Jottings of note:
Spotify CFO Emily Villatte has posted the text of her talk at the recent Podcast Movement London. Titled Podcasting: A Bright Future for Creators, the piece addresses an evolving landscape in which video and niche content are increasingly important attributes of podcasting and key drivers of future growth. Demographics are important too: the 16-24 cohort represents the next generation of listeners and ad spend. “The true magic of podcasting often lies in the longtail: niche content and community building,” she asserts. She addresses AI, as one might expect: “At Acast, we see AI as a co-pilot, enhancing but never replacing authentic human storytelling.” Read it HERE.
Renowned radio commentator and columnist Sean Ross devotes his latest Ross On Radio article to the the importance (or not) of an artist achieving a #1 hit — specifcally, whether that milestone is needed to achieve regular radio airplay, defined as 100 spins or more at monitored reporing stations. The answer is mixed: “In an era where streaming drives the top of the charts, debuting on the Billboard chart at No. 1 doesn’t necessarily indicate a mainstream radio hit at all. But it can still be part of a story.” And the exact answer is just under half: Of 84 songs in this inquiry which did debut at the top, 41 receive 100 spons or more at monitored stations. Ross is careful to point out that radio does not generally confirm the Billboard list: “It’s hard to visit the ‘debuting at No. 1’ question without discussing radio’s timing.” READ
Jacobs Media partner Fred Jacobs recommends that radio executives spend an entire day on TikTok. Any particular reason? Yes: To get some religion about the value of making short-form video. “Many [radio execs] are trying to wrap their heads around the short-form video phenomenon,” he observes, but not without some caution. Is snackable video a fad, or a durable product type to invest in? And more particularly: “Does this content or its platforms have relevance to radio people?” He notes a couple of startups (Vine and Quibi) which followed the short-video path unsuccessfully. Bolstering his case, Jacobs reprints a graph from Techsurvey 2025, the annual Jacobs Media survey focused on devoted radio listeners. It shows tobust daily consumption of short videos, especially in the desirable Millennial group. “While more and more people are consuming this content,” Jacobs notes, “the priority to produce it seems to be somewhere between “low” and “non-existent” in most radio companies.” More HERE.
June 9, 2025
