Sounds Profitable

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 week
Netflix is the third most-used service for podcasts, ahead of Apple Podcasts
Podcast-native apps kept shrinking as a most-used platform
Video kept growing, with 44% watching a video podcast in the past week
More people are consuming podcasts together with others
Plus, Tom points to his Podcast Movement NYC keynote on the Netflix finding.
Read the full issue here.

Today in the business of podcasting:
Acast, Oxford Road, and Triton Digital leaders explain how they reached scale, why inconsistent measurement remains a core problem, and why one CEO says podcast advertising is still "at the basement."
International Podcast Day brings a wave of announcements, including 82 free Podcast Movement NYC sessions on YouTube, a redesigned Podigee platform, and Flightcast's new Collaborative Publishing.
Radiocentre research finds that shifting search and social budgets into audio could add £1 million in profit for the average brand without raising total spend.
Talent agencies like CAA and UTA are moving into creator representation, blurring the line between agents and managers.
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:
BetterHelp has tapped creator-led agency Media Bodies to lead its international podcast advertising strategy across 10 markets, using localized approaches rather than one global playbook.
The IAB Tech Lab has opened its first Programmatic Standard Practices for public comment through October 16, setting shared business rules for how buyers and sellers use existing programmatic standards.
A new Media, Built issue draws on Hub Entertainment Research's study of 1,600 U.S. broadband users to show how being a viewer's "default" streamer drives retention, with default users two to six times more likely to keep a subscription.
Myles Younger of U of Digital argues AI is closer to labor, a utility or an appliance than to publishing, which makes paid models a better fit than advertising.
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:
1UpMedia founder Guang Jin Yeo shares what Asia's podcast market can learn from the global playbook, from static-frame video podcasts to dubbing and generative AI. His golden rule for AI in podcasting is that audiences shouldn't be able to tell, but they must always be told.
Programmatic podcast advertising is growing fast, and 82% of agencies now buy audio programmatically. New Podscribe benchmark data shows average podcast ad load fell to 10.3% in Q2 2026, and heavy ad loads can cut conversion rates nearly in half.
Patreon is ending per-creation memberships and moving creators to monthly-only billing by November 1, 2026. Seasonal podcasts like audio fiction and investigative series will likely feel it most.
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 explains why Netflix passing Apple Podcasts to become the third most-named place Americans consume podcasts is a warning sign, since most shows can never get on the platform.
Triton Digital's Sharon Taylor argues video is expanding podcasting rather than replacing audio, noting 80% of monthly podcast consumers both watch and listen.
ADOPTER Media, Right Side Up and Oxford Road, representing about half a billion dollars in ad buying, commit to YouTube Engaged Views after YouTube inflated its public view counts.
Lower Street's Annalise Nielsen details the roadblocks she hit trying to spend $72,000 on podcast ads, from missing sales contacts to $150,000 minimums.
Recaps from Podcast Movement NYC and the Sounds Profitable Business Summit cover AI-era podcast SEO, smart TV listening growth, and ad buyers' take on Spotify's skip button.
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.