Sounds Profitable

Sounds Profitable

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

Audioboom Acquires Adelicious, Podcasting's Growth Mindset, & More

July 18, 2025 • 10 mins
This week in the business of podcasting.

  • Audioboom has acquired Adelicious
  • Selling the health & fitness podcast mindset
  • Content creators shut out of the Emmys for a second year running
  • The power of podcast search optimization
  • Google is indexing Instagram
  • Video podcasting and YouTube production is creating jobs in an otherwise hurting Hollywood.

Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of Soun...
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Emmy Creator Shutout, SiriusXM Play Reveal, & More

July 16, 2025 • 7 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: SiriusXM launches an ad-supported tier, Audioboom acquires Adelicious, how Kids & Family podcasts are perfect for the "nag factor", content creators once again left out of the Emmys, and Acast reports on a podcast campaign run for KFC in Australia. 

Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post...
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Gemini Now Sees Instagram, IAB Tech Lab AI Scraping Initiative, & More

July 15, 2025 • 5 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: Google is now indexing Instagram, Ausha's Jennfer Han talks about a recent BBC Studios case study, Digiday looks at the creator industrial complex, and IAB Tech Lab is working on an intiative to monetize LLMs scraping content and give control back to publishers. 

Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight t...
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Audioboom's Q2, Video Podcasts Drive Hollywood Jobs, & More

July 14, 2025 • 4 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: Audioboom posts profit in Q2, CMOs seek stability and cutting out the middleman with content creator marketing, and the LA Times covers the burgeoning video production job market caused by the rise of YouTubers and video podcasting. 

Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post for today's episode...
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YouTube Restricting Reuploads, Retaining Podcasting's Spark, & More

July 11, 2025 • 9 mins
This week in the business of podcasting: 
  • There's preservationists who want to save the soul of podcasting, there's growth advocates that welcome the YouTubeifiaction of podcasts. Tom Webster argues both are right, and that binary might be hurting podcasting's ability to preserve its "soul." 
  • The Podcast Host and Alitu CEO Colin Gray talks about the sort-of surprise that was seeing Alitu on stream during Apple's WWDC presentation...
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Preserving Podcasting's Spark, Stopping Slop Content, & More

July 10, 2025 • 7 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: how podcasting can preserve its spark whiel growing into video, how Alityu ended up on screen at WWDC, YouTube's preparing to crack down on reuploaded/generated content, Jasmine Crockett addresses the need for media-savvy politicians for podcast appearances, and two major AI players working on their own browsers to challenge Google's search engine dominance. 

Find links to every article mentioned...
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Managing Many Metrics, The Podcast Exchange Restructuring, & More

July 9, 2025 • 5 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: The Streaming Wars looks at how "watch hours" can be turned into a valuable metric, The Podcast Exchange announces it is filing a Notion of Intention in Canadian bankruptcy court, Signal Hill Insights looks at three common reasons host-read ads fall short, and WPP issues profit warning as Q2 perfomance falls below expectations. 

Links to every article covered can be found in today's issue of the ...
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The Podcast Preservation Paradox

July 9, 2025 • 12 mins
Preservationists fear video stealing podcasting’s soul, growth advocates celebrate YouTube driving more to the medium. Thing is, they’re both right.
  • Written and narrated by Tom Webster
  • Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
  • Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis

Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
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India's Podcasting Boom, Spotify Returns Pod.Link, & More

July 8, 2025 • 6 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: podcasting is booming in India, Moonbug has a study into how parents consume ad-supported media, Spotify is giving pod.link back to its original developer, an explanation of the Spotify-approved generative AI "band" Velvet Sundown, and Triton Digital has a new annual study on Canadian podcast listner behavior. 

Find links to every article mentioned in today's episode post on SoundsProfitable.com
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Amazon x Roku, Spotify Upgrades Car Listening, & More

July 7, 2025 • 5 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: Amazon's DSP is selling Roku inventory, a case study of a podcast that lowered downloads but upped audience engagement, Spotify Jam has been updated in Android Auto, and YouTube calls for UK government to embrace content creators. 

Find links to every article mentioned in today's episode in this post on SoundsProfitable.com


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Lessons from Cannes, Covering Demos w. Podcasting, & More

June 27, 2025 • 10 mins
This week in the business of podcasting: the power of Health & Wellness and Self-Improvement podcast consumers, how podcasting can cover demographic blind spots, lessons from Cannes Lions, and YouTube content coming to Spotify video. 

Links to every article mentioned can be found here on SoundsProfitable.com.
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Purpose-Driven Podcasting, Spotify Eyes YouTubers, & More

June 26, 2025 • 7 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: unlocking the power of purpose-driven podcasting, how podcasting can cover demographic blind spots, non-podcast video on Spotify, and how indie agencies are competing with holding companies for creatoe measurement and ad tech. 

Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
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Germany's Podcast Demographics, How YouTube's Algorithm Works (Kinda), & More

June 25, 2025 • 8 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: YouTube is a great place for podcasters to get visibility but not necessarily the perfect fit for every podcast, companies weigh in on the Spotify Partner Program after six months of operation, how under-represented sports are using advancements in tech to build their own streaming stack, what demographics are thriving in Germany's podcasting scene, and YouTube gives a peek behind the recommenda...
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Podcasts on Smart TVs, Attention-Getting Audio, & More

June 24, 2025 • 8 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: what podcasting gets right about attention, smart TVs rise the second-most-used device to consume podcasts, Crunchyroll has a new companion podcast produced with Sony, why there's a CPM slump growing in the CTV market, and AudioUK calls for UK government to enshrine podcasts. 

Find links to every article mentioned - and our webinar signup, here on SoundsProfitable.com
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How Podcasts Covered Hard News, Canadian Podcasters Lobby Gov't, & More

June 23, 2025 • 8 mins
This week in the business of podcasting: Influencers grab some spotlight at Cannes Lions, how news podcasts covered the breaking news of the U.S. bombing Iran over the weekend, two senators allege Spotify is using a loophole to pay lower music royalty rates, a coalition of Canadian podcasting companies band together to ask the government to consider podcasts CanCon, and Tubi is adding hundreds of episodes from YouTube creators unde...
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Taking Podcasts on the Road, Lessons from Cannes, & More

June 20, 2025 • 10 mins
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster looks at the power of live events hold for podcasting, we look at news coming out of Cannes Lions, and things are looking up for digital audio going forward in 2025.

Register for the next Sounds Profitable webinar here. 

For links to every article I mentioned, visit the episodes' page on SoundsProfitable.com
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Creators @ Cannes, Amazon's Prime Ad Load, & More

June 18, 2025 • 8 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: the under-utilized benefits of podcast live events, creators are in the conversation at Cannes, reducing risk as download popularity drops, Amazon has doubled their Prime Video ad over 18 months, and researched-back strategies for high-impact marketing as a nonprofit.

Registration for the upcoming webinar can be found here. 

All of the links mentioned in today's episode can be found here on this e...
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Ads on WhatsApp, SiriusXM on MMM, & More

June 17, 2025 • 7 mins
Today in the business of podcasting: Audion and xpln.ai's report shows blending digital audio with in-video audio increrease brand recall and message recall, Reuters and the University of Oxford have  new study about news content, SiriusXM is partnering with Innovid for better MMM, CNN is rebranding CNN Audio to CNN Podcasts, and WhatsApp is adding ads for the first time.

Catch every link mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
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YouTube's Place in Podcasting, Telling Stories with Pixels, & More

June 13, 2025 • 8 mins
This week in the business of podcasting: Tom Webster talks tracking pixels, Paul Riismandel talks YouTube's place in podcasting, Amazon adds private auctions to Prime Video, and Apple adds some new features to Apple Podcasts during WWDC. 

Find links to every article mentioned right here on SoundsProfitable.com
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Mattresses and Metrics

June 12, 2025 • 9 mins
Tracking pixels are awesome at what they do, but like any tool there's also a way to misuse them and podcasting should remain conscious of that. 
  • Written and narrated by Tom Webster
  • Edited by Bryan Barletta and Gavin Gaddis
  • Audio editing by Gavin Gaddis

Find the full article here on Sounds Profitable.
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