Radio at Podcast Movement, PodcastOne partner posts healthy profits, and Spotify reaches WMG agreement

A report from the radio sessions at Podcast Movement: helpful to see how the industry is reacting. Some useful stats on the total amount of podcasts many listen to - a fairly low average of between 2 and 6, according to research.

PodcastOne’s partner in Australia, Southern Cross Austereo, says they “may charge advertisers more to be in podcasts than on the radio”. “The time will come where we can achieve not only comparable, but potentially premium CPM for that”. The CEO also signalled more investment into podcasting. Profits for the company, which has radio and TV assets in Australia, were up 40.7% up year-on-year.

Spotify reaches a licensing deal with Warner Music. WMG is the third largest record company in the world, and the last of the deals that Spotify needed to proceed with a much-awaited stock market listing in the US. Of note: the deal was announced on Instagram.

Podcast: Meet the Writers, a weekly discussion with authors, from the global affairs title Monocle (and their radio station Monocle 24).

The Green Bay Press-Gazette covers a story on hunting podcasts, focusing on Steven Rinella from MeatEater. “It’s no wonder more hunters are switching from music to podcasts”, it concludes.

• Stats corner: The above piece comes with a stat apparently claiming 25% of all audio time on smartphones is to podcasting: it isn’t; the figure is actually 6% (Edison Research Podcast Consumer 2017 p45). The errant figure probably comes from 24%, the number of Americans who listen to at least one podcast a month, according the same study (p47).