Podcasting's $7b 2024, What Podcast Fans are Like, & More

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 Gavin Gattis. The download is brought to you by Podscribe. Find out more at Podscribe.com. This week, the great podcast divide understanding fans versus anti-fans. Podcast industry is twice as large as previously estimated. Patreon will update its iPhone app to sidestep Apple's payment system. Podcasters, please stop thinking about

aiming for or expecting a TV deal and it's Q1 report season. Let's get started.

In the survey for the advertising landscape, Sounds Profitable asked monthly podcast consumer respondents to score how much of a fan they were of podcasts on a scale from 1 to 10. In this article, Tom Webster talks about the fans, people who rated 8 to 10 on that scale, and the anti-fans, people who rated 3 and below.

A quote from Webster, quote, as the podcast industry continues to mature, the successful monetization models will likely be those that recognize these nuances in listener commitment. such as tiered approach based on engagement level offering different monetization models for casual monthly listeners versus dedicated fans recognizing their different needs.

and willingness to pay demographic targeting beyond age, developing strategies that adjust to not just generational differences, but gender gaps among existing listeners, creating pathways to turn female listeners into superfans. and platform-specific strategies, recognizing that monthly listeners from different platforms show dramatically different propensities to become fans and tweaking our messaging and approach to match. End quote.

While the piece does go deep into the data and several facets of both audiences, A core takeaway is the idea of upgrading existing audiences. Creators shouldn't get stuck on just attracting new listeners. They need to pay equal attention to converting existing monthly audiences into superfans. They already exist. They already are bought in. They just need the experiences that deepen their commitment to both the specific podcasting question and podcasting as a medium.

Owl & Company has published a new report titled The Global Podcast Economy, A Complete Picture, which estimates the global podcast economy in 2024 reached $7.3 billion USD. A key factor is Allen Company's numbers include many major revenue streams that aren't often aggregated. Direct sold ads, programmatic ads, Patreon, Apple Podcast Plus, Spotify Payouts, YouTube Premium, they're all in the mix.

Podcasts were still mainly direct ad revenue supported in 2024 with $4.6 billion of revenue estimated. But Programmatic has a bigger slice of the pie than one might expect with $1.6 billion. Owlin co-founder Hernan Lopez also notes that while the U.S. is the largest podcast market by revenue, He assumes numbers from places like China, Australia, and the United Kingdom are underrepresented with the current totals we have as the actual revenue going around are in markets that miss

foundational podcast by podcast and ad by ad data that we have in the United States from services like Magellan AI and Podscribe.

Last week, the judge in the long-running Epic Games vs. Apple case made a final ruling, ruling that Apple is no longer allowed to collect fees on purchases made outside apps. More importantly, the ruling also bars Apple from preventing companies from directing users off app to make said purchases.

Two facets that deeply shaped how companies carry themselves from Patreon actively discouraging users from pledging in the iOS version of Patreon to Spotify reworking their whole planned audiobook integration a couple of years ago. Now, several companies are getting their workarounds ready. Patreon is planning to submit an iOS update that will let creators accept payments outside of Apple's payment system, avoiding the 30% fee.

Meanwhile, Andy Yan, CEO of VPN company Proton, says they're gearing up iOS changes that will lower prices across the board previously set in accordance with that fee.

you It's become a popular narrative. A podcast producer gets into podcasting specifically to attract a TV deal using the podcast as a backdoor pilot of sorts. Jerry Kogler of Atomic Entertainment has come from the opposite direction, having been a TV producer who then made the leap into podcasting.

He recounts a sharp shift in how TV shows are approved from 2020 onward which has regressed into a more algorithmically focused decision-making process that largely favors content similar to existing content. such as spin-offs, remakes, or re-envisionings of an existing thing. These are all more popular with decision-makers than net new IP.

A quote from Colbert. Our talent on this series we were pitching, who on their own has half as many social followers as the entire Disney Plus USA subscriber base, asked one of the networks, is there really no room in a multi-billion dollar slate of dozens of shows for one smart, fun series from someone as well-known as me and as successful as these guys? Apparently, there is not. End quote.

Culver argues peak TV has firmly passed. So much so, Atomic Entertainment has fully shut down all TV development, and the current investor round they're in is entirely based off the success of their platform and their podcasts. Podcasts don't come with network notes. They provide total control and ownership of an IP, have scalable profit, and direct relationships with the fans that made them viable in the first place.

For our final top story, it's that time of the four times a year again. First up, I'm going to run through... This Q1 report, ACAST, reports their net sales grew 30% in Q1 of this year with a gross margin of 37% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of negative 1%. Meanwhile, as Pod News reported, Sirius XM's Q1 shows revenue for Pandora and off-platform income, which includes podcasting, is down 2% year-over-year.

That said, if you look specifically at podcast revenue, that grew. My phone just went off. How professional of me. That said, podcast revenue specifically grew 33% year over year. No, I'm not editing it out. I'm on a roll. And finally, Apple's Q1 earnings call dropped the tidbit that Apple services, in which Apple Podcasts lives, reached an all-time revenue record of $26.6 billion.

Finally, it's time for quick hits. These are articles that didn't make the cut for top stories in today's episode, but I argue are still worth including in your weekend reading. Here's some stuff for you this week. Live Read has launched a slick new website and upgraded their megaphone integration so users can create, sign, send, and view delivery metrics for a megaphone campaign all without leaving Live Read.

While Spotify's in-house ad exchange did promise podcast inventory would come eventually, now there's a deadline. According to Spotify Associate Director of Product Management Savannah Ramsey, speaking at their Sparks event in London last week, Podcast inventory is coming to Spotify Ad Exchange at the end of quarter two. According to Semaphore reporting, former Pushkin Industries VP of Content and Production Mia Lobel is moving to Slate as their new executive producer of podcasts.

Sirius XM Media has posted the recording of Brand Safe, Scalable, and Ready to Buy, the next evolution of programmatic podcast advertising, an hour-long webinar. That was done on May 1st. That is now up, and it was co-hosted with Barometer. Flight Path is bringing something special in their carry-on to London as the company plans to unveil predictive video analytics at the podcast show London later this month, which starts, by the way, May 21st.

And finally, Signal Hill Insights will be adding video podcast metrics to the upcoming edition of the Canadian Podcast Listener, which is set to debut in November. Discounted pricing is still available through the end of May. 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 on every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app.

or by heading to the download section of soundsprofitable.com. I'm Gavin Gaddis. Our producers are myself, Brian Barletta, and Tom Webster. Special thanks to you for sticking with me as I brought you all the top stories you might have missed this past week. Robot? Download complete.