Sounds Profitable

Today in the business of podcasting: Podscribe’s Q3 benchmark report finds geography is the strongest targeting signal for podcast ad results, followed by a recent visit to the advertiser’s website and its Buyer Power Score. The Podcast Study 2026 finds only 8.6% of listeners would accept more ads to keep a podcast free, while 54.8% say shows already carry too many. Right Side Up’s Krystina Rubino...

Today in the business of podcasting: Apple Podcasts product manager Ted Hosmann explains how video podcasts work over HLS at the IETF’s HLS Interest Day. He says top shows have grown their audience more than 20% on average since adding video, and Apple has also quietly acqui-hired members of the team behind AI audio startup Huxe. Audible and NielsenIQ surveyed 18,000 spoken-word listeners across 1...

This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster says AI is the average machine, so podcasters should hand it routine work like show notes and ad operations and protect the host-read ad and the show itself. Audacy's Leah Reis-Dennis argues the old podcast advertising playbook is outdated, citing 22% lower cost per acquisition on mid-sized shows, the hybrid audio and video audience, and the tru...

Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster says AI is the average machine, so hand it the routine podcasting work like show notes, transcripts and ad ops, and protect the human work of host-read ads and the show itself. WARC forecasts global ad spend will grow 11.9% to $1.34 trillion in 2026, with social, search and retail media taking 66.4% of spend and growth slowing to 8.4% in 2027. A new...

This week Tom Webster reports back from Denver, where Content Marketing World, LIONS, and The Market Research Event shared one expo floor and nearly every booth was selling an AI-augmented something. His argument is that large language models are built to produce the most probable answer, which makes them a machine for the average, and that the real opportunity is to hand over the average work and...

Today in the business of podcasting: A Signal Hill Insights survey of 6,161 Canadians finds AM/FM radio still holds 46% of in-car listening, while 68% of Canadians dislike AI-generated podcasts and only 4% like them. The Podcast Study 2026 identifies "Prime Prospects," the 18% of podcast consumers who value the host and show growing consumption, as a major opportunity to grow podcast superfans, wh...

Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable Partner Tom Webster and ADOPTER Media's Glenn Rubenstein host a free webinar on October 13 at 2:00 p.m. ET, using new Podcast Atlas analysis to profile podcasting's heaviest buyers, the Super Spenders. Audacy's Leah Reis-Dennis argues in a Sounds Profitable guest article that outdated podcast advertising advice needs a rewrite, citing 22% lowe...

This week in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026 shows podcast reach holding steady at 74% of U.S. adults, while Netflix debuts as the third most-used podcast platform and video viewing climbs to 44% weekly. Acast's Greg Glenday, Oxford Road's Dan Granger and Triton's Sharon Taylor explain how they reached scale, why measurement remains the industry's biggest pro...

Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026 finds U.S. podcast reach holding steady at 74% of adults, with Netflix arriving as a top-three platform and weekly video podcast viewing rising to 44%. ExchangeWire asks whether podcasting is rated highly enough in the media mix, as UK weekly listening grows to 27% and ad execs weigh in on attention, host-read ads, and...

This week Tom Webster shares Part One of The Podcast Landscape 2026 , our annual study of how Americans consume podcasts, drawn from a census-weighted survey of 5,473 US adults. Podcasting's audience is large and stable, but it is increasingly consuming in places not built for podcasts. Tom gets into five findings: Reach held steady, with 74% of adults having consumed a podcast and 39% in the past...

Today in the business of podcasting: Acast, Oxford Road, and Triton Digital leaders explain how they reached scale, why inconsistent measurement remains a core problem, and why one CEO says podcast advertising is still "at the basement." International Podcast Day brings a wave of announcements, including 82 free Podcast Movement NYC sessions on YouTube, a redesigned Podigee platform, and Flightcas...

Today in the business of podcasting: BetterHelp has tapped creator-led agency Media Bodies to lead its international podcast advertising strategy across 10 markets, using localized approaches rather than one global playbook. The IAB Tech Lab has opened its first Programmatic Standard Practices for public comment through October 16, setting shared business rules for how buyers and sellers use exist...

Today in the business of podcasting: 1UpMedia founder Guang Jin Yeo shares what Asia's podcast market can learn from the global playbook, from static-frame video podcasts to dubbing and generative AI. His golden rule for AI in podcasting is that audiences shouldn't be able to tell, but they must always be told. Programmatic podcast advertising is growing fast, and 82% of agencies now buy audio pro...

This week in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster explains why Netflix passing Apple Podcasts to become the third most-named place Americans consume podcasts is a warning sign, since most shows can never get on the platform. Triton Digital's Sharon Taylor argues video is expanding podcasting rather than replacing audio, noting 80% of monthly podcast consumers both watch and...

Today in the business of podcasting: Lower Street's Annalise Nielsen explains why it's so hard to buy podcast ads. Trying to spend a $72,000 budget, she ran into missing ad contacts, $150,000 minimums and a host-read quietly downgraded to a post-roll. Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster finds Netflix has passed Apple Podcasts to become the third most-named place Americans consume podcasts. He warns th...

Today in the business of podcasting: Apple Podcasts and Apple Maps launch Hidden Histories, a feature that uses the podcast:location tag to place episodes on real-world locations. Apple also confirms that video is coming to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions in more than 170 countries and regions. A new Audacy report argues that mid-sized podcasts are an untapped advertising opportunity, citing a 22% lo...

This week Tom Webster comes back from his Podcast Movement keynote in New York with a number that should stop the industry cold. Across four years of The Podcast Landscape , the study has asked people every place they have consumed a podcast in the past year, and the third most-named platform is no longer Apple Podcasts. It is Netflix. Tom lays out why that ranking troubles him, and why he thinks...

Today in the business of podcasting: Triton Digital's Sharon Taylor pushes back on the video-first narrative, pointing to 2025 U.S. Podcast Report data showing 80% of monthly listeners both watch and listen while only 7% watch exclusively. Her advice is to treat video as an expansion of an audio show rather than a replacement for it. A growing number of creators and the companies representing them...

Today in the business of podcasting: Ad buyers draw a line on YouTube's "Engaged Views": At last week's Sounds Profitable Business Summit, ADOPTER Media, Right Side Up, Oxford Road, and YMH Studios committed to counting only YouTube's "Engaged Views" when buying ads on the platform. The move answers YouTube's August decision to count a view after a single frame plays, a change that roughly doubled...

This week in the business of podcasting: Podcast Week in New York opened with the Sounds Profitable Business Summit, where This American Life's Ira Glass argued that podcasts build deeper audience connections than influencer content and that the depth makes their advertising more effective. A later panel tackled Spotify's skip button test, with Right Side Up and Acast pushing the industry toward b...

Today in the business of podcasting: The IAB used its Podcast Upfront during Podcast Week to release new video podcast measurement guidance, declining to adopt a single medium-agnostic standard like the AMP Accords in favor of two existing IAB Tech Lab frameworks. Spotify is expanding its Partner Program to more than 35 new markets this fall, opening audio and video podcast monetization to creator...

Today in the business of podcasting: Apple's fall software releases bring a wave of new Apple Podcasts features across iOS 27, tvOS 27, and macOS 27, led by a video-first redesign. A revamped Apple TV app adds video podcast playback and channel browsing, while full transcripts, chapters, and a new Search in Show tool arrive across devices. Amazon Music is expanding its global video podcast partner...

Today in the business of podcasting: Podcast Week in New York kicked off with the Sounds Profitable Business Summit, where This American Life's Ira Glass argued that podcasting's depth and audience connection make it more effective for advertisers than most influencer content. Panelists also pushed back on Spotify skip-button anxiety, making the case that better ads and more data transparency beat...

Today in the business of podcasting: Podcasts Take Over New York — Podcast Week NYC kicks off with three back-to-back events: the Sounds Profitable Business Summit today and tomorrow, the 2026 IAB Podcast Upfront on Wednesday, and Podcast Movement closing out Thursday and Friday. Tom Webster has teased a keynote built on The Podcast Landscape 2026 data he expects to spark real industry debate. Mag...

This week in the business of podcasting: New Sounds Profitable data shows the smart TV has overtaken the smart speaker as a top device for podcast listening, with Tom Webster arguing audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground viewing rather than background audio. The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad market forecast to 12.3 percent, with podcast advertising expected to grow 8.7 percent and outp...