Sounds Profitable

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.

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.