Comprehensive coverage of the podcasting industry and its business ecosystem.
Looking at four podcast listener age groups, Nielsen has determined that each group has grown in size from 2020 to 2021. There are other metrics within that phenomenon. The pandemic flattened listener growth temporarily, and created more at-home listening. Click through for details and more metrics. Continue Reading
In a buy-side survey of marketers by WARC and iHeartMedia, an interesting chart catches our eye. It is a budget outlook for 2021, indicating which media categories will be increased, and which are not used, by percentage of responses. Click for details and graphics. Continue Reading
by Steve Goldstein Radio ownership is down. Digital listening to broadcast radio is only 12% in the U.S. There is no single reason radio’s digital conversion is slow, Steve Goldstein says in this guest column, while noting that “history has been unkind to repurposed content on new platforms.” He offers better examples from other industries and provides a suggestion for radio.
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Apple has introduced two new sharing and personalization features for its podcast listening platform. Both target personalized discovery. Users can share recommendations, and the platform also can deliver personalized suggestions that go across podcast categories. Continue Reading
The Podcast Reader, a hybrid print/PDF magazine created by Melbourne-based David Loggia, has published two issues in what Loggia tells RAIN are “very early days.” The publication features five transcripts of long-form interview podcasts that focus on intellectual topics of history, science, and society. David Loggia gave us more details about the venture. Continue Reading
In a new and intriguing Latino Podcast (non) Listener Report from Edison Research, one key survey question asks why respondents don’t listen. We see the results as pointing to the length of podcasts, and also difficulties in getting familiar with podcasts — a classic ease-of-use problem. Click for details, graphics, and metrics from this fascinating study. Continue Reading
In a reflection of what it calls its “flywheel business model,” the company formerly known as LiveXLive will change its corporate identity to LiveOne, mimicking its acquired subsidiary PodcastOne. A similarly modeled rebrand is being applied to all its business units. Click for deets. Continue Reading
Green Roll Media, LLC, a sports betting podcast network and an audio production and distribution company, and SuperBook Sports, a leading sportsbook and standard-bearer in sports oddsmaking founded in 1993, announced today they have partnered to create multiple podcasts for Green Roll Media’s sports betting podcast network. Continue Reading
SXM Media, the ad-sales division of SiriusXM’s combined digital audio assets — Pandora, Stitcher, Simplecast, and AdsWizz — launched SXM Podcast Universe, a few weeks ago. It’s a spacey interactive display of podcasts in the SXM network, and their audience characteristics. Today we test-drove it, and found it to be spacey, informative, and fun. Click for details, link, and screnshots. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has released the August edition of the Australian Podcast Ranker. We observe that it is reformatted from previous reports, and now delivers audience and download numbers for top 100 podcasts — a terrific bounty of information that helps quantify the Aussie podcast market. Continue Reading
Serial entrepreneur Brad Smith, who founded podcast hosting platform Simplecast, has been named Head of Podcast Products for SiriusXM, effective immediately, the company tells RAIN. Smith will manage a team responsible for SiriusXM’s podcast product strategy across all of its owned platforms – including SiriusXM, Pandora, and Stitcher. Continue Reading
The second and final day of the IAB Fall Podcast Upfront featured video presentations, podcast hosts, metrics, conversations about technology, and a clear winner of RAIN’s informal “win the funny” prize. Click for very detailed coverage. Continue Reading