Comprehensive coverage of the podcasting industry and its business ecosystem.
Podcast creation in May dropped to 9,391 new shows, from 14,282 in April, according to Listen Notes. It is the fourth consecutive monthly drop which has seen podcast creation on the slide through 2022. Click through for details and graphics. Continue Reading
Podcast company Libsyn and podcast ad marketplace AdvertiseCase are celebrating the one-year anniversary of their merger. In this recognition, Libsyn takes the opportunity to disclose a general picture of AdvertiseCast earnings. It’s double-digit percentage growth. Continue Reading
Acast is teasing a quasi-announcement, timed with the Podcast Show happening in London this week. In it, we learn that Focusrite and Acast will do something together, sometime. It’s a tease. Our guess: A discount on the Scarlett brand of Focusrite recording interfaces. Continue Reading
Magellan AI released its always-interesting Top Spenders list, listing the highest 15 spenders for April. BetterHelp lands in the #1 spot, as it has for the last 12 months in today’s RAIN analysis of this ranker. There are zero newcomers. Click through for downloadable 12-month chart. Continue Reading
In an interesting piece of research from Podtrac, YouTube had a larger share of podcast plays for shows that distribute full video episodes on YouTube. The results add dimension to the growing idea that putting a podcast on YouTube is a good idea for discoverability. Podtrac’s work points to YouTube as a potential leader in audience reach. Continue Reading
Legendary podcaster Marc Maron is taking his WTF with Marc Maron show to Acast for full representation and distribution, starting July 1. The new alliance means that Acast will be the exclusive host and sales partner for the podcast, its full back catalog, and other related materials. The show’s schedule and distribution won’t change. Continue Reading
Today SiriusXM announces its acquisition of Conan O’Brien’s podcast company Team Coco, for $150-million. The deal includes hit podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” and all Team Coco employees become SiriusXM employees. Team Coco produced 14 shows currently. Conan enters a five-year development deal. Continue Reading
In a sprawling, deeply researched report, Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights deliver podcast listener statistics and preferences, and recommendations to podcast advertisers. Continue Reading
Apple announced a new feature for podcast publishers called Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery. It enables podcast owners to place free and/or subscription podcasts onto the platform in an operation which significantly streamlines the current process. Delegated Delivery (which sounds to us like some kind of diplomatic envoy) will be launched in the fall. Click for details and Apple’s comments to RAIN. Continue Reading
In the most recent report from the newly renamed Edison Podcast Metrics division of Edison Research, we learn of the top 30 U.S. podcast networks, by reach, according to Edison’s survey-based tabulation. Edison Podcast Metrics is the only podcast measurement service that measures the relative audience size and demographics of all podcast networks in the U.S. As a result, this list is exceptionally interesting to peruse. (SXM Media is #1. PodcastOne is #15. Click for the rest.) Continue Reading
Podcast ad agency Quill (whose awards program we covered in March) has launched a new podcast hosting platform called CoHost, and inaugurated the service with a survey of 155 podcasters. Click for key learnings and service points. Continue Reading
The title of this piece over generalizes about Covid, but a newly released “Podcasting Today; Insight for Advertisers” study from Nielsen makes the broad point: Podcast listeners say they resuming pre-Covid activities that include purchases of products and services, and that is clearly good for podcast advertisers. Click for some stats and graphs. Continue Reading