Reminder: The Podcast Landscape 2025 debuts this Thursday at 2:00 p.m. in a live webinar hosted by Tom Webster. You might have seen some teaser data in Dallas, now catch the full presentation. A quick reminder that, as is the case with every Sounds Profitable research presentation, registering ahead of time means you’ll be emailed the report automatically after the fact. Registration is still open and a great way to be first in line for the data 🙂
Podcasters Are Making Millions Through Live Events by Ashley Carman
Live shows are more and more a growing concern. Madison Square Garden has had multiple sold-out podcast live shows this year alone, including annual Kill Tony performances and Dropout’s much-hyped Dimension 20 live show. Podcasts are now such a big deal MSG’s website changed their event calendar so now one can sort the events schedule for “concerts, comedy shows, and podcast shows.” A recent Pollstar survey shows Kill Tony raked in $11 million in live show tours. Live shows have been a part of podcasting since the early years, but the medium’s growing mainstream appeal has also evolved some of the biggest performances, with simple radio play-style performances being supplemented with stylish performances and big-budget spectacles (where else can one get pyrotechnics during a game of Dungeons and Dragons?).
Seven influencer marketing experts interviewed by Digiday agree that the creator economy has some measurement issues that might stunt its growth long-term, ranging from measurement fragmentation to inconsistent attribution. As a broad umbrella, the creator economy lacks zoomed-in attribution methods like clicks, sales, and all the other usuals CMOs use to justify ad spend. The article doesn’t mention podcasting specifically, so I will: we do have that level of granularity and measurement. Podcasting’s put a fair bit of time and effort into building out its ad tech over the past decade. The challenge now will be re-connecting with brands and marketers who have 15 year-old impressions of podcasting’s capabilities.
Talent manager Johanna Voss tells Marketing Brew her work negotiating with brands and agencies on behalf of influencer clients has become increasingly difficult in recent months as contracts sprout more and more clauses she’s not allowed to redline. While there is no concrete answer as to why brands/agencies are starting to refuse previously standard contract revision/negotiations, experts tell Marketing Brew it’s likely motivated by the recent scaling of influencer collaborations. Big brands are now taking on double-digit influencer contracts at the same time, which could add up time and legal bills if every influencer’s rep redlines clauses. Though, rubber-stamping terms and conditions across multiple influencers could have a dampening effect on the inherent reason to hire an influencer: their authenticity and individuality.
Edison Research Top 25 Podcasts in the UK: Q2 2025 by Adam Bowie
Analyst Adam Bowie is back at it again with a breakdown of the new quarterly Edison Research ranker for top podcasts in the UK. This Q2 chart reflects an update since last time, as now Edison also counts individuals who only consume podcasts via video. This boosted both Call Her Daddy and The Louis Theroux Podcast up into the top twenty-five. A majority of the 25 are always-on podcasts that continuously produce episodes without seasonal breaks, with seasonal shows like Uncanny falling down the charts while in-season pods like Desert Island Discs keep generating traffic from new episodes.
YouTube, Netflix Ride the Wave of Summer Streaming Highs in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge
Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge Report finds that for the sixth consecutive month in a row YouTube has been the top media distributor, capturing 13.4% of TV viewing (followed by Disney’s 9.4% and Netflix’s 8.8%) this July. The usual boost to streaming from summer break in the northern hemisphere boosted Netflix and The Roku Channel stats to new peaks. Amazon drew quite close to the platform’s best ever share (4%) set back in December of 2024, scoring 3.9% this July. Speaking of July boosts, Hallmark made it up to 1.1% share thanks to their annual “Christmas in July” programming event that debuts new Christmas-y content (a move that increased viewership 19% compared to June).
As for the rest of the news…
- The Podcast Study has a series of webinars coming up this month and early October, starting with a presentation deepening loyalty and engagement with existing podcast audience on Thursday, September 11th at 2:00 p.m. EST.
- The Podcast Host has a new piece interrogating whether podcasts should put pictures of their hosts in the cover art.
- Podcast production company Message Heard has announced Max Warren is now the company’s Chief Operating Officer.
- MediaWeek has a piece about new PodPoll results showing YouTube’s growing presence in Aussie podcast-listening, as well as Sounds Profitable data showing YouTube podcast consumers still consume a lot of shows as audio.
- Keeping Australia in mind, LiSTNR has announced a new miniseries on the Secrets We Keep true crime feed: Jailbreak.
