Acast partners with Podscribe, rejecting Spotify attribution solutions — (with Spotify response)

Acast has selected Podscribe as its “preferred attribution partner” in all markets. It’s a meaningful and sweeping endorsement of Podscribe’s performance analytics in podcast advertising. The other half of that handshake appears to be a back-of-hand reference to Spotify’s Ad Analytics tool which launched just two months ago. Continue Reading

Audacy splits from American Public Media partnership in costly separation

Audacy has separated from an ad-sales agreement with American Public Media, clarifying a remark made by Audacy CEO David Field in a recently published quarterly earning statement. No reason or explanation has yet emerged. But in Audacy’s Q2 earning statement, David Field referred to an unnamed break-up which he called “onerous.” Click for details. Continue Reading

Alex Cooper (“Call Her Daddy”) launches Gen Z podcast network

Leading podcast entrepreneur and Spotify star Alex Cooper, creator of Call Her Daddy, is forming a podcast company with her fiancee Matt Kaplan (Founder/CEO of ACE Entertainment). The company is called The Unwell Network. This enterprise does not change Cooper’s exclusive licensing of Call Her Daddy on Spotify. Continue Reading

Cross-platform listeners: A trending quest for knowledge, entertainment, connection (Audacy study)

Media behemoth Audacy is splashing results of new survey work which explores cross-platform listening. Called The Rise of the Cross-Platform Listener, it drills into the “AudioX listener” concept which Audacy explored in the company’s meaty State of Audio report last summer. Click for details, findings, and links. Continue Reading

Podtrac Top Podcast Publishers shows audience growth, and RAIN Remix

In the Top Podcast Publishers ranking in July from Podtrac, we are told that the unique monthly audience (UMA) increased for two of the top 20 publishers, month-over-month. Meanwhile the average monthly audience for the entire cohort was down by nine percent. Leading networks iHeartPodcasts, Wondery, and NPR take the top three spots based on the ranker’s native sorting. But things get shaken up in the RAIN Remix, which resorts the Podtrac data to show audience and downloads per active show. Click for details and graphics. Continue Reading

Acast fosters advertiser/host teamwork with “AdCollab” launch

Global podcast hosting and marketplace technology company Acast has launched “AdCollab,” a service which enables advertisers to team up directly with podcasts hosts in planning host-read sponsorship campaigns. This initiative has been in testing mode since April, and is available to all advertisers planning host-read campaigns. Continue Reading

Podcast ad rates continue to dip in July (Libsyn/AdvertiseCast)

The average cost per thousand (CPM) for podcast ads moved downward in July, across all measures of audience size, and the average of them. This according to AdvertiseCast’s monthly tracker, where average CPM for all audience size buckets (1,000 to 100,000+) settled in at $22.23, lowering from the June average of $23.06. Click through for the long trend chart. Continue Reading