In a fulfillment of a RAIN News projection, and in what RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier calls “one of the most incredible comeback stories in modern commercial history,” the U.S. record industry in 2021 surpassed its previous record of annual revenue. The headline number is $15-billion. More than half of that is subscription streaming, and this milestone is a profound validation of that commercial model. Continue Reading
Podcast database and social listening platform has released the second edition of Podchaser 25, a February ranker of podcasts which are exhibiting spikes of popularity. Podcasher calls the list “a first-of-its-kind monthly ranking of the hottest, rising podcasts in the U.S.” Continue Reading
In what might be an indication of podcast creation settling down from the Covid surge, the number of newly created shows in February was only 11% of a year ago. The trend projects that 2022 will produce a small fraction of 2021’s new podcasts. Click for details. Continue Reading
Preeminent consumer research company in audio, Edison Research, released a Top Podcast Networks by Audience Reach list. SXM Media takes the #1 spot. This list differs from some other network rankers, because it gets its findings from consumer surveys of active podcast listeners, not from technology measurement of the measuring company’s clients. Continue Reading
If there is a winner in Magellan’s two monthly rankings of podcast advertising spend for January, it is website builder Wix, which landed in Top Spenders and Top Movers & Shakers. Click for details. Continue Reading
Checking the U.S. Weekly Podcast Download Growth chart from Podtrac, we see that downloads last week were up over three percent from the previous week, which brought the year-long trendline up to 54% growth year-over-year. Click for the visuals. Continue Reading
Leaping into the moment, Canadian research firm Signal Hill Insights has produced a survey study of consumer reaction to the controversy swirling around Spotify’s distribution ownership of The Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan’s wide-ranging interview show is possibly the most successful podcast in the world. Signal Hill dashed into the field for survey work on February 2 and 3. One fulcrum of opinion lies on the American-Canadian border. Click for findings. Continue Reading
Newly released research from London-based MIDiA Research shows strong growth of global music subscribers, with services in emerging markets driving the forward motion. Overall, MIDiA figures 523.9-million subscribers to music streaming platforms around the world in Q2 2021. Spotify remains the worldwide leader with 31% share of subs, but that share is down from 33% the previous year. Click for more stats and an infographic Continue Reading
The Jordan Harbinger Show joined Podtrac’s monthly Top 20 Podcasts ranker for December. The other 19 shows all appeared in the previous month. RAIN’s 6-month comparison illustrates the nearly-unchanging stability of this list. Continue Reading
In a just-released set of survey results from podcast consulting service Improve Podcast, longevity and detailed preparation lead to better podcast monetization. The survey queried over a thousand podcasters on basic show metrics and income. Continue Reading
In a very interesting set of benchmarks, podcast ad marketplace AdvertiseCast (a subsidiary of Libsyn) released its internal CPM numbers. The metrics include average cost-per-thousand podcast ad impressions for 30-second and 60-second sponsorships, as well as rates for podcasts with different numbers of listeners. Click for two-year trendlines for podcasts addressing different audience sizes. Continue Reading
Only 6,868 new podcasts were launched in December, a 13-month low point. That marker continued a four-month slide as new-show production diminished toward the end of 2021. However, 2021 as a whole produced the second-highest number of new podcasts in 12 years (over 687,000 of them). Click for charts. Continue Reading