Sounds Profitable

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Spotify is expanding its Verified by Spotify badge to podcast shows, adding a green checkmark to identify official creator, publisher, and brand presences on the platform based on listener activity, platform standing, and audience authenticity.
• The 2026 Podnews Report Card collected 779 pieces of community feedback on major podcast platforms, with YouTube reaching second place in the overall rankings for the first time, just behind Apple Podcasts and ahead of Spotify.
• A new WARC report, The Multiplier Playbook, surveying more than 200 senior marketers finds that 60% say their C-suite does not fully understand the role of advertising, and only 21% say advertising objectives align with broader corporate goals.
• New Omeda research finds 70% of publishers consider audience data critical, yet only 9% of their organizations use it effectively, a gap writer Brian Morrissey links to decentralized and siloed data infrastructure.
• YouTube is rolling out its AI-powered likeness detection technology to all eligible creators over 18, expanding access beyond select YouTube Partner Program members and allowing users to set up protection via ID verification.

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.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Triton Digital's latest Podcast Report reveals that digital audio in the US has reached a market value equivalent to Brazil's entire digital ad industry, highlighting the growing scale of US podcast and streaming audiences.
• Global has launched a new premium video advertising format on YouTube, giving brands access to connected TV-style placements alongside the broadcaster's content, including the news podcast Up to Speed.
• Captivate has enabled HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) support for private podcast feeds, improving playback reliability and compatibility for subscription and members-only audio content.
• A new Digiday report examines the rise of agentic advertising, with survey data showing a majority of advertisers already integrating or building agentic AI capabilities into their ad workflows.
• Industry analysis explores how podcasting's trust advantage and audience engagement position it as an effective channel as advertisers evaluate where to place budgets in an AI-driven media landscape.

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.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Podcasters took center stage at the upfronts, as Amazon unveiled Oprah Winfrey's new Wondery podcast deal and YouTube's Brandcast event featured content announcements from major creators, with both platforms positioning video podcasting as a direct competitor for TV advertising budgets.
• Amplifi Media founder Steven Goldstein reports results from a NYU focus group study of AI-generated podcasts, which averaged a 2.3 out of 5 rating; students valued narrow-utility formats but consistently described AI hosts as flat and inauthentic, with Goldstein calling for industry-wide disclosure standards to preserve listener trust.
• Podcast hosting platform Flightcast has launched full support for video on Apple Podcasts and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) video publishing, allowing users to activate video for their entire back catalog with a single click at no additional cost.

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.

This week in the business of podcasting:

• New data from the 2026 U.K. Advertising Landscape Study, conducted by Sound Insights for Sounds Profitable, finds that 79% of U.K. podcast listeners recall a podcast ad from the past week — a striking result in a country shaped by decades of ad-free BBC broadcasting, with recall essentially equal across men and women.
• A Reuters Institute report finds video is reshaping news podcasting at every level, from how shows are produced and discovered to how they make money, with publishers increasingly building around personalities and layering in revenue from events, subscriptions, and merchandise.
• Amazon Music has launched video podcasts for U.S. iOS and Android users using HLS video within an open RSS ecosystem, starting with ART19-hosted content and expanding to more hosting partners later this summer.
• Spotify is expanding its video distribution network through five new hosting platform integrations and announcing forthcoming support for Apple Podcasts' HLS video technology, giving creators a path to distribute and monetize video across both platforms simultaneously.

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.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Spotify has officially integrated five new hosting platforms into its video distribution ecosystem and announced that Spotify-hosted podcasts will gain support for Apple Podcasts' HLS video technology, enabling video distribution to Apple Podcasts without changing existing setups.
• New research from Sound Insights finds that 79% of U.K. podcast listeners recall an ad heard in the past week, outperforming most media in a country where nearly half of adults cannot recall any brand advertising, with podcast ad recall among 18-to-34-year-olds surpassing broadcast TV.
• RAJAR Q1 2026 data shows U.K. radio weekly reach growing slightly year over year at 87% of the population, with 27% of adults listening to podcasts each week and 11% of podcast listeners reporting no traditional radio consumption.
• Streamonomics reports the top eight U.S. streamers posted a combined $9.8 billion in Q1 2026 profits, a 54% increase from 2025, while the Attention 20 index of top global attention economy companies reached $20 trillion in enterprise value.
• Japan's inaugural PODCAST EXPO 2026 drew 12,713 attendees across two days in Tokyo, bringing together podcast creators, listeners, and industry professionals in what organizers describe as Japan's largest podcast festival to date.

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.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Amazon Music has launched video podcasts for U.S. users on iOS and Android, starting with its ART19 platform and using HLS video delivered via the open alternate enclosure RSS tag. Amazon is not charging creators or networks for access, with plans to expand to additional partners later this summer.
• Magellan AI and Signal Hill Insights have partnered to deliver full-funnel podcast measurement by combining ad exposure data with brand lift studies, enabling more precise audience matching and a clearer read on how campaigns drive awareness, favorability, and purchase intent.
• BBC Sounds reported a record Q1 2026, with 718 million total plays of radio, podcast, and music content — up 5% year over year — along with 265 million on-demand radio and podcast plays and 11 million signed-in accounts.
• Streaming services including Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount+, and Disney+ have launched short-form video clip feeds that serve as recommendation engines for their longform content, in contrast to social platforms where short-form video tends to be original programming.
• Heading into Upfronts week, ad buyers say the focus has shifted toward performance measurement and lower-funnel outcomes over reach and premium content, with brands expecting media buys to demonstrate concrete business results.

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.

The upcoming 2026 UK Advertising Landscape Study finds podcasting breaks through baked-in ad avoidance in U.K. audiences.

Register here for the Trust and Attention: Why Sports Media Wins (And How Brands Prove It) webinar this afternoon!

A new Sounds Profitable UK Advertising Landscape Study finds that 47% of UK adults cannot recall a single brand from advertising they encountered in the past week, compared to 31% in the US, a gap the researchers attribute to the BBC's century-long commercial-free baseline shaping British listeners' expectations. Despite that structural resistance, 79% of UK podcast listeners recall an ad heard in the past week, a result the study frames as especially significant given how skeptical the UK audience is of advertising broadly. Among 18-34 year olds, podcast ad recall in the UK reaches 86%, edging ahead of broadcast TV's 83% for the same age group, a crossover the study says UK media plans have not yet caught up to. Podcast ad recall is also effectively gender-equal in the UK at 79% male and 80% female, a pattern the researchers describe as structural to the medium rather than a regional quirk.

• Written by Ben Robins
• Edited and narrated by Gavin Gaddis
• Text and audio edited by Tom Webster

Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.

Register here for tomorrow's Sounds Profitable and Locked On webinar!

Today in the business of podcasting:

• PRX's 2025 annual report shows the nonprofit leaning deeper into podcasting to navigate federal public media funding cuts, with Radiotopia launching 18 seasons and specials and drawing 47.3 million downloads across the network.
• A new PodSEO analysis of 11 million keyword-ranking pairs on Apple Podcasts and Spotify finds both platforms still search like record stores, over-weighting keyword-stuffed show titles and fresh episodes in a pattern that disadvantages evergreen, host-driven content.
• iHeartMedia's Q1 2026 earnings show podcast revenue up 26.9% year over year to $147 million, beating the company's guidance, while digital revenue excluding podcasting grew 12% to $180 million.
• Media, Built examines two recent newsletter deals, Puck acquiring Air Mail and The Ankler moving from Substack to Passport, to argue that audience ownership rather than audience size is the defining asset in newsletter monetization.

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.

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Register for Trust and Attention: Why Sports Media Wins (And How Brands Prove It)
• A new report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism finds that news podcast publishers are pivoting to video in response to audience demand and platform changes, while audience research shows that video and audio podcast consumers largely overlap. Publishers are also experimenting with hybrid revenue models — including live events, merchandise, and subscriptions — to supplement advertising income.
• WARC's The Future of Measurement 2026 identifies three major trends reshaping advertising measurement: a shift toward outcomes-based approaches, the expanding role of AI in campaign analysis and planning, and the rise of "creative intelligence" tools that aim to predict ad performance before campaigns launch.
• The IAB projects creator ad spend will reach around $44 billion this year, but the form of creator promotion is shifting — sponsored content is giving way to paid ads featuring creators directly, and third-party clipping networks are emerging as a new paid distribution strategy.
• The New York Times reported Q1 2026 digital advertising revenue grew 31.6% year over year, with CEO Meredith Kopit Levien crediting the company's expanding content portfolio and identifying video as a key area of strategic investment.
• The UK government has confirmed that podcasting and audio will be formally recognized within the Standard Industrial Classification 2026 framework, a milestone AudioUK says will reshape how podcast and audio businesses are defined, measured, and supported in the British economy.

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.

This week in the business of podcasting:

• Register here for the upcoming Trust and Attention: Why Sports Media Wins (And How Brands Prove It) webinar.
• New data from the 2026 UK Advertising Landscape Study shows that podcasting reaches 60% of UK adults aged 18 to 34 monthly, surpassing broadcast TV's 57% reach in that demographic. Sound Insights' Ben Robins argues that for media planners targeting UK adults under 45 at scale, podcasting is no longer a niche option.
• A case study from Transistor.fm co-founder Justin Jackson shows that Primary Technology, the first Transistor-hosted podcast to add Apple Podcasts HLS video, saw per-episode plays roughly double and engaged listeners climb from 707 to 1,072 after the switch, with no loss on YouTube or other audio platforms.
• It was a busy week for Apple Podcasts HLS video adoption, with Buzzsprout bringing its video distribution out of beta for all users, Podigee launching one-upload video distribution across YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify for every plan tier, and Captivate announcing official Apple Podcasts HLS video support.
• Starting in mid-July 2026, Megaphone will transfer campaign management to the Spotify Ad Server, enabling new ad formats including video while removing third-party VAST serving entirely. Pre-booking on the new system opens May 15, 2026.

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.