Sounds Profitable

Here's what you need to know from this week in the business of podcasting.

Podcast Download: Disconnect Between Ad Creative and Audience Expectations
TikTok on Skippable Ads, Becoming Search Destination
Communication is Key in Podcasting
Podcasting Grows at SXSW

Quick Hits
While they may not be top story material, the articles below from this week are definitely worth your time:

The 25th Hour by Tom Webster. This week in the Sounds Profitable newsletter, Tom explains how Duolingo, rocks, and sand can help podcasting reach potential listeners who feel they don’t have enough time for podcasts.

Podcasting Pioneer Shares His 3 Biggest Tips for Success . This week on How Success Happens, Bryan Barletta joins to discuss how companies can set themselves up for success when dipping their toes into podcasting.

Australians downloaded more than 1 billion podcasts in 2023. According to the December Australian Podcast Ranker from Triton Digital and Commercial Radio & Audio, Australia's top 200 Australian podcasts were downloaded more than a billion times last year, representing a 26% year over year increase.

Can programmatic help podcasts find the money? By Damian Fowler. Programmatic advertising made up 1 in 10 revenue ad dollars for podcasting last year, while forms of other digital media had 9 out of 10 come from programmatic. This piece looks at ways programmatic could have a path forward in increasing its growth rate with podcasts.

Flightpath Premieres First-of-its-Kind Campaign Prediction One Year Into the Future. Flightpath’s new availability engine aims to elevate transparency and control, as well as allow advertisers and creators to plan up to a year in the future with confidence.

ALIVE Podcast Network and Barometer Partner to Drive Equitable Monetization for Black Creators and Media Owners. The new partnership between ALIVE Podcast Network and Barometer aims to challenge historical disenfranchisement faced by creators of diverse backgrounds.

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:

The 25th Hour by Tom Webster
Podcasts are key tool for TV discovery, research shows by Adam Shepherd
Amy Poehler to Keynote at Podcast Movement Evolutions
TikTok gains favor among Gen Z over Google for searches by Jeremy Goldman
Daily Beast Podcast Secretly Records Paul F. Tompkins, Reframes Discussion

…as for the rest of the news: WARC Media predicts global ad spend will break $1 trillion this year, Marketing Brew gives a “way too early” look at cookie-less internet browsing, and ExchangeWire asks several experts for their predictions on podcasting and digital audio this year.

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:

Podcast Ad Creative Disconnect Revealed In Cumulus Media And Signal Hill Insights’ Podcast Download by Pierre Bouvard
Australians downloaded more than 1 billion podcasts in 2023
Can programmatic help podcasts find the money? by Damian Fowler

…as for the rest of the news: Headliner reflects on 2023’s statistics and feature launches, Signal Hill Insights discusses how YouTube and video will grow podcasting this year, and Bryan Barletta appears on Entrepreneur’s podcast How Success Happens to talk about setting companies up for success in podcasting.

Tom Webster explains what rocks, sand, and Duolingo can teach podcasting in how we frame listening statistics and audience behavior.

Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:

The incredible shrinking podcast industry by Max Tani
TikTok reports non-skippable video ads may harm engagement by Nicola Agius
How children's privacy laws complicate connected TV tracking practices by Tim Peterson
S&P says advertisers have resumed spending
iHeartMedia Announces Return of ‘The iHeartPodcast Awards’ with Live Event in Partnership with SXSW on March 11, 2024

…as for the rest of the news: PodPod reports Audioboom has hit 35% year-over-year revenue growth, Flightpath premiers campaign predictions that can project one year into the future, Magellan AI adds attention metrics with Adelaide, and Pushkin appoints Gretta Cohn as CEO.

Here's what you need to know for this week in the business of podcasting: Podcast Acquisitions & Investments - 2023 Industry RecapSXM Media’s Digital Audio Research RecapYouTube Launches RSS Feed IngestionBranded Music and AuthenticityQuick Hits: 5 Strategies For Podcast Expansion In A Zero-Sum Audio World by Steven Goldstein. Recent Edison Research data shows daily time spent listening to audio content has remained stable for a decade. Goldstein discusses strategies for podcasting to grow in a world where a listener’s time is largely already accounted for.iOS 17 by Pete Birsinger. The Podscribe CEO has written an explainer on how iOS17 changed auto-downloading behavior and how it will likely impact campaign performance for podcasts. For more reading on the subject, we recommend Livewire Labs’ regularly-updated data on download performance since iOS 17’s release.Content Mood Targeting from SXM Media. Publishers working with SXM can target music-listening audiences based on the mood assigned to millions of songs in a growing library of cateogorized music, as well as submit their own music to be assigned mood tags.The Untapped Potential of Audio in Retail Media Networks by Joshua Yamuder. Triton Digital’s Director of Partnerships and Programmatic Marketplace promotes digital audio as a must-have inclusion for retail media networks looking to diversify their marketing mix.Since the last issue of The Download there have been two podcasting bankruptcies of note: Audacy and Voxalyze

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:Podcast Acquisitions & Investments - 2023 Industry Recap by Bryan Barletta

Ambassador Ads are going away.

The Untapped Potential of Audio in Retail Media Networks by Joshua Yamuder

If music marketing is a gateway to culture, brands must navigate carefully, execs say

…as for the rest of the news: The recently-canceled podcast Death, Sex & Money from WNYC has been revived by Slate, and if you’re interested in more coverage of marketers seeking authenticity in their campaigns: check out Digiday’s piece on brands shifting their approach to influencers.

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
YouTube officially allows creators to publish podcasts via RSS feeds by Reem Makari

After a tough year, podcast execs say 2024 will bring in new advertisers amid stiff competition for listeners by Sara Guaglione

Libsyn CPMs down 6% for 2023 by Adam Shepherd

Can Programmatic Audio Rise In The Charts In 2024? by Hana Yoo

…as for the rest of the news: Lower Street has announced their speaker lineup for a free brand podcast summit on January 24th, Adam Bowie looks at Edison’s top 25 podcasts in the UK from Q3 2023, and AdExchanger looks at programmatic CTV’s expected evolution for the year.

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting:
Sounder Analysis: NPR's News Podcasts Significantly Safer for Brands than General Population of News Podcasting

Content Mood Targeting

5 Strategies For Podcast Expansion In A Zero-Sum Audio World by Steven Goldstein

How Will Contextual Advertising Fare When The FTC Revises Its COPPA Rule? by Allison Schiff

…as for the rest of the news: iHeartmedia and Magnite join forces to launch a new marketplace, AdLarge signs exclusive sales partnership with Fable & Folly, Audacy files for bankruptcy, USG Audio scales back Universal’s podcast development, and Voxalyze announces a shutdown of their services due to lack of investment.

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: Streaming audio twice as “authentic” than TV for advertisers. Podcasts? Nine times. by Brad HilliOS 17, a writeup by Pete BirsingerWhy Gen Z’s biggest podcasters are working from bed by Lilly SmithThe 5 trends that will shape sports marketing in 2024 by Alyssa MeyersMusic streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale by Mark Kleinman…as for the rest of the news: Signal Hill Insights shares three potential game-changers from their 2023 research, Cumulus Media signs a deal with BiggerPockets, and iHeartMedia is launching a politically-focused podcast network.