Today in the Business of Podcasting
Changes coming to Spotify for Podcasters
New from Podcast Movement: Spotify is bringing updates to their Spotify for Podcasters dashboard, as well as a new addition to Megaphone. Podcasters logging into their Spotify backend will get access to impression analytics showing how audiences find their podcast within Spotify. On the advertising side, Spotify is tripling the user base of its invite-only Automated Ads program and extending from just the United States to also include Australia and the UK. Finally, Starting today on Megaphone, users have access to the Spotify Audience Network Performance Dashboard, which aims to provide a holistic video of Spotify Audience Network metrics like average CPM and listener location.
PodcastOne readies public offering in September by Brad Hill
The anticipated spin-off of PodcastOne into a publicly-traded company now has a date. When the company goes public, 24,000 LiveOne stockholders will receive 0.048 shares per LiveOne stock they currently own. The listing of PodcastOne is based on the valuation LiveOne received in February that gave PodcastOne a market range of $230 to $274 million.
Product placements can drive searches and purchases, research finds by Kelsey Sutton
BenLabs, an agency that specializes in product placement, influencer marketing, and licensing, has new research built from surveying 650 US adults this April. According to their findings, 75% of respondents searched for a product after seeing it in a TV show or movie. 60% of those who made the search either purchased the same or similar product. With the rising popularity of branded content, podcasting would do well to perfect the audio equivalent of slipping designer dresses into episodes of Sex in the City.
Frozen’s Story Will Continue In a New Podcast by James Whitbrook
The newly-announced fiction podcast, hosted by ABC chief meteorologist Ginger Zee, will bridge a narrative gap between Frozen II and the eventual third film. The Disney Frozen Podcast: Forces of Nature is set to debut this October and Disney will let it go for 12 episodes. Given the steady rise of Kids & Family content, expect to see more examples of large IP getting canonical podcasts.
