Tom Webster joins Sounds Profitable / Interview: Tom on the New Sounds Profitable / Podcast ad revenues as predicted

Plus, podcasts on abortion rights, I take over Podcast the Newsletter with Arielle Nissenblatt, and event updates

Inside.com Part of   Network May 10, 2022

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Edison Research's former SVP Tom Webster is joining Sounds Profitable as Partner, starting June 1. Headed by Bryan Barletta, Sounds Profitable (SP) is a weekly newsletter on podcast adtech from Podnews. The brand also produces the podcasts "AdTech Applied" and "The Download.*"  The New Sounds Profitable In his debut article on SP, Tom outlined the four basic pillars of the new brand to be: insightful content, industry-leading research, unmissable events, and peerless advisory services.  I had the opportunity to hear from Tom on his goals, the future of audio, and Sounds Profitable's role in it.  Shreya Sharma (SS): what is the gap in the podcasting industry that SP hopes to fill?  Tom Webster (TW): More than anything, we want to serve as a truly unbiased resource for the podcasting industry. Bryan and I have given up any equity positions we have in other companies and don’t manage our own stocks. With our upcoming quarterly research series, we will have the complete freedom to tackle all of the issues and opportunities that will confront podcasting, in an agile and unaffiliated way. SS: What is the single most important thing that our industry should be talking about right now?  TW: This is a good question, and one that Bryan might have a different answer to, but I think programmatic advertising remains one of the keys to fully unlocking the revenue potential of podcasting — and the key to realizing this potential is to get better with the tools, and not curse them.  *Disclaimer: Yours truly is a co-host of The Download (Eng.)

TOM WEBSTER ON SOUNDS PROFITABLE (contd.)  SS: What are your primary goals and objectives at Sounds Profitable?  TW: We want to level up the entire podcasting industry and make it easier for people who want to make a living in podcasting to do so. Our mission statement is that we want to set the course for the future of the audio business, and we will do that with a mix of education, advisory services, industry research, and events focused on the business of podcasting. SS: What does your addition to Sounds Profitable mean for the vision of the brand? TW: Bryan and I are both well-respected in this space. We complement each other well — he is a genius when it comes to the adtech and monetization aspects of podcasting, and I have deep experience on branding and audience. Together I think we form the starting point for an organization that I hope becomes the best advocate for all podcasters — those at networks and independent podcasters alike. I hope that this addition signals to the industry that we take our mission seriously. A message from Tom:  The only other thing I would share is this: people in podcasting know me from podcasting (duh!), but in my 18 years at Edison, I have worked in every conceivable industry. That broad portfolio will hopefully serve me well, but I am really excited to turn 100% of my attention to podcasting in a way I haven’t been able to before. Shreya: Godspeed, and thank you for all that you do, Tom!

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The podcast advertising market surpassed $1B for the first time in 2021, as reported by the IAB U.S. Podcast Advertising study. The study also forecasts this number exceeding $4B by 2024.  More: There's been a shift in Dynamically Inserted Ads (DAIs) vs Baked-In Ads in podcasts: while they were evenly split in efficacy in 2019, the scale tipped in DAI's favor last year.  When it comes to ad revenue share based on in-episode placement, mid-roll ads continue to win. 64% of revenue came in through mid-roll, 32% through pre-roll, and 4% through post-roll.  When considering ad length, 16-30 seconds seems to be the most popular spot length.  The study was released leading up to the IAB Podcast Upfront, which is happening today.

PODS ON THE BLOCK  "ACCESS: A podcast about abortion" is exactly that. Garnet Henderson hosts the independent show, which aims to demystify abortion by sharing first-person stories and perspectives. I am especially grateful for the episode on Abortion and Religion: Reclaiming the Narrative.  "Boom! Lawyered" is following and translating everything legal on the abortion rights front. Hosts Jessica and Imani take us through all we need to know in the legal battles in the "fight for reproductive justice" in America.  "NATAL" centers around the stories of Black families in the U.S. and their journeys to parenthood. The second season tells the stories of four parents from Mississippi, Iowa, and Hawaii and what every stage of pregnancy and beyond looked like for them.  Shreya: if there are other podcasts on the subject of reproductive rights that should be on this list, please reply to let me know.

A message from MASTERWORKS The Investment Top Podcasters Can’t Stop Raving About If you’ve listened to any type of podcast in the past year, you’ve heard it all. Folks spending millions of dollars on avatars, trading cards and… virtual apes. Sure, it’s great you can invest in anything nowadays, but should you? Despite the monkey business, even fewer people understand there’s an  “untouchable” investment that’s more than 2x more valuable than Bitcoin. We’re talking about art, and a gargantuan $1.7 trillion asset class. And this asset class has clearly been performing:  Contemporary art prices outperformed the S&P by 164% from 1995–2021 In 2017, a single painting sold for $450 MILLION  Total wealth in art is projected to explode by another $1 TRILLION by 2026 But unless you have $20 million lying around to buy a Picasso, you can forget about channeling your inner Rockefeller. Until now….. We found this $1 billion fintech company, that makes investing in art possible and cost-effective. Skip the Waitlist Here See important Reg A disclosures

PODCAST EVENT UPDATES On May 19, Devin Andrade and Castos are heading a session on How to Grow Your Podcast Audience, with focus on simple and applicable social media and marketing strategies.  On May 26, RedCircle is hosting a DIY Marketing course for Independent Podcasts.  Radiodays Asia is set to happen on Sept. 6-7 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

QUICK HITS From 5x to 10x, VC growth stage revenue multiples have doubled in the past year, according to the 2022 Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Report.* True crime music mystery podcast "Dead and Gone" is set to be adapted as a series for television.  Podcasters can now get pitch their shows to be featured on Spotify by filling out this form.  Lauren Passell was kind enough to invite Arielle Nissenblatt and me to take over her Podcast the Newsletter this week. We filled it with podcast recommendations and two industry interviews. Check it out!  After coming under fire for using offensive language and berating a creator in podcasting when she tweeted about women's reproductive rights, Daniel J. Lewis has been removed from the board of governors of The Podcast Academy. A change.org petition had also been started with this end goal in mind.  Audacy's podcast revenue grew 37% year-on-year, as reported in their earnings call.  Wanyee Li writes for Pacific Content on how to sneak passions into the stories branded podcasts tell.  Same old marketing automation not cutting it these days? Get our eBook and power up your customer experiences.* *This is sponsored content.

Upcoming events at Inside: May 10 - Giving Voice and Intelligence to Digital Characters with David Colleen (SapientX) (Register Here) May 10 - Venturing in VC - Episode #18 with Nik Talreja (Sydecar) (Register Here) May 11 - Building Last-Mile Startups: Underground Delivery with Garrett McCurrash (Pipedream Labs) (Register Here) May 12 - Making Metaverse Dating a Reality (Register Here) May 18 - Need To Know NoCoder: Jatin Arora (Utilize) (Register Here) May 19 - Understanding Fractionalization (Register Here) May 24 - Meet Our Fund 3 (Register Here) May 31 - Ethereum Merge with Anthony Donofrio (Ethereum) (Register Here) June 01 - Selling Consumer Goods in Web3 (Register Here) June 09 - Empowering Content Creators with No Code (Register Here) June 15 - Need To Know NoCoder - Artem Harutyunyan (bardeen.ai) (Register Here) June 16 - Future of the Art Market (Register Here) June 23 - The Future of Open-Source Software Security (Register Here) June 30 - HR Strategies to Retain Remote Employees (Register Here)

This newsletter was curated by podcast geek and marketer, Shreya. She loves storytelling in all forms but podcasts are her favourite. A resident of Vancouver, her favorite podcast genres are sci-fi, comedy, TTRPG, and a combination thereof. Follow her adventures on Twitter. Do you or anyone you know host an indie podcast? Hit reply to tell me about it. I might feature it on Pods On The Block!     Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford.

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