Swedish Podcast Conglomerate PodX Acquires Lemonada Media for Around $30 Million by Ashley Carman
PodX’s acquisition of Lemonada Media marks the conglomerate’s first move into the U.S. podcasting space. Since forming in 2022, PodX has largely focused on acquiring audio companies and podcasts in Europe and the U.K., including the recent ‘supergroup’ by merging Goldhawk Productions and Listen Entertainment into Platform Media. PodX CEO Patrick Svensk told Bloomberg the Lemonada acquisition is both motivated by their love for Lemonada’s work, as well as building “the Atlantic link.”
Patreon will update its iPhone app to sidestep Apple’s payment system by Jay Peters
Last week the judge in the long-running Epic v. Apple case made a final ruling, ruling that Apple is no longer allowed to collect fees on purchases made outside apps. More importantly, the ruling also bars Apple from preventing companies from directing app users to off-app places to make purchases. Two facets that have deeply shaped how companies carry themselves, from Patreon actively discouraging users from pledging in the iOS app, to Spotify reworking their planned audiobook integration. Now several companies are getting their workarounds ready. Patreon is planning to submit an iOS update that will let creators accept payments outside of Apple’s payment system, avoiding the 30% fee. Andy Yen, CEO of VPN company Proton, says they are gearing up iOS changes that will lower prices previously set in accordance with the 30% fee.
Spotify now shows how many times people listened to podcast episodes by Lauren Forristal
This morning Spotify debuted a new metric (simply called “plays”) that is public-facing on individual podcast episodes, the home page, and show page. This marks one of the few times an audience engagement metric has been public-facing in podcasting, with Apple Podcast reviews and the YouTube viewcount being the two biggest examples for years. Similarly to YouTube views, the new plays in Spotify will appear underneath a podcast episode’s art or video feed in-line with the publication date and episode length.
Q1 Report Season
It’s that time of the four-times-a-year again! First up: Acast reports their net sales grew 30% in Q1 2025, with a gross margin of 37% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of -1%. Meanwhile, as Podnews reported, SiriusXM’s Q1 shows revenue for “Pandora and off-platform” income is down 2% year-over-year. That said, podcast revenue specifically grew 33% year-over-year. And finally, Apple’s Q1 earnings call dropped the tidbit that Apple Services (in which Apple Podcasts lives) reached an all-time revenue record of $26.6 billion.
As for the rest of the news…
- Westwood One’s Pierre Bouvard has a new piece covering several studies looking at how radio, podcasts, and streaming audio ads could power movie launches and streaming video subscriptions.
- The wait is over: today the IAS announced their AI-driven brand safety and suitability solution for podcast ads on Spotify Audience Network, a collaboration that’s been in the works since an initial IAS brand safety announcement in 2022.
- Forever Dog has three new hires across their business, operations, and production areas, namely Kristin Myers (formerly of Stitcher) as Head of Business Development, Oscar Guido (formerly of Treefort) as Strategic Operations Advisor, and Harry Nelson (late of HyperObject Industries) is now Producer of How Was Your Week.
- Betterhelp, one of podcasting’s biggest advertisers for years, has launched their own podcast called Mind if We Talk? In which a licensed therapist fosters discussions of mental health topics.
- Mari Llewellyn, formerly of Dear Media, has teamed up with podcasting expert Michela Phillips to launch Pursuit Network, a woman-founded creator-first media company.
- Signal Hill Insights will be adding video podcast metrics to the upcoming edition of The Canadian Podcast Listener, which is set to debut in November (discounted pricing is available through the end of May).
- ADOPTER Media’s Adam McNeil has a new LinkedIn post about making podcast ad buying “as easy as 1-2-3… 4 and 5” with an infographic describing five levels of vetting if a podcast is right for your campaign.
