RAIN Notes: May 13
Leaving the Nest – AJ Feliciano
Support – Alison Craiglow
Two Realities – John O’Donnell
Everyone’s a Marketer – Jimmy Fallon Continue Reading
Author: Brad Hill
Libsyn bolsters BizDev with four hires
“While others are scaling back, Libsyn is bucking the trend.” Eminent podcast company Libsyn fashions itself as breaking free of a prevailing business environment, as it announces new hires to its Business Development team.
Continue Reading
Most Canadian musicians suffer financial stress with impaired mental health (Revelios)
Organizational mental health consultancy Revelios, based in Oakville Canada, has released a study of mental health in the Canadian music industry. This release covers preliminary results of ongoing fieldwork, representing 804 surveyed individuals. These preliminary results display a nearly unanimous sentiment among Canadian musicians that mental health issues are widespread. Click for details and the download link. (HT: Alan Cross) Continue Reading
Sales growth and “monetization momentum” for Acast in Q1
Publicly traded podcast giant Acast released a Q1 financial report, disclosing net sales growth and gross margin for the quarter. The fine print reveals key sales, costs, profit, EBITDA, and other metrics, comparing them across one and two years. We see positive movement year-over-year in sales, cost, profit, and EBITDA. Quarter-over-quarter comparisons are also revealing. Continue Reading
PodX acquires Lemonada Media in “landmark transaction”
Global audio content development and investment company PodX (formally PodX Group) has announced its acquisition of pod studio Lemonada Media. CEO Patrick Svensk calls it “a landmark transaction.” Lemonada is a blazing podcast success story, with a roster that includes Julia Louis Dreyfuss, David Duchovny, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Continue Reading
More than ads in the global podcast economy (Owl&co)
Media consulting firm Owl&Co has released the latest podcast metrics report in a season of many. Called The Global Podcast Economy: A Complete Picture, and subtitled Beyond Ads: Mapping Revenue Across Audio and Video Podcasts, this piece of work defines, characterizes, measures, delineates markets, asks questions, and provides answers. Click for details, graphs, and linkage. Continue Reading
UK listeners assert the value of human creativity in music (BPI)
In a newly completed study called All About The Music, the British Phonographic Industry trade group (BPI) casts a detailed look back at the UK recorded music industry in 2024. It is the (very impressive) 46th edition of BPI’s yearbook. Click through for key findings. Continue Reading
iHeart tops U.S. podcast publishers twice in Podtrac measurement. Plus: The RAIN Remix
In a RAIN scrutiny of the newly released Podtrac rankers, we see the clear dominance of iHeart Audience Network in the delivery of podcasts. The the RAIN Remix reveals a new list of top publishers based on audience size per podcast. In that re-sorting, Revolver Podcass shifts from #18 to #1. Click for graphics. Continue Reading
Rogan and regularity reign in ranker (Edison Top 50 Podcasts)
The Joe Rogan Experience is predictably and regularly the top-ranked podcast in measurement studies which include all podcast platforms. Edison Research conducts one such survey, resulting in the Top 50 Podcasts In The U.S. This release represents a survey conducted in Q1, and results in a ranking of the top 50 podcasts. Click for details.
Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: May 5
Rude Celebration – iHeartPodcasts
Women, Indie, $30 – Women Who Podcast Awards
Slammed By Sound – Pandora Continue Reading
Cadence13 founder Chris Corcoran starts new podcast content studio
Chris Corcoran, co-founder and Chief Content Officer of podcast production house Cadence13 (eventually acquired by Pre-Audacy Entercom in 2019), has started a multimedia creative house called Arena Studios. While the initial focus is on the world of sports, the brand mission is more inclusive. Click for details. Continue Reading
Rumor Fact(ory): Tencent Music said to plan acquisition of Ximalaya
2.4 billion dollars — that’s the speculated price for Tencent Music to acquire Chinese podcast behemoth Ximalaya. Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) is likewise a giant Chinese audio platform. This news appears to be unconfirmed by principles as of this posting. Click for speculative details.
Continue Reading