Podcast
Sounds Profitable
Hosted by Bryan Barletta · EN
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.
93episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Podcast Atlas, Part 4: The Denominator
4w ago00:10:25Tap to summarizeWinning on quality is only half the story when the audience you want is already spending its day somewhere else.Written by Tom WebsterEdited and narrated by Gavin GaddisFind the full article here.
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IAB Tech Lab Opens Measurement v2.3 for Comment, World Cup Lessons About Creators, & More
4w ago00:06:20Tap to summarizeToday in the business of podcasting:The IAB Tech Lab has opened a 30-day public comment period on version 2.3 of its Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines, updating how downloads, audience, and ad delivery are counted across audio and video podcasts.Digiday breaks down five lessons from the World Cup on creator marketing, including how Unilever scaled a creator network to roughly 300,000 and how Michelob Ultra generated $11.5 million in earned media value with fewer than 350 creators.A Media, Built newsletter piece argues that employee-creator programs modeled on Starbucks' Green Apron Creators carry unpriced legal risk around copyright, overtime pay, and labor protections.AdExchanger talks to OpenX's chief privacy officer about the end of "actual knowledge" standards in children's privacy law, as new state rules push platforms toward a "should have known" test for underage users.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
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Audio Anchors Podcasting, WARC's YouTube Numbers, & More
4w ago00:04:47Tap to summarizeToday in the business of podcasting:A new Nielsen Podcast Listen & Watch report finds audio remains the core of podcast consumption, with 90% of monthly listeners tuning in via audio and 62% also watching video, as listeners and viewers use the two formats in distinctly different ways.WARC reports YouTube podcast viewing on TV screens has surged past 700 million hours monthly, up 70% year over year, even as the platform's ad revenue growth is projected to slow amid rising competition from TikTok and Netflix.A new YouGov survey of U.S. podcast consumers finds genre preferences split sharply by gender, with men far more likely to listen to sports podcasts and women over-indexing in true crime, self-improvement, and wellness content.Spotify's podcast strategy has shifted from paying for exclusive content to operating the infrastructure creators depend on for discovery and monetization, a repositioning that hands the company more market control with less financial risk.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
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The Attention Span Myth, Clips Open Podcasting's Front Door, & More
Jul 1700:07:05Tap to summarizeToday in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster's latest Podcast Atlas installment examines podcast clips as a discovery engine, finding 89% of listeners watch clips on social platforms and roughly a third go on to become full-episode listeners.DAX U.S. President Brian Conlon argues the "shrinking attention span" is a myth, pointing to Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026 finding that 45% of Americans age 12 and older listened to a podcast in the past week, the highest level ever recorded.Six Colors previews the iOS 27 public beta, including Apple Podcasts video expanding to macOS and Apple TV and a rebuilt Siri that can retrieve old podcast episodes by description.Creator economy newsletter Scalable reports brand safety concerns among enterprise marketers have dropped from 50% in 2023 to just 10% in 2025, with the industry shifting focus to brand fit instead.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
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Podcasting's Front Door is Clips, Amazon DSP x Triton Digital, & More
Jul 1600:05:29Tap to summarizeToday in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster's latest Podcast Atlas installment digs into podcast clips as the industry's discovery engine, finding that 89% of listeners watch clips on social platforms and roughly a third convert into full-episode listeners.Amazon DSP adds Triton Digital as a programmatic partner, giving buyers access to Triton's global audio and podcast inventory paired with Amazon's first-party shopping and streaming data.A new WARC Media report pegs YouTube's 2025 ad revenue at $40.4 billion, but growth is decelerating even as podcast viewership on the platform surges 70% year-over-year.Digiday explores creators breaking into Hollywood with box-office hits and private equity backing, while flagging IP ownership as the ceiling on how far that crossover can go.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
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Audioboom's Strong First Half, Maturing Creator Brand Safety, & More
Jul 1500:07:15Tap to summarizeToday in the business of podcasting:Audioboom posted record H1 2026 results, with revenue up 30% year-on-year to $45.7 million and adjusted EBITDA up 80% to $3.2 million, while also ending its strategic review and unveiling Spotify and Apple partnerships to power video monetization later this year.Creator economy newsletter Scalable finds brand safety concerns among US enterprise marketers have plummeted from 50% in 2023 to just 10% in 2025, as the industry pivots toward brand fit over blanket caution, a shift with clear implications for podcast advertising.The BBC's newly released annual report shows its ad-funded podcasts outside the UK drew over 515 million downloads and 116 million listeners, offering a rare public benchmark for global podcast monetization.Netflix subscribers on ad-free tiers keep getting blindsided by ads during live sports events like the Home Run Derby, a trust gap podcasting has largely sidestepped by setting clear ad expectations upfront.Media analyst Brian Morrissey argues publishers' second attempt at video is built for durability, using platforms like YouTube and TikTok as acquisition funnels toward owned audiences and revenue, a strategy many podcast publishers are already running on YouTube.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
Transcribe →The Podcast Atlas, Part 3: The Front Door
Jul 1500:08:23Tap to summarizePodcast clips aren't just filler content, they're the top of the discovery funnel, with 89% of listeners watching them on social platforms and about a third reliably converting into episode views or new regular listeners.Written by Tom WebsterEdited and narrated by Gavin GaddisFind the full article here.
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Apple Podcasts Video Expands to Mac & TV, ANA Inclusive Case Studies, & More
Jul 1400:06:22Tap to summarizeToday in the business of podcasting:Six Colors gets a first look at the iOS 27, tvOS 27, and macOS 27 public betas, including a rebuilt Siri powered by large language models and Apple Podcasts video expanding to Mac desktops and Apple TV.Podstock CEO Michael Paretzky argues podcast back catalogs are losing strategic value as most downloads happen in a show's first 30 days, urging publishers to invest in new content and integrated advertising instead.The Association of National Advertisers releases its first Inclusive Marketing Case Study Compendium, spotlighting 100 award winning campaigns from brands like Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, and Major League Baseball.Unilever scales its creator network to 300,000 people using AI for vetting and briefing while keeping strategy and relationships human, part of a projected $13.7 billion influencer marketing market by 2027.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
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Buzzcast is Back on Spotify, Debunking The Attention-Span Myth, & More
Jul 1300:04:49Tap to summarizeToday in the business of podcasting:Buzzsprout has brought its official podcast, Buzzcast, back to Spotify months after pulling it, with co-founder Kevin Finn citing fixes to Spotify's video lock-in issue and a desire for broader multiplatform distribution.Megaphone shifts to the Spotify Ad Server on July 17, raising the maximum ad duration to 90 seconds while dropping VAST tag support, a change to the migration first reported in May.DAX U.S. President Brian Conlon pushes back on the "shrinking attention span" narrative, pointing to Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026 finding that 45% of Americans 12 and older listened to a podcast in the past week.Ad Results Media argues digital audio is built for a privacy-first future, citing AdsWizz data on contextual targeting and SiriusXM Media research on consumer trust as reasons marketers should layer first-party and contextual signals instead of chasing cookie replacements.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
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Podcast Movement Opens Public Voting, What The Screen Adds, & More
Jul 1000:07:15Tap to summarizeToday in the business of podcasting:Podcast Movement 2026 opens public voting on conference sessions for the first time, with nearly 800 submissions from more than 500 speakers. Voting runs through July 21, and 50% of the New York City conference's schedule will be decided by community vote.Tom Webster publishes The Podcast Atlas, Part Two: What The Screen Adds, with five findings on video podcasting as an ad environment, including a shorter path to purchase and the highest attention levels of any format in the study.Bloomberg's Soundbite checks in on Apple Podcasts' video rollout four months after launch, finding encouraging early numbers from Acast and Transistor.fm but analytics that can't yet separate audio plays from video plays.Owl & Co's Streamonomics previews Q2 earnings season through engagement data across nine platforms, showing Netflix viewing hours declining while Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube keep growing.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
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