Sounds Profitable

This week: We learned something interesting about Netflix, Cross-promotions work but you might be doing them wrong, Anchor continues to be the top podcast host by episode share, and the FTC sues a data broker. All we know about Netflix’s ad plans so far Shreya: Once again we bring you an article that doesn’t feature the world “podcast”, but could have big implications for the industry. Last Friday Kelsey Sutton published a brief roundup of all the news about Netflix that had dropped during the week. The world learned about polarizing new ad-supported tier, charging between $7 to $9 a month. We also learned they’re targeting 15 and 30 second spots for preroll and midroll ads.  “The flurry of reports helps provide a better picture of how Netflix is strategizing the rollout of its ad-supported tier after eschewing Madison Avenue for years. There are still many unknowns, including what kind of metrics the service will provide to measure ad effectiveness. Even without all the details, media buyers are buzzing with anticipation.”  Podcasters and advertising folk alike should take note of how much Netflix is paying per thousand impressions. According to Sutton the streamer is paying $65 CPM, with expectations of that going up to $80 in future.  With those rates in mind for the biggest streaming platform, average podcast CPM is fair to underpriced in comparison.  Do Cross-Promos Work? Hell Yes, But You Are Likely Doing Them Wrong…And We Can Fix That Manuela: On Monday Eric Nuzum published an issue of The Audio Insurgent that aims to introduce podcasters to a vital lesson learned while conducting research for terrestrial radio nearly two decades ago.  Nuzum is of the opinion that on-air and in-episode content promotion is frequently misunderstood and often poorly executed. This and the next two issues of Audio Insurgent are dedicated to covering the three Rs of program promotion: Reduction, Repetition, and Real Content.  In 2004 Nuzum conducted a study for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting titled ON-air Program Promotions Insight Study, a study of cross-promotion in the radio industry so helpful he continued to get messages asking where to find the study long after the original webpage hosting it had decayed.  For this newsletter series he has done some light editing and uploaded the entirety of the 18 year-old study to Google Drive for preservation.  “Yet despite its age, it can still be very effective and useful to all audio professionals today. But the whole project boils down to one simple sentence: A well-constructed message, delivered to the right listeners often enough for them to recognize it, can increase listening.” His issue on Reduction stresses the importance of stripping fat from a promotion and ensuring it isn’t airing in a block of multiple other promotions that could distract from the message. An example given from when the promo study was first conducted is Nuzum playing a promo for A Prairie Home Companion. The promo rapid-fire announced the town, state, college auditorium in said town the performance would take place at. Following that, three musical acts and the name of the famous News from Lake Wobegon segment.  “Immediately after playing it, I would ask those in the room to name a single artist or location mentioned in that promo. On a rare occasion, someone could remember “Iowa”--but most times, no one could remember anything. And these people were (supposedly) paying attention.” Top Podcast Hosting Companies by Episode Share (August 2022) Shreya: Last Thursday Livewire Labs updated their substantial snapshot of the industry via episode share.     “One of the ways to measure the health of the current podcast ecosystem is to measure the number of new episodes published in a given period. We look at every single new podcast episode published (about 1.6 million in August 2022, up 5.4% from last month) and identify which podcast hosting company it belongs to.” One of the first things that jumps out about both the list of hosting companies by new episode share and the ranking of hosts by new episodes published in August is the gulf between first and second place. In a ranked list of 234 podcast hosting services Anchor dominates first place at 22.9% of new episodes published. Buzzsprout showed gains in solidifying a strong second place at 9%.  Livewire’s data pairs nicely with the Podnews podcast hosting change tracker, which observes RSS feed hosting changes across the system’s sample size of over 73,000 podcasts. Over the past week 211 podcasts changed from one hosting service to another, 26 which moved from various other services to Anchor. Pundits are fond of depicting Anchor as a dumping ground for single episode or dead podcasts due to their free tier, but they clearly are attracting a lot of new creators.  A sociologist on what advertisers should know when they use health data And:  FTC picks fight with data broker Manuela: Over the past week Ryan Barwick of Marketing Brew has published two closely-related articles covering the use of data collected in a healthcare environment for advertising.  First, yesterday’s article features an interview with Mary F. E. Ebeling, an associate professor of sociology at Drexel University and recently-published author of a book on the effects of collected data on individuals’ lives. Ebeling provides an anecdote of how a child she lost to miscarriage in the real world continued to live a false life through parenting-related marketing emails.  “Though it’s near impossible to audit a digital ad—how, why, or where it was served—Ebeling connects the experience to her research in the healthcare industry, where patients rarely know they’re feeding “massive databases maintained by healthcare providers and public and private insurers, or payers—often called data ‘lakes’ and ‘oceans.’” With Ebeling’s account in mind, we look back to last Friday when Barwick covered a much-publicized lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission.  “On Monday, the agency brought a lawsuit against Kochava, a data broker, for allegedly collecting and selling location data “that can be used to trace the movements of individuals to and from sensitive locations” like reproductive-health clinics and places of worship.””  The suit comes several weeks after a preemptive lawsuit from Kochava towards the FTC. Barwick details the two businesses within Kochava in its data marketplace and measurement service. Kochava argues the user is forewarned when they initially agree to share their location data with the third-party apps they purchase the data from. The FTC, clearly, disagrees.      “By the end of the week, many were wondering: Why Kochava? And though we don’t know the answer yet, the FTC’s lawsuit could put the entire location data collection industry under the microscope.” Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Shreya: Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:  The Ambies, the flagship award program of The Podcast Academy, designed to celebrate excellence in podcasting in the same way the MPA celebrates film with the Oscars, is now taking nominations. In addition, they've also announced a membership program sponsored by Spotify to enable independent creators to submit.  WQXR hires a podcasting chief by Laura Holt. Music remains one of the most untapped categories in podcasting. WQXR is a great example of a station that produces its own content and has access to a number of resources for original content, which is the key to making music podcasting work in a world where licensing music under copyright is still financially not viable in podcasting. Apple is staffing up its ad business by Ryan Barwick. This might not be breaking news for dedicated audience members of The Download, but it is crystal clear confirmation that apple is fully embracing its advertising business.  The BBC Shares podcast stats by

In this episode of Sounds Profitable: Bryan Barletta is joined by Stew Redwine in observing the anniversary of the first audio advertisement in 1922. How have things changed over a hundred years? What even was the first ad? Listen to learn about: The origin of audio advertising How audio ads have grown since.  What we can learn from the evolution of audio ads Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: “History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.” - Mark Twain.  Links: Bryan Barletta Arielle Nissenblatt Stew Redwine The Download Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles Credits: Hosted by Bryan Barletta & Arielle NissenblattSounds Profitable Theme written by Tim CameronSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a lot of received wisdom that says host read ads beat announcer ads in podcasting. But is this always true? Could it even be a false choice? Credits: Written by Tom Webster Edited by Tom Webster Produced with Spooler.fm Hosted with Omny Studio Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Podcast ad spending goes strong despite recession fears, YouTube and Twitter launched dedicated podcast spaces, advertising questions what to do if premium users choose not to see ads, and a look into why DTC ads haven’t fallen off as expected. Podcast Ad Spend isn’t Slowing as a Recession Potentially Looms. Manuela: Marketing Brew’s Alyssa Meyers brought good news last Wednesday. Things are looking up for the podcast ad spending despite, shall we say, less than ideal economic conditions.  Over on the general advertising side of things, it’s a bit bleak. On August 18th  Daniel Konstantinovic, writing for Insider Intelligence, covered the worst month of ad spending in two years.  “July saw ad spending go through its worst monthly decline since July 2020. Ad spending contracted 12.7% year over year in July, per MediaPost and Standard Media Index’s US Ad Market Tracker.”  Several potential causes of this dip are proposed, most of which are interlinked to some degree. Relaxing of pandemic restrictions and the return of larger social gatherings has increased commuting and free time away from screens. Meanwhile, even while the jury’s out on whether we’re technically in a recession, Konstantinovic points out a Brand Keys statistic showing 70% of consumers believe they’re in a recession and thus are cutting back on spending.  Perhaps spending wasn’t great in the general advertising space, but podcast ad spending continues to boom regardless.  “Some of the biggest audio companies reported growth in podcast ad revenue for Q2 despite a softening ad market, and buyers responsible for major audio budgets told us they’ve yet to see a significant retreat from podcasting, indicating that the sector could continue growing regardless of the state of the economy.”  It’s also worth keeping in mind which data we’re looking at and how we’re looking at it, as Magellan AI’s Sean Russo explains:  “We took a look through a few different lenses. When you look at year-over-year spend in July in podcasts, we’re seeing a 19% increase.  If we look at Q2 YoY we’re seeing a 48% increase. Worth noting that looking at month-over-month June to July we saw a 7% decrease. So, the bottom line on what we’re seeing is that podcast ad spend continues to grow at a healthy clip YoY, though we did see a minor pullback from June to July.” YouTube and Twitter Launch Dedicated Podcast Sections Shreya: It’s time to follow up on two developing stories we’ve covered in recent weeks, as two giant social media platforms have now rolled out sections dedicated to podcasting.  Last Thursday Twitter started the rollout of the new dedicated Spaces tab.  “Integrating podcasts into Spaces, where audio conversations happen on Twitter, is another way we’re continuing to invest in audio creators. To do this in a simple and intuitive way that allows listeners to simply hit play and go, we started with a redesigned audio experience in the Spaces Tab.”  Twitter remains an important space for podcasters to both promote and network. With the addition of podcast functionality that’s native to the app they’ve removed some of the friction between the promotion of a podcast and the potential audience member actually listening.  On that same note: last Monday YouTube launched a dedicated page for podcasts, though only for users in the United States. As covered by Sarah Perez in TechCrunch, the url for the new page was discovered ahead of formal announcement. Despite their thunder being partly stolen, YouTube’s shown a promising amount of dedication to the industry.  “Last year, YouTube hired a podcast executive, Kai Chuk, to lead its efforts in the space and has been offering cash to popular podcasters to film their shows, reports said. This March, a site called Podnews leaked an 84-page presentation that detailed YouTube’s podcast roadmap. In the document, YouTube revealed it had plans to pilot the feature by ingesting RSS feeds. It also mentioned a new URL, YouTube.com/podcasts, but the link didn’t work at the time.” A quick note from script writer Gavin: yes, that bit of the quote with the phrase “a site called Podnews” hurt me too.  In addition to what Perez covered in the quote, it’s also worth remembering YouTube has recently announced a partnership with NPR to bring their shows to the platform. It’s safe to say YouTube is one of the big companies that is taking the podcasting industry and its potential seriously.  What happens when high-income households opt out of ads? Manuela: Last Monday Kelsey Sutton, writing for Marketing Brew, approached an important question: what if the people certain brands wish to market to are also the demographic most likely to pay a premium specifically to avoid ads?  “The people that advertisers most want to target are hiding from the advertisers,” said Eric Schmitt, research director and analyst on the Gartner for Marketing Leaders. “It really is going to have some interesting knock-on effects for the ad business over time.” Podcasting is not specifically name-checked in the piece, but it is a growing phenomenon to keep in mind. Current data tells us most listeners are comfortable with ads as they currently exist in podcasting. Stick around for our Quick Hits section this week if you want a link to some extremely relevant data from a certain study Sounds Profitable published last week. Sutton’s article points to multi-tired subscriptions to streaming services as the biggest example of the popularization of a premium ad-free option. While these are worth thinking about, there’s ample room for nuance in the discussion, up to and including services like Paramount+ and Hulu, who have baked-in preroll ads before every television episode or movie regardless of subscription level.  “Schimtt hypothesized that the shift may eventually spell larger challenges for traditional ad-supported media channels, including TV, as marketers look elsewhere to reach higher-income consumers or spend more resources marketing to past customers.” Ad-free listening is a relatively new invention in podcasting, especially on a large scale. For now we wait and see which way the advertising winds blow.  How and why DTC advertising hasn’t cooled off as much as once thought Shreya: Last Tuesday Digiday’s Michael Bürgi published a brief look into the world of direct-to-consumer advertising in a world anticipating DTC upheaval. With the deprecated ability to track conversions due to changes in iOS 14.5 and the additional changes to cookies and third party data, DTC brands are turning to alternatives like branding opportunities to hit their goals. Surprisingly, after seasonal changes are taken into account, there’s quite a few DTC markets growing.  “Facebook has the highest monthly median spend in July 2022 at $19,022 ($2,000 less than a year prior), according to Varos, a research company that tracks e-commerce spend for about 1,800 companies. Google’s median spend inched up from $8,101 to $8,209 over the same period; TikTok’s grew from $4,095 to $5,981.”  The commonly-held belief that there would be pullback from DTC spending was indeed widespread, even leading to some companies not surviving. Those who did explore other avenues besides the cheapest and fastest clicks have discovered the wide world of influencer marketing, which just so happens to be where podcasting thrives.  Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Manuela: Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s Sounds Profitable releases their second study, After These Messages.  Do podcast audiences prefer improvised host-read ads, scripted host-read, or pre-recorded radio spots? After These Messages is a one-of-a-kind study polling over 1,000 podcast super listeners to answer that question. Both the study and the half-hour video of Tom Webster’s presentation at Podcast Movement 2022 are available now.  Streaming surpasses cable and broadcast for the first time by Kurt Hanson.  While not a podcasting story, per se, it does highlight a significant milestone for digital media. People are becoming more and more comfortable unplugging from traditional broadcast media and constructing their own media diets from digital sources. Podcasting could ride along with that. I made a map of Spotify podcast recommendations. Here’s what I learned by Dan Misener.  The inner workings of the aggregators are completely unknown to us. While Spotify refutes Dan’s points, his research with multiple touch-poi

In three years, Allyson Marino built and sold her own podcast company, Lipstick & Vinyl, a network built around strong female voices. Here is Allyson’s story. Credits: Written by Allyson Marino Edited by Tom Webster Produced with Spooler.fm Hosted with Omny Studio Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Sounds Profitable: Adtech Applied, Bryan speaks with Tamara Zubatiy, co-founder and CEO of Barometer. Barometer contextualizes podcasts based on the GARM brand suitability components and the Media Roundtable Values. Listen to learn about: Brand safety and suitability  Why it’s important to create block and allow lists for advertisers How context and nuance play into the brand safety and suitability conversation  The Sounds Profitable Business Leaders Summit The consolidation of our feeds Why we need your feedback on this podcast   Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: GARM marks different levels of risk when it comes to advertising but there’s never an ad partnership that brings zero risk to either party (advertiser or publisher). Links: Bryan Barletta Arielle Nissenblatt Tamara Zubatiy Barometer Sounds Profitable Summit at Podcast Movement The Download Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles SquadCast Podsights Credits: Hosted by Bryan Barletta & Arielle Nissenblatt Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Even with the best intentions, bad ad delivery can happen. But why does it happen?  Credits: Written by Bryan Barletta Edited by Tom Webster Produced with Spooler.fm Hosted with Omny Studio Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Apple’s funding podcasts, brand safety tech continues to divide advertisers, what more can and should ad agencies do to support journalism, Edison’s Latino Podcast Report, and Spotify bundles Chartable and Podsights access for Megaphone users Apple Ramps Up Its In-House Podcasting Efforts with Studio Deal Manuela: Rumors of Apple getting into podcasting bore fruit last week with official confirmation. At least, sort of. Ashley Carman and Lucas Shaw’s Bloomberg piece from last Wednesday explains:  “The investments have been led by Apple’s TV studio, rather than its podcast division. Despite being one of the biggest distributors of audio in the world, the company’s podcasting unit has avoided funding individual shows or buying networks because it wants to be seen as a neutral platform.”  That TV division has entered into a deal with Futuro Studios to fund the creation of podcasts while Apple retains first-look rights on film and TV adaptations. In essence, the deal creates a pilot-factory for Apple to generate new IP and test them in the world of podcasting before graduating to the more expensive filmed version.  “Apple hasn’t pumped nearly as much money into original podcasts as Amazon and Spotify Technology SA, which have each spent more than $1 billion acquiring companies and programming. Spotify, Apple’s rival in music streaming, has made some of the most popular podcasts in the world exclusive to its service and thus unavailable to the competition.” Podcasting is becoming a relatively affordable testing ground for IP instead of fully committing to a TV pilot, along with the added bonus of any successful IP getting a built-in audience of fans before the first day of shooting. Successful shows like Netflix’s Dirty John adaptation are proving the method can work and work well.  ‘A key impediment’: Brand safety tech continues to divide advertisers into haves and have-nots Shreya: This Monday Seb Joseph of Digiday posted an article detailing the growing divide in how advertisers handle being posted to news sites when big, predominantly negative stories break. Nobody wants to be the next viral sensation getting roasted worse than Mr. Peanut when Planters’ ad campaign temporarily killing their mascot coincided with the death of Kobe Bryant.  In a world full of dangerous news cycles, brand safety tech companies like Integral Ad Science are able to impart more granular control over what content is considered brand-safe in a timely manner.  “Then there are those marketers who don’t use the technology. Take British newspaper group Reach plc, for example, which has said the war in Ukraine significantly dampened advertiser demand. This won’t surprise anyone. The truth is the downside is too steep and the upside too obscure for many marketers to do anything but avoid the polarizing news. That said, not every marketer sees it this way. And if they could afford to, they would advertise on news sites — just in a more nuanced manner.” An unintended side effect of advertisers deciding what topics are acceptable to block ads on is that some of the biggest news stories are also cutting off some of the potentially best-written journalism of the moment. Joseph quotes Zefr EVP of Strategy and Marketing: “We actually don’t accept or use keyword blocklists as a policy in our company, because they end up causing the same damage to over-blocking quality voices over and over again and they just don’t work well in UGC environments. We instead apply the GARM [Global Alliance of Responsible Media] models for debated sensitive social issues as a way to keep brands in front of suitable content while avoiding the issues that they’re concerned about.”  Ad Agencies Can, and Should, Do More to Support Journalism Shreya: Between hedge fund buyouts dissolving seemingly bulletproof institutions and ad dollars drying up when negative stories drop, things are looking rough for journalists. Ricardo Baca writes an impassioned plea for ad agencies, stressing the importance of not only collaborating with journalists but also supporting them with ad buys and subscriptions. He writes from the perspective of having worked on the other side of the fence as a journalist himself years prior.  “To be clear, agencies are partly to blame here. We’re stuck on the same vicious treadmill as everyone else: We see the web traffic going to social media, so that’s where we buy our ads, further siphoning away support from journalism, the snake eating itself. And with news outlets struggling mightily on the revenue front no matter their size—from local alt-weeklies to major metropolitan dailies—I am making a plea for agencies to step up.” Baca suggests treating relationships with journalists not as transactional, but symbiotic instead. Value their time and they will value yours. Don’t hold grudges when well-researched reporting generates something the client isn’t happy with. Then there’s the fact that journalism has evolved beyond gumshoe reporters all working for a monolithic outlet. With more forms of professional journalism becoming the norm, so to must go the advertising support.  “Keep in mind that revenue models have shifted. Consider an agency sponsorship for a Substack newsletter, for example. Sponsoring other popular media formats like podcasts, recognizing both a shift in consumers’ habits as well as the continuity involved—someone’s got to be paid to create the stuff—is another way to directly support the trade.” Gabe’s Section Manuela: The third annual Latino Podcast Listener Report was published on Tuesday, following a webinar discussing the results presented by Gabriel Soto, my co-host on La Descarga and Senior Director at Edison Research, and Elsie Escobar, Director of Community and Content at Libsyn and co-founder of She Podcasts. Supported by Adonde Media, LWC Studios, Libsyn, PRX, and SXM Media this year’s report revealed many interesting trends as well as new findings. The study finds that 59% of Latino adults have ever listened to a podcast, up from 56% since last year and up from 45% since 2020.  The lack of Spanish podcast promotion was a recurring theme of the report, and an opportunity exists to bridge such content with foreign born Latinos. The report highlighted the listening gap between Latinos born outside of the U.S. and their U.S. born counterparts. 37% of Latinos born in the U.S. listened to a podcast in the last month, while 29% born outside of the U.S. say the same.  A new statistic released this year revealed seventeen percent of Latino Monthly podcast listeners identify as LGBTQ+. For comparison, the report cited the Gallup poll’s 2021 estimate of 11% of Latino adult population who identify as LGBTQ+  The benefit of advertising on Latino podcasts was also discussed. According to the report, 64% of monthly listeners of Latino-hosted podcasts, say they ever purchased a product or service as a result of hearing a sponsorship or advertising on a podcast, compared with 25% of those who have never listened to a podcast hosted by Latinos saying the same. .  As Gabriel Soto put it, “Latinos in the U.S. control an impressive $1.9 trillion in purchasing power, and today’s data demonstrate how advertisers who support Latino podcast content are benefitting, while those who don’t are missing out,”.  The Latino Podcast Listener Report serves as an invaluable resource to many creators in the podcast space. We’re happy to see the effort continue. You can download the Latino Podcast Listener Report for free at the link in the show notes. Spotify Launches New Bundle For Megaphone Users, Adding Access To Chartable And Podsights Shreya: In an email sent yesterday, Spotify has announced they are bundling enterprise access to recently-purchased services Chartable and Podsights into Megaphone.  “With this updated offering, you will be able to easily apply attribution measurement to showcase the value of your podcast promotional efforts as well as your direct sales campaigns. All Megaphone clients will now be able to obtain unique insights about their podcast audience while also measuring the audience growth impact of their promotional campaigns through tools like Chartable SmartPromos and SmartLinks.”  Attribution and growth marketing are the major focus in the world of podcast adtech. One of the largest enterprise-focused hosting platforms acquiring two of the top attribution and analytics solutions and offering them for free to existing users is a big deal budget-wise. Though it is worth noting there are strings attached: they’re free for the first four million impressions.  Since the big Spotify purchase of Podsights and Chartable there's been a massive hole for third party attribution. Companies like Claritas, Veritonic, and Artsai who’ve started to take on that challenge have had an uphill battle. Both Podsights and Chartable are great pieces of tech, but first-party is not neutral. Offers like this will make it even harder to extract them from their hold on the space and jeopardizes third party measurements value in podcasting.  A good deal, but one to keep in mind when considering the future of podcasting as an industry.  Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Manuela: Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Q

Survey after survey tell us that people continue to discover podcasting every year. But is podcasting growth really a case of three steps forward, two steps back? Credits: Written & Editing by Tom Webster Produced with Spooler.fm Hosted with Omny Studio Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Download:  Quarterly earnings, more quarterly earnings, Audio is getting its own track at Advertising Week, and Spotify is giving podcasts their own space in its app.  Arielle: Hope you’re ready for some earnings reports, because we’ve got two segments worth of second quarter earnings to go over. First up: the big platforms. Last Wednesday https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2022/08/03/spotify-siriusxm-and-acast-report-growing-podcast-ad-biz-in-q2?mid=4afb33bb7ffe284d840660fb3604ff60Things kick off with a silver lining:  “Call it what you want, the ad biz is not looking its best right now. But according to these execs, the growing podcast segment is keeping its head above water.”  Economic uncertainty is undeniably impacting the ad industry. The CEOs of Spotify and SiriusXM both cite ‘macro’ trends as being notably dire but not to podcast ads sales. SiriusXM’s Q2 ad revenue for Pandora and associated platforms reports a 5% year over year increase, reaching 403 million. Spotify posted a 31% year over year gain, earning around 366 million. This time around they neglected to isolate their podcast ad revenue as its own statistic.  Meyers quotes Spotify CFO Paul Vogel as saying they’re experiencing “strong growth on the podcasting side.” Hosting service Acast has been busy this second quarter, citing new features, a massive increase of podcasts on the platform, and their acquisition of Podchaser as driving factors of their 39% net sales growth. A figure that calculates out to 31 million USD.  While the macro trends are concerning, The Download will never pass up an opportunity to report numbers going up in podcasting. Big or small, names in the industry are increasing ad revenue, and that’s a good thing.  Shreya: Now to cover the Q2 numbers from three large broadcasters: iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, and Audacy. There’s a few dark spots throughout but, interestingly, their podcast numbers are shining beacons of hope in all three reports.  Overall https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220804005680/en/iHeartMedia-Inc.-Reports-Results-for-2022-Second-Quarter, despite, in the words of company president Rich Bressler: “the uncertain economic environment.” Podcast revenue is up to 86 million, a 60% year over year increase.  Meanwhile, https://www.cumulusmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/CMLS-2022.06.30-Earnings-Release-FINAL.pdfjoined the macro club during president Mary Berner’s opening statement:  “Despite the challenging macro environment, we increased revenue in the quarter by more than 5%, driven by our digital businesses whose growth accelerated in Q2 to 20% year-over-year.” Podcasting made Cumulus around 15 million this last quarter, up 27% year over year. All told, podcasting accounts for 6% of the company’s revenue. Not too shabby.  Finally,https://seekingalpha.com/pr/18894187-audacy-reports-second-quarter-results:  “After a very strong first quarter in which we grew revenues by 14% and significantly increased margin, our second quarter results were adversely impacted by declining macroeconomic conditions and ad market headwinds which reduced our top line growth to 5%.”  The company made a nice $69m from “digital,” which includes podcasting, and is up 18% year over year. Podcast downloads grew 40% year-over-year. Revenue from podcasts is supposedly in the upper teens of percentage growth, but Audacy didn’t give specifics. Even with the ad market headwinds it seems podcasting is doing well for them.  Arielle: Wednesday of last week was a busy day for Alyssa Meyers, as we cover her second article of the day: “https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2022/08/03/audio-gets-its-own-track-at-this-year-s-advertising-week?mid=4afb33bb7ffe284d840660fb3604ff60”  Advertising Week’s head of podcasting Richard Larsson told Marketing Brew,  “The rise of audio throughout the pandemic, coupled with Advertising Week’s efforts to build its own podcast network, culminated in the decision to give audio a more official spot on the agenda this October.” Audio representation continues with one of - if not the - longest-running podcast awards ceremony. Yesterday the People’s Choice Podcast Awards announced the nominees for their 17th annual session. The substantive list of nominees can be found https://www.podcastawards.com/ Continuing the award theme with one more bit of news: on Monday the newest issue of Adweek dropped with the winners to the 2022 Adweek Podcast of the Year Awards. The full list of winners can be found in the official Adweek posthttps://www.adweek.com/media/see-all-the-2022-adweek-podcast-of-the-year-awards-winners/amp/?utm_source=podnews.net&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=podnews.net:2022-08-09. Shreya: Podcasts and music are taking a break from each other soon on Spotify, according to David Pierce’s https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/9/23298679/spotify-app-redesign-podcasts-music “Spotify has been working on a new design for its home tab that will create separate feeds for your music and your podcasts. The company says it’s part of an effort to give you more and better recommendations, but it also addresses a common criticism of the Spotify experience: with every kind of audio smushed together in the app, it can sometimes be hard to figure out.”  The new layout creates a bar at the top of the app delineating whether the user is in the Music area or one called Podcasts & Shows. Music will continue to feature new suggestions for songs and albums along with recently-listened tracks while Podcasts & Shows gets rid of music and purely focuses on new episodes of subscribed podcasts and recommendations for shows Spotify believes the user will enjoy.  Pierce offers the comparison:  “They’re not so much new home screens as new filters for your home screen. (I’d rather just have them be separate tabs altogether, but I’ll take what I can get.)” An app redesign with a dedicated area for podcasting provides more opportunities for promotion. Podcast promotion and growth of audience is one of the hottest topics in podcasting.   Spotify providing more of those opportunities for ads in a way that doesn’t step on music-based ads is a big deal. Promotion opportunities are a big enough deal that Dan Misener and Jonas Woost of Pacific Content have left to form https://wearebumper.com/, an agency dedicated solely to promotion.  Arielle: Finally, it’s time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we’re calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week’s three great reads are:  https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/fundamentals-of-programmatic-advertising?ecid=NL1001. A quick read with a helpful infographic that makes a great introduction for those not familiar with programmatic, as well as those in need of a refresher.  https://www.adexchanger.com/online-advertising/doubleverify-grows-q2-revenue-by-expanding-brand-safety-to-retail-media-tiktok-and-gaming/?oly_enc_id=7865D1013734B0R Notable in its absence is any entrance into podcasting. Meanwhile IAS, a direct competitor of DoubleVerify, https://integralads.com/news/spotify-and-ias-join-forces-to-establish-a-brand-safety-solution-for-podcast-advertisers/. DoubleVerify not expanding into audio over these other verticals suggests that the IAS and Spotify relationship is more driven by Spotify looking to tend their walled garden. Perhaps the move was more motivated by Spotify themselves rather than actual advertiser demand to have a brand safety partner. Finally, some self-promotion: Sounds Profitable’s latest research project will debut Tuesday, August 23rd during the Sounds Profitable Business Summit. The Summit, as covered in a previous episode of The Download, will take place in Dallas, Texas during the opening day of Podcast Movement. The “After These Messages” study will present a definitive take on the impact of live host-read ads, scripted ads, and announcer-read spots. This study was designed by podcast and research industry veteran Tom Webster, in partnership with Edison Research, and will be seen as an important new resource for publishers and brands. Don’t miss it.  Arielle: And that was The Download, fromhttp://soundsprofitable.com/! I know we went through these fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned, right in your podcast listening app, or on SoundsProfitable.com/TheDownload. And thank you for sticking with us as we bring you the top stories you might have missed from the past week. I'm