Measurement Holds Back $1b, Amazon Corporate Downsizing, & More

This is the download recap from Sounds Profitable, the most important news from this week and why it matters to people in the business of podcasting. I'm Gavin Gaddis. The download recap is brought to you by Podscribe. Find out more at Podscribe.com. This week's top stories. Brands are paying more for ads that do less.

Spotify finally brings video podcasts and music videos to Apple TV. Here's what Amazon told Audible staff as layoffs hit the audiobook division. Could the next podcaster be dot dot dot your CFO? And China now requires degrees for influencers discussing professional topics. Let's get started. Shutterstock's 2025 creative impact report finds marketing spend jumped 33% from 2023 to 2024, but the effect on purchase intent only increased 17%.

which leaves a 12% impact gap that seems to be growing over time, as the report finds a further 8% of gap grew through the first eight months of 2025. Shutterstock Director of Creative Strategy and Insights Cal Roberts says brands aren't keeping pace with behavioral changes to customer bases. And, in losing sight of who their core audience is, They're spending more to cast wider nets that return fewer hits. Relevance and authenticity are the name of the game.

Oxford Road's recent Orbit Top 15 Podcast Measured by Ad Performance report shows that's especially true in podcasting, as some of the more widely agreed upon biggest podcasts don't crack the top 15 shows that actually convert sales. Shows with hyper-mobilized and engaged audiences are the ones actually getting brands the most bang for their buck. Where one would expect Rogan to be sitting atop the pile, Oxford Road instead found that...

There was the roleplay livestream broadcast-to-podcast show Critical Role. And as for the new Oxford report, What Brands Want 2025? How Audio Publishers and Platforms Can Win Over Advertisers. Half of the brand surveyed, which includes six of the ten highest spending brands in podcasting, they're saying that they would spend more on podcast advertising if there weren't limitations in performance data.

76% of respondents said they would increase their podcast spend if attribution of YouTube podcasts matched that available for audio. According to Oxford Road's math, this works out to nearly $1 billion in ad spend that would be going to podcasts if measurement was solved for.

In the announcement for a new version of Spotify for Apple TV, the streamer says the experience has been rebuilt from the ground up to be faster and more visual. As both The Verge and TechRadar reporting on this reflects, The Apple TV version of Spotify has lagged behind Fire TV and Google TV in functionality, but the new version addresses both of those issues.

Music video streaming remains unavailable in the United States and Canada, but in 90 other markets, they now have the ability to switch from lyrics to music videos on the fly while listening to a song. In addition, video podcasts are now watchable in Apple TV, all of which serves as a big step forward in the living roomification of Spotify's pivot to video.

Amazon is planning to cut 14,000 corporate jobs across the board. According to SVP of People, Experience, and Technology Beth Galetti, many of those affected will be offered 90 days to look for a new role elsewhere within Amazon. Audible CEO Bob Kerrigan, in an email shared with Business Insider, said that impacted employees have been notified and these layoffs will add focus and speed to audiobook and podcast growth areas.

Here's a quote from Kerrigan's email. Quote, all of these areas require collaboration across content, marketing, product, and tech. So we are streamlining the structure dedicated to each. This will involve shifting a number of roles across the groups in order to bring team members closer to key owners and increase the speed of decision making.

As is customary, whenever moments like this occur in the podcasting industry, I do want to remind readers, listeners, and everyone else, the Sounds Profitable Job Board at soundsprofitable.com slash press. is entirely free both for people to post the jobs they want to fill and for people looking to apply to the open positions in podcasting. There's a lot of skilled people out there in the business of podcasting.

And there are a lot of companies looking to grow their teams, and we want to do what we can to help bring those together.

Morning Brew has announced a new podcast from their business-to-business arm, HR Brew. The new show, People Person, is hosted by Kate Knoll, Senior Vice President of People Operations at Morning Brew. This follows a trend both within Morning Brew, for example, per my last email, features Chief of Staff and Director of Consumer Revenue.

And the wider B2B podcast sphere, executives sitting down in front of mics instead of influencers or journalists. Here's a quote from Morning Brew president Devin Emery, quote, We have revenue brew, so if we decide to do content for that... end quote. A move that makes sense. If the goal is to connect your business with another business, Why introduce a middleman to build that parasocial relationship when the company itself could be doing that vinyl connection building?

Despite the joke tweets circulating throughout the internet, China has not quote-unquote banned podcasters. The Cyberspace Administration of China rolled out new regulations this week that limit online influencers discussing quote-unquote professional topics which need more formal qualifications in the fields to be discussed.

The fields in question are medicine, law, education, and finance. To speak authoritatively on any of these topics, influencers will need to present credentials proving they have a degree, certification, or professional credentials in that field. The regulations act against a worldwide trend we can observe. A UNESCO study conducted by the Bowling Green State University found only 36.9% of digital content creators actively verify information.

before sharing it with their audiences. And here in the United States exists a similar framework to limit media figures from sharing potentially dangerous medical, financial, or legal advice. I know I've heard a semi-sarcastic disclaimer of, I'm not a lawyer, this isn't legal advice, dozens of times in my 12 years of listening to podcasts.

Finally, it's time for my quick hits. These are some of the articles I've covered from this week that didn't quite make the cut for full story coverage today, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. Today I've got for you, Triton Digital has launched their new AdBuilder AI platform, which allows partners to have their own branded, white-labeled, self-service audio-buying platform.

John Allen, known as Mr. Ballin on YouTube, is moving from SiriusXM to Wondery. The new multi-year deal gives exclusive audio advertising rights to his flagship podcast, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. as well as the rights to his podcast network. Headliner has announced automated clips for back catalog, which will generate clips from past episodes and allow creators to influence the LLM's decisions with a simple thumbs up or thumbs down rating system.

to judge clip quality. YouTube shorts now make more money per watch hour for YouTube than long-form videos, according to their Q3 earnings call this week. Fountain has launched a podcast hosting service called Fountain for Podcasters, built to distribute video to supported apps, including Fountain itself, streaming payments, and paid subscriptions. And finally, the Media Ratings Council proposes new transparency rules for digital audio ad auctions, which are available as a public comment draft.

That was the download recap brought to you by Podscribe and sounds profitable. I know I went through today's stories fast. So as usual, you can click the link in the show notes to go directly to today's episode or. You can go to soundsprofitable.com and go to the download section to find the links to everything I've ever talked about on the show. I'm Gavin Gaddis. Our producers are myself, Brian Barletta, and Tom Webster.

And as usual, special thanks to you for sticking with me as I brought you through all the top stories in the business of podcasting this week. Robot. Download complete.