Sounds Profitable

Bryan Barletta

The pace of change the podcast industry is undergoing is staggering. The implications for podcasters, hosting providers, podcast listening app developers, and advertisers and agencies are enormous. And so is the growth potential. Presented as a companion to the weekly newsletter of the same name, our podcast provides you with direct access to our narrated articles, interviews with industry experts, bleeding-edge research, and can't miss industry news recaps. That Sounds Profitable, right? Assumptions and conventional wisdom will be challenged. Easy answers with no proof of efficacy will be exposed. Because the thinking that got podcast advertising close to a billion dollars annually will need to be drastically overhauled to bring in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars podcast advertising deserves.

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#994
Yesterday · 7 min
Canadian Listeners on AI Audio, Apple's Ad Tech Blocklist, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: A Signal Hill Insights survey of 6,161 Canadians finds AM/FM radio still holds 46% of in-car listening, while 68% of Canadians dislike AI-generated podcasts and only 4% like them. The Podcast Study 2026 identifies "Prime Prospects," the 18% of podcast consumers who value the host and show growing consumption, as a major opportunity to grow podcast superfans, who make up 17% of the audience. Apple's iOS 27 update has Safari blocking a first handful of ad tech companies, including The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, ID5, and Permutive, a quiet blocklist that was the talk of Advertising Week New York. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#992
Tuesday · 7 min
Lessons on Podcast Impressions, Barometer Brand Suitability on Amazon Ads, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable Partner Tom Webster and ADOPTER Media's Glenn Rubenstein host a free webinar on October 13 at 2:00 p.m. ET, using new Podcast Atlas analysis to profile podcasting's heaviest buyers, the Super Spenders. Audacy's Leah Reis-Dennis argues in a Sounds Profitable guest article that outdated podcast advertising advice needs a rewrite, citing 22% lower CPA on mid-sized shows, the value of host expertise, and the discovery role of video. Barometer's AI contextual brand suitability and targeting segments are now available in Amazon Ads DVA+ for podcast campaigns, with episode-level pre-bid targeting across major platforms and supply side partners. An AdExchanger column from Krystina Rubino and Lindsay Piper Shaw says podcasting is having its viewability moment, and that buyers should ask what kinds of impressions they are getting heading into 2027. Dhar Mann says the $100M creator-brand deal target he set as Advertising Week New York's first chief creator officer is already pledged by CMOs, though contracts are not expected this week. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#991
Friday · 9 min
Industry Leaders on Scale, Podcast Landscape 2026 Debuts, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026 shows podcast reach holding steady at 74% of U.S. adults, while Netflix debuts as the third most-used podcast platform and video viewing climbs to 44% weekly. Acast's Greg Glenday, Oxford Road's Dan Granger and Triton's Sharon Taylor explain how they reached scale, why measurement remains the industry's biggest problem, and why they believe podcast advertising is still early. International Podcast Day brought a wave of announcements, from free Podcast Movement NYC sessions and a Headliner credit giveaway to a redesigned Podigee platform and Flightcast's Collaborative Publishing. To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#990
October 1 · 7 min
The Podcast Landscape 2026 Pt. 1, Podcasting's Place in the Mix, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026 finds U.S. podcast reach holding steady at 74% of adults, with Netflix arriving as a top-three platform and weekly video podcast viewing rising to 44%. ExchangeWire asks whether podcasting is rated highly enough in the media mix, as UK weekly listening grows to 27% and ad execs weigh in on attention, host-read ads, and attribution. Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger and Sounds Profitable's Bryan Barletta explain why the host is podcasting's most valuable ad asset, and why they favor a "both-and" monetization strategy. Acast's Podcast Pulse 2026 shows 86% of Australian podcast fans consume both audio and video, and that podcasters were the only creator category to gain commercial trust in the past year. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#989
October 1 · 3 min
The Podcast Landscape 2026 - The Core Numbers
This week Tom Webster shares Part One of The Podcast Landscape 2026, our annual study of how Americans consume podcasts, drawn from a census-weighted survey of 5,473 US adults. Podcasting's audience is large and stable, but it is increasingly consuming in places not built for podcasts. Tom gets into five findings: Reach held steady, with 74% of adults having consumed a podcast and 39% in the past week Netflix is the third most-used service for podcasts, ahead of Apple Podcasts Podcast-native apps kept shrinking as a most-used platform Video kept growing, with 44% watching a video podcast in the past week More people are consuming podcasts together with others Plus, Tom points to his Podcast Movement NYC keynote on the Netflix finding. Read the full issue here.
#988
September 30 · 6 min
International Podcast Day Announcements, Podcast Leaders on Scale, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Acast, Oxford Road, and Triton Digital leaders explain how they reached scale, why inconsistent measurement remains a core problem, and why one CEO says podcast advertising is still "at the basement." International Podcast Day brings a wave of announcements, including 82 free Podcast Movement NYC sessions on YouTube, a redesigned Podigee platform, and Flightcast's new Collaborative Publishing. Radiocentre research finds that shifting search and social budgets into audio could add £1 million in profit for the average brand without raising total spend. Talent agencies like CAA and UTA are moving into creator representation, blurring the line between agents and managers. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#987
September 29 · 5 min
BetterHelp Goes Global with Media Bodies, IAB Tech Lab Seeks Programmatic Feedback, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: BetterHelp has tapped creator-led agency Media Bodies to lead its international podcast advertising strategy across 10 markets, using localized approaches rather than one global playbook. The IAB Tech Lab has opened its first Programmatic Standard Practices for public comment through October 16, setting shared business rules for how buyers and sellers use existing programmatic standards. A new Media, Built issue draws on Hub Entertainment Research's study of 1,600 U.S. broadband users to show how being a viewer's "default" streamer drives retention, with default users two to six times more likely to keep a subscription. Myles Younger of U of Digital argues AI is closer to labor, a utility or an appliance than to publishing, which makes paid models a better fit than advertising. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#986
September 28 · 6 min
Monitoring Programmatic Podcast Ad Load, Patreon Pulls Per-Creation, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: 1UpMedia founder Guang Jin Yeo shares what Asia's podcast market can learn from the global playbook, from static-frame video podcasts to dubbing and generative AI. His golden rule for AI in podcasting is that audiences shouldn't be able to tell, but they must always be told. Programmatic podcast advertising is growing fast, and 82% of agencies now buy audio programmatically. New Podscribe benchmark data shows average podcast ad load fell to 10.3% in Q2 2026, and heavy ad loads can cut conversion rates nearly in half. Patreon is ending per-creation memberships and moving creators to monthly-only billing by November 1, 2026. Seasonal podcasts like audio fiction and investigative series will likely feel it most. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#984
September 25 · 11 min
Lessons from Podcast Movement NYC, Buyers Choose Engaged Views, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster explains why Netflix passing Apple Podcasts to become the third most-named place Americans consume podcasts is a warning sign, since most shows can never get on the platform. Triton Digital's Sharon Taylor argues video is expanding podcasting rather than replacing audio, noting 80% of monthly podcast consumers both watch and listen. ADOPTER Media, Right Side Up and Oxford Road, representing about half a billion dollars in ad buying, commit to YouTube Engaged Views after YouTube inflated its public view counts. Lower Street's Annalise Nielsen details the roadblocks she hit trying to spend $72,000 on podcast ads, from missing sales contacts to $150,000 minimums. Recaps from Podcast Movement NYC and the Sounds Profitable Business Summit cover AI-era podcast SEO, smart TV listening growth, and ad buyers' take on Spotify's skip button. To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#985
September 24 · 7 min
Netflix's Place in Podcasting, Upcoming YouTube Features, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Lower Street's Annalise Nielsen explains why it's so hard to buy podcast ads. Trying to spend a $72,000 budget, she ran into missing ad contacts, $150,000 minimums and a host-read quietly downgraded to a post-roll. Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster finds Netflix has passed Apple Podcasts to become the third most-named place Americans consume podcasts. He warns that it's a true walled garden where most shows can't get in. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan lays out the platform's 2026 playbook, from creator-first TV ambitions to new Made on YouTube features like prompt-built feeds and a weekly AI podcast guide in YouTube Music. The Podglomerate recaps Podcast Movement's NYC debut, from AI-era podcast SEO to James Cridland's call to protect RSS and NPR Music's case for personality-driven shows. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#983
September 23 · 4 min
Podcast Locations in Apple Maps, Mid-Sized Podcast Appeal, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Apple Podcasts and Apple Maps launch Hidden Histories, a feature that uses the podcast:location tag to place episodes on real-world locations. Apple also confirms that video is coming to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions in more than 170 countries and regions. A new Audacy report argues that mid-sized podcasts are an untapped advertising opportunity, citing a 22% lower cost per acquisition than on celebrity shows. It also finds that listeners are 27% more likely to be swayed by topic experts than by celebrities. Karo Chakhlasyan says Podcast Movement left them less convinced that audio is the best way to grow audio. They point to video clips as a growing driver of discovery and to incrementality as the measurement question the industry hasn't answered. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#982
September 23 · 12 min
Tu-Dum
This week Tom Webster comes back from his Podcast Movement keynote in New York with a number that should stop the industry cold. Across four years of The Podcast Landscape, the study has asked people every place they have consumed a podcast in the past year, and the third most-named platform is no longer Apple Podcasts. It is Netflix. Tom lays out why that ranking troubles him, and why he thinks 2026 is another one of those turning-point moments for the medium. Tom gets into: Why Netflix landed at number three, and what a deliberately low-bar survey question does and does not tell us The three reasons Netflix worries him, from the gatekeeper problem to the fates of shows like Mindhunter and The OA How the top three places people find podcasts all reward deliberate search over discovery, with 77% of YouTube discovery coming from intentional search The quiet slide of podcast-native apps, down from 19% to 15% as most-used, and what it means to lose our "Tower Records" Plus why Tom worries the rush toward Netflix could turn podcasting, for much of America, into Temu TV, and what the industry should be protecting instead. Read the full issue here.
#981
September 22 · 5 min
Rethinking Audio vs. Video Podcasting, Creators Selling TV-Style, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Triton Digital's Sharon Taylor pushes back on the video-first narrative, pointing to 2025 U.S. Podcast Report data showing 80% of monthly listeners both watch and listen while only 7% watch exclusively. Her advice is to treat video as an expansion of an audio show rather than a replacement for it. A growing number of creators and the companies representing them want to sell ads through TV-style upfront commitments, but unlimited, always-on creator inventory does not behave like a network's finite schedule. Experts told Digiday the model will likely work only for the top one percent of talent, sold through agencies and creator networks. The legal fight over the executive order targeting NPR and PBS funding has quietly ended, leaving in place a First Amendment ruling that permanently blocks key provisions of Executive Order 14290. It is a limited victory, since Congress had already rescinded the money and dissolved the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#980
September 21 · 5 min
Ad Buyers Align on Engaged Views, Bumper x Oxford Road, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Ad buyers draw a line on YouTube's "Engaged Views": At last week's Sounds Profitable Business Summit, ADOPTER Media, Right Side Up, Oxford Road, and YMH Studios committed to counting only YouTube's "Engaged Views" when buying ads on the platform. The move answers YouTube's August decision to count a view after a single frame plays, a change that roughly doubled raw view counts. IAB on video plays: At its 2026 Podcast Upfront, the IAB argued podcasting is underbought, noting digital audio takes 16% of media time but only 2% of ad spend even as podcast revenue grew 17.6% to nearly $3 billion in 2025. The IAB also stopped short of backing a single unified standard, pointing instead to existing podcast and digital video definitions. Bumper's partnership with Oxford Road: Oxford Road is bringing Bumper's new Bumper Score into its planning and buying, rating shows from 0 to 200 on their ability to deliver ads to verified listeners across audio and YouTube. Bumper co-founder Dan Misener says better data means greater trust, and greater trust leads to more investment. NPR wants to sign more independent creators: NPR is looking beyond in-house production to strike more distribution and ad-sales deals with independent creators while letting them keep their IP. It recently teamed with Casey Newton and Kevin Roose to distribute and sell ads against their new AI-focused video podcast "Machine Gods." Women athletes are running the creator playbook: A new Digiday report finds pro women athletes using content creation to supplement thin salaries and build brands that outlast their careers, with Snapchat's "Snap the Gap" cohort growing an average of 1,491% and pulling in 16 million story views. The common thread is ownership over how they show up and who they reach. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#979
September 18 · 8 min
Podcast Week in NYC, iOS 27 Podcast Updates, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: Podcast Week in New York opened with the Sounds Profitable Business Summit, where This American Life's Ira Glass argued that podcasts build deeper audience connections than influencer content and that the depth makes their advertising more effective. A later panel tackled Spotify's skip button test, with Right Side Up and Acast pushing the industry toward better ad quality and more transparency. Writing in The Roast, ADOPTER Media's Adam McNeal makes the case for pinning YouTube ad deals to "engaged views" rather than the platform's newly inflated public view count, arguing buyers should anchor contracts to the more meaningful metric while they still can. Spotify is expanding its Partner Program for podcasts to more than 35 new markets this fall, its largest geographic rollout yet, citing a 140% jump in video podcast consumption and working with hosts like Acast, Libsyn, and Omny so creators can opt in without switching distributors. At the IAB Podcast Upfront during Podcast Week, the IAB released a new video podcast measurement guide and argued a brand-new medium-agnostic framework like the AMP Accords is not needed, pointing buyers instead to existing IAB Tech Lab standards and clarifying which one applies where. Apple's fall operating systems bring a wide batch of new Apple Podcasts features across iOS 27, tvOS 27, and macOS 27, with video as the throughline: a redesigned Apple TV app, video playback on macOS, full transcripts and chapters, and a new Search in Show tool. To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#978
September 17 · 4 min
Spotify Expands Partner Program, IAB Announces Podcast Video Measurement Guidelines, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: The IAB used its Podcast Upfront during Podcast Week to release new video podcast measurement guidance, declining to adopt a single medium-agnostic standard like the AMP Accords in favor of two existing IAB Tech Lab frameworks. Spotify is expanding its Partner Program to more than 35 new markets this fall, opening audio and video podcast monetization to creators across Latin America and Europe while partnering with hosts like Acast, Libsyn, and Audioboom. Acast's Podcast Pulse 2026 study of 4,300 listeners across 13 markets finds audiences no longer see audio and video as competing formats, with 88 percent now consuming both and trust in podcast host recommendations climbing. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#977
September 16 · 7 min
New Apple Podcasts Features, Amazon Music Expands Video Podcast Presence, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Apple's fall software releases bring a wave of new Apple Podcasts features across iOS 27, tvOS 27, and macOS 27, led by a video-first redesign. A revamped Apple TV app adds video podcast playback and channel browsing, while full transcripts, chapters, and a new Search in Show tool arrive across devices. Amazon Music is expanding its global video podcast partnerships, integrating shows hosted on ART19, Omny Studio, and Flightcast, with SiriusXM, Megaphone, and Libsyn to follow. Video is rolling out to new markets including the UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan, and publishers keep control of hosting, ad inventory, and targeting. The Podcast Study 2026, built from a nationally representative survey of 1,205 listeners, finds 82% see the host as a significant reason they tune in and that listeners remember and act on host-read ads more than other formats. The research also maps new revenue paths through ad-light subscriptions and interest-based targeting. NPR unveiled a packed fall slate headlined by Machine Gods, a video-first, twice-weekly show from Hard Fork creators Kevin Roose and Casey Newton. The public radio outlet also announced Your Turn with Allison Aubrey and a weekend expansion of Planet Money's The Indicator. Members of the Podcast Standards Project are meeting tomorrow during Podcast Movement to push for features that improve the open podcasting ecosystem. The gathering is open to anyone who builds for open podcasting, member or not. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#976
September 15 · 4 min
Ira Glass on Podcast Advertising, PRX Names New CEO, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Podcast Week in New York kicked off with the Sounds Profitable Business Summit, where This American Life's Ira Glass argued that podcasting's depth and audience connection make it more effective for advertisers than most influencer content. Panelists also pushed back on Spotify skip-button anxiety, making the case that better ads and more data transparency beat fear. Genius Sports CRO Josh Linforth lays out how athlete-tracking technology is reshaping athlete-led media, using the Chris Paul partnership to show how the same data players rely on can feed fans directly and reshape sponsorships around content like athlete-led podcasts. PRX named Chief Operating Officer Jason Saldanha its next president and CEO, effective October 15, succeeding Kerri Hoffman after more than a decade leading the organization, launching Radiotopia and moving over $200 million to independent creators. To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#975
September 14 · 5 min
Podcasting 🔜 NYC, Magellan AI's Q2 Podcast Measurement Benchmarks, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Podcasts Take Over New York — Podcast Week NYC kicks off with three back-to-back events: the Sounds Profitable Business Summit today and tomorrow, the 2026 IAB Podcast Upfront on Wednesday, and Podcast Movement closing out Thursday and Friday. Tom Webster has teased a keynote built on The Podcast Landscape 2026 data he expects to spark real industry debate. Magellan AI's Q2 2026 Podcast Measurement Benchmark Report — New benchmarks show roughly 41% of podcast ad site visits land within seven days and 76% within 30, so reading a campaign too early can undercount results by more than half. Host-read ads posted a 3.22% median response rate against 2.09% for produced spots, and video shows outpaced audio-only. Zero Seconds by Adam McNeal — ADOPTER Media's Adam McNeal argues for demanding YouTube "Engaged View" reporting in ad contracts, after founder Glenn Rubenstein warned the platform's new view metric can nearly double public counts without more real engagement. Any network holding its CPM flat on inflated views effectively hands itself a raise buyers can only counter up front. Substack Adds a Dedicated Podcast Tab — Substack rolled out a dedicated podcast tab in its app to help creators reach current listeners and get found by new ones, noting podcasters collectively earn over $200 million on the platform. It is a notable carve-out for podcasting's brand from a company that once folded blogs into simply being "a Substack." To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.
#974
September 11 · 7 min
Audiences Chose TVs Over Smart Speakers, IAB 2026 Ad Outlook, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: New Sounds Profitable data shows the smart TV has overtaken the smart speaker as a top device for podcast listening, with Tom Webster arguing audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground viewing rather than background audio. The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad market forecast to 12.3 percent, with podcast advertising expected to grow 8.7 percent and outpace other digital audio formats. Scalable examines the wave of executive departures at creator-founded companies like Dude Perfect, Audiochuck, and Good Good Golf, and what those exits reveal about scaling creator-led businesses. True Native Media's Sabrina Nelson makes the case that podcasters do not need to be on every platform to grow, and should focus their time where it actually moves the needle. To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

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