Sounds Profitable

Today in the business of podcasting: New Podcast Landscape 2026 data shows smart TVs now drive 12% of primary podcast listening, up from 8% in 2024, while smart speakers have flatlined at 1%. Tom Webster argues audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground content on the shared living-room screen rather than voice-summoned background audio. The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad growth forecast to...

Today in the business of podcasting: Red Seat Ventures has integrated Barometer's AI-powered brand suitability and contextual targeting engine into its Speakeasy platform, bringing episode-level ad targeting to a portfolio of more than 40 creators and cutting the over-blocking that leaves safe inventory unsold. Scalable examines a wave of executive departures at creator-founded companies like Dude...

This week Tom Webster goes to the bottom of the device table in the brand-new The Podcast Landscape 2026 data and finds a story that has been quietly eroding for years. The smart speaker, once pitched as podcasting's cleanest shot at owning a default, has flatlined at one percent. The device actually climbing is the biggest screen in the house. Smart TV as the most-used way to listen jumped from 8...

Today in the business of podcasting: Bloomberg reports that BetterHelp is podcasting's biggest advertiser of all time, with an estimated $242 million spent since 2023 and ads running on more than 1,000 shows at once, per Magellan AI. MS NOW is expanding its Crooked Media partnership, adding Jon Lovett's Lovett or Leave It to its Saturday night lineup starting September 12 through the 2026 midterms...

This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster runs through the stars and keynotes of Podcast Movement 2026 in New York, including his Podcast Landscape 2026 study of more than 5,400 consumers and a surprising finding that Apple has slipped out of the top three podcast platforms. YouTube's redefinition of a view roughly doubled reported view counts overnight, and Oxford Road's Dan Granger an...

Today in the business of podcasting: Podcast Movement 2026 heads to New York City September 17 and 18 at Terminal 5, where anyone registered by September 4 gets their podcast or company artwork on a Times Square display, and Tom Webster previews the keynote lineup and his Podcast Landscape 2026 research. Hernan Lopez breaks down a new inflection point in streaming distribution, weighing direct-to-...

Today in the business of podcasting: IAB Australia's Future of Measurement review finds the biggest constraint on advertising is fragmented data, not a shortage of measurement methods, and it calls for a shared campaign-data taxonomy modeled on IAB US's Campaign Data Standards 1.0. YouTube and Variety are launching the inaugural Variety x YouTube Creator Festival at the Toronto International Film...

This week Tom Webster delivers his final Podcast Movement programming rundown, along with a deadline you don't want to sleep on. Register by end of day Friday, September 4 and the art for your show or your company logo goes up on a screen in the middle of Times Square. Fewer than 200 tickets remain at $199 for both days. Tom also previews the four keynotes headed to the New York stages: Thursday a...

Today in the business of podcasting: Oxford Road's Dan Granger argues that YouTube's decision to redefine how it counts views, a change Bumper's Dan Misener found inflates play counts by nearly double, is the jolt that proves podcasting needs cross-platform measurement standards it can actually trust. Former Adelicious leaders Andy Goldsmith and Craig Eastwood team with industry veteran Mike Wooll...

Today in the business of podcasting: Trailer Park: The Podcast Trailer Podcast launches a three-part miniseries built on Coleman Insights research, developed with NOVA Entertainment and Pantheon Podcasts, testing 500 U.S. listeners to pin down what actually makes a podcast trailer convert. Authenticity won stronger listener preference in three of the four trailers tested. IAB Australia reports int...

This week in the business of podcasting: Apple Music now mandates "Made With AI" labels on AI-generated tracks, a music-distribution move that signals how fast audio platforms are formalizing AI disclosure. Political ad spending on radio jumped 22% in a month to $124 million, with AdImpact projecting a record $11.6 billion cycle and the biggest wave still expected after Labor Day. Bloomberg report...

Today in the business of podcasting: Podscribe launched YouTube-only modeled attribution, closing a measurement gap for influencer campaigns that run only on YouTube by anchoring probabilistic modeling to audio performance data. It is free through September 30. Digiday weighs the case for and against the programmatic-ification of the creator economy, as automated buying pushes into brand-creator d...

Today in the business of podcasting: Signal Hill Insights' Paul Riismandel breaks down four ways audience research drives return in podcasting, from uncovering whitespace to proving value to advertisers with measurement tools like Triton Digital's Demos+. Podscribe reports that podcast video has gone mainstream, with 82% of episodic campaigns now including a YouTube simulcast, even as Spotify's ba...

Today in the business of podcasting: Political ad spending on radio has jumped 22% in the past month to $124 million, and with AdImpact projecting $6.1 billion in total 2026 political advertising, the post-Labor Day rush is a reminder of how much election money still flows to audio heading into the fall. A new IAB white paper argues radio's attribution gap with digital is closing fast, crediting p...

Today in the business of podcasting: The IAB has revealed the full agenda for its 2026 Podcast Upfront, the invitation-only event landing September 16 between the Sounds Profitable Business Summit and Podcast Movement, with an official after party at Terminal 5. Apple Music will now require "Made With AI" labels on tracks made with artificial intelligence, a signal of how fast audio platforms are...

This week in the business of podcasting: SXSW will make podcasting a core pillar in 2027 with its first-ever four-day Podcast Festival, and Podcast Movement Evolutions returns to Austin that same week for two free days at the SKYBOX on 6th. Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster argues podcasting's real gap is the lack of a default, as dedicated hardware fades and 57% of Americans aged 12 to 34 now live...

Today in the business of podcasting: SXSW will make podcasting a core pillar in 2027 with its first-ever four-day Podcast Festival, and Podcast Movement Evolutions returns to Austin that same week for two free days at the SKYBOX on 6th. Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster argues podcasting's real gap is the lack of a default, as dedicated hardware fades and 57% of Americans aged 12 to 34 now live in h...

Today in the business of podcasting: The Podcast Academy opened submissions for the 2027 Ambies, spanning 23 show categories. This cycle adds Best Music Podcast, Episode of The Year, and a new Advertising category covering Best Ad Read, Best Branded Podcast, and Podcast Advertiser of The Year. Triton Digital released its Australian Podcast Ranker for July 2026. Mamamia Out Loud held the top spot,...

A nine-button Italian radio with a dead app can teach us some lessons about podcast discovery. Written by Tom Webster Edited and narrated by Gavin Gaddis" Find the full article here.

Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify says a bug, not a policy, made a podcast ad appear unskippable, telling Podnews the 15-second skip was hidden in the viral example and has since been fixed — and that skipping works for both Free and Premium listeners YouTube changes how it counts a "view" starting August 24, registering a play from the very first frame while making the more meaningful...

Today in the business of podcasting: Register for Ask a Marketer: How Advertisers Read the Research Spotify has begun selling unskippable podcast ads that Premium listeners cannot jump past, even with the standard 15-second skip. The move follows the company's test of a "Skip Ahead" button that automatically skips ad breaks, sponsorships, and intros. Amplifi Media's Steven Goldstein pushes back on...

This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster walks through Podcast Movement's five-day takeover of Terminal 5 in New York City, from the inaugural Sounds Profitable Business Summit to a creator conference spanning more than 80 sessions across five stages. Sport Social's Ryan Barker makes the case that official club podcasts are the natural landing spot for betting sponsorship money as the...

Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster details Sounds Profitable's five-day takeover of New York City's Terminal 5 in September, spanning the partner-only Business Summit, the IAB Podcast Upfront after party, and Podcast Movement NYC. Quill and CoHost CEO Fatima Zaidi argues brand podcasts fail from unclear purpose rather than small budgets, and offers a three-part test for building show...

Today in the business of podcasting: Acast acquires Backyard Ventures for $20 million, adding more than 200 premium creators across podcasts, YouTube, newsletters, and social to accelerate omnichannel monetization. Spotify asks artists to disclose AI-generated music and will label AI artist identities as "AI Personas," excluding them from editorial and algorithmic recommendations beginning in mid-...

Register for Podcast Movement 2026 In this week's Sounds Profitable newsletter, Tom Webster breaks down the company's most ambitious week yet: five days taking over Terminal 5 in New York this September, running three different events for three different audiences under one roof. He walks through the Business Summit bringing the buy side and sell side of podcasting into one room, the official IAB...