Episode notes
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…
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Sounds Profitable
Bryan Barletta · Tech & Science · English
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
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E999 · 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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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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