PODCAST · technology
Sounds Profitable
by 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.
Episodes
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Golden Globes Podcasts Revealed, Spotify Expands Audiobook Availability, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Right Side Up and Sounds Profitable host a free webinar on October 28 about how AI chatbots are changing podcast ad discovery and measurement. It draws on new LLM data from The Podcast Landscape 2026. IAB Tech Lab finalizes its Podcast Technical Measurement...
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Podcast Audiences on Political Content, How Gen Z Engages w. Clips, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster breaks out the politics chapter of The Podcast Landscape 2026, a survey of 5,473 U.S. adults, covering how the podcast audience leans and whether a politician’s podcast appearance could sway midterm voters. Amplifi Media’s Steve Goldstein…
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Report on Politics and Podcasting, Fans Trust Creators, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster breaks out the political findings from The Podcast Landscape 2026, including how Americans feel about politicians as podcast guests and whether those appearances could sway midterm voters. A Wondery and SmithGeiger study of 3,000 U.S. adults finds...
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Looking Beyond the Pre-Roll Ad, Gen Z on Podcast Clips, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: The Podcast Study 2026 from Strategic Solutions Research and Point-To-Point Marketing finds new revenue opportunities beyond the traditional podcast ad. Nearly half of the 1,205 U.S. podcast consumers surveyed would join a free VIP club, and 46.7% have bought...
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Politics and Podcasting: A Special Report from The Podcast Landscape
This week Tom Webster looks at how podcast consumers feel about politics in podcasting as the midterms approach, drawing on the politics chapter of The Podcast Landscape 2026 and, for the first time, what moved since last year. Tom gets into: How the podcast audience compares to the country by...
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What Moves Podcast Performance, Keeping Brand Deals Personal, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Podscribe’s Q3 benchmark report finds geography is the strongest targeting signal for podcast ad results, followed by a recent visit to the advertiser’s website and its Buyer Power Score. The Podcast Study 2026 finds only 8.6% of listeners would accept more…
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Apple Talks HLS, Audible Debuts NielsenIQ Spoken Word Data, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Apple Podcasts product manager Ted Hosmann explains how video podcasts work over HLS at the IETF’s HLS Interest Day. He says top shows have grown their audience more than 20% on average since adding video, and Apple has also quietly acqui-hired members of the...
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The New Rules of Podcast Advertising, Automating the Average, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster says AI is the average machine, so podcasters should hand it routine work like show notes and ad operations and protect the host-read ad and the show itself. Audacy's Leah Reis-Dennis argues the old podcast advertising playbook is outdated,...
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Resetting Podcasting's Thermostat, Ad Spend Increase, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster says AI is the average machine, so hand it the routine podcasting work like show notes, transcripts and ad ops, and protect the human work of host-read ads and the show itself. WARC forecasts global ad spend will grow 11.9% to $1.34 trillion in…
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Reset Your Thermostat
This week Tom Webster reports back from Denver, where Content Marketing World, LIONS, and The Market Research Event shared one expo floor and nearly every booth was selling an AI-augmented something. His argument is that large language models are built to produce the most probable answer, which...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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,...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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…
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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…
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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...
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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...
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How Smart TVs Overtook Speakers, IAB Bullish on 2026 Ad Revenue, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: New Podcast Landscape 2026 data shows smart TVs now drive 12% of primary podcast listening, up from 8% in 2024, while smart speakers have flatlined at 1%. Tom Webster argues audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground content on the shared living-room...
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Speakeasy Now Uses Barometer, True Native Media on Podcast Growth, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Red Seat Ventures has integrated Barometer's AI-powered brand suitability and contextual targeting engine into its Speakeasy platform, bringing episode-level ad targeting to a portfolio of more than 40 creators and cutting the over-blocking that leaves safe...
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Smart TV Killed the Smart Speaker Star
This week Tom Webster goes to the bottom of the device table in the brand-new The Podcast Landscape 2026 data and finds a story that has been quietly eroding for years. The smart speaker, once pitched as podcasting's cleanest shot at owning a default, has flatlined at one percent. The device...
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Podcasting's Biggest Spender, NPR Launches Senior Podcast Challenge, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Bloomberg reports that BetterHelp is podcasting's biggest advertiser of all time, with an estimated $242 million spent since 2023 and ads running on more than 1,000 shows at once, per Magellan AI. MS NOW is expanding its Crooked Media partnership, adding Jon...
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Podcast Movement 2026 Keynotes, Australia's Advertising Growth, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster runs through the stars and keynotes of Podcast Movement 2026 in New York, including his Podcast Landscape 2026 study of more than 5,400 consumers and a surprising finding that Apple has slipped out of the top three podcast platforms. YouTube's...
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Podcast Movement 🔜 Times Square, Google AdTech Ruling, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Podcast Movement 2026 heads to New York City September 17 and 18 at Terminal 5, where anyone registered by September 4 gets their podcast or company artwork on a Times Square display, and Tom Webster previews the keynote lineup and his Podcast Landscape 2026...
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IAB Australia on Data Standards, YouTube's TIFF Creator Festival, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: IAB Australia's Future of Measurement review finds the biggest constraint on advertising is fragmented data, not a shortage of measurement methods, and it calls for a shared campaign-data taxonomy modeled on IAB US's Campaign Data Standards 1.0. YouTube and...
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The Stars of Podcast Movement
This week Tom Webster delivers his final Podcast Movement programming rundown, along with a deadline you don't want to sleep on. Register by end of day Friday, September 4 and the art for your show or your company logo goes up on a screen in the middle of Times Square. Fewer than 200 tickets…
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Bumper on New YouTube View, Reframing Podcast Advertising, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Oxford Road's Dan Granger argues that YouTube's decision to redefine how it counts views, a change Bumper's Dan Misener found inflates play counts by nearly double, is the jolt that proves podcasting needs cross-platform measurement standards it can actually...
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Building Podcasting's Next Legacy Brands, Audio Advertising Posts Fresh Gains & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Trailer Park: The Podcast Trailer Podcast launches a three-part miniseries built on Coleman Insights research, developed with NOVA Entertainment and Pantheon Podcasts, testing 500 U.S. listeners to pin down what actually makes a podcast trailer convert....
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U.S. Radio Sees Political Surge, Apple Music's AI Label, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: Apple Music now mandates "Made With AI" labels on AI-generated tracks, a music-distribution move that signals how fast audio platforms are formalizing AI disclosure. Political ad spending on radio jumped 22% in a month to $124 million, with AdImpact...
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Podscribe Launches YouTube-Only Attribution, Creators Going Programmatic, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Podscribe launched YouTube-only modeled attribution, closing a measurement gap for influencer campaigns that run only on YouTube by anchoring probabilistic modeling to audio performance data. It is free through September 30. Digiday weighs the case for and...
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Why Research Drives Podcast Returns, Video Podcasting Goes Mainstream, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Signal Hill Insights' Paul Riismandel breaks down four ways audience research drives return in podcasting, from uncovering whitespace to proving value to advertisers with measurement tools like Triton Digital's Demos+. Podscribe reports that podcast video has...
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Political Radio Spend Jumps Before Midterms, How TikTok Boxing Impacts Categories & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Political ad spending on radio has jumped 22% in the past month to $124 million, and with AdImpact projecting $6.1 billion in total 2026 political advertising, the post-Labor Day rush is a reminder of how much election money still flows to audio heading into…
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IAB Announces Podcast Upfront Agenda, Apple Music On AI Labeling, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: The IAB has revealed the full agenda for its 2026 Podcast Upfront, the invitation-only event landing September 16 between the Sounds Profitable Business Summit and Podcast Movement, with an official after party at Terminal 5. Apple Music will now require "Made...
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YouTube Defines the "Engaged View", Podcasting's Place @ SXSW 2027, & More
This week in the business of podcasting: SXSW will make podcasting a core pillar in 2027 with its first-ever four-day Podcast Festival, and Podcast Movement Evolutions returns to Austin that same week for two free days at the SKYBOX on 6th. Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster argues podcasting's real...
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Podcasting's Place @ SXSW 2027, Magellan AI's H1 Ireland Benchmarks, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: SXSW will make podcasting a core pillar in 2027 with its first-ever four-day Podcast Festival, and Podcast Movement Evolutions returns to Austin that same week for two free days at the SKYBOX on 6th. Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster argues podcasting's real gap...
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The 2027 Ambies Open for Submissions, IAB Labels AI-Made Ads, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: The Podcast Academy opened submissions for the 2027 Ambies, spanning 23 show categories. This cycle adds Best Music Podcast, Episode of The Year, and a new Advertising category covering Best Ad Read, Best Branded Podcast, and Podcast Advertiser of The Year....
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That Stupid Radio
A nine-button Italian radio with a dead app can teach us some lessons about podcast discovery. Written by Tom Webster Edited and narrated by Gavin Gaddis" Find the full article here.
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The YouTube Definition of a View, Podcast Study 2026 Announced, & More
Today in the business of podcasting: Spotify says a bug, not a policy, made a podcast ad appear unskippable, telling Podnews the 15-second skip was hidden in the viral example and has since been fixed — and that skipping works for both Free and Premium listeners YouTube changes how it counts a...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Bryan Barletta
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Sounds Profitable have?
Sounds Profitable currently has 1000 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Sounds Profitable about?
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,...
How often does Sounds Profitable release new episodes?
Sounds Profitable releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 1000 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to Sounds Profitable?
You can listen to Sounds Profitable on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Sounds Profitable?
Sounds Profitable is created and hosted by Bryan Barletta.
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