This week on The Download: Spotify erroneously serves liquor, platforms continue to snap up content houses, and RSS.com shares how they beat podcast spam. Last week Spotify experienced the mother of all brand safety mistakes, and for now it has cost them the ad dollars of a major liquor distributor. https://tannerhelps.substack.com/p/spotify-done-effd-up-big-time?s=w , sometime on Saturday Spotify began serving a banner ad for bourbon distillery Wild Turkey to the profile of every podcast. This ...
May 27, 2022•11 min•Ep. 23
Today on the show, Arielle Nissenblatt chats with soon to be Sounds Profitable partner, Tom Webster. They discuss Tom’s entry into the audio world, what drives him to tell stories with data, how to be into statistics without being a “math” person, and our near and longterm plans for the company. Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: Arielle asked Tom to go through the pillars that the team has outlined as important principles for the company and we break them down. This is a mission s...
May 22, 2022•23 min•Ep. 28
This week on The Download: Premium Podcasting on Apple just got easier, Media Monitors slips up on methodology, and Podfest Africa’s annual study is here. Publishing content to a premium subscription feed on Apple Podcasts is about to become far less painful. This Tuesday Techcrunch’s Sarah Perez https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/16/apple-podcasts-gains-storage-clean-up-tools-support-for-annual-subscriptions-and-a-new-distribution-system/ in a rundown of Apple’s new announcements. Quoting the artic...
May 20, 2022•10 min•Ep. 22
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Fatima Zaidi, founder and CEO of Quill inc., a full-service podcast agency that makes it easy for brands and publishers to create, launch and grow successful podcasts. Quill is launching a hosting service, Co-Host. After years of trying to work with existing hosting solutions, Quill found that their clients desired different and more complex KPIs, so, they decided to build a solution that could track them. Listen for: How and why Quill decided to bui...
May 15, 2022•29 min•Ep. 27
This week on The Download: US podcasting revenue is up, Google launches new way to collect data, and a new partnership aims to bring ethics to advertising. One of many podcasting social media staples is sharing platitudes about how the industry is always growing, always doing better. This Monday offered a wonderful moment where one gets empirical data to back them up. The United States podcast ad revenue market hit a billion dollars for the first time in 2021 and shows no sign of slowing down. A...
May 13, 2022•9 min•Ep. 21
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Shantae Howell, Creative Director for the Americas at Acast. They discuss branded podcast content: how and when to make it, what to consider, and what to expect Listen for: The difference between branded podcasts, advertising on podcasts, and sponsoring podcasts. How Acast works with brands to make impactful branded podcasts. When your brand should consider getting into the audio game. Here’s our favorite idea from this conversation: a branded podcas...
May 11, 2022•15 min•Ep. 26
I Hear Things is joining Sounds Profitable. That's the tweet.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
May 10, 2022•8 min•Ep. 34
This week on The Download: potential new IAB standards are revealed, advertisers reflect on a year of iOS-enforced privacy, and Facebook is losing the confidence of its customers. Last Thursday Ryan Barwick, writing for MarketingBrew, published a look at some promising new standards https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2022/04/28/publishers-are-labeling-their-audiences-to-make-it-easier-for-advertisers-to-target-them With the evolution of online privacy advertising must change with it, and the ...
May 06, 2022•10 min•Ep. 20
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Ma’ayan Plaut, who is the growth marketing manager at 3play media. They discuss what it means to create accessible and compliant podcast transcripts. Ma’ayan recently tweeted about the need for transcripts to include non-speech elements. Her tweet was instructive and contained practical information for podcast publishers. We expand upon her thread in this conversation, and go beyond it as well. We are moving towards a world in which we don’t simply c...
May 01, 2022•31 min•Ep. 25
ICYMI: Warner Music launches a podcast network, Spotify weathers the storm, and personnel changes at Edison Research. Warner Music Group is dipping its toes into podcasting with its first network: Interval Presents . The new network’s slate promises a variety of content lead by popular musicians and celebrities who work with WMG. “The initiative marks the first major music label to follow in Sony Music’s lead; Sony entered the podcast arena five years ago in May, 2017.” WMG Senior VP of Digital ...
Apr 29, 2022•12 min•Ep. 19
Ashley Carman's article on Spotify's earnings call: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-27/spotify-dodges-joe-rogan-controversy-forecasts-miss-estimates?sref=W6GJF3MS Support I Hear Things! http://buymeacoffee.com/tomwebster See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 29, 2022•12 min•Ep. 33
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Conor McKenna, director at LUMA Partners. They discuss how adtech in podcasting applies to adtech in other adtech-led companies. Listen in to learn about: How we're still in the early days of building technology specifically made for podcasts How we need to build software that makes the process of buying and selling ads more seamless How we need better attribution technology because downloads aren't enough Why Conor recommends that publishers build o...
Apr 24, 2022•37 min•Ep. 24
Today on The Download; data scraping is officially legal, recent Spotify purchases prove concerning for some, and what fiction podcasters can learn from their non-fiction cousins. Collecting data just got legally less questionable in the United States. On a Tuesday news roundup for ExchangeWire, Hanna Dillion covered a huge decision by the US court of appeals . The suit, brought by LinkedIn to prevent a rival company from scraping their publicly-available data, has ended with the Ninth Circuit o...
Apr 22, 2022•9 min•Ep. 18
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Steve Wilson, chief strategy officer at QCODE Media. They discuss what it takes to get podcasts featured in major podcast listening apps, building relationships with podcast discovery platforms, and becoming a co-marketing partner.Listen in to learn about: Steve's background and how he got into the podcast world. How to put your best foot forward when it comes to partnering with podcast listening apps. Why it's worth it to spend time cultivating rela...
Apr 17, 2022•21 min•Ep. 23
This Week On The Download: the IAB cites digital audio as the fastest-growing digital ad sector, Anchor language update embraces global podcasting, and Adweek launched their own podcast network. Let’s get started. Good news for those in the world of digital advertising: your efforts are working extremely well, according to the International Advertising Board. On Tuesday the IAB published an article titled https://www.iab.com/news/digital-advertising-soared-35-to-189-billion-in-2021-according-to-...
Apr 15, 2022•11 min•Ep. 17
Suscribe to the I Hear Things newsletter at http://tomwebster.media Michael Stelzner's Crypto Business podcast: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/crypto-business-podcast/ Brian Fanzo's NFT 365 podcast: https://www.isocialfanz.com/nft365 Support the show at http://buymeacoffee.com/tomwebster See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 15, 2022•16 min•Ep. 32
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta and Arielle Nissenblatt discuss Podcast Movement: Evolutions, which took place last month in Los Angeles. Overall, they had a blast, met with a ton of industry folks, had some nice meals, and attended some innovative sessions. Bryan and Arielle take time to highlight Evo Terra's Podcast Hall of Fame acceptance speech.Listen in to learn about: The overall feel of the event The YouTube announcement Bryan's on-stage time Arielle's social media talk Evo Terra's acce...
Apr 10, 2022•37 min•Ep. 22
**This week on The Download; digital ads evolve as online privacy increases, Substack poaches podcasts from Patreon, and iHeartMedia is buying NFTs to make podcasts about them.**A fair amount of coverage has been written about the so-called death of targeted advertising. Privacy changes implemented by Google and Apple have made some waves, but said waves are having interesting effects on the industry. On Wednesday Brian Chen and Daisuke Wakabayashi published a New York Times piece called * You’r...
Apr 08, 2022•11 min•Ep. 16
We’re offering up a special treat for you today. You see, a lot of the Sounds Profitable crew was all at Podcast Movement Evolutions last week... and what a week it was! Think non-stop discussions about podcasting, ad tech, equipment, statistics... and more. This week, as we wind down from all the hype, networking, eating, and drinking that occurred in LA, Bryan's having some fun in Disneyland with his family, and Arielle's enjoying some time with family on the west coast. This episode is actual...
Apr 03, 2022•10 min•Ep. 21
Today on The Download from Sounds Profitable; podcast CPMs blow digital out of the water, a leaked document reveals YouTube plans for podcasters, and iHeartMedia breaks into kids podcasting. In a development some industry veterans might not have seen coming when they got started in the industry: The Wall Street Journal has an article about podcast advertising . And what’s better: podcast CPMs are doing well. Last Friday WSJ’s Megan Graham published “Streaming Audio Climbs the Charts With Markete...
Apr 01, 2022•8 min•Ep. 15
The full Infinite Dial 2022 Presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf3CtkkUqgAMy Medium article, with a recap of the current state of podcasting for 2022: https://webby2001.medium.com/the-state-of-podcasting-in-2022-back-to-work-2b21583c33bcSpotify's new podcasting interface (from Podnews): https://podnews.net/update/spotify-new-ux Adori Labs: https://www.adorilabs.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 01, 2022•14 min•Ep. 31
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta speaks with Tyler Blot, Director of Client Development at TransUnion about data -- 1st and 3rd party data, with a bit of 2nd party data thrown in there. They discuss the differentiating factors between the three of them and what you should know as an advertiser and consumer.Listen in to learn about: Transparency in data collection How and why your data is collected Why this conversation is important to have right now And much more! Here's our favorite idea from ...
Mar 27, 2022•25 min•Ep. 20
Today on The Download; A new article shines light on unsavory developments at Stitcher after their buyout, Chartable is shuttering SmartAds, and this year’s edition of The Infinite Dial was unveiled at Podcast Movement: Evolutions. Last Friday, Tom Webster published an installment of I Hear Things titled Podcasting’s Most Controversial Statistic . The statistic in question relates to an experiment run by Edison Research’s Podcast Consumer Tracker. The parameters of the experiment were simple: di...
Mar 25, 2022•10 min•Ep. 14
Today on the show, Bryan Barletta sits down with Brendan Kelly (director of ad quality measure) and Stacey Hultgren (senior manager of ad quality measurement) of SXM Media to break down the concepts of brand safety and suitability. How do advertisers determine what shows are brand safe and brand suitable for them? They also discuss a proposal that Brendan and Stacey recently brought to an IAB working group, focusing on how transcripts can be used to ameliorate the process of determining brand sa...
Mar 20, 2022•29 min•Ep. 19
Today on The Download from Sound Profitable; Beer gets into video podcast advertising, kids podcast business is booming, and an appeal to private marketplace deals over FAANG, and more. Production company Crooked Media has kicked off a campaign incorporating a purely visual sponsorship into Offline with Jon Favreau, and it’s from a sector not frequently seen in podcasting. Morning Brew’s Alyssa Meyers covered the story last Friday , shining light on a YouTube-focused partnership between Crooked ...
Mar 18, 2022•11 min•Ep. 13
Sorry about all the police sirens. I wasn't arrested. No, I had to record this on St. Patrick's Day. In Downtown Boston. It's like Christmas, but for alcotourists.Register for the 2022 Infinite Dial presentation here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-infinite-dial-2022-tickets-290830069567?aff=edisonnewsletter&__s=xxxxxxx Support for I Hear Things can be provided at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Mar 18, 2022•13 min•Ep. 30
Manuela Bedoya, Shreya Sharma, and Gavin Gaddis are on the show today, chatting with Bryan Barletta about our newest podcast, The Download. If this is your first time hearing about it, The Download is our weekly podcast about the business of podcasting. It started in December, and was initially hosted by Evo Terra and Bryan Barletta. We quickly decided to bring in Sharma, Bedoya, and Gaddis to the production and hosting team. In this chat, learn more about the team behind The Download and why we...
Mar 13, 2022•20 min•Ep. 18
Today on The Download from Sounds Profitable; ad tech firms are under fire for data scraping, Amazon joins the social audio market, YouTube is paying podcasters to incorporate video, and more. Morning Brew’s Ryan Barwick reports that trade groups acting on behalf of publishers from the US, UK, and Canada are accusing ad-tech firms of unfairly scraping metadata from websites Once collected, this allegedly ill-gotten data is used to create contextual advertising segments for clients without the pu...
Mar 11, 2022•10 min•Ep. 12
Register for the 2022 Infinite Dial presentation here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-infinite-dial-2022-tickets-290830069567?aff=edisonnewsletter&__s=xxxxxxx The top podcast networks, by reach: https://www.edisonresearch.com/u-s-top-podcast-networks-by-reach-q4-2021/ The difficulty of "hits" in podcasting: https://tomwebster.media/the-oversimplified-superstring-hit-incubation-theory-of-podcasting/ Support the show! Buy Walnut a treat! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Tomwebster See omnystudio...
Mar 11, 2022•11 min•Ep. 29
Caila Litman , author of Sounds Profitable's #GoodData series and longtime podcast industry professional, is on the show today. It's a special episode—sans regular host Bryan Barletta. Caila and Arielle Nissenblatt , who you usually hear at the top and bottom of each episode, discuss all things Good Data. If you've been wondering how our Good Data series came to be and what our goals are for it, this episode is for you. Listen in to learn about: How Caila finds, dissects, and evaluates data Cail...
Mar 06, 2022•23 min•Ep. 17
