On May 9th the IAB will gathered brands, agencies, and media buyers for the annual Podcast Upfront. The event will be hosted in New York City and streamed on IAB.com. In addition to the usual presentations from big names in podcasting, the IAB will debut the eighth installment of their annual U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue study. Sounds Profitable will be present at the Upfront, interviewing buyers live during the event. [Source]

In a LinkedIn post promoting his appearance in Entrepreneur’s Startups magazine, podcaster Jordan Harbinger shares his experience growing The Jordan Harbinger Show through buying ads on other podcasts. As discovered while working with Sounds Profitable on the study After These Messages, Harbinger says completely scripted ad reads can impact the authenticity and credibility one wants from a podcast ad in the first place. [Source]

Crime Writers On creator and New Hampshire Public Radio director of on-demand audio Rebecca Lavoie gives five strategies for how public radio stations could potentially leverage podcasts as an audience development tool while keeping them financially solvent. Podcasts can be a valuable vehicle for audience growth and git revenue for stations, even at relatively smaller scales. As Lavoie puts it, a local radio station wouldn’t flinch at signing off on a newsroom project that might reach 15,000 people, yet a podcast with 15,000 weekly listeners might seem small in comparison to the industry’s big names. Stations should focus on growth at a scale and pace that’s sustainable over the long term, and reframe what it means to have a “successful” podcast. [Source]

NBCUniversal has completely sold out of both digital and linear ad inventory for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2024 Olympic games in Paris. As the headline notes, the network has accrued $1.2 billion in ad sales, according to NBCU’s President of Olympic and Paralympic partnerships Dan Lovinger on a press call last week. As with any major sporting event, podcasting stands as an excellent source of inventory for brands looking to get in on the action after the traditional venues sell out. Sports podcasts are growing in popularity, have open inventory, and feature passionate, engaged audiences. [Source]

…as for the rest of the news:

• Audioboom’s Q1 2024 trading update shows 11% revenue growth and a record Q1 eCPM (average global revenue per 1,000 downloads) of $42.17

• Adam Sachs is leaving SiriusXM/Team CoCo to be an on-demand Expert on consultation service Intro.

• With Spotify making follower counts public information, The Podglomerate has created a sheet documenting nearly 1,000 of the most-followed shows on Spotify, aggregated from the top 50 podcasts of each of Spotify’s 17 categories. 

• Alitu debuts their next generation of audio editing tools, including  filters that automatically slice filler words like “um” and “ah”, as well as long silences. 

• Edison Research has published the top five podcasts with the highest portion of their audience that listened exclusively to that show.

Research Database Snapshot

What is says: The percentage of weekly podcast users who reported voting in the 2020 Presidential Election.

What it means: 81% is significantly higher than the national average from 2020, which was 66%.

Why it’s cool: The 2020 national turnout was actually the highest percentage since 1900 - and the podcast listener was markedly even more active than that!

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