The Podcasting Boom in India: Shaping the Future of Digital Storytelling
The India Brand Equity Foundation takes a look at the medium’s relatively recent evolution, now with an estimated audience of 200 million that puts India in third place behind China and the U.S. Grand View Research projects that with 2023’s podcast revenue almost reaching half a billion in USD valuation, it’s possible podcasting in India will be a $3.72 billion USD industry by 2030. A boom of affordable smartphones and low-data plans in India has contributed to podcasting’s growth, as well as the format’s ability to cater to niche audiences, with IBEF estimating up to 85% of podcasts produced in India to be produced in regional languages.
Moonbug Study Reveals the Best Way Ads Can Interact With Parents by Mark Mwachiro
A new study from Moonbug Entertainment – manager of monolithic kids’ YouTube properties like CoComelon and Blippi – surveyed 1,000 parents aged 18-49 with kids under the age of 10. Key findings include a commonality in parents rarely seeing themselves depicted in ads as anything other than caregivers, with only 30% agreeing brands effectively convey other aspects of being a parent. The report finds dads are actively exploring parent-focused content on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and parenting blogs. One notable omission to the study is any focus on audio. A shame, given the explosive growth of the Kids & Family genre means podcasting provides brands a direct path to, quite literally, both kids and family.
Spotify ensures podlink’s future by James Cridland
Podnews covers a surprise development in the saga of pod.link. Originally developed by Nathan Gathright, the service offers a simple single link to a podcast that aggregates all platforms it is available on, making sharing a show with someone platform-agnostic. In 2021 pod.links was acquired by Podsights, which was then acquired by Spotify a year later. Now Spotify is in the process of transitioning full ownership of pod.link back to Gathright.
You might’ve heard mention of the band The Velvet Sundown in passing online recently, this article acts as a good snapshot of what’s going on. Long story short: a psychedelic rock foursome has been charting highly on Spotify thanks to premium playlist placement and high charting of their first two albums (both released in June. The twist is their online notoriety stems from many signs in the music and soft-lit Instagram photos suggesting the band is AI generated. Spotify does not require media using generative AI to disclose as such, and the band’s X account initially denied any generative AI use. Now, after significant backlash, the Velvet Sundown Spotify page reverses the claim it is 100% human-made with a new flowery description framing the band as a “synthetic music project.”
Triton Digital has published the 2025 edition of their Canadian Podcast Report, which analyzes listener behavior, platform preferences, genre trends, and top-performing shows between April 2024 and March 2025. The report also incorporates findings from Signal Hill Insights’ Canadian Podcast Listener study. As the headline says, Canadian monthly podcast listeners now account for 39% of the population, up three percentage points year over year.
As for the rest of the news…
- Publishers Weekly looks at the current expert opinions about where audiobooks are headed in a gen-AI world, including Sounds Profitable data and commentary from Tom Webster on audiences’ preference for entertainment and information over the fiddly specifics for format or channels.
- Podscribe has launched a major update to the Planner tool available in all user dashboards
- Incremental lift is now available on Magellan AI, allowing users to measure how much podcast ads drive business by comparing exposed and unexposed audiences.
- True Native Media has launched PodRamp – a monetization program meant for growing podcasts – and PodPremium, which offers high-touch representation for shows that have grown enough to graduate out of PodRamp.
- AdExchanger covers Sounder’s new version of their brand suitability and contextual targeting tool for podcasts, which is specifically designed to understand the nuances of Spanish-language audio content.
- PodcastOne has new contracts for top leadership in the company, as well as cementing talent relationships with equity going to Adam Carolla and Brendan Schuab.
- The Media Leader covers AudioUK’s open call to lawmakers in the UK to support enshrining the burgeoning UK podcast industry with similar protections that other UK-produced media currently receive. Spoiler alert: this will be relevant to tomorrow morning’s Sounds Profitable newsletter 😉
