I Hear Things

Today in the business of podcasting:Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026 finds U.S. podcast reach holding steady at 74% of adults, with Netflix arriving as a top-three platform and weekly video podcast viewing rising to 44%.ExchangeWire asks whether podcasting is rated highly enough in the media mix, as UK weekly listening grows to 27% and ad execs weigh in on attention, host-read ads, and attribution.Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger and Sounds Profitable's Bryan Barletta explain why the host is podcasting's most valuable ad asset, and why they favor a "both-and" monetization strategy.Acast's Podcast Pulse 2026 shows 86% of Australian podcast fans consume both audio and video, and that podcasters were the only creator category to gain commercial trust in the past year.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week Tom Webster shares Part One of The Podcast Landscape 2026, our annual study of how Americans consume podcasts, drawn from a census-weighted survey of 5,473 US adults. Podcasting's audience is large and stable, but it is increasingly consuming in places not built for podcasts. Tom gets into five findings:Reach held steady, with 74% of adults having consumed a podcast and 39% in the past weekNetflix is the third most-used service for podcasts, ahead of Apple PodcastsPodcast-native apps kept shrinking as a most-used platformVideo kept growing, with 44% watching a video podcast in the past weekMore people are consuming podcasts together with othersPlus, Tom points to his Podcast Movement NYC keynote on the Netflix finding.Read the full issue here.

Today in the business of podcasting:Acast, Oxford Road, and Triton Digital leaders explain how they reached scale, why inconsistent measurement remains a core problem, and why one CEO says podcast advertising is still "at the basement."International Podcast Day brings a wave of announcements, including 82 free Podcast Movement NYC sessions on YouTube, a redesigned Podigee platform, and Flightcast's new Collaborative Publishing.Radiocentre research finds that shifting search and social budgets into audio could add £1 million in profit for the average brand without raising total spend.Talent agencies like CAA and UTA are moving into creator representation, blurring the line between agents and managers.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:BetterHelp has tapped creator-led agency Media Bodies to lead its international podcast advertising strategy across 10 markets, using localized approaches rather than one global playbook.The IAB Tech Lab has opened its first Programmatic Standard Practices for public comment through October 16, setting shared business rules for how buyers and sellers use existing programmatic standards.A new Media, Built issue draws on Hub Entertainment Research's study of 1,600 U.S. broadband users to show how being a viewer's "default" streamer drives retention, with default users two to six times more likely to keep a subscription.Myles Younger of U of Digital argues AI is closer to labor, a utility or an appliance than to publishing, which makes paid models a better fit than advertising.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:1UpMedia founder Guang Jin Yeo shares what Asia's podcast market can learn from the global playbook, from static-frame video podcasts to dubbing and generative AI. His golden rule for AI in podcasting is that audiences shouldn't be able to tell, but they must always be told.Programmatic podcast advertising is growing fast, and 82% of agencies now buy audio programmatically. New Podscribe benchmark data shows average podcast ad load fell to 10.3% in Q2 2026, and heavy ad loads can cut conversion rates nearly in half.Patreon is ending per-creation memberships and moving creators to monthly-only billing by November 1, 2026. Seasonal podcasts like audio fiction and investigative series will likely feel it most.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster explains why Netflix passing Apple Podcasts to become the third most-named place Americans consume podcasts is a warning sign, since most shows can never get on the platform.Triton Digital's Sharon Taylor argues video is expanding podcasting rather than replacing audio, noting 80% of monthly podcast consumers both watch and listen.ADOPTER Media, Right Side Up and Oxford Road, representing about half a billion dollars in ad buying, commit to YouTube Engaged Views after YouTube inflated its public view counts.Lower Street's Annalise Nielsen details the roadblocks she hit trying to spend $72,000 on podcast ads, from missing sales contacts to $150,000 minimums.Recaps from Podcast Movement NYC and the Sounds Profitable Business Summit cover AI-era podcast SEO, smart TV listening growth, and ad buyers' take on Spotify's skip button.To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Lower Street's Annalise Nielsen explains why it's so hard to buy podcast ads. Trying to spend a $72,000 budget, she ran into missing ad contacts, $150,000 minimums and a host-read quietly downgraded to a post-roll.Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster finds Netflix has passed Apple Podcasts to become the third most-named place Americans consume podcasts. He warns that it's a true walled garden where most shows can't get in.YouTube CEO Neal Mohan lays out the platform's 2026 playbook, from creator-first TV ambitions to new Made on YouTube features like prompt-built feeds and a weekly AI podcast guide in YouTube Music.The Podglomerate recaps Podcast Movement's NYC debut, from AI-era podcast SEO to James Cridland's call to protect RSS and NPR Music's case for personality-driven shows.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Apple Podcasts and Apple Maps launch Hidden Histories, a feature that uses the podcast:location tag to place episodes on real-world locations. Apple also confirms that video is coming to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions in more than 170 countries and regions.A new Audacy report argues that mid-sized podcasts are an untapped advertising opportunity, citing a 22% lower cost per acquisition than on celebrity shows. It also finds that listeners are 27% more likely to be swayed by topic experts than by celebrities.Karo Chakhlasyan says Podcast Movement left them less convinced that audio is the best way to grow audio. They point to video clips as a growing driver of discovery and to incrementality as the measurement question the industry hasn't answered.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week Tom Webster comes back from his Podcast Movement keynote in New York with a number that should stop the industry cold. Across four years of The Podcast Landscape, the study has asked people every place they have consumed a podcast in the past year, and the third most-named platform is no longer Apple Podcasts. It is Netflix. Tom lays out why that ranking troubles him, and why he thinks 2026 is another one of those turning-point moments for the medium.Tom gets into:Why Netflix landed at number three, and what a deliberately low-bar survey question does and does not tell usThe three reasons Netflix worries him, from the gatekeeper problem to the fates of shows like Mindhunter and The OAHow the top three places people find podcasts all reward deliberate search over discovery, with 77% of YouTube discovery coming from intentional searchThe quiet slide of podcast-native apps, down from 19% to 15% as most-used, and what it means to lose our "Tower Records"Plus why Tom worries the rush toward Netflix could turn podcasting, for much of America, into Temu TV, and what the industry should be protecting instead.Read the full issue here.

Today in the business of podcasting:Triton Digital's Sharon Taylor pushes back on the video-first narrative, pointing to 2025 U.S. Podcast Report data showing 80% of monthly listeners both watch and listen while only 7% watch exclusively. Her advice is to treat video as an expansion of an audio show rather than a replacement for it.A growing number of creators and the companies representing them want to sell ads through TV-style upfront commitments, but unlimited, always-on creator inventory does not behave like a network's finite schedule. Experts told Digiday the model will likely work only for the top one percent of talent, sold through agencies and creator networks.The legal fight over the executive order targeting NPR and PBS funding has quietly ended, leaving in place a First Amendment ruling that permanently blocks key provisions of Executive Order 14290. It is a limited victory, since Congress had already rescinded the money and dissolved the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Ad buyers draw a line on YouTube's "Engaged Views": At last week's Sounds Profitable Business Summit, ADOPTER Media, Right Side Up, Oxford Road, and YMH Studios committed to counting only YouTube's "Engaged Views" when buying ads on the platform. The move answers YouTube's August decision to count a view after a single frame plays, a change that roughly doubled raw view counts.IAB on video plays: At its 2026 Podcast Upfront, the IAB argued podcasting is underbought, noting digital audio takes 16% of media time but only 2% of ad spend even as podcast revenue grew 17.6% to nearly $3 billion in 2025. The IAB also stopped short of backing a single unified standard, pointing instead to existing podcast and digital video definitions.Bumper's partnership with Oxford Road: Oxford Road is bringing Bumper's new Bumper Score into its planning and buying, rating shows from 0 to 200 on their ability to deliver ads to verified listeners across audio and YouTube. Bumper co-founder Dan Misener says better data means greater trust, and greater trust leads to more investment.NPR wants to sign more independent creators: NPR is looking beyond in-house production to strike more distribution and ad-sales deals with independent creators while letting them keep their IP. It recently teamed with Casey Newton and Kevin Roose to distribute and sell ads against their new AI-focused video podcast "Machine Gods."Women athletes are running the creator playbook: A new Digiday report finds pro women athletes using content creation to supplement thin salaries and build brands that outlast their careers, with Snapchat's "Snap the Gap" cohort growing an average of 1,491% and pulling in 16 million story views. The common thread is ownership over how they show up and who they reach.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:Podcast Week in New York opened with the Sounds Profitable Business Summit, where This American Life's Ira Glass argued that podcasts build deeper audience connections than influencer content and that the depth makes their advertising more effective. A later panel tackled Spotify's skip button test, with Right Side Up and Acast pushing the industry toward better ad quality and more transparency.Writing in The Roast, ADOPTER Media's Adam McNeal makes the case for pinning YouTube ad deals to "engaged views" rather than the platform's newly inflated public view count, arguing buyers should anchor contracts to the more meaningful metric while they still can.Spotify is expanding its Partner Program for podcasts to more than 35 new markets this fall, its largest geographic rollout yet, citing a 140% jump in video podcast consumption and working with hosts like Acast, Libsyn, and Omny so creators can opt in without switching distributors.At the IAB Podcast Upfront during Podcast Week, the IAB released a new video podcast measurement guide and argued a brand-new medium-agnostic framework like the AMP Accords is not needed, pointing buyers instead to existing IAB Tech Lab standards and clarifying which one applies where.Apple's fall operating systems bring a wide batch of new Apple Podcasts features across iOS 27, tvOS 27, and macOS 27, with video as the throughline: a redesigned Apple TV app, video playback on macOS, full transcripts and chapters, and a new Search in Show tool.To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:The IAB used its Podcast Upfront during Podcast Week to release new video podcast measurement guidance, declining to adopt a single medium-agnostic standard like the AMP Accords in favor of two existing IAB Tech Lab frameworks.Spotify is expanding its Partner Program to more than 35 new markets this fall, opening audio and video podcast monetization to creators across Latin America and Europe while partnering with hosts like Acast, Libsyn, and Audioboom.Acast's Podcast Pulse 2026 study of 4,300 listeners across 13 markets finds audiences no longer see audio and video as competing formats, with 88 percent now consuming both and trust in podcast host recommendations climbing.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Apple's fall software releases bring a wave of new Apple Podcasts features across iOS 27, tvOS 27, and macOS 27, led by a video-first redesign. A revamped Apple TV app adds video podcast playback and channel browsing, while full transcripts, chapters, and a new Search in Show tool arrive across devices.Amazon Music is expanding its global video podcast partnerships, integrating shows hosted on ART19, Omny Studio, and Flightcast, with SiriusXM, Megaphone, and Libsyn to follow. Video is rolling out to new markets including the UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan, and publishers keep control of hosting, ad inventory, and targeting.The Podcast Study 2026, built from a nationally representative survey of 1,205 listeners, finds 82% see the host as a significant reason they tune in and that listeners remember and act on host-read ads more than other formats. The research also maps new revenue paths through ad-light subscriptions and interest-based targeting.NPR unveiled a packed fall slate headlined by Machine Gods, a video-first, twice-weekly show from Hard Fork creators Kevin Roose and Casey Newton. The public radio outlet also announced Your Turn with Allison Aubrey and a weekend expansion of Planet Money's The Indicator.Members of the Podcast Standards Project are meeting tomorrow during Podcast Movement to push for features that improve the open podcasting ecosystem. The gathering is open to anyone who builds for open podcasting, member or not.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Podcast Week in New York kicked off with the Sounds Profitable Business Summit, where This American Life's Ira Glass argued that podcasting's depth and audience connection make it more effective for advertisers than most influencer content. Panelists also pushed back on Spotify skip-button anxiety, making the case that better ads and more data transparency beat fear.Genius Sports CRO Josh Linforth lays out how athlete-tracking technology is reshaping athlete-led media, using the Chris Paul partnership to show how the same data players rely on can feed fans directly and reshape sponsorships around content like athlete-led podcasts.PRX named Chief Operating Officer Jason Saldanha its next president and CEO, effective October 15, succeeding Kerri Hoffman after more than a decade leading the organization, launching Radiotopia and moving over $200 million to independent creators.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Podcasts Take Over New York — Podcast Week NYC kicks off with three back-to-back events: the Sounds Profitable Business Summit today and tomorrow, the 2026 IAB Podcast Upfront on Wednesday, and Podcast Movement closing out Thursday and Friday. Tom Webster has teased a keynote built on The Podcast Landscape 2026 data he expects to spark real industry debate.Magellan AI's Q2 2026 Podcast Measurement Benchmark Report — New benchmarks show roughly 41% of podcast ad site visits land within seven days and 76% within 30, so reading a campaign too early can undercount results by more than half. Host-read ads posted a 3.22% median response rate against 2.09% for produced spots, and video shows outpaced audio-only.Zero Seconds by Adam McNeal — ADOPTER Media's Adam McNeal argues for demanding YouTube "Engaged View" reporting in ad contracts, after founder Glenn Rubenstein warned the platform's new view metric can nearly double public counts without more real engagement. Any network holding its CPM flat on inflated views effectively hands itself a raise buyers can only counter up front.Substack Adds a Dedicated Podcast Tab — Substack rolled out a dedicated podcast tab in its app to help creators reach current listeners and get found by new ones, noting podcasters collectively earn over $200 million on the platform. It is a notable carve-out for podcasting's brand from a company that once folded blogs into simply being "a Substack."To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:New Sounds Profitable data shows the smart TV has overtaken the smart speaker as a top device for podcast listening, with Tom Webster arguing audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground viewing rather than background audio.The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad market forecast to 12.3 percent, with podcast advertising expected to grow 8.7 percent and outpace other digital audio formats.Scalable examines the wave of executive departures at creator-founded companies like Dude Perfect, Audiochuck, and Good Good Golf, and what those exits reveal about scaling creator-led businesses.True Native Media's Sabrina Nelson makes the case that podcasters do not need to be on every platform to grow, and should focus their time where it actually moves the needle.To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:New Podcast Landscape 2026 data shows smart TVs now drive 12% of primary podcast listening, up from 8% in 2024, while smart speakers have flatlined at 1%. Tom Webster argues audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground content on the shared living-room screen rather than voice-summoned background audio.The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad growth forecast to 12.3%, up from the 9.5% it projected in January, after a stronger-than-expected first half. Podcast ad spending is climbing 8.7%, outpacing other digital audio and ranking ahead of paid search, digital display, and gaming.YouTube's public "view" count now registers the moment playback starts, letting mouseovers and autoplay inflate the number, while the stricter "engaged views" metric is visible only to uploaders. ADOPTER Media's Glenn Rubenstein urges buyers to make engaged views the standard on 2027 insertion orders so brands don't overpay for the same attention.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Red Seat Ventures has integrated Barometer's AI-powered brand suitability and contextual targeting engine into its Speakeasy platform, bringing episode-level ad targeting to a portfolio of more than 40 creators and cutting the over-blocking that leaves safe inventory unsold.Scalable examines a wave of executive departures at creator-founded companies like Dude Perfect, Audiochuck, and Good Good Golf, tracing them to founder-centric business models and the friction of bringing in professional managers to scale.True Native Media's Sabrina Nelson argues podcasters do not need to publish on every platform to grow, making the case for a focused distribution strategy that spends limited time where it actually moves the needle.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week Tom Webster goes to the bottom of the device table in the brand-new The Podcast Landscape 2026 data and finds a story that has been quietly eroding for years. The smart speaker, once pitched as podcasting's cleanest shot at owning a default, has flatlined at one percent. The device actually climbing is the biggest screen in the house. Smart TV as the most-used way to listen jumped from 8 percent in 2024 to 12 percent in 2026, and folded together with second-most-used it now reaches 25 percent of podcast consumers, while the phone slipped.Ahead of his keynote at Podcast Movement in New York, Tom gets into what that shift really means:why podcast listening in the home is consolidating onto the television rather than spreading across every device in itwhat a screen changes for advertisers when a show can be seen by a whole room instead of heard through one pair of earbudswhy the car makes the same point from the other direction, and the one context the industry has spent the least time thinking aboutwhat the move from background to foreground says about what the audience has decided a podcast actually isA preview of the questions Tom will take to the stage on the 17th.Read the full issue here.

Today in the business of podcasting:Bloomberg reports that BetterHelp is podcasting's biggest advertiser of all time, with an estimated $242 million spent since 2023 and ads running on more than 1,000 shows at once, per Magellan AI.MS NOW is expanding its Crooked Media partnership, adding Jon Lovett's Lovett or Leave It to its Saturday night lineup starting September 12 through the 2026 midterms.Digiday reports the creator economy still has no standard way to price talent, with roughly half of marketers mispricing fees and many admitting they overpay.NPR launches a Senior Podcast Challenge inviting Americans 65 and older to submit original audio stories, with entries due November 30.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster runs through the stars and keynotes of Podcast Movement 2026 in New York, including his Podcast Landscape 2026 study of more than 5,400 consumers and a surprising finding that Apple has slipped out of the top three podcast platforms.YouTube's redefinition of a view roughly doubled reported view counts overnight, and Oxford Road's Dan Granger and Bumper's Dan Misener argue the resulting confusion makes the case for trustworthy cross-platform measurement standards.Australia's internet advertising hit a record $19.8 billion in FY26 with podcasting up 10.1%, even as IAB Australia's Future of Measurement review warns the industry still needs shared data standards to measure cross-channel impact.To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every week.

Today in the business of podcasting:Podcast Movement 2026 heads to New York City September 17 and 18 at Terminal 5, where anyone registered by September 4 gets their podcast or company artwork on a Times Square display, and Tom Webster previews the keynote lineup and his Podcast Landscape 2026 research.Hernan Lopez breaks down a new inflection point in streaming distribution, weighing direct-to-consumer, wholesale deals through Amazon Channels, Roku, and YouTube, and ad-tier monetization, projecting Amazon Channels could reach roughly $10 billion a year.A federal judge ruled Google will not be forced to break up its ad tech business despite earlier monopoly findings, a decision set to reshape pricing, inventory access, and competition across programmatic advertising.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:IAB Australia's Future of Measurement review finds the biggest constraint on advertising is fragmented data, not a shortage of measurement methods, and it calls for a shared campaign-data taxonomy modeled on IAB US's Campaign Data Standards 1.0.YouTube and Variety are launching the inaugural Variety x YouTube Creator Festival at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, premiering a Mark Vins documentary and two episodes of Ziwe's You'd Be an Iconic Guest before both become YouTube exclusives.Netflix is doubling down on podcasts, ordering new shows from Katt Williams, Harlan Coben, and Stephanie Soo, renewing its entire slate of originals, and adding acquired Spotify video podcasts including The Bill Simmons Podcast and The Rewatchables.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week Tom Webster delivers his final Podcast Movement programming rundown, along with a deadline you don't want to sleep on. Register by end of day Friday, September 4 and the art for your show or your company logo goes up on a screen in the middle of Times Square. Fewer than 200 tickets remain at $199 for both days.Tom also previews the four keynotes headed to the New York stages:Thursday at 11:30, Tom releases The Podcast Landscape 2026 live from the stage, the fourth year of the Signal Hill Insights study and the largest publicly available study of podcasting in America at 5,400 consumers weighted to the census. For the first time since podcasting began, Apple is no longer among the top three platforms people name, and Tom reveals what replaced it.SiriusXM Media brings MrBallen, John Allen, for a fireside on turning a devoted true-crime fanbase into a lasting multi-platform brand.Arielle Nissenblatt and Lauren Passell tackle the question the industry never settles in WTF is a Podcast in 2026?, built from answers gathered from attendees all week.Steve McLendon, Head of Product for YouTube Podcasts, closes out the keynotes with what YouTube is building next for podcasters.Plus the details on the IAB Podcast Upfront after party at Terminal 5, featuring a live taping of Dana Gould's Hangin' with Dr. Z in full Planet of the Apes makeup.Read the full issue and register for Podcast Movement here.

Today in the business of podcasting:Oxford Road's Dan Granger argues that YouTube's decision to redefine how it counts views, a change Bumper's Dan Misener found inflates play counts by nearly double, is the jolt that proves podcasting needs cross-platform measurement standards it can actually trust.Former Adelicious leaders Andy Goldsmith and Craig Eastwood team with industry veteran Mike Wooller to launch Everywhere, a new media company built to unify creator commercial partnerships as audiences increasingly follow creators across platforms rather than staying on one.Earmax Media's Andy Maxwell makes the case that podcast advertisers chasing cheap reach and low CPMs are missing what makes the medium work, arguing that a tightly focused community, brand affinity, and strong creative deliver far more value than raw scale.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Trailer Park: The Podcast Trailer Podcast launches a three-part miniseries built on Coleman Insights research, developed with NOVA Entertainment and Pantheon Podcasts, testing 500 U.S. listeners to pin down what actually makes a podcast trailer convert. Authenticity won stronger listener preference in three of the four trailers tested.IAB Australia reports internet advertising grew 14% to $19.8 billion in FY26, its strongest financial-year growth since FY22. Podcasting led audio's gains, rising 10.1% to claim 40% of all audio spend and setting a fresh quarterly record of $40 million.Digiday examines why brands cannot simply flip the "employees as creators" switch, as companies like Gap and Starbucks weigh new measurement, oversight, FTC disclosure, and compensation questions that never applied to outside contractors.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:Apple Music now mandates "Made With AI" labels on AI-generated tracks, a music-distribution move that signals how fast audio platforms are formalizing AI disclosure.Political ad spending on radio jumped 22% in a month to $124 million, with AdImpact projecting a record $11.6 billion cycle and the biggest wave still expected after Labor Day.Bloomberg reports YouTube is offering creators millions to stay exclusive and off Netflix, a video-first fight worth watching as podcasting leans deeper into YouTube.Steven Goldstein argues Spotify's new Skip Ahead test simply shows that podcasting is not necessarily huge to Spotify's bottom line, urging publishers to diversify beyond any single platform.To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Podscribe launched YouTube-only modeled attribution, closing a measurement gap for influencer campaigns that run only on YouTube by anchoring probabilistic modeling to audio performance data. It is free through September 30.Digiday weighs the case for and against the programmatic-ification of the creator economy, as automated buying pushes into brand-creator deals once struck by hand and raises questions about commoditizing creators.YouTube's EMEA chief pushes back on a UK proposal requiring guaranteed prominence for public-service broadcasters, defending its algorithm while acting as a TV distributor without the obligations broadcasters carry.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Signal Hill Insights' Paul Riismandel breaks down four ways audience research drives return in podcasting, from uncovering whitespace to proving value to advertisers with measurement tools like Triton Digital's Demos+.Podscribe reports that podcast video has gone mainstream, with 82% of episodic campaigns now including a YouTube simulcast, even as Spotify's baked-in video ads still face attribution gaps.In a Google-sponsored piece, Digiday lays out how publishers can strengthen connections with advertisers in the AI era through first-party data and diversified, cross-platform selling.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Political ad spending on radio has jumped 22% in the past month to $124 million, and with AdImpact projecting $6.1 billion in total 2026 political advertising, the post-Labor Day rush is a reminder of how much election money still flows to audio heading into the fall.A new IAB white paper argues radio's attribution gap with digital is closing fast, crediting pixel-based attribution, dynamic ad insertion, and identity resolution with giving audio the kind of digital-like precision advertisers expect.Steven Goldstein breaks down where podcasting actually fits at Spotify, noting podcast ads make up roughly 4% of Spotify's revenue while subscriptions drive about 89%, so the platform will keep prioritizing listeners over publishers.Kirby Grines uses TikTok streaming a live championship boxing match to argue that traditional media categories are collapsing, as social, streaming, creator, gaming, and TV now all compete for the same finite attention that podcasting fights for too.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:The IAB has revealed the full agenda for its 2026 Podcast Upfront, the invitation-only event landing September 16 between the Sounds Profitable Business Summit and Podcast Movement, with an official after party at Terminal 5.Apple Music will now require "Made With AI" labels on tracks made with artificial intelligence, a signal of how fast audio platforms are moving toward AI content transparency.Triton Digital's Q2 2026 U.S. Podcast Ranker shows comedy still on top with 44.5% reach while news climbs 8.4% ahead of the midterms, as creator-led and opinion-driven shows convert social audiences into chart placement.Bloomberg reports YouTube is offering top creators millions to keep their videos off Netflix, protecting first-view exclusivity as the lines between podcasting, YouTube, and streaming keep blurring.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:SXSW will make podcasting a core pillar in 2027 with its first-ever four-day Podcast Festival, and Podcast Movement Evolutions returns to Austin that same week for two free days at the SKYBOX on 6th.Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster argues podcasting's real gap is the lack of a default, as dedicated hardware fades and 57% of Americans aged 12 to 34 now live in homes with no radio.Point-to-Point Marketing and Strategic Solutions Research announced the Podcast Study 2026, a listener research project on discovery, loyalty, and monetization that debuts at the Sounds Profitable Business Summit on September 14.YouTube is redefining the "view" as an "engaged view," a change that runs about 7% lower across 300,000 podcast episodes and could reshape CPMs and sponsorship math for video podcasts.To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:SXSW will make podcasting a core pillar in 2027 with its first-ever four-day Podcast Festival, and Podcast Movement Evolutions returns to Austin that same week for two free days at the SKYBOX on 6th.Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster argues podcasting's real gap is the lack of a default, as dedicated hardware fades and 57% of Americans aged 12 to 34 now live in homes with no radio.YouTube is redefining the "view" as an "engaged view," a shift that runs about 7% lower across 300,000 podcast episodes and could reshape CPMs and sponsorship math for video podcasts.Magellan AI released its first H1 2026 podcast advertising benchmarks for Ireland, showing 33% year-over-year spend growth, financial services on top, and a 5.71% average ad load.Flightpath shipped Automation Playbooks to fight unreliable ad delivery, responding to an ad-tech platform change it says threatens publishers with revenue losses of up to 50%.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:The Podcast Academy opened submissions for the 2027 Ambies, spanning 23 show categories. This cycle adds Best Music Podcast, Episode of The Year, and a new Advertising category covering Best Ad Read, Best Branded Podcast, and Podcast Advertiser of The Year.Triton Digital released its Australian Podcast Ranker for July 2026. Mamamia Out Loud held the top spot, Hamish and Andy placed second, and ABC News Top Stories cracked the top three for the first time.The IAB updated its AI Transparency and Disclosure Framework with a standardized sparkle icon or text label for advertising where AI materially changes what consumers see or hear. The harder problem is keeping that disclosure attached to the creative as it moves through agencies, DSPs, ad servers, and publishers.Buzzsprout reports more than 11,000 HLS video episodes are now live on Apple Podcasts. Among 562 established shows, median Apple Podcasts downloads rose 19 percent in the 28 days after a show's first HLS video episode.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

A nine-button Italian radio with a dead app can teach us some lessons about podcast discovery.Written by Tom WebsterEdited and narrated by Gavin Gaddis"Find the full article here.

Today in the business of podcasting:Spotify says a bug, not a policy, made a podcast ad appear unskippable, telling Podnews the 15-second skip was hidden in the viral example and has since been fixed — and that skipping works for both Free and Premium listenersYouTube changes how it counts a "view" starting August 24, registering a play from the very first frame while making the more meaningful "engaged views" metric private, cutting off third-party rankers and data companiesPoint-To-Point Marketing and Strategic Solutions Research announce the Podcast Study 2026, a national effort on discovery, loyalty, and monetization co-sponsored by Crooked Media, NPR, and PRX, with findings due September 14-15 at the Sounds Profitable Business SummitThe Streaming Wars reports NFL insider Tom Pelissero, out at ESPN, has landed at both Netflix and Spotify-owned The Ringer, a case study in one institutional job splintering into several targeted assignmentsA Magellan AI case study details how boutique network Rhapsody Voices used data-driven creator-sponsor matching to reach better than 80% sell-through on two priority shows as it scaled beyond manual researchTo find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Register for Ask a Marketer: How Advertisers Read the ResearchSpotify has begun selling unskippable podcast ads that Premium listeners cannot jump past, even with the standard 15-second skip. The move follows the company's test of a "Skip Ahead" button that automatically skips ad breaks, sponsorships, and intros.Amplifi Media's Steven Goldstein pushes back on the widely shared claim that only 10 of the top 200 podcasts have video. His own tally finds 84% of Edison's US Top 50 now publish full video episodes, along with 77% of Apple's Top 100.Australian podcast ad spend broadened well beyond tech and finance in Q2 2026, according to ARN's iHeart and Magellan AI. Alcohol led the growth at 58% quarter on quarter, and Airbnb topped the advertiser rankings.Creators are moving away from platform exclusivity as Netflix lets shows from Rhett & Link and Nick DiGiovanni run on YouTube at the same time. Free ad-supported channels on Amazon Prime Video and Roku are becoming part of the same strategy.Steve Raizes argues the industry's giant podcast guarantees function as subscriber-acquisition campaigns for streaming platforms rather than ad plays. Because those deals expire, he says talent should trade peak leverage for ownership of an operating business.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster walks through Podcast Movement's five-day takeover of Terminal 5 in New York City, from the inaugural Sounds Profitable Business Summit to a creator conference spanning more than 80 sessions across five stages.Sport Social's Ryan Barker makes the case that official club podcasts are the natural landing spot for betting sponsorship money as the Premier League phases out front-of-shirt gambling deals in 2026/27.Quill and CoHost CEO Fatima Zaidi explains why branded podcasts get cut, and lays out the named audience, defined behavior change, and single accountable owner that lasting shows share.Nielsen agreed to acquire media verification company DoubleVerify in a $2.15 billion all-cash deal, pairing audience data with verification tooling across a stack that explicitly includes audio.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster details Sounds Profitable's five-day takeover of New York City's Terminal 5 in September, spanning the partner-only Business Summit, the IAB Podcast Upfront after party, and Podcast Movement NYC.Quill and CoHost CEO Fatima Zaidi argues brand podcasts fail from unclear purpose rather than small budgets, and offers a three-part test for building shows that survive budget cuts.Alex Cooper's Unwell takes its first outside investment from Patrick Whitesell's firm WTSL at a $500 million valuation, signaling continued investor appetite for podcast creator IP.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Acast acquires Backyard Ventures for $20 million, adding more than 200 premium creators across podcasts, YouTube, newsletters, and social to accelerate omnichannel monetization.Spotify asks artists to disclose AI-generated music and will label AI artist identities as "AI Personas," excluding them from editorial and algorithmic recommendations beginning in mid-September.The Media Leader asks seven industry specialists whether podcasting has hit saturation, and the consensus is that the medium is maturing, with ad spend still lagging consumption and discovery shifting to social platforms.Signal Hill Insights analyzes how 4,819 Americans define the word "podcast," finding that only about 33 to 38% mention audio or listening while just 7% of listeners describe podcasts as video only.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Register for Podcast Movement 2026In this week's Sounds Profitable newsletter, Tom Webster breaks down the company's most ambitious week yet: five days taking over Terminal 5 in New York this September, running three different events for three different audiences under one roof. He walks through the Business Summit bringing the buy side and sell side of podcasting into one room, the official IAB Podcast Upfront after party, and the reimagined Podcast Movement creator days at just $199 for two full days in Manhattan. Along the way he makes the case for why not a single minute of stage time is for sale, how the partners underwrite it all, and the small idea he's proudest of, a four o'clock block built for the person who doesn't already know everyone in the room.Written by Tom WebsterEdited and narrated by Gavin Gaddis"Find the full article here.

Today in the business of podcasting:With the Premier League banning front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships from the 2026/27 season, Sport Social's Ryan Barker argues official team and fan podcasts are the natural landing spot for betting brands, pointing to a Sky Bet partnership across 20 football podcasts that reached more than one million listeners.Bumper co-founder Dan Misener explains why Apple Podcasts play counts are inflated: Apple counts every tap of the play button, not every listener, making the metric impossible to compare with Spotify plays or YouTube views.iHeartMedia reported Q2 2026 podcast revenue up 20.7% year over year to $162 million, now 16.5% of total company revenue, alongside a new video podcast deal bringing shows to Disney+ and Hulu.Magellan AI's Q2 2026 Podcast Advertising Quarterly Benchmark Report finds podcast ad revenue up 23% year over year, with average ad load rising to 8.75% of runtime, or roughly five and a half minutes of ads per hour.YouTube is doubling its Partner Program requirements effective February 1, 2027, raising qualified watch hours from 4,000 to 8,000 and Shorts views from 10 million to 20 million, raising the cost of entry for podcasters leaning on video.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Sounds Profitable's Ask a Marketer webinar on August 18 brings Right Side Up's Krystina Rubino and Quo's Tori Murray together with Tom Webster to break down The Podcast Atlas, a survey of 5,061 U.S. consumers on how creator-based advertising performs across audio, video, social, and newsletters. The two buyers sort which research findings actually move a media plan.The FCC voted 2-1 to repeal the 39% national TV ownership cap, clearing the way for broadcast station-group consolidation and shifting oversight to antitrust courts. Larger groups gain leverage in retransmission talks and more inventory for FAST channels and connected-TV advertising.RSS.com launched a Max plan that publishes video podcasts to Apple Podcasts via HLS streaming with dynamically inserted programmatic ads from episode one. Creators keep 70% of ad revenue with no audience threshold, unlike YouTube's 1,000-subscriber and 4,000-watch-hour requirements.Nielsen agreed to acquire media-verification company DoubleVerify for $2.15 billion in an all-cash deal at $13.60 per share. The combined company spans TV, streaming, digital, social, mobile, and audio measurement with more than $4 billion in annual revenue.The ANA, the 4As, and the IAB are aligning for the first time in nearly a decade on AI governance, retail media standards, and workforce development, culminating in an Industry Leadership Summit this October. The group's AI-governance and measurement work could shape standards that reach audio advertising.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:Spotify is testing "Skip Ahead," a one-tap ad-skipping tool for Premium subscribers, and the industry is pushing back over what it means for host-read sponsorships and advertiser attention reporting.Acast has opened video publishing on Apple Podcasts to all creators on its platform, after beta shows saw an estimated 25% increase in weekly Apple Podcasts sessions.A coalition of 18 U.K. media organizations is urging the government to reject advertising on BBC podcasts, citing an estimated £10 million in annual revenue against the harm to independent audio businesses.The IAB released "Measuring Visibility in the AI Era," a framework sorting AI search visibility metrics into four categories as more than 20 vendors sell competing tools with materially different results.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Industry leaders including Crooked Media's Tommy Vietor, Right Side Up's Krystina Rubino, and ADOPTER Media's Glenn Rubenstein are responding to Spotify's "Skip Ahead" test, which lets Premium listeners clear an entire ad break, sponsor read, or intro in a single tap.A coalition of 18 U.K. commercial audio companies is urging the government to drop proposals allowing advertising on BBC podcasts, arguing the BBC would earn only about £10 million a year while draining revenue from the independent audio sector.Gap Inc., Staples, and Starbucks have launched employee-creator programs, betting that firsthand accounts from actual staff read as more credible than polished brand marketing.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Acast has opened video publishing on Apple Podcasts to all creators on its platform, ending the beta waitlist after shows using video saw an estimated 25% lift in weekly Apple Podcasts sessions.Media measurement and ad effectiveness have moved from CMO-CFO conversations onto public earnings calls, even as a Gain Theory survey finds 49% of marketers doubt their data can hold up at the CFO level.New Jersey's data broker law is already in effect, banning sensitive data sales with $50,000-per-record penalties and creating a "data collector" category that pulls podcast ad-tech and listener-data practices into scope.Hollywood studios chasing creator-driven IP are running into ownership problems, as A24's attempt to trademark "the backrooms" shows the risks of adapting open-source collaborative worlds.Kirby Grines argues the smartest streaming strategy is licensing mature catalog while keeping current releases exclusive, citing Parrot Analytics data showing licensed titles drove over 53% of Netflix series sign-ups in Q1 2026.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Spotify is testing "Skip Ahead," a one-tap ad-skipping feature for Premium subscribers that collapses a nine-tap skip into a single action, raising questions about ad delivery reporting and advertiser attention data.Eight major streaming platforms have launched vertical clip feeds in 20 months, a convergence driven by premium streaming's first single-digit growth year at 7% in 2025.The IAB released new guidelines for measuring brand and publisher visibility in AI-generated search results, built around web search analytics.A new Audacy/YouGov survey finds cost-of-living anxiety shaping the 2026 midterms, positioning radio and podcasts as channels that reach commuting voters.Digiday reports agencies are pushing for more control over programmatic ad-buying infrastructure, with implications for how podcast inventory is transacted.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Apple's fiscal Q3 2026 results show Services revenue, the segment housing Apple Podcasts, up 12% year over year to $30.7 billion, while SiriusXM Media CEO Jennifer Witz reported podcast revenue up 30% year over year.Bloomberg's Ashley Carman reports podcasters are building businesses on free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels, opening a video distribution and revenue path beyond YouTube.Livewire's July 2026 podcast hosting data shows Spotify for Creators rebounding to a 24% share of episodes released and Spreaker hitting a 2026 record of 13.6%, with most other platforms slipping.Bauer Media Advertising MD Simon Kilby argues advertisers should shift budget to regulated digital audio, citing AA/WARC data showing digital audio grew 22% year over year in Q1 2026, the fastest-growing medium in the period.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster makes the case that a podcast newsletter is the one channel where creators gather unmediated audience feedback, separating the work of promotion from the work of understanding what listeners actually need.The industry reacts to The AMP Accords, which define a podcast, a play, and an ad impression, with Bryan Barletta, Dan Granger, James Cridland, and Steve Goldstein weighing in on adoption, economics, and whether Apple Podcasts and Overcast will share exposure data.Nick Cicero of Mondo Metrics argues podcasters undervalue social clips, and that sports teams solved this a decade ago by packaging clip distribution alongside full-episode integrations in a single sponsorship deal.Ofcom's Media Nations 2026 report details U.K. podcast and speech-audio listening, with 53% of adults tuning in to speech audio and YouTube leading as the most-used audio platform.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster closes out The Podcast Atlas series by arguing the email newsletter is the only piece of real estate a podcast creator actually owns, giving shows a direct line to listeners that survives algorithm changes.Mondo Metrics founder Nick Cicero explains what podcasters can learn from the sports social industry about selling social clips as sponsorship inventory rather than giving them away.Ofcom's Media Nations 2026 report finds 53% of U.K. adults listen to speech audio, YouTube is now the most-used platform for any audio content, and only 45% of listeners think podcasts carry too many adverts.Steve Goldstein writes for RAIN News that the download is an obsolete metric that can inflate audience figures by up to 50%, and that verified impression metrics could unlock $1 billion to $2 billion in new ad revenue.SiriusXM launches a $5-per-month Sports Pass on September 1, bundling NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL games with local Audacy stations, ESPN Radio, and hundreds of sports podcasts.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.