Comprehensive coverage of the podcasting industry and its business ecosystem.
Audio analytics and research platform Veritonic has delivered a concise and punchy graphical rationale for podcast advertising. (It’s available HERE.) The presentation emphasizes three main points. Click for details and the download link. Continue Reading
Apple’s annual release of top podcasts in various categories is here. It is based on devices that pull from Apple Podcasts — not a platform-agnostic list such as produced by Edison Research. Click for the list, and RAIN’s year-over-year comparison.
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The Podcast Marketing Academy (whose manifesto is HERE) has released results of a study conducted in Q1 this year: Podcast Marketing Trends. The field work interviewed 515 respondents, all of them podcasters. That group represents over two billion cumulative downloads and 28,000 produced episodes. The survey is characterized as “sadistically long and detailed.” This is Part 1 of our coverage. Continue Reading
Podcasting powerhouse Acast has partnered with Edison Research in a study called Podcast Pulse, supported by global agency Dentsu. Based on surveys of podcast listeners, this work is motivated by the perception that podcasting is shifting, especially on the listener side. Targeted to advertisers, this large, deeply researched, beautifully presented study advocates for a broader perception of podcasting and its listeners. Continue Reading
New podcast production skidded downward in October, establishing the sixth month trend of desultory trending. To be clear: Although no firm direction is established, the output level of new podcasts is drawing a fairly stable line, as production seems to be settling after a January peak and gradual lessening during the year. Click for graphs. Continue Reading
Podcast data and discovery platform Podchaser has developed a new audience category to help advertisers tailor the reach of their campaigns. It is political skew. The idea, in Podchaser’s words, is to “offer unprecedented clarity.” Click for the full read.
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Global podcast behemoth Acast released Q3 earnings this morning. Click for top-line key metrics and several revealing graphics. Continue Reading
Acast announces that it has formed a partnership with brand safety, suitability, and planning service Barometer. The news is targeted to podcast advertisers, with a promise to navigate risk, discover new content, and measure campaign performance. Initiatives like this reassure advertisers that podcast advertising (still rather a new kid on the block for some advertisers) can be as trustworthy and exacting as longer established media categories. Click for more.
Per annual tradition, Signal Hill Insights has released a data snack from its upcoming full meal of metrics — the annual Canadian Podcast Listener report. (The full feast will be served to subscribers on November 28.) In this peek, we learn that podcast listening is on the rise across categories of frequency, from “ever listened” to daily listening. Click for the graph and full-study info. Continue Reading
In his latest guest column, Amplifi Media chief Steve Goldstein tries out Google’s new NotebookLM AI tool, and shares the AI-generated audio. He calls it impressive, jaw-dropping, exciting, weird, and unsettling. We agree. Steve also pulls back from the amazement of it, reassuringly to human podcasters. In the past, we have called out some of Steve’s columns as “must read.” This one is on a higher level of must read … and listen. Continue Reading
Brendan Monaghan, one of the most prominent and influential executives and BoD members in the software and services industries, has been named Chief Executive Officer of venerable podcast company Libsyn. At the same time, Monaghan joins Libsyn’s Board of Directors. Click for background. Continue Reading
In a RAIN scrutiny of two newly released Podtrac rankers, we see the clear dominance of iHeart Audience Network in the delivery of podcasts. In the list of 21 leading U.S. podcast publishers (sorted by unique monthly audience), we find six networks that also appear in the top Global Delivery ranker. We blend the data; click for the chart. Continue Reading