Comprehensive coverage of the podcasting industry and its business ecosystem.
“Indies should not be discouraged” was the encouragement offered by Wondery CEO Jen Sargent to a hall full of podcasters at Podcast Movement Evolutions 2022 in Los Angeles Wednesday morning. Brought onstage by The Infinite Dial presenter Tom Webster, Sargent talked about podcasting’s growth, and how podcaster’s could view the future. Click for a bunch of quotes. Continue Reading
In a significant upgrade to its reporting features and production requirements, Apple Podcasts has released and defined new podcast metrics for subscription podcast owners, and audio guidelines for subscription podcast producers. Click for details and screenshot of the new metrics dashboard. Continue Reading
When Spotify acquired Chartable and Podsights last month, it was clearly stated that Chartable would be integrated with Spotify-owned hosting and monetization platform Megaphone. Today we learn of progress in that integration. Chartable is winding down its attribution work and throwing it over to former competitor Podsights. Continue Reading
by Steve Goldstein
In the latest guest column from Steve Goldstein, he marches through a litany of podcast listening apps, “a curious business” according to Steve. “Developing a large following is hard and expensive, yet the apps keep coming.” It’s difficult — but not impossible — to break through to scale. Continue Reading
Magellan AI released its always-interesting Top Spenders chart, listing the highest 15 spenders for February. BetterHelp lands in the #1 spot, as it has for (at least) the last 11 months that RAIN has tracked the movements in this ranker. Click for RAIN’s 11-month comparison chart. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has released the February edition of its U.S. Podcast Report, and we see Stitcher in the #1 slot as with the previous report. Audacy (#2) and NPR (#3) switch position from the previous month. The placements are based on average weekly downloads. Click for some context on this. Continue Reading
Two French podcast publishers, Bababam and Choses a Savoir, have chosen Spotify subsidiary Megaphone for creation, monetization, and metrics analysis. As part of joining Megaphone, these two publishers will be early testers of the Spotify Audience Network in France. The announcement includes metrics from Chartable, acquired by Spotify to bundle into Megaphone. Continue Reading
The cost of podcast advertising dropped in February compared to an unusual January spike. This according to AdvertiseCast, the Libsyn-owned ad marketplace. The average CPM of a 60-second spot was $23.41 in February, down from a two-year high of $25.40… Continue Reading
Audio and podcast producer and publisher PRX released its first-ever annual report. Unlike a typical for-profit annual report, the non-profit PRX document avoids exact financials. It is a multimedia presentation of the company’s initiatives and the importance of its underwriting. Continue Reading
Heather Osgood, Founder and CEO of podcast ad-rep company True Native Media, joins Brad Hill for the RAIN Podcast Business Lunch. The conversation roams across the needs and expectations of podcast advertisers, both new and experienced, and how podcasters deliver to those needs. Continue Reading
Spotify has announced what is, by our count, the third Sound Up program of podcast creation mentoring. This time the field is Kids & Family shows that will compete. At stake is what the company describes as “an immersive week of in-person training at our Spotify offices in Los Angeles, to be followed by a series of virtual workshops and classes, and finally production of a podcast pilot episode.” Click through for lots of detail. Continue Reading
Popular listening platforms, from streaming music to broadcast radio, have stepped into podcasting by pulling podcasting onto their platforms, mostly through acquisitions. Alphabet/Google/YouTube is taking a somewhat different tack, offering six-figure grants to podcasters and podcast networks to create video versions of their shows. This according to Bloomberg, which cites anonymous sources. Continue Reading