the podcasting industry and its potential seriously.
What happens when high-income households opt out of ads?
Manuela: Last Monday Kelsey Sutton, writing for Marketing Brew, approached an important question: what if the people certain brands wish to market to are also the demographic most likely to pay a premium specifically to avoid ads?
“The people that advertisers most want to target are hiding from the advertisers,” said Eric Schmitt, research director and analyst on the Gartner for Marketing Leaders. “It really is going to have some interesting knock-on effects for the ad business over time.”
Podcasting is not specifically name-checked in the piece, but it is a growing phenomenon to keep in mind. Current data tells us most listeners are comfortable with ads as they currently exist in podcasting. Stick around for our Quick Hits section this week if you want a link to some extremely relevant data from a certain study Sounds Profitable published last week.
Sutton’s article points to multi-tired subscriptions to streaming services as the biggest example of the popularization of a premium ad-free option. While these are worth thinking about, there’s ample room for nuance in the discussion, up to and including services like Paramount+ and Hulu, who have baked-in preroll ads before every television episode or movie regardless of subscription level.
“Schimtt hypothesized that the shift may eventually spell larger challenges for traditional ad-supported media channels, including TV, as marketers look elsewhere to reach higher-income consumers or spend more resources marketing to past customers.”
Ad-free listening is a relatively new invention in podcasting, especially on a large scale. For now we wait and see which way the advertising winds blow.
How and why DTC advertising hasn’t cooled off as much as once thought
Shreya: Last Tuesday Digiday’s Michael Bürgi published a brief look into the world of direct-to-consumer advertising in a world anticipating DTC upheaval. With the deprecated ability to track conversions due to changes in iOS 14.5 and the additional changes to cookies and third party data, DTC brands are turning to alternatives like branding opportunities to hit their goals. Surprisingly, after seasonal changes are taken into account, there’s quite a few DTC markets growing.
“Facebook has the highest monthly median spend in July 2022 at $19,022 ($2,000 less than a year prior), according to Varos, a research company that tracks e-commerce spend for about 1,800 companies. Google’s median spend inched up from $8,101 to $8,209 over the same period; TikTok’s grew from $4,095 to $5,981.”
The commonly-held belief that there would be pullback from DTC spending was indeed widespread, even leading to some companies not surviving. Those who did explore other avenues besides the cheapest and fastest clicks have discovered the wide world of influencer marketing, which just so happens to be where podcasting thrives.
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Manuela: Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s
Sounds Profitable releases their second study, After These Messages.
Do podcast audiences prefer improvised host-read ads, scripted host-read, or pre-recorded radio spots? After These Messages is a one-of-a-kind study polling over 1,000 podcast super listeners to answer that question. Both the study and the half-hour video of Tom Webster’s presentation at Podcast Movement 2022 are available now.
Streaming surpasses cable and broadcast for the first time by Kurt Hanson.
While not a podcasting story, per se, it does highlight a significant milestone for digital media. People are becoming more and more comfortable unplugging from traditional broadcast media and constructing their own media diets from digital sources. Podcasting could ride along with that.
I made a map of Spotify podcast recommendations. Here’s what I learned by Dan Misener.
The inner workings of the aggregators are completely unknown to us. While Spotify refutes Dan’s points, his research with multiple touch-points shows a very interesting story.
Podcasters test offering more bonus content and additional features to grow subscriptions
An interesting look inside podcast subscription content by Sara Guaglione. Long headline, relatively short article. Transparency on trying new endeavors is always exciting and there’s some valuable information in this look into premium podcast subscriptions.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In three years, Allyson Marino built and sold her own podcast company, Lipstick & Vinyl, a network built around strong female voices. Here is Allyson’s story.
Credits:
- Written by Allyson Marino
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of Sounds Profitable: Adtech Applied, Bryan speaks with Tamara Zubatiy, co-founder and CEO of Barometer. Barometer contextualizes podcasts based on the GARM brand suitability components and the Media Roundtable Values.
Listen to learn about:
- Brand safety and suitability
- Why it’s important to create block and allow lists for advertisers
- How context and nuance play into the brand safety and suitability conversation
- The Sounds Profitable Business Leaders Summit
- The consolidation of our feeds
- Why we need your feedback on this podcast
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: GARM marks different levels of risk when it comes to advertising but there’s never an ad partnership that brings zero risk to either party (advertiser or publisher).
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Tamara Zubatiy
- Barometer
- Sounds Profitable Summit at Podcast Movement
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
- Podsights
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta & Arielle Nissenblatt
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Even with the best intentions, bad ad delivery can happen. But why does it happen?
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Edited by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Apple’s funding podcasts, brand safety tech continues to divide advertisers, what more can and should ad agencies do to support journalism, Edison’s Latino Podcast Report, and Spotify bundles Chartable and Podsights access for Megaphone users
Apple Ramps Up Its In-House Podcasting Efforts with Studio Deal
Manuela: Rumors of Apple getting into podcasting bore fruit last week with official confirmation. At least, sort of. Ashley Carman and Lucas Shaw’s Bloomberg piece from last Wednesday explains:
“The investments have been led by Apple’s TV studio, rather than its podcast division. Despite being one of the biggest distributors of audio in the world, the company’s podcasting unit has avoided funding individual shows or buying networks because it wants to be seen as a neutral platform.”
That TV division has entered into a deal with Futuro Studios to fund the creation of podcasts while Apple retains first-look rights on film and TV adaptations. In essence, the deal creates a pilot-factory for Apple to generate new IP and test them in the world of podcasting before graduating to the more expensive filmed version.
“Apple hasn’t pumped nearly as much money into original podcasts as Amazon and Spotify Technology SA, which have each spent more than $1 billion acquiring companies and programming. Spotify, Apple’s rival in music streaming, has made some of the most popular podcasts in the world exclusive to its service and thus unavailable to the competition.”
Podcasting is becoming a relatively affordable testing ground for IP instead of fully committing to a TV pilot, along with the added bonus of any successful IP getting a built-in audience of fans before the first day of shooting. Successful shows like Netflix’s Dirty John adaptation are proving the method can work and work well.
‘A key impediment’: Brand safety tech continues to divide advertisers into haves and have-nots
Shreya: This Monday Seb Joseph of Digiday posted an article detailing the growing divide in how advertisers handle being posted to news sites when big, predominantly negative stories break. Nobody wants to be the next viral sensation getting roasted worse than Mr. Peanut when Planters’ ad campaign temporarily killing their mascot coincided with the death of Kobe Bryant.
In a world full of dangerous news cycles, brand safety tech companies like Integral Ad Science are able to impart more granular control over what content is considered brand-safe in a timely manner.
“Then there are those marketers who don’t use the technology. Take British newspaper group Reach plc, for example, which has said the war in Ukraine significantly dampened advertiser demand.
This won’t surprise anyone. The truth is the downside is too steep and the upside too obscure for many marketers to do anything but avoid the polarizing news. That said, not every marketer sees it this way. And if they could afford to, they would advertise on news sites — just in a more nuanced manner.”
An unintended side effect of advertisers deciding what topics are acceptable to block ads on is that some of the biggest news stories are also cutting off some of the potentially best-written journalism of the moment. Joseph quotes Zefr EVP of Strategy and Marketing:
“We actually don’t accept or use keyword blocklists as a policy in our company, because they end up causing the same damage to over-blocking quality voices over and over again and they just don’t work well in UGC environments. We instead apply the GARM [Global Alliance of Responsible Media] models for debated sensitive social issues as a way to keep brands in front of suitable content while avoiding the issues that they’re concerned about.”
Ad Agencies Can, and Should, Do More to Support Journalism
Shreya: Between hedge fund buyouts dissolving seemingly bulletproof institutions and ad dollars drying up when negative stories drop, things are looking rough for journalists. Ricardo Baca writes an impassioned plea for ad agencies, stressing the importance of not only collaborating with journalists but also supporting them with ad buys and subscriptions. He writes from the perspective of having worked on the other side of the fence as a journalist himself years prior.
“To be clear, agencies are partly to blame here. We’re stuck on the same vicious treadmill as everyone else: We see the web traffic going to social media, so that’s where we buy our ads, further siphoning away support from journalism, the snake eating itself. And with news outlets struggling mightily on the revenue front no matter their size—from local alt-weeklies to major metropolitan dailies—I am making a plea for agencies to step up.”
Baca suggests treating relationships with journalists not as transactional, but symbiotic instead. Value their time and they will value yours. Don’t hold grudges when well-researched reporting generates something the client isn’t happy with.
Then there’s the fact that journalism has evolved beyond gumshoe reporters all working for a monolithic outlet. With more forms of professional journalism becoming the norm, so to must go the advertising support.
“Keep in mind that revenue models have shifted. Consider an agency sponsorship for a Substack newsletter, for example. Sponsoring other popular media formats like podcasts, recognizing both a shift in consumers’ habits as well as the continuity involved—someone’s got to be paid to create the stuff—is another way to directly support the trade.”
Gabe’s Section
Manuela: The third annual Latino Podcast Listener Report was published on Tuesday, following a webinar discussing the results presented by Gabriel Soto, my co-host on La Descarga and Senior Director at Edison Research, and Elsie Escobar, Director of Community and Content at Libsyn and co-founder of She Podcasts. Supported by Adonde Media, LWC Studios, Libsyn, PRX, and SXM Media this year’s report revealed many interesting trends as well as new findings.
The study finds that 59% of Latino adults have ever listened to a podcast, up from 56% since last year and up from 45% since 2020.
The lack of Spanish podcast promotion was a recurring theme of the report, and an opportunity exists to bridge such content with foreign born Latinos. The report highlighted the listening gap between Latinos born outside of the U.S. and their U.S. born counterparts. 37% of Latinos born in the U.S. listened to a podcast in the last month, while 29% born outside of the U.S. say the same.
A new statistic released this year revealed seventeen percent of Latino Monthly podcast listeners identify as LGBTQ+. For comparison, the report cited the Gallup poll’s 2021 estimate of 11% of Latino adult population who identify as LGBTQ+
The benefit of advertising on Latino podcasts was also discussed. According to the report, 64% of monthly listeners of Latino-hosted podcasts, say they ever purchased a product or service as a result of hearing a sponsorship or advertising on a podcast, compared with 25% of those who have never listened to a podcast hosted by Latinos saying the same. .
As Gabriel Soto put it, “Latinos in the U.S. control an impressive $1.9 trillion in purchasing power, and today’s data demonstrate how advertisers who support Latino podcast content are benefitting, while those who don’t are missing out,”.
The Latino Podcast Listener Report serves as an invaluable resource to many creators in the podcast space. We’re happy to see the effort continue. You can download the Latino Podcast Listener Report for free at the link in the show notes.
Spotify Launches New Bundle For Megaphone Users, Adding Access To Chartable And Podsights
Shreya: In an email sent yesterday, Spotify has announced they are bundling enterprise access to recently-purchased services Chartable and Podsights into Megaphone.
“With this updated offering, you will be able to easily apply attribution measurement to showcase the value of your podcast promotional efforts as well as your direct sales campaigns. All Megaphone clients will now be able to obtain unique insights about their podcast audience while also measuring the audience growth impact of their promotional campaigns through tools like Chartable SmartPromos and SmartLinks.”
Attribution and growth marketing are the major focus in the world of podcast adtech. One of the largest enterprise-focused hosting platforms acquiring two of the top attribution and analytics solutions and offering them for free to existing users is a big deal budget-wise. Though it is worth noting there are strings attached: they’re free for the first four million impressions.
Since the big Spotify purchase of Podsights and Chartable there's been a massive hole for third party attribution. Companies like Claritas, Veritonic, and Artsai who’ve started to take on that challenge have had an uphill battle. Both Podsights and Chartable are great pieces of tech, but first-party is not neutral. Offers like this will make it even harder to extract them from their hold on the space and jeopardizes third party measurements value in podcasting.
A good deal, but one to keep in mind when considering the future of podcasting as an industry.
Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading
Manuela: Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s three great reads are:
How alt.NPR's experimentation shaped the early podcasting landscape starting in 2005 by Shirley Liu. They didn’t invent podcasting, but NPR was definitely a pioneer. Podcasting opened up NPR to experimentation and launched the careers of so many podcasters.
Ad Disclosure: Podcast Sponsors Aren't Off the Hook from last Thursday’s PodMov Daily. A story of meal replacement brand Huel getting in hot water over host-read advertising. Podcasting, given its position at the crossroads between radio and influencer marketing, will start to see quite a few stories like this as it continues to enter more mainstream content channels.
Unpaid Internship Rebrands as a $4,000 "Training" by Skye Pillsbury. This issue of Pillsbury’s can’t-miss newsletter The Squeeze covers a story exactly as bad as the headline sounds. A true must-read.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Survey after survey tell us that people continue to discover podcasting every year. But is podcasting growth really a case of three steps forward, two steps back?
Credits:
- Written & Editing by Tom Webster
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Quarterly earnings, more quarterly earnings, Audio is getting its own track at Advertising Week, and Spotify is giving podcasts their own space in its app.
Arielle: Hope you’re ready for some earnings reports, because we’ve got two segments worth of second quarter earnings to go over. First up: the big platforms. Last Wednesday Alyssa Meyers of Marketing Brew posted a roundup of Spotify, SiriusXM and Acast. Things kick off with a silver lining:
“Call it what you want, the ad biz is not looking its best right now. But according to these execs, the growing podcast segment is keeping its head above water.”
Economic uncertainty is undeniably impacting the ad industry. The CEOs of Spotify and SiriusXM both cite ‘macro’ trends as being notably dire but not to podcast ads sales. SiriusXM’s Q2 ad revenue for Pandora and associated platforms reports a 5% year over year increase, reaching 403 million. Spotify posted a 31% year over year gain, earning around 366 million. This time around they neglected to isolate their podcast ad revenue as its own statistic.
Meyers quotes Spotify CFO Paul Vogel as saying they’re experiencing “strong growth on the podcasting side.”
Hosting service Acast has been busy this second quarter, citing new features, a massive increase of podcasts on the platform, and their acquisition of Podchaser as driving factors of their 39% net sales growth. A figure that calculates out to 31 million USD.
While the macro trends are concerning, The Download will never pass up an opportunity to report numbers going up in podcasting. Big or small, names in the industry are increasing ad revenue, and that’s a good thing.
Shreya: Now to cover the Q2 numbers from three large broadcasters: iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, and Audacy. There’s a few dark spots throughout but, interestingly, their podcast numbers are shining beacons of hope in all three reports.
Overall iHeartMedia reports an 11% year over year increase, despite, in the words of company president Rich Bressler: “the uncertain economic environment.” Podcast revenue is up to 86 million, a 60% year over year increase.
Meanwhile, Cumulus Media joined the macro club during president Mary Berner’s opening statement:
“Despite the challenging macro environment, we increased revenue in the quarter by
more than 5%, driven by our digital businesses whose growth accelerated in Q2 to 20% year-over-year.”
Podcasting made Cumulus around 15 million this last quarter, up 27% year over year. All told, podcasting accounts for 6% of the company’s revenue. Not too shabby.
Finally, Audacy’s president David J Field brings us a final use of the term ‘macro’ for this episode:
“After a very strong first quarter in which we grew revenues by 14% and significantly increased margin, our second quarter results were adversely impacted by declining macroeconomic conditions and ad market headwinds which reduced our top line growth to 5%.”
The company made a nice $69m from “digital,” which includes podcasting, and is up 18% year over year. Podcast downloads grew 40% year-over-year. Revenue from podcasts is supposedly in the upper teens of percentage growth, but Audacy didn’t give specifics. Even with the ad market headwinds it seems podcasting is doing well for them.
Arielle: Wednesday of last week was a busy day for Alyssa Meyers, as we cover her second article of the day: “Audio gets its own track at this year’s Advertising Week.”
Advertising Week’s head of podcasting Richard Larsson told Marketing Brew,
“The rise of audio throughout the pandemic, coupled with Advertising Week’s efforts to build its own podcast network, culminated in the decision to give audio a more official spot on the agenda this October.”
Audio representation continues with one of - if not the - longest-running podcast awards ceremony. Yesterday the People’s Choice Podcast Awards announced the nominees for their 17th annual session. The substantive list of nominees can be found on the Podcast Awards website.
Continuing the award theme with one more bit of news: on Monday the newest issue of Adweek dropped with the winners to the 2022 Adweek Podcast of the Year Awards. The full list of winners can be found in the official Adweek post by Kennyatta Collins.
Shreya: Podcasts and music are taking a break from each other soon on Spotify, according to David Pierce’s article for The Verge, posted this Tuesday.
“Spotify has been working on a new design for its home tab that will create separate feeds for your music and your podcasts. The company says it’s part of an effort to give you more and better recommendations, but it also addresses a common criticism of the Spotify experience: with every kind of audio smushed together in the app, it can sometimes be hard to figure out.”
The new layout creates a bar at the top of the app delineating whether the user is in the Music area or one called Podcasts & Shows. Music will continue to feature new suggestions for songs and albums along with recently-listened tracks while Podcasts & Shows gets rid of music and purely focuses on new episodes of subscribed podcasts and recommendations for shows Spotify believes the user will enjoy.
Pierce offers the comparison:
“They’re not so much new home screens as new filters for your home screen. (I’d rather just have them be separate tabs altogether, but I’ll take what I can get.)”
An app redesign with a dedicated area for podcasting provides more opportunities for promotion. Podcast promotion and growth of audience is one of the hottest topics in podcasting.
Spotify providing more of those opportunities for ads in a way that doesn’t step on music-based ads is a big deal. Promotion opportunities are a big enough deal that Dan Misener and Jonas Woost of Pacific Content have left to form Bumper, an agency dedicated solely to promotion.
Arielle: Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s three great reads are:
Fundamentals of Programmatic Advertising by Evelyn Mitchell. A quick read with a helpful infographic that makes a great introduction for those not familiar with programmatic, as well as those in need of a refresher.
DoubleVerify Grows Q2 Revenue By Expanding Brand Safety To Retail Media, TikTok And Gaming by Alyssa Boyle. Notable in its absence is any entrance into podcasting. Meanwhile IAS, a direct competitor of DoubleVerify, is the brand safety service for Spotify. DoubleVerify not expanding into audio over these other verticals suggests that the IAS and Spotify relationship is more driven by Spotify looking to tend their walled garden. Perhaps the move was more motivated by Spotify themselves rather than actual advertiser demand to have a brand safety partner.
Finally, some self-promotion: Sounds Profitable’s latest research project will debut Tuesday, August 23rd during the Sounds Profitable Business Summit. The Summit, as covered in a previous episode of The Download, will take place in Dallas, Texas during the opening day of Podcast Movement. The “After These Messages” study will present a definitive take on the impact of live host-read ads, scripted ads, and announcer-read spots. This study was designed by podcast and research industry veteran Tom Webster, in partnership with Edison Research, and will be seen as an important new resource for publishers and brands. Don’t miss it.
Arielle: And that was The Download, from Sounds Profitable! I know we went through these fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned, right in your podcast listening app, or on SoundsProfitable.com/TheDownload. And thank you for sticking with us as we bring you the top stories you might have missed from the past week. I'm Arielle Nissenblatt.
Shreya : AndI'm Shreya Sharma. Our producers are Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster. Special thanks to Gavin Gaddis for writing today's script, and to Omny Studio for hosting The Download. And thanks to you for joining us.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of Sounds Profitable: Adtech Applied, Bryan speaks with U of Digital Managing Partner Shiv Gupta about what it means to create a comprehensive educational approach across an industry. Gupta comes to us by way of the digital marketing space, but has spent his career creating programming aimed at educating and serving across different sectors and levels within companies. Adtech Applied cohost Arielle Nissenblatt joins to set up the chat and break it down with takeaways at the latter half of the show.
Listen to learn about:
- Shiv Gupta’s career
- Why it’s important to create non-biased courses that educate on entire industries
- How Sounds Profitable plans to approach an education initiative
- Why we need your feedback on this podcast
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: creating opportunities for folks to learn, either if they’re new to a job or looking to move on to the next level, benefits everyone.
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Shiv Gupta
- U of Digital
- Sounds Profitable Summit at Podcast Movement
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
- Podscribe
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta & Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering by Evo Terra
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Summer of Programmatic continues! You may have already decided that programmatic advertising is important, but is it difficult to get started? The answer is...no! And this week, we lay out a simple plan to get you up and running.
Credits:
- Written & Editing by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Hosted with Omny Studio
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: New TikTok Trademark Could mean new streaming service, third-party cookies get a stay of execution from Google, Apple App Store ads could signal Apple Podcasts’ future, and two perspectives on the downturn ad economy.
New TikTok App Trademark
Manuela: Last Thursday Dan Whateley and Amanda Perelli, writing for Business Insider, covered a new trademark application for a service called TikTok Music. As the simplistic name suggests, TikTok parent company ByteDance could be looking to branch the TikTok brand out beyond its current relationship to music and create a fully-fledged streaming platform.
“The idea that ByteDance would launch a standalone "TikTok Music" streaming service in the US to compete with players like Spotify and Apple Music isn't unfounded. It already runs a streaming app called Resso in three markets — India, Brazil, and Indonesia — that has been grabbing market share from other streamers in the past year.”
While nothing has been formally announced or set in stone, the sources Perelli and Whateley contacted for their story suggest it’s highly unlikely ByteDance would file such a trademark. Filing in the US and Australia wouldn’t happen without a strong chance the company meant for it to come to fruition. Then there’s the matter of this move making perfect sense for TikTok.
Why cover this on The Download? Well, in addition to the general fact TikTok is slowly devouring the online world, it’s coming for audio specifically and the trademark application lists, among other things, the proposed new app’s ability to stream:
“downloadable mobile applications providing podcast and radio broadcast content.”
What remains to be seen is what the TikTok version of ‘a podcast’ will be.
Google Delays Cookie Death Again
Shreya: Once again we won’t be seeing the death of third-party cookies, as Google has delayed their death blow for another year. Last Wednesday The Verge’s Richard Lawler covered the story in the article “Google delays blocking third-party cookies again, now targeting late 2024.”
“The plan is to expand the group of Chrome users who have Privacy Sandbox APIs enabled to “millions of users globally” starting in August, then gradually opt more people in throughout the rest of the year and into 2023, giving the publishers and developers of these sites time to find out how the technology works before the APIs are “generally available” by Q3 of 2023.”
With this second delay third-party cookies are becoming the shoe that refuses to drop in advertising. While podcasting doesn’t depend on cookies per se, the ability to track individual consumers remains an expectation of digital marketers who don’t want to see the genie go back into the bottle. If it does, podcasts are on equal footing with mobile and web ads, and all will have to do the work to target the right consumers.
Apple App Store Ad Offerings Signal Podcast Future
Manuela: This Tuesday’s issue of Stratechery covers many sections of the Apple earnings call, but one particular section stuck out to The Download: Apple’s new advertising slots. The new slots are detailed by 9to5Mac’s Chance Miller.
“Apple is expanding its advertising business and adding two new ad slots to the App Store. Currently, the App Store has two ad slots: one on the main ‘Search’ tab and one in the Search results. The two new App Store ads announced today will bring advertisements to the App Store ‘Today’ homepage, as well as to individual app pages.”
While the App Store and Apple Podcasts are different services, this change could signal a shift in the winds over in the podcasting world. Currently there are no ads in Apple Podcasts. Apple also puts considerable time into featuring podcasts in places ads would normally appear at no charge. Years of careful curation and optimal placement have caused those spots to become incredibly coveted. By making some of those spaces available for purchase - through search or the home page, or even on pages for OTHER podcasts - Apple would unlock a large revenue opportunity for themselves outside of subscriptions, and provide a new for-pay opportunity for podcast promotion.
Ad Economy Downturn Dual Perspectives
Shreya: On Monday Digiday’s Seb Joseph posted “The downturn ad economy: A tale of two narratives.”
“There are two competing narratives on advertising at the moment. They sit uneasily with each other. But both are correct. Ad dollars are being spent, but they’re also being cut. Yes, these two things can be true at the same time. No, the latter perspective doesn’t make the former any less valid or vice versa. Really, it’s a matter of perspective.”
The two warring perspectives in Joseph’s piece are that of the big holding companies and agencies versus the platforms. Both are staring down the barrel of a recession and have different reactions.
“It’sno surprise that the marketers who can afford to advertise now are trying to make the most of it. They’re spending ad dollars, rather than looking to pull them. Indeed, economic slumps are usually the best chance to buy share of voice cheaply at the same time rivals reduce their own. It’s a cliche for a reason.
Otherwise, Unilever wouldn’t have splurged £169.73 million ($206.7 million) on advertising in the first half of the year alone. Coca-Cola did so mething similar, as did McDonald’s. The largest advertisers will try and advertise their way through the downturn — to a point, at least.”
Podcasting is platform-heavy, working diligently to get the big advertisers to shift their spending into podcasting. Yet those platform peers are the ones getting the short end of the stick when it comes to ad cuts.
“To survive, companies are cutting costs, including advertising. When these companies advertise, they tend to do so online first and foremost. SMEs and DTCs are nothing but digital-first in many respects. So when these businesses feel the effects of adverse conditions, so do the platforms they advertise on.”
When those in the podcasting industry talk about the push for bigger advertisers in our space, it's not only for growth: it’s to weather the storm. If some of those spend-through-the-storm big fish can be directed to our corner of the world, they’ll keep multiple industries afloat.
Quick Hits Section
Manuela: Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s four great reads are:
First: Google Begins Interest Group-Based Ad Experiment by Laurie Sullivan. Google is testing grouping users into interest groups (the article gives “custom bikes” as an example).This has implications for podcasting. What would be a great way to reach custom bike fans? A custom bike podcast. Podcasting has a window to figure this stuff out.
Clear your calendar for the afternoon of August 16th as the Latino Podcast Listener Report 2022 is coming your way. The presentation, co-hosted by Gabriel Soto, Edison Research Senior Director of Research, and my co-host on La Descarga, as well as She Podcasts cofounder Elsie Escobar. Registration is open now.
Also: Podcasts are testing out-of-home ads to reach broader audiences by Alyssa Meyers. In a previous episode we touched on the story of Slow Burn buying a billboard to promote their season on Shirley Wheeler in Roe v. Wade battleground states. This covers the wider trend of podcasts dipping their toes in out-of-home advertising, first highlighted by James Cridland over in Podnews. The habit is growing and catching more attention, though it comes with - ironically - less metrics than the already small amount of fingerprinting traditional podcast advertising comes with.
Finally: How Slate’s Charlie Kammerer is prioritizing frequency to boost podcast revenue by Kayleigh Barber. In a piece that rarely happens in mainstream podcast coverage, Slate’s Charlie Kammerer talks through the outlet’s podcasting strategy. Of note is the approach that shows integrated value, using podcast paywalls to drive subscriptions of Slate overall.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We're such big fans of Laura Mayer and her new show Shameless Acquisition Target, that we wanted to make sure you didn't miss it. Subscribe directly here!
After years of seeing friends (and some enemies) get rich, rich, rich selling their shows and companies to other bigger shows and bigger companies, longtime podcast executive Laura Mayer has decided to get hers. To do this, she'll speak to straight-up geniuses in the worlds of podcasting, entertainment, and business to understand what value is in media and how to make it. At the end, Laura will sell the show itself to the highest bidder. Will she make hundreds, millions, or even dozens of dollars? Will she be able to afford the gray house down the street from her rental apartment? Let’s find out together… shamelessly.
Laura explains why she cares so very much about acquisitions And, hopefully, why you should care, too!
Want to buy MERCH (“Hector’s Place” is our newest addition) or buy the show?\
Want to learn more about this episode’s sponsor?
Want to listen to Harkin’s new fabulous album?
Want to give Laura Mayer a PIECE OF YOUR MIND?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are programmatic ads bad for podcasting? Or are they a lifeline for creators? We ask the number one solo artist in U.S. history.
Credits:
- Written by Tom Webster
- Editing by Bryan Barletta
- Produced with Spooler.fm
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bryan speaks with Marketing Brew’s Alyssa Meyers about reporting on podcasting and audio for an advertising-focused publication. Marketing Brew is part of Morning Brew’s network of newsletters. Adtech Applied cohost Arielle Nissenblatt joins to set up the chat and break it down with takeaways at the latter half of the show.
Listen for:
- How Alyssa found this beat
- What Alyssa looks for in a story
- How to become a source for Alyssa and other marketing/advertising-focused publications that cover podcasting and audio
- Information on the Sounds Profitable Summit at Podcast Movement Dallas
- Where to find our other podcasts, La Descarga, The Download, and Sounds Profitable: The Narrated Articles
- An update on our podcast slate at Sounds Profitable and a tease of what’s to come
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: we need subject matter experts who are not just well-versed in their own product or company’s capabilities, but who also know how their product/company relates to and fits in with the larger audio landscape.
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Alyssa Meyers
- Marketing Brew
- Sounds Profitable Summit at Podcast Movement
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta & Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering by Evo Terra
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Acast buys Podchaser, PodcastOne strikes out on their own, SiriusXM and Comscore expand their deal, Disney’s integrating with The Trade Desk , and Podnews caught 240 spam emails.
This Monday Podnews started off the work week with a big announcement: Acast is acquiring Podchaser in a $34 million dollar deal.
“Podchaser, which will continue to operate as a separate brand and independent business, was founded in 2016 and is home to the leading global podcast database, covering more than 4.5 million podcasts and more than 1.7 billion data points — including hundreds of thousands of ratings and reviews, and the advertisers of the world’s top 5,000 podcasts. This unique, proprietary data — which will also remain open to all — spans and powers the entire open podcast ecosystem, and is used by listeners, podcasters, advertisers and industry professionals.”
Podchaser has created strong integrations with hosting platforms to receive data, exported data to podcast apps and hosting platforms, and has a competitive intelligence tool built to enable publishers and buyers alike to improve their revenue streams.
General industry sentiment of Acast currently is a bit lukewarm unless you’re actively working with them as a publisher or a buyer. As previously reported, Acast has—or at least had— a marketing strategy involving unrelenting spam emails encouraging podcasters to switch to their services. With mass emails to RadioPublic users and their siloed relationships with partners like Patreon, it’s hard for some podcasters to give this deal the benefit of the doubt.
We’re very happy for our sponsor Podchaser, and the entire team there, and truly hope the independent nature is maintained. We still question the comfort of existing and new integrated partners providing data to a competitor.
Last Friday LiveOne issued a press release announcing that their company PodcastOne, having just raised 8.1 million in funding, is looking to separate and become an independent company.
“PodcastOne is the leading advertiser-supported on-demand digital podcast company, offering a 360-degree solution for both content creators and advertisers, including content development, brand integration and distribution. Acquired by LiveOne in 2020, PodcastOne has had more than 2.1 billion downloads a year since its acquisition, across the more than 350 weekly episodes it distributes.”
Their talent stable includes names like Jordan Harbinger, Adam Carolla, and T-Pain. In the press release PodcastOne president Kit Gray said:
“The podcasting business has exploded over the past five years and PodcastOne is one of the largest independent podcast companies in the world. The company is one of only two independent podcasting publishers in the top 10 of Podtrac's list of Top Publishers. We believe that by trading as a separate public company, PodcastOne will have the opportunity to access the public capital markets as well as be better positioned to both acquire podcast platforms and attract significant podcast talent.”
PodcastOne offers its own self-built platform and operates as an ad sales network for its publishers. It’s weathered a lot of storms in podcasting and investment like this during a recession shows confidence in the ability for them to stand on their own. It will be interesting to see how their products and services come to market faster, and who they cater toward. Much like the acquisition last story, this announcement shows podcasting deals aren’t going stale.
Last Thursday SiriusXM and Comscore announced the expansion of their collaborative agreement to bring predictive audience targeting to podcasts. This new expanded agreement will bring Comscore Predictive Audiences to both AdzWizz and SXM Media clients. General Manager of Comscore activation services Rachel Grant said:
“With podcast consumption skyrocketing and the regulatory environment still very fluid, it’s critical to give advertisers the ability to develop privacy-forward and future-proof audience targeting on podcasts”
Prior to this AdsWizz was already working with Comscore for their contextual targeting based off of keywords for the Podscribe tool (not to be confused with the company Podscribe). The new deal expands into a targetable dataset for those buying through Adswizz programmatic offerings, either as a buyer using their demand side platform to buy anywhere in podcast programmatic, or buying directly into their open marketplace Podwave.
The continued highlighting of it being privacy-first is a bit misleading. AdsWizz is still providing the IP address to match off of, which we at Sounds Profitable do not find to be an issue.
That Comscore has built a new dataset not built on cookies is a step towards the aforementioned future-proofing. The dataset looks to come from Comscore opted-in panels, which is different from universal ID solutions looking to match first party data. While podcasting is always probabilistic matching - as it's based on IP address - this is also probabilistic targeting.
It’s neat to see Comscore focusing a bit more on podcasting while many other major data partners are snoozing on it.
In a rare twist we only have one article posted on a Tuesday for you this week. Last Tuesday AdExchanger’s James Hercher published “Disney Integrates With The Trade Desk And UID2 In Pursuit Of Better Addressability.”
“This new integration with The Trade Desk, which was born from recent meetings in Cannes, will accelerate Disney’s ambition to automate and target more of its overall pool of data, Barnes said. Advertisers will be able to more effectively find their audiences across Disney inventory and the added precision should help improve ROI and post-campaign results.”
Disney is a major player in podcasting, both directly and through partnerships. So much of what Disney does today uses programmatic for efficiency’s sake. A company of that size can’t easily do manual IO’s for every cookie-cutter campaign. As Disney continues to invest and grow their podcast offerings creates synergy with the majority of podcast SSPs being configured to purchase from The Trade Desk. There’s real potential for further increase in podcasting programmatic as the industry takes care of the small discrepancies and differences that stand in the way of podcasting as a main advertising channel.
While the article is worth engaging with on its own merits, script writer Gavin Gaddis wishes to spotlight the piece’s cartoon of Toy Story stars Buzz and Woody selling ads with the caption ‘to automation and beyond.’
Three months ago Podnews editor James Cridland laid a trap to learn more about the methods and companies using shady tactics to cold-call podcasters via email. On Wednesday he published the results in “the podcast industry’s biggest spammer.”
“In May 2022, we amended Podnews’s podcast RSS feed to produce a near infinite amount of trackable email addresses as a kind of spamtrap. We wanted to discover who was scraping our RSS feed for emails; what user agent they were using, when they scraped it, what tag they scraped it from, and whether the messages were legal under the FCC’s rules (the so-called CAN-SPAM Act).”
Cridland’s honeypot strategy attracted 240 emails over the three month period. Some fall within the boundaries of CAN-SPAM, some seem pointed in their lack of transparency.
The specific companies involved are not necessarily important to the overall story. Podcasting needs good governance as growth continues and the industry constantly redefines what constitutes ‘normal’ business practices. It’s on those within the industry to make podcasting better through what’s considered an acceptable marketing strategy. It’s perfectly legal to scrape email addresses from RSS feed tags and send them unsolicited emails as long as they follow loose FCC and other governmental regulatory rules. In an industry growing as fast and consistently as podcasting one has to question if it has a place for an antiquated cold-calling strategy perfected in the late 90s.
Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s two Quick Hits are
The Most Important Things We’ve Learned About Making Successful Podcasts with Brands by Dan Misener. Misener, formerly Director of Audience Development at Pacific Content, provides a great list of learnings on his way out the door. One of the greatest minds at Pacific, Misener has been skilled at breaking down complex data and making it accessible to the masses. His heart has always been focused on growing all of podcasting and Sounds Profitable fully supports him in whatever he’s doing next. We know it’ll have an impact.
And secondly: a press release from Pushkin media: Pushkin Industries Expands Production Capacity With Acquisition of Creative Podcast Company Transmitter Media. Here we have yet another example of a podcast production company growing to the point they need to buy another podcast production company.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Blubrry brings a new spin to media kits, Twitter’s building a podcast player, TargetSpot expands into Latin American audiences, Overcast’s creator has beef with how podcasters use DAI, and Anchor’s co-founder finds RSS standards restrictive to innovation.
While a significant portion of the United States was recovering from an excessive amount of explosive devices used over the holiday weekend, Blubrry announced a new way for podcasters to present themselves to potential sponsors and partners.
“Blubrry is introducing a podcasting industry first by providing all Blubrry paid customers a podcast media kit that updates daily with information you choose to include. The kit includes data you provide, podcast statistics and audience survey results.”
Data points that can be included in the kit range from simple unchanging data points like website or show start date to granular things like social media follower counts, average monthly downloads per episode, and Blubrry audience survey results.
While not technically a media kit, this is a great step forward in helping arm podcasters with useful information they can give advertisers interested in evaluating their show. While lacking in the usual collection of logos and information ephemera a true media kit designed to be attractive to press, this sort of media kit 2.0 cuts down on a fair amount of repeat labor. To The Download’s knowledge this is the first time a hosting company has automated this process and included actual download statistics in the package. Usually the process is a tedious manual one that requires regular updates by either the show runner or their representation to pull each data point.
Kudos to Blubrry for being the first to market with this dreamed-of feature.
Once again we bring news of a social media platform showing interest in podcast integration, but this time it feels more legitimate. Frontend engineer and code researcher Jane Manchun Wong did some digging. In her to-the-point tweet she announced:
“Twitter is working on in-app Podcast player.”
Attached to the tweet is a screen recording of the new player in action, showing Wong clicking on show art for Office Ladies, which prompts a new podcast player overlay.
For the younger folk in the room, it’s worth noting that Twitter didn’t spring forth fully formed into the world. In its primordial form the service was originally Odeo, a 2005 attempt at what we’d call a podcast social media network today. Podcasting is literally in Twitter’s DNA.
This Monday Podnews shared an announcement from TargetSpot concerning a promising step towards diversifying podcasting further. The adtech company is opening a Latin American-focused office in Miami, Florida under the leadership of Angelica Potes. Chief Revenue Officer Alexandre Ouhadi said:
“We are glad to finally be physically present in the Latin American Market. We have created amazing partnerships with big name publishers. This is the right moment to officially go live. Audio is growing rapidly, so it’s a great opportunity for advertisers to leverage their digital media budget through this engaging medium.”
Diversity in language, ethnicity, and geographical location is how the podcast industry expands. Hispanic/Latino creators are incredibly well represented in podcasting in comparison to the overall US population. Providing revenue opportunities for those audiences provides the ability for new businesses to be built to capture that revenue. This is good growth for the industry.
On Tuesday Marco Arment, creator of podcatcher Overcast, took to Twitter to address a trend in negative reviews for his app. In four screenshots provided four different anonymous users cite an abundance of jarring advertisements. Some complain about the amount and quantity of ads, one claims the ads were so poorly-optimized the volume shift was enough to burst their eardrum.
While the last review’s threat of legal action might be hyperbolic, Arment is still concerned.
“Cheap, sloppy dynamic ad insertion (DAI) in podcasts continues to degrade the experience for listeners. They blame the app, and that’s my problem to deal with.”
He goes on to ask podcasters who poorly implement DAI “what are you doing” in all capital letters.
Sounds Profitable’s Bryan Barletta took issue with this in a quote-tweet of Arment, citing issues like frequency capping, comp separation, and other features related to poor-quality ad placement:
“...are not tech issues, they’re business decisions. Your host doesn’t offer it? Switch hosts. And don’t buy inventory that doesn’t support your needs.”
Sloppy implementation of DAI is a recipe for disaster, and there’s plenty of evidence of podcasters falling for that trap. Too often that sloppiness is built in under the guise of 'automation', which often leads to odd ad breaks added by the hosting company filled with even odder ads.
So what's the solution? Bad ads—ads that don't fit the context of the episode, ads that are recorded at wildly different volumes than the rest of the episode, or an overabundance of ads in an episode—are predominant in dynamically inserted programmatic ads as well as baked-in host-read ads. And solid DAI implementation can power highly relevant host-read ads that sound like they belong in the episode.
In the end, it comes to having an ad strategy as well as tactics that are acceptable to the podcaster, the advertiser, and the audience as well. And it'll make it less likely for listeners to blame their listening app for something that's not their problem. We got you, Marco.
On Tuesday Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano posted a Medium blog titled “The Standards Innovation Paradox.” In it, he proposes the theory that standards like RSS were useful in helping podcasting grow in the beginning, but have become restrictive over time as services all adapt the same standards and any new additions come with all previous updates as well.
“If you’ve ever searched the App Store or the Google Play store for a podcast app, you’ve likely come across a tidal wave of search results. In some ways, this fragmentation is great for users, because it means they have a ton of choice and flexibility in what product to use for their podcast listening. But at the same time, this fragmentation is bad for innovation, and makes it nearly impossible to innovate on experiences that are based on RSS, meaning the podcast listening experience has remained stale and largely unchanged for almost the entirety of podcasting.”
On Wednesday James Cridland published a rebuttal in the form of “The Standards Innovation Paradox: is it real?” The piece takes Mignano’s to task and seeks to add outside context to his thought process, namely the fact Mignano worked at Spotify after they bought out Anchor. During that tenure the company threw itself into reinventing podcasting without RSS, instead using the proprietary method that follows Mignano’s proposal that proprietary tech is required due to the difficulty of forcing a standard to evolve.
“Yet, Spotify absolutely could evolve the standard: because by April 2022, they were big enough, with at least 30% market share, to have set the standard themselves.
They could have said “here’s how to signal the video asset in your RSS feed, and if you do this, you’ll get video podcasts in Spotify too.” They could have looked at the currently existing solution to this, the podcast namespace’s alternateEnclosure tag, and adopted that (and, possibly, molded it to their needs). But, they didn’t.”
Cridland goes on to point out decisions to stick with black box proprietary tech conveniently also mean any user who wishes to take advantage of that new tech is permanently locked into using Anchor as a hosting service.
The risk of an open ecosystem is the ability for aggregators to control and separate the industry. For all the dour news about a lack of profits, Spotify is currently succeeding at this to some degree. RSS is capable of doing everything Mignano’s piece takes issue with; issues he has historically complained about even prior to the buyout.
Innovation is stifled not by standards, but by people and businesses with the necessary power to adopt new standards instead choosing to whine about having to share space and leverage that to release new impenetrable black boxes.
Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re tentatively calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s Quick Hits are
Spotify acquires music trivia game Heardle by Ariel Shapiro.
Podcasting: True or False? By Fred Jacobs.
As usual, links to everything mentioned can be found in the episode notes.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Edison Research says podcasting is more Succession than Yellowstone, Reddit launches new take on live podcasting, Google’s Adtech is dropping IP, new data says podcast ads are overfishing popular ponds, and we spotlight #PodcastingSeriously.
Last Friday the Edison Research blog posted “Podcasting’s Opportunity in Wide Open Spaces.” In addition to reminding readers of The Chicks’ 1998 single from their fourth studio album, the post highlights a regional gulf in what counts as “popular” in podcasting.
The comparison used highlights how Succession and Yellowstone are comparably popular television series, but based on one’s physical location in the country it’s highly likely they won’t see much advertisement or social media chatter for one over the other. More rural TV viewers will more likely to hear about and actively watch Yellowstone while Succession finds more attention in metro centers.
“New data from Edison Research’s Infinite Dial study – sponsored by Wondery and Art19 – shows that as of today podcasting is more of a “Succession” story.”
Consider this a tease from Edison Senior Director of Research (and, of course, my co-host on La Descarga) Gabriel Soto’s talk at Podcast Movement Dallas this August.
“We in the podcasting space regularly remark that with four million titles, there’s a podcast for everyone. And while that’s surely right in theory, that doesn’t mean that enough of a match has yet happened to bring all the possible listeners to the space. One might argue that indeed there are a lot more podcasts talking about Succession than Yellowstone, and that might be part of the issue.”
A lot of people got a three-day weekend in the US thanks to a national holiday, but this Monday Arielle Nissenblatt was on the podcasting streets breaking social audio news. In a Twitter thread Nissenblatt detailed the launch of social media platform Reddit’s new Talk feature that shares some DNA with the social audio craze. The twist with Reddit Talk is those who use it get placement over any relevant subreddits that fit under a broad chosen topic.
“If you host a Talk from your Reddit profile and pick up to 3 topics, you’ll appear at the top of Reddit to millions of users. e.g., if you pick "Finance" topic, everyone who follows r/wallstreetbets, r/personalfinance, etc will see your Talk.”
Currently, Talk is only available to those chosen by Reddit via an application form. Niche content gets niche listeners, and Reddit is the king of niche. While we’ve been burned as an industry before on social platforms diving into podcasting, this measured approach seems like a promising one.
Google has updated Universal Analytics and things aren’t going so hot. On Tuesday Ad Exchanger’s James Hercher posted “Marketers Have One Year to Migrate to the New Google Analytics - But It’s Already a Mess.”
“When Google announced the expiration date on Universal Analytics earlier this year, it said it would also cease logging or storing IP address data – a crucial datapoint that qualifies as personally identifiable and thereby subjects Google Analytics to tough interpretations of GDPR.
Removing IP addresses may not be enough for Google Analytics to stem the tide of GDPR suits. But privacy concerns do explain why Google will force a change across its customer base, rather than continue to offer multiple services.”
While Google impression tracking pixels do work in podcasting, Google refuses to accept IP and any other client info forwarded to it, so attribution from Google was unlikely in podcasting. With IP going away on the website side, it’s safe to say there will be no Google solution for podcast attribution as we know it today. However, the move by big companies like Google and Apple away from IP addresses will always be concerning for podcasting. There’s evidence to suggest IP address tracking won’t be outright removed from the industry, but it still will decline to the point one should expect methods of attribution to undergo a metamorphosis within the next 12 to 18 months.
This Tuesday Pierre Bouvard of Westwood One published findings that might seem easy to predict, but are important to acknowledge regardless. It seems some of the biggest spenders are potentially overfishing the pond that is podcasting.
“The number of times podcast listeners hear an ad campaign is soaring. According to Podsights, the leading podcast attribution measurement firm, average podcast ad frequency has doubled in the past year, reducing podcast conversions.
In Q1 2022, the average podcast campaign ad frequency measured by Podsights was 6.32, a twofold increase from Q1 2021 [when it was] (2.97).“
Bouvard reports the Podsights data indicates this uptick in ad frequency is leading to knock-on effects, such as site visits driven by podcast ads hitting a record low in Q1 of this year. Luckily, it’s not all bad news as he brings three solid strategies to encourage podcast reach growth. A consistent theme across all three is elegant in its simplicity: buy ads on podcasts beyond the same few dozen podcasts everyone is buying ad space on.
Frequency is no substitute for reach, and there are many podcasts waiting in the wings to run ads. Spreading those ads around instead of targeting the already-saturated big names in the market will quickly lead to results.
Now, if you’ll indulge us in a little promotion, we’d like to take a moment to highlight Podcasting, Seriously from LWC Studios, shining the light on a forward-thinking company that continues to nurture the talent we need to make and keep a thriving podcast industry.
This week, LWC Studios announced the expansion of its Podcasting, Seriously Awards Fund to include reimbursements for audio production education and training for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ independent audio creators. The company launched the Fund in early 2021 with partners AIR, Pacific Content, Acast, Triton Digital, and Sounds Profitable to “support independent BIPOC, Queer and Trans audio producers in submitting high-quality work to media and journalism awards.”
More money going to diversifying podcasting is always a good thing, and Sounds Profitable is here for it. Our very own Bryan Barletta is on the Podcasting, Seriously advisory board and I’m on the fund team. You can learn more about the fund and apply, as with all stories covered on The Download, via the link provided in the description.
In this penultimate segment I bring you a double-stuffed story. Two international editions of the Infinite Dial have been published by Edison Research: Canada and Australia.
There’s plenty to learn in both but here’s some standout observations from the Canada presentation:
“Forty-three percent of Canadians 18+ listen to podcasts monthly, up five percentage points from 2021, which means that Canadians now outpace Americans (38%) and Australians (40%) for monthly podcast listening.”
In addition to that, 73% of Canadians listen to online audio. Spotify currently dominates that space with 40% of the audience, but YouTube is experiencing growth in the space and has caught up with 33% reporting listening to audio on YouTube in the past month. It seems Google’s moves on the market are working. Eagle-eared listeners will recall The Download on March 11th covering a story in which YouTube made a paid audio-friendly feature free for all Canadian users.
Meanwhile in Australia, monthly podcast listening for people 18 and up continues to trend up, increasing to 40% from 37% last year.
Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles that didn’t make it into today’s episode, but are still worth working into your weekend reading.
First: Spotify, Netflix and Aggregation by Stratechery.
Also: Universal Music Makes Its Data-Driven Ad Platform Play by James Hercher.
Finally: Mediatel’s UK-focused podcast database Audioscape has launched. Usually we only recommend articles but there’s not an abundance of IMDB-style podcast databases and it’s good to keep abreast of newcomers.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Sounds Profitable publishes the Creators report. Slate is running provocative billboards for Slow Burn, Spotify turns its radar on podcasts, rising YouTube CPMs make the platform even more attractive for podcasters, and news organizations struggle to keep young folks around.
Firstly, if you’ll indulge us a bit of self-promotion, the first ever Sounds Profitable report has been delivered! On Tuesday Sounds Profitable hosted a first-of-its-kind presentation of The Creators. Here's how we billed it:
“Sounds Profitable, in partnership with Edison Research, has put together the first credible study of the profile of podcast creators in America. This is an incredibly important benchmark in the history of podcasting and the first of many regular reports Sounds Profitable will be publishing to chart the future of the audio business.”
The Creators operates off a data sample of 617 people who fit the profile of having produced a podcast, were over the age of eighteen, and listened to podcasts weekly. The data was collected from Q2 2021 through Q1 of this year.
Some results put into sharp focus many assumed truths of the industry, as well as challenging others. The gender makeup of those polled showed sixty-nine percent of creators were men, twenty percentage points higher than the population of the United States. On that same token, the ethnicity spectrum shows podcasting has more diversity, with more representation of Black and Hispanic/Latino podcasters than the census reports as a national average.
These juicy stats and more are available at SoundsProfitable.com/thecreators, from the presentation’s video to a spiffy 35-slide PDF of just the presentation, for you raw data nerds out there.
In an advertising campaign fitting of a flashy documentary, Slate is running a stealth billboard campaign for the current season of Slow Burn. From Ariel Shapiro’s reporting on Tuesday’s issue of Hot Pod:
“Slate is launching a provocative new campaign to promote its latest season of Slow Burn, which tells the story of Shirley Wheeler, the first woman convicted of manslaughter for getting an abortion. The outlet has placed billboards in states that now have some of the strictest abortion laws in the country urging passersby to “Defend Shirley Wheeler.”
The billboards are up in seven states with deeply-entrenched anti-abortion sentiment that had trigger laws waiting for Roe v. Wade’s nullification.
The same issue of Hot Pod also spotlighted the efforts of Earbuds Podcast Collective founder Arielle Nissenblatt to organize a massive campaign of podcasts running pre-roll message to advocate for abortion rights. Messages like the one you’ll find at the beginning of this very episode. Hundreds of podcasters have signed on to the cause, including The Bechdel Cast, You Are Good, and legacy household name My Favorite Murder.
This Wednesday Spotify announced a podcast version of its RADAR program, originally created to spotlight up-and-coming artists on the music side of the app. RADAR Podcasters aims to get promising young podcasts in front of wider audiences with free exposure in-app.
Each quarter Spotify’s content editors in participating regions will select three podcasts to spotlight with the RADAR program. Podcast Editorial Lead Brianne O’Brien goes more into the rhetoric used:
“We’ll focus on creators with shows that exhibit authenticity and inclusivity, give us a reason to keep listening, and educate and entertain.”
Currently the list of participating countries is fifteen, including thirteen countries in which English is not the default language. This is encouraging news for more big company recognition of podcasting’s strengths outside the North American and UK English-speaking bubble. O’Brien seems passionate about the cause, too.
“My team, and Spotifiers more broadly, are podcast enthusiasts. So first and foremost, we really want to underscore the hard work that’s being done by creators to take their podcast to the next level, but also to build those long-lasting relationships with their audience.”
Little is given in the way of specific details outside of which countries will be involved and how many podcasts are being selected. For example: The paragraph dedicated to addressing how the program will measure success offers no concrete ways by which they’ll measure success. The main drive seems to be that the program exists and those involved are excited to execute its ambitious mission.
Currently RADAR Podcaster will only spotlight podcasts hosted on Anchor. Big Green sees the utility in embracing its creators, but for now only creators who are wholly locked into the Spotify system.
Last Thursday Phoebe Bain of Marketing Brew revealed there’s a reason most YouTubers are doing baked-in influencer ads these days, and that could be excellent news for podcasts.
“According to a new report that influencer marketing agency The Outloud Group shared exclusively with Marketing Brew, influencer CPMs went up across major verticals on YouTube—from beauty and fashion to education—in 2021.”
One example given is from the YouTube mainstay of gaming. The median CPM for influencers who focused on gaming content was $54.68 in 2021. Now in 2022 it has climbed to $66.48. And gaming influencers aren’t even in the top five fastest-growing genre CPMs in the Outloud chart. Bain quotes Outloud Group vice president Nycole Kelly on the topic of rising influencer rates in general, the group having come to the conclusion YouTube influencers are raising rates in general beyond CPMs.
Podcasting is trying to figure out the right way to blend YouTube impressions and podcast downloads. For some, podcast CPMs are a better bet, but MarketingBrew’s chart shows Youtube ads sold directly by influencers exceed podcasting average CPM by quite a bit. Yet another reason for the video-agnostic producers to consider a video strategy for their podcasts.
Last Thursday Sara Guaglione of Digiday covered a recent panel at a Reuters event in which prominent execs and editors in the news world addressed a big issue: Young people aren’t watching the news anymore.
“Roughly four out of 10 people under 35 years old – 42% – “sometimes or often actively avoid the news,” according to the 11th annual “Digital News Report” report conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Albeit, that aversion is only slightly more acute than among those 35 years old and older, 36% of whom sometimes or often steer clear of the news.”
Reasons for the drop in attention are numerous. The panel proposed several, including the draining effect of repetitive long-term events like politics or the pandemic. The under-35 demo is also cited as the one with the lowest amount of trust in established news organizations, and the percentage who outright distrust the media is growing rapidly.
Legacy institutions are scrambling to solve for the growing problem. Guaglione points to places like the Los Angeles Times creating a team of people whose sole mission is to repackage LA Times content for Instagram.
We bring this story to The Download because a significant portion of podcasting is news. Just because we’re the cool new kids on the content block doesn’t mean the issues affecting the rest of the journalism industry haven’t taken root here as well, and the proposed solutions to fix the issue for online and print orgs likely contain useful strategies for podcasting.
Now it’s time for our semi-recurring segment spotlighting articles worth reading that didn’t quite make it into the episode. This week The Download has just one to recommend, but it makes an excellent companion piece to the story Manuela just told you about.
- Top 25 US newspaper circulations: Print Sales fall another 12% in 2022 by Willam Turvill.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Brand suitability and brand safety are topics that we're never gonna get away from in any aspect of podcasting. Or advertising in general. And that's why I was so excited to have Claire Atkin, co-founder of Check My Ads on the show earlier this year.
Personally, as an individual, I support their movement and contribute to it every single month. I highly recommend listening to this episode, subscribing to their newsletter, and throwing a few bucks towards the only non-profit ad watchdog in existence.
Credits:
- Original full episode available at: https://soundsprofitable.com/episode/2/13
- Audio engineering by Evo Terra
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: a YouTube channel dives into podcasting on the video platform, the absence of podcasting’s middle class, and what do IAB’s measurement standards in video games mean for podcasting.
Last Thursday, Creator Insider, a YouTube channel operated by a creator-focused wing of YouTube, uploaded a four minute FAQ video about podcasting on YouTube.
While the video doesn’t necessarily contain new groundbreaking information for someone who is deep in the podcasting industry, it’s a wonderful sign for the future of small-to-midsize podcasts unsure about perceiving YouTube as a viable podcast platform. Strategic Partner Manager Erica even backs up the size of YouTube’s reach with a citation of Edison Research data.
Having good, concise resources to facilitate an easier move towards the mentality that YouTube should be treated like any other podcast aggregator is a promising step. It’s also interesting to note how much importance is placed on properly arranging podcast episodes in playlists. The video takes great care to establish best practices for naming and arranging playlists. While “RSS” is never spoken aloud, it feels like YouTube’s approach is to use the existing functionality of easily saving video playlists to treat playlists like an RSS feed.
Who knows, in a few months we could be hearing about updates to the platform that bridge the gap between how YouTube is consumed and audio podcasts are consumed.
Speaking of YouTube… Last Monday an exclusive from Reuters reporter Foo Yun Chee shared details on Google’s newest bid to negotiate an EU antitrust probe without a substantial fine. Luckily for podcasting, this could have beneficial knock-on effects.
Google parent Alphabet has proposed to open their digital doors for the first time to allow third-party programmatic partners to place ads on YouTube videos.
“The European Commission opened a probe last year to examine whether the world's largest provider of search and video was giving itself an unfair advantage in digital advertising by restricting rivals' and advertisers' access to user data.”
If Google does end up waiving the requirement to use Ad Manager to place YouTube ads, this could both please the European Commission and open up a considerable amount of valuable inventory to podcast ad buyers. Inventory through platforms they’re already familiar with and - since YouTube is pushing for more podcasts on their platform - that inventory will still be going to benefit the podcasting industry.
Last Friday, a prominent podcaster under the Spotify umbrella said the quiet part out loud. As detailed in last week’s Hot Pod, sports analyst and host of The Ringer Bill Simmons revealed Spotify parts the metric curtain for creatives that sign with them. The following is in reference to a recent episode of Peter Kafka’s podcast Recode, in which Simmons appeared.
“One thing he mentioned in the podcast that stood out to me was how he uses data. Although he said that he does not pay too much attention to his own show’s performance metrics, he indicated that he takes advantage of Spotify’s other data resources to scope out the competition and better position his shows.”
The newsletter goes on to quote Simmons’ interview in Recode in which Simmons describes having the ability to see the metrics of competitor’s podcasts on Spotify as having access to “an incredible war chest of intelligence on the habits of people who listen to podcasts.”
This is one of those rare moments where a known fact being stated out loud makes it sound like new information. It’s not particularly breaking news that a content aggregator would have excellent data. Everyone in the business can use access to the data of a podcaster’s competitors, it’s just not often talked about. The fear behind what Simmons says here is that Spotify owns more than just the aggregator. Big Green owns hosting platforms and one of the largest ad businesses in Megaphone.
There’s nothing new under the sun. Retail giants like Walmart and Amazon have done this for retail purchasing competition in the past, but now podcasting is growing up and one-stop-shops like Spotify are becoming more common.
Last Thursday Eric Nuzum published an installment of his Substack The Audio Insurgent in which he floats the question “Does Podcasting Lack a Middle Class?”
The piece begins with Nuzum speaking at a conference heavily attended by GMs and CEOs of public radio stations. During a talk Nuzum hosted he asked the group of over 200 public radio heads, a demographic famous for embracing podcasting, who had at least one podcast that made 50,000 downloads a month. Fewer than ten attendees met that metric.
“Why are those numbers important? The average CPM ad rate in podcasting is about $23.16 per thousand downloads. To qualify for buys at even that average rate, you generally need to have a podcast that’s downloaded 50,000 times per month. Public radio sees podcasting as a critical part of its future, yet today only eight stations in the country are capable of hitting that rate on their own.”
Nuzum’s piece proposes the predominant narrative for smaller podcasters has created a class divide where the majority are told the only real strategy is to create content without fair compensation long enough that a magic larger company will buy the podcast for a massive windfall. Independent podcasters are expecting to either make it huge or fail out. There is no middle ground.
“Podcasting has been around for more than 18 years, and public radio has been considered leaders in its development and growth. Yet of the 200+ stations in the room, exactly one of them had figured out in all that time how to produce a show that was self-sustaining for a staff of one.”
The gulf between blockbusters and small indie projects is wide. There must be a place in the middle for creators and providers alike to make a good wage producing podcasts. There’s adequate amounts of gold in them there hills, if the industry will stake claim to it.
This one’s for the gamers in the audience, though as per usual we’re looping back around to podcasting by the end. Marketing Brew’s Ryan Barwick covered some interesting new updates from the IAB regarding measurement standards in video games.
The standards, which hadn’t been updated since 2009, used to consider an impression to have happened once a player had been exposed to an ad for at least ten seconds. Barwick says:
"That’s been cut down drastically to one continuous second for in-game display ads and two continuous seconds for video ad units, so long as at least half of the advertisement’s pixels are in focus. Those are more or less the same guidelines for online display ads.”
These are more or less the same metrics applied to online display ads, but with the added consideration of ads existing in 3D space. The IAB’s guidelines take into account viewing angle and pixel clarity in an acknowledgment that modern gaming is capable of placing ads inside game worlds. It’s about time, too. The Download script writer Gavin Gaddis remembers when the Obama election campaign purchased billboard space from open-world racing game Burnout Paradise in 2008. Fashion brand Diesel bravely bought ad space on the side of vans that drove around the city. Vans that could be destroyed by players ad nauseam. Quoting Barwick again:
“The IAB’s new standards should be finalized by the fall. To Francesco Petruzzelli, chief technology officer at the in-game advertising firm Bidstack, the standards feel a bit like a minimum. One second isn’t enough time for an impression, he argued, and that it could lead to an oversupply of inventory.”
How does this relate to podcasting? In a world where seeing a Pepsi logo on a street sign while playing a multiplayer match of Halo: Infinite counts as an impression, there’s no room for arguments about the validity of considering podcast downloads “real” engagement.
This last full story is a Ryan Reynolds tweet, of all things. On Tuesday the actor posted a video in which he professes his love of shooting ads, describing them as mini-movies with the same creative process and crew requirements. And, like movies, ads are shot in places other than Hollywood without many initiatives to ensure diversity and inclusivity in many of the necessary career paths.
“Almost two years ago we started the Group Effort Initiative to increase inclusion in the entertainment industry amongst BIPOC and underrepresented communities and it’s just been hugely rewarding. That’s why I’m proud to be co-founding the Creative Ladder.”
The new nonprofit will, like Group Effort Initiative, work to make careers in the advertising creative space accessible to everyone. We love to see more diversity in every corner of the industry.
Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles that didn’t make it into today’s episode, but are still worth working into your weekend reading.
- A must-read issue of Stratechery: Spotify's Investor Day, Spotify's Music Aggregation, Podcast Anecdata.
- My Lifetime Ban from the Podcasting Cool Kids Club by Neil Hedley
- And a reminder that the 2022 edition of the Infinite Dial Canada is June 30th and you can register right now at the link provided in the show notes.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When we started using Veritone One to expand sounds profitable into Spanish the whole goal was to show people how accessible it was even with a small team, which sounds profitable is. The success of that attempt led to The Download—our weekly news recap podcast, which you absolutely should check out—to be localized by our hosts, Manuel Gabe, in their own words and in their own voice.
This is a must-listen-to episode with Sean King of Veritone One where we talk about why expanding into Spanish is critical for your success in podcasting.
Credits:
- Original full episode available at https://soundsprofitable.com/episode/2/6
- Audio engineering by Evo Terra
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Spotify’s building a new brand safety tool, Google Podcast removed an episode under suspicious conditions, and Apple tells us how their podcast search works.
It’s been a rollercoaster of a week for Acast news. Let’s start with the positive.
This Monday Acast announced a global Audio Pride Parade, celebrating Pride month for the LGBTQIA+ community via a series of podcast live shows in major cities across the world. Senior Partner Manager Alexandria Fuller said:
“It’s also one day where you feel safe to be yourself. With hate crimes against LGBTQIA+ people on the rise, we’re always wondering when it’s safe to hold hands. But there’s safety in numbers at Pride, and it’s really freeing.”
Fuller’s heartfelt blog about the importance of celebrating queerness was undercut the next morning. Tuesday Acast announced a partnership with Spring to provide on-demand merch options for producers hosting on Acast, including Spring’s so-called Mint on Demand NFT service.
According to Hot Pod, most of the 11 podcasts in the pilot program have elected to not use Mint on Demand.
Also on Tuesday, multiple tweets were posted providing evidence Acast is data mining email addresses tucked in the RSS feeds of podcasts to send an advertisement email suggesting the podcaster would be better off switching to Acast. So far podcasters on Podbean, Captivate, Blubrry, and Transistor have reported being targeted by this aggressive marketing push.
Transistor co-founder Justin Jackson has reported Acast to their email service provider, who Jackson reports have said this cold-calling approach is against their terms of service. Jackson - who previously worked for an email company - considers the Acast emails to be illegal under Canadian law and has filed a formal complaint under the government arm created to enforce Canada’s Anti Spam Law (also know as CASL).
A spokesperson for Acast told Podnews the emails targeting podcast of competitor hosting services are
“... part of our continuing marketing strategy, which we don’t currently plan to change.”
At Sounds Profitable, our goals are to lift up and improve the entire industry. Based on the actions and response from Acast, we do not feel like they share those goals. Until Acast discontinues these practices, we will no longer be covering Acast in Sounds Profitable or The Download.
This Wednesday Integral Ad Sciences announced a joint project with Spotify to develop a new third-party brand safety tool for podcast advertisers, with UM Worldwide signed on to be the first company in line to stress-test the project. From the press release:
“The companies will embark on a rigorous analysis to help the industry understand the tools and resources necessary to effectively deliver brand safety in podcasting and digital audio writ large.”
Given IAS already has these tools for both the web and apps, we can infer this announcement refers to a net-new production. An overwhelming majority of podcasting operates on RSS outside of Spotify’s control, so this product is exclusively a brand safety play for content Spotify sells ads to on their own platform.
From the beginning of the press release:
“Ultimately, the firms intend to create the industry's first third-party brand safety and suitability reporting tool to bring more transparency and confidence to podcast advertising.”
And then, later on:
“In the future, the results will be used to create a first-of-its-kind brand safety and suitability tool to aid in campaign planning, management, and reporting.”
Spotify is no stranger to courting controversy when flirting with that safety, be it the actions of acerbic talent or the upcoming return of political ads. Brand safety is hot right now, but so is Spotify announcing things that don’t go live. Should we hold our breath?
In keeping with Pride month-adjacent stories: Google has provided a cautionary tale in the unexpected consequences of using automated systems to filter inappropriate content. On Tuesday the tabletop roleplaying game actual play podcast RPG: Realms of Peril and Glory posted a screenshot of their newest episode showing an error on Google Podcasts indicating the content is unavailable for people under the age of 18.
As Podnews covered in October of last year, this is not necessarily new. Google Podcasts, in an effort to remain in compliance with some laws in Europe and the UK addressing children accessing age-inappropriate content, began restricting certain podcasts from being visible to users with underaged accounts or users who weren’t logged into a Google account while attempting to access.
This particular interest is noteworthy as the episode isn’t just blocked from users who aren’t logged in to Google Podcasts. As of Wednesday it was inaccessible to anyone on Google Podcasts.
From the original tweet from RPG:
“There is nothing adult in this episode. The only difference from our other episodes is the word Lesbian in the title.”
RPG’s missing episode was the first of a Pride month-themed campaign titled Spooky Sword Lesbians. The description also mentions the indie tabletop roleplaying game Thirsty Sword Lesbians used to make the show. The game’s official description describes it as “a roleplaying game for telling queer stories with friends.” Evil Hat Productions, the game’s distributor, lists it as being appropriate for ages 13 and up.
This unfortunate incident sparks memories of similar issues on YouTube, on which Google restricts videos from trending or getting traction in the recommendation algorithm if they’re deemed 18+. In recent years LGBTQIA+ content creators have widely reported basic words such as ‘trans’ or ‘gay’ are automatically flagged as adult, regardless of the video’s content.
Regardless of Google’s inevitable response to this issue, it stands as a cautionary tale to all podcasting companies: automation technology is a wonderful tool but it is also prone to developing unintended biases based on its creators and training. Unintended consequences such as removing the first episode of a podcast about gay characters halfway through the month dedicated to commemorating the birth of the gay rights movement in the United States.
Spotify’s gone shopping again. According to Tech Crunch’s Ingrid Lunden on Monday, Spotify is purchasing Sonantic, the company behind the AI speech synthesizing tech used to voice Val Kilmer’s character in Top Gun: Maverick.
While AI voices are the new hotness in entertainment, including Disney’s partnership with Respeech to synthesize younger versions of Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones for The Mandalorian and Obi Wan, Spotify hints at more grounded visions for Sonantic’s tech. The blog post cited by Lunden hints at it being used across Spotify, not in one specific application of a synthetic voice.
“One example that Spotify gives of how it might use the tech is to use AI voices to bring more audio-based recommendations and descriptions to users who are not looking at their screens — for example, for those driving cars or listening while doing other activities and not able to look at a screen.”
It seems Spotify might be aiming at constructing their own version of Siri or Alexa moreso than dipping their toes into synthetic podcasters. At least, not yet.
Once again, we bring you useful news directly from Apple. On Wednesday Apple posted a guide on the Apple Podcasts for Creators website simply titled “Search on Apple Podcasts.”
While the information contained therein is more directly useful for podcast creators more so than the wider industry, it’s important to understand the nuts and bolts of how such basic things work. Especially when large companies like Apple voluntarily step up to the plate to be more transparent about systems usually kept locked in secrecy for fear of bad actors exploiting the transparency for gain.
“The more listeners engage with your new shows and episodes, the higher they will rank for relevant search terms, so make sure to promote your shows and episodes on Apple Podcasts when they launch. Make sure your channel name, show titles, and episode titles are specific and unique so they may appear in relevant searches. Be distinctive and avoid using names that are too generic or too similar to existing shows. Avoid using emojis and repeated episode titles.”
While aspects of these two paragraphs have been known from public statements by Apple employees - Apple’s frustrations with people putting repetitive things like episode numbers in titles has been a long-running affair - now they’re distilled into one official location where newer producers are likely to find concrete proof Apple hates emojis.
That said, this might lead to changes in how podcast networks present themselves in future now that the industry has been made aware Channel names are a potential source of SEO in addition to individual podcast names. Place your bets on which network will be the first to work a punchy tagline into their Channel name.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Spotify’s earnings call happened, Apple improves podcast statistics, and podcast pros weigh in on how many ads is too many ads.
Podcast statistics are about to get better, thanks to a recent update from Apple that’ll help take a bite out of AppleCoreMedia’s presence on podcast statistics. Anyone who just opened the linked source and doesn’t have a background in coding: we promise that page makes sense.
User Agents are how we truly understand what specific app is being used to play a podcast. AppleCoreMedia is the default displayed by iOS apps if they haven’t built their own player from scratch. Few do. This leads to a snowball effect of either over or under-counting Apple’s presence in the market. As James Cridland explained in Tuesday’s Podnews:
“Buzzsprout’s global stats don’t include AppleCoreMedia, under-estimating downloads from Apple Podcasts. On the other hand, Libsyn’s stats wrongly attribute all traffic to AppleCoreMedia as Apple Podcasts.”
This new update from Apple solves for that. For a more detailed breakdown on AppleCoreMedia, we recommend the Podnews article from April “Mythbusting: are downloads from 'AppleCoreMedia' mostly from Apple Podcasts?”
Edison Research’s 2022 edition of the Smart Audio Report is slated for June 16th.
In 2017, for the original Smart Audio Report, NPR and Edison surveyed smart speaker owners to learn how the technology was being integrated into their lives.
“The 2022 installment of the Smart Audio Report will not only offer an update on some of those original families, but also fresh data from a recent national study that measures attitudes around voice tech among those who use it and those who don’t.”
For those listening in time to register, one can do so for free at the link provided in our show notes.
This Wednesday Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman live-tweeted the Spotify earnings call. The music powerhouse had a fair bit to say about their podcasting efforts, including some numbers that come as a bit of a surprise after such heavy investment over the past few years. As reported by Carman:
“A number! Spotify had 200 million euros in podcast revenue in 2021. They expect it to be a $20 billion opportunity.”
If that number feels low, that’s because it is. In a reply on Carman’s thread Podnews editor James Cridland pointed out that $220 million USD of profit amounts to only fifteen percent of the total podcast ad revenue for just the United States in 2021.
In addition to the revenue number, Spotify teased some details of their upcoming audiobook offerings that’ll put them in a market mostly dominated by Amazon’s Audible wing. In a bit of mixed messaging, much hay was made about Spotify branching out into three new businesses but they also claim they’re a music-first company.
CEO Daniel Ek said:
“That’s the thing you just have to get about Spotify. We’ll put out these big, audacious targets.”
The irony of this being the official position of a company with a history of announcing big, audacious projects only to blow past the intended release window by months, if not cancel them, is not lost on The Download.
The earnings call also featured a section criticizing the limitations of RSS distribution, including calling it outdated tech. This is a curious change in tack given a substantial amount of ad service on Spotify is handled through RSS by Megaphone. It remains unclear as to why Megaphone is being left out in the cold while doing a not-insignificant portion of the business that got them to their percentage of 2021 global ad revenue.
Every podcast with ad breaks has struggled with an eternal, unanswerable question: how many ads is too many? On Monday MarketingBrew’s Alyssa Meyers published “What’s the perfect number of ads in a podcast episode?”
Spoiler alert: Meyers’ quest involving interviews with 14 marketers doesn’t turn up a magic formula that’ll change the industry. Some questions can never be concretely answered, but there is wisdom to be found in a big-picture view of the current podcast advertising landscape.
In general, Meyers found short-form podcasts with episodes shorter than thirty minutes featured four ad slots populated with three to six ads. Long-form podcasts had the same potential slots for ad breaks but increased the maximum threshold up to eight potential ads per episode.
“As of the first quarter of 2022, about 5.5% of a podcast episode was made up of ads, according to podcast media planning platform Magellan AI’s quarterly benchmark report.”
Big takeaways from those interviewed include acknowledging the power of host-read over pre-recorded, fewer quality ads beat out quantity, and inevitably the best ad is the one the host knows will work with the audience they’ve cultivated.
Finally, a quick-hits rundown of two articles we think are well worth your time that came out this week:
Crooked Media adds speech-to-text podcast captions with Adobe partnership, by Brad Hill.
And, in our continuing mission to bring news of global podcasting:
Podcasts more popular than ever as ‘a reliable source of information,’ study shows by The Brussels Times.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Arielle Nissenblatt and Bryan Barletta discuss some big Sounds Profitable news – Tom Webster has officially joined the team, we announced a big Summit, taking place at Podcast Movement in Dallas later this year, and we’ve got some research presentations coming soon. Bryan and Arielle also recap Bryan’s last few weeks – his whirlwind adventures in Europe, attending both Radio Days Europe in Malmo, Sweden, and Podcast Show London in…London.
Listen for:
- Bryan’s recap of Radio Days Europe and his big takeaway
- Bryan’s review of the Chunnel
- Bryan and Arielle’s vegan food podcast announcement
- Bryan’s recap of Podcast Show London and the big opportunity that outside-of-the-U.S. podcast presents
- What to expect at the Sounds Profitable Summit at Podcast Movement in August in Dallas
- How to become a sponsor to get involved with the Summit and with Sounds Profitable
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: if you’re looking to find a niche in the podcast space, learn all about the podcast and audio market outside of the U.S. According to Bryan, through his experience in Europe, there’s tons of opportunity here, especially in the advertising space.
Links:
- Bryan Barletta
- Arielle Nissenblatt
- Radio Days Europe
- Podcast Show London
- Sounds Profitable Summit at Podcast Movement
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta & Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering by Evo Terra
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Podcast profits on the rise in the UK, white noise podcasts prove profitable, and the first Sounds Profitable Business Leader's Summit is headed to Podcast Movement.
As is true of many episodes of The Download, we start with an article published on Tuesday. Bron Maher of the Press Gazette published “The Economist considers audio paywall as podcasts reach 3 million people a month.”
The lede is somewhat buried, as the interesting information lies not in the framework of The Economist’s future plans to paywall podcasts, but in just how much traffic those free podcasts bring in. Prior to the launch of the publication’s flagship podcast The Intelligence, The Economist had seven full-time employees dedicated to podcasting. As of 2022 that number has ballooned to thirty of the paper’s nearly 320 staff. Quoting the article:
“The Intelligence gets approximately 350,000 downloads an episode. In a month, Prideaux said the podcast can now reach as many as two million listeners. During peak coverage of the invasion of Ukraine, the figure hit two and a half million. Across its entire podcast stable, The Economist is now being listened to by more than three million people a month. That compares against 1.2 million print subscribers – while its digital circulation in the second half of 2021 was 995,228, according to its ABC report.”
John Prideaux, director of podcasts for The Economist, notes that the podcasting wing’s success brings an unexpected level of familiarity with one’s audience. The Economist’s longstanding policy on not publishing bylines does not extend to their shows, allowing parasocial relationships to blossom where they wouldn’t in articles of identical information without an author attached. Maher quotes Prideaux:
“I mean, it’s a bit of a surprise – some of our people, who are on the podcast, they suddenly get not exactly recognised, but internet famous in a way that is new for a place with no bylines. And some of them find that a bit alarming.”
Regardless of whether the publication paywalls previously free content, nearly two decades of embracing podcasting has lead The Economist to a point where a fraction of its staff bring in more impressions via podcast audience than the actual published paper.
Jacob Kastrenakes, writing for Hot Pod Insider, covered several iHeartMedia higher-ups appearing at Tuesday’s J.P. Morgan Global Tech, Media, and Communications Conference. The main takeaway of the talk? iHeart believes there’s a finite window in which one can determine if a podcast can be made successful purely through promotion.
“First off, a show has to be good, according to Bob Pittman, iHeart’s CEO and chairman. ‘We can’t make something that’s not a hit a hit,’ he said. From there, it comes down to marketing. ‘What we can generally find is probably in two or three weeks, we can see if we've got a hit or not with heavy promotion.’”
Though, unlike radio, a lack of success during launch window doesn’t spell death for the product. Kastrenakes quotes Pittman as saying podcasts have “unlimited shelf space.” Without a limited amount of bandwidth on which to program, iHeart is able to take risks on relatively cheaper production costs and - even if it doesn’t take off in the 2 to 3 week launch period - allow the product to exist on its own in hopes outside forces lead to a free resurgence in popularity.
Once again we circle back to the global story of podcasting doing well everywhere, not just in the North American markets. Quite well, in fact, according to Aisha Majid’s article on the latest Digital Publishers’ Revenue Index for the Press Gazette.
“Among the sample of 12 publishers included in the report, which was produced by the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and Deloitte, audio revenue hit £4.2m in the first quarter of this year. This was six times what they made in the first quarter of 2021.”
Deloitte’s Dan Ison claims daily podcast listening has caught up to online radio in the UK, growing to the point one in ten adults under 25 pay for at least one form of premium podcast subscription.
AOP managing director Richard Reeves, as quoted by Majid, said:
“We’ve seen revenue for digital audio grow steadily over the last few quarters, driven in part by what’s being deemed the ‘golden age of podcasts’. The 500% revenue growth reported for this channel in Q1 2022 demonstrates that publishers are now successfully monetising this type of content.”
This next bit of news is home-grown as it comes direct from Sounds Profitable founder—and former host of The Download—Bryan Barletta. In partnership with Podcast Movement, the first Sounds Profitable Business Leaders Summit will take place August 23rd in Dallas, Texas.
“On its own, a one-day business-focused event would be a hard sell to just about anyone, even in NYC or LA. But as an industry, we absolutely need one. A day dedicated to the real tough conversations that the industry needs to have in order for us to drive the progress that leads to a $4bn US podcast advertising industry and then some. So, for an event like this to thrive, it would need to be attached to the undisputed leading podcast industry event in America.”
The summit is slated to kick off with the Sounds Profitable quarterly research report.
“Measurement, video, and programmatic are words we hear in conversation every single day. Sometimes positively, occasionally from a negative perspective, and most often from a place of curiosity. So we’ve gathered the best and brightest to make sure we’re all on the same page, as each of these three topics continue to grow in popularity and importance.”
While the quarterly report will be available publicly, the rest of the Summit - keeping in line with a key goal of fostering candid conversations on where to take the future of podcasting - will only be accessible to members of companies that sponsor Sounds Profitable.
For our last full story of the week we turn to Ashley Carman’s Bloomberg piece from Wednesday: Spotify Podcasters Are Making $18,000 a Month With Nothing But White Noise.
Carman’s brief journey into the world of white noise podcasting reveals a surprisingly healthy field of competing products all fundamentally designed to serve up calming soundscapes to put audiences to sleep, all while running occasional ads to their slumbering subscribers. Quoting Carman:
“Those who did respond to interview requests say they are making good money, winning over fans and marveling at the power of podcast distribution. Collectively, the shows represent a burgeoning and lucrative podcast genre.”
Take, for instance, the story of Brandon Reed: a man whose podcasting career started by using Anchor more as a file hosting platform for white noise to soothe his own son rather than intending on distributing the files globally. Three years later things are extremely different. Quoting Carman again:
“His inadvertent hit has also made the charts on Apple Inc.’s Podcasts app and has reached over 26.6 million total listens, he said. Reed now offers a $2.99 monthly subscription, which gives paying customers access to additional sounds and the ability to request new ones. When a chiropractor needed railroad clacking for an anxious patient, Reed went out and captured it. So far, he’s made over $10,000 through subscriptions.”
At the risk of reigniting years-old social media arguments as to what it means for a piece of media to qualify as a podcast, these snippets from the world of calming noise serve as a reminder that restrictive views of podcasts both in format and content can leave niches unserved.
And finally, befitting of a short episode we only have one article for our semi-recurring segment spotlighting articles worth reading that didn’t quite make it into the episode. This week The Download recommends The Podcast in Quebec in 2021 by Bruno Guglielminetti.
Fair warning, the post is in French, but it contains statistics relevant to The Download’s ongoing coverage of podcasting’s growth in global markets. Time to dust off that vocab textbook from college.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Future articles and podcasts from Sounds Profitable (and me!) are all available here: https://soundsprofitable.com/episodes
Thanks for coming along for the ride, and I hope you'll join me at Sounds Profitable!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Spotify erroneously serves liquor, platforms continue to snap up content houses, and RSS.com shares how they beat podcast spam.
Last week Spotify experienced the mother of all brand safety mistakes, and for now it has cost them the ad dollars of a major liquor distributor. As originally reported by Tanner Cambell in Saturday’s issue of Dispatches from the Booth, sometime on Saturday Spotify began serving a banner ad for bourbon distillery Wild Turkey to the profile of every podcast. This led to numerous screenshots demonstrating just how unfortunate such a slip-up can be, including children’s entertainment and podcasts discussing sobriety. On Tuesday Wild Turkey made an official statement on the matter. Quoting their statement:
“We are disappointed that the implementation of the campaign by Spotify was inconsistent with our advertising code and have paused all media with Spotify pending results of the investigation. We are members and partners of DISCUS and Responsibility.org and unequivocally support a responsible marketing agenda.”
The Download has covered numerous stories involving new tech designed to ensure brand safety when it comes to problematic podcast hosts or suspect content in an existing brand’s catalog, but this slip-up shows brand safety doesn’t stop at the content of the podcast itself.
Which leads to a decision that might set up further problems in the very near future. This Monday Issie Lapowsky published an article for Protocol highlighting Spotify lifting its two-year ban on political ads. Quoting the article:
“In an email the company sent out to potential partners this week, Spotify said that political ads will appear “across thousands of podcasts on and off Spotify.” An accompanying presentation promises political advertisers the ability to target niche audiences and tap into AI-driven “contextual targeting,” which allows advertisers to place ads in podcasts when they are discussing issues relevant to their target audiences.”
Lapowsky highlights the uphill struggle Spotify has ahead of them. While competitors like Meta and Google have made efforts to be open with political advertisements by maintaining large public archives, Spotify’s starting from scratch.
The Wild Turkey slipup isn’t enough to raise alarms at Spotify’s ability to run ads ethically. Mistakes happen. That said, it does highlight just how impactful a mistake can be when made by a massive player in the industry. A player now dabbling in an area of advertising infamous for its ability to spread disinformation.
It’s been a week of big-name acquisitions of talent in the podcasting world. The massive long-running interview podcast WTF with Marc Maron signed with Acast, according to a Brad Hill article published Tuesday.
“‘Entering into a partnership with the podcast giant Marc Maron is a big win for Acast and for the open podcasting landscape, as this deal guarantees that the podcast can continue to be listened to by everyone, everywhere and on their preferred listening platform,’ said Ross Adams, CEO of Acast.”
WTF, which previously operated as an independent production with a paywalled back catalog available for a fee on its website, will now switch to offering older episodes to Acast+ subscribers as bonus content. For the audience little will change, but Acast has just inherited one of the biggest names in podcasting outside of Spotify’s walled garden and gets to handle ad sales.
Establishing the trend for the week, Monday saw a press release from SiriusXM announcing the acquisition of Team Coco, most notably bringing aboard Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. Like the Maron buyout, Sirius has purchased the production house whole hog, including a five year talent agreement with O’Brien. Longtime fans of the former late-night comedian will understand the gravitas behind convincing O’Brien into an exclusivity deal after his messy breakup with NBC.
Rounding out the trio of announcements, Monday also saw RedCircle’s announcement of acquiring rights to travel influencer Drew Binsky’s upcoming podcast Roots of Humanity. Binsky is making the popular move for influencers by starting a podcast guaranteed to court a built-in audience from his existing audience, sporting 3.3 million YouTube subscribers alone.
“Roots of Humanity celebrates the beauty and diversity of the world, which is aligned with RedCircle’s vision of helping podcasters of all sizes and shapes across the globe to get rewarded for their work. RedCircle is excited to be part of Drew Binsky’s journey and help him to achieve his goals with its modern podcast hosting and monetizing technology.”
It seems the trend continues with podcast platforms looking beyond simple exclusivity rights for an individual podcast to focus on acquiring production houses and existing brands that can act as content engines beyond the popular podcast’s lifespan. Full creator/talent packages are the current hotness and there’s no signs of them slowing down.
This Monday Sounds Profitable’s own Bryan Barletta covered the launch of Buzzsprout’s new ad project in a thread on Twitter. In simple terms, the Buzzsprout Ads beta gives podcasters the ability to use Buzzsprout’s dynamic ad insertion tech to implement midroll ads in a way previously only available to signed talent or shows with crew who’ve worked in advertising.
Producers entering the beta can manually review ads to decide which would be the best fit for their podcast and whitelist them for inclusion. Buzzsprout’s tech by default uses a music jingle slowly increasing in volume to signal an ad break is approaching, attempting to emulate the five second timer announcing ad breaks on video hosting platforms like YouTube. Users are given a surprising amount of customization with this feature, offering five stock transition options as well as the ability for hosts to record their own ad break and ad return bumpers for the automated system to use.
Accessibility has also been taken into account. The Buzzsprout Ads platform is designed to drop chapter markers around each inserted ad and automatically time-shift the SRT file for podcasts with transcripts to accommodate the inserted ad changing timecodes for any portion of transcript that takes place after.
Bryan sums things up best at the end of his thread, saying:
“Ad monetization empowers many podcasters to grow their show into a business. Sponsorships will always take the cake, but out-the-gate options for a skilled creator without sales experience changes the game. DAI Marketplaces and Programmatic are how we hit those IAB numbers.”
A few days ago a string of spam podcasts were published to major platforms, all containing a single episode of unrelated audio aimed at using the show art and description fields to promote escort services in various locations in the United Arab Emirates. They had the legitimacy of the spam texts one gets at 2:00 a.m., but they were produced by the dozen. On Monday RSS.com co-founder and managing director Alberto Betella published a writeup on Podnews detailing how the hosting service tackled their new spam problem.
“We had two options: a. “Throw humans at the problem”, hire 1 or 2 extra people to counteract this misbehavior (perhaps also implementing a moderation queue for newly created podcasts). b. build tech to address and mitigate the problem.
We chose option B because it works at scale, it doesn’t need food and drinks, and because it’s a lot more fun! A few people in our team, in fact, have a strong AI/Machine Learning background and it doesn’t happen very often to have the opportunity to leverage this skill set in the podcasting space.”
What’s important here isn’t necessarily the fact RSS.com was able to quickly fix the issue with neart machine learning and clever implementation of tools to prevent false positives from getting stuck in the system, it’s the fact that we the public know the broad strokes of how they accomplished it.
“We cannot share our current ML model as open source because it is part of the unique value proposition of our company. However, we have described the methods and provided actionable recommendations for anyone that wants to build something similar. Hopefully, this is our small contribution to keep podcasting spam free!”
Sharing methodology used to overcome issues that could affect anyone with similar services in the market is useful, embodying the spirit of open source communities even when dealing with proprietary creations. We need more sharing like this across the industry.
Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles that didn’t make it into today’s episode, but are still worth working into your weekend reading.
- Streamers are creating companion podcasts for superfans of their shows by Alyssa Meyers
- Do You Have a Development Deal with Audible Yet? By J. Clara Chan.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Arielle Nissenblatt chats with soon to be Sounds Profitable partner, Tom Webster. They discuss Tom’s entry into the audio world, what drives him to tell stories with data, how to be into statistics without being a “math” person, and our near and longterm plans for the company.
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: Arielle asked Tom to go through the pillars that the team has outlined as important principles for the company and we break them down. This is a mission statement that we want the podcasting public to hold us to.
Links:
- Tom Webster
- Tom’s recent article for Sounds Profitable
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: Premium Podcasting on Apple just got easier, Media Monitors slips up on methodology, and Podfest Africa’s annual study is here.
Publishing content to a premium subscription feed on Apple Podcasts is about to become far less painful. This Tuesday Techcrunch’s Sarah Perez summarized the new Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery system in a rundown of Apple’s new announcements. Quoting the article:
“Starting this fall, a select number of hosting providers will support the Delegated Delivery system, including Acast, ART19, Blubrry, Buzzsprout, Libsyn, Omny Studio and RSS.com. Apple says these providers represent around 80% of listening for premium content on Apple Podcasts, and more services will be added over time.”
Additionally:
“The feature will be available at no additional cost to all creators through Apple Podcasts Connect and creators won’t need a membership to the Apple Podcasts Program to publish their free shows — only to publish premium content.”
Prior to the introduction of the delegated delivery offerings, uploading a premium file to Apple for one’s monthly subscribers was an arduous and time-consuming process. Now the process will be smoother, at least for those on hosting platforms included in Apple’s rollout.
On Twitter, Ashley Carman noted the divide possibly forming between providers when comparing who supports the new Apple feature and who is partnered with Spotify’s similar premium service. The tweet read:
“Spotify works with third parties to support its subscription offering, too. The only overlap is Acast, at least according to the initial partner list. [I’m] curious if this means there's now additional stratification in [the] podcast world: team Spotify or team Apple.”
In what is pleasantly becoming a weekly segment on The Download, we bring news of podcasting flourishing on a global scale. Last month Podfest Africa published the 79 page report titled “Discovery Tour, Data Edition: Mapping out the present & future of African audio storytelling.”
The study is built off research collected in part with in-depth interviews with podcast producers and industry stakeholders, reviewing existing literature on relevant topics, and a survey of 370 podcast listeners across the study’s target areas of Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Unsurprisingly, podcasting seems to be doing well.
“These results build on existing evidence of the rapid growth of podcast usage in allt hree countries and the evidence that South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are the most developed podcasting markets on the African continent.”
A quick rundown of some interesting statistics provided: on average over 50% of respondents were women. With all results aggregated the idea podcast episode length across the three represented countries is 30 to 40 minutes. Spotify has a significant advantage over its competitors for distribution in the three countries studied for apps most used to listen to podcasts, clocking in at 35.1%. Apple comes in at a close second with 18.1% of the market share. Google Podcasts, YouTube, Anchor, and Afripods make up the rest of the top contenders.
In its key takeaway section, the study makes a point of stressing that their findings suggest - unsurprisingly - audiences want content influenced by local creators and local companies.
“A key growth opportunity identified is educating media companies to not rely on Western expertise for guidance on podcast production but instead to generate key insights through research from the African continent.”
Continuing the trend of podcast news favoring Tuesdays, for some reason, Alyssa Meyers of Marketing Brew published “Here’s What You Missed at the 2022 IAB Podcast Upfront.” Quoting the article:
“If you couldn’t make it last week (or if you were already burnt out from NewFronts), we tuned in and rounded up some of the most important announcements and themes of this year’s event, which positioned pods as ‘mainstream, prominent, and influential.’”
Meyer’s reporting condenses a substantial amount of IAB content down to three main points plus a bonus regarding Disney - ever a fan of conglomerating - consolidating podcasting brands under one banner. The three common topics focused on diverse hosts and audiences, statistical dumps in the form of podcast trend reports, and quite a few mentions of brand safety.
That last point might perk up the ears of long-time Download listeners, as brand safety is a recurring topic in more places than the IAB UpFront. Even last week’s episode included coverage of a story involving ethics in adtech and its impact on brand safety.
This Monday Media Monitors published the results of a listeners survey conducted over two weeks in March, all bundled with the enticing headline “NPR Slips as Smaller Publisher Capitalize.”
The findings begin with a ranking of the top ten publishers from the top 200 podcasts for the first quarter of 2022. The iHeartPodcast network comes in first place, followed by Spotify in second with Amazon Music and SiriusXM tied for third. NPR doesn’t place in the top ten publishers. Editor James Cridland adds vital context in Monday’s issue of Podnews:
“To suggest that NPR isn’t in the top ten of US podcast publishers is obviously untrue; but helpful narrative for its competitor iHeartMedia. Coincidentally, iHeartMedia owns Media Monitors, a fact not disclosed.”
Accountability is key when presenting data like this.Media Monitors analyzed the top 200 podcasts mentioned by respondents in their survey, that conveniently shuffled the deck so their parent company place first while a legacy competitor was shuffled off the list entirely. It was then followed on Tuesday by Edison Research’s Q1 breakdown of US Top Podcast Networks By Reach. Edison’s findings show a fair difference in ranking, with SXM Media coming in first, Spotify in second, and iHeartRadio placing third. NPR rejoins the group and places fourth.
In the interest of full disclosure, the following quote from the press release is from Director of Research at Edison Research Gabriel Soto, who is also be co-host of The Download’s Spanish sibling show La Descarga.
“Edison Podcast Metrics is the only dataset that covers the entire U.S. podcast space. By surveying listeners and measuring their actual consumption, the data doesn’t depend on opt-ins from networks and isn’t subject to the various issues with counting downloads. These top networks offer a diverse range of shows that appeal broadly to listeners.”
Methodology matters. Who owns the ranking company matters. Opt-in will always be incomplete and the techniques used to fill those gaps matter.
Another Tuesday article joins the episode with James Hercher’s AdExchanger piece on changing attribution tech and brand reactions.
New models of attribution are coming for all of advertising, challenging the incumbent Multi Touch Attribution. Companies like Measured, Triple Whale, and Northbeam are all taking new approaches as old ones fail to deliver. The following quote contains a nested quote from Parachute’s VP of Growth Ian Yung.
“One social media platform stuck out as an early win for Measured, according to Yung. Parachute was spending in the low six figures per month on the platform. “And they were obviously giving us reporting that it was very profitable.”
Upon closer inspection, Measured found Parachute’s spending on the unnamed platform could be cut to zero and show no impact on sales. An all-too familiar adtech story. Quoting the article again:
“Podcast advertising is another category that Parachute rethought once it had a measurement testing regime in place. Podcast attribution often banks on listeners redeeming a particular code, which under-credits the channel. “Podcasting is one [rarer] example where we have to take the reporting and increase what it has on our end to capture the true value,” Yung said.”
Companies outside of podcasting are coming into the adtech space, and fast. It just so happens the podcasting industry has been operating steadily without widespread MTA adoption in the first place.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Fatima Zaidi, founder and CEO of Quill inc., a full-service podcast agency that makes it easy for brands and publishers to create, launch and grow successful podcasts. Quill is launching a hosting service, Co-Host. After years of trying to work with existing hosting solutions, Quill found that their clients desired different and more complex KPIs, so, they decided to build a solution that could track them.
Listen for:
- How and why Quill decided to build a new hosting platform in this seemingly saturated space
- How Quill has built a tech team after running a production company for a few years
-
P.s. they’re still looking for a developer
-
A discussion on the hype around VC and angel funding
- Why we should celebrate bootstrapped companies
- A playbook on real-time beta testers
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: Fatima believes in the concept of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” But she and her team still came to the decision that the existing solutions weren’t hitting all of the needs of their clients. Ultimately, they had to put their clients first.
Links:
- Fatima Zaidi
- Quill
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: US podcasting revenue is up, Google launches new way to collect data, and a new partnership aims to bring ethics to advertising.
One of many podcasting social media staples is sharing platitudes about how the industry is always growing, always doing better. This Monday offered a wonderful moment where one gets empirical data to back them up. The United States podcast ad revenue market hit a billion dollars for the first time in 2021 and shows no sign of slowing down. Anthony Vargas writes for AdExchanger:
“At $1.4 billion – up 72% from roughly $840 million in 2020 – podcasting is now one of the fastest-growing digital media channels, and it’s growing twice as fast as the internet advertising market as a whole, according to a report on podcast ad revenue released by the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers on Monday.”
Growth has developed so quickly just the US market’s 2021 revenue matched podcasting’s global 2020 revenue. Vargas attributes a bulk of this growth to the increase of dynamic ad insertion leading to better ad placement. Regardless, things are looking good on the business side of podcasting.
This Tuesday Rain News’ Brad Hill reported on the Q1 earnings call of audio distribution platform Audacy. CEO David Field cited strong growth in digital revenue but as far as The Download is concerned, we’re interested in their reported 37% podcast revenue increase
Audacy’s apps offer a generational divide-bridging service, offering a place to access both terrestrial radio stations and on-demand audio in the form of podcasts in the same place. And it appears Audacy is aiming to take advantage of their broad audience. Brad Hill reports from the earnings call:
“A key forward-looking emphasis of the call was the Audacy Digital Audience Network, a scale-and-reach initiative which was launched during the quarter. Field described it as ‘an addressable and aggregate of over 60 million listeners across our app, streaming content and podcast lineup, enabling precision targeting at scale, coupled with real-time optimization and reporting.’”
Up next: a bit of nostalgia looking back at the world that allowed podcasting to exist. Last Thursday Ben Thompson of Stratechery posted an interview with Tony Fadell, the designer known as the father of the iPod.
On the off chance there are members of The Download’s audience who aren’t old enough to rent a car: the very word podcast is a portmanteau of iPod and broadcast, originally created specifically as a way to share spoken word to Apple’s wildly successful MP3 player via their iTunes digital media platform. With Wednesday’s announcement that Apple has officially discontinued the iPod Touch, a vestigial remnant of the iPod brand, it’s a good time to be nostalgic for the early days of the industry and reflect on how much has changed.
Thompson’s interview with Fadell gleefully partakes of nostalgia, rehashing key moments from both Fadell’s career and that of the iPod’s development. Steve Jobs’ leadership style from Apple’s 2005 flash memory gambit, the interview evokes memories of a time when touch screens were still exotic futuristic technology.
Last Thursday Olivia Morley, writing for Adweek, covered the announcement of Havas Media Group partnering with the Institute of Advertising Ethics. According to Havas, they intend to offer an advertising ethics certification course to over 9,000 clients and employees.
A quote from the founding COO of IAE, as reported by Morley:
“‘Our industry, astoundingly, is virtually the only professional industry—unlike law, medicine, architecture, engineering, et cetera—that doesn’t have any sort of industry code of ethics or certification for ethics,’ said Andrew Susman, noting that this will now change.”
As Susman said, the IAE has identified a marked lack of training and focus on ethics in advertising. This has a trickle-down effect on the podcasting industry, as we’ve seen before with various sticky situations companies and creatives alike create with brand safety or unintentional side effects of unethical systems.
“Ethics, according to Downing, can extend to many things. Some include issues of brand safety and ensuring that clients are not using discriminatory ad filters that impact minority creators. For example, putting “LGBTQ+” on a blocklist.”
One needs only look at the tech industry’s laundry list of issues with their army of engineers with no ethical training creating wildly unethical digital ecosystems. A more ethical advertising industry, if it takes advantage of the IAE and whatever competitors might arise, is a better one.
Speaking of weird ethics: The Download is going to take a brief moment to report on someone reporting on our mothership Sounds Profitable. Tom Webster is leaving Edison Research to join Sounds Profitable as a partner. Webster goes into detail on his motivations and goals for the new position in Tuesday’s edition of his newsletter I Hear Things. Quoting Tom:
“On June 1st, I am joining Sounds Profitable as Partner, teaming up with Bryan Barletta to help build something to make the podcasting space better for everyone. As a part of that, I Hear Things and its companion podcast will then be under the umbrella of Sounds Profitable, where I’ll be a regular contributor.”
Webster aims to pursue his and Sounds Profitable founder Bryan Barletta’s common goal of making podcasting better. Being a veteran of research and presentations, he’s broken it down into an easily-digestible four pillars: insightful content, industry-leading research, unmissable events, and peerless advisory services.
Welcome aboard, Tom.
This Wednesday Google announced a new service titled My Ad Center during their annual I/O event. Greg Finn covered the announcement for Search Engine Land.
"All Google users will now have the ability to choose the brands and topics most germane to them that they want to see. This is much different than the Topics targeting within the Privacy Sandbox now being tested, as the inputs are dictated directly by the user.”
At launch My Ad Center will only be compatible with Google’s search results, YouTube, and Google Discover. On its surface the service promises better transparency with users receiving more granular information as to why they’re being served a particular ad, and giving them the ability to fine-tune what topics they would prefer Google cater to.
Of course, that’s the corporate line. One of the recurring stories that’s changing the industry and keeps appearing on The Download is that of advertisers adjusting to stronger privacy on mobile devices and desktop browsers. People serving ads simply don’t have access to the hyper-specific data they once did, and conveniently Google has now put out a product designed to get users to give them similarly hyper-specific data points for free under the premise it’ll make their online existence better.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Evo Terra edited today's episode. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Shantae Howell, Creative Director for the Americas at Acast. They discuss branded podcast content: how and when to make it, what to consider, and what to expect
Listen for:
- The difference between branded podcasts, advertising on podcasts, and sponsoring podcasts.
- How Acast works with brands to make impactful branded podcasts.
- When your brand should consider getting into the audio game.
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: a branded podcast can have many different goals, whether it be brand awareness, customer acquisition, sharing customer stories, as a creative outlet for the company, and so much more. It’s important for the brand and the creative agency behind the soon-to-be branded podcast to be aligned in their missions for the show.
Links:
- Shantae Howell
- Acast
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
I Hear Things is joining Sounds Profitable. That's the tweet.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download: potential new IAB standards are revealed, advertisers reflect on a year of iOS-enforced privacy, and Facebook is losing the confidence of its customers.
Last Thursday Ryan Barwick, writing for MarketingBrew, published a look at some promising new standards the IAB Tech Lab is toying with in anticipation of a, as Barwick puts it, “cookieless future.”
With the evolution of online privacy advertising must change with it, and the IAB is experimenting with replacing existing data-collection structures with seller-defined audiences, or SDAs. Instead of adtech using tracking methods to use collected data to serve certain ads to certain users, publishers would use first-party data to decide how to categorize their own audience and take ads targeting those categories. Quoting the article:
“Using this data, SDAs would, theoretically, let publishers place their audiences into groups—whether by behavior or interest—which would then be shared with advertisers to help them run targeted programmatic ads. So far, there are roughly 1,600 available labels for publishers to choose from.”
Barwick and others at MarketingBrew have taken a liking to the hyper-specific example label of “potatoes/onions” as an example of how granular the SDA system would be if fully implemented.
Michael Nuzzo, Vice President and head of Hearst data solutions at Hearst Magazines is quoted from the IAB Tech Lab event in February:
“It’s a very positive indication that publishers are gaining more control in the open web. We were only seen as supply. Now, we’re seen as supply, identity partners, as well as data providers, and that’s an exciting shift.”
This signals a significant boon for podcasting. The IAB has created a world where podcast producers determine their audiences and present them to advertisers. An open world with power in the hands of producers is a good thing.
Last Thursday Digiday’s Kimeko McCoy published an article covering the thoughts of advertisers on the anniversary of Apple publishing the industry-changing iOS 14.
“In this last year, Apple’s crackdown on in-app tracking upended the digital advertising industry and crippled advertisers’ ability to know whether their mobile ads were working. It forced them to look elsewhere to spend their dollars.”
iOS 14, along with other similar privacy-boosting offerings from web browsers and Android devices, changed the game. Platforms reliant on the old buffet of collectable data have had issues adjusting, as we’ll cover in a Facebook-heavy story shortly.
“But those 12 months of acclimating to these shifts have made it clear to media buyers that Apple’s ATT is an attribution problem, not an advertising one. In other words, the effectiveness of advertising hasn’t gone away as a result of it being harder to track people. But it has become more difficult to know how effective those ads are.”
McCoy’s reporting paints a promising future. Every step the industry takes in this direction is a glowing endorsement for podcasting. While the rank-and-file are just now dealing with tricky attribution, this industry has been successfully serving ads with tricky end-game attribution for the better part of a decade.
On Monday AdExchanger’s James Hercher published “Facebook Advertisers are Itching for Change as Bugs Infest Its Attribution Tech.” The piece begins with an anecdotal story of a marketer beset with costly glitches in the aging platform’s adtech. Things don’t get much better for Meta from there. Quoting the article:
“Facebook is heads-down trying to fix the ad platform as gears and springs fly out of it like a cartoon pocket watch.”
Facebook faces huge troubles as its advertising empire built on a tracking pixel now has to operate in a world where said pixel can’t immediately report back data on a user browsing outside websites. Instead of instantaneous granular updates, Facebook adtech operates in batch updates once every few days.
“Facebook’s consistent response has been to be patient and, well, to slow down. In February, Facebook acknowledged that it was still underreporting attribution, but said it had cut the error margin from 15% to 8%. Says who?”
Walled gardens, especially Facebook, are starting to show cracks in their foundations and are losing the faith of buyers as they struggle to course-correct for industry-wide changes. Facebook may have tapped out of the podcasting game entirely, but we still have Spotify. What has happened to the likes of Google and Meta could happen to Spotify in the future. Especially now that they’ve purchased some of the biggest names in podcast data attribution, setting themselves up as potential gatekeepers of proprietary data not wholly dissimilar to Facebook.
Speaking of attribution tech: This Thursday BusinessWire revealed Veritonic’s new audio-first Attribution solution. Exact details are thin on the ground in the press release but Veritonic is confident its new attribution solution - simply called Attribution - will be an advertiser’s best friend. A quote from Veritonic CEO Scott Simonelli:
“As advertising dollars increasingly flow into audio, brands need the assurance that only Veritonic’s end-to-end measurement and analytics can provide. Attribution is the perfect addition to our platform of audio research and measurement solutions, providing data-driven advertisers, brands, and agencies with the tools and insights they need to optimize their campaigns for greater ROI.”
The press release promises Attribution will do the basic ad-tech things one would expect, tracking potential customers when they land on a campaign’s bespoke URL until they leave or purchase the relevant item. It’s nothing too flashy or industry-shattering from a technology standpoint, but the important context to consider is that Veritonic became the first company to get to market since Spotify’s acquisition of Chartable and Podsights.
Spotify created a power vacuum in reliable third-party attribution. Now companies are stepping up to fill that gap.
With that, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles that didn’t make it into today’s episode, but are still worth working into your weekend reading.
First: Facebook Pulls the Plug on Podcast Business After a Year by Ashley Carman.
And, second: Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano to leave Spotify by Ariel Shapiro.
As always, the links to every article mentioned on an episode of The Download can be found in the episode details.
Finally, a quick roundup of the finance-related news this week that’s worth discussing, but not big enough to necessitate individual stories.. First up: James Hercer - in a rare three-time appearance in one episode of The Download - covers the Amazon earnings call last Friday.
Amazon posted a 3.8 billion net loss in Q1 of this year, though reported a 25% year-over-year increase in advertising revenue.
Following that we have Ted Gioia’s Sunday issue of The Honest Broker titled Spotify Shares Now Selling at Less Than the IPO Price 4 Years Ago. While an aggressive headline, Gioia’s coverage takes care to point out the lower share price is likely due to Spotify’s growth not being as world-dominating as expected, posting a 25% gross profit margin.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted byShreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Ma’ayan Plaut, who is the growth marketing manager at 3play media. They discuss what it means to create accessible and compliant podcast transcripts. Ma’ayan recently tweeted about the need for transcripts to include non-speech elements. Her tweet was instructive and contained practical information for podcast publishers. We expand upon her thread in this conversation, and go beyond it as well. We are moving towards a world in which we don’t simply consume podcasts by listening. Consumers will read podcast content, too; whether that’s because they prefer to read it or because they are d/Deaf or hard-of-hearing, or for a variety of other reasons. For those use-cases, and more, we need to find a way to make transcripts for available and accessible.
Listen for:
- Statistics on how many people are consuming podcasts via transcripts
- How publishers can prioritize creating transcripts beyond just in the initial editing process
- Discussion as to which lawsuits have impacted this discussion
- How to dissect important legislation that regulates accessibility requirements for media creators
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: transcripts should be vetted by a human. Even if AI gets us halfway there, it’s important to have the final version looked over by a real human. Why? Names like Ma’ayan Plaut and even Arielle Nissenblatt very rarely get AI transcribed the right way.
Links:
- Ma’ayan Plaut
- 3Play Media
- Paul F. Tompkins’ Tweet
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
ICYMI: Warner Music launches a podcast network, Spotify weathers the storm, and personnel changes at Edison Research.
Warner Music Group is dipping its toes into podcasting with its first network: Interval Presents. The new network’s slate promises a variety of content lead by popular musicians and celebrities who work with WMG.
“The initiative marks the first major music label to follow in Sony Music’s lead; Sony entered the podcast arena five years ago in May, 2017.”
WMG Senior VP of Digital Strategy & Business Development Allan Coye has stepped into the role of General Manager of Interval Presents content. CDO and EVP of Business Development Oana Ruxandra set the tone for what Interval Presents intends to accomplish.
She says, “There’s a hunger for more inclusive and authentic podcast content and, with Allan leading the charge, we’re thrilled to launch an audio platform that will connect with this growing audience and spotlight a breadth of voices and perspectives.”
While this might initially look like simply another company jumping into the field of celebrity podcasts, that itself is enough to help grow the industry. With more celebrity-hosted podcasts comes a higher chance of graduating those who only listen to music into full-fledged podcast listeners who seek out content beyond their initial introduction, be it with a Jason Derulo-hosted fiction podcast or a Lupita Nyong’o series on African diaspora.
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This week Spotify’s Q1 numbers became the subject of much discussion as they became public. On Wednesday Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman published “Spotify Tumbles as Investors Question Podcast Investments.”
“Spotify Technology SA has spent more than a billion dollars in an effort to become the No. 1 name in podcasting, but investors’ patience is wearing thin on how much that will cost.”
Carman’s article paints a cloudy sky for the big green dot with investors getting antsy at the amount of money invested in podcasting intended for long-term growth over short-term returns, including a gross margin of 25.2% that falls short of the 30 to 40% target. That said, both paid subscriptions and unpaid ad-supported users are up despite locking out Russian users and much-publicized Joe Rogan backlash. Sarah Perez writes for a TechCrunch article on the same subject this Wednesday:
“Despite losing 1.5 million users in Russia, Spotify’s premium subscribers grew 15% year-over-year in the first quarter to reach 182 million, largely in line with analyst estimates. Ad-supported users, meanwhile, grew 21% to reach 252 million.”
The #deletespotify movement, sparked by a transphobic conversation in his latest Jordan Peterson interview, a history of COVID-19 disinformation, and a compilation of him saying a racial slur lead to musicians and podcasters alike pulling their content from Spotify or threatening to cancel contracts. As Sarah Perez reports:
“But app store data at the time indicated rival streaming apps were not getting a boost from this latest PR headache, as Spotify’s app had continued to see millions of weekly downloads — a significantly larger figure than its nearest rivals — even amid the #deletespotify campaign on social media.”
That lack of attention to rival apps likely stings especially hard for Neil Young, a figurehead of the Rogan backlash who pulled all of his music from Spotify in protest of Rogan’s COVID disinformation. Young, a vocal critic of low-quality MP3 streaming on services like Spotify, also happened to be releasing high-quality versions of his discography on Amazon Music shortly after the much-publicized stunt.
As with all things, Spotify’s growth remains a complicated beast. Subscribers are up, stock value is down, all while successfully weathering a weeks-long PR storm.
Last Thursday Spotify dropped an article on their official blog announcing Spotify’s big entrance into video podcasting.
Quoting the article, “Last fall, Spotify began activating Video Podcasts for creators on a limited basis. Since then, we’ve found that podcasters love having the option to accompany their audio with visual components, and fans love having the opportunity to more deeply connect with the content.”
As of Thursday creators in the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK gained access to the feature, as well as a handful of new features to help the transition for video podcasters with backlogs. The new system requires a podcast be hosted on Spotify’s service Anchor, meaning any existing video podcasts interested in trying out the service will either need to make a Spotify spinoff feed or wholesale transfer from their existing service to take advantage of this new feature.
Once integrated into Spotify the video podcasting appears to function identical to simply watching a video podcast on YouTube, with those who prefer pure audio able to leave the app or lock their phone to background the video.
Video in podcasting challenges an open ecosystem to consider themselves creators, agnostic of any one medium, while also pushing them into siloed solutions. Podcast-first creators exploring video as a channel is powerful, even if the current options dead-end into proprietary solutions. Spotify’s requirement that a show must be hosted on their own service. Anyone currently producing videos with their podcasts have to weigh the pros and cons of porting everything over into Spotify’s silo purely to have one more place to upload the same video content already going up on YouTube and social media.
There’s promise in the concept of podcasts-with-video, but current offerings are lacking as they all appear to exist to push an open podcasting world into producing siloed content.
And finally, while we don't often cover personnel changes here on The Download, this one is important enough that we mention. Tom Webster has just today announced that he is leaving his position with Edison Research. But Tom and Edison will both still be with us in the podcasting industry. As Tom says in his newsletter, I Hear Things:
"My work with Edison is far from over, and we have established an agreement to partner on many things in the future."
So what will Tom be doing with his time? That's not been announced just yet, but again quoting from today's newsletter:
"I want to continue to work to establish a podcast industry: a place where established networks and independent podcasters alike have fair access to information, revenue, and opportunity. I think there are some structural issues in podcasting, and a some information arbitrage, as well. I want to work on both of these issues, and help to create the sandbox I wish to continue to play in for years to come.
I'm excited about what is next, and I'll have more to say on that in the next edition of I Hear Things, which isn't going away, by the way. Just as I am doubling down on podcasting, I am also going to be evolving I Hear Things into something very exciting, broad-reaching, and ultimately useful for podcasters of every stripe."
The podcast industry might be grateful for everything Tom has done at Edison Research to grow the platform, but I’m personally grateful for everything Tom has done for me. See what you may not know is that I have worked closely with Tom for five years at Edison Research. Now he’s said before that he wishes he could have been a better mentor, but to him I say: you did an incredible job. Clearly, your wisdom is invaluable and I’ve absorbed a lot, but it is your confidence in my abilities that has allowed me to face challenges I didn’t think I was capable of facing. Suggesting I take the lead on presenting research for the first time or asking for my advice as if I were the expert served as ammo to fight off my imposter syndrome. As you did for much of the podcast industry, you opened doors for me to bring my own passion projects to life, my own research on Latino and Black podcast audiences. You helped me evolve from a project coordinator to a Director of Research, and listen to me now, a host of a podcast. I don’t think there’s a better way to say that I’m forever grateful than on audio that will forever live in the world you’ve helped build. Thank you for everything.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Gabriel Soto and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ashley Carman's article on Spotify's earnings call: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-27/spotify-dodges-joe-rogan-controversy-forecasts-miss-estimates?sref=W6GJF3MS
Support I Hear Things! http://buymeacoffee.com/tomwebster
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Conor McKenna, director at LUMA Partners. They discuss how adtech in podcasting applies to adtech in other adtech-led companies. Listen in to learn about:
- How we're still in the early days of building technology specifically made for podcasts
- How we need to build software that makes the process of buying and selling ads more seamless
- How we need better attribution technology because downloads aren't enough
- Why Conor recommends that publishers build out other content channels beyond podcasting
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: Bryan and Conor don't agree about everything. And it makes for some interesting takeaways!
Links:
- Conor McKenna
- LUMA Partners
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download; data scraping is officially legal, recent Spotify purchases prove concerning for some, and what fiction podcasters can learn from their non-fiction cousins.
Collecting data just got legally less questionable in the United States. On a Tuesday news roundup for ExchangeWire, Hanna Dillion covered a huge decision by the US court of appeals. The suit, brought by LinkedIn to prevent a rival company from scraping their publicly-available data, has ended with the Ninth Circuit of Appeals declaring the act of data scraping legal.
The act of scraping - using software to automatically collect data hosted on the public internet - is now legally defined as an act that is not classified as hacking with the court’s decision. Scraping, thus, does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.
The landmark ruling should come as a relief to academics, journalists, researchers, and archivists, for whom scraping publicly available information from the internet is an integral part of their day-to-day work. The decision, however, could also renew privacy and security concerns, as web scraping has been used for nefarious purposes in the past; in May 2021, several tech giants filed lawsuits against Clearview AI, a facial recognition startup which claimed to have scraped billions of social media profile photos, without the consent of users.
What does this mean for the podcasting world? One can legally scrape data, but what they do with it remains a legally gray area. Scraping publicly-available RSS feeds for academic purposes is fine. Scraping those same feeds for email addresses with intent to spam anyone who isn’t using a certain company’s hosting service with offers to switch to said service is subject to other pre-existing laws. For more on the state of data scraping, see our March 11th episode coverage of a story about a similar lawsuit.
Up next, in yet another recurring thread that has resurfaced: last Friday a Morning Brew article by Alyssa Meyers went live, titled “Spotify’s acquisition of podcast analytics firms has some in the industry concerned.”
The piece acts as an industry reaction to the February acquisition of Podsights and Chartable (see The Download’s February 18th episode for our coverage at the moment). In the interest of full disclosure, we must note one of the industry voices quoted by Meyers is Sound Profitable’s own Bryan Barletta.
The week after Spotify announced the acquisitions, Mike Kadin, CEO of podcast hosting and monetization platform RedCircle, told Marketing Brew it “had folks reach out to us from major publishers and ask if we have attribution technology. I’m not super worried about it, but it does sadden me to see more chunks of the ecosystem getting centralized.”
It’s no secret the official position of The Download is pro-third party analytics to keep the industry honest and prevent further walled gardens of information in adtech. The concerns continue to be real and the industry will continue to fret until more options exist.
Once again we return to highlighting the global nature of podcasting outside of English-speaking markets. On Saturday Luis Pablo Segundo, writing for Milenio, broke down the results of a recent study. The flashiest piece for our audience is the reveal that ad spending on podcasts in Mexico has risen fifty percent from 2019 to 2021, though it still represents a small market share in comparison to traditional radio.
Traditional radio is expected to reach an advertising revenue by 2025 of $480 million, 10.6 percent higher than what was recorded in 2021, while podcasting will remain almost 11 times lower at $44 million, according to consulting firm PwC.
A quick note for our Spanish-speaking audience: this story, as well as every other story covered each week, is covered in our Spanish sister podcast La Descarga! Hosted by myself and Gabriel Soto.
Before we leave the realm of global podcasting growth, a small bit of news from Canada. eMarketer’s Paul Briggs shared last Monday data predicting almost two-thirds of the Canadian population will listen to some form of digital audio by the end of 2022.
Last Thursday media critic and podcast producer Wil Williams guested on the Hot Pod newsletter with a column titled “What fiction podcasters can learn from nonfiction podcasters.”
Their piece aims to provide fiction podcast producers, aspiring and existing alike, tools to build stories with techniques that are second nature to their nonfiction cousins. Over three sections Williams explores story flow, following a thesis, evocative sound design while providing three examples of existing podcasts that best embody these traits.
But while fiction is finally getting its due, nonfiction is still considered the primary mode of storytelling in podcasting. This can cause some understandable contempt from fiction creators, but there's creative gold to be found in nonfiction. If you want your stories to have realistic goals, realistic sounds, and realistic characters, listening to real stories about real people can help you find those roots.
Their piece heaps praise on high-quality nonfiction podcasts while also identifying what they do to be high quality. Podcasting needs more successful shows made by well-read producers. Williams effectively provides an entry-level reading list covering everything from a critically-acclaimed episode of Radiolab to the pilot of the hyper-niche podcast The McElroy Brothers Will Be in Trolls 2. Consider their nine to be an extended version of The Download’s occasional suggested reading sections. Knowing why and how podcasts work is the key to making more podcasts that work.
For our final full story this week: Matt Deegan’s recent article “Tech Trying to Do Radio & Consistency.”
Posted on Wednesday to his Matt on Audio newsletter, Deegan circles back to the topic of live audio and interrogates why the trend has swiftly fallen out of public favor despite multiple platforms. A consistent trend Deegan notes, similar to that of Facebook quietly abandoning podcasting endeavors, is a lack of follow-through and consistency.
The vast majority of radio’s success comes from consistency and I’d argue that most successful podcasts are consistent too. If you take out the short-run documentary series, the vast majority of podcasts at the top of the Apple Podcast charts are long-running shows (and that’s with an algorithm that focuses on new).
Meanwhile, the majority of flagship podcasts and content creators meant to push new services, such as Spotify’s forgotten Podcasts with Music feature, have faded away months after launch. Flashy tech does not make a successful long-standing platform.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Steve Wilson, chief strategy officer at QCODE Media. They discuss what it takes to get podcasts featured in major podcast listening apps, building relationships with podcast discovery platforms, and becoming a co-marketing partner.Listen in to learn about:
- Steve's background and how he got into the podcast world.
- How to put your best foot forward when it comes to partnering with podcast listening apps.
- Why it's worth it to spend time cultivating relationships with in app curators.
- Why it's worth experimenting with different strategic partnerships plans with different listening apps.
- Pod.link, and why it's important to use, but it's not everything.
Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: podcast publishers have an opportunity, when posting on social media, to elevate the relationships they have (or want to have) with podcast listening apps, by promoting the link to their show on Apple or Spotify or Castbox (we could go on all day).Links:
- Steve Wilson
- QCODE
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This Week On The Download: the IAB cites digital audio as the fastest-growing digital ad sector, Anchor language update embraces global podcasting, and Adweek launched their own podcast network. Let’s get started.
Good news for those in the world of digital advertising: your efforts are working extremely well, according to the International Advertising Board. On Tuesday the IAB published an article titled “Digital Advertising Soared 35% to 189 Billion in 2021, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report.
Not the catchiest of headlines, but the article is full of good news.
“The growth is consistent with a recent study from Harvard Business School, commissioned by IAB, which showed the internet economy has grown seven times faster than the U.S. economy over the past four years and now accounts for 12% of the U.S. GDP.”
Digital advertising in general might be up, but there’s a tiny bit of news for the world of podcasting. Digital video, social media, and search revenue are all trending upward but digital audio has outpaced them all. According to one of the IAB’s highlights, digital audio took home the highest year over year growth at 57.9%, totaling $4.9 billion.
There’s a lot changing in the world of advertising. Both this and previous episodes cover the small evolutions required to adapt to new tech, legislation, and industry standards. Despite it all, podcasts are still bringing in the money.
One of the big-picture stories we’ve been following on The Download for months is that of podcasting as a global medium, not just something for English-speaking markets. The biggest news on that front was posted last Thursday on the official blog of Spotify’s podcast hosting platform Anchor. As of Thursday, Anchor web supports thirty five languages.
“One of our biggest goals is to ensure that creators everywhere have access to all the robust tools and features Anchor has to offer. And while creators around the world have been able to record, host, and grow their podcast on our platform, Anchor on web hasn’t always been available to everyone in their native language.”
As podcasting grows its infrastructure needs to grow with it. Localizing websites built for a different language is difficult under the best conditions. A major player in the podcasting industry allowing sites built on their service to be built in the native language of thirty five languages is a big step forward in supporting a world where the idea of a podcast does not automatically default to something produced in English.
On Tuesday Al Mannarino, writing for the Adweek blog, announced Adweek has leveled up their podcasting capabilities with the help of Acast.
“We are excited to announce the launch of the Adweek Podcast Network, the first-ever podcast network for advertising and marketing professionals, brand enthusiasts and anyone curious about what the heck that ad they saw was about.”
The new network is planned to feature twelve podcasts, featuring five new creations, four existing Adweek shows, and three pre-existing podcasts from Adweek partners.
“Through our partnership with Acast, the world’s leading independent podcast hosting platform, we’ll make sense of trends, tackle pressing challenges, and share top-tier insight to help you level up your career, creativity and strategy.”
Adweek joins an ever-growing group of media outlets, organizations, and others who’re capitalizing on the inherent cross-promotional capabilities of a network. More content, more inventory, and a shiny new delivery vehicle for their existing ad sales team. What’s not to love?
A changing of the guard is happening at Ad Results Media. On Tuesday Business Wire reported ARM CEO Marshall Williams is stepping down from his position. Chief revenue officer Steven Shanks and chief operations officer Michael Kropko are slated to replace Williams as co-CEOs.
Williams’ replacements aren’t newcomers to the industry, either. New co-CEO Steven Shanks laid out his bone fides:
““I’m honored to have had the opportunity to learn from Marshall for the last decade. I’ve enjoyed purchasing some of the first podcast ads, negotiating some of the largest buys in the history of podcasting, developing 360-degree integrated ad concepts, building sponsorships from the ground up, and ultimately fueling the industry up to $2 billion in ad revenue. I’m thrilled to work with our team to further innovate and deliver performance for our clients.”
While ARM looks to the future with two new CEOs and a former as chairman, it’s worth acknowledging William’s contribution over two and a half decades. ARM has played a big part in the growth of podcast advertising and Williams’ involvement was easily a large influence in how Podsights became the success they are.
The Download has covered multiple articles about upcoming privacy changes on larger platforms and how they’ll affect advertising. On Monday Lara O’Reilly, writing for Insider, published an article showing projections on just how much some of the biggest ad buyers stand to lose from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency update.
“The fallout from Apple's major privacy update is expected to continue well past the first year of its rollout, with a new analysis estimating the change could dent Meta, YouTube, Snap, and Twitter's revenues by almost $16 billion in total this year.”
Facebook parent company Meta is projected to take the biggest hit with a revenue impact of 9.7 %, just edging out Snapchat owner Snap’s 9.6% loss. Though, where Snap is losing just under $550 million, Meta stands to lose $12.8 billion.
“The change forced many advertisers to reassess their marketing and shift spend into channels that are less reliant on Apple's tracking identifier, such as offline advertising or Apple's own search ad products.”
This humble podcast news aggregation podcast wishes to point out podcast ads are a pre-existing channel that are in no way reliant on Apple’s tracking identifier.
On the February 10th episode of The Download we covered an Ashley Carman op-ed in Hot Pod that highlighted Facebook’s apparent lack of interest in a push into podcasting, a move the company had seemed to be quite vocal about.
Carman is back, and the news isn’t looking good for podcasters who favor their grandparent’s favorite social media platform. In an article for Bloomberg, Carman’s new headline reads “Facebook is Pulling Back from Its Foray Into Podcasting.”
“A spokesperson for Facebook said the company is still working on podcasts even as it’s accelerating work on priority features like Reels and Feed. The company is seeing good engagement for its audio products, according to the spokesperson, who declined to provide specifics.”
Meta’s focus appears to be firmly directed towards plans to build a shortform video platform to compete with TikTok and building out their virtual reality hangout space Metaverse, where users can have meetings and buy NFTs. Meanwhile, the proposed projects to get Facebook-exclusive podcasting have been left to die on the vine.
Carman’s reporting reveals multiple contractors who’d been brought on to create content for both Facebook’s podcasting arm and their social audio platform have not had their contracts renewed. Facebook sponsored Podcast Movement last August, yet was absent from Podcast Movement Evolutions last month.
Still, not all hope is lost. Carman’s report ends with anecdotal evidence that might suggest there’s still a use-case for podcasting on Facebook.
“But even Facebook’s limited podcasting efforts have been a source of growth for some content providers. TYT Network, which produces political programming, said Facebook is its second-most-popular listening platform after Apple Podcasts.”
Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles that didn’t make it into today’s episode, but are still worth working into your weekend reading.
The first title: Ariel Shapiro Joins The Verge as Lead Reporter for Hot Pod by Aude White
And finally: What I Learned Teaching a NYU Course About Podcasting by Steven Goldstein.
As always, the links to every article mentioned on an episode of The Download can be found in the episode details.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Suscribe to the I Hear Things newsletter at http://tomwebster.media
Michael Stelzner's Crypto Business podcast: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/crypto-business-podcast/
Brian Fanzo's NFT 365 podcast: https://www.isocialfanz.com/nft365
Support the show at http://buymeacoffee.com/tomwebster
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta and Arielle Nissenblatt discuss Podcast Movement: Evolutions, which took place last month in Los Angeles. Overall, they had a blast, met with a ton of industry folks, had some nice meals, and attended some innovative sessions. Bryan and Arielle take time to highlight Evo Terra's Podcast Hall of Fame acceptance speech.Listen in to learn about:
- The overall feel of the event
- The YouTube announcement
- Bryan's on-stage time
- Arielle's social media talk
- Evo Terra's acceptance speech and his call to action for the future of the industry
- Future podcast events
Here's our favorite idea from this conversation: It was super neat to meet Sounds Profitable listeners, sponsors, and readers in person!
Links:
- Podcast Movement
- Evo's speech
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
- The Podcaster's Dilemma
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on The Download; digital ads evolve as online privacy increases, Substack poaches podcasts from Patreon, and iHeartMedia is buying NFTs to make podcasts about them.A fair amount of coverage has been written about the so-called death of targeted advertising. Privacy changes implemented by Google and Apple have made some waves, but said waves are having interesting effects on the industry. On Wednesday Brian Chen and Daisuke Wakabayashi published a New York Times piece called You’re Still Being Tracked on the Internet, Just in a Different Way.
A fair amount of coverage has been written about the so-called death of targeted advertising. Privacy changes implemented by Google and Apple have made some waves, but said waves are having interesting effects on the industry. On Wednesday Brian Chen and Daisuke Wakabayashi published a New York Times piece called You’re Still Being Tracked on the Internet, Just in a Different Way.
Throughout the piece Chen and Wakabayashi alternate between birds-eye views of the tech industry and personal anecdotes from small business reflecting the changing landscape of traditional digital ads.
“The rise of this tracking has implications for digital advertising, which has depended on user data to know where to aim promotions. It tilts the playing field toward large digital ecosystems such as Google, Snap, TikTok, Amazon and Pinterest, which have millions of their own users and have amassed information on them. Smaller brands have to turn to those platforms if they want to advertise to find new customers.”
Where in previous years a business would be able to purchase ad space on services like Instagram or Facebook, famous for their tracking providing fine-tuned results, now the pendulum has shifted.
“Shawn Baker, the owner of Baker SoftWash, an exterior cleaning company in Mooresville, N.C., said it previously took about $6 of Facebook ads to identify a new customer. Now it costs $27 because the ads do not find the right people, he said.”
With the devaluing of assumed default channels of advertising, more budgets are being redistributed to new avenues of advertising. Especially options with first-party data. While podcast advertising doesn’t offer that data for users, the contextual nature and growth of podcasting-first data solutions are becoming appealing options for those buyers
Dave Jones (no relation to the undersea legend) posted a blog to Substack Monday with intent to clear the air on Podcasting 2.0. What exactly is Podcasting 2.0? As Jones puts it:
“The Podcasting 2.0 project is simply this: A vision of what podcasting experiences can be in the future, and a set of free, open source standards for how that vision becomes reality.”
Jones goes on to give context for what some of these open-source standards could look like, folding them into a fictional day in the life a podcast super-listener named Joy. Throughout Joy’s typical work day she uses a one-size-fits-all podcatcher app that folds features and functionality from existing first-party services into one place. Whenever a video podcast she likes goes live, Podcast 2.0 framework allows her to join in and listen to just the audio (much like YouTube’s audio-only feature). When she dips into the video portion of the stream she can tip money to the hosts, causing an on-screen notification akin to Superchats on YouTube and donations on Twitch.
Her app displays episode-specific links and data mentioned in podcasts manually placed by the hosts. It automatically switches to lower bitrate versions of audio feeds when traveling into areas with poor signal. In Joy’s Podcast 2.0 world she can check comments and reviews aggregated from other podcasting apps.
“Every bit of the above scenario is perfectly possible using only RSS and open source standards. Much of it is already functioning today in apps and services that are early adopters.”
For those who’ve only heard of Podcasting 2.0 in passing, Jones’ piece aims to explain the passion and potential open-source future the concept could provide.
We move from a story posted on Substack to a story about Substack. On Tuesday Ashley Carman published the Bloomberg piece Substack Poaches Patreon Stars for Expanded Push into Podcasting. Substack now offers two resources popular with monetized podcasts: a newsletter and a private RSS feed for paying subscribers.
Substack’s COO Hamish McKenzie says the company is giving grants to certain podcasters who make the switch from Patreon. Though, like a recent report on YouTube offering grants for podcasters to pivot to video, Substack is keeping quiet as to which specific podcasts got grants. Currently only four are known.
The grants Substack offers serve to soften the blow of abandoning an existing service. Patreon does not offer the ability to take paid subscriptions to a competitor’s platform. Podcasters making the switch will lose patrons, moreso than they normally would to monthly churn.
Marketers have been telling podcasters that newsletters are a successful way to create and own an audience. Substack taking initiative shows they might begin to own and understand the market of podcasts centered around communities. And, by extension, own the revenue derived from said market.
That said, this introduces another hosting solution that does not appear to be following IAB standards. Substack joins Apple’s subscription product, Supercast, and Supporting Cast in that crowd. This isn’t necessarily an issue for the individual user because they provide first party info. Nevertheless, it does show the IAB standard doesn’t have the teeth many hoped it would as this industry continues to grow
**Soon it might be time to break out the picket signs and pro-worker chants at Spotify. On Monday Ashley Carman, making her second appearance this episode, published the Bloomberg article Spotify Podcast Union is Ready to Strike Over Contract Terms.
Barring successful negotiations, the Parcast Union is poised to execute the first ever strike at Spotify. The union cites unaddressed issues include basic concerns like pay, but also staff diversity concerns and IP rights.
“The bargaining committee told Bloomberg News that Spotify specifically doesn’t want to commit to a request that half of job candidates who make it past the phone interview stage be people of color, people who identify as LGBTQ+ or people with disabilities. They also added they haven’t agreed on acceptable salary minimums.”
97% of Parcast union members have pledged to join the strike, spanning multiple departments.
“A strike would be a first for Spotify and would come at a particularly fraught time for its podcast ambitions. The company laid off the internal team at its fourth podcast studio, known as Studio 4, in January, and has struggled to get much of its headline-driving content off the ground.”
For more information on that reference to unreleased headline-driving content, we direct you to the March third episode of The Download for coverage of that particular story. Here’s hoping the union walks away from the bargaining table with their goals achieved. People deserve to be paid a fair living wage, and podcasting on the scale Spotify operates at is certainly big enough to handle that.
For our final story of the week, something bizarre.
Non-fungible tokens, a digital collectible known for being rife with pump-and-dump schemes and other classic forms of financial scams, are potentially getting their first big break in podcasting through iHeartMedia’s new scheme.
Sara Fischer, reporting for Axios, broke exclusive news on Tuesday: iHeartMedia is building a podcast network around NFTs they’ve purchased.
“iHeartMedia is currently in talks to make 10–15 investments in prominent NFT collections over the next few days — including CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and World of Women — per Khalil Tawil, EVP of strategy at iHeartMedia.”
As Tawil describes it, iHeartMedia will purchase NFTs from various internet-popular collections and then craft a slate of podcasts that retroactively create a series of stories and characters around the algorithmically-generated artwork they sort-of own.
Fischer quotes Khalil Tawil as saying there is “no real precedent for this.” While technically true in the context of podcasting, it’s not new in other forms of media. Most notable are the multiple attempts at getting NFT animated series off the ground, as Vice covered in November.
Though, iHeartMedia has the scale needed to truly take advantage of the IP inherent in their purchases. From Hot Pod on Thursday,
“One of the unique features of these character-based NFT series is that they often hand IP rights over to whoever owns them. That means if you buy a Bored Ape, you can print your Bored Ape on a T-shirt, market that shirt online, put it on a billboard, and so on. Folks who believe in the NFT hype want to turn these collections into a sort of decentralized Disney, which, I suspect, will overshoot reality by at least a few orders of magnitude.”
Whether iHeart’s decentralized Disney will profit or not remains to be seen.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We’re offering up a special treat for you today. You see, a lot of the Sounds Profitable crew was all at Podcast Movement Evolutions last week... and what a week it was! Think non-stop discussions about podcasting, ad tech, equipment, statistics... and more.
This week, as we wind down from all the hype, networking, eating, and drinking that occurred in LA, Bryan's having some fun in Disneyland with his family, and Arielle's enjoying some time with family on the west coast.
This episode is actually from an episode of another of our podcasts, called Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles. And that podcast is what it says on the box—an article published on Sounds Profitable that’s narrated by the writer.
In this case, it’s Bryan, walking you through the entirety of the Sounds Profitable family of shows. At least as they are today.
Credits:
- Written by Bryan Barletta
- Copy editing by Evo Terra
- Rather read it? https://soundsprofitable.com/update/many-flavors
- Audio engineering by Ian Powell
- Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron
Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download from Sounds Profitable; podcast CPMs blow digital out of the water, a leaked document reveals YouTube plans for podcasters, and iHeartMedia breaks into kids podcasting.
In a development some industry veterans might not have seen coming when they got started in the industry: The Wall Street Journal has an article about podcast advertising. And what’s better: podcast CPMs are doing well.
Last Friday WSJ’s Megan Graham published “Streaming Audio Climbs the Charts With Marketers, but Some Want More Certainty.” Graham’s 900-word report combines interviews with advertisers with data from sources like the Infinite Dial to give a birds-eye view of the industry.
“In early 2021, some 68 percent of Americans aged 12 and older said they listened to online audio in the previous month, up from 47% who said the same in 2014, according to surveys conducted by Edison Research and Triton Digital.”
Graham goes on to cite a Standard Media Index study showing podcast CPMs rose to $26 in Q3 2021, up four dollars from 2019.
The piece covers some of the inherent issues with confirming the reach and success of a given podcast ad, but primarily presents a bright future to the industry through quotes from ad buyers big and small. While it’s not full of brand-new information that’d shock someone with an eMarketer bookmark, it does reflect a healthy and growing industry. And did we mention the Wall Street Journal is talking about podcasting?
Last week we covered the developing story of TV ratings giant Nielsen, their pack of evolution, and a rejected buyout offer of six billion dollars. According to InsideRadio this Tuesday, Nielsen has sold for sixteen billion to a collective of private equity firms.
“The Nielsen board voted unanimously to support the acquisition proposal, which represents a 10% premium over the consortium's earlier proposal and a 60% premium over Nielsen's stock price before the potential sale surfaced in early-March.”
Barring any unforeseen interruptions, the deal is expected to close in the latter half of 2022. Now we wait to see if, as said last week on The Download, yet another third party incumbent for measurement and research becomes a proprietary service under new ownership.
YouTube’s planning big things for podcast integration, monetization, and analytics, according to an exclusive scoop on Wednesday from Podnews.
“Despite no announcement from YouTube’s director of podcasting, Kai Chuk, at Podcast Movement Evolutions last week, Podnews has been sent an 84-page presentation produced by YouTube, intended for podcast publishers. In it, three slides marked ‘Looking Ahead’ allow us a view into what YouTube is planning.”
The most notable features of the leaked deck are a promise of RSS feed ingestion, monetization both through Google and approved larger partners, and they’re open to accepting podcast measurement solutions. The final comes with a promise to integrate YouTube data into “industry-standard podcast measurement platforms.”
This is paired with the logos for Podtrac, Charitable, and Nielsen. Podnews offers the insight with
“Chartable was bought by Spotify in February, so perhaps this slide shows companies that YouTube have worked with, rather than companies it might work with in future.”
Shreya: Spotify is testing out one of its new toys in a new test integration of discovery platform Podz. As reported by Tech Crunch’s Sarah Perez on Monday, a Twitter thread from early adopter Chris Messina showcases the new feature. The Podz integration as of this writing is visually similar to algorithm-driven vertical feed apps like TikTok, providing Spotify users with a seemingly infinite virtual feed of sixty second audio clips from podcast episodes matched to show art, animated transcript, and episode information.
“What made the company’s technology interesting is that it didn’t rely on podcast creators to produce their own clips for its feed. Instead, it used a machine learning model that had been trained on some 100,000 hours of audio to help automatically select clips to showcase.”
As Perez points out in the article, Podz isn’t the first company to try and fix podcast discovery, but they were the first to be bought for almost fifty million dollars. Now their tech is being deployed for field testing on iOS devices. Time will tell how Spotify’s new automated TikTok for podcasts works out.
Followers of The Download might remember our March 18th episode in which we covered a Hollywood Insider article about the booming business of making podcasts for children. That story continues to blossom as a big name in the industry has tossed their hat into the ring. As reported by Brad Hill on Tuesday for RainNews, iHeartMedia has teamed up with Collab Incorporated to create podcast network Curativity.
The network has partnered with Jim Jacobs, known as Mr. Jim to his young audience, creator of Kids Animal Stories and Kids Short Stories. According to iHeartMedia’s press release, both of Jacobs’ existing series net over a million monthly downloads. In addition to onboarding existing content, Curativity has a new Jacobs-hosted Mr. Jim property called Spyology Squad scheduled to launch April 4th.
This new announcement signals not only is children’s content catching the eye of big players in the podcasting industry, it’s interesting enough to provoke a rare iHeartMedia collaboration with a creative agency.
Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles that didn’t make it into today’s episode, but are still worth working into your weekend reading.
- New Education Platform for the Audio Industry, all Delivered via Podcast - a press release via Podnews.
- A frustratingly difficult question about your podcast audience is about to get a lot less frustratingly difficult by Dan Misener
- Webby Awards spins off podcast award program for 2023 by Brad Hill.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The full Infinite Dial 2022 Presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf3CtkkUqgA
My Medium article, with a recap of the current state of podcasting for 2022: https://webby2001.medium.com/the-state-of-podcasting-in-2022-back-to-work-2b21583c33bc
Spotify's new podcasting interface (from Podnews): https://podnews.net/update/spotify-new-ux
Adori Labs: https://www.adorilabs.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Tyler Blot, Director of Client Development at TransUnion about data -- 1st and 3rd party data, with a bit of 2nd party data thrown in there. They discuss the differentiating factors between the three of them and what you should know as an advertiser and consumer.Listen in to learn about:
- Transparency in data collection
- How and why your data is collected
- Why this conversation is important to have right now
- And much more!
Here's our favorite idea from this conversation: You have to do your homework. While your industry peers can vouch for a product to a certain extent, you won't be able to make your decisions until you read the fine print.Links:
- TransUnion
- Tyler Blot
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Co-hosted by Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download; A new article shines light on unsavory developments at Stitcher after their buyout, Chartable is shuttering SmartAds, and this year’s edition of The Infinite Dial was unveiled at Podcast Movement: Evolutions.
Last Friday, Tom Webster published an installment of I Hear Things titled Podcasting’s Most Controversial Statistic.
The statistic in question relates to an experiment run by Edison Research’s Podcast Consumer Tracker. The parameters of the experiment were simple: discern how many networks an advertiser would have to buy run-of-network spots to reach at least half of weekly podcast listeners, accounting for unduplicated reach. Webster goes into great detail explaining unduplicated reach, something The Download’s writer does not feel qualified to condense further.
“When we ran these numbers a year ago, we discovered that you could reach 50% of weekly podcast listeners if you bought every show on the top seven podcast networks.”
Webster has run the same experiment again using Q4 2021 data and that number has now dropped to one only needing to buy out ad space on four podcast networks to confidently reach fifty percent of podcast listeners.
Webster stresses the importance of collective action for smaller, independent podcasters who don’t have the same ad-buying power of the bigger players in the industry.
“I have a day job (I am sure you do, too), but if indie podcasters don't find a way to organize and consolidate their buying power, some monetization options are just not going to be available for them. For you.”
On Tuesday The Verge published How SiriusXM Bought and Bungled a Beloved Podcast Network. **With extensive reporting by writer Ashley Carman and bespoke illustrations, the piece tells the story of SiriusXM’s acquisition of Stitcher from the founding of comedy podcast network Earwolf in 2010 to today.
The 2020 SiriusXM and Stitcher merger came with many beneficial changes for both companies. SiriusXM gets all the benefits of a successful podcasting company while the producers get access to SiriusXM-level budgets, enabling podcasts under the Stitcher banner to grow and improve.
“But according to 13 former corporate employees across Stitcher who spoke with The Verge anonymously because of nondisclosure agreements and fear of retaliation, the merger was marked by confusion, culture clash, and shifting objectives. Around 145 people worked at Stitcher when it was bought, and since then, more than a quarter of them have left, The Verge found through LinkedIn.”
Carman’s article continues at length to detail systemic issues plaguing all but the most successful content creators through the multiple buyouts that lead to SiriusXM’s difficult transition period. A period plagued with mismanagement and miscommunication to the point one Stitcher employee had to explain to a SiriusXM team member that RSS feeds aren’t constantly-live feeds. The piece is a masterclass in how not to handle merging two completely different companies.
A new post on the Chartable blog has announced the inevitable: Chartable has made the first step in winding down services available to users not on Spotify’s Megaphone. Chartable co-founder Dave Zohrob writes:
“With Chartable now a part of Spotify, we will be shifting our focus to building world-class publisher tools as part of the Megaphone platform. For our advertiser customers, that means that we will soon be deprecating our SmartAds product and will no longer be supporting advertiser campaigns on the Chartable platform.”
SmartAds campaigns can still be booked through April 21st. The final day for new impressions tagged with SmartAds will be June 30th. In the final paragraph Zohrob clarifies Chartable publisher products aren’t going anywhere, as these shutdowns only affect advertising products. For those wondering why this wasn’t a surprise announcement, we recommend checking out February 18th’s edition of The Download when we covered an article about the Chartable-Spotify acquisition.
Now for a pivot away from acquisitions: Nielsen has not been acquired by a private equity firm.
The original story, posted last Thursday to The Drum by Hannah Bowler, details the struggles facing the aging monolith and asks if a buyout would help. Neilsen, once synonymous with television monitoring, has been slow to adapt to the rapid evolution of what people watch and how they watch it. Now their older methodology combined with pending lawsuits alleging inaccurate counting and fraud by concealment threatens the company.
“For the industry to trust Nielsen again, president and chief executive at the VAB Sean Cunningham says it needs to deliver - here begins a nested quote from Cunningham - “deep disclosures and real transparency, commitment to the modernization that sharply increased competition demands and increased collaboration versus increased collision with their major clients.”
Then, this Monday, the story developed further. Frank Saxe, writing for InsideRadio, reported the proposed deal was dead in the water.
Nielsen referred to the offer as "unsolicited”. The company remains public. Even so, the near-miss of a buyout remains a sign of the times. We’re seeing the chipping away of a third party incumbent for measurement and research. With current trends there very well could be a future where a service even as big as Nielsen becomes a gated proprietary service.
And finally, the one you’ve all been waiting for: on Wednesday,Thursday Tom Webster took to the Podcast Movement: Evolutions stage to present the 2022 edition of Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial. Over the hour-long presentation Webster and Wondery CEO Jen Sargent covered the plethora of industry data, a lot of which continues to trend upwards.
“Seventy-three percent of the U.S. 12+ population (an estimated 209 million people) have listened to online audio in the last month, up from 68% in 2021.”
Casual engagement with podcast listening is up as well, with sixty-two percent of the U.S. population over the age of 12 having ever tried a podcast, compared to just eleven percent in 2006.
The seventy-side pdf and fifty minute video of the presentation might sound like a daunting task, but the Infinite Dial remains an invaluable source of data for the podcasting industry.
Since The Download doesn’t have a must-read article recommendation segment this week, consider combing through the Infinite Dial to take up that space of three or four articles you’d have read otherwise.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta sits down with Brendan Kelly (director of ad quality measure) and Stacey Hultgren (senior manager of ad quality measurement) of SXM Media to break down the concepts of brand safety and suitability. How do advertisers determine what shows are brand safe and brand suitable for them? They also discuss a proposal that Brendan and Stacey recently brought to an IAB working group, focusing on how transcripts can be used to ameliorate the process of determining brand safety and suitability for podcasts and audio.Listen in to learn about:
- The different between brand "safe" and brand "suitable.
- What is the IAB and how can you join?
- Why Bryan, Stacey, and Brendan think there's still ample time to get in on the ground floor and make changes.
- Why transcripts are so crucial for advertisers to acquire and consider.
- And much more!
Here's our favorite idea from this conversation: Bryan uses the recent example of the Applebee's ad running on CNN's wartime coverage of Ukraine to explain brand suitability.Links:
- The IAB
- The IAB tech lab
- SXM Media
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
YouTube | The Young TurksCNN Airs Corny Applebee’s Ad While Covering Russia-Ukraine War iabtechlab.com-Established in 2014, the IAB Technology Laboratory (Tech Lab) is a non-profit consortium that engages a member community globally to develop foundational technology and standards that enable growth and trust in the digital media ecosystem. Comprised of digital publishers, ad technology firms, agencies, marketers, and other member companies, IAB Tech Lab focuses on solutions for brand safety and ad fraud; identity, data, and consumer privacy; ad experiences and measurement; and programmatic effectiveness. Its work includes the OpenRTB real-time bidding protocol, ads.txt anti-fraud specification, Open Measurement SDK for viewability and verification, VAST video specification, and DigiTrust ide… Show moreSXM MediaSXM Media — The Best of Music, Podcast, and Satellite Radio AdvertisingThis is the best of audio advertising, all in one place. Experience the power of audio across music, podcast, and satellite radio. (27 kB)https://www.sxmmedia.com/pod.linkThe Download from Sounds ProfitableThe most important news from this week and why it matters to people in the business of podcasting. Brought to you by Sounds Profitable. (85 kB)https://pod.link/1608566100pod.linkSounds Profitable: Narrated ArticlesSounds Profitable is a weekly newsletter that covers both strategic and tactical changes to the business side of podcasting. Articles cover a range of topics, from podcast adtech to new revenue models to innovative business initiatives and is read by senior podcasting industry management, including CEOs and divisional heads. Our mission is not to make the information from the podcasting industry more accessible to everyone, and this podcast feed is an extension of that. Each episode is a human-narrated version of the articles we publish on our site and in our newsletter, typically voiced by the author.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download from Sound Profitable; Beer gets into video podcast advertising, kids podcast business is booming, and an appeal to private marketplace deals over FAANG, and more.
Production company Crooked Media has kicked off a campaign incorporating a purely visual sponsorship into Offline with Jon Favreau, and it’s from a sector not frequently seen in podcasting. Morning Brew’s Alyssa Meyers covered the story last Friday, shining light on a YouTube-focused partnership between Crooked Media and Blue Moon beer, a subsidiary of Molson Coors.
“For Blue Moon, Crooked agreed to add title cards that say ‘presented by Blue Moon,’ along with the brand’s logo, to the start of each Offline YouTube episode, Crooked Media VP of commercial marketing and creative strategy Joel Fowler told Marketing Brew.”
In addition to the title card and host-read ads in each video, Blue Moon will also buy YouTube ad space specifically on Crooked Media’s YouTube channel. Joel Fowler told Marketing Brew Blue Moon is the first “bigger blue-chip brands that you’re seeing come into the podcast space.” Fowler foresees more Fortune 500 companies embracing multi-media podcast ad campaigns in the near future.
Disinformation detection company NewsGuard is looking to provide brand safety by uprooting disinformation in podcasts. According to reporting by MediaPosts’ Joe Mandese:
“NewsGuard is said to be in talks with at least three of the ad industry’s big holding companies to fund the new podcast rating service, and would reap a six-month exclusive window as part of the deal.”
Mandese connects a renewed industry interest in new brand safety tools for podcasts to the latest controversy surrounding the resurgence of COVID-19 disinformation on Spotify’s The Joe Rogan Experience.
NewsGuard aims to provide a personal touch with physical human analysts to employ prior knowledge and context to determine a podcast’s veracity, building lists of safe or problem podcasts as time goes on.
While initially NewsGuard’s attempt to adapt their blog fact-checkers for podcasting sounds noble, it raises some eyebrows. It’s a proprietary tool that’ll have six-month exclusivity for the anonymous holding companies funding the project. Their chosen hands-on approach also isn’t scaleable like other solutions currently in production, like that offered by Barometer. Unlike NewsGuard, Barometer is using the publicly-auditable GARM framework and isn’t focusing on exclusivity with a particular investor.
It is The Download’s opinion that the brand safety problem needs not be solved with proprietary solutions, but with accessible and easily-replicated frameworks.
Once again J. Clara Chan over at Hollywood Reporter has some fun developments in the podcasting world. Published last Tuesday, Chan’s The Booming Business of Kids’ Podcasting gives a rundown of the big-name attention kids podcasts are getting.
“Podcasts in the kids and family category have seen a 20 percent increase in listenership since 2019, according to NPR and Edison Research’s 2021 Spoken Word Audio Report. Podcast adaptations of hit children’s shows are proliferating, while, conversely, film and TV studios are becoming involved earlier than ever to snap up podcast IP catered toward kids.”
That 20% number is likely quite low, as discussed in Lindsay Patterson’s Medium blog on how the Kids & Family category needs an overhaul. Regardless of where the number’s at, it’s good enough to get some big movers interested in kids’ podcasting content. Spotify has produced a podcast spinoff of the viral hit toddler sensory videos CoComelon. GBH Kids is producing an adaptation to continue the recently-retired PBS Kids series Arthur. On the opposite side of the equation Warner Brothers is optioning the TV rights from Gen-Z Media’s unreleased podcast 20 Million Views. According to Ben Strouse, CEO of Gen-Z media while speaking to Hollywood Reporter: “Everyone’s looking for great IP, especially great family IP, which is what we’re counting on.”
As YouTube, television, and every other form of media has discovered: making content to entertain kids is profitable. Now podcasting just has to thread the tricky needle of advertising to younger audiences with legislation like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act severely limiting traditional advertising practices.
On Wednesday Michael Korsunsky published the incredibly thorough op-ed “How Publishers Can Lessen Their Dependence on FAANG” in a Wednesday op-ed for Adweek.
Korsunsky opens with a quick recap of the alleged handshake deal in which Google offered Facebook perks like lower digital ad fees in exchange for Facebook’s support of Google’s Open Bidding program. News that gives the appearance the F and the G of FAANG are colluding. For those not looking at the transcript: FAANG is an initialism of the five biggest players in tech consisting of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. Well, technically with Google becoming an Alphabet company the last letter should be A, but FAANA doesn’t have the same flair.
Quirky names aside, Korsunsky’s not happy.
“[T]he news is a betrayal of publishers’ trust and highlights yet again the overdominance of the walled garden; it should therefore be treated as a bellwether moment for all digital marketers.”
Korsunsky thinks its high time to kick shadowy open marketplaces to the curb and embrace transparent, more direct transactions on private marketplaces. For more background on the perils of open-market programmatic, check out Michael Bürgi’s Digiday piece “Open-market video programmatic is rife with fraud, say buyers, further complicating an already-difficult marketplace.”
What does this mean for podcasting? As an industry it’s best poised to expand with programmatic through private marketplaces, providing more transparency and better relationships than open marketplaces. If advertisers get on board with finding this solution more preferable outside of podcasting, it will likely bleed over to increased programmatic sales in podcasting
Once again we bring shocking news posted to Twitter. On Monday Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint posted a Twitter thread analyzing developments in a sizable privacy lawsuit against Google in Northern California courts. The court order calls for Ernst & Young, Google’s independent auditor, to immediately relinquish all files relevant to the suit. Google is also ordered to show cause as to why they should not be sanctioned in light of new information suggesting Google allegedly ordered Ernst & Young to withhold over six thousand sensitive documents relevant to the case.
“It’s a bad look for E&Y to be playing this way for Google considering they perform much of the auditing across the advertising industry.”
In addition to the advertising industry implications, Ernst & Young is one of the primary auditing firms for certifications, like those through IAB.
Continuing The Download’s tendency to experiment and grow, we’ve got two new segments that don’t quite have names just yet. We’re working on it. First up, a brief recap of podcast company funding rounds of note over the last week.
On Tuesday Libsyn landed 4.75 million in new equity financing.
And as broken in Monday’s Podnews, podcast startup Kaleidoscope secured 3.5 million in funding, as well as a six-show deal with iHeartMedia.
For this second and final segment, we want to branch out our occasional honorable mention into a regular highlight of multiple stories we couldn’t fit into today’s episode but are absolutely worth your time to read in full. With that in mind, here are this week’s three must-reads:
- The Care and Feeding of a Podcast Audience by Tom Webster.
- Women Podcast Listeners: What We Know Right Now by Caila Litman.
- Big Tech Always Fails at Doing Radio by Matt Deegan, which might be of special interest to those who remember our coverage of the Amazon AMP app last week.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sorry about all the police sirens. I wasn't arrested. No, I had to record this on St. Patrick's Day. In Downtown Boston. It's like Christmas, but for alcotourists.
Register for the 2022 Infinite Dial presentation here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-infinite-dial-2022-tickets-290830069567?aff=edisonnewsletter&__s=xxxxxxx
Support for I Hear Things can be provided at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Manuela Bedoya, Shreya Sharma, and Gavin Gaddis are on the show today, chatting with Bryan Barletta about our newest podcast, The Download. If this is your first time hearing about it, The Download is our weekly podcast about the business of podcasting. It started in December, and was initially hosted by Evo Terra and Bryan Barletta. We quickly decided to bring in Sharma, Bedoya, and Gaddis to the production and hosting team. In this chat, learn more about the team behind The Download and why we decided this podcast was necessary in the first place, both for Sounds Profitable, and for the podcast industry.
Listen in to learn about:
- How The Download team sources their news.
- How Sharma, Bedoya, and Gaddis stay up to date on the podcast world's happenings.
- Our goal for The Download
- An upcoming Spanish-language version of The Download, prominently featuring Sounds Profitable contributor Gabriel Soto of Edison Research
- How The Download fits into Sounds Profitable's overall mission
- And much more!
Here's our favorite idea from this conversation: when each guest was asked where they get their podcast news, they cited each other's podcast newsletters -- Shreya Sharma writes Inside Podcasting, Manuela Bedoya curates the Podcasting, Seriously newsletter, and Gavin Gaddis is subscribed to all of 'em!
Links:
- Follow Manuela
- Follow Gavin
- Follow Shreya
- The Download
- SquadCast
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta
- Audio engineering and transcriptions by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download from Sounds Profitable; ad tech firms are under fire for data scraping, Amazon joins the social audio market, YouTube is paying podcasters to incorporate video, and more.
Morning Brew’s Ryan Barwick reports that trade groups acting on behalf of publishers from the US, UK, and Canada are accusing ad-tech firms of unfairly scraping metadata from websites Once collected, this allegedly ill-gotten data is used to create contextual advertising segments for clients without the publisher’s consent, also undercutting the publishers’ attempts to directly sell contextual advertising deals.
“Now that third-party cookies are dying and some ad dollars are shifting to contextual advertising—ads based on the content of the media, not on personal information—publishers want a (better) seat at the table and stronger terms as the industry adopts new technologies.”
Richard Reeves, managing director of the Association of Online Publishers, summarized the issue of companies scraping data.
“What we are now seeing is people almost brazenly walking through your home, and removing your furniture, and selling your assets elsewhere. And you don’t even know that they’re doing it, or you can’t receive any value for it. Just because you can doesn’t mean to say you should.”
Data scraping isn’t new to podcasting, either. Transcription happens in podcasting, with and without a publisher's consent. It’s likely however this wider publisher issue plays out will have trickle-down effects to what companies can do with unlicensed podcast transcripts.
Amazon has a new social audio app to make podcasters' dreams of being a DJ come true. Brad Hill of Rain News reports:
“While early reports compare Amp to Clubhouse, Amazon’s promotional emphasis is on building interactive music shows, something like live, interactive radio.”
Amp brings to mind an obscure podcasting tool Spotify launched for Anchor in late 2020. The feature, titled Shows with Music at launch, allows podcasters on Anchor to slot any song in the Spotify catalog between any pre-recorded podcast segments. Listeners with Spotify Premium would experience a seamless transition as if the music was baked into the podcast, while free listeners would hear a thirty-second preview of the song. Shows with Music still exists, technically, but has fallen by the wayside to become a feature hidden in the Anchor interface. Much like the forgotten podcasts from big-name creators covered last week.
Amp, conversely, only requires listeners to sign up for a free Amp account to listen to creators. The Verge’s Jack Kastrenakes writes:
“Amazon is positioning this as more of a radio-style service than a live chat service (there’s even a five-person cap on callers right now), which is probably for the best.”
Shows with Music was a cool feature that enabled podcasters to live out their radio DJ dreams in a copyright-friendly manner. Another platform with a massive collection of licensed content at their disposal playing in this podcasting-adjacent space might just lead to more creativity and innovation in the social audio sphere.
On Tuesday, podcasting ad tech company Gumball announced they had raised ten million in Series A funding.
Brad Hill of Rain News reports,
“Gumball, which was started by podcast comedy network Headgum, allows advertisers to programatically buy pre-recorded host-read ads. The system offers real-time inventory browsing, demographic audience targeting, and verification of placement and listening. The company lists a few brands which have used the system — Casper, CBS, Netflix, OkCupid, Squarespace, Warby Parker, and others.”
Naturally, the Gumball system is deployed across the entire Headgum network, serving ads on flagship podcasts like The Doughboys, Punch up the Jam, and We Hate Movies.
YouTube is taking podcasting seriously enough to put their money where their mouth is. Last Friday Bloomberg’s Ashely Carman reported both independent podcasters and podcast networks, all of which asked for anonymity, received offers ranging from $50,000 to $300,000 to create filmed versions of their episodes, as well as “other kinds of videos.”
Video podcasts on YouTube historically have done well. As the platform matured from cat clips to encouraging content creators to make longer and longer content, the unedited video chat show took off. Productions like The H3H3 Podcast and The Joe Rogan Experience saw great success embracing the platform. That said, as Carman said,
“However, the cost to build a studio, hire editors, and develop a fully functioning video publishing pipeline can deter networks and shows from adopting the platform.”
In addition to these cash injections implying YouTube wants to seed more of a professionally-produced podcasting atmosphere, there are small infrastructure moves to suggest this is a long-term plan. Alex Castro at The Verge reminds readers that back in October YouTube began allowing Canadian users to listen to videos while the device was not focusing on the YouTube app or was locked. As YouTube power users in the US can attest, this feature is pushed very hard in YouTube Premium advertising as a good reason to sign up.
Without putting on a podcast-branded tin-foil hat, it seems like making the ability to use YouTube like a podcasting app would be a huge step towards YouTube courting more podcasters and their audiences.
On Tuesday The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan published an exclusive announcement that UTA has launched Audio IQ, a data analytics service to facilitate podcast deals. The service will make use of social media, search results, and other open-source data to inform both clients and agents of a podcasts’ health to facilitate dealmaking.
“While podcast analytics can often rely on historical data points like number of downloads or past ad revenue, UTA’s Audio IQ analyses also offer future projections — a tool that is particularly key in negotiations for shows that have not yet launched or for identifying emerging talent.”
Audio IQ comes onto the field as massive podcast outfits buy up previously third-party analytics companies - see our February 18th episode for coverage of the Spotify acquisition of Chartable - and that atmosphere has UTA IQ lead Joe Kessler concerned.
As Kessler is quoted by Chan’s article:
“I’m hopeful that this announcement serves as a wake-up call for the podcasting industry to somehow coalesce around a common source of truth and data for the industry, because it’s sorely needed as it’s maturing.”
Finally, a smaller bit of news that’s not technically a full news story yet, but we feel is worth keeping an eye on as things develop. There was something about Tuesday this week that lead to podcasting announcements. Ashley Carman tweeted the exclusive scoop that three senior leaders at Megaphone are leaving. CEO Brendan Monaghan, CRO Matt Turk, and COO Jason Cox, all in their positions prior to the Spotify buyout, have been confirmed to be leaving the company after their one-year contracts expired.
The three are now starting a blockchain company.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Register for the 2022 Infinite Dial presentation here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-infinite-dial-2022-tickets-290830069567?aff=edisonnewsletter&__s=xxxxxxx
The top podcast networks, by reach: https://www.edisonresearch.com/u-s-top-podcast-networks-by-reach-q4-2021/
The difficulty of "hits" in podcasting: https://tomwebster.media/the-oversimplified-superstring-hit-incubation-theory-of-podcasting/
Support the show! Buy Walnut a treat! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Caila Litman, author of Sounds Profitable's #GoodData series and longtime podcast industry professional, is on the show today. It's a special episode—sans regular host Bryan Barletta. Caila and Arielle Nissenblatt, who you usually hear at the top and bottom of each episode, discuss all things Good Data. If you've been wondering how our Good Data series came to be and what our goals are for it, this episode is for you.
Listen in to learn about:
- How Caila finds, dissects, and evaluates data
- Caila's background (hint, she doesn't come from a math/statistics standpoint)
- Caila's goals for the #GoodData series and how she sees it evolving over the next few months
- Some of Caila's favorite recent stats from Nielsen and Edison Research
- The emergence of the "lighter listener"
- And much more!
Here's our favorite idea from this conversation: Nielsen data has shown that COVID has propelled an emergence of the "lighter listener," people who don't listen to hours and hours of audio each week, but something closer to 1-2 hours. This is an opportunity for advertisers to target newer listeners.
Links:
- Caila's first article
- Caila's second article
- Connect with Caila Litman
- Submit to The Podscape
- Podsights
- SquadCast
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta and Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering by Ian Powell
- Evo Terra is the executive producer of Sounds Profitable: Adtech Applied
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download from Sounds Profitable; big names in podcasting are pulling down big numbers in ad revenue, Meta and Mozilla have teamed up to change advertising privacy, and TikTok might not be the #1 place to take short-form podcast content.
On a sober, world-news note: Advertisers are weathering unintended consequences from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ryan Barwick of Morning Brew wrote a brief rundown of the situation last Friday. According to a Business Insider report, Google AdSense has been found on publishers of Russian state propaganda.
“While on those sites, BI observed Google-served ads from Best Buy, Progressive, and Allbirds, and a handful of other brands. Marketing Brew also saw ads for brands on these two sites, but a banner ad atop several stories was blocked by Integral Ad Science, a brand-safety firm.”
Barwick then pairs this evidence of brand safety kind-of working with the infamously-timed Applebee’s promotion that aired in a split-screen ad break with footage of Kyiv under siege. The ad, featuring footage of a man in a cowboy hat gyrating his butt in glee over $1 boneless chicken wings, went viral on social media for its grim pairing with footage of burning buildings.
“What do these stories have in common? Funding journalism. Advertisers often don’t want to fund inflammatory, hateful, or controversial content. While brand-safety tech might help marketers avoid having their ads showing up on propaganda sites, it can also direct their ads away from legitimate coverage of political or other sensitive topics, inadvertently hurting newsrooms as a result.”
Both the propaganda site ad serves and Applebee’s pulling from CNN serve as evidence of extremes of what could happen in similar spheres of podcasting. To ignore brand safety and the messaging of associated programs is a recipe for being associated with disinformation and propaganda. To overcorrect and leave the space entirely could leave journalism podcasts without the stability of CNN in a financial pickle.
Continuing the Morning Brew coverage: last week Alyssa Meyers rounded up the earnings highlights of some giants in the podcasting industry. SiriusXM, Spotify, Acast, and iHeartMedia all show significant growth. Both Spotify and Acast posted a 40% year-over-year increase for ad revenue while SiriusXM-owned Pandora experienced a 30% growth. The biggest headline-grabber of the bunch, though, is iHeartMedia
“Q4 revenue grew 59% in iHeartMedia’s ‘Digital Audio Group’ division, which encompasses iHeartMedia’s podcasting business, digital service, and ad-tech companies. Podcast revenue alone increased 130% YoY. The company said the growth was partly due to ‘general increased demand for digital advertising’ and ‘the growing popularity of podcasting.”
It appears the industry-wide trope of saying podcasting ads are fast-growing is less of a marketing pitch and more a truism as more companies rake in those fast-growing profits.
Up next we have a story shuffled into the digital stack of news and left by the wayside: Spotify appears to be better at announcing podcast deals than actually publishing podcasts.
While a Business Insider article was published on February 18th, much of the original reporting on the subject was done by Podnews’ James Cridland in the December article Missing: the shows from these big Spotify announcements.
As Cridland and others report: a great deal of splashy Spotify projects announced since December of 2020 have yet to come to fruition. Some announcements were vague deals akin to a popular actor signing a multi-picture deal with a prominent movie studio. Others, however, appear to have died on the vine.
Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment’s celebrity-studded Batman audio fiction series has fallen off the radar since announcing its cast last June. British royalty power couple Meghan and Harry signed up in December of 2020. The most concerning is Kim Kardashian West’s partnership with Spotify and Parcast. Cridland writes
“In March 2021 she hinted she was ready to release her episodes. Where are they?”
eMarketer’s Sara Lebow shared some fascinating data last week with a chart of the day post titled TikTok isn’t the No. 1 US app for shorter videos. In fact, the data gathered by CensusWide in late January puts TikTok in third place with 53.9% of respondents sixteen and up. The top two are Facebook and YouTube with 60.8 and 77.9% respectively.
As podcasters explore video podcasting, or simply video clips promoting their shows, TikTok is constantly brought up. The format of what makes a successful Facebook or YouTube video are far different than what pleases TikTok’s famous algorithm, making it difficult to reuse assets. The results of this study seem to imply that while TikTok is valuable, those new to video as an advertising medium would have a better shot at developing content and skills that are useful in the long run.
Another interesting facet of this story is CensusWide got these numbers before YouTube launched their TikTok competitor YouTube Shorts, effectively cloning Tiktok’s endless stream of short-form content in the existing YouTube ecosystem. But then news dropped to complicate things further: Monday TikTok announced they will be allowing users to post videos up to ten minutes in length, more than doubling the original limit of three minutes.
Sara Fischer, writing for Axios, broke the news of German publishing company Axel Springer investing in a new podcasting company Spooler. Working with Insider, Spooler will co-produce daily news podcast The Refresh from Insider with a special trick: Spooler’s proprietary tech will allow the hosts to add new segments to that morning’s episode as the day’s news progresses.
“For news companies, the expectation is that producers could build ‘playlist programs’ that Spooler automatically stitches together to make the podcast sound seamless, even though it's being repeatedly updated. The bespoke player on Insider.com and Insider's app will allow users to skip over segments they've already heard.”
Meanwhile, last week iHeartMedia announced Talk Back, an in-app feature allowing podcast-listening audiences to send voice messages to show hosts. There must be something in the Spring air as podcast companies seem to be in the mood to experiment and innovate, pushing the limits of what podcast tech can do.
A social media network and an internet browser have teamed up to make ads less intrusive. Trey Titone writes for Ad Tech Explained:
“When Meta and Mozilla team up to improve digital advertising, you should probably pay attention. The two companies joined forces to create Interoperable Private Attribution or IPA, a framework for attribution measurement without tracking users.”
The teamup shows changing times and attitudes between the companies. Back in 2018 when Meta was still Facebook, Mozilla developed an extension for their Firefox browser with one goal: keep Facebook from watching users’ web activity outside of Facebook. Now the two are teamed up with a proposed framework that could follow pro-privacy trends formed by Google and Apple to find a way to provide useful advertising data while protecting the individual’s privacy.
Titone’s breakdown of what Meta and Mozilla have proposed IPA will be, as well as what its constituent parts might actually do, is incredibly thorough. Thorough enough to necessitate a table of contents. Check it out.
For more thoughts on the subject of podcast advertising and a quality-over-quantity approach, The Download recommends Brian Morrissey’s Substack newsletter piece “End of an era of ad targeting: Publishers will need closer ties to their audiences.” We should know, we covered it last week.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The full Super Listeners Study is available here: https://www.edisonresearch.com/super-listeners-2021-from-edison-research-and-ad-results-media/
Support the show at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus Media, is on the show today to speak with Bryan Barletta about what podcasting can learn from radio and other legacy media. Bouvard develops media and marketing insights to support Cumulus's 1300+ media sellers. He works with brands and agencies to craft targeting and measurement solutions.
As always, Arielle Nissenblatt joins Bryan at the top of the show to introduce the conversation. She then rejoins after the chat to break it all down, giving listeners actionable next steps.
Listen in to learn about:
- Bryan and Arielle's favorite radio stations
- Why Bryan and Pierre think ads should be no longer than 90 seconds
- How to write impactful ad copy for audio
- What the listening public really thinks about ads on their podcasts (i.e. did you know they'd be ok with more?)
- Listener behavior as it relates to advertisement consumption on podcasts and on radio
- An instructive note from Bryan about updating your pitch decks!
- And much more!
Here's our favorite idea from this conversation: The job of advertising is to help a brand or product be known before they’re needed.
Links:
- The Download
- Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles
- Pierre Bouvard
- Cumulus Media
- Signal Hill Insights
- Submit to The Podscape
- Podsights
- SquadCast
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta and Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering by Ian Powell
- Evo Terra is the executive producer of Sounds Profitable: Adtech Applied
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download, Libsyn grows monetization, LinkedIn launches a podcast network, and what the new Privacy Sandbox feature for Android means for marketers. Let’s get started.
Libsyn has bought another podcast representation firm, this time acquiring PAR - Podcast Ad Reps. With the acquisition LibSyn brings around 120 podcasts that were currently under representation with PAR under the LibSyn-owned AdvertiseCast banner, further building out the company’s monetization arm.
According to Libsyn CEO Brad Tirpak in the official press release:
“With the acquisitions of AdvertiseCast in June 2021 and now PAR, Libsyn is well-positioned to continue to rapidly scale in the podcast advertising market, which PWC estimates will reach around $3.5 billion by 2025. We plan to continue to invest in our award-winning hosting platform, expand both our host-read and programmatic advertising efforts, and look for new ways to make Libsyn the preferred destination for both creators and advertisers.”
All of this continues to show another side of Libsyn, a company that previously swore it would never have a free hosting platform and was anti-targeted advertising is now a large, tech-focused ad platform.
Australian podcast producer LiSTNR has branched out into audio fiction. From Radio Today’s Kim Napier:
“LiSTNR is investing in audio fiction with book adaptations by Australian authors to bring audiences compelling audio stories, with Bryden Media casting Australian actors to deliver the stories in different podcast formats as episodic series or audio movies.”
Both LiSTNR’s slated audio movies and standard serialized audio fiction podcast adaptations reflect a building synergy and momentum between podcasting and publishers, two factions that’ve circled each other since before the coining of the term podcast. Until now audio fiction as a genre has remained a largely under-utilized sector of podcasting. With industry moves like this, we could be seeing enough momentum building to change that for the better.
Over on The Rebooting’s Substack newsletter, Brian Morrissey has published a piece titled “End of an era of ad targeting: Publishers will need closer ties to their audiences.”
In addition to being an excellent overview of privacy on the web and how business has worked to take full advantage, Morrissey stresses the importance of adapting with changing tech.
“Primary-engagement media will gain. As I’ve written, I believe the next phase of digital publishing will favor quality over quantity in terms of audiences. Those publishing brands that put community at their core will thrive since it easily lends itself to a direct relationship that will make those audiences far more valuable than a random collection of people who mindlessly tapped a link on their Facebook feed. There’s a reason that Squarespace found podcasts such an efficient way to acquire customers. The newsletter boom is a signal of where publishing is going.”
Morrissey reflects on the very first ad sold on the internet circa 1994 as a reflection of how much online marketing has changed and what modern advertising can learn from the mistakes made back then that’re still made today.
It’s time to update that profile you’ve been neglecting. Business-focused social media network LinkedIn launched a podcast network on Wednesday. The network has a dozen shows at launch that, according to protocol’s Veronica Irwin will,
“...cover topics ranging from mental health to startup trends. With the announcement, LinkedIn joins the ranks of tech companies attempting to become the favorite hub of content creators and influencers.”
The social network’s launch appears to have gone incredibly well, with their flagship show “Hello Monday,” gaining 4 million downloads in its first day.
Over on Digiday, Ronan Shields and Seb Joseph have made a post aiming to decode the implications of Google’s nebulous new Android feature Privacy Sandbox for advertisers.
“The main takeaway: Google says it will work with the industry to establish a set of technical standards that will enable ad targeting and measurement online after traditional targeting tools, like mobile identifiers, are retired on its Android devices. Why is this important? It’s pitched as the inverse of Apple’s own scorched earth plan to do something similar.”
While Privacy Sandbox might be of some concern eventually, maybe, Shields and Joseph’s interpretation of existing news suggests:
“...marketers needn’t panic over the latest announcement.”
At the risk of this becoming a regular segment, we’ve got another article the staff of The Download recommend checking out. This week: “What is Podcasting 2.0, and why is it important” by Podcode’s Mark Steadman. While ostensibly written for podcasters, namespace changes are something the people in the business of podcasting need to be aware of, if not outright adopt. Steadman’s primer on podcasting 2.0 is a great start.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sean Howard, founder of Flightpath and of Fable and Folly, talks with Bryan about solving for pain points in adtech, collaboration with your competitors, and how we're truly only at the beginning of podcasting.
- Sean Howard of Flightpath
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com
- and Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Send us messages with Yappa!
Join the Podscape Podcast: https://bit.ly/3rHLxgD
Check out The Download: https://omny.fm/shows/the-download-from-sounds-profitable
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download, Amazon continues their streak of signing exclusivity deals, agents are becoming more of a common site in podcasting, and Spotify buys both Podsights and Charitable.
Good news for those who missed Ad Result Media and Edison Research’s big webinar on 2021 data from Super Listeners: Caila Litman live-tweeted the event!
Litman, author of Sound Profitable’s column #GoodData, posted a thread of 17 tweets containing screenshots and quotes full of juicy data. According to the thread, podcast power users are eagerly engaging with podcast advertising. 74% Super
Listeners are visiting a product or service’s website after hearing it promoted on a favorite podcast.
53% of those listeners agree they have a more positive opinion of a company when it’s mentioned on a podcast they regularly listen to. A 9% increase from 2019 data on the same question.
After last week’s Amazon-heavy coverage we’re mixing things up with... another Amazon acquisition! Amazon Music and Wondery have signed How I Built This with Guy Raz. The deal gives Wondery exclusive ad sales and YouTube distribution rights for simulcasts while all new podcast episodes will have Amazon Music exclusivity for one week. Meanwhile, NPR keeps radio distribution rights and underwriting credits. In addition, How I Built This will ramp up to a twice-weekly upload schedule.
Amazon’s just getting started in podcasting and deals like this indicate podcast ads are clearly working for them. In addition, their premium Wondery+ subscriptions in their own bespoke app and through Apple Podcast subscriptions are working well enough to continue obtaining more timed exclusive content.
Now we find Amazon at an interesting moment in regards to acquisitions. They’ve got Art19 for tech, Amazon Music for distribution, and Wondery to produce and publish content. Their biggest space for growth is ad sales, something that might change if their offer to buy Audioboom is chosen over competitor Spotify. If big green gets the company, they effectively buy a company that does something they can already do well. Buying Audioboom would effectively eliminate competition in their field.
If Amazon gets the purchase they get closer to a full package of podcast monetization that will become incredibly hard to compete with.
For brevity’s sake, we’ve combined two stories into one segment, as iHeartMedia appears to be in the mood to form partnerships this week. Partnership number one: iHeart partners with Sounder to bring brand safety to audio.
At the moment, all current brand safety and suitability solutions are built for text. If one wants to turn one of those services on for podcasting, the podcast has to be transcribed. This partnership provides similar value to what Adswizz and Acast implemented with Comscore to contextually categorize their inventory for targeting and brand suitability.
This is just a first step, though, as the data has to be actionable by buyers, sellers, and planners in their tools directly. As things currently stand, it feels like the overall podcast industry would benefit more from building a unified framework to tackle this problem than everyone splitting off and doing duplicate work to build their own solution.
And partnership number two: iHeart is looking to broaden its global podcast outreach by partnering with Veritone to use their translation and synthetic voice AI tech to, as Brad Hill reports on RAIN News “translate and synthetically voice iHeart’s leading podcasts for Spanish-speaking markets.” With this Veritone partnership, iHeart is on track to be able to have their more popular podcasts available in global markets via synthetic translated voices.
Our Valentine’s gift this year is an article from The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan interviewing talent agents tasked with signing big podcasts. Podcasting is growing fast and a big sign of that is the prevalence of agents. Behind every big acquisition story is an agent getting into a relatively new field and helping the producer. With the industry growing at an exponential rate podcasting has a growing need for representation and agents seem to be stepping up to rep shows big and small.
Chan reports:
“As Hollywood fully buys into podcasting, multimillion-dollar deals are the norm for the crème de la crème of shows, while a growing audio advertising marketplace has allowed more podcasters to make a good living off their work as the industry is expected to exceed $2 billion in ad revenue next year. The major talent agencies have jumped on the train and are building out their audio divisions, with agents increasingly working on podcast deals with clients.”
The big players in podcasting are chasing the new trend of acquiring IP to adapt, and agents are taking notice.
Finally, the biggest news in podcasting this week: Spotify has purchased both Podsights and Chartable. With the acquisition, the podcast measurement service Podsights will remain available to the public. Quoting from Tech Crunch’s Sarah Perez:
“After Chartable is fully integrated into Megaphone, Spotify will deprecate the standalone Chartable platform. Until then, however, it will remain available to both new and existing publisher and advertiser clients.”
Here’s what Sounds Profitable’s own Bryan Barletta had to say in Podnews:
“Third-party analytics and attribution are critical to a growing advertising ecosystem. In podcasting, Chartable and Podsights were two of the three core providers that helped drive that point home. Spotify has bought great technology and acquired an all-star technical and sales talent, but these companies are no longer third-party solutions due to Spotify’s role as a publisher, hosting platform, and ad seller. Just like with Adswizz’s attribution pixel and the Triton ranker, these solutions can still add value, but with this acquisition, they now lack the ability to be seen as truly neutral.”
And finally, in a rare ‘honorable mention’ section, The Download tips its proverbial cap to Alyssa Myer. Thanks to her efforts, we’re seeing more detailed coverage of podcast advertising. If you haven’t checked out her coverage of advertisers experimenting with programmatic ads over on The Morning Brew. Get to it!
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis.
Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.
Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jordan Bentley, Founder of Audiohook, talks with Bryan about transparency, waterfalls, programmatic advertising, and how Podcasting still has a chance to start things the right way to lead to a better future.
- Jordan Bentley of Audiohook
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com
- and Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
- Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa
- Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Send us messages with Yappa!
Join the Podscape Podcast: https://bit.ly/3rHLxgDCheck out The Download: https://omny.fm/shows/the-download-from-sounds-profitable
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on The Download: Today: Amazon inherits a celeb-powered podcasting company, new ad revenue numbers forecast good news for podcast investment, and a new op-ed asks where has Facebook’s fervor for podcasting gone?
Celebrity chat podcast Smartless, hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes,recently launched production house SmartLess Media. With former Jon Stewart-era Daily Show producer Richard Korson at the reins as president, SmartLess Media is poised to add multiple new stars to the relatively small constellation of Amazon-owned podcasts.
The new company has sprung into existence following a prior deal in which the trio of celebs licensed the podcast SmartLess to Amazon Music and Wondery in a deal, as reported by Deadline’s Peter White, “thought to be valued at between 60 million to 80 million.” According to White, this deal also extends to shows created by the fledgling production house, meaning SmartLess Media’s promised slate of “weekly series, narrative, and limited podcasts,” are subject to first-look exclusivity with Amazon.
It appears through careful future-proofing and investment during the licensing deal when SmartLess was just one podcast feed, the shopping and streaming conglomerate has inherited a celebrity-fronted production company wholecloth. And they continue to have rights to the original product’s momentum, which currently fuels a cross-country live tour set to wrap up this weekend.
Speaking of Amazon: in a first for the company, Amazon has broken down its advertising revenue as a distinct category instead of bundling it with other earnings. The decision to do so now and not last year when they posted a ten billion profit increase from 2020 to 2021 remains unseen, but we’ll take it. According to Business Insider “at $9.7 billion in the quarter, up 32% year-over-year, ad revenue was one of Amazon's fastest-growing areas.”
With their fostering SmartLess from a simple podcast acquisition into a brand-new source of content production, Amazon appears to show no sign of slowing growth in media properties that can help fuel this advertising boom. Amazon’s continued heavy spending in podcasting could be an indicator they believe in the medium’s ability to help continue ad revenue growth.
Continuing the theme of growth: eCommerce is on the rise globally. Sara Lebow of eMarketer provides statistics breaking down the top ten countries with the biggest increase in ecommerce made over any internet-capable device that excludes travel, bill payments, gambling, food service, or anything that falls under the “vice good” umbrella.
To quote the article: “The Philippines and India will lead the world in retail ecommerce sales growth this year, with respective increases of 25.9% and 25.5%. Countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia will make up most of the top 10 list, while the last spot will go to the US, the only advanced economy to slide into the rankings, with 15.9% growth.”
A significant portion of podcast advertising is still direct-to-consumer and significantly focused on the US. The country that’s coming in tenth out of the top ten. That, combined with emerging podcast markets or strong pre-existing histories with audio in countries represented in the top nine shows podcast advertising has room to grow. Growth that might shift to bucking the existing status quo of purely targeting North American customers.
New podcasting app Fountain aims to make things easier for podcasters to receive tips from their audience in the form of Bitcoin Lightning, a system simplifying the process of transferring one hundred millionths of Bitcoin between users.
The biggest barriers to entry for such a scheme have been the need of a digital wallet, the process of buying crypto for said wallet, and the ID of another person’s wallet to be able to transfer the crypto to an intended recipient.
While those hurdles still exist for the person intending to send the money, startup Fountain solves the initial problems for podcasters on the receiving end of Value 4 Value transactions by creating a wallet on their behalf. Several larger podcasts have embraced the service, including Jack Rhysider’s Darknet Diaries.
In this week’s Hot Pod Insider, Ashley Carman published an op-ed about Meta (nee Facebook), their profit woes, and the question mark that leaves for Facebook podcasting.
Carman writes: “I wondered if brands would start spending more money on podcast ads simply because Facebook’s aren’t as powerful. Maybe that’s worth another check-in, but instead, I’m now wondering how this tech informs Facebook’s decision to pursue podcasts on its platform.”
With the social media giant reporting a decline in users for the first time in its existence alongside declining profits, a second “pivot to video,” and a full-throated commitment to rebranding VR gaming headsets as office supplies, Facebook’s previous interest in embracing podcasts seems to have been lost in the shuffle. Quote “I’m unclear where that team stands or what they’re doing. Did they pivot to the metaverse?”
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable! Today's episode was hosted by Evo Terra and Manuela Bedoya. Bryan Barletta is the executive producer. Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Claire Atkin, co-founder of the brilliant non-profit Check My Ads, talks with Bryan about disinformation, ad accountability, and the steps you should be taking to make sure your brand is being seen where you want it to.
- Claire Atkin of Check My Ads
- Link discussed in Episode:https://checkmyads.org/branded/
Credits:
- Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com
- and Arielle Nissenblatt
- Audio engineering by Ian Powell
- Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media
- Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews
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Today on The Download: is the IAB on borrowed time?, podcast ads see big gains again, Google makes misinformation less profitable, podcasts grow globally, SXM enters the identity game, and Spotify stands behind Rogan even as earnings fall. Let's get started.
Neilsen spells doom for IAB
In the world of TV, Nielsen measurement has been the defacto solution that deals are guaranteed against for decades. But now, according to Tim Peterson of Digiday, alternative measurement solutions are gaining traction in tandem with Nielsen metrics and for some publishers and campaigns, replacing them completely.
Nielsen took its fair share of lumps last year, with the Media Ratings Council board voting to strip them of their accreditation for local and national TV viewership due to undercounting audiences during the pandemic. And with their newly announced plans for Nielson One, a cross-measurement product, there is a lot of comfort in using new measurement partners in parallel to compare to current Nielsen reporting, while publishers determine their path forward.
Incumbent measurement solutions are incredibly hard to shake, and this change in the TV landscape doesn’t mean that overnight, Nielsen won’t be the primary solution or that they’ll ever necessarily lose that top spot. But it does mean that any measurement solution that represents an industry can and should be challenged, to better represent the industry and all those participating in it. IAB measurement of podcasting may be the default today, but we should always keep an open mind to better opportunities.
Podcast Ads See Big Gains—Again!
Good news for the podcast advertising industry! According to AvertiseCast, the effective rates brands are paying for podcast ads have increased once again, and for shows of all sizes.
Their most recent study of the 2,515 podcasts tracked shows that aggregate or the average CPM is now $25.37, which is up from $22.50 this time last year. Doing the quick math shows that’s an increase of 12.7%. Nice
And the news is even better for shows with the largest audiences. According to AdvertiseCast’s data, shows that see over 100K downloads are getting an average of $23.08, up from $20.09 a year ago. That’s a 14.6% increase year over year, and great news for the growing value of podcast advertising.
CheckMyAds Makes Misinformation Less Profitable
The nonprofit adtech industry watchdog CheckMyAds continues to gain traction on holding platforms accountable for monetizing disinformation content. Writing in MediaPost, Karlene Lucovitz reports that Google has decided to stop serving Google Ads on Fox News’ host and Cumulus Media radio and podcast host Dan Bongino’s own website. This comes just a week after YouTube permanently banned Bongino from the platform for, you guessed it, repeated violations of YouTube’s COVID misinformation policy.
Quoting from the piece:
It is not clear how much revenue Bongino will lose as a result of the Google Ads and YouTube bans.
However, as Engadget noted, Claire Atkin, co-founder of the digital disinformation-fighting nonprofit Check My Ads, tweeted that Gateway Pundit lost $1.1 million in annual revenue after its Google AdSense account was revoked for spreading COVID and election misinformation.
Quick side note: Clair Atkin is my guest on the next episode Sounds Profitable: Adtech Applied, if you are not already subscribed.
What’s most interesting is Google, at least with their ad platform, doesn't have to make a decision on whether to censor content or not. Instead, they make the decision whether or not to fund it through their ad solutions. So sure, you can say anything you want on your own platform. But with this move, Google is saying pick someone else to make it profitable, a trend we hope to see echoed through all of media.
Growing Podcasts Globally
Every indicator shows podcasting has had a heck of a growth trajectory over the last few years. But even though we count our numbers now in the millions, it’s still dominated by English-speaking podcasts.
But that may be changing. In Digiday, Sara Guaglione investigates how podcast publishers and platforms are working to grow non-English language audiences.
Quoting from the piece:
Of the 600,000-plus podcasts that launched in 2021 [that had declared] a language [in the RSS feed], a majority – 53% – tagged a non-English language, according to [Dave] Zohrob [of Chartable]. By contrast, in 2020 less than half of the 900,000 new podcasts debuted in 2020 were in non-English languages.
Knowing that the majority of new podcasts launched last year are presenting information in a language other than English is a huge turning point for the global-ness of podcasting, which should be welcome news for any podcasting business looking to expand their global footprint.
SMX’s AudioID
The impending death of the third-party cookie and the degradation of mobile device IDs has been the backbeat of the advertising industry for the past two years. But until this week, with Facebook shares dropping over 20%, the impacts have been far more fearmongering than fact.
Technology’s focus on privacy means a more transparent world, and at the forefront of data collection for advertising is the concept of unified ID’s, which relies heavily on consensually provided data from signed-in users, something we tend to assume doesn’t apply to the greater podcasting space, as Apple, Google, Spotify, and Amazon aren’t keen on sharing that data.
But according to SiriusXM’s SXM Media’s latest press release, they’re actively testing their proposal for an industry-wide framework that would enable the podcast player space to provide that data.
“We are entering a new era of identity – both in culture and in technology – that defines us not by who we are on paper or the cookies we leave behind, but by our interests and passions. AudioID is a consumer-first, privacy-conscious infrastructure that will deliver our audiences the best experiences and give marketers access to data-driven capabilities like never before,” said Chris Record, Senior Vice President and Head of Ad Product, Technology & Operations at SXM Media & AdsWizz.
While the reach has yet to be determined, and public access to the framework has not yet been made available, this is incredibly encouraging growth in an area of podcasting we’ve previously considered stagnant.
Spotify Stands Behind Rogan Even As Earnings Fall
And finally, yes… some news on Spotify’s Joe Rogan “problem”. We know you’ve heard all about it, but we were waiting for Wednesday’s scheduled earnings call to bring it up. And we’re glad we did. According to Marketwatch’s Jeremy C. Owens:
“Spotify Technology SA executives said Wednesday they expect fewer subscriber additions in the first quarter than Wall Street expected, sending shares spiraling lower, but they contended the forecast miss was not because of recent controversy.
Spotify guided for 1 million fewer net subscriber additions in the first quarter of 2022 than analysts expected, and did not provide an annual forecast as they have in the past. Shares dove more than 18% in after-hours trading immediately following the release of the report Wednesday, though they rebounded to a loss of less than 10% after Spotify’s chief financial officer gave a bit of color on expectations for the year in a conference call.”
But the big question we have in podcasting is how much, if any, of the miss in projections can be attributed to protestors who take exception to Rogan’s comments? When Spotify founder Daniel Ek was asked specifically is these misses were impacted by recent customer cancellations related to the Rogan controversy, Ek said
“Um, no.” and that “the easy answer is we don’t reflect any churn from the recent Joe Rogan thing in general. What I would say is it’s too early to know what the impact may be. And usually when we’ve had controversies in the past, those are measured in months and not days.”
But Owens goes on to note:
“Spotify stock has suffered during the controversy, falling 18% so far this year, but that continued a previous downward trajectory. Shares have declined 44.4% in the past 12 months, as the S&P 500 index gained 18.8%”
Watch this space as this continues to unfold.
The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable! Today's episode was hosted by Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra. Special thanks to Ian Powell for his audio prowess, and to our media host, Omny Studio.
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Today on The Download: is the IAB on borrowed time?, podcast ads see big gains again, Google makes misinformation less profitable, podcasts grow globally, SXM enters the identity game, and Spotify stands behind Rogan even as earnings fall.
HBO Max is Hiring For Their Podcast Marketing Team
Subscription streaming video service HBO Max continues to prove its serious about podcasting. Their first venture into the space dropped last summer with Batman: The Audio Adventures, an exclusive podcast that could only be listened to in HBO Max app itself.
While HBO maintains podcast channels on Spotify and Apple for related content, just like their peers at Netflix, this is the first podcast to be exclusively hosted in a subscription video streaming app.
Now, they're looking to hire a new role, specifically for podcasting under the HBO Max brand. The role is for a Sr. Analyst, Direct-to-Consumer, Podcasting Strategy & Operations, and will “provide strategic and analytic support on various projects covering direct-to-consumer and HBO Max Podcasting initiatives.
Interactive Voices Lack Diversity
If you missed CES 2022 because... well, reasons; you probably saw a plenty of breathless reporting of new prototypes and maybe-coming-in-the-future tech. Steve Keller, Sonic Strategy Director for Studio Resonate, SXM’s audio-first creative consultancy has an in-depth piece on things he noticed at the event of interest to audio people like us. Like a lot of tech around the explosion of interactive voice systems. But he also noticed something else:
Quoting from the piece:
But something was missing. Innovation aside, the lack of sonic diversity in the voice sector was disturbing. [P]ractically all the AI voices we heard at CES 2022 were female—and white. In fact, the only voice assistant of color heard was during a series of sessions focused on voice technology, curated and moderated by attn.live CEO, Ian Utile. Multiple panelists affirmed that there’s an underlying problem with the overwhelmingly white, male demographics of the AI world who are unconsciously programming biases, sonic color lines, and digital discrimination into voice systems. As a result, the default voice of automotive assistants, connected homes, and a plethora of other devices is white. The issue is compounded by the fact that these assistants, designed to serve us, are also predominantly female. It’s a systemic problem, and developers and brands need to work harder to sonically diversify their voice systems, as well as the designers, engineers, and developers who create them.
With DEI so high on the priority list for most companies, it’s surprising this problem exists. No, wait. It’s not surprising at all, is it?
Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts Replaced by Topics
While third-party cookies aren’t part of the information we receive from listeners in podcasting, they are a big part of the device graphs we use to augment what we do receive and improve how we run attribution. So while Safari and Firefox kicked them completely to the curb in 2020, Google has pushed out their deadline for when they’re twilight third-party cookies until 2023. And their original pitch, Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC for short, has now been scrapped for what they’re calling Topics.
FLoC grouped audiences based on their browsing activity at a very granular level, where Topics focuses on applying a list of topics, starting at around 300 but expected to be in the thousands, directly to the individual. Only the top three most prevalent Topics will be available for targeting and identification, but what’s really interesting is that they expire every three weeks, keeping them increasingly fresh and relevant. Topics fit in nicely with the contextual offerings that podcasting is primed to offer advertisers if we continue to prioritize transcription and contextual targeting.
Podcasting Only Looks Hit-Resistant
If you somehow avoided the kerfuffle over the Bloomberg Article where Lucas Shaw reported on podcasting’s inability to generate a current hit... well, I’m not sure how you did. There have been a lot of hot takes on the article, but one worthy of your attention was penned by Tom Webster in his weekly newsletter, I Hear Things.It’s a fascinating read, with Tom pointing out that other mediums, like movies, television programs, and music all have the same “problem”. They just present differently.
Examining the top movies from last year, Tom notes:
Even if you go further down the list from the top 10, it's sequels, movies based on existing properties, and remakes. Is it fair to say that the movie industry hasn't produced a new hit in years? No--all the above movies are new movies, but they are familiar at the same time.
He goes on to make a similar case for popular television programs - The Bachelor season 26, anyone? - and even music, going so far as to craft metaphors around melody and harmony to predict a hit. Working that back to podcasting, Tom says:
Podcasting is, by its very definition, a medium that largely lacks harmony. When you can listen to a podcast anytime, there is little compunction to listen to them at any given time. They are always there--convenient, but rarely urgent. In other words, asynchronous. And they also currently (though not by definition) lack melody. The whole medium is new to so many people, and even for veteran listeners, there isn't exactly the equivalent of NCIS: New Orleans or Thursday Night Football or The Traveling Wilburys--that thread of familiarity that telegraphs immediately: if you like this, you will like that. Even some of the biggest hits of podcasting aren't easily explainable to a friend. That's part of why there is such a spate of celebrity podcasts right now. What is easier to describe to people: It's the Michele Obama podcast, or "it's the podcast that reveals the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.
Check out the entire post for insights on why Tom thinks the article that made such waves was a little unfair little wrong, but ultimately right-ish. Links in the episode details, as always.
Amazon Expands Ad Sales Efforts
Amazon Advertising was responsible for generating $23bn in revenue for the first three quarters of 2021, nearly double the $13.5bn generated in that same period for 2020. How’d they do it? By shifting their focus to pursuing major brands, agencies, and holding companies looking to focus on awareness with their large customer sales team.
Joshua Kreitzer, founder and CEO of Channel Bakers, an Amazon-focused ad agency tells Digiday
With this change, the Amazon large customer sales team is no longer focused on shopper marketing dollars — they're now responsible for breaking through to the $70 billion TV market.
While selling advertising to Amazon’s clients actively selling products on Amazon.com is still part of their focus, they’re now providing a bigger brand play by being able to offer inventory across Twitch, Fire TV, IMDb TV, and their podcast companies Art 19 and Wondery.
Amazon has an immense amount of first-party data, from all their apps and services that require a login, so coupled with the technology they integrated from acquiring attribution company Sizmek and their AWS infrastructure, they have the potential to provide insights competitive to Google and Meta.
The Download is presented by Sounds Profitable and is hosted by Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra. Audio editing by Ian Powell.
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Chase Miller, EVP of Strategy and Corporate Development at Claritas, joins us for our latest product deepdive. We talk about device graphs, legacy, "The Barletta Household", and why having good data is so incredibly important.
Think of the product deepdives like the final meeting your company would have with an adtech vendor, fully running through what the product actually is and how it’s used. No power points, press releases, or marketing presentations here. It’s time for some detailed product reviews.
This event is free to attend and will be made available on demand. We respect your time, and planning your day around a webinar isn't fun for anyone
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The "podcasting isn't creating new hits" article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-01-09/podcasting-hasn-t-produced-a-new-hit-in-years
2021 Top Movies: https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/box-office/highest-grossing-movies-of-2021/#2-shang-chi-and-the-legend-of-the-ten-rings
2020-21 Top TV Shows: https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/most-popular-tv-shows-highest-rated-2020-2021-season-1234980743/
Larry Rosin's article: https://radioink.com/2022/01/11/music-radio-a-kingdom-of-gold/?vgo_ee=6dAkE8pCl7%2FUnVnkEHwyU9dBEzid0g%2F0Hme0NU6Dyjw%3D&fbclid=IwAR27qCcEzU0V8BrM6HwYtsKQ0zVAhsmO06EPe_nbSK6HI-52CPjLYXUMjS0
"Killing New Music" from Ted Gioia: https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/is-old-music-killing-new-music
Support the show at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
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This is The Download from Sounds Profitable, the most important business news from the world of podcasting, I'm Bryan Barletta.And I'm Evo Terra. Today; Audible moves away from daily news digests, Audioboom's profit soars, how podcast advertising needs to write its own future, and two more pieces you don't want to miss. Let's get started.In GeekWire, Todd Bishop reports that Audible will stop making and distributing their audio digest versions of The New York Times, a service they had been providing since 1999. Additionally, Audible's audio digest versions of The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal will also be halted.Quoting from the piece:"The audio programs, which were available as a perk for Audible members, had been around for more than two decades in some cases. The decision to discontinue the digests reflects the growing number of daily news podcasts, and the rise of other services offering human-narrated audio of newspaper and magazine stories. Responding to GeekWire’s inquiry about the move, an Audible spokesperson provided copies of emails alerting listeners to the change. The messages directed listeners to the lineup of podcasts on Audible, and specifically recommended NPR’s Up First as “another way to get your news fix.”Audible and Amazon Music added podcasts in 2020. The New York Times is testing a new audio product of its own. The Times acquired Audm, which offers human-narrated stories from a variety of publications, in 2020."More proof-positive that podcasting is not just a disruptive force in journalism, but a valuable type of media in its own right. One that subscribers are eager to add to their media consumption diet.On Saturday, January 9th 2022, four mobile sports betting apps, including FanDuel and DraftKings, went live in New York state, with five more on the way, according to Neal Freyman of Morning Brew. In the four years since the Supreme Court ruled on legal sports betting, half the states in the US now allow sports betting, and twenty states support mobile sports betting specifically.Industries like sports betting and cannabis benefit from geotargeting to states where they’re legally approved and aligning with contextually relevant content; two things that podcasting does exceptionally well. As podcasting continues to grow its programmatic advertising opportunities, expect to see these categories leading the charts.Brad Hill from RainNews has a breakdown of Audioboom's financial report for 2021. A report that showed increased revenues of over 125% for the company that produces, monetizes, and distributes podcasts. That's a big increase that looks all the more impressive when you learn that Audioboom's growth more than doubled the IAB's tracking of the overall industry growth.Audioboom's growth seemed to hit on all cylinders, with increases in total impressions, advertisers serviced, and even a big jump in effective CPM.CEO Stuart Last reports that his company already havs $45 million on the books for this year, with a “strong set” of new shows is in development as they try to ride that train through 2022 and beyond.Tom Webster of Edison Research penned a great article where he looks at the massive shift in spoken-word audio consumption since 2014 to podcasting and from where? You guessed it: radio.As with every issue Tom writes in his newsletter, I Hear Things, this one is as entertaining to read as it is educational, and I highly encourage you to give it a read.Quoting near the end of the issue:"My point here is not to "celebrate" the growth of podcasting in spoken word. It's to take notice of just how much ground commercial radio has to podcasters who have done nothing more than add back in all the colors spoken word audio can paint with. Podcasting's surge isn't only about being an on-demand medium. It's about innovation. It's about taking risks. It's about closing the pool for renovations when it's easier to stick with the swimmers you have.cededAgain, this one is really worth your time to read, and for remembering that the way to succeed with spoken word content is to not only appeal to your audience, but those who might become your audience.And finally, It's not every day that an ad agency writes an opinion piece, but Dan Granger from Oxford Road has done so. And wow, is it an opinion that will probably ring in your ears for some time.In the piece, Dan presents seven key initiatives that would, in his opinion, demonstrably expand and optimize the podcast industry in 2022. You should read the article—we've linked to it in the episode details—to get his full take on each, but here's a quick rundown:1. A joint effort among the top podcast networks to create standard disclosures for ads 2. Making category exclusivity a standard for host-read ads 3. Networks to stop forcing "combo" buys that contain unwanted inventory 4. Local media publishers joining forces to create their own regional podcast networks 5. Facebook leveraging its advertising toolset to benefit podcasters on the social network 6. Airchecks and transcripts become standard 7. And the podcast Industry finally getting serious about brand safety
Dan goes into detail on each one of these needed initiatives, painting a picture of a future in which podcast advertising finally becomes a multi-billion dollar industry.And that was The Download, from Sounds Profitable! I know we went through these fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned, right in your podcast listening app. And thanks for sticking with us on this grand experiment to give you the best stories you might have missed from this week. I'm Bryan Barletta.I'm Evo Terra. Thanks for joining us. Robot?[Download complete!]See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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This is The Download from Sounds Profitable, the most important business news from the world of podcasting, I'm Bryan Barletta.And I'm Evo Terra. Today, The New York Times Bets half a billion on sports, NPR doubles down on paid subscriptions, Spotify goes all-in on in-app digital ads, and I'm clearly making too many gambling references. Let's get started.NYT buys The AthleticThe New York Times has agreed to purchase the sports news company, the Athletic, for $550m. The six-year-old company, which raised $50m in 2020 at a $500m valuation, was originally in talks to sell to the New York Times last summer, but the deal fell through due to disagreements on price. With the New York Times focusing heavily on subscription content and on audio with their new app, called obviously enough "New York Times Audio", acquiring the Athletic with their 1.2m paid subscribers, which is 1/8th the total subscriptions the New York Times has, puts them on track to easily exceed their goal of 10m subscribers.Currently, the Athletic is hosted on Megaphone, part of Spotify, and participates in the Spotify Audience Network. The New York Times hosts on Simplecast, part of Adswizz, which also offers a competing monetization product. Whether we see The Athletic migrate to Simplecast or not likely depends on how integrated the two companies will be with each other.AdvertiseCast has updated their Industry Average Podcast Advertising Rates page as of January 1st, 2022. AdvertiseCast has been tracking the average CPM rates for their client podcasts since the beginning of 2020, grouping the rates charged by podcasts into three buckets—shows getting less than 10,000 downloads per month, shows getting between 10,000 and 100,000, and those seeing more than 100,000 downloads per month.And it's good news, with the average CPM of all groups at just under $24, up nearly 6% comparing December 2021 to December 2020. And the biggest shows saw an even higher increase, jumping up by more than 8% year over year.The takeaway here is clear: The actual value—not just the perceived value, but the actual value paid by advertisers on 2,412 podcasts in this sample size, is going up for podcast advertising.Reviewing the programmatic mergers and acquisitions that James Hercher of AdExchanger pointed out this week, there’s a lot of trends happening in channels outside of podcasting that bode well for our industry.Hercher writes:“Historically, DSPs and SSPs have been kept separate from ad server businesses. Ad servers are the source of reconciliation data, meaning they decide whether ads were served or visible and whether advertisers should pay for an impression. Although walled gardens can often get away with bundling an ad server and grading their own homework, open programmatic companies generally could not. But SSPs need an ad server for CTV.”This need has been echoed in podcasting for quite some time. Companies like Triton Digital and Adswizz offer publishers both adserving and SSP capabilities in one package.Similarly, verification vendors like DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science, whose technology relies on client-side execution to verify ads, have each purchased contextual advertising companies to further their offering. Contextual verification is the easiest path for these vendors to enter the podcast space, enabling their clients to validate their purchased podcast inventory.Axios reports that NPR is taking another run at monetizing their podcasting efforts, working with premium podcast provider Supporting Cast to launch NPR+. The broadcaster plans to add a slate of new shows as well as subscriber-only episodes, including "podcast bundles" as incentives to listeners who become members of local NPR affiliates.Quoting from the article:"Subscription podcasting offers a new digital business model for NPR and its member stations. But its long-standing mission to inform the public limits how much content the non-profit can put behind a paywall.""NPR has been experimenting with podcasts for well over a decade, but it's pushing more aggressively to produce podcasts, particularly daily shows, that it can include in subscription efforts.""Podcast subscriptions will be used to drive revenue from loyalists who want to support their favorite shows and hosts, similar to radio memberships.""It's about the relationship that our journalists, our producers, our editors have with their audiences and their ability to create and craft new relationships," said Sarah Gilbert, vice president for news programming."The new NPR+ service is already live, with nine shows available at the time of this recording, each going for $2.99 per month.Spotify has released their take on a companion ad to accompany their streaming ad insertion offering, called CTA Cards. The unit works by providing a size-variable, banner-like ad, served only to listeners of Spotify's original and exclusive podcasts, and only to users of the Spotify mobile app.What’s unique about this ad unit is its staying power. The ad—or "card"—will be visible to the listener on both the episode and show pages for seven days or until the end of the campaign, whichever is shorter. This feature isn’t yet available to publishers who use Spotify Audience Network through Megaphone or Anchor, nor is it available to any publisher directly selling their inventory.Spotify is straddling the walled garden of advertising with their in-app streaming audio offering and their mainstream podcast advertising through dynamic ad insertion. But as they release more unique ad features solely to users of their mobile app, it will be interesting to see how Spotify responds to listener pushback for selling and running ads for their Spotify Premium customers who have paid for ad-free listening.And that was The Download, from Sounds Profitable! I know we went through these fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app. And thanks for sticking with us on this grand experiment to give you the best stories you migh have missed from this week. I'm Evo Terra.I'm Bryan Barletta. Thanks for joining us. Robot?[Download complete!]See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hey it's me. I know this is an odd day for an episode, but that's because it's not an episode of Sounds Profitable the Podcast. Instead it's an episode of another podcast you should be listening to: Podcast Pontifications, by Evo Terra. It's cool, he's cool, and if you like it, search for Podcast Pontifications in your podcast app, and give it a follow. And I'm excited to share with you the next episode of Sounds Profitable the Podcast on Sunday, and the next episode of The Download on Friday. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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This is The Download, the most important business news from the world of podcasting, I'm Bryan Barletta.And I'm Evo Terra. Today, why premium content won't kill advertising-supported podcasts, Facebook podcast activity is over-inflated, Section 230 under fire, and why the "average" podcast consumer is a myth you need to move away from. Let's get started.With Coca-Cola picking WPP to handle their nearly $4 billion in yearly ad spend, Business Insider ran down a list of 10 big brand accounts evaluating new agencies, from Nike to CVS Health. Their list, including Coca-Cola, covers over $7.5 billion in ad spend for next year.New agencies means new strategies. And new strategies include testing new channels, which is how many of these brands view podcasting. Podcast publishers and agencies will be the resources that enable these larger agencies and brands to buy direct podcasting ads at scale, while the adtech companies will further enable programmatic offerings directly in their tools of choice.In Mobile Insider from Media Post, Joe Mandese gives a counter opinion to what's been called The Great App Exodus, where advertisers—specifically in-app advertisers—are shifting away from ad revenue with a newfound focus on subscription revenue, particularly in a post-ATT world, or Apple Tracking Transparency.Quoting from the article:"[C]onsumers have already taken on vastly higher costs of premium media subscriptions -- especially subscription video-on-demand and music services -- over the past several years, and there is only so much they can bear.In fact, over the past couple of decades, consumers have surpassed advertisers as the primary source of media revenues, and according to estimates from industry economic tracker PQ Media, the average American now pays close to $1,500 annually accessing media and media content. How much more can they take?"So what does this have to do with podcasting, you're probably asking. Well, with both Apple and Spotify leaning heavily into paid subscription models, and other premium services from Glow, Supercast, Acast+ and more continuing to explore premium, ad-free offerings, costs to subscribe to premium or ad-free podcast feeds eats into that annual subscription budget. Which means free, ad-supported podcasts will likely remain the staple of podcast listening behavior for the foreseeable future.Bloomberg Businessweek got their hands on an internal Amazon document, the accuracy of which Amazon disputes, detailing slowed growth for their Alexa voice controlled smart speakers. Considering Amazon employs 10,000 people to work on Alexa and is attempting to move from a $5 loss per device sold in 2018 to a $2 per-unit profit by 2028, things might seem grim. But as an indicator of innovation from the overall audio space, it’s incredibly encouraging.Amazon previously reported that 25% of US households currently have at least one Alexa device. The primary uses of those devices is home automation, timers, and playing music and podcasts. Amazon, Apple, and Google all offer their own voice assistants through dedicated devices, phones, and more. And all three companies are increasingly active in both the podcast and music space. These devices won’t disappear anytime soon, but the rush in 2020 to build unique content specifically for smart speakers might have been a bit pre-emptive.In Podnews, James Cridland uncovers what he calls a coding bug in Facebook's on-page podcast player implementation that grossly inflates the number of counted downloads—but only if the podcast hosting company isn't providing IAB-certified stats.Quoting James:"We think that when you see a podcast in your timeline, the Facebook app is pre-downloading a little bit of the audio file to work out how long the audio is, and to ensure that it’s got 30 seconds of audio ready so you can hit the play button and instantly listen to it. This is against IAB guidelines.This is a bad engineering decision by Facebook - it will cause unnecessary bandwidth use by its app, and will cost podcast hosting companies significant revenue in wasted traffic. It would be ideal if they’d confirm to the IAB standard, and only request audio files when a user has asked for them."Facebook is being a bad actor in this case for a couple of different reasons. Not doing proper fetch requests to IAB guidelines, as James points out, is one. But also is the fact that Facebook seems disinterested in engaging with podcast hosting companies or even podcasters on this initiative. Given the outsized influence Facebook has on... well, everything, a few well-placed strategic calls to some podcast media companies might have saved them this aggravation.2021 was an incredibly rough year to look back on for many reasons. But in the adtech space, the fear of what comes next as we move away from third-party cookies and mobile device ID’s was particularly vexing . A good handful of adtech partners have put forth their best solutions for alternative identifiers, building quickly and getting significant buy-in, but according to DigiDay+’s research panel, nothing was resolved.Two of the five charts in their end of year wrap up point out that with over 50% of their panel still as concerned about the impact these changes will have to attribution and targeting. Even more surprising is that, with all of that concern “[d]espite nearly a year of testing, development and dealmaking, publishers remain about as worried about the end of the third-party cookie as they were at the beginning of 2021”, “[p]ublishers are twice as likely to be using alternate identifiers in none of their ads deals than they are to be using them for a majority of their deals.”While those changes don’t directly impact podcasting, a third chart highlights that contextual targeting, a mainstay of podcast advertising, is front and center for both agencies and advertisers in 2022. Focusing on contextual skips quite a few of the cookie and ID based problems whose solutions weren’t enticing enough to jump on, and lets CTV and podcasting shine, both of which have been seeing incredible growth.Writing in MediaPost's Social Insider, Wendy Davis covers a bill by New York State Senator Brad Hoylman that allows for legal action to be taken against media sites that knowingly promote hateful, harmful, or medically fraudulent content posted on their platforms. And he's not alone.Quoting from the piece:"Hoylman isn't the only one attempting to control how social media companies handle users' speech. Earlier this year, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) introduced the “Health Misinformation Act,” which aims to discourage social media companies from promoting posts with false information about COVID-19. That measure would carve out an exception to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for users' posts with false health information, when those posts are algorithmically promoted during a national emergency."These laws face an uphill battle even if they do manage to pass, and some will likely be thrown out as unconstitutional. But these attempts seem to be chipping away at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 certainly seems to be coming under fire, and it's revocation or rewriting could have significant impacts on how all media companies—including podcast media companies—manage the content housed on their services.And finally for this week, Neisen released some very interesting demographic-specific insights on podcast listener behavior in their Seen on Screen 2021 study. Podcast companies often look at blended average of all podcast consumers. But this survey shows clear differences and affinities for different groups, a reality that businesses marketing to or trying to reach these distinct podcast audiences should pay attention to.Quoting from the press release published on Podnews:"[T]hese audiences want to hear from trusted voices with similar backgrounds or that have similar interests. Most importantly, the topics need to be inclusive and of interest—from credible sources with original voices. And as podcasts more authentically appeal to a wide range of audiences, brands and agencies can track engagement with them and leverage targeted opportunities within marketing strategies and campaigns."So your company has been taking a one-size-fits-all approach to reaching the average podcast consumer, 2022 is the time to course-correct.The Download is brought to you by Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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We got such good feedback a few days ago that we decided to test the waters again with another pilot (co-pilot?) episode of The Download. Just in time for Christmas! If you love it, send us a note!Matt Deegan examines Global's acquisition of podcast hosting platform Captivate In particular, he notes how Captiave's hosting solution fills a much-needed gap in Global's offering, and how their audio advertising business—DAX—should integrate nicely, giving the company "full-stack" capabilities., comparing and contrasting that acquisition to the other podcasting-related business and services Global has acquired.Quoting from the piece:Captivate definitely fills a hole, as Global have lacked their own platform for managing the hosting of their podcasts. Up to now they mainly seem to have been using Spreaker, which was acquired by Voxnest, which was snaffled by iHeartMedia last year.DAX has been spending some time over the past couple of years owning the end-to-end technology around digital audio. Its streaming ad platform was originally built on top of Adswizz’s server, that’s now been replaced by their own in-house tech and Captivate gives them another chunk of the tech stack.Expect to see more as Global's integration of Captivate, DAX, and Remixd continues in the coming months.Full disclosure, Evo was an advisor to Captivate up until their acquisition by Global.Spotify opened Pod City, an on-location recording and production facility as part of their newly opened LA campus.The company's choice to invest in on-site capabilities for an industry that continues to rely on remote work and distributed teams seems odd.Quoting from Wendy Lee's article in the Los Angeles Times:Beyond centralizing its podcasting business in one place, the new Los Angeles operation allows Spotify to reduce the costs of paying outside vendors, attract and nurture new talent, and produce more original shows that it can own and distribute. At least two production houses owned by Spotify, The Ringer and Parcast, are located in Los Angeles.In late November 2021, Spotify's CEO Paul Vogel said the company had earmarked $3.5 billion to spend on expansion, with an emphasis on podcasting. Will a shiny new building attract higher-profile shows to join Spotify? And if more podcast studios are built by other powerhouses, does this signal a shift away from the remote-work nature we've grown accustomed to in podcasting?The Verge The article which we’ve linked in the episode description is still being updated, but outside of major companies with a podcasting presence like Amazon, Google, Meta, and iHeartRadio confirming they won’t be attending, a substantial portion of the tech media has also decided to opt out as well, including The Verge. Before you hop on your flight to Vegas in just under two weeks, you might want to make sure any meetings you've scheduled are still on.Sean Hollister of provided extensive coverage of cancellations from major companies for CES 2022.they made the unpopular decision to cancel lifetime accounts for their serviceBut then on Tuesday, Podnews reported an abrupt about-face.Podcast hosting company bCast found themselves in hot water of their own making this week, when purchased via AppSumo, according to Podnews on Monday. Quoting from founder Tom Hunt's social media post:After further discussion and feedback... we have decided to cancel the "cut off" and will continue to support all lifetime accounts as per the original terms. I understand that our original note from Thursday was misguided, irresponsible, and in short: a mistake. We will look to boost revenue from new subscribers, cut costs, and look for other routes of funding."Podcasters are notoriously cash-conscious. And they tend to have long memories. Keep that in mind before you start looking for creative ways to increase your MRR.Marketing BrewIn , Ryan Barwick covers the digital ad industry's inability to hire fast enough.Barwick notes that as of December 17th, Roku had 750 openings, The Trade Desk had 572 openings, Criteo had 319 openings and Google had 10,224 openings on LinkedIn.With advertising and adtech continuing to grow in the podcast industry as well, almost all companies are actively hiring for nearly all positions to cover both new growth and attrition. Reading the People category in Podnews every day shines a spotlight on an incredibly painful issue we’re facing; we keep poaching from within the space instead of hiring from outside and training up.The easiest thing to teach while onboarding someone into the podcast industry is the podcast industry itself. As an industry, we need to do better, and if you’re interested in collaborating on a project to fix that, reach out to me. Bryan@soundsprofitable.comThe Download is brought to you by Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Pacific Content's annual Predictions article(s): https://blog.pacific-content.com/in-the-year-2022-part-two-92c22c1c44b0
https://blog.pacific-content.com/in-the-year-2022-320f4c175f6f
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- Hosted and Produced by Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra
- Audio Engineering by Ian Powell
This is The Download, the most important business news from the world of podcasting, I'm Bryan Barletta.And I'm Evo Terra. Today we're covering the entirety of the podcast acquisition and funding that happened in 2021. Let's get started.Libsyn, the public podcast hosting platform founded in 2004 had an incredibly active year. They started by raising 25 million dollars and they definitely put it to work, buying podcast creation platform Auxbus, subscription and membership platform Glow for 1.2 million dollars, host and announcer read self-serve advertising marketplace Advertisecast for 30 million dollars, and longtail podcast advertising marketplace PODGO. With the leadership team from Advertisecast taking a more active role, and former board chairman and investor Brad Tirpak coming on as CEO, Libsyn has a chance to really upgrade their image if they can match the momentum of their competitors and integrate a non-trivial amount of companies into one of the oldest podcast platforms still active.Audacy, started the year as Entercom, and after 53 years, rebranded. Kicking it of by acquiring longtail self-serve ad marketplace Podcorn for $22.5m. Podcorn gives Audacy micro-influencer reach contrasting with their higher-profile owned and repped shows. For $40m, they also bought “an exclusive, perpetual license of WideOrbit’s digital audio streaming and podcasting technology and related assets and operations. Audacy will continue to operate WO Streaming under the name AmperWave.” Today, Audacy builds and hosts their radio broadcast to podcasts solution with Triton Digital’s Omny Studio, owned by close competitor iHeartMedia, while hosting their Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Media shows on Spotify’s Megaphone. For a company reporting around $16m in revenue per quarter from podcasting alone, expect to see them fully migrate to AmperWave and bulk up the public offering for the platform.While Global, the UK-based media & entertainment group and parent company of DAX Digital Ad Exchange does offer podcast hosting capabilities, their main appeal for publishers has been monetization opportunities. So acquiring podcast hosting, analytics, and monetization platform Captivate, which is IAB certified and has strong brand appeal for indie podcasts, shows Global's drive to be more accessible. Ad exchanges thrive on inventory, so the purchase of Remixd, which “automatically converts text articles into audio files” provides Global a quick path to more ad supply. With Captivate off the table, hosting platform Buzzsprout, that serves over 100k podcasts, becomes even more appealing for a longtail inventory play.Earlier in the year, iHeartMedia acquired audio ad technology company Triton Digital for 230 million dollars from E.W. Scripps, which purchased Triton Digital for 150 million dollars in 2018 and Omny Studio, part of Triton Digital, in 2019. Like Audacy, iHeart currently uses Spotify’s Megaphone to host their podcasts. Getting all their assets to their own platform is clearly on the horizon for iHeart, especially with Triton Digital offering radio broadcast-to-podcast capabilities. Coupled with iHeart’s acquisition of Voxnest/Spreaker in 2020 and the announcement of their ad marketplace in both 2020 and 2021, the only offering iHeart currently lacks to compete with their direct competitors, is an attribution product. Will they build it internally like Adswizz or will they acquire a solution?With over 70% of podcasts on Spotify serving from their hosting platform Anchor, Spotify continues their plans of going wide on audio by buying audiobook distributor Findaway and podcast hosting platform Whooshkaa, which specializes in creating podcasts from radio broadcasts. Whooshkaa will be integrated into hosting platform Megaphone, which Spotify purchased last November for 235 million dollars. While Spotify is unlikely to retain Audacy and iHeartMedia as clients, as both purchased their own radio broadcast-to-podcast technology this year, Spotify will continue to attract publishers looking for those features as part of a complete offering. With Whooshkaa acquired, RedCircle is the last independent hosting platform with dynamic ad insertion and programmatic offerings. And SGRecast from StreamGuys is the only independent company offering a broadcast-to-podcast technology. How long either will remain independent is a very good question.Acast started the year by acquiring US podcast technology startup RadioPublic. Keeping inline with their creator-focused image, the main appeal was “RadioPublic’s Listener Relationship Management platform, which allows podcasters to foster even deeper relationships with fans”, which played nice with the beta launch of Acast+, their subscription offering. Over the summer, Acast went public, which is it’s own kind of acquisition.And though it falls slightly outside of 2021, when Podnews editor James Cridland announced Amazon’s late December 2020 acquisition of Wondery for around 300 million dollars, he made the prediction that ART19 would be the logical next acquisition. After all, former CEO of Wondery, Hernan Lopez was an investor in the platform and all Wondery shows were hosted on ART19. In June of this year, the deal for Amazon to acquire ART19 was officially announced. Nice crystal ball, James.And if that wasn't enough, here's a quick rundown of some of the other deals from 2021: In the podcast player space, the Breaker podcast app team joined Twitter while Maple Media acquired the app itself, Daily Mail and General Trust or DMGT acquired discovery focused podcast app Entale, and Automattic, owner of Tumblr and WordPress.com acquired the podcast app Pocket Casts. In the hosting platform space Castos acquires another hosting platform, Podiant and Sounder acquired audio discovery and analytics company Podnods. In the technology space attribution company Podsights acquired linksharing company pod.link and podcast database Podchaser acquired chart and ranking tool Podcharts and listener review tool Podrover. And in the content production space Amaze Media Labs acquired podcast production company Jam Street Media.Finally, a lighting round of the funding deals that happened, to give you some insight into the money moving into the podcasting space.Production1. Copenhagen-based Podimo raised $15.3m in February and $78m in November. 2. Audio Up Media raised $12m. 3. WaitWhat raised $12m. 4. Sounder raised $2.15m in March and $9.5m in December. 5. Casted raised $7m. 6. French-based Paradiso Media raised $5.9m. 7. Quake Media raised $3.5m. 8. Equity Mates Media raised $900k. 9. UK-based Auddy raised $610k.
Creator Tools1. Verbit raised $157m. 2. Descript raised $30m. 3. Podcastle raised $7m. 4. Zencastr raised $4.6m. 5. Podchaser raised $4m. 6. Riverside raised $2.5m.
Hosting & Monetization1. Instreamatic raised $6.1m. 2. RedCircle raised $6m. 3. Podsights raised $4m. 4. Backtracks raised $1.6m. 5. Castos raised $756k. 6. Podmetrics and Podcast Network Asia raised $750k.
You'll find links to everything we just covered in the episode details, and subscribe to The Download in your inbox so you never miss an episode.I'm Bryan BarlettaAnd I'm Evo TerraSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Arielle and Bryan interview Sounds Profitable artist Jake Crowe, and talk about his inspirations, his process for designing the art of SP, and how everybody can draw.* Jake Crowe * Article: https://soundsprofitable.com/update/podscape-podcast * Join Jakes Newsletter!: https://crowebot.ck.page/7b26e3390b
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Send us messages with Yappa!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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What are the benefits of having in-app subscription services for your podcast? What are the downfalls? Is it worth the experiment to give them a try? Hosts Bryan Barletta and Arielle Nissenblatt speak with guest Lindsay Graham about his experience with subscription services, and talk about ideas for the future of the technology.* Lindsay Graham of Airship * Article: https://soundsprofitable.com/update/paid-subscriptions-hidden-costs * Link discussed in Episode:https://soundsprofitable.com/update/apple-podcast-subscriptions
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
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Thanks for listening! A few links from this week:
Spotify's announcement: https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/27/spotify-says-u-s-podcast-listeners-now-use-its-service-more-than-apple-podcasts/
A Vice article about the "battle" between Pandora and Spotify: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8q8a/how-pandora-won-its-royalty-battle-but-lost-the-war-to-spotify
Pacific Content's 2022 Predictions article: https://blog.pacific-content.com/in-the-year-2022-320f4c175f6f
Infinite Dial Live at Podcast Movement Evolutions: https://podcastmovement.com/podmov/pm-evolutions-to-host-infinite-2022-los-angeles/
You can support the show, if you'd like, at Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
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This week, Bryan and Arielle chat about podcasts they love, why third party research matters, and why you should care about studies. Guest Gabriel Soto from Edison research speaks with Bryan on the Latino Podcast Segment, studies done by Edison, and how much Bryan loves data.* Gabriel Soto of Edison Research * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/invest-in-latino-podcast-segment * Link discussed in Episode: https://soundsprofitable.com/update/free-podcast-survey
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
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Bryan's family is a bit under the weather, so we've taken the week off. But this gap in programming has allowed us to replay one of our favorite episodes, with guest Marcus dePaula, discussing how your current audio equipment influences how people perceive you in modern business. Cheers everyone!* Marcus dePaula of Podcast Audio Lab * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/audio-quality-and-your-brand
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
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The six-country study we recently completed on in-car radio: https://www.worlddab.org/news/blogs/89/car-buyers-survey-2021
A tribute to Rosalie Trombley from Sean Ross: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/10-songs-cklw-curated-for-me-rosalie-trombley-bryan-adams-7325434/
The Infinite Dial UK: https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-infinite-dial-2021-uk-save-the-date/
The Top 50 Podcasts, Q3 2021: https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-top-50-most-listened-to-podcasts-in-the-u-s-q3-2021/
Sign up for the I Hear Things newsletter to get access to our upcoming Pitchable Podcast webinar: https://tomwebster.media
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Does your podcast need to be monetized? Or can it just be a fun hobby? And does the normal road to monetization fit what you're looking for, or should you be looking into alternate means? Listen as hosts Bryan and Arielle, and guest Alban Brooke, discuss the differences you should distinguish, and the data behind those decisions.* Alban Brooke of Buzzsprout * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/anchor-serious-ad-channel
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Send us messages with Yappa!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Sometimes the best fix is being provided by someone else, and there's no shame in using it. In fact, that useful tool may be exactly what your company needs, at a more fair price. Arielle and Bryan talk with James Avery of Kevel about how it's even more than buy vs build with podcast technology, in that is should be "buy and then build upon".* James Avery of Kevel * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/buy-vs-build
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Send us messages with Yappa!Join the private feed! https://soundsprofitable.supercast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Spoken Word Audio Report (SWAR!) https://www.nationalpublicmedia.com/insights/reports/the-spoken-word-audio-report/
GWAR (GWAR!) https://gwar.net
NY Times analysis of Spotify Data: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/opinion/sunday/favorite-songs.html
My 2019 piece on why Spotify is getting into podcasting: https://tomwebster.media/spotify-music-and-podcasting-the-meteor-is-coming/
Who Was Prince? https://www.dcpofficial.com/who-was-prince
A better explainer of NFTs than I am: https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq
Tamsen Webster: http://www.tamsenwebster.com/
Find Your Red Thread: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091G3FRFW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Subscribe to my newsletter and get all the details of our upcoming webinar at http://tomwebster.media
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What's the difference between a synthetic voice and a deep fake? And what's the most ethical way to use this amazing technology? Sean King joins hosts Bryan Barletta and Arielle Nissenblatt to discuss the future of synthetic voices, and Sounds Profitable's recent foray into the Spanish language.* Sean King of Veritone One * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/sounds-proftable-in-spanish * Check out the Open Voice Network
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
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Pete Birsinger joins us to talk about the benefits of a Sounds Profitable Product Deepdive, and why Podscribe has been such a huge supporter.* Pete Birsinger of Podscribe * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/deepdive-into-adtech
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Join the private feed! https://soundsprofitable.supercast.comSend us messages with Yappa!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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A data slide of the Independent Podcast Listening Audience can be found at http://ihearthin.gs
James Cridland's analysis of the Spotify news (recommended): https://podnews.net/update/spotify-q321
Source data for the Spotify announcement: https://tomwebster.media/the-most-important-question-in-podcasting-2021/
Understanding Podcast Stats, again from James Cridland: https://podnews.net/article/understanding-podcast-statisticshttps://podnews.net/article/understanding-podcast-statistics
John Spurlock's analysis of download trackers: https://livewire.io/podcast-trackers-by-episode-share/?utm_source=podnews.net&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=podnews.net:2021-10-15
Support for the show can be offered at Buy Me A Coffee--and thank you for listening. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
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Lets learn about lift reports and audience insights, and what those can do for you and your company.* Megan Johnson of Podsights * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/audience-insights
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
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My Podcast Movement keynote: https://youtu.be/Ggy6Bs1FsLI
Underlying data and observations about Facebook: https://tomwebster.media/the-most-important-question-in-podcasting-2021/
Support the show at Buy Me A Coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
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This week, Sounds Profitable talks sound quality with Marcus dePaula, and how a good microphone can both save AND make you money.* Marcus dePaula of Podcast Audio Lab * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/audio-quality-and-your-brand
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Join the feed at https://soundsprofitable.supercast.tech/Send us messages with Yappa!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Check out this Bonus Article featuring the synthetic voices of James Cridland of Podnews and Evo Terra of Podcast Pontifications!
Here's the article: https://soundsprofitable.com/update/sounds-proftable-in-spanish
MARVEL.ai: https://www.veritone.com/applications/marvelai/
Join us for more narrated articles!: https://soundsprofitable.supercast.tech/
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The Edison Podcast Listener Survey template: https://www.edisonresearch.com/edison-research-podcast-listener-survey/
Buy Me a Coffee!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
As always, I appreciate your support, and your subscriptions. You can get the newsletter version of this at http://ihearthin.gs
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Sounds Profitable chats with Claire Fanning about the IAB fall podcast UpFronts, and how you should be capitalizing on what we've learned.* Claire Fanning of SXM Media * https://soundsprofitable.com/update/programmatic-podcast-ads-upfront
Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Join the feed at https://soundsprofitable.supercast.tech/Send us messages with Yappa!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Join Bryan and new cohost Arielle Nissenblatt as they discuss what's coming in Season Two of Sounds Profitable.___Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * and Arielle Nissenblatt * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Join the feed at https://soundsprofitable.supercast.tech/Send us messages with Yappa!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Tucker Carlson graph: https://tomwebster.media/content/images/2021/10/Tucker-Carlson.jpeg
Most recent Share of Ear: https://tomwebster.media/content/images/2021/10/2021-Share-of-Ear-Q2---FINAL.png
Share of Ear by device: blob:https://tomwebster.media/4f2ffa14-6588-4c99-8df3-22645f82d916
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The Sounds Profitable podcast started impulsively as a way to test out the amazing ad tech I talk about. It's always been important to me that the people who talk about the technology know how to use it hands on and absolutely know what their clients experience. Now after 30 episodes and just finishing up our first year of Sounds Profitable as a newsletter, we're taking a month to completely reformat and improve the podcast to make it a better listening experience.For the month of September I wanted to share with you four episodes you may have missed. And of course, ask you to please take our survey, at podcast.study/soundsprofitable . Without your feedback, we couldn't have made the improvements we're planning.Understanding if your ad is working is absolutely critical. Brand Lift studies help you know if they are working. Tom Webster and Edison Research do a phenomenal job of telling you just that.Key Links:* Tom Webster of Edison Research * Article:https://soundsprofitable.com/update/brand-lift-studies
-----Send us answers to Tom’s questions at bryan@soundsprofitable.com using the Subject “Episode 18”. Make sure to answer all 3 questions, and include your address so we can send you a sticker!“What section of the library would you find Sounds Profitable under?”“Do you think this show is popular?”“If Sounds Profitable were to die tomorrow, what would you miss the most about it?”___Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Join the feed at https://soundsprofitable.supercast.tech/Send us messages with Yappa!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Facebook opportunity for podcasting: https://tomwebster.media/accidental-podcast-listeners/
The WSJ reporting on The Facebook Files: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039
Twitter: Before And After Trump: https://www.edisonresearch.com/twitter-before-and-after-trump/
Unfriending Facebook: https://medium.com/swlh/unfriending-facebook-new-research-on-why-people-like-facebook-less-74894b927a0
The newsletter edition of this podcast: http://tomwebster.media/podcasting-for-connection/
And your support for this podcast at Buy Me A Coffee is always welcome! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Sounds Profitable podcast started impulsively as a way to test out the amazing ad tech I talk about. It's always been important to me that the people who talk about the technology know how to use it hands on and absolutely know what their clients experience. Now after 30 episodes and just finishing up our first year of Sounds Profitable as a newsletter, we're taking a month to completely reformat and improve the podcast to make it a better listening experience.For the month of September I wanted to share with you four episodes you may have missed. And of course, ask you to please take our survey, at podcast.study/soundsprofitable . Without your feedback, we couldn't have made the improvements we're planning.Key Links:* Matt Drengler of Podsights * Articles:https://soundsprofitable.com/update/understanding-podcast-lift-reports https://soundsprofitable.com/update/understanding-podcast-lift-reports-2
-----Credits:* Hosted by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable - bryan@soundsprofitable.com * Audio engineering by Ian Powell * Executive produced by Evo Terra of Simpler Media * Special thanks to James Cridland of Podnews * Podcast hosting and dynamic insertion wizardry by Whooshkaa * Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron
Join the feed at https://soundsprofitable.supercast.tech/Send us messages with Yappa!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.