Sounds Profitable

Podcast Description Today in the business of podcasting: Bloomberg's Ashley Carman surveys the growing landscape of AI-generated podcasts, examining how hosting platforms like RSS.com are setting monetization guardrails and how Spotify is rolling out a new badge to authenticate real music artists. John Spurlock's HLS Podcast Radar tracks video podcasts using the alternate enclosure tag, which seve...

This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster of Sounds Profitable audited iHeartMedia radio stations across three mid-size U.S. markets and found that less than 4% of weekday airtime in Pittsburgh features locally produced content, while Indianapolis registers effectively zero. The research challenges the premise that a SiriusXM acquisition would meaningfully reduce local programming that,...

Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster audits iHeartMedia station clusters in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City and finds that locally originating programming makes up a tiny fraction of weekday airtime, while local advertising load remains far higher, reframing what a SiriusXM acquisition would actually affect. Amplitude Media Partners' Reggie Risseeuw breaks down recent Mega...

Today in the business of podcasting: Libsyn has announced that video functionality is now available across all its hosting plans, with direct video distribution to Spotify — powered by the Spotify Distribution API — starting at $25 per month. Marketing firm JoneKiri is offering brand sponsorship opportunities for a live performance of Hanging with Doctor Z at Netflix Is a Joke Fest, with options r...

Today in the business of podcasting: Nielsen has integrated Triton Digital's Podcast Metrics Demos+ data into its Nielsen Media Impact planning platform, making it easier for advertisers to evaluate podcasts alongside other media channels with the same precision and comparability. Nielsen also launched Predictive Sales Lift, a new outcomes-based capability to help media buyers forecast sales lift...

Today in the business of podcasting: iHeartMedia and Sirius XM are in preliminary talks about a potential merger that would combine the largest radio station owner and the largest satellite radio service in the United States, creating a company with more than $12 billion in combined annual sales. S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows U.S. podcast listening grew 10 percentage points from Q1...

This week in the business of podcasting: SiriusXM Media has become the exclusive audio advertising representative for YouTube in the United States, giving advertisers the ability to buy guaranteed audio ad impressions against YouTube audiences at scale for the first time through SiriusXM's combined ad technology stack. Sounds Profitable's new Audio Primes report, drawn from The Podcast Landscape 2...

Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable's new Audio Primes report finds that 22% of podcast consumers listen to 75% or more of their episodes as audio-only — and 90% of them use YouTube, making them heavier consumers of video platforms than the average podcast listener while still choosing audio for podcasts. Beehiiv is expanding its creator platform with MCP-powered AI podcast anal...

Today in the business of podcasting: SiriusXM Media has become the exclusive audio advertising representative for YouTube in the United States, giving advertisers access to guaranteed impressions against YouTube's audio audiences at scale for the first time. The deal connects YouTube to SiriusXM's broad ad sales infrastructure, which already spans Pandora and a wide network of podcast and streamin...

What platforms record and what podcast consumers are actually doing can be two different things. New research from Edison Research introduces "Audio Primes" — the 22% of podcast consumers who listen to 75% or more of their podcasts as audio — finding that this segment skews younger, more educated, and higher-earning than the average podcast listener, upending common assumptions about who chooses a...

Today in the business of podcasting: Netflix Co-CEO, President and Director Ted Sarandos called out podcasting as a bright spot in the company's Q1 2026 earnings, noting that internal data shows video podcasts are driving incremental engagement, with particular strength in daytime viewing and on mobile devices. Adobe has deepened its partnership with Speechmatics by adding on-device speech-to-text...

Today in the business of podcasting: The IAB, in partnership with PwC, reports that digital audio ad spend reached a record $8.4 billion in 2025, a 10.2% year-over-year increase, with podcast advertising revenue climbing to $2.9 billion on 17.6% growth that outpaced the broader digital audio market. A Scalable newsletter analysis examines how Netflix's early video podcasting push has stalled, with...

This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster previews the new Audio Primes 2026 report from Sounds Profitable, showing that audio-first podcast listeners are nearly twice as likely as video-first viewers to reject AI-generated voices in their favorite shows. The split suggests a widening gap in how synthetic audio is received across listening modes. Samba TV VP of Measurement Science Alyso...

Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster's new Sounds Profitable piece previews the Audio Primes report, which finds audio-first podcast listeners are notably less receptive to AI-generated voices in their favorite shows than their video-first counterparts, with Video Primes twice as likely to keep listening. YouTube is rolling out two new livestream ad behaviors: pausing ads for viewers w...

A look at how audiences that consume media differently feel about AI generated voices. Sounds Profitable's new Audio Primes study reveals that podcast listeners who consume at least 75% of their content through audio are significantly more resistant to AI-generated voices than their video-first counterparts, with 48% of Audio Primes saying they would be less likely to continue listening compared t...

Today in the business of podcasting: Magellan AI has published a case study with American Public Media showing how podcast attribution data transformed APM's advertiser conversations and helped the organization achieve its strongest digital sales performance since 2021. The study makes the case for treating podcasts and streaming audio as measurable, accountable components of the media mix rather...

Today in the business of podcasting: The podcast industry is in another M&A cycle, but today's buyers look different from those who drove acquisitions in the pre-pandemic era. Rather than investing in podcasting infrastructure, companies like OpenAI, The Chernin Group, and Fox Entertainment are acquiring shows that have proven they can leverage their audiences — reflecting the medium's shift f...

Today in the business of podcasting: Register for Audio Primes: The People Who Listen to Podcasts . The Podcast Show London 2026 will take place May 20 and 21 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, with Global and iHeartPodcasts returning as headline partners. Global's presence will spotlight its newly launched Global Studios division, focused on premium podcast and digital content creation....

Today in the business of podcasting... Sounds Profitable's Bryan Barletta reflects on the company's two-day Business of Podcasting space at Advertising Week Europe, where nearly 450 attendees gathered across 16 panels, arguing that podcasting has earned its place in mainstream media conversations and must now show up in the rooms where broader advertising decisions are made. Sport Social Podcast N...

Today in the business of podcasting... Sounds Profitable's Bryan Barletta reports that the Business of Podcasting programming track at Advertising Week Europe drew nearly 450 unique attendees across 16 panels, a signal that mainstream advertisers are actively seeking out podcasting expertise on their own. Barletta argues that podcasting's reach, with 55% of Americans listening monthly per Sounds P...

With podcasting having arrived at the mainstream, it’s time for the industry to be in the rooms where decisions are made. Podcasting has reached mainstream status, with 55% of Americans consuming a podcast monthly, and industry leaders are now expanding their presence beyond podcast-specific events into major global advertising and marketing conferences. Sounds Profitable is driving this growth by...

Today in the business of podcasting: Soros Fund Management is leading an investment round in MeidasTouch Network, the progressive media company behind The MeidasTouch Podcast. The move follows prior Soros investments in podcast-related companies including Audacy and Crooked Media. Marketing agency Right Side Up has published a newsletter revisiting its generative engine optimization (GEO) framewor...

Today in the business of podcasting: YouTube is rolling out new TV features including Stations (a FAST-style 24/7 channel hub), TV Companion (phone-to-TV interactivity), and voice-enabled Ask chatbot support on smart TVs. Despite sports podcasting's success in the U.S., sports podcasts barely register in Latin America's Spotify charts, but Genuina Media's David R. González sees the 2026 FIFA World...

Today in the business of podcasting: Red Seat Ventures has launched Speakeasy, an all-in-one podcast hosting, distribution, and monetization platform supporting RSS, HLS, and video formats. CEO Chris Balfe says the platform addresses the growing complexity of podcast distribution beyond the traditional RSS feed. Sports podcast audiences show stronger athlete loyalty than general sports fans, with...

This week in the business of podcasting: beehiiv has launched podcast hosting and monetization, letting newsletter creators consolidate their audio content into one platform with IAB compliant infrastructure and built-in growth tools. New Sounds Profitable research reveals that podcast discovery relies heavily on algorithmic amplification, leaving moderate and centrist audiences without the instit...