Sounds Profitable

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 audio-first consumption. Ninety percent of Audio Primes use YouTube for podcast listening, but predominantly as audio infrastructure with screens off or minimized, revealing a significant gap between video platform metrics and actual podcast listening behavior.

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

Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.

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 transcription to its Premiere video editing suite, processing an hour of audio in about 55 seconds at near-cloud accuracy while keeping all audio local to the device.
• Bumper co-founder Jonas Woost introduced the Bumper Score, a third-party audience verification metric that measures how well a podcast delivers ads to a verified audience on a 0-to-200 scale, drawing on hosting provider data, platform audience data, and episode-level retention data.
• The top 15 podcast advertisers spent an estimated $58 million in March 2026, down from $61.4 million in February, with sports podcasts dominating genre preferences across most of the top spenders, according to Magellan AI tracking data.
• Podnews compiled the podcasting-relevant winners from the 30th Annual Webby Awards, which this year featured expanded podcast categories, with a winners ceremony set for May 11.

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:

• 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 the YouTube presence of major Netflix-exclusive shows beginning to atrophy as the platform makes no new big-ticket acquisitions, while YouTube says it has no plans to counter with exclusivity deals and is instead developing AI tools to help creators generate short clips automatically.
• Barrett Media's Garrett Searight argues that YouTube's new Shorts daily time-cap feature is less a crisis for podcast discovery than a prompt for independent creators to diversify their short-form video strategy and prioritize content quality across platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok.
• Acast's 2025 year-end report shows full-year net sales growth of 29% year-over-year, with North American net sales up 50% in Q4, and the company closing the year with 429 full-time employees, up from 364 in 2024.
• A new Sounds Profitable study, Audio Primes: The Podcast Industry's Most Valuable Audience, profiles the segment of podcast consumers who listen to at least 75% of their content as audio, finding they skew younger, more educated, and higher-income than the broader podcast audience, with a webinar presentation from Tom Webster and Alberto Betella now available on Sounds Profitable's site and YouTube channel.

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:

• 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 Alyson Sprague debuts the company's first Netflix Podcast Ranker, drawn from smart-TV viewing data across tens of millions of U.S. households. The Breakfast Club led Q1 2026 with 44% of Samba-tracked views, followed by Bridgerton: The Official Podcast at 16%.
• YouTube rolls out two livestream ad changes designed to protect creator-audience moments: ads will pause for viewers who send paid items like Super Chats, and automated ads will be held back when Live Chat engagement peaks. The update has clear implications for live podcast productions that rely on real-time chat.
• Steve Raizes argues the current wave of podcast M&A — OpenAI acquiring TBPN, The Chernin Group backing Goalhanger and Audiochuck, Fox Entertainment buying Red Seat Ventures — is being driven by audience density and convertibility rather than raw reach, a shift from the Spotify-Gimlet and SiriusXM-Stitcher era.

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:

• 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 who send Super Chats or virtual gifts, and automatically delaying ad breaks during peak chat activity to help creators protect engagement moments.
• Audioboom reported Q1 2026 revenue of $22.5 million, up 30% year-over-year, alongside a 118% jump in adjusted EBITDA and a 79% increase in downloads and video views, crediting its Adelicious acquisition and new Creator Network signings of Crooked Media and RedHanded.
• A new Reuters Institute report finds 18-to-24-year-olds are more engaged with podcasts than older audiences, but are getting their news from chat shows, comedy podcasts, and short-form video rather than traditional news publishers.
• A new All About Cookies survey of 1,000 U.S. adults finds only 24% of viewers pay attention to streaming ads, and 67% would prefer a single longer ad break at the top of a show over multiple midroll interruptions.

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.

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 to only 40% of Video Primes. The research, drawn from The Podcast Landscape 2025, introduces a new mindset-based framework for understanding podcast audiences and its implications for creators, platforms, and podcast advertisers.

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

Click here to register for the Audio Primes webinar.

Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.

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 than discretionary brand-spend.
• Ad Results Media has released a new Playbook on navigating the Netflix video podcast migration, examining how the shift to video and streaming distribution is creating both opportunities and measurement challenges for brands. The playbook addresses ad buying strategies, cross-platform tracking, and how to measure reach and frequency across RSS and streaming ecosystems.
• Syracuse University is launching a Center for the Creator Economy this fall, offering education, research, industry partnerships, and an accredited minor focused on digital content creation and entrepreneurship. The announcement comes as IAB data puts the U.S. creator workforce at more than 1.5 million full-time equivalents — surpassing the number of licensed physicians and active lawyers.
• Signal Hill Insights has announced Audio On the Move, Canada's first holistic share-of-audio research study, tracking how and when Canadians listen across digital audio, radio, streaming, satellite, podcasting, and emerging platforms. Pattison Media and Spotify have signed on as inaugural subscribers, with the first edition expected in late spring 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.

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 from speculative asset to established media property.
• Oxford Road's ORBIT data shows 80% of the top 15 performing podcasts for advertisers in March 2026 were independent shows, not network titles. Ben Robins argues that publishers and platforms best positioned for podcasting's next phase will be those who invest in polished content without sacrificing the niche specificity that makes podcasting work for advertisers.
• A podcast company called Light Knot Studios was found publishing AI-generated audio that cloned the names, artwork, and formats of more than 75 history podcasts, monetizing each with programmatic ads through RSS.com's PAID platform. Podcast lawyer Lindsay Bowen identified potential grounds for copyright and trademark infringement suits, and flagged that hosting platforms and directories without a registered DMCA agent cannot claim safe harbor protections.
• AdsWizz, Barometer, and NPR are hosting a webinar on April 23 to address the misconception that podcasting lacks scale for brand advertisers. Presenters will cover how content filtering and evaluation practices are driving that perception, and what a more audio-native approach to targeting looks like in practice.

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 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.
• Samba TV has published its first Netflix Podcast Ranker, revealing that 13% of U.S. Netflix households watched at least one minute of a podcast in Q1 2026. The Breakfast Club led all shows with over 40% of total views, followed by Bridgerton: The Official Podcast at 16%.
• Amplifi Media founder and CEO Steven Goldstein argues that the podcast industry has been optimizing for downloads, a distribution metric that does not reliably measure actual listening or audience engagement.
• Digiday's Michael Bürgi reports on how media buyers responded to this year's NewFronts, where improved measurement capabilities were the standout positive trend. Heading into upfront negotiations, buyers are demanding flexibility in long-term commitments, while automotive and spirits budgets face slight downward pressure.

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...

• 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 Network's Jim Salveson makes the case for sports podcasting as a commercial and editorial extension of live broadcasting, citing Edison Research data showing that sports podcast listeners are significantly more likely than general sports fans to follow an athlete after a trade.
• YouTube has announced several new TV-focused features, including Stations, a 24/7 programming channel format debuting with Coachella coverage, a voice-controlled AI chatbot called Ask coming to smart TVs, and TV Companion, a phone-based tool that lets viewers interact with content without taking their eyes off the screen.
• Independent Australian podcast What I Survived, from Queensland-based Mashed Pumpkin Productions, reached #31 on the U.S. Apple Podcasts overall chart and #1 in Documentary within its first 47 days, with host Jack Laurence crediting an Apple Podcasts editorial homepage feature for driving over 440,000 downloads.
• OpenAI has acquired Silicon Valley tech podcast TBPN in a deal the Financial Times values in the low hundreds of millions of dollars, making the show ad-free while including an editorial independence covenant, with commentators debating whether the real asset was the podcast itself or the talent behind it.

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.