Max Cutler, founder of the Parcast production and podcast content group, and Spotify VP, is leaving Spotify. Cutler was an influential force in Spotify’s podcast adventures, and this high-profile exit comes a month after Dawn Ostroff exited the company in a sweeping workforce reduction. It appears to be part of what CEO Daniel Ek promised in a recent Q4 earnings call. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Podcast Programmatic Pickup (The Sonic Truth)
— Bubble Or Blip? (Bubble Trouble)
— From Bitter To Sweet (Sonic Seasoning)
Edison Research has released its Top Podcast Networks for combined Q3-Q4, 2022. The list ranks podcast networks based on total audience reach from Edison Podcast Metrics, and reflects an expanded sample which now includes weekly podcast listeners age 13-17. Click through for the visual. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Pre-Audible … Way Pre (NY Times)
— Taking the Measure (Westwood One)
— End of an Executive Era (YouTube)
Triton Digital released its January Podcast Report, which measures weekly downloads of Triton measurement clients. NPR regains #1, assisted with the highest number of episodes created in the month. Not much switching around within this stable ranking. Continue Reading
iHeartPodcasts announced today that its acquired show, Stuff You Should Know, hosted by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, has been downloaded three billion times. “Chuck and I started this series with a passion for curiosity and had no expectation of ever being a leading podcast,” said Josh Clark. That’s the kind of rags-to-riches business story that launches thousands of newer shows. Continue Reading
Edison Research has released its measurement of the top 100 podcasts in the U.S. for combined Q3 and Q4. As the company emphasizes, this is the only podcast ranker which doesn’t count downloads, and isn’t restricted to clients. Edison builds this ranking through a survey of 10,597 podcast consumers ages 13 and older in the U.S. Continue Reading
On Wednesday Veritonic presented its second annual Audio Intelligence Summit, a half-day series of presentations whose main theme was the primacy of audio. A series of eight onstage discussions explored the power of audio branding, the monetization of podcasts, and much more. Part 1 of our coverage here.
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Global podcast company Acast released its Q4 earnings, in a comprehensive, downloadable, fully designed PDF. Gross profit, net loss, and lots of detail, plus comments from CEO Ross Adams. Continue Reading
“Audio is a category ripe for segmentation.” –Russ Crupnick, Managing Partner, MusicWatch MusicWatch has ingeniously (and laboriously) measured listening tendencies and habits across a wide age spectrum, breaking down the results by individual. The result is a more granular… Continue Reading
Audacy and Veritonic have released SoundCreative, a whitepaper summary of research performed last year. The subtitle describes the work’s purpose: “How To Build Winning Audio Ads.” The consumer survey was combined with proprietary content analysis. Continue Reading
A prevailing type of sponsor message in podcast advertising is the host-read personal endorsement of a product or service. If you listen to a lot of podcasts, you develop an impression that companies give away a high volume of samples as the basis of this marketing strategy. An FTC investigation — started last year and completed last week — potentially pokes a hole in that assumption. Continue Reading