Sounds Profitable

Today in the business of podcasting:
Business Insider covers an Oxford Road survey finding 57% of marketers say measurement gaps are holding back podcast investments, with 40% planning to raise podcast and audio budgets in 2027, down from 59% this year.
Scalable names podcasting an unexpected loser of the 2026 midterms, as mentions of Trump on conservative podcasts fall nearly 70% from their 2024 peak while mainstream TV and meme accounts win.
Digiday reports that this year’s first holiday campaigns lean on celebrities like Seth Rogen, Colin Jost and Mariah Carey over creators, because Christmas is a mass-market moment.
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 finds the share of monthly podcast consumers who name just one genre grew from 12% to 16%, and explains why hosts and publishers should spend more time promoting other shows.
Audion and YouGov’s new study finds YouTube is the top audio platform in France, and that two-thirds of listeners use video platforms to listen without watching the screen.
Signal Hill Insights president Paul Riismandel shares three tips for planning a podcast brand lift study, starting about six weeks before the campaign launches.
Australia’s PodPoll 26 finds YouTube now accounts for 55% of podcast consumption, even as most listeners still prefer audio, and advises treating video and audio as two distinct products.
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:
Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster finds that the share of monthly podcast consumers who name just one genre grew from 12% to 16%, and explains why hosts should spend a minute of every episode promoting another show.
A Brazilian university lab launches an interactive map of more than 200 narrative podcasts, showing where each show’s story is set versus where it is produced.
Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman reports that podcasters’ election night streams were far smaller than in 2024 and several big voices sat it out, a sign of a fractured media landscape.
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 shares three tips for preparing a podcast brand lift study, from planning six weeks ahead to gathering campaign details and defining objectives.
Deadset Studios and Insightfully’s PodPoll 26 finds YouTube’s share of Australian podcast consumption has climbed to 55%, while 60% of regular consumers still prefer to listen rather than watch.
Podscribe’s October 2026 rankings put Crime Junkie first in audio reach and The MeidasTouch Podcast first in monthly plays. Spotify leads both publisher rankings, and Quince takes the top advertiser spot.
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 down a rabbit hole in The Podcast Landscape data to find out who consumes exactly one podcast genre, and why that group grew from 12% to 16% of monthly consumers in a year while the genre table barely moved. Tom gets into:
Why Comedy, Political Talk, and Celebrity Interviews all slipped, and where those points went
Who the one-genre consumer is: older than the stereotype, newer to podcasting, and likely to have found their one favorite show on YouTube or Facebook
How video platforms and Spotify drove the growth, and why discovery routes that run through other podcasts are missing for these listeners
What it means for hosts and publishers who hope to hand an audience a second show
Read the full issue here.