It’s hot out here, time for a swim and some lemonade at a pond-side cottage. Next week Sounds Profitable will be taking off for Summer break, but the Download daily will be back to normal publication on Monday the 7th and this here Recap’ll be back on the 11th. Before I go stock up on sunscreen, let’s check out the weeks’ news.
Serious about Wellness: Unlock the power of purpose-driven podcasting
This week Sounds Profitable published a new report sponsored by SiriusXM Media/SiriusXM Podcast Network. The study looks at data from The Advertising Landscape 2025 with a specific focus on two of podcasting’s fastest-growing segments: Self-Improvement, and Health & Fitness.
In the overall Advertising Landscape survey, respondents were asked which podcast genres they had consumed in the past 30 days, Self-Improvement scored 22% and Health & Fitness just below at 21%. The two also share significant overlap, as 45% of H&F consumers also consume Self-Improvement, and 44% in the other direction. While advertising to both can reinforce frequency, the two audiences are also demographically different enough to reinforce reach.
Health & Fitness consumers tend to be an older, more established audience with higher income and education completion. Meanwhile, Self-Improvement consumers are younger and more diverse with a higher Hispanic representation than H&F. The two blocks have nearly identical weekly engagement percentage (74% vs 73%) and above-average weekly listen-time
All of which is to say: an advertiser buying both audiences is buying into extremely complementary, growing segments of podcasting.
How Podcasting Can Cover Demographic Blind Spots by Tom Webster
Webster shares a table of data that’s sat with him from The Advertising Landscape’s survey of 5,000+ respondents, covering consumers of 22 different ad-supported media channels. The data showcases answers the question “without looking anything up, please list up to three brands or products you remember seeing or hearing advertised in the past week.”
The results show brands with strong digital and social ad platforms skew heavily towards younger demographics, but building those healthy platforms they’ve created blind spots in their media mixes. And some in the opposite direction, such as insurance brands like Liberty Mutual having good recall with the 55+ age demographic but low amongst the 18-to-34-year-olds. Podcasting offers the solution to these blind spots, with the ability to reach engaged audiences in all age groups. A quote from Webster:
“This is where podcasting’s unique consumption model becomes transformative. Unlike the scroll-and-skip behavior that defines most digital media, podcast listeners actively choose to spend 30, 45, or even 60 minutes with content they care about. They’re not multitasking through a feed or waiting for a video to load—they’re leaning in. And when a host they trust takes 60 seconds to tell them about a product or service, that’s 60 seconds of genuine, undivided attention.”
Coming from Cannes
Cannes Lions was a busy event, and we’ve got some stuff to talk about from it! First up, our very own Bryan Barletta was at the event and ended up being interviewed by Lynne d Johnson in a video about what podcasting gets right about attention.
Recalling data from The Advertising Landscape, Barletta says podcasting has left the phase of being a niche market, yet marketing budgets have yet to rise to meet its growth. Barletta compares podcasting to alt-rock in the 90s: it’s not particularly alternative anymore but people still believe that to be the case. There’s also value in showing up in places that aren’t specifically for one’s chosen niche, but brands are at. The value of networking can pay off over months, if not years, and influencers are finding that out. Up to and including Vidcon missing some familiar faces due to them going to Cannes instead.
Also, the mere act of content creators going to Cannes of their own volition is its own story. While a year or two ago articles focused on brands bringing out creators to make a splash, now figures like Dhar Mann flying in for meetings are noteworthy enough to get New York Times coverage.
We even got in on video production ourselves, with Barletta filming several interviews with industry leaders in the world of audio advertising. You can catch the full series, including videos uploading today, here on YouTube.
YouTube, YouDistribute
The Fox-owned streaming platform Tubi has announced deals with six YouTube creators to distribute over 500 episodes of their existing shows on the platform, with plans to bring in more YouTube-originated content in the coming weeks. The deals all live under the umbrella of Tubi for Creators, a program designed to bring creator content to Tubi under team leader Rich Bloom, formerly a senior executive at Vimeo. While this is not the first time a FAST (free ad-supported television) streaming service has allowed or intentionally sought content originally uploaded to YouTube, it is further recognition that content creators, influencers, and podcasters are producing the kind of content that engages with audiences enough to watch ads.
Speaking of courting YouTubers to other platforms: Natalie Jarvey has a leaked pitch deck from Spotify. The deck reportedly is aimed at attracting YouTube creators into starting Spotify video podcasts, agnostic of whether the creator actually makes “a podcast.” As Jarvey notes, in recent months the Spotify podcast charts have started to feature more and more shows from popular YouTubers that are effectively re-uploads, such as cooking creator Nick DiGiovanni hitting #1 in the Arts U.S. chart. The deck reportedly invites YouTubers to “bring your video to Spotify” without specifically mentioning podcasts, though it does use video podcast data to demonstrate the platform’s watchability. A platform that’s attracting the attention of a broadcast-to-podcast. Ten has announced a new deal with Spotify to broadcast their free-to-air news show 10 News+. The program will now also be released as an hour-long daily video podcast, available for viewing momentarily after the TV broadcast (as well as simulcast live on YouTube).
Finally, it’s time for 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:
- Mark your calendars for July 16th at 2:00 p.m. EST, as YouTube will be hosting a webinar specifically about how podcasters can best leverage YouTube’s live streaming capabilities.
- With Ross Adams stepping down from his nearly eight years as CEO of Acast, the board has announced Chief Business Officer Greg Glenday has been chosen as the new CEO effective immediately.
- Signal Hill Insights president Paul Riismandel has a new piece looking at the decline of podcast listen-time on smart speakers, as well as the rise of podcasts on smart TVs.
- A coalition of Canadian podcast industry leaders – including JAR Audio, Kelly&Kelly, Quill, Pod the North, and Digital First Canada – have published an open letter calling for podcasting to be funded as a core cultural sector.
- PanelPicker, the official SXSW community voting platform for session proposals, opens today for SXSW 2026. This Friday there will be live AMA sessions for both SXSW and SXSW EDU for those with questions about submitting, as well as virtual office hours throughout July for any remaining questions.
- RadioWorld covers the iHeartMedia announcement that the company is using AI to translate some of its most successful podcasts into multiple languages for global publication.
