Prepping for Podcast Show London, Reconsidering the Download, & 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 that my voice is going. I'm Gavin Gaddis, getting over a cold. This week's top stories include Podcast London coming up next week, so I'm going to tell you where we're going. Eventful Podcasting by Tom Webster. We've got Spotify Plays or One More Nail in the Downloads Coffin by Joe.

Jonas Woost, that's the metric, not the show. I'm fine, despite the sounds to the contrary. And YouTube launches Weekly Charts. That's by Ashley Cartman. Let's get started.

It's almost time for the podcast show. London next week. Sounds profitable. Tom Webster and Brian Barletta will be in attendance. So I've got a quick list of every panel they're going to be on. from the sounds profitable happy hour forward that happy hour by the way is tuesday the 20th First up, Tom Webster will kick things off at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 21st with podcasting's place in the advertising landscape. That'll then be followed by a deeper look.

at News Podcasting with NPR on the Meet the Expert stage, and that happens on Thursday the 22nd at 3.20pm. Meanwhile, Brian is a busy bee this time around, so I got a quick list for you. There's just one on Wednesday, and then we got four on Thursday. So for Wednesday at 1.10pm, mic check. Are you reaching the right podcast audience? That's on the brand work stage. And then Thursday, starting at 10 o'clock, we've got at the brand stage again, unlocking revenue opportunities for your podcast.

And then at 1040, we have the global sales opportunity podcastings worldwide boom into ad revenue also on the brand work stage. At 1 o'clock, the studio stage will have Earning Money from Video Podcast Has the Game Changed? And finally, at 2.30 p.m., The Future of Audio in an AI-driven Creative Landscape. That'll be at the Ask the Expert stage.

In anticipation for the podcast show London, Tom Webster shares some tips from his book, The Audience is Listening, regarding running podcast events. Sometimes a live show version of a podcast in itself is enough to be a special event for audiences. but especially within the context of digital events, podcasts need to pull out all the stops. A quote from Webster, quote, For some podcast, just doing a regular show before a live audience is enough of an event to be an event.

because your audience gets to have a level of access they typically never have. But now I don't think that is enough to really stand out in an environment where the only variety in our days is what virtual background we're all using. pull out all the stops, bring back guests from your best episodes, pull in the biggest star you can grab, redo some of your best bits.

The point is, don't treat it simply like a video version of your typical show. Treat it like it's the last show you'll ever do. End quote. Scarcity also works to make things special whether it's limiting how many live shows are performed in a year or limiting audience numbers so they for sure sell out each time. This helps prevent audiences from simply thinking I'll catch the next one.

And one of the biggest secret weapons for live events, especially digital ones, breaking the fourth wall to engage the audience directly, especially the virtual context. As I said before, I read ahead a little bit, didn't I? Fan engagement goes a long way, even if it's something as simple as occasionally acknowledging audience with going to the chat.

Let's start this one off by talking about the biggest issue Bumper has with the download as a metric, not a show, we're cool. Jonas Woost explains it doesn't represent the actual podcast consumption. Downloads represent a file transfer, not the file actually being consumed. As Bomber has tracked. Downloads are decreasing despite audience sizes increasing as various corners of podcasting that don't count as a download grow in popularity. For example, video episodes on YouTube and Spotify.

A quote from Woost, quote, the download is still the de facto currency of podcast monetization. Let's call it the world's dominant reserve podcast currency. Turns out we picked the wrong currency and it's time to move on. We need to agree on a currency that is rooted in the consumption of our shows and audiences being exposed to the messages.

from their advertising partners we need to be able to show our clients that we are charging for ads that have actually been heard or seen by audiences Spotify introducing a public play metric actually offers an opportunity to better report our ad partners and prove that the message was heard by those audiences. This means we need to have a broader conversation and collaboration within our industry and agree on what that new reserve currency is going to be."

Woost and Dan Meisner are planning to host an invite-only discussion on the death of the download and the future of podcast measurement at Podcast Show London next week. Interested parties can express interest in an invite by heading over to Bumper's contact page on their site.

Yesterday afternoon, Ashley Carman posted to LinkedIn a screenshot of a new YouTube chart, Weekly Top Podcast Shows. The first iteration of the chart tracks the watch time for podcasts on YouTube from May 5th through the 11th. This US-only chart, unsurprisingly, favors video-forward podcasts, with the Joe Rogan Experience, Kill Tony, and Rotten Mango in the top three.

Meanwhile, audio-only hits like Dateline make no appearance in the top 10, while niche YouTube-first productions that don't regularly chart on other platforms, for example, Smosh reads Reddit stories. The new chart landing page is available in the newsletter version of today's episode. Finally, it's time for our quick hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode but I still argue are worth including in your weekend reading.

First up, Podcast Perspectives from the Ponglomerate interviewed Katie Conant's program lead for audio and podcasts at NASA. They talk NASA's audio strategy and how they bring science communication to podcasting. Podcast show co-founder Jason Carter sat down with the Podcast Business Journal to discuss what's new at this year's event. Speaking of, quick reminder about our happy hour. We have a link. for consideration in the newsletter of today's issue, by the way.

Signal Hill Insights President Paul Reismundell has a new blog breaking down four reasons why you should be using audience surveys. Wondercraft's new report on generative AI use and content creation debuted on Wednesday in a Digiday article, and it is available for full download. I'm linking directly to it in today's issue. And TED Audio Collective has partnered with Magellan AI to use their measurement tech to measure listener engagement across the stable of TED Podcasts.

That was the download brought to you by Sounds Profitable. I know I went through today's stories fast, so be sure to check the links to every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app. or at the download section of soundsprofitable.com. I'm Gavin Gannis. Our producers are myself, Brian Barletta, and Tom Webster. Special thanks to you for sticking with me as I...

Stuffily brought you all the top stories you might have missed from the past week. I'll see you on Monday. Until then, Robot. Download complete.