Sounds Profitable

Today in the business of podcasting:
Reminder: Sounds Profitable's latest research, The Podcast Atlas, will debut tomorrow, July 1, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern in a live webinar hosted by Tom Webster. Registration is free and open now, grab your virtual seat!
Miroma Group has acquired performance audio advertising agency Ad Results Media, with CEO Jordan Fox framing the deal as a major U.S. expansion that brings ARM's podcast-native performance advertising into Miroma's broader portfolio.
Ben Robins' latest UK Advertising Landscape installment finds 44% of UK podcast listeners aged 18 to 34 made a purchase after hearing a podcast ad, and flags the 55-plus demographic as a meaningful untapped opportunity for podcast advertisers.
YouTube has retired BrandConnect in favor of Creator Partnerships built into Google Ads, monetizing brand amplification of creator content while controlling discovery, distribution, and measurement rather than taking a commission on creator deals.
Podnews editor James Cridland tests whether HLS streaming improves podcast consumption measurement, concluding the data is clearer than traditional downloads but that browser buffering and inconsistent play definitions across apps still limit meaningful measurement gains.

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:
Registration for The Podcast Atlas debut webinar on July 1 at 2pm Eastern is available here.
New Sounds Profitable research from The Podcast Atlas finds 73% of podcast listeners would follow a creator from audio to video and 71% from long-form episodes to short-form clips, showing audience loyalty is tied to creators rather than formats.
iHeartMedia expands its advertising partnership with Amazon Ads, becoming a reseller across Amazon Music, Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV, and Alexa, giving its sellers access to Amazon's first-party shopping and streaming data.
Owl & Co. founder Hernan Lopez shares findings from the second annual Global Podcast Economy Report, revealing that ten companies capture roughly 60% of U.S. podcast advertising revenue alongside a vibrant long tail of smaller players.
DoubleVerify launches DV Neura, an AI engine that unifies media verification, content classification, and campaign optimization, and can recommend campaign changes across its DV Media AdVantage Platform.
Oxford Road's ORBIT tool releases its June 2026 ranking of the top 15 Entertainment and Media podcasts, with The Popcast with Knox and Jamie taking the top spot and the data favoring show-level buying over genre-level approaches.
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:
Register here for the Podcast Atlas debut webinar next week!
Two new Sounds Profitable studies reshape the discovery conversation: the Podcast Discovery Playbook 2026, co-published with JAR Podcast Solutions, finds 61% of listeners discover shows through YouTube and social media, while Tom Webster's A New Map for Podcasting and the forthcoming Podcast Atlas argue that platform-native vertical clips, not trailers, drive discovery for audiences under 35.
Two industry leaders weigh in on SoundsProfitable.com: Triton Digital's Mattia Verzella explains why cross-channel CPM comparisons mislead publishers and details the floor-pricing "triangle of sadness," and Voxtopica's Richard Fawal argues that mission-driven podcasters at nonprofits, universities, and government agencies deserve research, pricing, and recognition the industry has yet to provide.
New data digs into audio's ad effectiveness: the YouGov U.S. Podcast Advertising Report 2026 finds podcast ads are the most-skipped yet least-annoying format, with 60% of listeners taking action after hearing one, while Sounds Profitable and Veritonic launch a free preview of Veritonic Instant Insights to test whether video ad creative holds up as audio before launch.
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:
Register here for the Podcast Atlas debut webinar next week!
Tom Webster previews The Podcast Atlas, a new Sounds Profitable research report debuting at Vidcon that maps how audiences move across audio, video, clips, social, and newsletters, finding that vertical clips from platform-native creators drive podcast discovery for listeners under 35 far more than trailers or podcast ads.
Richard Fawal, founder and CEO of Voxtopica, argues that mission-driven podcasters at nonprofits, universities, and government agencies are overlooked by the industry, and calls for research, benchmarks, and pricing that recognize their impact beyond downloads and CPMs.
A global study of 1,262 campaigns from the Effie x System1 Databank, presented by Mark Ritson at Cannes Lions 2026, finds that campaigns using audio delivered 75% higher profits, 81% greater trust, and 19% more customer acquisition, with profits roughly doubling when audio is paired with emotional creative.
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 and Veritonic launched a free preview of Veritonic Instant Insights, a tool that tests audio and video ad creative before launch and returns awareness and intent signals across podcast, YouTube, CTV, social, and streaming, benchmarked against more than a decade of testing data.
A new joint study from Radiocentre, the Radio Advertising Bureau, and Commercial Radio & Audio Australia, spanning 1,262 campaigns over 17 years, found that adding audio to the marketing mix delivers a 75% profit uplift, an 81% increase in consumer trust, and a 19% gain in customer acquisition.
Prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket are moving into podcasting, with Kalshi backing the Men in Blazers World Cup recap show Night Cup and Polymarket launching the weekly pop culture show What Are the Odds? with Dear Media.
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.