Comprehensive coverage of the podcasting industry and its business ecosystem.
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
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
Spotify has built a new piece of linkage between the streaming giant’s platform and Patreon, where many subscription podcasts are managed. The new connectivity allows Patreon subscribers to access their paid-for podcasts within the Spotify app. Continue Reading
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
iHeartMedia’s Q2 earnings report, rich with metrics and charts, describes a giant audio company whose growth is focused on the digital side, with consolidated financials slipping a bit year-over-year. Click for lots of detail and graphic charts. Continue Reading
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
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
by Steve Goldstein
In his latest guest column, Steve Goldstein offers a litany of podcast listening apps which launched with hope and fanfare, but underperformed their expectations. It’s an interesting trip through time. Continue Reading
Global podcast powerhouse Acast released its Q2 earnings today. In the official release and presentation highlights we see top-line growth leading to negative operating margins. Below are details around the highlights and the total operating loss for the quarter: Net… Continue Reading
We see a continuing trend developing in the monthly podcast metrics published by Listen Notes. (See the data HERE.) As was the case last month July’s new podcast launches dropped, to 9,564 new shows from the previous month (13,655), showing the lowest new-show production in a year. Click for more info and graphs. Continue Reading
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
If there is a single metric worthy of a headline in Magellan AI’s just-released Podcast Advertising Benchmark Report, it is the three-month ad spend of top advertiser BetterHelp (an online counseling service). But there is much more. Click through for a selection of metrics, graphics, and the download link. Continue Reading