Sounds Profitable

Today in the business of podcasting:
Sounds Profitable's new Podcast Atlas report maps five interconnected territories of podcasting audio, video, clips, social, and newsletters, finding that 78% of listeners engage with podcasts during hands busy activities while 77% still report giving the medium their full or nearly full attention.
Netflix CMO Marian Lee outlines the streamer's deliberately varied podcast deal strategy, mixing exclusive arrangements like Jay Shetty's with non-exclusive deals as the company adapts its traditional greenlight model to a creator economy where the creator is the brand.
Spotify's VP of Product details a multi-year rebuild of the company's ad infrastructure, including a proprietary ad exchange called SAX that has now opened podcast inventory to Amazon DSP buyers, even as Q1 2026 ad-supported revenue dipped 5% year over year despite audience growth.
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 released The Podcast Atlas, a study of more than 5,000 U.S. consumers mapping the creator economy into five territories: audio, video, short-form clips, newsletters, and social platforms.
Tom Webster's follow-up analysis, The Format That Travels, uses the Atlas data to argue audio wins the ad environment battle, capturing 78% of hands-busy listening moments and topping every platform on listener trust and ad receptivity.
Miroma Group acquired audio advertising agency Ad Results Media, marking a major U.S. expansion move that folds ARM's podcast-native performance advertising expertise into Miroma's broader agency portfolio.
Ben Robins' latest Purchase Funnel installment digs into UK podcast ad conversion data, finding strong purchase rates among younger listeners but a notable gap among listeners 55 and older compared with other platforms.
Cannes Lions recaps from Next Audio's Lemya Soltani and Sounds Profitable's Bryan Barletta highlight how podcast networking events can be run on a shoestring budget, alongside a new Sounds Profitable YouTube panel on why niche podcast communities can outperform broad-reach shows on advertiser metrics.
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:
A new Sounds Profitable report, The Podcast Atlas, finds audio podcasts lead every creator-economy format on trust, with 58% of listeners rating audio highest for factual accuracy and only 31% skeptical of its ad claims, even as video and clips drive more immediate purchase action.
Keyari Page argues the creator economy hasn't replaced traditional media but reorganized it entirely around direct audience relationships, with creator-led models becoming core commercial infrastructure for modern media.
A five-market study from NumberEight finds podcast audiences split nearly evenly by gender and skew Millennial, challenging assumptions that listeners are uniformly young or male and pointing to real variation by market and age group.
Signal Hill Insights' Paul Riismandel highlights data showing U.S. weekly podcast consumers grew 45% since 2022, with YouTube and Spotify driving new-listener growth as Apple Podcasts' app share declines.
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.

Audio podcasting reaches listeners in hands-busy, on-the-go moments no other format can, and new Podcast Atlas data shows it earns their full attention.
Written by Tom Webster
Edited and narrated by Gavin Gaddis

Find the full article here.

Today in the business of podcasting:
Podcast Movement has received nearly 800 submissions for the upcoming New York City edition of the conference and business summit.
Next Audio co-founder Lemya Soltani detailed on LinkedIn how her MENA audio network hosted a Cannes Lions networking event without VC funding, cutting costs through shared boat rentals, local catering, and budget flights. Sounds Profitable's Bryan Barletta shared a similar low-cost Cannes playbook, showing brands don't need big budgets to make an impact at the festival.
A Sounds Profitable panel from Cannes Lions, "Riches vs Niches," is now live on YouTube, featuring executives from SoundStack, Red Seat Ventures, ART19, and ADOPTER Media. The group makes the case that niche podcasts can outperform broad-reach shows on engagement, ad rates, and subscription revenue.
Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment and Mondo Metrics launched the Women's Sports Index, a real-time platform benchmarking media value across women's sports using social data. The tool aims to fill gaps left by traditional ratings metrics as new women's sports leagues build fan bases largely through social media.
Nielsen's May 2026 survey found PM drive listening now leads AM drive across the top 10 U.S. radio markets, with afternoon share continuing to grow year over year. The trend challenges long-standing assumptions about morning drive's dominance in radio ad planning.
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.