Podcast · Tech & Science

Sounds Profitable

by Bryan Barletta · English · Tech & Science

The pace of change the podcast industry is undergoing is staggering. The implications for podcasters, hosting providers, podcast listening app developers, and advertisers and agencies are enormous. And so is the growth potential. Presented as a companion to the weekly newsletter of the same name, ou

New episodes: Daily
Typical length: 7 min
Latest: 14 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026 · 10 minNew

Politics and Podcasting: A Special Report from The Podcast Landscape

This week Tom Webster looks at how podcast consumers feel about politics in podcasting as the midterms approach, drawing on the politics chapter of The Podcast Landscape 2026 and, for the first time, what moved since last year.Tom gets into:How the podcast audience compares to the country by party and ideologyWhether politicians belong on podcasts, and how weekly consumers and never-consumers differHow likely midterm voters say a podcast appearance would affect their voteWhat happened to political talk as a genre heading into the electionRead the full issue here.

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E998 · 13 Oct 2026 · 8 minNew
What Moves Podcast Performance, Keeping Brand Deals Personal, & More
Today in the business of podcasting:Podscribe’s Q3 benchmark report finds geography is the strongest targeting signal for podcast ad results, followed by a recent visit to the advertiser’s website and its Buyer Power Score.The Podcast Study 2026 finds only 8.6% of listeners would accept more ads to keep a podcast free, while 54.8% say shows already carry too many.Right Side Up’s Krystina Rubino shares how a podcast host halved her rate for a fertility brand, and why bespoke deals still run on one-to-one relationships.Media, Built’s Steve Raizes argues Spotify’s Joe Rogan renewal buys the…
E997 · 12 Oct 2026 · 7 minNew
Apple Talks HLS, Audible Debuts NielsenIQ Spoken Word Data, & More
Today in the business of podcasting:Apple Podcasts product manager Ted Hosmann explains how video podcasts work over HLS at the IETF’s HLS Interest Day. He says top shows have grown their audience more than 20% on average since adding video, and Apple has also quietly acqui-hired members of the team behind AI audio startup Huxe.Audible and NielsenIQ surveyed 18,000 spoken-word listeners across 11 countries. 34% say they listened to more audio than the year before, and 50% are open to AI-narrated content.Digiday reports that top creators like Alix Earle and Kevin Cooney are cutting their…
E995 · 9 Oct 2026 · 12 min
The New Rules of Podcast Advertising, Automating the Average, & More
This week in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster says AI is the average machine, so podcasters should hand it routine work like show notes and ad operations and protect the host-read ad and the show itself.Audacy's Leah Reis-Dennis argues the old podcast advertising playbook is outdated, citing 22% lower cost per acquisition on mid-sized shows, the hybrid audio and video audience, and the trust behind host-read ads.Signal Hill Insights' Audio on the Move study finds AM/FM radio holds 46% of Canadian in-car listening and that 68% of Canadians dislike fully AI-generated podcasts.WARC…
E996 · 8 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Resetting Podcasting's Thermostat, Ad Spend Increase, & More
Today in the business of podcasting:Tom Webster says AI is the average machine, so hand it the routine podcasting work like show notes, transcripts and ad ops, and protect the human work of host-read ads and the show itself.WARC forecasts global ad spend will grow 11.9% to $1.34 trillion in 2026, with social, search and retail media taking 66.4% of spend and growth slowing to 8.4% in 2027.A new tool called Pod Is Life combines podcast charts from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Castbox and Pocket Casts into one ranking, though the scores seem to reflect the biggest shows in each country.A…
E993 · 8 Oct 2026 · 10 min
Reset Your Thermostat
This week Tom Webster reports back from Denver, where Content Marketing World, LIONS, and The Market Research Event shared one expo floor and nearly every booth was selling an AI-augmented something. His argument is that large language models are built to produce the most probable answer, which makes them a machine for the average, and that the real opportunity is to hand over the average work and reinvest the time in what only people can do.Tom gets into:Why synthetic survey respondents hand you the consensus back, and why research earns its keep by finding what you didn't expectWhere AI…
E994 · 7 Oct 2026 · 7 min
Canadian Listeners on AI Audio, Apple's Ad Tech Blocklist, & More
Today in the business of podcasting:A Signal Hill Insights survey of 6,161 Canadians finds AM/FM radio still holds 46% of in-car listening, while 68% of Canadians dislike AI-generated podcasts and only 4% like them.The Podcast Study 2026 identifies "Prime Prospects," the 18% of podcast consumers who value the host and show growing consumption, as a major opportunity to grow podcast superfans, who make up 17% of the audience.Apple's iOS 27 update has Safari blocking a first handful of ad tech companies, including The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, ID5, and Permutive, a quiet blocklist that was the…
E992 · 6 Oct 2026 · 8 min
Lessons on Podcast Impressions, Barometer Brand Suitability on Amazon Ads, & More
Today in the business of podcasting:Sounds Profitable Partner Tom Webster and ADOPTER Media's Glenn Rubenstein host a free webinar on October 13 at 2:00 p.m. ET, using new Podcast Atlas analysis to profile podcasting's heaviest buyers, the Super Spenders.Audacy's Leah Reis-Dennis argues in a Sounds Profitable guest article that outdated podcast advertising advice needs a rewrite, citing 22% lower CPA on mid-sized shows, the value of host expertise, and the discovery role of video.Barometer's AI contextual brand suitability and targeting segments are now available in Amazon Ads DVA+ for…
E991 · 2 Oct 2026 · 9 min
Industry Leaders on Scale, Podcast Landscape 2026 Debuts, & More
This week in the business of podcasting:Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026 shows podcast reach holding steady at 74% of U.S. adults, while Netflix debuts as the third most-used podcast platform and video viewing climbs to 44% weekly.Acast's Greg Glenday, Oxford Road's Dan Granger and Triton's Sharon Taylor explain how they reached scale, why measurement remains the industry's biggest problem, and why they believe podcast advertising is still early.International Podcast Day brought a wave of announcements, from free Podcast Movement NYC sessions and a Headliner credit giveaway to a…
E990 · 1 Oct 2026 · 7 min
The Podcast Landscape 2026 Pt. 1, Podcasting's Place in the Mix, & More
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…
E989 · 1 Oct 2026 · 4 min
The Podcast Landscape 2026 - The Core Numbers
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…
E988 · 30 Sep 2026 · 7 min
International Podcast Day Announcements, Podcast Leaders on Scale, & More
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…
E987 · 29 Sep 2026 · 5 min
BetterHelp Goes Global with Media Bodies, IAB Tech Lab Seeks Programmatic Feedback, & More
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…
E986 · 28 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Monitoring Programmatic Podcast Ad Load, Patreon Pulls Per-Creation, & More
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…
E984 · 25 Sep 2026 · 11 min
Lessons from Podcast Movement NYC, Buyers Choose Engaged Views, & More
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…
E985 · 24 Sep 2026 · 8 min
Netflix's Place in Podcasting, Upcoming YouTube Features, & More
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…
E983 · 23 Sep 2026 · 4 min
Podcast Locations in Apple Maps, Mid-Sized Podcast Appeal, & More
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…
E982 · 23 Sep 2026 · 13 min
Tu-Dum
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…
E981 · 22 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Rethinking Audio vs. Video Podcasting, Creators Selling TV-Style, & More
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…
E980 · 21 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Ad Buyers Align on Engaged Views, Bumper x Oxford Road, & More
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…
E979 · 18 Sep 2026 · 9 min
Podcast Week in NYC, iOS 27 Podcast Updates, & More
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…
E978 · 17 Sep 2026 · 5 min
Spotify Expands Partner Program, IAB Announces Podcast Video Measurement Guidelines, & More
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…
E977 · 16 Sep 2026 · 7 min
New Apple Podcasts Features, Amazon Music Expands Video Podcast Presence, & More
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…
E976 · 15 Sep 2026 · 5 min
Ira Glass on Podcast Advertising, PRX Names New CEO, & More
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…
E975 · 14 Sep 2026 · 5 min
Podcasting 🔜 NYC, Magellan AI's Q2 Podcast Measurement Benchmarks, & More
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…
E974 · 11 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Audiences Chose TVs Over Smart Speakers, IAB 2026 Ad Outlook, & More
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…
E973 · 10 Sep 2026 · 5 min
How Smart TVs Overtook Speakers, IAB Bullish on 2026 Ad Revenue, & More
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,…
E972 · 9 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Speakeasy Now Uses Barometer, True Native Media on Podcast Growth, & More
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…
E971 · 9 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Smart TV Killed the Smart Speaker Star
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…
E970 · 8 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Podcasting's Biggest Spender, NPR Launches Senior Podcast Challenge, & More
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…

About Sounds Profitable

Sounds Profitable is a English tech & science podcast from Bryan Barletta. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Bryan Barletta
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Daily
Typical length: 7 min
Latest episode: 14 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1541380348

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