This is The Download from Sounds Profitable, the most important news from this week and why it matters to people in the business of podcasting. I'm Newton Shattelcotti. And I'm Gavin Gaddis. The Download is brought to you by Podscribe. Find out more at Podscribe.com. New Report examines videos' rise in podcasting, how brands are redefining creativity in podcast ads, and podcasting has gone global, so research should too. Let's get started.
This Thursday Sounds Profitable's Brian Barletta reflected on last week's announcement that Spotify for Podcasters has been rebranded to Spotify for Creators. along with the launch of a new monetization scheme on the platform that removes dynamically inserted ads from video podcasts viewed from a Spotify premium account. A quote from Barletta, quote,
This program really solidifies what Spotify's attempt at video will be and sees them doubling down further on premium subscriptions, their main source of revenue. While it's easy to view this as Spotify deprioritizing podcasting. from changing the platform to Spotify for creators and challenging RSS delivery on video and audio, this announcement wasn't for most of us. It was a flag in the sand telling video creators that Spotify is now open to them.
with no obligation to create an audio-only version, end quote. With this move, Spotify further builds out the app as a place that consumes more of the user's time, especially when the term podcasting takes on such a broad meaning. As of Barletta writing the article, the 19th most popular video podcast on the entire platform was a feed simply called Markiplier in which the Distractable Network hosted a spinoff podcast that's largely gameplay footage of Markiplier playing.
the game Power Wash Simulator with friends. When YouTube announced podcasting would get a carved out home within the YouTube ecosystem, it was an invitation for the podcast industry to have a place there. The same is true for Spotify. Video content labeled as a podcast can take advantage of podcasting's hype, for better or worse. While the announcement isn't destined to flip podcast advertising upside down, it does highlight the industry lacks solid solutions for publishers.
who will go down a multi-platform path and be distributing into walled gardens like Spotify. For more commentary in the same vein, Pave Studios founder Max Cutler has a new article titled Adapt or Get Left Behind. The future of podcasting is multi-platform. As of last Tuesday, Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers in the US, UK and Canada now have access to the Audible audiobook library and can listen to one book per month at no additional cost.
After the next billing cycle, selected audiobooks are still available to stream. Users that want to go beyond the single title a month either have the option to also start an Audible membership or purchase titles a la carte within the Audible app. Last Thursday, Tom Webster and Crooked Media VP of Sales Giancarlo Bizarro debuted a new study built from data collected in the Comprehensive Podcast Landscape 2024 survey of 5,071 Americans.
The new report, Videos Rise in Podcasting, Shaping the Future of Engagement and Consumption Trends, focuses on audio primes and video primes, subsects of the overall respondent population that spent 75% of their podcast listening time, at least. with the chosen medium. Quote from the summary findings, quote, what separates video primes from audio primes is the amount of podcast content they consume.
While 19% of audio primes fall into the heaviest usage category, 9 plus hours of podcast content per week, 33% of video primes are heavy users. End quote. When asked how they discovered their favorite podcast, Video Primes have YouTube in the lead as the top answer with 66% of respondents, while internet searches are in second place at 24% and Instagram at 20%.
For audio primes, the top three is a little different. YouTube is still firmly in the front position with 48%, followed by Facebook and Spotify tied for second place at 14%. While audio primes clearly prefer to largely consume their content as audio, they're still shopping with their eyes, as the YouTube stat shows. That and YouTube's ease of discovery.
When asked how easy or difficult it was to find the last podcast, respondents discovered 31% of Audio Prime said very easy. 41% of Video Prime said very easy. A key finding of the report is the idea that there isn't an audio versus video dichotomy with consumers. Video Prime still consumed podcasts as audio. And they're having an easier time of finding new ones, which can be attributed to the discovery process in the platforms and apps that they're using.
This Wednesday from Matt Casey at Adage. Podcast advertising has evolved quite a bit over the industry's two decades of development. Casey's article takes a look at the general state of modern podcast advertising. before drilling down to examples of campaigns and strategies implemented by companies like Odyssey and Tenderfoot TV. A quote from the article, quote, The journey for podcast advertisers has been an exciting one.
from the early days of the first host reads to today when innovative brands are pushing creative boundaries and captivating with fresh engaging experiences for listeners marketers are delivering creative activations across channels revolutionizing podcast advertising and forging authentic connections with hosts and creators, end quote. Tactics include next generation host red ads like Tenderfoot TV's Up and Vanished Liquid IV ads.
that used audio fiction-level sound design and building a narrative around the host using Liquid IV while researching the season's stories in Alaska to elevate a simple host read into what feels like content from the show. For visual pop, the article highlights Audacy's enhanced video units that add animations, graphics, and URLs slash QR codes to standard video podcast host-read segments. Last Wednesday from Signal Hill Insight, CEO Paul Riesmendel encouraged podcast data studies to get global.
With podcasting's worldwide growth as a medium, it's time to acknowledge that while the United States is one of the largest podcast markets, the industry should not consider it the default when doing research and podcasting overall. Local cultural and socioeconomic factors influence how and why people consume podcasts and engage with advertisers, which means extrapolating findings from one part of the world to another market doesn't work well.
For example, YouTube is lauded for being the top platform for consuming podcasts in the United States, with 34% of listeners saying they use it the most, compared to Spotify at 27%. However, Australian data from Triton Digital's Podcast Metrics Demos Plus survey shows Spotify is firmly in the lead at 40% according to monthly podcast consumers aged 18+. YouTube is only at 24%.
A quote from Riesmendel regarding the data. Quote, it's not a trivial difference and something to take into account if you're building a podcast audience strategy down under. You can't assume that the trends we see in the States are playing out the same way elsewhere. End quote. As podcasting continues its growth, a global outlook when conducting research is vital.
Finally, it's time for our 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, Magellan AI has published their top podcast advertisers and movers and shakers for October, 2024. The FTC thinks data clean rooms may have a few dusty corners by Allison Schiff. This is an explanation of the FTC's recent blog post warning against seeing data clean rooms as a get out of jail free card.
Apple Podcast Top Shows for 2024 by James Cridland. Pod News reports on the top shows on Apple Podcasts this year, as well as collecting 33 countries' different charts together. And BBC Studios taps Triton Digital to scale global audio growth outside the UK. The two companies are partnering to grow the BBC's global reach, utilizing Triton Digital's audio marketplace. And that was the download brought to you by Sounds Profitable.
I know we went through today's stories fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app or on the download section of soundsprofitable.com. And thank you for sticking with us as we bring you the top stories you might have missed from the past week. I'm Newton Schaller.
Cotty. And I'm Gavin Gaddis. Our producers are myself, Newton Shaddle Cotty, Brian Barletta, and Tom Webster. Special thanks to Spreaker for hosting the download, and thanks to you for joining us. Robot? Download complete.