Podcasts

• iHeartMedia and TikTok are going into the creator podcast business together
• Podcasts are selling products, but some brands are still holding back (to the tune of $1 billion)

  A full half of respondents said their brands are holding back on buying podcast ads because of "limitations in performance data." 71% of respondents said that current measurement tools available for podcasts are less useful than tools available for other channels.

  
• Steven Bartlett co-founds a new video podcast distribution platform–and, of course, it has AI

  "You guys were posting in a bunch of different places, these gigantic 4K files. It took literally hours," Rox Codes says. "And then the data that comes back from all those platforms running ten different spreadsheets, trying to aggregate them…It was a nightmare."

  
• Spotify’s podcast “plays” are a new metric for a booming industry

  Spotify has rolled out a new metric called "plays" that will be applied to the podcast content on the platform.

  
• Netflix’s CEO thinks YouTube is just a place to “kill time.” And yet it keeps tapping creators for deals.
• YouTube’s first podcast head is out, but updated audio ads are in
• More than half of Americans over the age of 11 have watched a video podcast
• Turns out Gen Z doesn’t like video podcasts. Now what?
• The most popular podcaster not named Joe Rogan is building a $250 million true crime network
• YouTube’s podcasts now reach one billion users per month
• On the Podcast: YouTube had a fantastic 2024, 2025 will be good, and 2026 is going to be great
• On the Podcast: Hollywood ballin’?