The Theater of the Mind: Building Stickier Podcasts by Tom Webster
The latest data from The Advertising Landscape finds ad-supported podcasts have reached 31% monthly usage by Americans 18+, putting the medium ahead of Snapchat, X, and several other platforms a layperson would presume are “bigger” than podcasting. That said, only 61% convert to daily or near-daily listening, below the average conversion rate of 70% across all media types. Webster brings back his pitch to podcasting from the keynote presentation of Evolutions by Podcast Movement: Podcasting has focused on building a stage, when it should be building the entire theater. The Content itself works great as a stage, but to keep people coming back they need a theater people want to be in. A “backstage” where the parasocial relationships are evolved into something more connective (e.g. newsletters, Discord servers, live meet and greets). A “lobby” acting as a focal point for listeners to connect with each other (e.g. community forums, comment sections that hosts actively moderate, in-person fan meetups, fan-created wikis). Point being: podcasting has done well to be listened to by almost a third of the country on a monthly basis, but it’s leaving far too many people who would be passionate podcast peeps by the wayside due to a lack of stickiness.
Where are global podcast–listeners in 2025? by Clifton Mark
New YouGov Global Profiles data collected in February gives a look at podcast listenership worldwide. Over all 49 markets included, 41% of consumers say they spend at least one hour a week listening to podcasts. 9% spend more than ten hours per week listening. Narrowing to specific regions, Indonesia takes the lead with 49% listening at least one hour a week, followed by Thailand and India (note: India’s data is from a survey conducted among urban residents while the other two are internet surveys). Overall, YouGov’s report finds podcasting has global reach but with untapped potential outside of the regions already being heavily invested in.
Benchmarking’s Back, Alright! by Sharon Taylor
Required homework for the right cadence to be used when reading the headline. Triton Digital’s EVP, Podcast and Content Delivery shows off Omny Studio benchmarking data collected from shows hosted on the platform in 2024. News takes home the gold for most-downloaded category, pulling in 25.4%. Comedy is in second place (13.3%) and Sports takes third (12.6%). When looking at all categories, the 12 month benchmark data shows a “good” amount of downloads for an episode in its first thirty days for a top 1% podcast is 39,094. To be in the top 50%, an episode has to crack 85 downloads. The benchmarks then zoom into popular genres and regions to take a look at top percentile download performance, showing the pressure to qualify for top brackets eased in 2024 (e.g. it’s 10,000 downloads easier to crack into the top 1% of podcasts in North America than it was in 2023).
Cumulus to stop trading shares on NASDAQ in May by Matthew Keys
Broadcaster Cumulus Media will stop trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange effective May 2nd, selling stock exclusively through the over-the-counter market. The voluntary removal comes after a warning letter from NASDAQ officials saying the company would be removed in early May if their per-share price did not hit the required threshold of $1 after trading below that since October. A Cumulus spokesperson told The Desk the company has opted to avoid the expense of developing a plan to remain on the NASDAQ by voluntarily pulling their stock.
Coworking: Molly Murphy
Twice a week here on The Download we spotlight someone from the business of podcasting. Today’s coworker is Molly Murphy, Business Development Manager at Linkfire. When reflecting on moments that changed how she thinks about the industry, Murphy recalls her first encounter with Twenty Thousand Hertz, a podcast so steeped in sound design and storytelling it’s uniquely best consumed as a podcast. For big-picture issues for podcasting to overcome, Murphy says de-emphasizing conversions and streams for plain download numbers has partially blinded podcasting to developing strategies that target truly engaged listeners. Catch all of her Coworking interview here on Sounds Profitable, and if you’d like to pitch your hat in for a future edition, send us an email!
As for the rest of the news…
- Australia’s top comedy podcast duo Hamis & Andy have just signed an early long-term extension with SCA, keeping their podcasts exclusive to LiSTNR.
- Adwanted UK has published Media Pulse: Podcasts, a whitepaper showing the state of podcasting in the UK using a mix of recent research and Adwanted data (including a section from our very own Tom Webster!)
- Speaking of podcasting in the UK: BBC Studios has announced a partnership with The Podcast Exchange in which TPX will be the exclusive third-party advertising reseller for BBC podcasts in Canada.
- Mondo Metrics has a new case study detailing how client bknown saved over 300 hours of reporting time and drove over 250 million impressions with their services.
- Podcast advertising platform RedCircle has partnered with Magellan AI to expand RedCircle’s analytics capabilities, including competitive intelligence, age verification, and performance measurement across client campaigns.
- The Tribeca film festival has announced their lineup of events, including an Audio Storytelling lineup , including their Excellence in Audio Journalism gala and live recordings of flagship shows from Slate, The New York Times, Wondery, and Radiotopia.
