Bob Pittman quizzes Charlamagne tha God at POSSIBLE

Just two days left to fill in the Podnews Report Card. It should take ten minutes, and is our chance to feed back to the big platforms - Apple, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube etc - what we really want. It’s our fifth year of doing this; and we’ve helped make big change. We can make more: with your help.

• The POSSIBLE conference is taking place in Miami. Here’s a glimpse in video form. Among the speakers were Black Effect’s Charlamagne the God, being interviewed by iHeart CEO Bob Pittman for a live recording of Math & Magic. The two started the conversation with rapid-fire personal questions, with Charlamagne revealing Jay-Z is his favorite artist of all time, before moving into a wide-ranging discussion on how influence is built in a media landscape shaped by constant content, platform fragmentation, and AI-generated everything. The audience also heard from Liz Plank, the host of Boy Problems, about Gen Z masculinity.

  • The real star is clearly today: the Innovation Stage will be the host to Matt Drengler from our title sponsor Podscribe, showing how to buy audio more effectively and drive measurable results. 12.10pm ET.

• Libsyn has announced that it can now distribute video to Spotify, and that video functionality is available across all Libsyn hosting plans.

  • Submission to Spotify uses the Spotify Distribution API, which was announced in January. Spotify video distribution is available on Libsyn plans starting at $25/month. All Libsyn customers can still upload manually on Spotify’s website.
  • “Video functionality” refers to MP4 video episodes, which the company has always made available (and is supported in apps like Pocket Casts and Apple Podcasts); though the company gives a limited amount of monthly storage for uploads - 162MB for the $8 plan, or 540MB for the $25/month plan.
  • The latest episode of The New Media Show is an interview with Brendan Monaghan, the President and CEO of Libsyn, where he talks about Libsyn’s future. This episode’s video file is 3,198MB (48MB per minute).

• Spotify released its Q1/26 financial report. Auction-based revenue (the Spotify Ad Exchange and Spotify Ads Manager) is now nearing 25% of all ad revenue, which declined -5% year-on-year and -25% q-on-q. The company now has 761 million monthly active users (+12% y-on-y), and paying subscribers increased +9%. Shares fell 14% after a disappointing income forecast.

  • The slides show how comparatively insignificant Spotify’s ads business is, with gross profit from ads contributing just 8.4% of total profit. Gross margins for each suggest that ad revenue is also around half as profitable as premium subscriber revenue.
  • Meanwhile, Spotify’s audiobooks service is not really having much impact to audiobook listening, says some new research; Mediavision suggests that audiobooks only represent 5% of listening on the service, a quarter of that of podcasting.

• Bauer Media Audio released the findings of research into 1,000 senior agency and advertiser decision-makers across nine European markets. Sound Check Europe 2026 finds that in the UK, 91% of respondents say that audio is important to their strategy; and 70% of advertisers across Europe view digital audio as a brand-safe, high-quality environment.

• Patreon announced a new home feed in its app, including short-form posts, called “Quips”, that are designed to reach new audiences and aid with discovery. Quips sound like a good place for podcast clips, we’d think.

• Ad company WPP said its revenue declined -6.6% in the first quarter. It blamed “ongoing uncertainty in the near-term given events in the Middle East”. Meanwhile, OpenAI has also missed its own targets and “might not be able to pay” for future computing contracts, says the WSJ.

• The BBC has just re-posted an archive television clip about podcasting from The Culture Show from November 2004, which we’ve added to our history of podcasts in the UK page. It contains an interview with Adam Curry - arriving in his helicopter - as well as someone who is worried about people skipping the ads. Some things never change.

• Focusrite has announced the ISA C8X, a 2U rack-mounted USB-C audio interface with 26 inputs, and 28 outputs. Approximately 26x too big for us, but with two ISA preamps and an all-analogue tone, it’s good for large studios, and includes mobile control and full routing.

  • Audio geeks would enjoy a documentary about the story of the Focusrite ISA, the preamp inside.

• Great Pods has gathered and updated the full list of live podcast recordings at Netflix Is A Joke Fest, running May 4-10 in Los Angeles. Kill Tony, Bad Friends, Giggly Squad, Handsome, and Girls Gotta Eat are on the lineup, with new additions, sold-out shows, and previously announced podcasts now removed.

• One of the UK’s most influential record labels, London Records, has announced a podcast detailing the history of the label. The podcast will be accompanied by a two-CD compilation.

• And, good news, The Badger Herald has snagged an exclusive interview with Dan Smith, that guy that started a podcast in 2024 in spite of the fact that nobody cared about him or what he had to say about things that he knew virtually nothing about.

  People news

• Julie DeTraglia has been named Head of Content and Strategic Insights at Nielsen. She moves from Netflix, where she was VP of Ads Measurement.

Tips and tricks - with the Podnews Report Card

• The Podcast Host looks at Simple Setups for Recording In-Person, On-Location Podcast Interviews.
• Liam Austin tells us Why Your Podcast Trailer Fails Before Anyone Hits Play

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: In Data Over Dogma, bible scholar Dr. Dan McClellan and atheist podcaster Dan Beecher team up to discover what the Bible actually says, and what it doesn’t say - even if everyone thinks it does.

F1 show The Red Flags Podcast has joined Vox Media. The show joined Almost Friday Media in May 2023, and was with Blue Wire before. It’s also added a special series, Vankah Hours, sharing predictions about racing teams.

How much does Houston TX’s 901 Bagby: Inside The Mayor’s Office cost to make? Apparently, $60,000 according to FOX 26 Houston. It’s not going on the hosting: the podcast is hosted on Buzzsprout, where Houston Mayor John Whitmire has started podcasting and will presumably keep podcasting.

Such is the state of the internet these days that the host of The Mike Francesa Podcast has had to confirm that he 'is still alive’ after a two-week break following a knee replacement.

Families across the UK raising children with brain conditions now have a powerful new source of support with the launch of The Calm in the Complicated. Hosted by broadcaster, author and neurodiversity advocate Dr Carrie Grant MBE, the series combines expert insight with real-life experience to create an honest, compassionate, and practical guide for families.

The Greek myth podcast for all ages Live from Mount Olympus returns with a new season co-directed by “Hadestown” director Rachel Chavkin, starring Broadway legend André De Shields and more. The series -- a musical -- tells the story of Apollo and Artemis. The podcast is brought to listeners by Onassis USA and PRX.