Podcast Show London is Next Week!
It’s almost time for The Podcast Show. Next week Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster and Bryan Barletta will be in attendance, so I’ve got a quick list of every panel they’re going to be hosting/attending in addition to the existing Sounds Profitable happy hour on Tuesday the 20th.
Tom Webster will be kicking things off at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 21st with Podcasting’s Place in the Advertising Landscape, followed by A Deeper Look At News Podcasting with NPR on the Meet the Expert Stage on the 22nd at 3:20 p.m.
Meanwhile, ever the busy bee, Bryan has so many I’m going to just give you a list:
- Wednesday, May 21st
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- 1:10 -1:40 Mic Check: Are You Reaching the Right Podcast Audience? (Brand Works Stage)
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- Thursday, May 22nd
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- 10:00-10:30 Brand Stage Unlocking Revenue Opportunities for your Podcast (Brand Work Stage)
- 10:40 -11:20 – The Global Sales Opportunity – Podcasting’s Worldwide Boom into Ad Revenue (Brand Works Stage)
- 1:00 -1:30 Earning Money from Video Podcasts: Has the Game Changed? (The Studio Stage)
- 2:30 – 3:10 PM The Future of Audio in an AI-Driven Creative Landscape (Ask the Expert Stage)
Eventful Podcast by Tom Webster
In anticipation for The Podcast Show London, Tom shares some tips from his book The Audience is Listening regarding running podcast events. Sometimes a live show version of a podcast is itself big enough to be a “special event” for audiences, but especially in the context of digital events podcasts need to pull out all the stops. A quote from Webster:
“For some podcasts, just doing your regular show before a live audience is enough of an “event” to be an Event, because your audience gets to have a level of access that they typically never have. But now, I don’t think that is enough to really stand out in an environment where the only variety in our days is what virtual background we are using. Pull out all the stops. Bring back guests from your best episodes. Pull in the biggest star you can grab. Re-do some of your best bits. The point is, don’t treat it simply like a video version of your typical show. Treat it like it’s the last show you will ever do.”
Scarcity also works to make them special. Whether that’s limiting how many live shows are performed in a year, or limiting attendance numbers so they for sure sell out each time. This helps prevent audiences simply thinking “I’ll catch the next one.” And one of the biggest secret weapons with live events: breaking the fourth wall to engage the audience directly, especially in a virtual context. Fan engagement goes a long way, even if it’s something as simple as occasionally acknowledging the audience chat.
Spotify plays are one more nail in the download’s coffin by Jonas Woost
The biggest issue Bumper has with the download as a metric, Woost explains, is it doesn’t represent actual podcast consumption. They represent a file transfer, not the file actually being consumed. As Bumper has tracked, downloads are decreasing despite audience sizes increasing as various corners of podcasting that don’t count as a download grow in popularity (e.g. video episodes on YouTube and Spotify). A quote from Woost:
“The download is still the de-facto currency of podcast monetization. Let’s call it the world’s dominant reserve podcast currency. Turns out we picked the wrong currency and it’s time to move on.
We need to agree on a currency that is rooted in the consumption of our shows, and audiences being exposed to the messages from our advertising partners. We need to be able to show our clients that we are charging for ads that have actually been heard/seen by audiences. Spotify introducing a public play metric actually offers an opportunity to better report to our ad partners, and prove that the messages have been heard by audiences.
This means we need to have a broader conversation and collaboration within our industry and agree on what that new reserve currency is going to be.”
Woost and Dan Misener are planning to host an invite-only discussion on the death of the download and future of podcast measurement at Podcast Show London next week. Interested parties can express that interest via Bumpers’ Contact page.
YouTube Launches Weekly Charts by Ashley Carman
Yesterday afternoon Ashley Carman posted to LinkedIn a screenshot of a new YouTube chart, Weekly Top Podcast Shows. The first iteration of the chart tracks the watch-time for podcasts on YouTube from May 5th through the 11th. The U.S.-only chart, unsurprisingly, favors video-forward podcasts with The Joe Rogan Experience, Kill Tony, and Rotten Mango in the top three. Meanwhile audio-only hits like Dateline make no appearance in the top ten while niche YouTube-first productions that don’t regularly chart in Spotify or Apple (e.g. Smosh Reads Reddit Stories) fill those spots. The new chart landing page is available here.
Gavin: Finally, it’s time for our Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
- This week Podcast Perspectives from The Podglomerate interviewed Katie Konans, Program Lead for Audio and Podcasts at NASA about NASA’s audio strategy and how they bring science communication to podcasting.
- Podscribe has published their Industry Rankings for May 2025, including big moves for Crime Junkie, Audioboom, and Uber Eats.
- Podcast Show co-founder Jason Carter sat down with Podcast Business Journal to discuss what’s new with this year’s event. Speaking of, I’ll just drop a quick reminder that Sounds Profitable is hosting a happy hour with NPR the afternoon before, May 20th. Space is limited, register here for consideration.
- Signal Hill Insights president Paul Riismandel has a new blog breaking down four reasons why you should be using audience surveys.
- Wondercraft’s new report on generative AI use in content creation, debuted on Wednesday in a Digiday article, is now fully available for download.
- TED Audio Collective has partnered with Magellan AI to use their measurement tech to measure listener engagement across the stable of TED podcasts.
