“The economics of podcasting got a little out of hand, to say the least.” So said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer of SiriusXM. Sirius noted that headwinds with economic and business uncertainties causing many major advertisers to be cautious in their marketing spend. Still podcasting grew 24% in full-year 2022, and represented 38% of total advertising business in the year. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Wisdom of a Certain Age (Lemonada Media)
— Infinity Measured (Edison Research)
— ChatGPT In Action (Ron Rivlin)
In the second study released by global podcast company Acast in 10 days, a survey of 600 frequent podcast listeners delivers a welcome finding to marketers: Listeners pay attention to ads, and take action on them. Click through for details and graphics. Continue Reading
Podtrac’s Top Podcast Publishers monthly ranker for January tells a growth story. We learn that the U.S. monthly audience increased for 15 of the top 20 publishers. Also, average monthly audience was up month-over-month and 16% over January 2022. Click through for the results and the RAIN remix, which re-sorts the top publishers by average listeners and downloads per show. Continue Reading
Google has withdrawn a key podcast listening product, signaling a trim of its podcast initiative. At the same time, Google appears to be rallying a counter initiative to the high-buzz ascendance of AI tool ChatGPT (owned by OpenAi). Recent Backstepping… Continue Reading
This guest column from Mark Mulligan breaks down what mid-level success looks like from a musician’s viewpoint. “Streaming was built for yesterday’s music business,” Mark Mulligan asserts in this guest column. He breaks down what success looks like to midlevel artists, then doubles it … and it’s still not enough. Mulligan suggests two possible innovations in the existing royalty system.
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It has been in circulation since 2021, when the American Music Fairness Act was introduced to Congress.The proposed bill intends to rectify what musicians and their chief lobbying organization, SoundExchange, call a “decades-long injustice.” The argument is over a historical anamoly which has always exempted broadcast radio stations from paying creator royalties — songwriters for the most part. Continue Reading
Spotify was ready for investor questions about the recent reorg. The company’s remarks emphasized a shift from previous spending to future operational efficiency. This core message was connected to every aspect of the product, with some emphasis on podcasting (thanks to relentless investor questioning about the podcast business) and especially the recent departure of Dawn Ostroff, who ran the podcast business. Click for quotes. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Boiling Down the Artwork (True Native)
— 185 Nominees (Podcast Academy)
— A Healthy Sign (JAR Audio)
by Steve Goldstein
In the latest guest column from Steve Goldstein, he observes the more things change, the more they remain the same. Contrary to shaded scenarios currently in vogue, podcasting is “a healthy, but maturing and evolving business,” according to Steve. Less spaghetti thrown against the wall, please, and more rigor. It’s a good read. Continue Reading
“So, by the end of the year, we had more than 100 million tracks on our platform and more than 5 million podcasts and more than 300,000 audio books being enjoyed by almost 0.5 billion listeners.” –Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify… Continue Reading
SoundStack, the self-defined “audio-as-a-service” podcast tech company, blasted into February by announcing a triple executive raid. Three new executives join SoundStack’s marketing, finance, and product groups. Click for deets and pics. Continue Reading