Coming to you from sunny Chicago, Illinois, I'm recording in a doorway. This is the download from Sounds Profitable, your daily source of the essential news in the business of podcasting. I'm Gavin Gaddis. Here's what you need to know for today, Tuesday, April 1st. Before I get into the news proper, just a quick aside. I want to tell you, and by the way, today's news will be free of April Fool's tomfoolery. That's a Gavin Gaddis guarantee. Not just because...
that's alliterative a reminder that sounds profitable will be headed to the headgum studios in los angeles on monday may 5th to host our first ever standalone topic focused event around 60 attendees will participate in group conversations curated Thank you. link provided in the description for consideration.
For our first story today, the advertising landscape podcasting's place in the ad-supported media universe. Today's Evolutions by Podcast Movement Festivities kicked off with a presentation by Tom Webster. The keynote featured unreleased data from the advertising landscape. When looking at what age demographics consume to add supported audio, the report shows the 18-34 demographic is largely...
focused on streaming music, their portion of the listenership dropping off by the time the graph reaches AM FM radio. Podcasting, however, is evenly split across three age groups studied. Quote, podcasting is increasingly the on-ramp to spoken word audio, end quote, said Webster, noting other on-ramps are getting smaller over time. The first part of the report, focusing on Reach, will be debuted Wednesday, April 16th at 2 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time in a free webinar hosted by Webster. Registration is free and live now. Next up, Bold Call, the ad industry's herd mentality risks an unnecessarily severe slowdown. This is the kickoff of an article series challenging industry assumptions, in which Digiday looks at the possibility, flash-in-the-pan headline-grabbing events, might talk the advertising industry into creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of a slowdown.
As analyst Brian Weiser pointed out three years ago, 2022 was a year when the industry flinched early and often, allowing anticipation of what might happen to overreach the material reality. A perspective to keep in mind when seeing reports. reports of buyers expecting CPMs to fall even more at TV Upfronts this year.
Next up, Speed of Sound, the essential guide to how digital innovation is accelerating the audio advantage for advertisers. Radio Center and MTM have published a new study looking at the advertising landscape in the UK. While traditional broadcast radio remains a significant... in the UK, podcasting is noted as the medium to watch. Adult weekly reach doubled from 8% to 16.4% over six years and podcasts now account for 11% of overall commercial listening in the UK market.
global ad spend forecast also expect podcasting's growth to continue with global ad revenue expecting to reach 7.9% this year and 6.5% in 2026. Next up, YouTube now worth as much as $550 billion, analysts say. New king of all media. Moffitt-Nathanson principal analyst Michael Nathanson tells Variety that in 2024, the firm's estimates placed YouTube as the second largest media company by revenue, topped only by Disney. Note, this does not include revenue from the theme parks.
production segment of the overall Disney umbrella. Now, Nathanson is anticipating 2025 will be the year YouTube takes the top spot for both engagement and revenue. All positive news for podcasting in general, as the biggest venue for podcast discovery performing well is a tide that rises all boats. Or raises, if you're saying the phrase correctly.
And finally, the 2025 Ambies Winners Hysterical Wins Podcast of the Year. Pod News has published a full list of winners of the 2025 Awards for Excellence in Audio Ceremony presented by the Podcast Academy, colloquially known as the Ambies. This American Life host Ira Glass was given the Governor's Award, which recognizes a podcast or individual's contribution to the industry. And Wondery and Odyssey's Pineapple Street Studios took home Podcast of the Year with Hysterical. And a light slide.
All of which were requested via direct feedback from podcasters. Signal Hill Insights has announced a new video podcast brand lift research solution aimed at helping advertisers measure ROI on YouTube for upper and mid- funnel measures such as awareness, favorability, and purchase intent.
Semaphore has published coverage of Odyssey, both bringing on Leah Rees-Dennis as head of podcasts, as well as the Odyssey Creator Lab, the latter being a new suite of tools facilitating host-read sponsorships and dynamic ad insertion. 102-year-old company Hubbard Radio has announced the launch of their Gamut Podcast Network, a dedicated podcast division meant to act as one of their three core pillars of the company's media strategy. This works alongside digital marketing arm...
2060 Digital, and Hubbard's Terrestrial Radio Operations. The Gamut Network will be headed by former Magellan AI CRO John Goforth, who is now VP slash General Manager of Podcasts. Number 8 has announced a partnership with Carbonatics, bringing Number 8's ID-less affinity audiences to Carbonatics' audio formats, including web-based text-to-speech and in-app companion banner audio.
And finally, True Native Media founder Heather Osgood has appeared on the SoundOff podcast, offering advice such as encouraging podcasters to focus on mid-level companies within their respective industries instead of immediately gunning for large, hard-to-reach brands. you
Be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app or at soundsprofitable.com where you can also subscribe to the newsletter version. The download is written and produced by myself, Brian Barletta, and Tom Webster. For Sounds Profitable, I'm Gabby. and Gaddis. Download us again tomorrow.